RoW: yes, no, depends...Worth?

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

I have a doubt about Rites of War. They aren't obliged in an army if you don't want include one, but how good can be an army with out one?. Some times I feel more limited using some RoW, lacking flexibility in my list and being too repeating when I make an army list. Specially with SoH, my army.

 

So I need some counsel and advices from more experienced people than I. Thanks 

[Noserenda]

Rites of War vary just as much as anything else in the game, some of them are OP, some of them are awful. Ultimately choosing not to use one wont really hurt you. 

[No Foes Remain]

It also depends on what you want to get out of it. Take the SoH Long March for example, the limitations are just heavy units in transports or in reserve but with the amount of units on the Legion roster it's easy not to take them and just enjoy the benefits of infantry and dreads getting +1 movement and termies becoming non-compulsory troops who gain outflank. Most of my SoH concept lists use that because the only heavy units I have are the Leviathan and Deredeo dreads (which I haven't built yet) but with how strong dreads are in 2.0 I probably won't be using them both in the same list anyway.

 

On the opposite side any of the default RoW require you to build your army and theme around them, PotL is good but the units you want to take are costy and you may have a small model count at the end. Armoured Spearhead gives you the chance to be like Rommel and load up on tanks but on smaller more terrain dense boards this may be a issue and bog you down.

 

There's also the mindset of 30k, it's meant to be a game where you make your army based around a theme and the fluff of your force.

[Razorblade]

I think its less the rites of war and more the excellent Retinue squads that make a master of the Legion near mandatory. At this point you have already paid the principal tax for using a rite of war so you might as well do so if you can find one that is beneficial. 

That said all of the generic rites are heavily skewed towards a certain playstyle, with the exception of Recon Company which is excellent while it's limitations are not that severe (tough quite impactful as they hit a couple of mainstay units in HSSs Boxnaughts and Leviathans), and many Legions have either downright bad or heavily skewed Rites.

The baseline Legion Army List is offers more than enough options and power, so you don't need to use a rite of war by any means and if you feel that doing so restricts you too much in your List composition don't. 

The only exception to this are Legions that get RoWs that don't change List construction but grant major benefits (like the utter insanity that is bloody claws)  where you'd be putting yourself at a disadvantage for no reason if you do not use them.

[sonsoftaurus]

I’m a new player to HH, have yet to play so this is all from theory. But I have looked at it as ‘what type of army do I want to play/what do I want to bring’ and then see if there’s a good RoW to fit. 
 

For my EC I wanted seekers and recon marines, and recon company fit well. 
 

For DG I wanted a bunch of big squads oftacs and heavy weapons, some Terminators and dreads, maybe later swap regular termies for Grave Wardens. Creeping Death works great, but I could run as no RoW if needed to be nicer or just smaller games.

 

I just recently looked at my old ‘heresy’ army, IW built to run as regular SM in 7th ed. 40k. None of the rites really fit well with what I had, though at smaller points and leaving things out the restrictions could be less of an issue, but right now I plan on ‘riteless’ with them. 

Edited April 29 by sonsoftaurus
Typos

[MARK0SIAN]

I definitely don’t think they’ve got the balance right with Rites this edition. There’s some of them where they give some pretty hefty restrictions for very little benefit other than making certain units troops (sometimes without even giving them Line). 
 

There’s others where the don’t really give great benefits but the restrictions are minor (or essentially non-existent) and then there’s a few of the Legion-specific ones that give amazing benefits for very little cost.  

 

My personal grievance is that whilst many of the Rites, including Legion Specific ones, make certain units troops, only some of them give those troops a bonus. For example, Stone Gauntlet (IF) not only gives Phalanx Warders the Line keyword and allows them to be taken as troops but it also gives them Heart of the Legion, Hammer of wrath and allows them to reroll failed invulnerable saves. Compare that to the Chogorian Brotherhood (WS). That rite makes jetbikes troops with line. That’s it! No additional bonuses for the bikes, despite you having to give up your Heavy support. 
 

I guess what I’m saying is there’s some definite winners and losers in terms of the rites with a couple of the generic ones being pretty good. If the playstyle you like happens to be lots of dreads, lots of recon marines or lots of terminators then you’re probably wise to go for the rites but other than that it depends entirely on whether your legion is one of the lucky ones. For the record I don’t think SoH are one of the lucky ones so I’d probably go with a normal crusade detachment. 

[sonsoftaurus]

I also think you should not look at not using a rite as losing out necessarily; it is effectively a ‘rite’ that gives you full access to all the units and slots without the various other restrictions or prerequisites like certain characters, can still outflank, etc. It is the default option but is a very broad and flexible one. 

[Noserenda]

Oh yeah, as i alluded to above ive had really mixed thoughts on RoW this edition. The Dreadnought one is oppressive but the armour company is bone i looked at doing a tunnel assault army and not using the relevant RoW was outright better as the units i wanted for my core all already had them as dedicated options. Possibly in a similar situation to the OP all the Sons of Horus ones didnt work for me and despite the original plan being some Predator platoons backed by Veterans, Pride of the Legion actually made a lot more sense, the rules were inverting the fluff intention entirely...

I did quite like that they expanded the Robot one though, got a whole bunch of them painted as Iron Warriors i almost ran at an event :D