Rules in the Age of Darkness – Saturnine Terminators take the field

Saturnine Terminators were among the most advanced, durable and lethal warriors to walk the battlefields of the Age of Darkness. So as you can imagine, they’re pretty tasty on the tabletop too.

Their basic profile is solid across the board, but it's their incredible durability that really shines through. They have a Toughness of 6, 3 Wounds and a 2+ Armour Save – backed up with a 4+ Invulnerable Save, that’s about as solid as it gets for infantry.

It is very rare to get infantry with three Wounds in Age of Darkness, as are guns dealing more than two Damage, which means Saturnine Terminators can withstand heavy hits from disintegrators, lascannons and plasma weapons.

There’s a trade-off: they are slow with low Movement and Initiative, so they won’t be motoring around the battlefield and are usually swinging last in melee. Luckily there are some mitigations for their lack of movement.

Every model has an Occulix Targeting Auspex, which effectively means they can shoot two guns if they stand still. Implacable Advance means that they can volley fire with their guns when being charged, for example.

The plasma bombard is their default gun – effectively a plasma cannon that doesn’t need line of sight. One unit of Saturnine Terminators set up in an obscured position and sporting two of these each can threaten a vast portion of the battlefield with relative impunity. The midfield becomes a no-go area for any enemy infantry foolish enough not to be in a transport.

Twin heavy disintegrators are a more direct option, and again you can take two each. These are for devastating elite infantry and dreadnoughts. If you manage to secure a firing position and deliver a full broadside, you can delete entire enemy units.

The Saturnine disruption fist is an exotic version of the classic Terminator archetype. It hits with fearsome Strength and Damage – so one squad can wreck a medium vehicle, or kill enemy Terminators and Custodians with a single punch. 

You can supplement your short-range threat with a particle shredder, a template weapon which melts Power Armour.

With the Praetor, the big question is: axe or hammer?

Much like the Saturnine Terminators he can lead, the Praetor boasts a formidable profile. In fact, it’s about as beefy a stat-block as a Space Marine can get, putting him in the same league as the greatest heroes of the era.

The Saturnine concussion hammer is your choice for killing tanks. That already awesome Damage goes up to four on a Critical Hit – when it also automatically wounds – making it the right choice to break open Knights Armiger, Castellax Robots and Ogryns. Even enemy characters need to be careful as a single failed invulnerable save will likely flatten them.

Alternatively, if you’re planning to wade into the enemy ranks, the Saturnine war axe might be for you. The Reaping Blow (2) rule grants two extra attacks when outnumbered in combat, hitting at Initiative 4, Strength 5, AP2 and Damage 2. He is a reaper, and his preferred crop is enemy infantry.

He can also wield a tasty plasma blaster, but there’s arguably a more useful reason to include a Saturnine Praetor in your army: he allows your unit of Saturnine Terminators to Deep Strike alongside him. This guy and six pals showing up in a backline with particle shredders is going to ruin any Legion’s day.

Six new Saturnine Terminators and a Praetor are coming in the launch box for the new edition of the Warhammer: the Horus Heresy. Don’t forget to sign up to the Warhammer newsletter to stay up to date on all the big Horus Heresy news.