Horus Heresy 3e Review: Roboute Guilliman

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded down due to points cost. A later game threat in close combat. 

Background.

Roboute's accomplishments before, during, and after the Heresy are a tough pack to pick between. Not only did he rule 500 worlds before the Emperor arrived, he forged his legion into a highly meritocratic army capable of adjusting to almost anything. He is the leader of Ultramar, a statesman, a warrior, a leader, a wise man and intellectual, and master strategist capable of ingesting vast arrays of data at a glance. 

Strengths. 

With 6's across the stat line except a 7 in WS, the Primarch of the Ultramarines is not exceptional for close combat. His side arm gives you a couple of S=6 bolts at AP=3 which is nice.

The Gladius Incandor is a power sword with 2 damage and breaching and a touch of duellist's edge. Not bad, but hardly outstanding. 

The Hand of Dominion is his power fist, and this is much more deadly with S getting up to 10 and AP=2 with 3 damage. The armour bane here is excellent, but it all comes at an initiative penalty. 

He has a special ability to gain focus roll modifiers according to the battle turn, up to +4. This is where Roboute really shines when he combines this with his power fist. Late game, he becomes more of a threat effectively. 

He gives out primes if we have 4 or more troops selected as tactical squads or assault squads. But the real army wide benefit comes from the ability to claim and contest objectives in turn 1 regardless of any status already earned. Potentially, this gives the army a turn 1 boost in some missions. But I suspect it won't see much actual use set against a benchmark of not having this rule unless you really hard optimize the army build. 

Weaknesses. 

Roboute doesn't really come across as very good offensively until later in the game (no doubt once he has watched the enemy carefully for several turns thanks to Calculating Swordsman and learned how to exploit their flaws). 

Overall.

The points cost is what drags me down to 3/5 stars here really. He costs like Alpharius, but doesn't hit as hard until later on. Sure, as a primarch he is still deadly, but not quite at the power level of many of his brothers initially. Timed well though, he can be deadly in the extreme.