Solar Auxilia

The badass pre-coursors to the Imperial Guard, they are essentially an entire army of 30k Stormtroopers. When the Emperor finally got over his parental pride and realised that a crusade dedicated to helping humanity should probably have some actual humans in it, he got on with the Imperial Army, drawn from everywhere the Imperium had influence, the top 20-25% of whom were the Solar Auxilia.

Organisation

The fundamental level of an Auxilia force is a Terico, made up of three sections, each with access to different weapons, and the three sections only count as one troops choice. This can lead to a lot of fun as one basic Lasrifle Tercio can throw down 120 shots as 36" Heavy 2 Lasrifles to literally melt one side of the battlefield in a hail of energy fire. On the other hand, Veteran Veletaris Tericos usually consist of three squads of ten veteran troops equipped with short-range weaponry such as the Volkite Charger or Flamer.

Martians, With Death Rays

The original Core of the Auxilia were taken, along with their name, from the Solar System, including the red planet. More importantly, the Volkite weaponry favoured by the early legions found its way into the hands of the Veletaris Storm Sections, the elite of the elite meaning that you can finally play out your Mars Attacks! fantasies on the tabletop.

Their distinct steampunk-esque getup, the Solar Pattern Void Armour is a fully enclosed environmental suit that covers their needs of void warfare and combat on new and hostile worlds, providing protection, without sacrificing fashion sense. On the tabletop, this translates to a 4+ save, with the Void-Hardened aspect granting a re-roll to damage from blasts and templates, which isn't too shabby if you're building them as a shooty horde.

Vehicles

The Auxilia are in a bit of a weird place with their vehicles as they don't have access to the cool gadgets of the Mechanicum, favouritism of the Legiones Astartes, they do however have one of the best transports in the from of the Drascosan, which can even take a demolisher cannon(!?!), at the expense of ten transport capacity. Suck it Rhino.

Forge World

Recently, as of the fourth Horus Heresy book, the sculptors over at Forge World have evidently become tired of the multiple flavours of power armour they've had to work with thus far and decided that battles in the Age of Darkness could probably do with a dash of variety. Now you too can spend £70 for 100 points of your army! However, while the pay gap is colossal, the Auxilia are one of the more rewarding armies to play, with your granddadie's Kalibrav V-1 pattern 36" Lasrifle (things were better in his day), access to some of the better dress sense and LORD OF ALL HUEG TANKS, they can make a list tailored to their player for maximum fun. On the downside, that fun is done in full knowledge of the horrors awaiting you once your mortal life is forfeit and the deamons you bargained with to get those models come for your soul. Morbity aside, your army will be the envy of everyone you know, so it's swings and roundabouts really.