With the new Battle for Calth set coming out I think the only real question is: What color are you going to paint your Space Marine Legion?

No one is talking about the board game that comes with the impressive miniature load out and I don’t blame them. I expect the game will be fun and have some re-playability and likely to be a good game in its own right that the company can put on the shelf of traditional ‘game stores’ and maybe even some big box retailers like Target one day but we don’t know a lot about it at this point so it is basically a non-entity.

The real star is the figures this comes with. Other articles tell you about the wild savings you will receive if you bought these individually from Forge World so I’ll skip that part.

I’ll jump right into what I think the best options are for playing with these figures in a game of 30k.

For full disclosure I plan to pick up two boxes. I play Horus Heresy right now and normally bounce back and forth between Luna Wolves (I play them as loyalist) and Death Guard.

Why do I play 30k?

I like the setting every bit as much as I like the 40k setting. The Horus Heresy rules are much more ‘balanced’ for lack of a better term. Army construction is much less of a factor in this version of the game and the game is still at stage where people can very much bring what they want to play with and still make a game of it. In my local group players have found this to be pretty refreshing. We are able to still play out competitive and fun games over the course of a night and no one feels like the game is pushing them to play with singular and specific army builds. People get to collect, paint and then play with what they want without the pressure that has come to 40k.

What Two Boxes Will Net Me:

60 Marines is Power Armor

10 Terminators

2 Contemptor Dreadnaughts

4 HQ models

A couple of things to note is that in the HH rules Tactical Marine squad sizes go up to 20. These 60 bodies will go a long way but they may not go as far as you expect.

I am down right in love with the fact that the plastic Contemptor dread doesn’t come with an Aquila on his chest. I have had to scrape off two of these already and it’s a pain.

For the sake of argument let’s say I get these two boxes and I want to spend $100.00 more on an army and I’ve already got the Forge World Red Books that have the legion and special rules.

For Sons of Horus I would start with something like this at 2000 points:

HQ:

Legion Astartes: Sons of Horus

Maloghurst the Twisted

If he is your Warlord then he counts as a scoring unit in missions where this is used.

Maloghurst allows for Veteran Tactical Squads and for Reaver Squads to be taken as troops.

He can’t Run and no unit he joins can make Run moves or Sweeping Advances.

Troops:

Reaver Attack Squad x 15

Power Fist x2

Melta Gun x2

Bolters with Bane Strike Shells x13

Artificer Armor for the Sarg

Jump Packs for the squad

Reaver Attack Squad x 15

Power Fist x2

Melta Gun x2

Bolters with Bane Strike Shells x13

Artificer Armor for the Sarg

Jump Packs for the squad

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad x5

Artificer Armor for Sarg

Power First for Sarg

Missile Launcher and Suspensor Web

Rhino

Veteran Tactic: Outflank

Elites:

Contemptor Mortis

Two Twin Las Cannons

Contemptor Mortis

Two Twin Las Cannons

Justaerin Terminator Squad x5

Twin Lightning claws x1

Chainfist x2

Heavy Flamer x1

Power Fist x1

Lightning Claw x1

Building the Army

In this example I’m spending my 100 dollars on after-market Jump Packs and a MK IC Rhino from Forge World.

We will need a total of 30 jump packs. Technically if you want to remain historically accurate you can pick up the Blood Angel single thruster jump packs and leave off the wings. You’d be using a period style pack and may be able to get them on the cheap from a buddy or auction site. I chose to price out the Max Mini Bronze Pattern pack. 6 packs at 7.66 US each come to 45.96.

I think most marine players have a rhino lying around or at least know someone that you can borrow one from but if you want to go all out the FW MK IC Rhino is currently going for 55.57 US. I think it looks cooler than the standard Rhino but even its not necessary to start getting an army on the table.

If you go with the plastic alternatives I think you may come under budget enough to get those second las cannon arms for the Contemptors. The Mortis Pattern Dreads give you the ability to take shots at flyers without sacrificing much of your offensive output – and they look cool. You can easily change the arms around to whatever guns fit your environment the best.

Going with the plastics also lets you have a few extra bucks to toss around to make sure you can WYSIWYG your special weapons on all the squads. The best thing about plastic marine squads is that you can basically carve them up to be whatever you need and weapon swaps are easy with just a pair of side clippers and an xacto knife.

Using the Army On the Table

Maloghurst is in power armor and is armed with a Power Sword, Bolter with Banestrike Shells, Bolt Pistol, Frag, Krak grenades, Refractor Field and a Legion Standard. All of these things are easy to shake out of a standard bits box.

In this list Maloghurst rolls with the Vets in the Rhino while the Reaver Squads Jump around the table with their large footprint laying down bolter fire.

The Reaver Attack Squads have a special rule called Assassin’s Eye. This gives the entire squad the Precision Shot special rule. In games where large squad sizes are a common this is nice. You’ll be able to pick off power fists and melta guns and the like from your opponent at range.

The Reavers are pretty nasty in close combat too. They have two base attacks each and come standard with a Bolt Pistol, Chainsword or combat blade, Frag and Krak Grenades. Here I’ve chosen to give them the optional Bolter with Banestrike Shells.

The Banestrike Shells are 18 inch. Str4 ap5 rapid fire shots and on the roll of a 6 they become AP3. This is pretty cool and since the box set comes with Bolters this was an obvious choice.

If being crafty is a little more your style these Reavers also come stock with the Outflank rule.

The terminators in this list are Justaerin. This gives them Furious Charge, Stubborn and Implacable Advance. The Implacable advance rule means they always count as scoring in missions that use this rule. Pretty nice…

They have two base attacks and I sort of see these guys holding down the middle with the dreads as your other troops move around the flanks.

To 40k players this list might not look like much but to HH/30k players this list has a bit of staying power and hopefully some teeth. Remember this is using only the contents of 2 Calth boxes, 100 dollars and a few discretionary bits.

We talk about this a bit on our live webcast we put on every Monday night.

I am sure the contents of this awesome new release fit the build for a few different legions. Which is your favorite?