Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legiones Consularis: Overseer

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. Very fluffy for your narrative in case you want to have a marine lead a group of mortals. 

Background.

Sometimes the legions decide to incorporate some mortals in their strategies. They might be a way to earn favour with mortal forces and bring honour to them. It might be the case that the mortals have gained a ceremonial honour. Perhaps they are bringing extra forces to simply bolster their own. In all cases, an Overseer from the space marine legions is put in charge of them on the battlefield. 

Strengths. 

The is a HQ choice and an upgrade for a consul. As such, they have all the usual selections for such HQs excepting for bikes and jet packs and similar. 

The can gain a power maul, or a power lash for some additional points. This is somewhat over priced, but is fluffy. The power lash in particular is an interesting option that doesn't occur else where and grants AP3 with shred and reach, albeit at S=3. Given that you are probably not going to get into combat so much as do a lot of shooting, this upgrade is probably not quite worthwhile in my opinion other than to illustrate the new models that Forge World / Warhammer is about to bring out (at the time of writing!). 

Their primary purpose is to be able to take a tercio of 1-3 Solar Auxilia Rifle Sections, or 1-3 Imperialis Militia infantry squads. The Overseer joins these and grants them their Ld characteristic and the tercio gets the aligned special rule for the space marine legion in question. The marine also gains the aligned special rule too which is interesting. They further cannot be allocated wounds unless there's no one else left. 

Weaknesses. 

Precision shots are going to be an issue here I feel. Regardless, this is a great way to have a small retinue of mortals join a space marine force if you don't feel you want to invest in a full allied detachment. 

Builds.

There are lots of viable builds for consuls here, but I would recommend overall to focus on shooting since you probably won't be aiming or wanting to get into combat. As such figure out if you are a moving force, or a static one, and choose a ranged weapon accordingly for your overseer. Also select your power weapon if your Overseer model displays it!