Editing Legion of the Damned (section)

==In Game==
[[File:Sgt._Centurius_closeup.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Sergeant Attica Centurius. A badass among a chapter of badasses. And that's something.]]
Many people consider them limited due to their high point cost and slow and purposeful special rule. This is [[FAIL|"balanced"]] by being able to reroll their deepstrike, 2 base attacks, and a 3+ invulnerable save (plus access to heavy and special weapons). Sadly, being slow, they will probably get stuck somewhere and not do much and, though a suicide melta squad sounds like a good idea, they are generally considered too expensive for such a task.

In 2nd Edition they had a special character, Sergeant Attica Centurius, who had a skull called the Animus Malorum that ate souls and brought a downed legionnaire back into the fight (White Dwarf U.S. #195, pp. 12-15).

Thankfully, [[6th edition]] buffed them by changing the Slow and Purposeful rule: now, instead of taking Difficult Terrain tests every turn, they simply can't Run in the Shooting phase or make Sweeping Advances. [[Awesome|Yeah, they can move the full 6 inches every turn now, just like normal marines]]. 

In the 6E Space Marine codex, they gained the Fear (making them scarier) and Flaming Projectiles (all ranged attacks have Ignore Cover) rules. Not only that, their special weapons and heavy weapons became cheaper than the previous edition. If you give them plasma guns and plasma cannons, they can become really nasty with the Flaming Projectiles rule. Despite their fluff ("The bolters carried by the Legionnaires, though in aspect no different to those borne by other Space Marines, discharge flaming projectiles that can pierce the strongest armour"), the Flaming Projectiles special rule simply makes their shots ignore cover. With a description like that, you'd think they'd have something like the Thousand Sons, and have AP3 bolters or something.

'''Nostalgia:''' - Rules for the Legion of the Damned first appeared in the Rogue Trader era (White Dwarf U.S. #99, pp. 39-42). In 2nd Edition their rules were in the general Space Marines Codex, Codex Ultramarines (pp. 74-75). There used to be [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Chapter_Approved/Cursed_Founding|rules for ''entire armies'']] of Legion of the Damned way back in 3rd Edition, in the good old days of [[Chapter Approved]] which used the Space Marine codex as a base and offered variant rules for gameplay ''(much like modern day supplements... except they were only the cost of a [[White Dwarf]])''. While they were not as badass as they became in 6th, you still got an entire army of space marines with 6++ saves and the ability to deep strike. Actually, there were rules for whole armies in 2nd ed, too, published in White Dwarf 224 (August 1998), which surely saw a ''lot'' of use between then and the release of third edition in October 1998. Two months may well be a record for shortest lifetime of a GW army list.

We recently got a digital Legion of the Damned Codex, and like all digital codices there's barely any crunch to it. Basically you must take one squad of Damned Legionnaires, but the mandatory squad doesn't take up an elites slot. Also Damned Legionnaires are scoring, and they get an actually useful warlord traits table. That's it. Sergeant Centurius' special skull is back, and it's explicitly stated in promotional materials that it allows you to use a sergeant to represent him. It's also impossible to field them on their own since the whole army starts in reserve, unless you are playing a very specific mission against Orks, and even then you are forced to ally with Ultramarines; if you do try to field them on their own you will be forced to concede turn 1 every time unless you're playing planetstrike... but then you may still end up accidentally conceding first turn if you roll badly on reserves.

As of 8th Edition, Damned Legionnaires are [[Awesome|back as an Elites choice, and you can take as many as you like]] (poor old Centurius is still missing though, unfortunately). They have narrower weapons options than Tactical Squads (they only get heat-based special and heavy weapons - Meltas, Flamers, Plasma guns, Heavy Flamers and Multimeltas) but they have three extra special rules on top of '''And They Shall Know No Fear''': All their attacks ignore cover ('''Flaming Projectiles'''); they all get a 3++ ('''Unyielding Spectres'''); and they can deploy off-board then materialize at the end of any of your movement phases (deep-strike), anywhere on the board that's more than 9" from an enemy ('''Aid Unlooked For'''). They're twice as expensive as a regular Tactical Marine at 25 rather than 13 points each, and stats-wise they've got 1" less movement, +1 Attack, and a Leadership of 10 rather than 7 (and you've still got ATSKNF on top of that).

Also their models are out of print; they've been stricken from printed rulebooks, and moved to the [[Warhammer Legends]] series, a mark of honor where GeeDubs knows we love a certain unit too much to just [[Squat]] them entirely. The bad news, they aren't being considered for a price drop anytime soon (and that 25 points per model ''really'' hurts them). The good news, Legends rules are listed for free online, you no longer need to lug around the Index books just to play with your awesome loyal flaming zombiemarines.

As time moves ever onward in now 9th edition, the Legion of the Damned remains in Warhammer Legends purgatory with the rest of GW's out of print models from yesteryear. As expected, GW hasn't touched their Legends data sheet, so Damned Legionnaires are slowly starting to feel the pull of obsolescence as new/reworked versions of their weapons become accessible to currently supported marines (the changes to Melta weaponry in particular) while they're stuck with their past variants. Fortunately, you'll probably be able to get away with "substituting" the new versions of the weapons in since you won't be bringing these guys to any competitive matches anyways. Rather hilariously, though, the Sergeant can take a Storm Bolter, and keep his Boltgun. So this one stubborn bastard can put out 6 bolter shots a turn. If, and it's a big if, you're looking to run these guys in tournaments for whatever reason, running them as a Salamanders Successor or as Deathwatch would probably be your best bet at capturing their fluff and crunch, respectively.