Horus Heresy: ‘Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness’ – Fulgrim Transfigured
Horus Heresy fans, we’re diving into the ‘Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness – Volume 1’ with some insights into what this new tome offers players – especially Fulgrim Transgured.
This book covers previously released rules from the Exemplary Battles PDFs for Night Lords, World Eaters, Ultramarines, and Salamanders as well as new rules for the Emperor’s Children, Transfigured Fulgrim and Legions Hereticus.
Who Should Buy this Book?
Generally I’m a ride or die Heresy Player, if a book releases I will always buy it. Having learned the lesson in Heresy 1.0 with the Black Books, I now impulsively purchase Heresy rules releases. With that being said, this one gave me pause. When you pick up this book you can do so knowing that nearly 80% or more of the content has been previously released in the free to download Exemplary Battles PDFs found on the Warhammer Rules and FAQ site. The major additions to the Horus Heresy 2.0 game are the rules for Fulgrim and as well for Legions Hereticus: Emperor’s Children. With that in mind you might consider picking up this text if you:
- Play Emperors Children
- Collect all things Horus Heresy
- Want the exemplary battles PDFs in a far weightier format
- You enjoy the Horus Heresy Lore and want more tidbits of it
Fulgrim Transfigured – Construction
Without a doubt Fulgrim Transfigured is assuredly a candidate for best model this year. Not only does he meet the lore but the scale and pose are everything you’d want from the iconic primarch of the the Emperor’s Children gone bad. We here at BoLS did not get an early release of the model as we did with the Ascended Horus but having assembled a sizeable portion of the Forge World catalogue I’m sure its a complex build for expert hobbyists with experience building in resin. For those interested in the picking up this gorgeous sculpt from Forge World (now Warhammer.com) you better start pinching your pennies as he comes in at a whopping $270 USD before taxes. For those agape at the cost of such a centerpiece model, you can rest easy knowing Fulgrim Transfigured’s overall rules are middling amongst his brother primarchs and are in no way necessary to field a competitive Emperor’s Children Army. I feel for the players who will be traveling with this model as I’m sure that many will be making repairs up in their hotel rooms while attending events.
Fulgrim Transfigured – Rules
Fulgrim Transfigured comes to us at a whopping 600 pts. In this package you get a monster combatant with a pretty solid statline. There are no notable shortfalls in his stats. His saves are on par with most other primarchs with 2+/4++. With all of these awesome benefits he does come with some rather unsavory drawbacks. The first notable one is the Warlord Trait: Avatar of Perfection that Fulgrim Transfigured must take. This states that Fulgrim Transfigured must attempt a charge if able if he is within 12 inches of a unit with an unmodified Weapon Skill of 6+. *This does not supersede the rules regarding shooting and charging. If Fulgrims’ unit shoots at an oponents unit you are still committed to charging that unit if you decide to charge. That is one way to mitigate being forced into melees you’re hoping to avoid. He is otherwise a close combat beefcake that always hits on two’s unless he is fighting a Primarch in a challenge.
His base Decapitating Slashes attacks are fairly strong with 7 base, Str 7 AP 2 Murderous Strike 4+. If that is not enough for you, you have the option of Sundering Blows which are 3 base attacks, Str 10, Brutal (2), Wrathful Blows (3), Unwieldy. After going through the Primarch Thunderdome with Monji and Dan this is not a great loadout for dropping other Primarchs. Generally with Primarchs we found that you want high WS, Brutal on your weapons and High Initiative. Fulgrims Sundering Blows are pretty spicy but with only 3 base attacks due to Wrathful Blows and Unwieldy, he’ll generally be hitting last against other primarchs…not exactly the recipe that is needed to blow through his more robust brethren. He’ll undoubtedly have no trouble hitting other primarchs with WS9 but he will struggle to make a dent with only base 3 attacks and Brutal (2), Unwieldy. You always have the option of trying to use the Decapitating Slashes but I think you will struggle to translate hits into wounds at only Str 7. In most cases you’ll be wounding on 4+ or 5+ when you fight other Primarchs.
Overall I think Fulgrim wants to be run alongside a large retinue or attached to a quick moving blob of Assault Marines that he’ll be using as ablative wounds while trying to reach your opponents lines. Your other option is to bring him in from reserves in turns 2 or 3 while dedicating fire toward anything your opponent has brought that can intercept or generally outclass his armor and invulnerable saves.
Legions Hereticus: Emperors Children (Now with More Heresy)
I would argue that Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness (EBAOD) is really a rules pickup for Emperors Children with bonus released material. Not only does it have rules to the new Fulgrim Transfigured model rules but it comes with 2 Rites of War that are specifically aimed at running Daemon Fulgrim in all his glory; to be very clear these 2 Rites of War are the only way that Fulgrim can see action on a tabletop. He cannot be taken unless your army is Legion Hereticus. The other notable thing to mention about the Legion Hereticus army is that it is treated as a completely different army, meaning that the Wargear, Legion Traits, Legion Advanced Reactions, and Rites of War that are specific to the Legion Astartes army that you’re used to cannot be used unless stated in the Legion Hereticus rules.
