Hey everyone, Adam here from TFG Radio! Today I’m going to discuss Imperial Armour 13. More specifically the Legacies of Ruin that are available to the Chaos Legions. As always, for more tactics articles, check out the Tactics Corner!
Imperial Armour 13 has given the armies of the Chaos Space Marines a bit of a boost. It opened up a number of new units and options available to a budding Lord of Chaos. One of these options are the Legacies of Ruin (legacies). Similar to the Legacies of Glory for the loyal Space Marines, each legacy has it’s own special rules and use on the battlefield.
As stated before, each legacy affects the vehicles differently and will complement your army in a different way. Choosing an appropriate legacy depends on your play style, how you intend it to complement your army, and the type of environment you are playing in (tournament, league, pick up game, etc.). I will go over each legacy and possible uses on the battlefield, but first a few rules before you can apply the Legacy of Ruin to your machines of war:
- Any vehicle available to Chaos Space Marines, and it’s supplements, may take a Legacy of Ruin
- One vehicle per 1,000 points may take a Legacy of Ruin
- No Duplicates
- No Daemon Engine, as well as any vehicle with Daemonic Possession or Daemonic Resilience rule, may take a Legacy of Ruin. Now there has been some debate on whether a Chaos Knight with a mark of one of the chaos gods can take a legacy. The reason for this is that, when given a mark, the Chaos Knight becomes a daemon of that chaos power but is not considered a Daemonic Engine, nor does it have Daemonic Possession. Check with your Tournament Organizer, if playing in a tournament.
With that out of the way lets get started!
Legacy: Veteran of the Scouring
Cost: 45 points/Tank, 90 points/Super Heavy Vehicle(SHV), 40 points/Walker, 80 points/Super Heavy Walker(SHW)
Benefits: It Will Not Die(IWND) & Preferred Enemy (Space Marines) Tank/SWH. It Will Not Die & Hatred(Space Marines) Walker/SHW
Tactics: Nice for keeping you tanks/walkers alive for an extra turn or two. As Space marines are a common opponent, so rerolls from preferred enemy or hatred can’t hurt. Downside is that, on the smaller vehicles, they will most likely die before you get to use the IWND roll. If you have the points it may be better to use this one on the super heavies.
Legacy: War Within the Eye
Cost: 20 points/Tank, 40 points/SHV, 20 points/Walker, 40 points/SHW
Benefits: Adamantium Will & Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines) Tank/SWH. Adamantium Will & Hatred(Chaos Space Marines) Walker/SHW
Tactics: Usually you will rarely have psychic attacks directed at your vehicles as guns easily do a better job of it. Again, rerolls are good but you have other legacies that will give you more for the same cost.
Legacy: Maelstrom Raider
Cost: 25 points/Vehicle, 50 points/SHV
Benefits: Fear and Outflank
Tactics: Fear is not much of an issue nowadays as most armies have a way to get around it. Outflank, on the otherhand, is a really good benefit. It allows a vehicle to get downfield, and in your opponent’s backfield, while avoiding a lot of the enemy’s firepower. Give this to a transport vehicle, like a Land Raider or Spartan assault tank, and you opponent has a serious problem on their hands.
Legacy: Death of Kasyr Lutien
Cost: 15 points/Vehicle, 25 points/SHV
Benefits: Fear and when psychic tests on the Maelific Daemonology are made by friendly psychers within 12″ of the vehicle, one D6 may be rerolled for every hull point remaining on the vehicle. The die may only be rerolled once no matter how many hull points are remaining.
Tactics: Again, fear is not that much help in today’s meta. The big thing is the reroll for casting. The cost is so low that if you give this to a SHV then you have at least 6, and as many as 12, dice that can be rerolled per psychic phase. Use this with your Chaos Daemon allies and you are almost guaranteed to cast whatever power you want and can better avoid Perils From the Warp. Be advised of a couple things. One is that if you use the rerolls and you still fail the test, then the vehicle takes a penetrating hit, and that in ITC the number of dice you can reroll is a pool of dice for the whole phase, not per attempt.
Legacy: Blood of Mackan
Cost: 30 points/Tank, 40 points/SHV
Benefits: Preferred Enemies (Blood Angels), does not treat defense lines/barricades as difficult terrain. If they have destroyer blades then the damage’s AP value is equal to the amount of hull points remaining.
Tactics: Probably one of more little used legacies as it is very specific in the benefits you get. Blood Angels as the preferred enemy is ok but too specific. If you see Aegis Defence Lines, or you tank shock a lot, is where you’ll get your points worth out of this one.
Legacy: Siege of Vraks
Cost: 15 points/Vehicle, 20 points/SHV
Benefits: Ignores damage caused by dangerous terrain on a 4+, reroll failed to hit rolls against targets in defence lines.
Tactics: Another legacy that may see very limited use due to it’s very specific use. Not good for tournament play, unless you play in an area that uses a lot of difficult terrain. Even then it’s a 50/50 chance to ignore it. For that low of a points cost you could probably include it if you have nothing else to spend it on. Same about the defence lines. It may be more relevant if we see a resurgence of Aegis Defence Lines in the meta.
The Legacies of Ruin are a nice compliment for your vehicles and can add an extra dimension to your army at a very low cost, points wise. If you have a few points left over and don’t know what to do with them you may want to see about giving a vehicle in your army one of these to give it a little bump to it’s battlefield role.
Well, that’s it for now. In part 2 we will see more general Legacies of Ruin and in part 3 we will discuss the god specific ones.
As always, share your thoughts in the comments section! And remember, Frontline Gaming sells Games Workshop product at up to 25% off, every day. You can also pick up some cheap models in our Second Hand Shop. Some of these gems are quite rare, sometimes they’re fully painted!
