Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Solar Auxilia Tactics

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"What is the strongest weapon of mankind? The god-machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus? No! The Astartes Legions? No! The tank? The lasgun? The fist? Not at all! Courage and courage alone stands above them all!"

– Lord Solar Macharius (his time was later, but the sentiment was true back during the 31st Millennium)

"In war the greatest single deciding factor is will; without the will to do so, no sacrifice is made, no initiative seized, no objective taken and no enemy vanquished - all the guns in creation are useless without the will to pull the trigger."

– Goge Vandire, Sermons to the Frateris Templar, Vol XIII

This is the current tactics page for the Solar Auxilia in HH 2.0. The 1.0 tactics can be found here

For the generals on how to play the game and the basics on list building (as well as other tactica rules), you may want the General tactics page. You may also find the Horus Heresy general thread as "/HHG/" on /tg/.

Why play the Solar Auxilia

Because in a time of angels and demigods, it takes true grit to be a mere man and to stand among them, let alone fight them. Solar Auxilia are the elite humans of the Horus Heresy, but that doesn't mean much when your going up against genetically engineered post-humans, wrapped in armour. Relying on their massed firepower, tanks and respectable 4+ armour saves to carry them to victory, while gritting their teeth and bearing the punishment that they can't brush off. It truly can be a hard time to be a mortal among demi-gods.

Alternatively, you might've seen their models and decided that a steampunk-fantasy 50's sci-fi cosmonaut aesthetic is your jam. And with the drip on those voidsmen, how could you not?

Pros

• Amazing looking models
• Stormtrooper tier soldiers with Imperial guard numbers.
• A wholly original army just for 30k, making it pretty unique.
• Models with one of the coolest aesthetics GW/FW have ever produced.
• One of the best shooting armies in the game.
• The new Cohorts doctrines give Solar Auxilia some very nice diversification in their playstyles and army building.
• Did we mention the models?

Cons

• Lost the hand holding mechanic for better WS from HH1, which are now only available in specific doctrines.
• Most artillery and blast weapons will evaporate units which each shot since they're all AP4 now. Thanks to Close-order subtype, you have a unit coherency of 1", which means your dudes will die in droves the moment your enemy pulls out a pie plate. This won't be a problem for your Marine playing opponents and their 3+ armour saves.
• This is not the Tank edition and most of your armour is far more limited in their usefulness and which guns are effective.
• Most of your stuff is more expensive now compared to 1E, and that's on top of core game mechanics favouring Marines. Point-per-point, you will lose to Astartes.
• Dreadnoughts are one of the most effective things in this edition, and you have none. Your options of taking them out are also limited.
• This army is expensive to build. Forget selling your own organs, you'll have to build a drug empire and spend your nights hunting people and harvesting all of their organs. Their fluff of highly standardized equipment makes every alternative a bad proxy.

Core Warlord traits

Solar Auxilia do not get unique warlord traits, so you better pick the generic one that grants you the extra reaction in the phase of your choice.

• Bloody-Handed: +1 to combat resolution within 12". Extra Assault Phase Reaction.
• Stoic Defender: Grants pinning to the shooting attacks of his unit, provided they cause at least one unsaved wound. Extra Shooting Phase Reaction.
• Ever-vigilant: Warlord's unit uses his Initiative+1 instead of the lowest Initiative in the unit when running. Extra Movement Phase Reaction.
• Armoured Legate: Restricted to a Leman Russ Command Tank upgraded with Combat Doctrines if an Armoured Fist Pattern Cohort. The model gains a 5+ Invulnerable Save and +1 BS (taking it to 5).

Special Rules

• Close-Order Sub-Type: One of the key ways the army functions. The entire squad now has a unit coherency range of 1", cannot run or sweep, but they can move up to half their movement speed and still be able to shoot any heavy weapons as if they stood still.
  • It's most notably found on your Troop and HQ Tercios. It is not found on Veletaris so keep that in mind; they still can't Run because they're Heavy, but they can spread out to avoid Blasts/Templates and can Sweep after winning combat.

• Tercio & being in formation: Tercio is the other key way the army functions, basically allowing you to group multiple units in a single FOC slot. When units belonging to the same tercio/slot are within 3" of each other, they are considered "in formation". Being in formation gives your troopers benefits such as being able to react in the same way during a reaction that requires shooting or movement, and other things depending on your Cohort Doctrine.
  • The Imperial version of the Tau's Supporting Fire gimmick (before 9E wiped that off the board), this gives you the WALL OF GUNS as an overwatch weapon.

Cohort Doctrines

Honestly, the best bit of the older Militia rules applied to the Auxilia, to the point it deserves a section of its own. There are eight options to pick from, which are unlocked either by a model with the Combat Doctrines special rules, or a model without upgraded to have it via a specific Combat Doctrine.

<tabs> <tab name="Solar Pattern Cohorts"> The regiments that most resemble those of the early Great Crusade, such as the 1st to 10th "Saturnyne Rams", and the cohorts based upon them. These favour an older, more elite style of warfare, very focused on aerial insertions and boarding actions. This is the elite option.
Pros:

• Auxilia Veletaris Tercios may be taken a Troop choices. The boys are fucking back!
  • Due to the disappearance of the Flamer section from the Auxilia Infantry Tercio, using this Doctrine and taking Heavy Flamers on your Veletaris Vanguard is now the only way to get massed Flamers from Troops.
• All unit in a Veletaris Tercio can take Arvus Transports as dedicated transports.
  • Provides an interesting alternate deployment method for your Veletaris; namely, Deep Striking in their flying transport. That said, it's extremely frail and will die to any sort of Interceptor fire, so think carefully.
• All Auxilia Veletaris Tercios taken as Troop choices gain Line, enabling you to skip Infantry Tercios altogether and build a crack close-quarters infantry core.

Cons:

• The detachment cannot take more than one Armoured Tercio and only one Artillery Tercio.
  • Neither of these stops you bringing some allies with tanks and artillery however, assuming the 9 tanks of the basic Tercio aren't enough. Likewise, the Artillery Tercio allows up to 9 Rapiers, so this should not be a problem. Moreover, you can always take non-Tercio units, as your Heavy Support slots aren't actually restricted. Wanted more Leman Russes? Here, take a squadron of Malcadors instead.

</tab> <tab name="Ultramar Pattern Cohorts"> A new formation meant to tackle the evolution of battle in the late Crusade, pioneered by none of other than Roboute Guilliman, proving himself once again the master of all of the myriad disciplines of war. These are cohorts like the 255th Calth High Guard and the 204th Manachean cohort. The massed infantry option.
Pros:

• Auxilia Rifle Tercios can include up to 6 units. Considering you had 6 Troop slots, could take 3 units in each to begin with and had no special weapons units, this is not truly necessary.
• Lasrifle sections and Line Command sections gain +1 to hit while shooting when their bases are all in contact with each other.
  • A mirror to the old Close Formation Fighting of 1.0, except holding hands buffs your shooting instead of your melee now. This can be difficult to use; it's kind of the whole point of taking the Doctrine, but using it is basically inviting your opponent to unload all of his blasts/templates on you. Since there's otherwise no FOC limitations, consider taking some Valdors to shut enemy artillery up with Shock Pulse so that your infantry can form up in peace.
  • Alternatively, you're not required to actually form up in a square; take a leaf from the Napoleonic British by forming thin lines so you can still be extremely annoying to hit with Blast/Template weapons, while most of the unit will probably still be in range because Lasrifles has 30" range in a game where everyone else's basic infantry has 24" or less. Be prepared to use Aurox-mounted Command Sections with Cohorts Vexilla to take objectives.

Cons:

• Lasrifle sections and Line Command sections cannot take any dedicated transports. This can be problematic for the purposes of taking objectives, as Close-order prevents Running and you have reduced initiative for movement Reactions.

</tab> <tab name="Reborn Cohorts"> Recently disbanded regiments whose veterans, upon hearing of the Heresy, decided to come out of retirement to kick some ass. While a bit more grizzled, those years have clearly taken their toll on the soldiers. The most famous example is Agathon's 1522nd cohort, better known as "The Lord Marshal's Own".
Pros:

• All infantry units in the detachment gain +1Ld and the Stubborn rule.
• If a unit has not moved, it may re-roll to-hit rolls of 1 when shooting.
  • Rerolling 1s is not as good as +1 to hit, but it says a unit, meaning EVERYONE GETS IT. The 10 Plasma/Melta weapons your HQ sections get? Reroll 1s. Gravis Lascannon Leman Russ? Reroll 1s. Valdor? Reroll 1s. Your Lasrifle sections and your Heavy Support choices all have good range, so standing still should not be a problem. You're also assumed as being stationary for the purposes of shooting during Reactions, so you get improved Return Fire and Overwatch, which you're already very good at because your infantry come in Tercios. Rerolling 1s to-hit also makes Gets Hot! a very minute concern, so Plasma weapons/Valdors basically don't blow themselves up anymore.

Cons:

• The detachment cannot take more than a single Armoured Tercio and only one Artillery Tercio. See the Solar Pattern tab for comments.
• Infantry units are considered to have Initiative 1 for the purposes of making reactions, running and sweeping advances. They also reduce their Initiative by 1 when determining the order of attack during the assault phase.
  • Not as bad as it sounds, as -1I does absolutely nothing to hinder your shooting and shooting reactions, which is where you did your damage. Melee Veletaris units also had Unwieldy and Heavy to begin with, so the only downside is I1 for Sweeping Advance and movement reactions, while Lasrifle sections were I3 and hit after MEQs anyway. Will affect any melee Command Tercio sections you take, but why are you building them for melee when you can get rerolls on your ranged special weapons?

</tab> <tab name="Feral Pattern Cohorts"> Regiments that recruit from savage worlds or barbaric cultures, resulting in fearsome but overly aggressive troopers akin to the 142th Cthonian Headhunters or 905th Ash Scorpions from Lethe.
Pros:

• Any unit made of purely infantry models may purchase Fear (1) for +25pts. This is regardless of size, so bulk up those squad size numbers.
• Your boys gain Counter-attack (1) from being in formation. This encourages you to cram as many models a possible into each Tercio. Also mitigates the impact of being forced to charge; even if you fail and get charged instead, you still get your +1A.

