This page will detail the legion specific units available to the Sons of Horus
“For the warrior, the only crime is cowardice.“
— Attributed to Primarch, Horus Lupercal
The Sons of Horus Feature 6 Unique units to the legion, a common theme of these units is being a more elite version of an existing unit with a slant towards short range shooting and melee combat.
Reaver Attack Squads
Reaver Attack Squads are the first unit up on the chopping block and hold up extremely well in the game’s third edition, In lore these serve as a more veteran form of despoiler squad used by all legions.
Sitting in the Heavy assault slot reavers are easily accessible through the supremacy cadre detachment available to the sons and unusually for that slot are in 3+ save power armour as opposed to the more heavily armoured cataphractii, saturnine or tartaros terminator armour. This is offset by their unit size, 5-20 models which is unusual for a legion elite combat unit.
Stats wise Reavers are similar to legion veteran tactical squads but have a weapons skill of 5, an attacks characteristic of 3 and a worse ballistic skill of 4, to put it in English these guys want to get stuck into melee and make your opponent regret it, The unit comes equipped by default with chain axes, bolt pistols and grenades, which isn’t amazing but every model can be upgraded to carry a melee weapon from the sergeant war gear list, this is great, 20 reavers with thunder hammers will delete most units in the game, each model may take a hand flamer either but I generally think these are bad due to the short range, cost and low strength. 1 per 5 may also upgrade to a legion special weapon, my favourite being the rotor cannon as a way to apply suppressed to a unit you wish to charge or a melta to open up a transport vehicle so your reavers can charge the unit inside. But this is where the main weakness of this unit comes in. The cost of this unit in game is frankly eye watering at times as the cost of power weapons is 10 points per model on top of the 22 points per model each reaver costs, or god forbid thunder hammers which cost 15 points per model, your max size unit can quickly become 700+ points and are not very durable at only a 3+ save and no invulnerable saves disintegrators will destroy them, phosphex will make them run and even regular bolters will easily plink away at them. Reavers additionally have the precision 6+ rule which enables a sneaky couple of hits to wipe out specific models in an enemy unit or a unexpecting character with a time honored axe to the back. Vanguard (3) also enables reavers to score victory points when removing enemies but vanguard is too unreliable in my opinion to warrant picking the unit just for vanguard.
A more moderated approach will probably be the favoured way to field these guys, 10-15 models with a mix of power weapons, special weapons and chain axes to keep the cost down, preferably in a rhino or land raider to mitigate the chance of your reavers becoming a 400 point crater. My preferred loadout is 10 men with a pair of lightning claws on their chieftain, 4 power axes, a melta gun and 4 chain axes
Reaver Assault Squad
If you thought you had escaped me talking about reavers, you are sorely mistaken. These guys are in the legacies PDF which I will link at the bottom of the article, and these represent the old option to upgrade reavers to have a jump pack. These guys in my opinion are just kind of bad, They cost an additional 5 points over the original unit, for this you gain 5 inches of movement, deep strike and the anti grav subtype. Id just rather buy a rhino or land raider as they removed the ability to charge out of deep strike and these guys are way too fragile for the cost, add combat shields as a choice for these lads and I would consider it.
Inductii
Oh how the mighty have fallen, going from arguably one of the best troops choices in the game to a real stinker for the role they’re intended to fill. This unit can be found in the legionies inductii PDF, in lore these are the hastily made new recruits to replace the atrocious losses suffered during the Horus heresy, This is reflected in game by their cheap cost at 9 points per model in units of 10-20, worse mental stats than their despoiler counterparts, the inductii rule which prevents them from getting prime benefits and a unique rule “creed of brutality”, You make a leadership check at the start of the turn if you are within 6 inches of a friendly model with a weapon skill of 5 or higher, if you pass you gain impact(strength), if you fail you become stunned, this encourages putting characters in this unit as your leadership of 6 will fail you, and you will always be with 6 inches of a weapon skill 5 model, This sounds great, what could possibly be the problem? you swap line 2 from normal despoilers to vanguard 2. You swap the best rule a unit can have in the game for scoring points to the arguably worst rule in the game, on a unit with no shooting as every model has a melee weapon of some kind and at best a pistol. I love these guys aesthetically and lore wise but gameplay wise I would say give them a skip, unless you have a specialist plan for them, some people have had success running multiple large units of them to swarm the board and take advantage of their low cost.
Wargear wise everyone comes with a chain sword and bolt pistol, everyone may take a a free chain axe instead of chain sword, the unit doesn’t have a sergeant (a weirdly common part of Sons of Horus specific units) so one per 4 can upgrade to a power weapon, a legionary may take a vexilla, and up to two may have a nuncio vox or augury scanner for 10 points each, take a nuncio vox so you can be disappointed by your terrible mental stats three times per turn if you get statused, unit size I would just run max size to take advantage of your low cost and maybe dish out some power axes or mauls to chip away at enemy units in melee.
