Though the Saturnine boxed set focuses on the Dropsite Massacre in the early days of the Horus Heresy, the Age of Darkness rules allow you to recreate moments from across the rich tapestry of its history. The Inductii are key players in the latter days – hastily raised reinforcements pressed into battle earlier than would otherwise be expected – and their unique rules are a great way to add further character to your army. Here’s Quinn from the Warhammer: The Horus Heresy design team to tell us more.
Quinn: The Inductii have been a rich element of the Horus Heresy’s background, from their initial mention in the first edition’s Conquest book to their full exploration in the campaign book The Siege of Cthonia. The streamlined implantation methods adopted for these Legionary recruits in order to facilitate rapid induction efforts at a massive scale really helps evoke the unprecedented carnage of the Age of Darkness, rendered grimly ironic by the fact that these processes would become the standard after the Horus Heresy.
The new edition of The Horus Heresy gave us the opportunity for an in-depth revisit of the Inductii, providing a full Unit Profile for every Legion’s corresponding Inductii unit. Each is still based upon a Tactical or Despoiler squad, but dedicated space for Characteristics variations, Special Rules, and Wargear Options allows for each unit to be differentiated and balanced more effectively.
This new incarnation of Inductii retains the individual character of the Legion-specific versions that came before, but there are a few high-level changes that players will notice throughout. The most obvious of these is that, with a couple of optional exceptions, Inductii units don’t have Sergeants. Combined with a couple of reduced Advanced Characteristics (usually Willpower and Intelligence), the Inductii are slightly more vulnerable to Tactical Statuses than your typical Legionary, helping to reinforce the idea that hypno-indoctrination and rapid implantation can’t match the decades, or even centuries, of experience that pre-existing Legionaries have.
With each unit typically getting one or more defining Special Rules, and Wargear Options, it was important that they didn’t outshine standard Tactical or Despoiler squads, which still represent the mainstay of the Legiones Astartes. As such, those based upon Tactical Squads have the Line (1) Special Rule, while the Inductii templated upon Despoilers instead have Vanguard (2). Neither retain the objective-scoring potential of their Line (2) precursors, but each Inductii unit has its own distinctive advantages and playstyle to help them stand out in list building, from the Blood Angels’ panic-inducing cannibalism to the morbid resilience of the Death Guard.
In addition to the 18 new units presented in the Legiones Inductii document, the World Eaters – the originators of the Inductii concept – gain access to the Butcher-Surgeon Prime Advantage, letting Apothecaries boost the combat abilities of Inductii Squads they join. Ultimately, these new rules are intended to give players a fun variation on some familiar units and provide an opportunity to further theme their armies amidst the wars of the Horus Heresy.
The Legiones Inductii
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Thanks, Quinn! You can download the new Inductii rules right now from the Warhammer Community downloads page and start building your own with the wide selection of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy kits on offer. We recommend the MkVI Tactical Squad to represent late-Heresy units in a more recent armour mark!