Cons:

• You must charge as soon as you are given the chance. So much for the famed Saturnyne Ordos discipline. Leeeeerooooy Jenkins, it is!
  • Unlike other factions, you can't work around this by firing weapons that prevent charging. Close-order allows charging after firing Heavy/Rapid Fire weapons, so your infantry can effectively always charge and therefore must charge. Better get them melee weapon upgrades.
• Loyalist armies can't handle the tribal drip (read; skulls on ropes and tribal tattoos on the armour) and treat feral cohorts as Distrusted Allies regardless of what the Allies Matrix says. No word on Custodes/Sisters of Silence, who as Agents of the Emperor are Sworn Brothers with all Loyalist armies and do not appear on the Matrix at all. Also this being Loyalist only makes more sense for allies with some Legions than some others.

</tab> <tab name="Armoured Fist Pattern Cohorts"> "Achtung Panzer!" This cohort is built around tanks and multiple Solar Auxilia armies were fielded like this during the Heresy, as the tanks helped level the playing field when facing off against the Astartes Legions.
Pros:

• Auxilia Armoured Tercios may be taken as non-compulsory troops, but each can only be made up of a single squadron of Leman Russ Strike tanks.
• A single Leman Russ Command tank must be selected as the Warlord (locking out any HQ choice that outranks him). The Command tank gains the Armoured Legate Warlord trait (+1 BS, 5++) and Cohort Doctrines, allowing you to skip taking a Legate Marshal.

Cons:

• All infantry units must begin the game embarked in transports or in Reserves. You need your Lasrifle sections to take objectives, but they're far too slow to reach objectives while footslogging in from Reserves and Dracosans are too expensive to give every squad, so expect to field squads with 10 guys in an Aurox.

</tab> <tab name="Penal Pattern Cohorts"> The Solar Auxilia was meant to be the elite of the Imperial Army, but that didn't stop governors and Excertus officers from cutting corners in both budget and recruitment. This resulted in less cohesive cohorts, who nevertheless managed to give exemplary service on many occasions.
Pros:

• All models gain Furious Charge (1) and Feel No Pain (6+). Puts you up to Space Marine strength on the charge, while Feel No Pain (6+) means you can skip Medicae. However, you're still T3 and will suffer ID from everything from Power Maul onwards, so watch out.
• Any models can replace their lasrifles and volkite chargers with a variety of S3 AP- weapons for free: autorifle/lasgun (24" Rapid Fire), lascarbine (18" Assault 2 AP6), shotguns (12" Assault 2 Concussive (1)) or stubcarbines (12" Assault 3). In addition, one Auxilia in any lasrifle section may take instead a Heavy Stubber for plus 5 points per model. The stubcarbine actually does more damage when in range than the Lasrifle, the shotgun can level the playing field for Rifle sections against MEQs in melee, and there are reasons below as to why you'd replace the Lasrifle with nominally inferior weapons in the lasgun/lascarbine.
  • Dropping Volkites is almost always as stupid as it sounds, as a ranged weapon, the Charger outperforms everything on the list damage-wise by a country mile. The only case it may work is dropping them for a mix of Shotguns and Storm Axes to dump Concussive on an enemy unit before the charge. Think carefully about this, however, regular Rifle Sections can take Shotguns as well so it might be way smarter to have one of them support a pure Storm Axe section.
  • Bayonets only come on Lasrifles, so you cannot combine your Furious Charge (1) with bayonets for S5 if you've taken replacement weapons. It makes zero sense for autoguns/lasguns to not get them, but it is what it is.

Cons:

• All your units lose the Close-Order sub-type. Enjoy the extra coherency range and say goodbye to your heavy guns.
  • Your infantry are basically back to being Imperial Guard. Losing Close-order means you cannot move and fire Heavy weapons (AKA Lasrifles), so get your mobility back by taking Rapid Fire/Assault weapons. However, if you've taken a Heavy Stubber, you can't move and shoot anyway, so keep the Lasrifles in that case.
  • Not actually a Con for your HQ Tercios, as they didn't use Heavy weapons anyway and don't want to charge. Regaining the ability to Run can actually be very helpful for full squads of Plasma/Melta that need to get into range.
• You can only take one Auxilia Veletaris Tercio. Not much of a drawback, as one Tercio is 3 units. If you still don't have enough short ranged firepower/melee, take Tactical Command Tercios.

</tab> <tab name="Siege Pattern Cohorts"> The Solar Auxilia that clearly spent too much time around the Iron Warriors, and gained an affinity for siegecraft and being a bucket load of heavy artillery to rain hell upon their opponent. After all, "A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand Lasrifles."
Pros:

• Armoured Tercios and Artillery Tercios can be taken as both Heavy Support and Elite choices. Can actually be useful, as the Solar Auxilia Elites section isn't very good barring Veletaris (which come in Tercios anyway), while allowing you to spam the big guns you need to take out Dreadnoughts and the like.
• You can re-roll the scatter direction die when firing Blast and Barrage weapons.

Cons:

• You MUST purchase dedicated transports for every unit. You don't need to start the game in said transports, but that sorta defeats the purpose of having to pay for them. You want to rain hell as you advance? Mechanize. Like Armoured Fist, this means taking small infantry units or taking Dracosans.

</tab> <tab name="Iron Pattern Cohorts"> Because Forge World loves to cram battle-automata wherever they can, and we're not here to complain.
Pros:

• Castellax and Thallax Maniples can be taken as Elites.
• Legate Marshals, Auxilia Marshals, and Auxilia Captains can each buy Cortex Controllers for 15 points so you keep the bots under control. Additionally, the Legate Marshal gains Master of Automata to keep with the bots.

Cons:

• You can only take one Auxilia Armoured Tercio and only one Auxilia Artillery Tercio. Not a big downside considering how much you can cram into a single Tercio of any type.

</tab> </tabs>

Wargear of the Solar Auxilia

Melee Weapons

Chain Weapons
The standard close combat weapons of the 41st 31st millennium and a little bit different from how you remember them. Most Chain Weapons still lack any decent AP, but they now have Shred, meaning anyone equipped with these get to re-roll their wound rolls.

• Chainsword: The standard S-User, AP- chain weapon, but now it has Shred. Only available to Companions in the Command Tercio, and at 5 points each they're absolutely not worth it.

Charnabal Weapons
Duelling weapons that rely on speed and precision over brute strength. A few more of these have been added in 2.0, but they all follow the same general theme of relying on Breaching instead of normal AP, but gaining initiative in challenges. A surprising number of Solar Auxilia units can take these weapons, with varying degrees of usefulness.

• Charnabal Sabre: The standard Charnabal weapon, with S-User, Breaching (5+) and Duellist's Edge (1). The option that will inflict the least wounds due to having no strength bonus, but strangely the one that will inflict the most AP2 wounds due to having a better version of Breaching than the Tabar and having more attacks than the Glaive. Because your men are Strength 3, you will only wound MEQs on a 5+ anyway, making it practically an AP2 weapon at base. However, this also means it scales terribly with bonus strength (Biomancy, Furious Charge) and cannot threaten >T5 targets. For Dreadnought/Automata combat, look at the Power Weapons list.
• Charnabal Tabar: Yeah, I didn't know what a Tabar is either (it's a Persian battle axe of yore), and the Charnabal version isn't too much to write home about. It is a little bit worse than the Sabre as it has the same Duellist's Edge (1), and only has Breaching (6+) in exchange for S+2, which is kind of meh when compared to some Power Weapons. Going up o Strength 5 could help you wound tougher enemies, but those wounds will most likely just bounce off their armour due to the inferior Breaching.
• Charnabal Glaive: Duellist's Edge (2), Breaching (5+), S+1, Two-handed. Hitting before most MEQs is nice, but is it worth giving up chances to trigger Breaching by losing your +1 attack from having 2 weapons?

Power Weapons
The high AP combat weapons that are slower than Charnabal Weapons, but offer more killing power.

• Power Sword: The standard AP3 power weapon, but now it comes with Rending (6+) so you can actually cut through Artificer armour. It's not reliable, but a buff is a buff. Generally not worth it for the Solar Auxilia, as the Charnabal Sabre outperforms it against most MEQs and TEQs. It is better against Dreadnoughts and Automata, but why would you ever try to fight those in melee?
• Power Axe: The same old S+1 AP2 Unwieldy weapon. Your strength 3 wasn't going to ID any MEQs anyway, so this could be a budget alternative to the Power Fist. Your low strength also makes the Axe inferior to the Sword when fighting everything above T4 (same wounding and AP, but Sword is not Unwieldy), so take the Sword if you expect to fight Dreadnoughts and the like. That said, it is worth considering if you have strength buffs from allied Biomancy Psykers and/or Furious Charge from Penal Pattern Cohort Doctrine, meaning you can for once wound more than Charnabal Sabre/Power Sword.
• Power Maul: Got a very nice buff as it is still S+2, but now it is also AP3 so it can actually kill marines rather than bouncing off their armour. Also decent against Automata, as you wound them reliably.
• Power Lance: Also received a very helpful buff in the new edition. They are now S+1, AP3 standard and include the Reach (1) special rule, making it more consistent and actually useful after a charge. This allows your HQ sections to a. get to S4 and wound MEQs on a 4+ and b. hit before MEQs, which is very nice indeed.
• Power Fist: Sx2, AP2 and Unwieldy, the Power Fist is unable to ID MEQs due to your reduced strength, but it does allow your men to wound MEQs on a 2+ and gives you a better chance against Dreadnoughts and Automata. Has Specialist Weapon unlike everything else on the list; as none of your models can take 2 Specialist Weapons, this means you cannot get extra attacks.
  • You can get back to S8 and ID MEQs by adding Biomancy (read: allied Librarian) and Furious Charge from Penal Pattern Cohort Doctrine to your original S6 attack. The HQ officers who can take this are all at least A3 and can go to WS5, so they're actually able to make good use of the weapon.

Other Melee Weapons
The weapons that don't fit into the other categories.

