HH 2.0 Elite of the Imperial Army: Solar Auxilia Tactica

[The Scorpion]

What are our thoughts on the new artillery Tercio?

[Gorgoff]

On 10/31/2022 at 12:52 PM, The Scorpion said:

What are our thoughts on the new artillery Tercio?

Was there a rules leak?

[The Scorpion]

On 11/2/2022 at 6:50 AM, Gorgoff said:

Was there a rules leak?

 

A leak of the index. Lots of new units for Sisters of Silence notably.

 

But for Solar Auxilia the most notable thing is a reorganization of the Tercios.

[Brofist]

Hard to talk about the artillery until we see the rules, but if its anything like the .pdfs you won't be taking it

[librisrouge]

23 minutes ago, Brofist said:

Hard to talk about the artillery until we see the rules, but if its anything like the .pdfs you won't be taking it

PDFs? Did they release tempt rules for us?

[Brofist]

I'm referring to the Legacies .pdf with lots of artillery units inside of it. This edition has hit arty hard, so I wouldn't hold my breath on aux artillery being any good.

[Dark Legionnare]

 

19 hours ago, librisrouge said:

PDFs? Did they release tempt rules for us?

8 hours ago, Brofist said:

I'm referring to the Legacies .pdf with lots of artillery units inside of it. This edition has hit arty hard, so I wouldn't hold my breath on aux artillery being any good.

What Brofist said.

I haven't read into Mechanicum and such yet, so not sure how many "heavy" units they have. But when I first saw the arty changes to marine Medusas and Basilisks it was pretty grim yeah. 

If militia, Solar Auxilia, and hopefully "Imperial Army proper" (not holding my breath....) are the same, you'll always be fishing for those breaches/rends to stop Breacher squads and cataphractii termies from having re-rollable armor saves against the hits. No to mention stopping normal PA infantry from getting their 3+ saves.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Dark Legionnare

[Brother Sutek]

As a long time field artillery man the changes were rough.

[Lord Marshal]

RIP the Infernus. We all knew it was going to get nerfed into the dirt, but I didn't think they would pulverise the poor thing THAT hard.

 

No Carndons makes my eyebrow raise as high as it can, considering it's such a new kit. Hopefully the Legacies PDF doesn't just throw a statline on it - my fear is there's no Tercio rules for it and ends up being worse than the Leman Russ for similar points.

 

But hey, Rotor Cannons didn't get removed. 

 

Stormhammer has worse front armour than a Leman Russ. Not sure how that happened.

 

Cohort Doctrines are nice to see. Surprising amount of flavour and I will never not find it hilarious Reborn Cohorts are I1 for movement shenanigans literally because they're old folks.

 

Lasrifles going down to 10 minimum will help peoples wallets.

 

Lack of Warlord Traits is... bizarre, but alright.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Lord Marshal

[Brofist]

Arty not worth taking as we suspected. Battle cannons are very bad, as expected. Demolisher cannons have a big premium price as well that probably isn't justified.

[Lord Marshal]

At ease. Tactics discussion for the Solar Auxilia in the 2nd Edition of Horus Heresy.

 

Edit: This post now looks weird down here. I guess a mod merged threads the wrong way? 

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Lord Marshal

[Brother Sutek]

I'm holding my breath but as said my beloved field artillery is not the best choice anymore. 

[Brother Sutek]

Here's to hoping we get the ammo dump upgrade for our aegis defense line! That thing has saved my troops so many times against the bio engineered super soldiers 

[No Foes Remain]

That's even if the Aegis makes the cut since it was LCTB a few months back.

[Lord Marshal]

The Aegis Defence Line isn't in the book as a native option anymore, but you can still take the Fortification slot like any other army.

 

I'm debating which of the Cohort Doctrines to muck around with first. Right now it's a tossup between the Solar and Reborn Cohort Doctrines for me.

 

Solar Pattern's only real benefit is making Veletaris into Line, which is probably going to be the most popular option just to reduce real-world costs and I have quite a few Veletaris that could take advantage of it.

 

On the other hand, Reborn Pattern's buffs look good for downsides that... don't really impact SA much anyway as the new Close-Order unit type means most of your stuff isn't Run'ing regardless and you'll rarely be wanting to Charge as SA. Fighting at Initiative 1 seems like it would sting, but when 90% of players are running armies comprised of I4 and above anyway it's rarely going to matter unless you're really attached to your Ogryns. Also the actual meme of running an army literally consisting of old people.

 

Armoured Fist seems pretty meh. Freeing up the somewhat crammed Heavy Support slot is nice, but Tercios mean you're not struggle that much for space and nothing extra gaining Line (especially when Marines can get it on Predators with Armour Spearhead) really takes the wind out of it's sails. Command Tanks being limited to the battlecannon -which is looking like the only 'bad' option for LRs this time around - hurts it a lot. Even if you want tank-heavy, it seems like you'd want to run another Pattern just to help your infantry out when this doesn't do much for your tanks.

 

Ultramar Pattern seems like it's going to be the 'meme option'. +1 BS for Lasrifles is nice but I doubt they're going to set the world on fire. Fine I guess if you really like Lasrifle Sections.

