Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Imperial Fists Traits and Rites

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 stars. The rules are strong.

Warlord Traits.
Solar Marshal. A loyalist only trait, this one allows the player to improve WS against traitors and gains one additional reaction in any phase for the unit that the Warlord joins. I see this as quite powerful, but the army would likely have to be built around a death star style unit. Very viable for the Fists. 

Warden of Inwit. The ability to automatically pass morale and pinning checks in their own deployment zone (or when by an objective) is a powerful one and when combined with the additional reaction to assault is a powerful backline trait, or front line objective carrier. I can see this working well with front line shield bearing units in particular.

Architect of Devastation. Re-rolling to hit rolls of a 1 is powerful. But don't play this along with a bolt gun based unit. Use it with a different weapon. Even combi-weapons on terminators. The extra trait in the shooting phase helps with this, and perhaps argues from a strong front line shooting unit or even a support squad to take maximum benefit from it. Heck, give it to a unit that just has a high rate of shots. 

Rites of War.
The Imperial Fists are notable for having 3 basic rites.

The Stone Gauntlet. Although slightly changed, this rite should be familiar to players of first edition. It centres around Phalanx Warder squads and gives them Line, along with shield bearing units gaining solid bonuses. Although they cannot deep strike, this is a solid rite to take.

Hammerfall Strike Force. Another rite of war that will be instantly familiar to first edition players. Again Phalanx warder squads are troops here and infantry can gain deep strike and as a result shrouded as well. Works very well, and will be a staple on battlefields galore.

Templar Assault. This one is new. It centres around Templar Brethren. They gain Line and a nice buff when they disembark, but this one is for loyalists only. Interestingly, this encourages building an army around the Templars. Take with a close combat warlord!

Difference to First Edition.
Slightly improved. Some things have changed and wordings have been updated. But there are solid if not mind-blowing additions here that will diversify army builds for the Imperial Fists. 

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