• Bayonet: A 1 point upgrade to give your men +1S to all melee attacks, but it has Two-handed, meaning you don't get extra attacks for having a second close combat weapon/pistol. You don't care about that because literally every model in the list that can get CCW/pistol is required to give up their Lasrifle for it, meaning everyone that could get bayonets will not have 2 melee weapons anyway. Gives your rifle sections the ability to wound marines on a 4+ or better if you take the right Combat Doctrine.
• Charonite Claws: The weapon of choice for your Ogryns. S7 AP3 Two-Handed and Rending (6+). A step down from the old rules, but still your best bet for fighting Automata in melee. Unfortunately, Furious Charge doesn't work on it as a fixed strength weapon.

Ranged Weapons

Artillery Cannons

• Demolisher Cannon: A completely different weapon from 1.0. Instead of being a 5" S10 AP2 pie plate of doom capable of destroying everything under it, it's now S12 AP3 3" Sunder Brutal (3) Rending (6+). It won't do anything against Dreadnoughts due to being AP3, but it's an excellent anti-Automata weapon, as it wounds easily, causes lots of wounds and ignores armour. Also useful in a pinch as anti-vehicle, as S12 Sunder will more or less guarantee penetration.
• Earthshaker Cannon: 240" S9 Ordnance 1 is decent enough against vehicles, but being AP4 instead of AP3 makes it basically worthless against MEQs and Shred/Pinning simply doesn't do enough to compensate for it regardless of 5" blast. Can be useful against non-Space Marine armies, but is that really a selling point in the Space Marine civil war game?
• Medusa Mortar: The old TEQ killing king has seen a very unfortunate nerf. It's the same as above, except with 36" and Rending (6+) instead of Shred. Much too expensive as self-propelled artillery in Heavy Support, while too short-ranged to be stationary artillery in Fortifications. Pass.

Auto Weapons

• Autocannon: Widely available as sponson/hull mounts on tanks. Has gained Rending (6+) for improved performance in general, but remember that it's not a Defensive Weapon because it's S7, so it must fire on whatever the main cannon is shooting unless you have other special rules. This generally isn't a problem because the autocannon can do literally anything serviceably, but you can get actual Defensive weapons if you want emergency anti-infantry, while you should have taken a Lascannon if you wanted heavy duty anti-vehicle.
• Heavy Stubber: A literal modern day HMG. Widely available as a pintle mount on all of your vehicles, as you don't get combi-bolters. 3 shots of S4 AP6 really isn't much, but it's only 5 points so you'll make your points back if you kill just 1 guy. Also a Defensive weapon due to being <S7, so it can act as point defence and fire independently of your main guns. Not bad to be honest.
• Battle Cannon: Nerfed into the ground because people were complaining about low AP pie plates making massed infantry unplayable. Instead of the previous MEQ-murdering S8 AP3 5" blast, now a S8 AP4 3" blast. The blast is too small to be useful against infantry, while against everything else it is far outperformed by its brother...
• Vanquisher Battle Cannon: Lost Armourbane, but is now 2-shot and has Brutal (2). An excellent anti-Dreadnought weapon, as you can wound reliably, cause multiple hits and then cause multiple wounds. Also gained Sunder, so still very good against vehicles.

Bolt Weapons

• Bolter: The Space Marine standard 24" S4 AP5 Rapid Fire weapon. Everyone who can take one can also take a Minor combi-weapon, which is objectively superior. Take those instead.
• Heavy Bolter: Usually available as hull mounts on tanks. As far as a stock weapon goes, 36" Heavy 4 S5 AP4 really isn't bad, and is arguably better than the Multi-laser you usually get instead in this army.

Combi-Weapons
Half a Bolter, half another gun. There are two categories of Combi-Weapons, with Magna only getting one shot with their alternate gun, and Minor getting to fire multiple times. It's definitely worth mentioning that Combi-Weapons can fire BOTH primary and secondary weapons without requiring the Firing Protocols (X) rule. Squads armed with them are able to throw out a surprising volume of firepower. All of the models that can take this are BS4, so you're as likely to get what you paid for as you would on Space Marines.

• Minor Combi-Weapons:: Flamers, Volkite Chargers, and Grenade Launchers. Grenade Launchers seem to be the standout pick, but the Strength of these weapons has dropped to 5 on the Krak profile, and resolving lots of weak Blast (3") shots in a turn with the Frag profile means they're a pain to play. Of course, the combi-Flamer reigns supreme against hordes.
  • The Grenade Launcher is always inferior to the Volkite Charger in terms of damage. 1 shot at S5 AP4 is worse than 2 shots of S5 AP5 Deflagrate against any opponent, while the potential to make lots of hits using the frag grenade is also the same anti-light infantry specialisation as the Volkite Charger. The Frag's Pinning and either option's 24" can be useful, but taking the combi-Volkite is generally better.
• Magna Combi-Weapons:: Meltaguns and Plasma Guns. Not generally a good idea, as everyone who can take these can also take the full version of the secondary weapon at the same/slightly higher price. If you want special weapons, take the actual special weapon.

Flame Weapons
Template weapons, meaning they don't test on BS and instead auto-hit everyone under the teardrop.

• Hand Flamer: An upgrade to the Laspistols all of your characters can get. Very nice at 2 points for the same S3 as the Laspistol, except with a lot more hits. However, has the same problem as all of the pistol upgrades in that it replaces the stock longarm the unit gets.
• Flamer: A moment of respect for the vanished Flamer Section here. Instead, Flamers are now only available to HQ Tercio Sections. Do not take them as standalone weapons under any circumstance, as a combi-version is available at the same price. Otherwise a decent weapon, as S4 AP5 template can cause a lot of wounds and force failed saves.
• Heavy Flamer: S5 AP4, and is therefore extremely deadly against anything weaker than an MEQ and can cause enough hits to force failed saves even against them. That said, it's mostly available as a sponson/pintle mount on your vehicles, most of which do not want to be in flamer range to begin with. Also an alternate choice for Veletaris Vanguard Sections instead of their Rotor Cannons, in case you prefer actually killing people instead of Pinning them. Is a Defensive weapon on vehicles due to being <S7, so it can torch nearby infantry while the main gun shoots something else.

Las Weapons

• Laspistol: Same old S3 AP- Pistol. Don't expect to see this a lot, as only your sergeants get it and they will almost always get to choose their unit's normal gun instead, or can take better pistols like...
• Blast Pistol: The Hellpistols of the 31st Millennium. Actually very powerful weapons at S6 AP4 Pistol 2 (stronger than a Volkite Charger!), but only available to HQ sections (where it competes directly with special weapons) and unit sergeants, where its 9" range can be troublesome when the rest of the squad has 15" or 30".
• Lasrifle: The mainstays of the Solar Auxilia. Unlike last edition, these have all the attachments stock and thus have two different settings to use. Volley is your classic lasgun-like with 30" Heavy 2 S3 AP6. Blast Charger gives you the high-power punch with 18" Heavy 1 S6 AP4.
  • The Blast Charger should be used at every opportunity. It inflicts ID on T3 models (denying Feel No Pain), offsets being 1-shot by having more than twice the probability to wound T4/5 targets compared to the standard shot, and can actually wound T6 and above. There are very few circumstances where Volley Fire will do more damage.
  • That range will be a necessity, as the Close-Order sub-type severely hampers the mobility of the men carrying them. That said, Close-order also lets you at least move somewhat while firing the Lasrifle.
• Multi-laser: "What if I tied 3 Blast Charger rifles together?" You get this. 3 shots of S6 AP6, available by the bucketload on your vehicles. You don't get Heavy Bolters anymore, so it will have to be this for anti-light infantry. Is a Defensive Weapon on vehicles due to being <S7, so don't be too worried if the main gun is an anti-tank weapon.
• Lascannon: "What if my Multi-laser fired one big shot instead?" Good old 48" S9 AP2, except it has gained Sunder for improved penetration rolls. Also an instrument for killing the much-improved Terminators and Dreadnoughts in this edition, as you need the S9 to ID 2W TEQs now and Dreadnoughts are now pseudo-Monstrous Creatures with 2+/5++.
• Gravis lascannon: 2 of the above, so you get 2 shots.

Melta Weapons

• Meltagun: Your only source of Melta weapons in the list except for the Legate Marshal, available to your HQ Tercio Sections. The customary Assault 1 S8 AP1 Armourbane (Melta) weapon capable of melting TEQ and vehicle alike, but its 12" range can be very limiting. The squads which have this all have Close-order, preventing you from running into range, while it being an Assault weapon receives no benefit from the unit subtype. If you're taking a full squad of these, get a transport.

Needle Weapons

• Needle Pistol: Yet another pistol upgrade for your characters, with all of the problems it implies by dint of not being a standard ranged weapon. It's a different flavour to the Blast Pistol in that they're both 2-shot weapons that wound easily, but this one uses Poison instead of high strength. You're not likely to get Pinning either; you'll likely cause a wound, but you don't get any leadership debuffs to the test. However, it can be an interesting choice if you're set on abusing Tercio mechanics, as you can cause multiple Pinning tests by having characters from multiple sections use this weapon on Reactions, potentially cancelling a charge and leaving the enemy Pinned in the middle of your gunline.

Plasma Weapons
Generally weapons with S7 AP4 Breaching (4+) Gets Hot!. Your models generally have 4+ saves, which means they do NOT get their armour save against Gets Hot! this edition. However, all infantry models who can get one of these (except for Lasrifle Section sergeants and Medicae) have an Invulnerable save, can upgrade their armour, or both, so it's not that bad.

• Plasma Pistol: An upgrade to the Laspistols all of your characters can get. Actually reasonably priced at 5 points, but it has the same problem as the Blast Pistol; if you have one in the first place, you've given up your rifle, which is just a bad idea in principle.
• Plasma Gun: 24" Rapid Fire available to your HQ Tercio Sections and is a decent choice for killing MEQs. However, TEQs having 2W now means you'll need a lot more shots to take them out. Faces stiff competition from the Meltagun, which while being 1-shot can ID TEQs and ignore their armour. That said, neither weapon can ID Custodes/Dreadnoughts/Automata anyway, while the Plasma Gun could already ID T3 models, so the Plasma Gun's 12" extra range and extra shot within 12" can give it the advantage against non-Marine opponents.

