Horus Heresy 2e Review: Blackshields Rules

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded down. We begin our reviews of the Battle for Beta-Garmon with the best faction: the blackshields and their rules!

Background.

The Blackshields are marines that have undergone a schism with their parent legions. There is no singular cause for this, but rather it represents a major crisis of faith within the established legions. 

The book describes four major types of Blackshield forces. 

Many are simply Renegades. They have forsaken their legions and their Primarchs, but are not simply loyalist World Eaters or traitor Dark Angels. They're something else entirely having got rid of their previous alignments. 

Marauders are those marines who are simply self interested. Unlike renegades who fight for either side, the marauders are in it for themselves and act as pirates and raiders. 

Atavists are strange marines who have reverted to the Great Crusade and have blank grey armour to pursue compliance in the outer reaches of the Galaxy. They're rare and strange, and still fighting to create a unified Imperium like the original plan was supposed to be.

Finally there's the Damned. These marines have taken up previously forbidden weapons, machinery, psychic practices, artificial intelligence, or deliberate mutation (perhaps by cloning). Its all going to end in tears for these marines, but in the mean time, they're going to leave very little left for either side of the conflict!

Special Rules. 

All marines have the special rule of Legiones Astartes (Blackshields) which means that they are their own faction. 

Beholden to None means that Blackshields count as both Loyalist and Traitor - at the same time - when they are the primary detachment. As an ally, they have the same allegiance as the primary detachment. But they count as distrusted allies (and count everyone else as the same). And you can't play them alongside agents of the Emperor or Warmaster either. So forget using Sisters alongside them (drat). This is very flavorful and flexible in my view. 

A Terrible Purpose gives access to the Oaths of Vengeance and Wrath which replace rites of war entirely. Courage of Conviction sees them have access to special warlord traits that they may choose if desired. Although I don't like losing rites of war, the Oaths are superlative! More on them in the near future I hope.

No Lords, No Masters.
This is the Blackshields advanced reaction. When you get charged by an enemy that consists of a Primarch, a Unique unit sub-type (i.e., named character!), someone with Master of the Legion, or the enemy Warlord, you can activate this reaction to gain fearless, A+1 against characters, or A+2 if you are facing a unique unit. This is reasonable without being outrageous and might plausibly keep you alive a little longer than you would do so otherwise.