4.5/5 stars. Rounded down. An excellent addition to the game - although some legions are better than others. We will give individual ratings to each legion below, the rating here is an overall rating that includes the pure concept of Inductii - which I'm a big fan of!
Background.
Many legions faced a serious issue during the heresy. They were losing too many men. The solution? Accelerate their induction. There are two relatively well known examples: the World Eaters inducted many at Bodt through hypnosis to believe that they were truly veterans, and the Raven Guard made ... monsters - ahem. It turns out that all the legions had need to do this though.
General Rules.
These squads are replacements for despoilers or tactical squads, but since the men are generally "outsiders", they cannot be joined by others, have access to artificer armour, and are support squads. Otherwise, they all have some interesting rules added on that the player can make use of.
Dark Angels. ⭐️⭐️
Drop hexagrammaton and Fury of the Legion in exchange for a tactical squad with volkites. Great for cheap and cheerful volkite rain. But really: the range is an issue here.
Emperor's Children. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gain Perfection Embodied as a replacement for Heart of the Legion and swap chainswords for Charnabals for a small cost. The new rule provides Ld=10 for pinning and morale, but you lose draws in fights by 1. Great when tooled up with the Charnabals I think as they will get to where they need to be thanks to all those blissful drugs in their system and not caring about the world around them too much.
Iron Warriors. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tacticals that replace Heart of the Legion with Souls of Iron. You have to shoot at the closes enemy. You get to automatically pass pinning tests. Great as an objective sitter, or to bait the enemy to use up reactions maybe.
White Scars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Despoilers without power glaives and Heart of the Legion, but gain Proof of Valour. This is a damage mitigation roll at 5+ against WS>4. If it works, and the unit survives, have a free VP. You'll need a few of these units to really go for extra VPs, and it could make all the difference!
Space Wolves. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Despoilers without a sergeant, possible shield replacement for a pistol (probably not worth it due to loss of attacks) and chainsword for chainaxes at the minimum cost (do it). Heart of the Legion becomes Headstrong which enables a bit more range for a charge at the cost of being disordered.
Imperial Fists. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tacticals, options on heavy bolters and autocannons, replacing Heart of the Legion with Supporting Fire wherein heavy types gain pinning once per battle. Okay I guess.
Night Lords. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Undisciplined thugs that they are, these despoilers drop to Ld=7. They have to replace their chainswords with blades that have breaching at 6+ which is nice. The Heart of the Legion becomes Unscrupulous Murderes which means in a challenge you bring in your mates to help out at I=10. However, on a roll of a 1, your mates stab you instead, because Night Lords. Take a maximum sized squad.
Blood Angels. ⭐️
Despoilers that replace Heart of the Legion with The Revenant Legion. No sweeps - they're too busy eating after combat. Yuck. Gain Fear. Not a great rules set, but fluffy?
Iron Hands. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tacticals that have fallen back on bad habits of replacing weak flesh with better bionics. Take a phosphex if you like too. The Forbidden Augmentations gives you a 1d6 roll at the beginning of the movement phase with a 5+ resulting in 1 better WS and BS for the turn which is great! However, a 1 or 2 results in 1d3 wounds instead. Ouch. You're only going to get the best outcome for a couple of turns per game, so it is pretty random, but can make a difference.
World Eaters. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heart of the Legion for Ravening Madmen in despoilers. Fluffy - certainly. But only a very mild boost to be very candid.
Ultramarines. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Roboute was already experimenting with what would become the codex. Tacticals that can have flamers, melta guns, and plasma guns, but drop Fury of the Legion for Inexorable. I really like this. Far too much.
Death Guard. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tacticals with access to Alchem Flamers, and Barbaran Resilience instead of Heart of the Legion. This is a damage mitigation roll that depends on how many men you have left in the squad. Solid, but note the rule triggers according to how many men at the start of a phase, not what's left.
Thousand Sons. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tacticals with no acess to Asphyx and gain Unattuned Practitioners. No minor arcana for you. But you can take a psychic check for breaching. Suffer lots of perils if you're not careful, but this is actually quite good!
Sons of Horus. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Deaspoilers who can upgrade to chainaxes (good!) and have Creed of Brutality (because Cthonia) instead of Spite of the Legion. This provides Rampage and Furious Charge if they are within a small bubble of another Sons unit with WS>4. A nice accompaniment?
Word Bearers. ⭐️⭐️
Traitors only. Heart of the Legion gets replaced with Empty Vessels as these men get ready to be possessed. Randomly (bonuses apply) gain corrupted during the game and furious charge but also suffer wounds. Not quite worth it for me to be honest.
Salamanders. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Despoilers with WS=5 sergeant that have upgraded themselves with the relics of their fallen brothers. Access to the melta gun and dragon breath flamer is great! Spite of the Legion becomes Wargear of Heroes which gives a re-roll of 1's to hit -- another awesome win! Love these Inductii!
Raven Guard. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I'm mad that the fluff is not reflected here! Boo! These tacticals replace Heart of the Legion with Unchained Conviction since they're not Corax's monsters, but the downtrodden striking back. Instead of being pinned, they will fall back 7 inches. This is rather strong all things considered.
Alpha Legion. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tactical squads that drop Heart for Treacherous Lure which represents mimicked signals of the enemy. They cannot be targeted for shooting attacks in turn number one. Excellent really. You just need to think about your positions.
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