Horus Heresy Review: World Eaters Legion Rules

The World Eaters were well known to be savage and blood thirsty even prior to joining Horus in his rebellion against the Emperor in the days when they were the War Hounds. Their specialities are shock assault and exterminatus assaults (plus anything else that involved up close and personal bloodletting, such as space hulk boarding actions and so forth).

The special rules for the World Eaters, and the unique equipment that they have access too, are sympathetic to these memes.

The first rule is Incarnate Violence. The ability to have furious charge should not be under-estimated -- it is an assault winner. But not having access to it immediately is an issue. To best play to this rule, I think the World Eaters should have large squad sizes and get in the melee as rapidly as possible. This probably calls for drop pod style assaults, or deployment from land raiders with assault ramps. Having a large number of World Eater squads doing this across the board is probably going to be the key to their victory: hit hard and early and them don't stop!

The second rule is a mixed blessing. Under Bloodlust, the marines must consolidate toward the nearest enemy they can hurt. So if you have krak grenades, I'm sorry, but you're going to be heading toward the dreadnought over there. A low chance of success does not correlate with a mathematic chance of being able to hurt the enemy. Loyalist World Eaters on Isstvan III will happily charge Angron. And so forth. Gaining Rage can be very useful though, particularly in concert with Incarnate Violence -- do not underestimate how hard this can hit in the right circumstances. This rule is replaced later on in the heresy (see Massacre) whereby Rage is the norm for all World Eater traitors under the Blood Madness rule. If you're going for an assault style force (and why wouldn't you be with the World Eaters), then you are going to probably want the Massacre version of the rule.

The World Eaters also get access to Chain Axes if they wish (free exchange for chain swords). This should almost be a given (but then again, AP4 isn't going to help much against marine opponents, but you might as well take it if you're going to be fighting xenos/all-comers).

The Caedere weapons represent gladiator weapons from where Angron was a slave. Although they cost a bit more to upgrade, in some cases it is well worth it -- particularly on a Praetor or other upper level commander. Or even on an independent character attached to a squad that you are drop-podding in. Select the appropriate one based on your target frankly! Otherwise, just stick with the power fist … just to be sure.