Volkite Weapons

• Volkite Charger: The weapon that makes your Veletaris Tercios so fearsome at short range. Assault 2 S5 AP5 Deflagrate is already nice, but it becomes absolutely disgusting when it comes in squads of 20 and squads come in Tercios of 3. Space Marine Legions wish they could take so much firepower in one slot. Also available on your HQ Tercio Sections, but they have even better choices, so look elsewhere. 15" can be limiting when everyone who can take them is Heavy or Close-order, and thus cannot Run into range; your units are cheap and large enough to make a few casualties acceptable, but think about transports, Deep Striking and the like.

Exotic and Miscellaneous Weapons

• Grenade Launcher: Comes with Krak (S5 AP4) and Frag (S3 AP6 Pinning) munitions and only available on your HQ Tercio Sections. Never take this as a standalone weapon, as the said Sections can take a combi-version of it at the same price and they have better options in any case.

Equipment

• Void Armour: Space Carapace armour that gives a 4+ armour save.
• Reinforced Void Armour: Void armour that also has the Heavy Sub-type.
• Heavy Void Armour: Power armour, as it gives the wearer as 3+ save and the Heavy Sub-type.
• Auxilia Vexilla: The basic one. +1 to combat resolution and stop your voidsmen from running off the table.
• Command Vox: The master vox. Any unit with one can share their Leadership with any other unit that has a Vox Interlock or another one of these, allowing them to use the officer's decent leadership. Works from Reserve, so feel free to hide your Legate Marshal in a Line Command Section in Reserve to broadcast his Ld10 to your entire army.
  • Vox Interlock: 1-way radio, allowing units to use the Leadership of anyone with a Command Vox. Useless without a Command Vox, so don't take 9 of these without actually having a squad with a Command Vox.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Solar Auxilia Legate Marshal: 85 points, 0-1 restriction, Infantry (Heavy, Character) - the old Lord Marshal LORD MARSHAL upgrade gets their own entry. Comes with Laspistol, Close combat weapon, Heavy Void Armour (for a 3+ save), Refractor Field, and frag and krak grenades. Can upgrade their pistol to a Blast Pistol, Needle Pistol, Hand Flamer, Volkite Serpenta, Plasma Pistol, Inferno Pistol or Archaeotech Pistol. They may also upgrade their CCW to a Power Weapon, Charnabal Weapon, Thunder Hammer, Power Fist or Paragon Blade. Any one weapon may be made master-crafted for 10 points. They may swap their armour with Artificer (you may remove the Heavy Sub-Type if you do), they may take an Iron Halo, as well as a Cyber-Familiar and Melta Bombs (those are 20 points. 20!). So you can give them a 2+ save and 3++ invuln, and with the way snipers work now you absolutely should. Battle-hardened (1) 2+/3++ 4W makes him basically impossible to kill without S8 AP2, but WS5 S3 means he won't be killing Praetors anytime soon. Also has Stubborn and COMBAT DOCTRINES.
  • COMBAT DOCTRINES unlock special bonuses for your army - these are your Rites of War, but are much more characterful, telling us the origins of your Auxilia army - so you will be seeing a Legate Marshal in nearly every list.
  • Always put this guy in a unit with a Command Vox. This lets everyone in the army with a Vox Interlock use his Ld10 for Morale checks and Pinning, which you'll need because your basic Auxilia trooper is Ld6 and their sergeants are Ld7-8.
  • The Thunder Hammer is strangely costed at the same as the Power Fist for him, and thus only 5 points more than a regular Power Weapon. For that price, you're a legitimate threat to Legion Centurions and the like despite your inability to ID, as you still wound on 2+ and you can force failed Invulnerable saves with Brutal (2). As he's literally the only model in the list that doesn't go splat to a Marine Power Maul, your opponent might just leave the S8 AP2 weapons at home, leaving you at an advantage. Moreover, you can conceivably stack strength buffs on him to get back to S8, which considering his insane saves makes him basically a Space Marine Praetor in close combat. The Paragon Blade is more iffy; as discussed on the Legion Tactica, Terminators being 2W makes the Paragon Blade a lot harder to justify against them and 1W 2+ save models are rare nowadays.

• Auxilia Tactical Command Tercio: The most elite Tercio in the list, composed of 1-3 units, one of which must be the Tactical Command section. This is for your fancy custom elites and where you get your special weapons (Plasma, Melta, combi-weapons, etc.) as Veletaris and Lasrifle Sections have little to no choice in weapon upgrades. You can also take Power/Charnabal weapons, but this is not recommended as you could have taken Storm Axe Veletaris for that instead, whereas as aforementioned this is your only source of special weapons. Unlike Veletaris/Rifle Sections, your sections come 5-10 here. The whole Tercio gets Refractor Fields for 5++ and has 2W on everyone except for the officers, who are somehow even tougher.
  • The officers strangely cannot wield Power/Charnabal weapons with upgraded pistols, as the option for upgraded pistols only appears after you replace his Lasrifle with Laspistol/CCW, which is mutually exclusive with the option to swap Lasrifle with Blast Pistol and Power/Charnabal weapons. If you want a pistol stronger than a Blast Pistol, the only melee weapon upgrade that can be paired with it is the Power Fist.
  • 1 Solar Auxilia Tactical Command Section: The big banner squad, and while said banner is by no means mandatory, refusing to take it should be paramount to admitting defeat. The squad consists of a Solar Auxilia Captain with 3A 3W (yes, he has more wounds than a Space Marine Centurion) and his four friends who have Stubborn. They all come with Refractor Fields, Void armour, Melta Bombs and Lasrifles, but they can be upgraded to take a series of much better weapons like Volkite Chargers, Power Weapons paired with Blast Pistols, Combi-weapons and a couple of special weapons. The Captain can take Heavy Void armour, and be further upgraded to a Marshal (same thing except WS5 A4). The four companions can take between them a Command Vox, a Augury Scanner and an Auxilia or Cohorts Vexilla (the only unit in the army), and the squad can add five more companions more for a squad of ten and some ablative wounds. In particular, the Cohorts Vexilla confers Line on the unit and lets everyone in 6" of the Vexilla have Ld9 for Morale/Pinning checks. That last part won't come up often due to Command Vox/Vox Interlock, but Line is always nice.
  • 0-2 Solar Auxilia Companion Section: A squad of five Companions from the Command section, but as their own squad and a WS5 Ld8 3A sergeant. They can be upped to a squad of 10 and they're pretty good since they are essentially Veletaris+. Have the same weapon options as the Command Section, so equip them accordingly. Strangely has a blanket option for combi-weapons at 5pts as opposed to different pricing for Magna and Minor combi-weapons, so you can RAW take Magna combi-weapons for that price. That said, it's still a bad option compared to taking an actual special weapon.

• Davinite Lodge Priest^Legacies: What a surprise, an actually new unit to just lump into Legacies! A Traitor-exclusive Support Squad HQ from the place where Horus nearly died and got corrupted, they cannot become the Warlord and their combat power is lacking, but they can be useful as a support psyker. Their single power allows them to restore a wound on a model, though it's useless for resurrecting dead troopers. This does, however, make them decent for supporting Ogryns and allied Veterans and Terminators.

• Expeditionary Navigator^Legacies: A second Support Squad HQ that's a Psyker, with their power being the Lidless Stare - an S2 template with Pinning and Force so you have a chance to actually harm guardsmen and MEQ. This is their only combat value, as they're unarmed in melee aside from their meager laspistol.
  • Their more valuable use is the 12" bubble they project, forcing the enemy to roll 3d6 for scattering. While it won't actually stop them from arriving, it can help throw them further off the board and maybe even kill some if they scatter into terrain.

Elites

• Auxilia Veletaris Tercio: The elite stormtrooper analogues, all given BS/WS4 and reinforced void armour, including the Heavy sub-type to help resist templates and blasts. Section sergeants can all take heavy void armor, giving them a 3+ save. The entire Tercio besides the Vanguard Section gets Volkite Chargers as part of their standard loadout, which gives them a good means on handling MEQs. They also lack the Close-Order sub-type, making them less of a juicy target to burn alive with templates.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Veletaris Command Section: Your classic command squad can replace all their guns for power weapons, but anyone with half a brain can recognize that this would be an extremely stupid idea as it gives up one of your greatest advantages in being a Tercio unless you brought that Vanguard Section to pin them down or you're building a melee Tercio. Veletaris have marine-tier WS4 I4, but 1A and no pistol, so think carefully about equipping this unit for melee. For ranged damage output, just take another Storm Section, who at the same price get 5 more dudes and can go up to 20.
  • 0-3 Solar Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section: The volkite gunlines, and you get quite a few of them at 8 points per model. You can replace their guns with Storm Axes so you aren't stuck with mere CCWs. Storm Axes are +2S AP2 Unwieldy (so you're at WS4 S5 AP2 like Power Axe MEQs); they're Two-handed, but you have no pistol/CCW so you don't care. Each Veletarii only has one attack, but they compensate with Murderous Strike (6+), giving them a fighting chance against 2-wound TEQs and most characters. The main problem, of course, is whether it's bright to build a melee squad in this list to begin with, which depends on the Cohort Doctrine you have.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Veletaris Vanguard Section: Rather than Volkite, these guys get to carry Rotor Cannons to pin anything you want your other forces to mow down. Of course, if you're dealing with hordes such as the Imperial Army or daemons, then you'd be better suited by grabbing Heavy Flamers for an entire block of templates. Mixing and matching is a decent idea; Pinning tests on the same leadership as long as you cause at least 1 wound and you're therefore not incentivized to max out on Rotor Cannons, while the prohibition on friendly fire can make using 20 Heavy Flamers difficult. If you're spamming Rotor Cannons purely for firepower, just take a few Lasrifle Sections.

• Solar Auxilia Medicae Section: Cheap as chips at 15 point a pop, but only Feel No Pain (6+), because whoever wrote the rules hates you. But hey, you can take pistols (at reasonable prices for once) and actual close combat weapons like Charnabal/Power and Power Fists now! If you're taking any, be sure to give these to your Command Tercio squads; everyone who knows about Solar Auxilia will try to snipe the Command Vox operators, and you want additional protection for him. Having another layer of protection against Gets Hot! on any plasma weapons is just the cherry on the cake.
  • Barring the Power Fist, the melee weapons are arguably worth it considering you can pair it with the pistol for a total of 3 attacks base. Yes, taking a melee upgrade and a pistol upgrade doubles the cost of the model, but double of basically nothing is still basically nothing.

