Standout Units

This page will cover what in my opinion are the best legion agnostic units to include in a Sons of Horus army

with an understanding of how our legion trait works, we want weapons with either assault weapons or non heavy weapons with implacable advance on our units. This cuts down our options dramatically, if we are determined to use this trait as very few models in the Legiones Astartes army list have implacable advance or assault on significant weapons other than the standard bolt pistol all power armored models will have.

So not every unit in this list will be a unit that makes use of the legion trait but they will in some way contribute to the overall Sons of Horus game plan of get in close, open fire then close in for the kill.

Veteran Heavy Support Squad

A legacies PDF squad that is an upgrade to the usual heavy support squad, these veterans boast better mental stats and a second wound over their non veteran cousins but what makes them special is the implacable advance special rule, which allows them to volley fire non heavy weapons, perfect as these guys may take any heavy or special weapon, heavy disintegrator or my personal favourite: the disintegrator blaster, because I want my unit to be just as dangerous to me as it is to you. I would skip the heavy weapons as they all either fire templates which don’t need our legion trait, or have unsurprisingly the heavy trait. Meltaguns, disintegrator blasters and flamers are your friend. Meltaguns and disintegrator blasters will nuke most targets you hit with them, while a flamer or two in the squad is great for inflicting panic on your enemies. Overall these arent the most competitive unit in most legions but here they have a niche as a mobile threat, just dont go overboard with a full 10 blasters, these guys tend to explode after two or three rounds of their own shooting due to overload (1) and a flat AP2, damage 2 meaning if you roll a one a guy just dies in the unit, but these guys will love melting cataphractii or tartaros terminators.

Saturnine terminator squad

The new chonky lads on the block, these monsters are the heaviest infantry in he game, with a two up armour, four up invulnerable save, 3 wounds each, toughness 6 and their unique thermal refraction fields that reduce the strength of incoming las, plasma, melta and flame weapons by one, these guys are basically an unstoppable brick of armour that can take advantage of the legion trait on their twin heavy disintegrators, which contrary to the name do not have heavy on them, or their plasma bombards who also don’t have heavy, and they have implacable advance like all terminators do. I see two main ways to run these lads, double bombard as a mid board shooting threat, land in and stay still to gain firing protocols (2) so you can fire your plasma at anyone who approaches, or a disintegrator on one arm, fist on the other as a hybrid threat unit in a land raider. Overall a strong unit only held back by poor speed and a high points cost. Also don’t throw them into combat with weapon skill 5 terminators, they will get eaten alive by thunder hammers or power fists

Veteran Tactical Squad

Veteran tacticals are an unusual choice due to their weird weapons choices, but three of these stand out for the sons of Horus. These being volkite chargers, banestrike bolters and astartes shotguns. Starting with my favourite, banestrike bolters as mentioned in the armoury review are a potent choice for chipping away at most enemy units, S4 sucks but breaching 6+ on a weapon with two shots at this cheap is dirty, 10 of these guys will dump 20 shots hitting on a two, with 1/6 being a breach on average, but it only takes one round of shooting to spike to ruin someone’s day, followed by the other non breaching saves needing to be made, while also being AP4, which will shred solar auxilia, milita and low level mechanicum units. Volkite chargers are another option, trading breaching and some range for assault, an extra strength and deflagerate, a rule that causes an additional hit if your opponent fails a save, these serve as more of a chaff sweeper as opposed to the bane strike’s all rounder profile, your militia and solar auxilia friends will hate you if you bring a squad or two of these to a game where their squishy line troops are easy to hit, and assault allows these to be fired in volley fire, leaning into the legion trait, and then there is shotguns. Low strength of 4, no AP to speak of but stun (0), this is an annoying weapon to run as it just inflicts statuses and can be volley fired. Coupled with how easily the sons of horus can field elites using supremacy cadre a unit or two of these guys can be slotted into a list as a flexible threat and scoring unit with their line (1).

Tartaros Terminator Squad

Now were cooking with gas, these guys serve as a cheap and cheerful threat to infantry and potentially vehicles based on loadout. These guys share the basic terminator profile of toughness 5, 2 wounds, 2+ save, 2 attacks each, initiative 4 but they move 7 inches and have a slightly worse invulnerable save of 5+ and no heavy, implacable advance and vanguard (3). They come equipped with combi bolters and any of the three core power weapons base, with the option to take any wargear from the terminator wargear list so twin lightning claws, hammers and both the chain and power fist, or any combi weapons you want. They’re cheap at 150 points, don’t need a transport and can be kitted for most roles and benefit from the legion trait with their combi bolters or other combi weapons.

My favorite loadout is twin lighting claws “free hugs” squad, even if it doesn’t use the legion trait just cause more attacks on a weapon skill 4 unit is always nice, otherwise just use what you like because you cant really make these guys bad other than throwing them into a fight they’re not going to win.

Tactical Squads

The most generic unit in the game, everyone will have at least 10, tactical squads excel in the Sons of Horus for two main reasons, supremacy cadre gives two prime troops slots, and these guys are so cheap and can go up to 20 man squads. For self explanatory reasons having troops with prime slots is good, corrupted tactical marines are a pain in the face to remove from the board and logistical benefit tactical marines can help squeeze in more annoying units in the force org chart to your army like seekers, speeders and recons.

And tactical marines going up to 20 is so nice as 5 bolt pistols in volley fire is nothing, 10 is annoying and 20 will rip chunks out of units that try charge your tacticals holding an objective with their line (2). Its a boring entry but they’re a unit id say start off every army list with 2 10 man squads ,they’re so cheap and will score so many victory points its genuinely a steal.