 

Penal Pattern is the "We're really sorry the PDF isn't out yet Militia players, why don't you use this for now?" option. Rifle Sections having native 6+ saves you spending the whopping... 15pts on a Medicae. Weirdly enough the option to swap out lasrifles for all those other options makes this a good third-party proxy option.

 

Feral Pattern is interesting but the requirement to Charge is really going to hurt what's almost entirely a ranged army. Seems like the, "I love to spam Storm Axes and Ogryns!" option? If you're doing a crazy melee-focused infantry swarm you're probably already running Militia.

 

Siege Pattern for the artillery spammers and none else.

 

Iron Pattern unlocking Thallax/Castellax could have some potential, since the former are quite good this edition. But I think the use of this is going to come down to whether or not the Auxilia Enginseer survives into the Legacies PDF and if we can just unlock those units that way without giving up a different Cohort buff.

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Lord Marshal

[Brother Sutek]

Disappointed but not surprised by loss of ammo dump. I loved running it with rotor cannons . Speaking of those I am happy those didn't get the cut from the army list.

[Eternal Despair]

45 minutes ago, Lord Marshal said:

Armoured Fist seems pretty meh. Freeing up the somewhat crammed Heavy Support slot is nice, but Tercios mean you're not struggle that much for space and nothing extra gaining Line (especially when Marines can get it on Predators with Armour Spearhead) really takes the wind out of it's sails.

Armoured spearhead granting line to predators was only in the playtest version not the release version, which alongside the vehicle nerfs heavily kneecap that rite of war 

[Lord Marshal]

48 minutes ago, Eternal Despair said:

Armoured spearhead granting line to predators was only in the playtest version not the release version, which alongside the vehicle nerfs heavily kneecap that rite of war 

 

Huh, I saw people discussing it yesterday as having Line on Predators. I guess I should read that RoW but it shows how much attention I pay to Marine stuff.

 

On another note, eyeing Companions with meltabombs and an Aurox driving around as an interesting new option.

[The Scorpion]

21 hours ago, Brofist said:

Arty not worth taking as we suspected. Battle cannons are very bad, as expected. Demolisher cannons have a big premium price as well that probably isn't justified.

Typo gives autocannon & twin-liked las Russes two gravis guns instead of one.

 

They are both put of production.

 

"Most devilish Seymour "

[The Scorpion]

6 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

 

Feral Pattern is interesting but the requirement to Charge is really going to hurt what's almost entirely a ranged army. Seems like the, "I love to spam Storm Axes and Ogryns!" option? If you're doing a crazy melee-focused infantry swarm you're probably already running Militia.

 

Siege Pattern for the artillery spammers and none else.

 

Is artillery truly as bad as we feared? Lots of marine armies field little to no tanks.

 

Also, what's the deal with Feral? The upgrade being +25pts flat encourages you to field big units, but the counter-attack bonus can only be made use of when multiple units belong to the same Tercio.

Is it truly a horde option?

[TheTrans]

Can someone explain to me why a Dracosan costs so many points given the Demo nerf ?

Also the nothing has AV14 except Russes? Or why a single lascannon on the valdor is +15 poitns, where as 2 on an astartes venator is +10?

6+ FnP?! Really? Close order formation, for all those sweet, sweet S6+ AP4 'nerfed' blasts that are everywhere..god... No guns and HP2 on the arvus? Really?

 

I need to stop.

Trying to nut out why everything is so horrifically outclassed by marine gear will just be depressing. I don't think I'd mind if stuff wasn't as good as marine gear, as long as the point price reflecte that... 

[Gorgoff]

6 hours ago, TheTrans said:

Can someone explain to me why a Dracosan costs so many points given the Demo nerf ?

Also the nothing has AV14 except Russes? Or why a single lascannon on the valdor is +15 poitns, where as 2 on an astartes venator is +10?

6+ FnP?! Really? Close order formation, for all those sweet, sweet S6+ AP4 'nerfed' blasts that are everywhere..god... No guns and HP2 on the arvus? Really?

 

I need to stop.

Trying to nut out why everything is so horrifically outclassed by marine gear will just be depressing. I don't think I'd mind if stuff wasn't as good as marine gear, as long as the point price reflecte that... 

I can't argue against any point you made but may add something else.

I had the exact same reaction when I read the Liber Astartes book. They changed quite a lot and in order to adept we have to forget what was and look at this list as if we never played in 1ed. They changed the direction and the 'thing' of a lot of units and whole armies.

[Fallen11]

Looking at custodes vehicles, then at 200 pts LR demolisher or dracosca :D
Then something like dirt cheap Sisters that can make you WS1, make you unable to do charge or shoot reactions etc :D

Well, we know who drew short stick in the book :D

[oldhat]

How are they looking for Zone Mortalis though? I was reading the highlights and they sound very strong in that, which kinda fits.

[The Scorpion]

Better than in open field I reckon.

Ogryns are usable, for once. And rapiers happen to be some of the best Auxilia units.

Not only that, but voidsmen can be taken in groups of 10 and 15, instead of akwardly splitting a group of 20.

 

I'd be tempted to think of Solar Auxilia as a Zone Mortalis force which can be adapted to fight in open field, sorta like it was in lore.