Chieftains
Chieftains are a weird unit, they serve as a command squad alternative where each guy comes kitted with a boarding shield, bane strike bolter and a chain sword, in a unit size of 5-10, starting at 155 points for 5 and 25 points per extra guy. They are weapon skill 5 (yay), 3 attacks each, (also good), good mental stats at 8/8/7/7, no sergeant in the unit, artificer armoured and come with a special rule “Honour above all” where if a model part of this unit is engaged in a challenge (basically two characters in a duel) the models with this special rule gain plus one to the wound roll. Wargear wise they can all take gear from the power weapons list along with the power fist for 10 points on power weapons or 15 for a fist. One chieftain may take a legion standard instead of a banestrike bolter for 20 points which gives the unit +2 combat resolution points and counts as 6 additional models for outnumbering in a challenge. This unit is a spaghetti mess of rules, ideas and wargear, they pack solid shooting that can not benefit from the legion trait due to lacking implacable advance, really good melee stats but lack the scoring potential of reavers or justaerin while lacking the most potent melee weapon available to marines, the thunder hammer, or even generic legion units such as veteran breachers, they take up an unusual slot during list building taking a retinue slot which can only be found in the combat retinue or champion`s detachment which are generally not included often as the combat retinue is an apex detachment which could be used to bring more important elite units and the champion detachment requires you to bring a mediocre officer who struggles with just being a worse praetor in an army that loves to fill out your limited officer slots with options like the master of signals, centurions or librarians. So most likely if you want to bring these guys they will be brought using a logistical benefit, which isn’t the end of the world as the supremacy cadre gives you two prime slots on troops choices. They will also want a character in the unit who will reliably win challenges so most likely a praetor, paragon of battle centurion, librarian or champion. Overall I’m not really a fan of their rules this edition. I love this unit conceptually but they’re dragged in so many different directions and try to fill a “jack of all trades, master of none” role that they fall short of achieving. If I was to bring a unit of these I would make then 10 man strong with 7 power axes, 3 chain axes and a standard and a praetor to lead them to take advantage of their unique rule.
The Justaerin
If you had grown tired of me talking negatively about our boys in green, dont worry these next two entries are gonna be a lot of optimism. In lore the justaerin are the elite of the elite, clad in jet black cataphractii armour these warriors exemplify everything the legion is about. Lets start with stats, they are all WS5, BS4, 4 attacks, two wounds, toughness 5, Leadership 10, Cool 9. for those who dont play the game, they are numerically the strongest terminators in the game, while some terminators may be better on a technicality due to stat to point ratio these guys are simply the highest statted termies in the game for the whole unit (barring the dark angels inner circle sarge but he’s a weird outlier and only one guy in the unit with those stats) and can pack weapons to boot, with everyone coming base with a power weapon and banestrike combi bolter, all models may upgrade to a legion officer weapon, trade their banestrike for a combi weapon and one per five may take a reaper auto cannon, heavy flamer, plasma blaster or uniquely to just these guys and the raven guard deliverer squad multi meltas. Rules wise they have vanguard 4, bulky 2 and implacable advance.
At a cool 50 points each, coming in units of 5-12 They’re expensive but they will earn that cost back happily if you let them reach combat, or banestrike range. The unit is heavily flexible in what you kit them with, keep them cheap with power axes and banestrike for a cheap threat that can score 4 to 8 victory points on a good turn, or do as many players do and run to 10-12 kitted with hammers, twin lightning claws and heavy weapons to act as a sledge hammer of your army, and with a 2+ save / 4+ invulnerable save they soak up hits like nobody`s business and dish out more hurt, in return. They have two main weaknesses, they only move 6 inches and are heavy. They need to be transported in land raiders or spartans to reach combat before the game is already over, land raiders and spartans are not cheap to field in game (or for your actual wallet) so a justaerin doom stack can easily be half your list in a 3000 point game if your too gung ho. Mine are a little 5 man with 3 guys armed with hammers and banestrike, one with twin lighting claws and the last guy has a multi melta + chain fist incase someone tries to hit them with a vehicle or a transport needs to be opened, riding in a standard land raider carrier often with a cataphractii praetor in the unit. While normally I’m quite down on vanguard, these guys are tied for the highest vanguard score in the game, and importantly pack enough ranged fire power to force your opponent to be mindful of them as they might score vanguard from shooting 10 tactical marines off an objective. Overall a 10/10 unit, and really represent the Sons of Horus playstyle of short range shooting paired with melee.
Dark Emissaries
The dark emissary is a unique officer option for the Sons of Horus and acts as a mix between a chaplain and an overseer. they come equipped with a 2+ save, 5+ invuln, bolt pistol, grenades and a staff of dark authority and the bolt pistol may be traded for any officer pistol, nothing special. Where the fun begins is the mental stats 10/10/9/8 which means that they are going to protect their unit from any mental stats test such as pinning, panic or falling back from a bad combat. They additionally have the special rule “eyes of the warmaster” which allows them to join allied units without taking the negative to mental stats, this is dope as there are many units who would greatly appreciate the better mental stats such as solar auxilia riflemen or a militia blob of conscripts.
And he only costs 90 points, which I think is a steal for the cost, they may also be purchased with either tartaros or cataphractii terminator armor for 30 points on top of the base 90, and gives the emissary access to the terminator weapon list (including combi banestrike bolters). Its a neat option and somewhat funny to give a normally squishy unit like solar auxilia las rifles a T5 body with a 4+ invulnerable save and 2+ armor