Legion Special Rule: Lords of Profligacy
After an opponent has completely resolved a shooting attack and your unit is not falling back, you may choose to have that unit become Stupefied. This means that you can only fire snap shots and cannot take any reactions in ANY phase. Also any unit that charges as Stupefied unit is considered disordered. Stupefied units increase their STR characteristic by +1 and have an additional save akin to Feel No Pain that ignores all but instant death wounds on a 6+, if a Stupefied unit is fearless that save improves to 5+. The Stupefied effect ends at the end of the controlling players turn.
Emperor’s Children Advanced Reaction – Twisted Desire
This is a once a game reaction that triggers after your opponent declares the target of a shooting attack, once wounds are inflicted you’ll add +2 to Stupefied results. Suddenly you have a 4+++ against that attack. This is pretty great given you’ll likely be running a large blob of marines along side Fulgrim, it will provide some much needed damage mitigation which will allow Fulgrim to get where he needs to be.
Legion Special Rule: Fallen From Grace
In terms of calculating a winner of the combat during the Assault phase, units within 6″ of another friendly Legion Hereticus unit add +1 to the result. If they are within 6″ of Fulgrim transfigured, they add +2 instead.
Corrupted Rite of War: Brotherhood of the Phoenix
This is a fairly narrative oriented Rite of War that gives you the opportunity to run 5 HQ units from a rather short list of options: Lord Commander Eidolon, Captain Lucius, and every variety of Legion Consul Champion. The major boon to Emperor’s Children players is that the Legion Champions gain the Sycophantic Retinue special rule which gives them all Preferred Enemy (Everything) while Fulgrim Transfigured is on the table. On its face this looks great, but do keep in mind that those Champion units are going to be tangled in challenges whenever possible often limiting their impact on an assault.
On the surface this will be a infantry heavy army filled with multiple roaming deathstars and transports to ensure that the HQ units make it into combat. I would expect that you’re looking at winning in the late game as your Champions cut through all of you opponents attached consuls, sergeants and apothecaries and get into the meat of your opponents infantry squads.
Corrupted Rite of War: Children of the Maraviglia
This is an interesting Rite of War with a fairly stringent set of limitations. This is a RoW for the truly invested Emperors Children player:
- Fulgrim Transfigured must be included in the ary
- This RoW can only be a primary detachment
- You must include an allied detachment of Solar Auxilia or Militia with at least 4 units
In turn all of your allied Solar Auxilia or Militia gain Stuborn which gives them staying power on things like objectives and tar pitting other units. This to a degree fixes some of the moral issues that plague those factions. Also Fulgrim Transfigured gains “The Stage is Set” rule which dictates that unless Fulgrim has joined a unit, or has a retinue he may be placed into reserves. At this point the controlling player must determine openly what turn Fulgrim will hit the table. Fulgrim Transfigured must be placed wholly withing 6″ of a unit with the Legions Herticus special rule and outside of 1″ of opponents models. While Fulgrim Transfigured is in reserve all models in his detachment have the Stubborn special rule.
I think the overall theme of this Rite of War is fun however it has some problems, especially with the overall delivery of Fulgrim. If you drop Fulgrim onto the field from reserves it opens him up to being intercepted. A 10 man heavy weapons squad with Lascannons is going to inflict some serious hurt. Also the Solar Aux or Militia tax feels slightly cumbersome especially given that Solar Aux is still at FW only resin item. They can be hard to come by
Armory of Indulgence
I actually liked many of these small Character upgrades such as Abhorrent Sensoria, which gives the wielder Precision Shots/ Precision Strikes 5+ or Sublingual Glands, which gives you a template weapon that is Assault 1, Fleshbane, Blind. While not amazing it is inline with the Emperors Children from a lore perspective. Finally there are 2 rather good weapons that can be added to Legion Herecticus Characters in place of a Power Weapon. The Phoenix power spear feels like a winner to me. Its +2 Str, AP 3 and has Reach 1, Murderous Strikes +6, Breaching 6+. Its a great weapon for cleaving through hordes of infantry.
Final Thoughts
I consider myself pretty easy to please when it comes to Horus Heresy, even items that don’t necessarily include entries to my armies or Legions that I play I will generally pickup for lore sake. However the Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness feels somewhat half baked. The fact that a good chunk of the content is previously released free PDFs feels lazy. I would have really liked to have seen something included for every legion if not every army to make the book feel valuable and necessary.
If you’re an Emperor’s Children player this book is probably a must have. It gives you solid rules for playing a Heretical Legion with Transfigured Fulgrim who has sizeable impact with the Horus Heresy narrative and while his rules are so-so, his model is phenomenal. This would have also been a great place to put some general rules updates such as fixes to the game that are being addressed by the community rather than by GW. My hope is that in 2024 we get some much needed rules clarifications and points updates to keep the community consistent. While I know many online groups have begun generating fixes to the existing issues I think that GW needs to be proactive in keeping their game up to date and fresh before it gets entirely away from them. Model releases are always welcome but rules keep people coming back.
What do you think of the new Emperor’s Children rules? Is this the path forward for all Hereticus armies in the future?