• Solar Auxilia Surgeon-Primus Aevos Jovan: Has Bitter Duty which means that he doesn't get to join anyone anymore, which is perhaps for the best as he's Bulky(5) thanks to his auto-gurney. How does he stay protected then? He has a low-priority-target aura that prevents him from being targeted from further than 12" away, unless he shoots first. Within 12", he gives -1Ld to everyone (friend or foe) because he's Victor Frankenstein in the 31st Millennium.
  • Instead of conferring Feel No Pain, he now straight up makes your guys come back to life. Once a turn, you can roll a D6 for any friendly Infantry model that dies within 12" of him in Movement/Shooting Phases. On a 1 it comes back with 1 wound and dies at the end of your next turn while having +1S/T until then. On 2-5, it just comes back with 1 wound. On a 6 however, it comes back with ALL WOUNDS. Legate Marshal got blasted by a Volcano Cannon? Just respawn him, no biggie. You can also take up to 3 Orderlies, which you can sacrifice to the Auto-Gurney to increase or decrease your roll by 1, in case you want to make sure your Legate Marshal/Ogryn/(insert important model) comes back.

• Charonite Ogryn Section: They cost 40 pts per Ogryn, have S/T5, Rage (2), Hammer of Wrath (2), Feel No Pain (5+) and 4 attacks at S7 AP3 weapon with Rending (6+), what's not to like? Well, a lot, actually. First of all, at WS4 they aren't effective against dedicated Marine melee squads. Second, thanks to Bitter Duty your characters won't be joining them. Third, while they have a safety net of Death Frenzy (basically, if you fail a Morale check, remove one model and count that check as passed while getting +1 attack per model for the next turn for your trouble), their Ld of 6 will do jack shit against any other shenanigans with Ld. Oh, and the signature Instant Death on their claws was moved to the 1 attack Veletarii with Storm Axes. Their best use seems to be running them in front of the rest of the army as a speedbump; Marines with Sx2 weapons won't be able to ID these guys and have to chew through all three wounds on each Ogryn, buying some time for the rest of your army. They still come with no DT, but can be transported by Dracosans now.

Troops

• Auxilia Infantry Tercio: The bread and butter of your army, with most of your universal Line units. No longer includes Veletaris or Flamer sections (moved to Elites), nor Aegis Lines. No longer locked into sizes of 20, it makes your army marginally less expensive to collect as you may use leftover voidsmen from one unit to bulk up the numbers of another. However, the Close-Order sub-type makes these guys the most prone to being wiped out by pieplates and templates. You've lost Flamer Sections, so it's full on Lasrifle spam.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Line Command Section: As the force leading your tercios, you'll be needing these guys behind the rest of your guns. A Command Vox will hardly do you wrong in keeping order in the squad as you're otherwise stuck relying on that mere Ld7 for everything.
  • 1-3 Solar Auxilia Rifle Section: The most budget force you can ever get. 60 points for a squad of 10, and each additional model is only 5 points. Each soldier carries a lasrifle, which actually have variable settings, with a lasgun-tier Volley that shoots twice each time and the heavy-power Blast Charger so you have the chance to wound marines with a single S6 shot. The Lasrifle is Heavy, but Close-order lets you move half your movement score and still shoot. If you're worried about melee and aren't facing against marines with Power Mauls that can paste them within seconds, then you might be okay with bayonets.

Dedicated Transports

• Dracosan Armoured Transport: Ol' reliable Malcador chassis. Still the best looking vehicle in the range, still more expensive than most of the squads it carries, still not Superheavy or an Assault vehicle, still unavailable to Ogryns who need it the most. That being said, the new variety of squads of the squads have given the Dracosan a much needed flexibility in its use. With a transport capacity of 22, it can comfortably move around a deathstar unit, plus Marshal and medic. Has the choice of purchasing a Demolisher cannon for 50 points, at the expense of reducing it's transport capacity to 10 and not by 10, leaving it in a rather awkward spot for transporting smaller units. In addition, the Dracosan may also equip Flare Shields to make sure it gets its passengers into battle, as well as Hunter-Killers and pintle-mounted weapons.
• Aurox Transport: Your Rhino equivalent. Cheap as chips at only 30pts, maybe 40 after upgrades. Can only carry 10 models but since your basic lasrifle voidsman can move and shoot it is an appealing prospect for transport. Not much so for protection since its armor is paper-thin, but since Auxilia won't ever be carrying elite terminators or artificer-armoured units, it's not that big of a deal. These lil' buggers aren't cheap in ca$h however, so whatever money you think you are saving by splitting your 20-man squads into MSU will soon evaporate if you're planning to mechanize.

Fast Attack

• Arvus Transport: A flying bus. No upgrade options at all. Leave it in the box.
• Divisio Aeronautica Primaris-Lightning: Comes at 150 points, costs more than the Thunderbolt (it does have +4" M, but lacks the extra autocannons) for the sole reason of being able to take Kraken Penetrators you know and love - 36" S8 AP1 Armourbane and One Use. However, since this edition is not Vehicle-friendly, their value has greatly diminished, and they lack Brutal to deal with Dreadnoughts. There are also Sunfury missiles, but they are hilariously bad.
• Divisio Aeronautica Thunderbolt: Comes at 120 points, and has more weapons and special rules than the Lightning. Can automatically come on from Reserves as an Advanced Reaction if the enemy calls in Flyers from Reserve and take a shot at them. While the rules technically only allow Flyers to get Skyfire in their own Shooting Phase, you can buy Skystrike Missiles with baked-in Skyfire to circumvent that. This is one of your most reliable (not to mention only) means of anti-air, so take a couple of these; with how depleted the Fast Attack section is, it's not as if you had anything better to take.
• Solar Auxilia Carnodon Strike Squadron^Legacies: Lightweight assault tanks, something that the Liber left out. They're fairly cheap at 70 points a tank, but they're fairly flimsy with 3 HP and AV 12/11/10. The free Volkite Culverins (45" Heavy 5 S6 AP5 Deflagrate) are generally superior to the stock TL Multi-laser (as lack of Twin-linked is compensated by sheer volume of fire), while you can also take stronger turret weapons in TL Autocannon/Lascannon. Their sponsons come with all the typical and reliable armaments, with the addition of free Volkite Calivers (30" Heavy 3 S6 AP5 Deflagrate) if you're really keen on burning something alive. Being Fast Attack is an improvement because it no longer competes with much more powerful Russes, but it now instead competes with the Thunderbolt, which is one of your only forms of anti-air. Think carefully.
  • The issue with the Carnodons is that you have to give all of them the same turrets and sponsons, which can be very annoying if you need one to fill out a specialized role. Your only solace is the fact that pintle weapons aren't constrained by those same rules, but between the heavy stubber, autocannon and heavy flamer, their only purpose is crowd control.
  • Taking 2 lascannon sponsons is strangely costed the same as taking TL Lascannon turrets (Autocannon sponsons cost twice compared to TL Autocannon turret), making it the superior choice in terms of firepower as you get the same 75% chance of hitting at least once, while having 25% chance of making 2 hits. If you want to mix and match between Battle and Defensive weapons, take the Lascannon sponsons and keep the turret with Multi-laser/Volkite Culverin rather than taking a Lascannon turret.
• Solar Auxilia Termite Assault Drill^Legacies: And it's back here too now. Not much different than its versions in the Legions or Mechanicum. That said, 12 spaces doesn't really do much for you, especially considering that they can't become DTs for your Tercios in any way. Maybe it can work for a Command Squad, but nothing further.

Heavy Support

• Auxilia Armoured Tercio: Your Leman Russes. Many Cohort Doctrines restrict you to one Armoured Tercio per detachment, but since you can cram up to 9 tanks in here it's not that big of an issue.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Armoured Command Section: Moved from HQ to command of their own Tercio, and riding a single basic Leman Russ with battlecannon, but one which can take tasty upgrades (Flare Shield for 20pts and Cognis-Signum for 25pts). Like the standard Russ, it also has the Outflank special rule by default. That being said, it's +50 points over the already poor Battle Cannon Leman Russ, while buying a cognis-signum means you've just spent 225 points to give 3 tanks +1 BS and 4 ablative hull points (admittedly at frontal AV15). Considering you're using points and slots that could simply have gone to more tanks, is this really worth it?
  • Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Squadron: 150 points give you a 14/13/10 vehicle with four HP and Outflank that moves 12". It comes with either a battlecannon, Gravis Lascannon, two Gravis Autocannons (Twin-linked 3-shot Autocannon), or a Vanquisher Battlecannon with co-axial autocannon for a measly +5pts. The squadron can include a pair of additional tanks with a discount of 15 points each. The Battlecannon should be replaced at first opportunity and the Gravis Lascannon is objectively inferior to the Vanquisher, but the Vanquisher and the Autocannon both have their own merits.
    • Yes, RAW Solar Auxilia Russes have 4 Autocannons in their turrets. It might be a typo or just an attempt to account for the Exterminator Autocannon having a higher rate of fire, either way you'll need those to put up a fight against Legiones Astartes.
  • Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Assault Squadron: 200pts for the same Leman Russ minus Outflank, with either a demolisher cannon (underrated but still mean), Executioner Plasma Cannon (5" Plasma Cannon) or Volkite Macro-Saker (8 shot Volkite Culverin), again at -15pt discount if you take more tanks in the squadron. Does not have Outflank, but is Reinforced. Weapon choices aren't rocket science; Demolisher for anti-vehicle/Automata, Executioner for anti-TEQ, Macro-Saker for anti-light infantry. In particular, the Executioner is one of the few weapons that can semi-reliably remove large groups of MEQ short of taking a Stormhammer, so take a couple against Legion opponents and kill any Marine squads that are particularly threatening to your infantry, while its Rending (4+) (as opposed to the standard Plasma Breaching (4+)) means it can fight vehicles in a pinch.
    • The Macro-Saker is S6 and therefore a Defensive weapon, regardless of being turret mounted. Can be useful if you want something more substantial than pintle and hull mounts for anti-infantry and to add some punch to Reactions. On the merits of the weapon alone, it's inferior to the (much cheaper) Autocannon Russ.

