Horus Heresy: The 10 Best Generic Units in Age of Darkness
Horus Heresy got you down? Want to know the cream of the Heresy crop? Get setup for success today as we look at the best units that HH has to offer.
From the points efficient to the baddest of the bad, you’ll be decimating your opponents faster than you can drop a template on a 20 man blob of Solar Auxilia.
Unit selection is arguably the most interesting and important part of assembling your Horus Heresy armies. With nearly all of the unit rules out now for most factions its time to take an introspective look at the cream of the Horus Heresy crop to give you some ideas on where to take your collection. If you’re playing in a competitive league or among competitive players this list should help you balance the field. Keep in mind these are generic or common units that can be found in nearly any army of their respective faction. This list will not include Legion special characters or faction dependent units i.e. Gorgon Terminators or Sigismund.
Tactical Marines
Whats not to like? Tactical marines are the beating and heart and soul of any Legion army. Not only are they line but they can be enhanced through additional unit upgrades as well as the addition of characters. If you have to hold down an objective 15-20 of these guys will do so reliably and cheaply, especially with Apothecary support and a sergeant with artificer armor. If you’re anticipating close combat step up and take the basic bayonette or chain bayonettes to effectively challenge other tactical marines or even assault marines who may want to shift your unit. There isn’t a single legion where these guys don’t make sense.
Apothecarion Detachment
Apothecary’s are pretty straight forward, you add them to burly units and get incredible durability with the addition of a 5+++ Feel No Pain. If you opt for a Legion Primus Medicae you get all the benefits of a standard Apothecary with the added bonus of rerolling failed Feel No Pains. They play well with you elite close combat terminators who can struggle if caught out in the open outside of a melee. As a quick side note, FNP cannot be used if the incoming damage would instant death models…keep that in mind.
Spartan
Lets talk about the gold standard in transports. Sporting a flare shield and enough capacity to bring your favorite primarch deathstar, the Spartan reliably gets your troops and characters where they need to be. The durability on this vehicle is insane, with wall to wall AV14, flareshield and a plethora of Lascannons to boot its hard to say no to the tried and true Legion Panel Van. All that’s missing on this bad boy is a Rush mural.
Legion Heavy Weapons Support Squad
This one is pretty straight forward. What do you get when you load up 10 marines with lascannons? The answer…bodies and hulls. Simply put this is an answer for a rock, paper scissors, lascannon type question. A las’d out heavy support squad provides your army a lot of answers for tough questions. Whether its vehicles, dreadnoughts or terminators this is often the hammer that you will need to bring to work through 2+ saves at range. For a faction that has largely lost its AP2 shooting and relies more so on weight of fire, the Legion Heavy Weapons Support Squad is a must have. Its not pretty, its not elegant but it gets the job done. You may also consider multi-meltas but honestly the short range puts your expensive and squishy unit in the splash zone for much of your opponents wrath. Don’t forget to upgrade your Sergeant with artificer armor.
Custodian Guard
When your basic line unit is Terminator tough and twice as killy for less points. What is not to love here. Their statline is amazing, their standard wargear is banana’s and because they are a troops choice that you can take them in spades. The fact that they have base 4 attacks, +1 on a charge, potentially +1 for nemesis and another possible +1 for reaping blow and they have relentless, *chef’s kiss*. Now this author has complete bias because I play and own my own host of the emperor’s finest however even I don’t want to see 60 of these boys march on the table, its egregious.
Centurion
Centurions are a build a bear of surprising points efficiency. The Centurion is arguably the best HQ in the game for its sheer flexibility. Not only can you build your HQ with any role in mind you can also add in the Consul upgrades, of which there are many, to help make your lists be more effective based on unit selections and faction rules. For HQs these are cheap, weighing in at the absurdly low cost of 60 pts, the potential is nearly unlimited. You can shape them to be melee monsters, support units, or tank for consequential or valuable squads.
Myrimidon Secutors/ Myrmidon Destructors
There wasn’t a whole lot to love for the Mechanicum in the recent index but one of the bright spots were both flavors of Myrmidon. With a stat lines that sits somewhere between Space Marines and Custodes and weapons that would make any Legio envious, the Myrmidon Secutors are a wrecking crew all their own. They come stock with a 3+5++ with a potential to bring their invuln down to 4++ with a Mechanicum Protectiva. To cap it all of they have hatred everything, meaning they’ll be doing a lot of re-rolling in close combat. Best of all the Myrmidons do not suffer from a lack of reactions that impact so much of the Mechanicum army. You’ll be taking full advantage of those, return fires, interceptors and advance and fall back tricks. My only critique for the Secutors is that for a well intentioned close combat unit a WS 5 would have been ideal.
Myrmidon Destructors fall into a similar vein as their Secutor siblings but are the shooting variant. While they lose Hatred for close combat they more than make up for it with their insane ranged weapon options. Having played against the army recently with Custodes I can attest to the crazy lethality of Irradiation Engines and Darkfire Cannons. Nothing makes you feel better about your expensive golden boys than watching them fall to T4 and suddenly they are susceptible to mortal shooting.
Tech-Priest Auxilia
I typically loathe must-take units in armies, but there isn’t a single downside to Tech-Priest Auxilia. They occupy a not oft used slot unless you’re going heavy into Myrmidons and they bring a lot to the table for almost no points. Their battle smith abilities keep your robots standing and they can be equipped with a number of worthwhile upgrades to make your robots even scarier. Consider taking a Nuncio Vox to allow re-rolls on scatter for your Thanatar Plasma Mortars and any attached units lighting off Grav Cannons. For 20pts more you can upgrade them to take Cyberthurgy in the Artificia Machina and Cybernetica disciplines which is a great way to incorporate it into your army. The Artificia Cybernetica is especially potent as it gives you the ability to ignore the restrictions on reactions. If you’re going hard into robots…don’t forget your Cortex Controller for 15pts. On top of all of that they are line so you can set them on objectives for victory points. Deus Machina my machine’d up friends.
Indomitus / Cataphractii Terminators
Both of these options are amazing for your Legion. With a wide variety of weapons and options they can fill almost any role infantry role depending on your list choices and legion. They come standard with a 2+, 4++ and potentially a FNP with an Primus Medicae attached. Terminator squads form the backbone of any Primarch deathstar list. Not only are they insanely hard to remove but their variety of weapons makes them incredibly customizable. To boot they can deep strike fairly safely given their durability. Consider mixed weapon squads to take advantage of their huge variety of weapons for whatever situation presents itself. If you’re looking at close combat options don’t forget a chain fist to make quick work of…well anything.
Contemptor Dreadnaught
I don’t care what anyone says. Point for point this is the best unit in the entire game. With the move away from vehicle unit type dreadnoughts are tough, durable and hard to bring down short of dedicated sustained high strength low AP shooting. On top of it all because of Automantic Shielding you can’t instant death these. Any roll that would be considered instant death does not remove the Contemptor but you do get to roll d3 damage for failed saves. If your opponent is sporting more than 2 its going to be a rough game unless you’ve come prepared to deal with these monsters. To cap it all of the basic loadout on a Contemptor is pretty stellar for 175pts. You get a heavy bolter and the amazing Gravis Power Fist that comes stock with Brutal (3). You’ll be wading through elite terminators and special characters with your WS 5+ no problem. Should someone actually take down your Contemptor the automantic shielding causes it to auto explode dealing even more potential wounds as it dies. What a time to be alive…
This list certainly doesn’t encapsulate every great unit in Horus Heresy and is subjective. What are your go to units and hidden gems? Tell us in the comments!
