Traitor Legions Preview Part 1 of 2

I have seen it with mine own eyes and it is….beautiful!! Head to the Frontline Gaming tactics Corner for more great articles.

Holy sweet mother of Chaos, this book is what dreams are made of! I wept sweet tears of joy as I read the Traitor Legions supplement. As I turned the pages, Daemons bayed, cultists cheered, and my chaotic soul rejoiced to finally–FINALLY–hold a book in my hands that gave Chaos players what they’ve been asking for for years. Yes, Traitor Legions is that good. It’s what we’ve been asking for. Games Workshop: I salute you!

Caveat:

In our last preview–Wrath of Magnus–we got seriously into the guts of the book and did a full fledged review. We felt that that may have been a little too much info and could have spoiled the surprise for those that wanted to get a thrill of excitement reading it for yourselves. So this go around, we’ll save the comprehensive review until after the book drops. This preview will give you an idea of what to expect, touch on highlights, and hopefully get you as juiced for this glorious supplement as I am! Traitor Legions, let’s rock!

Overview:

So what is in this book? A lot! It gives you a boatload of awesome art, background on the 9 traitor legions, special rules for using them, tons of formations, all of the new Chaos Space Marine units such as Magnus, and a “Decurion” style detachment, 6 artifacts, 6 warlord traits and sometimes psychic powers for each of the 9 traitor legions. Plus, you get some new tactical objectives. There’s a LOT of content for such a reasonably priced book.

Fluff:

There’s a page of background and some beautiful art for each of the traitor legions. The fluff focuses on the legions’ overall character, their Primarch and the history of that legion during the Horus Heresy as well as their current disposition. For those of you who don’t have the time or inclination to read all of the Horus Heresy novels (although I highly recommend it!), this gets you up to speed fairly quickly. It’s a fun, quick, informative read.

Dataslates:

You get a ton of Dataslates, some of which are the updated units we’ve seen in other books, but mostly formations! A lot of the formations are taken from other supplements, but there are some new and AWESOME formations in there. Here’s some of my favorites (not all of these are necessarily new):

1. Chaos Warband: Chaos version of the Demi-Company. Gives every unit in it ObSec and the ability to roll twice on the Boon Table, keeping either or both results. Cool! This combos well with the Word Bearers “Decurion” detachment Command Benefit letting you roll on the Chaos Boon table once per turn with a Character of your choice.
2. Maelstrom of Gore: A Berzerker formation with either a Lord of Kharn that gives you incredible benefits: You add 3″ to their charge distances and you gain Fleet! Also, once per game you can call the Red Rain, and all units in the detachment can fight in the movement phase as if it were the fight phase, then fight again in the fight phase! This combos like steak and fries with the World Eaters “Decurion” detachment which lets you move 2d6″ with walkers and non-vehicle units before the game starts! They’ve also got a slick Artifact that lets the bearer and his unit add 3″ to thier move, run and charge rolls. Potentially +6″ to charge….Blood for the Blood God!
3. The Lost and the Damned: A formation of Cultists and a Dark Apostle. The Cultists recycle after being destroyed on a 4+, and gain Outflank, and the Dark Apostle grants Zealot to all units in the formation in a 6″ bubble. Solid! This provides a great cannon fodder battalion to beef up Chaos Space Marine armies. They lack ObSec which would make this formation truly terrific, but, still solid.
4. Cult of Destruction: 3-5 units of Obliterators or Mutilators and 1-3 Warpsmiths. Each Warpsmith is able to buff one of the units of Oblits or Mutilators, allowing them to shoot or attack in the Movement phase. Yeah, Obliterators shooting twice…pretty saucy!
5. Favoured of Chaos: A Daemon Prince and 3-5 units of Possessed. Hey, I am not saying this is actually going to be good, just that I like it! Possessed are still horribly over-costed, but if you like them and want to use them, here you go! If they are within 12″ of the Daemon Prince, they get all 3 of their mutations in melee. Nice! That makes them hit pretty damn hard.
6. Daemon Engine Pack: 1 Warpsmith and 2 of any combination of Forgefiends and Maulerfiends. You get Preferred Enemy against an enemy character of your choice, and one of the beasties gets the Warpsmith’s BS or WS for a phase if within 12.” A BS5 Forge Fiend with Hades Auto Cannons sounds pretty fun! Again, not saying this is a tournament winner, but it makes some seldom seen models a lot more appealing.
7. Plague Colony: a formation of 3-7 units of Plague Marines and either a Lord or Typhus. The formation causes Fear (yay) but also get a crazy good debuff! Enemy units within 7″ of any Plague Colony units in the fight phase reduce their Weapon Skill and Initiative by 1 for the phase. If you take the maximum number of units in the formation, then enemy models also get -1 Toughness within 7″ during the fight phase…WOW. Brutal! You can stack this with some Maledictions to easily get -2 Toughness, which is savage!
8. Kakophoni: A formation of 3-6 units of Noise Marines and a Lord or Lucius. The formation grants you Split Fire and Shred for your Sonic Weapons. As if that weren’t enough, if you take the maximum number of units in the formation, you also get +1 Strength for your Sonic Weapons. BOOM! That is so good! Used in the Emperor’s Children’s “Decurion” detachment, it gets even better as the Noise Marines gain FnP 6+ and Combat Drugs. So good…
9. There are a LOT more formations in here, but that should wet your appetite sufficiently, I hope.

Detachments of Formations, Warlord Traits, Artifacts, and Chaos “Chapter Tactics”

This is where it just gets so good. SO GOOD! We get what we’ve been asking for in spades. Now, before we get into this overview, let me just say this as I know everyone will be asking: is it as good as what Space Marines get? Yes and no. Pound for pound, Chaos “Chapter Tactics” and Decurion benefits are on par with everything shy of Battle Company. Battle Company–particularly combined with White Scars Chapter Tactics+Khan–is just too hard to beat. Chaos aren’t getting 400+ points worth of free stuff, nor are they getting Doctrines layered on top of their Legion benefits.

But that aside, what we do get is amazing. All of the Legions give you Veterans of the Long War for free, which is cool, in addition to other special benefits. Also, you can only include Special Characters from their legion which I actually like. Let’s dig in! Again, this will be an overview with some of the highlights of each legion, not an in-depth review (that will come soon so stay tuned!).

Read part 2 of this review, here!

Tomorrow we dig in to the actual Legion Bonuses! Be sure to swing back by for those.

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