• Auxilia Artillery Tercio: The heavy weapons teams of the Solar Auxilia, now in Tercio format. These consists as usual of three units, of which at least one rapier or tarantula unit is mandatory.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Artillery Command Section: Command Squad like the one in the troop slot Tercio, with option to take a Cognis-signum. Honestly nothing too impressive. You're better off taking more rapiers.
  • Solar Auxilia Tarantula Sentry Battery: Actually can shoot with all its guns after the latest Errata, gaining Firing Protocols (2) and Fearless! Still bad though, because Sentry Protocols forces them to shoot at the nearest thing they can see, even if that thing can laugh off their fire with ease or if doing so would be wasteful (especially if you took the Hyperios Missile Launcher, which has Skyfire and thus must snap fire at anything else). Probably usable for cheap Lascannons.
    • The Command Section's Cognis-Signum increases its firepower by 50% (BS2 to BS3), while everything else increases by 33% (BS3 to BS4) and the Rapier increases by 25% (BS4 to BS5). Still probably better to take Rapier Laser Destroyers instead of Lascannons so you can choose your targets, but who knows? You might end up fighting a Legion/Mechanicum list where there's literally no bad target for Lascannons.
  • Solar Auxilia Rapier Battery: Comes with Gravis Multi-laser (2 Twin-linked Multi-lasers) to cut holes through Imperial Militia, but can swap for a free Gravis Heavy Bolter Battery (2 Twin-linked Heavy Bolters) for even more fire that can cut through enemy Auxilia, a tank-busting Laser Destroyer (36" S9 AP1 Ordnance 2 Twin-linked Exoshock (6+))or a Quad Launcher (with frag only, but these can be upgraded with Incendiary, Shatter or Splinter for specific roles).
    • Your choice in Quad Launcher rounds really does depend on what you want to do with it, considering that each round type costs you. The base Frag Rounds you start with come with a S5 AP5 large blast with Shred to handle most things. The Shatter Rounds are the only rounds that aren't blast and the only ones with any anti-armor use with S8 AP4 with Sunder. Both the Splinter and Incendiary Rounds can Pin enemies, with Incendiary Rounds getting Ignores Cover and Shred to flush out cover campers (though AP5 means basically everyone will just take armor saves) and Splinter Rounds compensate for their dismal S2 with Rending (6+) and with Shell Shock (1) to help guarantee Pinning.

• Solar Auxilia Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron: Up to three tanks at 225 points each give you a 13/13/12 chassis with 14" movement. For 10pts it can trade its battlecannon for a Gravis Lascannon or Vanquisher battlecannon. That said, the Vanquisher is better provided on Leman Russes because they get a co-axial weapon. The heavy bolters on the front and sides can be exchanged for Autocannon/Multi-laser/Heavy Flamer, or upgraded to a Lascannon for 10 and 25 points respectively. If you want heavy duty anti-vehicle, the front Heavy Bolter can be exchanged for a Demolisher cannon for 50 points. It can also take a Flare Shield and dozer blade, in case you're building a plan around these things.
  • A Vanquisher/Lascannon Malcador with Demolisher Cannon and Flare Shield (for effective frontal AV14) is 285 points. You could instead have taken a Strike Russ AND a Demolisher Russ for 355 points, which are collectively far tougher than the Malcador (heck, one Russ already has 4HP and it has the same Front AV14 Side AV13 as the Malcador), have turrets, can get cheaper in squadrons and in the case of the Vanquisher Russ is more accurate. The Russ is simply a more cost-effective way to get firepower on the table, so the benefits of the Malcador boil down to 14" movement, Independent Fire Control and sidestepping restrictions against taking Armoured Tercios.

• Solar Auxilia Armoured Battery: Your basilisks or medusae. 200 points per vehicle is ridiculously expensive for an AP4 gun, even with 240" range, S9 and Large Blast, Shred and Pinning. Can be exchanged for Medusa Mortar that trades 204" of range and Shred for Rending (6+). Thanks, but no thanks. If you really want high strength AP4, take some Leman Russes; better yet, take the Fortification artillery choice.

• Solar Auxilia Valdor Tank Hunter: Its Neutron Beam Laser is a very powerful anti-tank weapon (Ordnance 2 S10 AP1 Concussive (3) Shock Pulse Gets Hot!), therefore having the same anti-vehicle firepower as the Vanquisher Cannon while having Shock Pulse to silence anything it doesn't kill. However, you only get 1 per slot as opposed to 9 Leman Russ Vanquishers/Destroyer Tank Hunters, and the lack of Brutal limits its power against Dreadnoughts/Automata.

• Solar Auxilia Cyclops Demolition Vehicle: You will laugh in the face of your enemies! 1-3 cyclops, each of which come with an operator (who acts independently after deployment, so hide them!). Can also be carried in an Aurox, Arvus or Dracosan - you must pick one for each Cyclops. Now just attacks in close combat with a single autohit that also removes the Cyclops itself. The problem is while previously the little suicide robot blew up at I10, now it does at I1. S10 AP1 Instant Death, Armourbane and Brutal (2) means you'd want to target high value targets, but WS1, T5, 2 Wounds and 3+ pretty much guarantees anything bar Vehicles is quite capable of beating the little guy to death before he does anything, unless you're already in combat using another unit that can take the hits instead. In short - bad unit has somehow been made worse.

• Solar Auxilia Armoured Support Tercio^Legacies: A collection of Leman Russ-based vehicles, except with centreline mounts/no main gun at all. Counts as an Armoured Tercio for the purposes of Cohort Doctrines, so don't think about using this to circumvent restrictions against Armoured Tercios. Being without a turret means they're smaller targets and can more easily claim Cover, but it won't help too much because almost everything you can claim will be 6+.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Armoured Command Section: Same Russ as in Armoured Tercio. Equip as you see fit.
  • 1-3 from the following:
    • Solar Auxilia Thunderer Siege Tank Squadron: The Space Marine Vindicator, except on a Leman Russ chassis. Being the Slow subtype will unfortunately mean that you'll be needing to keep the Thunderer protected until it can fire away. Competes directly with the Demolisher Russ at the same cost per vehicle, with the comparison mostly coming down to Slow making the Thunderer harder to kill with Penetrating Hits while preventing it from firing on the move (Demolisher Cannon being Ordnance), as well as the Thunderer having fewer secondary weapons and a narrower firing arc due to the Demolisher being a centreline mount as opposed to a turret. As such, the Demolisher Russ is generally the superior choice.
    • Solar Auxilia Destroyer Tank Hunter Squadron: The Laser Destroyer Vindicator to the Thunderer's Demolisher Vindicator, and a direct competitor to the Vanquisher Russ. Its Proteus Laser Destroyer is iffy; 2 shots of S9 AP1 Twin-linked Exoshock (6+) is great and Gets Hot! isn't too bad due to Twin-linked, but the loss of Sunder/Brutal compared to the Vanquisher means you lose the armour penetration reroll against vehicles and a lot of your anti-Dreadnought/Automata ability. As a result, the 45pts you pay for this over the Vanquisher Russ is mainly for the extra durability from Slow/Reinforced. Moreover, the normal Laser Destroyer the Rapier has is far superior simply because it has Ordnance and can much more reliably Penetrate and blow vehicles up with AP1. Think very carefully.
    • Solar Auxilia Trojan Support Vehicle: The Trojan is not here to fight, not with that mere heavy bolter. Its bigger goal is to fix other tanks, as it has the Field Repair (5+) rule to let it fix up any other tanks without needing an allied detachment for models with Battlesmith (X). The issue is that you'll be needing other tanks to protect it while doing the patch jobs or hope that nobody pays enough attention to consider trashing it. It's cheaper than Techmarines from your Sworn Brothers Legions, but is 100pts for 1/3 chance per turn to repair worth it to begin with?

• Solar Auxilia Minotaur Battery^Legacies: If you thought the Armoured Battery was bad, this is even worse. 280 points and all you get for it over the Armoured Battery is AV 13/12/13 and Twin-linked, though being open-topped means that all melee attacks are targeting that AV12. Even if you needed artillery, there's not much reason to take this over the one in the Liber, let alone over a Russ or a Fortification.

Lords of War

• Malcador Infernus: No longer a bomb! Also no longer AP3, so no reason to take this instead of the below. Seriously, your entire Troops and Elites slots are built for murdering light infantry. Don't waste your Lord of War slot on doing that again.

• Solar Auxilia Stormhammer: Fantastic at 500 points. The Stormhammer Cannon has the old Battle Cannon statline of S8 AP3 and a 7" blast; ordinarily not spectacular, but an absolute world-beater by 2.0 standards because it can ID entire squads of MEQs through their armour. It has upgrades but they are inconsequential since at such a perfectly rounded value, this tank is the perfect way to reduce or expand the size of your army to match that of of your opponent's. Like all Solar Auxilia kits, its quite expensive. But chances are that this unit might give returns sooner than later both on and off the table. Take this at every opportunity; the main cannon is absolutely disgusting against Space Marine armies, and it's bristling with smaller weapons as only a superheavy can. Its BS3 isn't even that much of a concern; scattering doesn't matter too much with a 7" blast, and if you're close enough you can eliminate even that by using your co-axial weapon.

• Baneblade and derivatives^Legacies: They're such dogshit it's not even funny. They have all lost AV14 at the front and they are all 100-300 points more expensive and you pay the same for them as Legiones Astartes despite being BS3. On top of that almost every weapon they use has been neutered into near-uselessness or to the point it is nowhere near strong enough to be carried by a Super-heavy tank. While they have 12HP, so does the Stormhammer, which is a far superior vehicle that is far cheaper.

