The horrors of the Dropsite Massacre will soon be coming to Legions Imperialis, as the indomitable Saturnine Terminators and Dreadnoughts join the fight in force. They’ll be making their first appearance in the new Journal Strategia supplement, and James from the Horus Heresy studio is here to give us a peek into its pages.
James: The Ruin of the Salamanders is the first of the new Journal Strategia supplements following the release of the Liber Strategia for Legions Imperialis. This format delivers more targeted stories and rules content, more often, allowing us to delve even deeper into the most cataclysmic conflict in the history of the Imperium.
This book takes us back to the Ignis Sector of the Isstvan V assault, with a focus on the Salamanders Legion and their close allies as they attempt to escape the trap laid for them by Horus, fighting desperate battles against the Word Bearers and Iron Warriors in a tale that expands the narrative presented in part one of the Dropsite Massacre. The Ruin of the Salamanders contains exacting details of the forces committed to this battle by both sides, as well as a blow-by-blow account of the devastation that followed, new maps of the battles that unfolded, and art depicting the forces that engaged in this most bitter struggle.
Alongside this account are rules for new Detachments including Saturnine Command Squads, Saturnine Terminators, and Saturnine Dreadnoughts, all of which had just seen their first major deployments as part of Vulkan’s Retribution Fleet contingent. Even the most humble of Saturnine Terminator Detachments is twice as tough as your regular Legion Terminators, so they’ll be able to stand up to all the firepower from the Araknae weapons platforms and super-heavy tanks – those being the Fellblade, Glaive, Falchion, and the brand new Ascalon – found alongside them in this book.
We knew that some players would be inspired by the new Saturnine releases and want to field entire armies composed of the heaviest, bulkiest troops around, so one of the three new Formations for Legiones Astartes armies lets you bring a sizeable force of Terminators and Dreadnoughts to the field with the added bonus of giving them all Deep Strike – so you can drop your strike force right into the midst of combat.
Players can also deploy a Super-heavy Spearhead, bringing concentrated forces of the new super-heavy vehicles, and the Aegis Defence Strongpoint, leveraging the overwhelming firepower of Araknae platforms and Tarantula batteries.
The new Iconic Formations are also fun and thematic ways to add specific groups of Detachments representing key deployments of the Salamanders, Iron Warriors, and Solar Auxilia. Saturnine Excubitor Cadres pack loads of Vulkan’s super-heavy Terminators into formidable Mastodon transports for an almost unstoppable front line charge, while the heavy and super-heavy vehicles of the Iron Warriors take centre stage in their Obliteration Centuries, which shatter enemy morale as well as armour with their massive guns.
Finally, the bold armour companies of the Proximan Sacramentii Solar Auxilia form specialised Foehammer formations to crush their foes at point-blank range with Leman Russ and Malcador tanks. It’s a great way to get lots of tanks onto the field and smash them headlong into your opponent’s lines, as their armoured tracks get even grindier when they’re assigned a Charge Order.
The last element is a new historical mission recreating the Iron Warriors’ slaughter of the Salamanders in the area of the Urgall Depression that came to be known as ‘the Crucible’. It’s a brutal slugging match on a battlefield mostly void of terrain and cover, where the Attacker starts sandwiched between two Defender deployment zones and both sides must simply obliterate as much of their opponent’s army as possible – perfect for the heavily armoured Formations found in this book!
Fight your way through the Dropsite Massacre when The Ruin of the Salamanders goes up for pre-order this Saturday, alongside powerful Saturnine Terminators and a quartet of new super-heavy tanks.
