Rites of War

[RyanTZ20]

Okay so this may be a really daft question, and the answer is probably staring me in the face but I'm unable to see it going through the Liber Astartes, but when making an army list for the Horus Heresy, are rites of war compulsory?

I'm just starting out with the Horus Heresy and while I'm looking at an army to play, I'm not sure whether I want to use a rite of war. If I have to, then that's fair, I can work around it, but I hope that it's not required.

[Noserenda]

They are not, totally optional unless you are building certain specific kinds of army. 

[arnesh88]

Completely optional. It's more of a "highly recommended" because it guides players into a certain theme for their army.

[RyanTZ20]

Ah awesome. Thanks for the answers, guys. 

[General Zodd]

Also, you don’t automatically get access to them. For Marine armies you need to have a Master of the Legion (usually a Praetor or equivalent Unique Character), or something that specifies (like a Delegatus) before you’re allowed to use any rites of war. So in small games, you may find that nobody has any rites of war!

[Stitch5000]

I quite often don't use them and I think they are onlt really all that required if you are writing a fairly extreme army list.