<tabs> <tab name="Solar Auxilia Baneblade"> Oh Baneblade, what have they done to you. This tank has gone from being the reliable all-rounder to having a primary gun that is outclassed by tanks you can find in the Heavy Support section. For 750 points you get a Baneblade Chassis (duh), whose main Armament is an Ordnance 1, S8, AP4, 5" Blast with Rending (6+) and Pinning. The Baneblade cannon has been reduced to something that has the same effect as a 200 point Medusa Artillery tank (and even that is overpriced). It's still covered with guns, but the main gun was always the primary reason you brought a Baneblade and it's just not worth it, especially when the Stormhammer is 250 points cheaper and has a 7" blast S9 AP3 gun. </tab> <tab name="Solar Auxilia Banehammer"> The same cost as the Baneblade and just as disappointing. Its Tremor Cannon is now AP4 but gained Shell Shock (2) and Pinning, so it's not killing many marines but you will Pin them. The real killer here is the fact that the GIANT ROLLING BUNKER NOW HAS A TRANSPORT CAPACITY OF 10!. Just 10. When it used to be 25... Jesus Christ man. </tab> <tab name="Solar Auxilia Stormlord"> Almost worth it. It's too expensive, but at least the gun is still decent-ish. It comes with a Vulcan Heavy Bolter which is Heavy 15, AP3 with Pinning and Shell Shock (1), but it has lost its ability to shoot twice if it stays still. Its transport capacity was also fucked, but at least it will fuck up a squad of Tactical Marines. You know, the bare minimum 750pts should do, not to mention something the 500pt Stormhammer can arguably do better. </tab> <tab name="Solar Auxilia Shadowsword"> Coming equipped with a Volcano Cannon, the Shadowsword looks like it could be worth it if it wasn't for the fact that it costs 850 points. For the same points, you could instead have taken 5 Vanquisher Russes or 4 Destroyer Tank Hunters, which are collectively far harder to kill and can cause much more damage against your intended targets of Knights/Titans/Superheavies. If you're afraid the smaller vehicles cannot kill the Titan in one go, take a Valdor to shut it up instead. Bottom line, you have better ways of getting anti-vehicle with 850 points. </tab> <tab name="Solar Auxilia Stormsword"> A Stormsword that seems to have been scavenged from Epic, given that it's equipped a Hull Mounted Hellhammer Cannon. It's 850 points, and while its stolen Hellhammer cannon is actually pretty good as it shoots Large Blast AP3 shells with Brutal (3), Rending (5+) and Sunder, it is just not worth its ridiculous price cost; just take more Demolisher Cannons. </tab> <tab name="Solar Auxilia Stormblade"> Is actually equipped with the correct gun and it's overall it's probably the best Baneblade variant available (that isn't saying much, but still). The Plasma Blast gun is a S9 Massive Blast, AP3, Breaching (4+) Ordnance weapon and can be pretty decent at clearing out large MEQ and TEQ squads. That said, the Stormhammer has the same gun except S8 and no Breaching at 250 points cheaper, while you can kill Terminators with Executioner Russes instead. No, they cannot ID TEQs due to being S7, but that doesn't matter when you can take 4 Russes for the price of the Stormblade and simply swamp the TEQs in wounds. </tab> </tabs>

• Solar Auxilia Macharius Heavy Tank Squadron^Legacies: A tank that was named after Lord Solar Macharius from M41, but here it represents one of the ancient Super-heavy tanks that was in service during the Great Crusade and it simply retained the name so you know which model is supposed to represent it (the tank pattern itself was probably used during the Crusade and the STC was then lost, only to be rediscovered later in M41, so it's all good). It's far more reasonably priced at 300pts than the 650pts Space Marines pay for them, but it's still not quite worth it.
  • Its choices to replace the trash-tier battlecannon are actually decent, but the problem is that they both compete with the extremely cost-efficient Strike Russ. The Macharius Vanquisher is Twin-linked... but the Vanquisher Russ has a coaxial weapon, making it basically the same thing. Likewise, the Rotary Bolt Cannon is more or less an Autocannon Russ. As you pay half the price for a Russ, this implies you can take twice the firepower by taking Russes.
  • The Macharius being a Lord of War also means it exists in direct competition with the Stormhammer, which as above is an absolutely excellent choice. Take the Stormhammer, and take Russes to do whatever you intended for the Macharius to do.

• Legion Crassus Armoured Assault Transport^Legacies: 400 points nets you a 13/12/12 super heavy transport with that moves 10” and has 8 HP and 35 transport capacity. It mounts 4 heavy bolters which can be exchanged for heavy flamers for free or upgraded to Autocannons or Lascannons. Its only access point is on the rear of the vehicle, which limits its versatility somewhat. Despite its name, it's not an Assault Vehicle, though with its only access point in the rear disembarking units probably can't charge anyway.
  • You have Dracosan DTs for a reason. You really do not need this.

• Legion Praetor Armoured Assault Launcher^Legacies: For the low, low price of six hundred and fifty points, more than the mega-powerful Stormhammer, you get a super-heavy with M10, BS4, 13/12/12 and 8 HP, packing two heavy bolters and a Praetor Launcher, a 72" Ordnance 1 S7 AP4 Massive Blast with Pinning/Rending (6+). This means you're spending a LoW slot to do what you could have done by taking the cheaper (and still far overpriced) Armoured Battery, or the actually reasonably priced Artillery Battery below. Do not do it.

Fortification

• Solar Auxilia Artillery Battery^Legacies: Five gunners with the standard statline except for 3+, stuck with an immobile Earthshaker or Medusa Mortar, starting at 120pts and going up to 5 at 100 points per extra platform and another 5 gunners. Though this makes the squad practically unable to do anything else, you're paying a much lower price for them, and your squad can ignore Pinning so long as there are as many gunners as there are cannons on top of being Stubborn. At almost half the price of the Armoured Battery, the stock Earthshaker is almost worth it as anti-vehicle; that is, of course, assuming you didn't already have truckloads of it from your other slots.

Allies

Legiones Astartes

The Legion list has some very good melee and/or fast-moving units to cover for your gunline, like Deep Striking Land Speeders to shut enemy artillery up. However, don't bother taking them for short-ranged firepower, as you already have bucketloads of that in HQ Tercios and Veletaris. This also means your compulsory Troops are likely to be Despoiler/Assault Squads; you simply don't need Tacticals/Breachers when you have Lasrifle Sections and Veletaris that do the same thing for much cheaper.

• Dreadnoughts are a very good choice, as they're capable of either AA or melee, both of which the Auxilia list sorely lacks. It helps that you can take lots of them; the Allied FOC has 2 Elites slots, from each of which you can take 3 Dreadnoughts.
• While you already have tons of tanks, consider taking some Neutron Blaster Sabres/Predators and/or Sicaran Venators. Shock Pulse is very useful to shut up Blast weapons on enemy vehicles, particularly if you're running Ultramar Pattern and all of your Lasrifle Auxilia are in base contact with each other. You yourself can only bring up to 3 Shock Pulse weapons (1 Valdor per Heavy Support slot), so getting more can be useful.
• The Legion list has a few choices for Sniper or otherwise Precision Shot which the Auxilia do not otherwise have, short of taking a Vindicare. Spamming Scout squads is a particularly interesting proposition, as they're cheaper than Recons and you don't truly need Line on your allied Troops when the average Auxilia list has 6 Lasrifle Sections running around.
• Of the 18 Legions, you get Ultramarines, Sons of Horus, Word Bearers, Salamanders and Alpha Legion as Sworn Brothers. If you're fine with not taking Cohort Doctrines, you can skip the Legate Marshal and instead take an allied Chaplain/Praetor as your source of Ld10 for the purposes of abusing Command Vox/Vox Interlock. The Chaplain in particular can be useful for Penal Pattern Cohorts, as Hatred finally allows your WS4 units to hit enemies consistently and put your Furious Charge to good use.
  • Taking a Legion Centurion is currently your only way of taking Psykers as Traitor Solar Auxilia (Loyalists can take Tylos Rubio too), as the Legions are as of writing the only faction with any usable Psykers, the Navigator and Davinite Priest from the Legacies docs notwithstanding. For details, look at the Psychic 101 page.

Mechanicum

The Mechanicum are a very easy consideration by the mere fact that they can repair your tanks. With how many of them you can field with your tercios (and especially with the Armoured Fist pattern cohorts), such a matter is going to shoot very high on your priorities list, so an Archmagos Dominus or Magos Prime with some Techpriest Auxilia will always be welcome.

• Automata are very durable weapons platforms, almost on level with the dreadnoughts. The issue is that you'll be needing someone with a Cortex Controller to keep them at their best. If you're in an Iron pattern cohort, this won't be so much of an issue since you can buy them on some of your troops as well.
• Thallax are excellent for mobile firepower, being Relentless and having jump packs. Being one of the few Line Infantry squads of the army, they can very easily help you with scoring, whether in an Iron pattern cohort or in an allied detachment. The lightning guns they come with give you something that can actually harm things harder than a marine and strapping chain bayonets make them more than able to put up a fight - more than you can say about your tercios.

Agents of the Emperor

Legio Custodes

YES. Solar Auxilia have lots of bodies and armoured units, while lacking melee cover. Custodes are literal supermen that don't have enough bodies and firepower. Even Custodes Troops have AP2 AT INITIATIVE, perfect for counter-charging any enterprising enemy units who try to shut your gunline up by engaging them in melee. Alternatively, take some Deep Striking units (jetbikes, Venatari or just take a Coronus DT) and target dangerous ranged units that you have to shut up before they wipe out half of your infantry. However, Custodes units are EXPENSIVE; you'll be spending at the very minimum 350 points (200pt compulsory HQ, 150pt compulsory troops) and that's 4 MODELS.

• If you're afraid of your opponent shooting the Custodes before coming in with the melee units on your Auxilia, take Sentinel Guard for the improved Invulnerable save; you may lose the Guardian Spear's strength bonus, but they're still S5 and you keep the AP2 at initiative on the Sentinel Warblades, so they're still very killy. Moreover, as they're technically infantry, you can use Aevos Jovan to respawn them if you lose any of them to enemy shooting. If you're still worried, take a Dreadnought or two.
• The Custodes list is if anything even shorter on AA than the Solar Auxilia list, so think carefully about where you're going to get it; generally, this means Thunderbolts and/or Fortifications.

