Hi all some leaks from the upcoming Horus Heresy have come out and I am pleased to see some of the new rules for the Night Lords legion. As a long time captain of the 8th legion, I was curious to see how they would update the rules. Would they focus the Night Lords on morale shenanigans? Or will they finally be honest about the role of morale in their games? Now this all comes with a caveat that the full rules have yet to be revealed (or I have yet to see the leaks!) so everything could change relative to other chapters or game rules.
- Legion Rules: A Talent for Murder has been updated to give a +1 to wound verses units that are pinned or falling back as well as those they just outnumber. They also expanded it to give +1 to armor penetration vs. vehicles too. Lastly, the drawback that the Night Lords used to have whenever they lost a warlord has been removed. Which is good because everyone always forgot about it.
- Legion Special Weapons: They finally removed unwieldy from the Headman’s axe though it is only AP 3. The Eschaton power claw looks great, with AP 2 and Shred, though it has Unwieldy (strikes last in close combat) so you have to live long enough to use it! The Chainglaive still looks good, looks like the new rule “Breaching” is replacing the old rending rule.
- Legion Upgrades: for a small cost you can get +1 attack and plus 1 to charge range when charging a unit that is pinned or falling back. This could be handy as it can make your opponent reconsider if they want to go to ground when targeted for shooting. You have to pay for Night Vision now (booo) but maybe this means it will be worth taking now? Finally there is an option to give Fear to a character. It looks like Fear now can have a negative effect on morale that scales up to -3.
- Warlord Traits: Well the first option is a little annoying lore-wise. Basically your warlord gets +1 to hit against Independent characters, but also if you have a Sons of Horus detachment this character gets Fearless. I dislike rules that push getting additional armies especially as this pairing has never really been shown in the books. The Jahdeck Clawlord trait is a throwback to the old biker Rite of War allowing his unit to ignore negative movement penalties and re-roll dangerous terrain tests. Flaymaster will likely be my go-to, every time your character kills a unit in a sweeping advance or challenge you increase your Fear rating by 1 up to a max of 3. As someone who loves fighting challenges this is cool!
- Rites of War: Looks like there are just two to choose from initially (RIP Cross of Bones) The Swift Blade is back reinforcing the Night Lord-Biker connection. The Terror Assault will likely be my usual pick. Guaranteed Night Fighting for the first two turns, with an option for a third on a 4+. Much better than the original (Night Fighting on a 2+ turn 1 then 4+ on turn 2).
- Fluff Updates: The main one I want to point out here is that we have confirmation that the Night Lords were the first legion to breach the Imperial Palace.
While I still have the primarch and special units to review, I think I will save that for another review as this article is getting a little long right now. The tidbits I have been able to pick up about this new system seem really strong and I am very excited after seeing this leak. With only a few weeks to go you can look for me on the battlefields of the 31st century!
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