Saul Tarvitz

The Honour of His Legion

"Our names may be forgotten, and our bones crumble to dust, but our deaths will echo through the millennia to come."

– The man himself, getting ready to die like a legend during the final stages of the Istvaan III Massacre

Captain Saul Tarvitz was a loyalist member of the Emperor's Children and one of the most bro-tier Space Marines ever to exist. In a legion which defined itself by the relentless, obsessive pursuit of perfection, Saul Tarvitz stood out by virtue of the fact that he was one of the very few Emperor's Children who had reached this goal. He was a very good line officer, knew that he was a very good line officer, and was content to serve Fulgrim and the Emperor as a line officer for the rest of his life, rather than striving to reach ever-higher ranks within the Legion and become something he was not suited to be. This meant that he was marked for death when the III Legion found a new master to serve, and he was chosen to form part of the speartip assault that opened the Istvaan III Atrocity.

Biography

Great Crusade

Tarvitz was a line captain throughout the Great Crusade, and racked up an impressive tally of victories and earned the respect and admiration of many Astartes within and without his Legion. At some point, he became honour brothers with Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard, a bond which would prove to be key to the Imperium's survival in the future. Toward the end of the Crusade, Tarvitz was one of the Emperor's Children who landed on the planet Murder and got into a tangle with the gigantic arachnids who lived there. His decision to blow up some giant spiky trees with corpses impaled on them led to the Astartes on the ground being able to reestablish contact with the forces in orbit. He was such a bro that he refused to openly contradict Lord Commander Eidolon when the glory-boy took all the credit for that idea.

Horus Heresy

By the time of the Istvaan campaign, Tarvitz had been marked out by Fulgrim and the other traitors in the III Legion as one of those who would never follow them in their new campaign against the Emperor. He was therefore assigned to join the speartip assault on Istvaan III. Tarvitz realized something was up when he learned that Eidolon wouldn't be joining the first wave, a highly uncharacteristic move for the glory-obsessed Lord Commander. He finagled his way into remaining on one of the ships, where he learned that the Warmaster's fleet was preparing to bombard the planet and kill everyone on Istvaan III. He immediately stole a fighter and took off for the surface to warn the loyalist forces there. Along the way he warned Nathaniel Garro on board the frigate Eisenstein, after which Garro fled the system to bring word of the betrayal to the rest of the Imperium. Tarvitz managed to make landfall and successfully convinced the majority of the loyalists to take cover, which helped them survive the initial bombardments. After that, he assumed command of the Emperor's Children contingent on the ground and directed a successful defense of the Precentor's Palace for two months, inflicting twice as many casualties as he sustained. By this time, he'd assumed general command of all remaining loyalist forces on the surface of Istvaan III, with even Garviel Loken, Tarik Torgaddon, and Solomon Demeter all deferring to him. This made his fellow captain Lucius jealous, and so Lucius decided to sell Tarvitz and the other loyalists out in exchange for being welcomed back into the III Legion's fold. Despite that, Tarvitz was able to defeat Lucius in a duel and successfully ruin Eidolon's plan of attack. Finally, however, Horus had had enough and ordered an all-out assault on the Precentor's Palace, so Tarvitz buckled down for the last stand. It is generally believed that he died as hard as he could in that last great battle, though his body was never found . . .

So, Is He Actually Dead?

That's a good question. He is most certainly dead by the time of the 41st-42nd Millennium, but his body was never recovered from Istvaan III, and so there are some who believe he might have somehow escaped the planet and gone off to be a cool renegade Blackshield. Even Warhammer Community, upon announcing his model for the Horus Heresy character series, wondered if he was really dead. (Then they said that yes, yes he was.)

Tabletop

Hey! Lucius! Fuck you in particular!

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Captain Saul Tarvitz	135	6	4	4	4	3	5	3	10	2+/5++

Horus Heresy 1.0

Saul Tarvitz is a weird character on the tabletop. He comes with a customized bolter that works exactly like a sniper rifle, a bolt pistol, frag/krak grenades and his Charnabal Blade (S+1, AP5, Two-Handed, Rending, Duellist's Edge (+1 init in challenges)). He is an Independent Character, has the Emperor's Children Legion trait, Master of the Legion and a special rule that allows him to be taken as an ally by loyalist and where he gains Preferred Enemy (Emperor's Children Astartes).

He is... actually pretty bad, since his shooting is anecdotal and without any reliable way to get AP 3 or 2 (Rending helps, but not enough) and lacking Eternal Warrior he's at a very real risk of being one-shotted into the ground by anyone wielding a Power Fist having merely scratched his opponent's armor. The plus side? He only costs 135 points. Which isn't much for a Master of the Legion and his Rites of War. But, unless you want to exploit his gimmick of a small loyalist detachment of EC's as allies to your loyalist Legion, there are better choices. Fucking rad mini, though!

Horus Heresy 2.0

Saul hasn't changed much in the new edition, though he does have a few new rules to play with. He's a Loyalist only Praetor who provides an additional Reaction in the Shooting phase and makes all units with at least one model within 12" around him Fearless if, at the start of your turn, his army has fewer Victory Points or units than the opponent, he is within 6" of an objective, or if he and his unit are outnumbered in assault/in combat with more than one unit. To put it simply, he is a giant Fearless bubble generator. His melee weapon is the same Master-Crafted Charnabal Broadsword he had last edition (Two-handed S+2 AP-, Rending (4+) and Duellist's Edge (2)), and he has his MC Nemesis Bolter to snipe minor Characters and cause Pinning, which he can shoot on the move thanks to Relentless. Aside from his new Fearless bubble, his anti-Emperor's Children specialization still gives him Preferred Enemy against his disloyal brothers. He now has a special rule called A Brother Betrayed, which gives him +1WS, +1S, and +1T when locked in combat with an enemy EC Independent Character. If said character is removed as a casualty when locked in combat with him or his unit, he scores 1 VP, or 2 VP if it happens to be Lucius; note that this may or may not be done during a challenge.

Having a 12" Fearless bubble that works almost all the time is great. It's like The Broken Mirror WT but even better. That said, Tarvitz isn't any killier than he was in the previous edition. While he'll strike first in a vast majority of situations, his I6 on the charge, I7 in challenges which becomes I8 on a charge in challenges and 5 attacks mean he is mathematically unlikely to kill other Praetors. Outside of rare EC versus EC games, he remains a rather mediocre duellist and is still easy meat for Praetors armed with Thunder Hammers or Power Fists.

With Biomancy support, he can be very effective against other EC Independent Characters, including Eidolon and Lucius, and multi-wound T4 units with EC Independent Characters. He will strike at WS7 while ignoring Sonic Shriekers at I8 on the charge in a challenge with five S6+1+1 attacks, one of which he can re-roll due to Master-Crafted, while also re-rolling 1s to hit and to wound. He only needs one unsaved wound to kill his opponent. Against WS6-7, however, he will usually inflict maybe 1 wound and Lucius, who has WS8, will probably survive his assault. Note that RAW his A Brother Betrayed rule works against Loyalist EC as well! You never know who is a heretic in these dark times.

The biggest problem of all is that Tarvitz is a loyalist; though any army he's in has Fearless, which is a pretty big deal, you can't use Fulgrim, Surgical Augments, Kakophoni Squads, or the Third Company Elite RoW, which takes away many of the best options and most powerful synergies available to the Emperor's Children. You will have to find a way to play around that. It's once again probably best to use him as the leader of an allied detachment.