Sisters of Silence

Don't expect much aside from some skirmishers from the Sisters. The Anathema sub-type blocks them from being anywhere near the Auxilia on pain of -1Ld to an army that already has faulty Leadership (and -2Ld for any units they join), preventing you from putting melee units just behind your Auxilia to countercharge enemy units. In any case, you could have gotten better melee units if you took Marine/Custodes allies. Their list of short-ranged weapons isn't very impressive either, considering the sheer firepower Auxilia already pack. Think carefully, unless you know you're playing someone with lots of Psykers/Daemons.

• Sanctioner Cadres have Sniper weapons, which Solar Auxilia have no access to. Worth considering if you want to kill some ICs (or just particular infantry/cavalry models) from very far away.
• Prosecutor Cadres can all Infiltrate or Scout and they can take Assault Needlers (read: Pinning) and Snare Guns in large numbers, allowing them to deploy in No Man's Land and make life extremely difficult for enemy units trying to advance. Meanwhile, you can rain down on Pinned/slowed units with your 30" Lasrifles and various heavy ordnance. If that's not enough, you can take more Needlers/Snare weapons from other slots. Still, you can spend all these points on Sisters of Silence with their fancy weapons to slow the enemy, or you can just take more Auxilia units and blast the enemy off the table.
• The Sisters list has NO AA WHATSOEVER. Make sure you have enough from somewhere else, whether by taking your own Flyers or Fortifications.

Divisio Assassinorum

Not to be overlooked among the additions of Liber Imperium is the option for Imperial Assassins. All of the Assassins, despite being Loyalist units, are all considered Distrusted Allies and thus cannot benefit from anything else your army gives, meaning that all of their value is based on what they do on their own.

Each model has Infiltrate and Scout as well as Support Squad to block them out of being mandatory HQs, but the Assassin sub-type does the rest of them, banning them from being Warlords, joining squads, or entering any HQs, all in exchange to ignoring any penalties for movement and auto-passing dangerous terrain checks. Also helping their impressive M7 is the Light sub-type boosting their running. Their lone protection is the Panoply of the Assassin, surprisingly durable spandex that gives them a 4+/4++ save. They are all 125 points.

• Clade Adamus: The eldest of the assassin clades and they're kitted to kill. Fleet (2) makes them even zippier than other assassins, where they can make it into their home territory of challenges. When in a challenge, they can copy the WS and I of their enemies, forcing everyone to eat their S+1 AP3 Nemesii Blades with Rending (5+) and at risk of eating the deceptive Decapitation Strike, which might be a singular S2 AP1 attack but also has Fleshbane and Murderous Strike (2+). Also of note is their Needlespine Blaster, a super combi-pistol, the bolt part being a Pistol 3 bolt pistol while the needle bit is Poisoned (2+) with Pinning to lock someone down.
  • His killing ability is limited simply by dint of base WS5 and being able to copy an opponent's WS, meaning he hits enemy ICs at 4+ with no reroll. As Decapitation Strike gives him 1 attack, he right off the bat has 1/2 chance per round of combat of not doing anything at all, while he's worse as a source of AP3 melee than the Eversor. As you're Loyalist if you can take him anyway, you can also take Nathaniel Garro instead, who is a much better duellist for 45 more points.
• Clade Callidus: What you get is a true-bred assassin, with Polymorphine forbidding ALL attacks against them until they shoot first, meaning nothing can stop you from sliding one up to the opposing Praetor's backside and also forcing enemies to re-roll to seize the initiative. With WS5 and I6, they can beat many characters short of the Emperor's Children, but their Phase Sword is...swingy. See, it's statted as a S3 AP1 weapon with Rending (5+) and Phase Shift, which makes a 6+ to wound negate any saves and damage mitigation rolls. The lack of any Instant Death means that they need to kill or else get smashed by a Power Fist. Their Neuro Shredder shares a similar plan, being an S1 Template pistol with Rending (5+) and also ignores all saves on a 6+ to wound. Same problem as the Adamus; she's not good enough as a duellist (wounding on T4 and above on 5+ with no reroll is really bad) to kill ICs, and you can take Garro instead. That said, the enemy not being able to do anything to her until she strikes first means she can tie up dangerous ranged units in melee. With how susceptible Close-order makes your infantry to Blast/Templates, this can be very important.
• Clade Culexus: As if you didn't know, this guy has the Anathema sub-type more familiar to the SoS, rendering them immune to all things psychic and creeping out those nearby. If that's not enough, you also get Adamantium Will (3+) to block out anything nearby and the Etherium forces all attacks into being snap shots and thus making them more survivable. The Animus Speculum provides you with an S4 AP4 template with Rending (6+) and Psy-Shock to force psykers and daemons into suffering Perils. If anyone's brave enough to try fighting in melee, not only do they have to contend with Fear (2), but they must also learn that the Coolexus has a fucking AP2 "weapon" with Fleshbane and Reaping Blow (1). That said, his WS4 severely limits his killing power in melee, while the Animus Speculum is only useful against specific armies.
• Clade Eversor: Welcome to RIP AND TEAR. While having A3 is just meh, you have Counter-attack (1) and the option each turn to trigger the Frenzon and gain another three attacks at the expense of any 1s to hit dealing a wound to the Eversor themselves. The Neuro-gauntlet is no slouch either, being an AP3 weapon with Shred, Fleshbane and Rending (6+), and their Executioner Pistol gives an option between either a bolt pistol or a needle pistol. He's not terribly good at actually assassinating ICs due to his poor ability to get AP2, but you can use him against Legion lists to ambush ranged squads, counter-charge Assault squads attacking your gunline, etc. Also consider using him against Automata, as Shred negates Automata and results in Fleshbane working normally, so you can do a lot of damage. Just don't use him against Terminators, and think about how to get him into melee; T4 4+/4++ 3W isn't much for a lone character.
  • Unique among the assassins is the Eversor's self-destruct ability due to being so loaded with drugs. When they die, all models within d6" suffer an S4 AP3 Fleshbane hit that counts as a flamer. As the only infantry model in the entire list with a 2+ is your Legate Marshal, make sure whatever melee units you may have (except maybe Charonites) are outside the blast radius when he dies, as they will take wounds.
• Clade Vanus: Less an assassin than a living bubble of statistical fuckery, they only have protection with a pair of laspistols and a pair of decidedly neat dataspikes with S+2 AP3 with Rending (5+) and Haywire. If you're stuck in a fight, you've only got a single-use means to gain Hit & Run for a round before you end up stuck watching your nerdy assassin die.
  • Now we get to the many things they can do without fighting. For starters, they have an 18" bubble that shots off any uses of Infiltrate and lets them spam the Interceptor reaction as if you had an augury scanner. You can make a Leadership check instead of shooting, with a pass allowing you to resolve Interceptor using a Defensive weapon on any vehicle (friend or foe) within 12" of the Vanus. In addition, they can make a Leadership check to hack an enemy Automata unit within 12", forcing them to suffer d3 unsaved wounds. This action does have risks though, as aside from being so close to a murder-engine like a Castellax, a failed test instead inflicts an unsaved wound on the assassin.
  • Denying Infiltrate and messing with enemy Deep Strikes using Vox Disruptor Array is particularly useful for Lasrifle Section spam, as it forces your opponent to deploy normally and slog through 30" of Lasrifle fire, in addition to whatever Rapier/Leman Russ fire you can pack. Use your own Infiltrate to deploy in No Man's Land and block off as much space to enemy Infiltrators as possible, then flee back behind friendly lines by Running and Tactical Displacement.
• Clade Venenum: As befits the resident poisoner, this assassin is immune to Rad-phage in its many forms and can only be wounded by Poison and Fleshbane attacks on a 5+. At range, their Toxin Ejector provides a S5 AP4 template with Poison (3+) and Rending (6+) to take care of pretty much anything they go up against while the Venom Globes they happily cribbed from the Alpha Legion (or maybe it's the other way around? Who'll know?) gives them a charge deterrent. When in a fight, their Hookfang gives them an AP3 weapon with Poison (3+) that also forces anyone hurt by it to roll a d6 on every turn afterwards, suffering an unsaved wound on a 5+. Even if you don't kill them with this attack, they still count as destroyed for the sake of VPs unless they have Eternal Warrior, so you can easily use this bastard as a cheap shot at a chance to kill the warlord and you're not fighting a Primarch.
  • The Toxin Ejector is a glorified Heavy Flamer, which is very widely available in the army, while the lack of AP2 melee is a severe drawback for actual assassination when any self-respecting IC will have a 2+. This Assassin, like many of his brethren, share the problem that they're not actually good enough to kill ICs, while they're inferior as a weapon of mass destruction to the Eversor.
• Clade Vindicare: The resident snipers lost out on their variant ammo, but what you have is still a masterful sniper with BS8 that negates any penalties whether it's to their BS or their range. Even Exodus needs to be careful because this guy not only ignores the Alpha Legion trait, but he also has an absurd 100" range on his Exitus rifle, an S7 AP2 shot with Murderous Strike (5+) and Rending (6+). Also present is his Exitus pistol, a lesser S6 AP4 gun with Breaching (6+), but still just as capable of popping any enemy you see. However, the rifle being 1 shot makes it very unreliable against Feel No Pain and Invulnerable saves, which combined with the lack of consistent ID makes it an unreliable tool for killing Marine/Mechanicum ICs.
  • As the Solar Auxilia list has no snipers, this is your cheapest way of making sure a particular model dies because you can avoid taking a whole allied detachment. He's good against other Auxilia to kill Command Voxes/Vox Interlocks and deny Leadership shenanigans, as S7 AP2 forces them to rely on whatever Invulnerable save they have. Alternatively, shoot Cohorts Vexillas to deny Line. He's also useful as an AA gunner on Fortification emplacements, as the list is otherwise sorely lacking in AA choices. If the enemy Flyers aren't here yet, you can use the AA gun on ground targets at full BS if you don't mind losing Sniper.

Army Tactics

Warhammer 30,000 Tactics Articles
General Tactics	General (7E) Movement (7E) Psychic (7E) Fortifications (7E)
Imperium	Legiones Astartes (7E)
	Legio Custodes (7E) Sisters of Silence (7E) Mechanicum (Legio Mechanicum • Taghmata Omnissiah)
	Questoris Knights (7E) Solar Auxilia (7E) Imperialis Militia (7E)
Chaos	Ruinstorm Daemons (7E • 7E Codex) Warp Cults(7E)