Friday, May 17, 2024

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Solar Auxilia - Tercios and Close-Order Type

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
3.5/5 stars. Rounded down - just. The baseline rules for the human elites can pack large units. They're still mortals though.

Background.
The Solar Auxilia represent the best mortal humans to take to the battlefield of the Heresy. They are spread throughout the galaxy and took part from everything in the Great Crusade through to the Heresy and feature on both sides of the civil war - hence can be taken by traitor and loyalist forces alike. 

Tercios.
The Tercio is the basic formation of the Solar Auxilia. In short, this allows commanders to pack a lot of units (and even more models) into a single force organization chat slot. In game, they in effect act like a single unit at the point of deployment. 

If a tercio is in formation (within 3 inches of each unit that makes up the tercio) then they can benefit from all making the same reaction. Similarly they have to also be deployed together regardless of whether it is standard deployment, deep strike or anything else. However, the rules are clear that units within a tercio don't actually have to stay in formation - they can move apart. But why would you - at least initially - when such large blobs of tercios can all make reactions together.

Close-Order Unit Type.
Critical to understanding the army list is the new Close-Order Unit Type. This allows players to move up to half of their usual rate and still fire heavy weapons as if they are stationary. This is an absolute must-remember rule for your army since you will want those lasrifles firing frequently! 

The price here is that unit coherency is a tiny 1 inch which makes your troops more vulnerable to templates and pie plates. And there's the issue with running (they can't) and reduced distances during a movement reaction. Pity suspensor arrays didn't make it to the Solar Auxilia, but they can't have everything. 

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