Legacies of Glory and you

[Tyrendian]

So, Imperial Armour Volume Two - Second Edition: Warmachines of the Adeptus Astartes has been out for quite a while now, giving us updated rules for all our ForgeWorld Space Marine Goodies, collected neatly in one (frankly brilliant!) book. Certainly lessens the cause for complaint about where to find the most current rules for something Astartes related...
But that's not all there is to that book - besides the usual plethora of background information, it contains a fun little additional rules section entitled Legacies of Glory. This contains some neat little upgrades for your average Marine vehicle (often including the not-so-average Super Heavies), representing that said vehicle has been in service ever since the Great Crusade and the infamous Horus Heresy and has taken part in an especially memorable battle of that age. Basically, you are allowed to purchase one Legacy of Glory per full 1000pts of your Space Marine, Blood Angel, Dark Angel or Space Wolf army (sorry Grey Knights, you're special enough as is it seems... variant lists like Siege Assault Vanguard or Tyrant's Legion are in though), with certain further restrictions attached to some of the upgrades. There's no need for you to play one of the original Legions though - many of these venerated War Machines have been passed on to other chapters, salvaged from a battlefield or even taken as Spoils of War and reconsecrated. That way, one might have a Salamanders Land Raider that crunched through the fires of burning Prospero! Off course, you should consider modelling such a venerable tank accordingly to represent its history.
I'll go over the available Legacies of Glory, giving a rough indication of what it does and some potential uses that spring to my mind - feel free to add your own ideas! I hope this may be of some use to people that have not yet had the chance to buy the book - and be it just to convince you it's worth getting...

Starting us of, we've got the Battle of Keylek, and it's a powerful one too. Any vehicle that has Blast weapons can give all of those weapons the Ignores Cover special rule. The obvious candidate for this is of course the Vindicator - although it raises the cost quite significantly, Ignores cover on a Demolisher Cannon just plain hurts! Another idea would be the Storm Eagle with its Vengeance Launcher - those two large blasts are sure to wipe a Fire Warrior squad a turn when they ignore that pesky Aegis Defense Line... And then there's the mighty Fellblade, with both its main gun and the Demolisher making good use of this Legacy of Glory, although for quite a steep price.

Next up is the Ullanor Crusade, which is obviously geared against Orks, giving either Preferred Enemy (Orks) [on a tank] or Hatred (Orks) [on a Walker]. In addition, anyone charging a Vehicle that has seen the Emperor personally slaughter the Greenskin will be so much in awe of it that he has to re-roll all successful hits against it that turn. Quite specifically geared against Orks, but it might be useful on a vehicle that is expected to get up into the opponent's face and thus run the risk of getting charged, and the price point is not all that high.

Third is the infamous War of Murder, and unsurprisingly a vehicle that has witnessed the fight against the Megarachnids is quite adept at Hunting Monsters. In addition to that, it acts as a lynchpin for your forces, making sure noone in close proximity to it will ever falter in their duty or fall back. This is probably most useful on something that has the tools to deal with Monstrous Creatures as it is, making it that much better at its job, while anchoring your gunline around it. Might not be all that advisable for an assault vehicle though, since sometimes you want the option to fall back out of a bad combat, especially with ATSKNF.

Then there's my personal favourite, the Battle of Sarosh. Basically, this makes you vehicle paranoid, allowing it to once per game give one of its guns Interceptor, Skyfire, Tank Hunter and Night Vision. This needs to be on something with a powerful, ideally turreted gun to be effective - something like a Deimos Pattern Predator with either Plasma Destroyer or Heavy Conversion Beamer. I am going to put this on my Sicaran Battle Tank though - with Tank Hunter, its Accelerator Cannon stands decent odds of taking out even a Heldrake on Interceptor shots alone, let alone any less tough flier.

Now we transition from the Great Crusade into the Horus Heresy, with the Battle of isstvan III. This is similar to Ullanor, in that it gives you a boost against a specific enemy (CSM in this case obviously), but instead of making you harder to charge the vehicle will plow through ruins and such without a care in the galaxy. This might be decent, if expensive, for some kind of heavy transport that can't afford to be slowed or diverted by terrain, should your usual battlefields contain a lot of ruins...

Next we have what might be considered the most unfortunate battle of a very unfortunate time - the Burning of Prospero. Any vehicle that has seen fighting there will be more resistant to psychic powers, especially the more violent varieties. Cool and fluffy for Space Wolf players, but there usually aren't enough psychic powers that threaten tanks to make this really worth it.

Then there's the probably second most bloody battle of the time - the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre. Any machine spirit that has completed an orbital drop into that kind of hell will naturally be quite adept at it, meaning it will always hit the exact mark when Deep Striking. This might be fun for Blood Angels Land Raiders, if only to see your opponent's face - the obvious use though is on a Drop Pod containing cargo that is critical for your battle plans, like a large squad of Honour Guard with assorted Characters or maybe even Sternguard that want to chirurgically make use of their combi weapons - and the upgrade is cheaper than a Sternguard model to boot, so why not!

With the next one, the Battle of Calth, the exact connection between background and rules escapes me. You again get a boost against CSM - that much is clear - but what does Calth have to do with making opposing Warlords a little bit of a coward by lowering their leadership if they're close to the vehicle? It's not even all that useful against CSM either, since most of their likely Warlords are Fearless either way...

The Battle of Signus Prime, on the other hand, makes perfect sense again. In addition to the obvious boost against Daemons, this makes your nearby squads Charge Furiously into any enemy they encounter - perfect fit for what the Blood Angels did at Signus (but don't worry, you are not going to slaughter a squad of Space Wolves that happens around - you're not THAT angry). Although expensive, I think this is decent on Land Raiders or other assault transports for Blood Angels and Space Wolves especially, making the cargo hit that much harder when they hop out of it (or just happen to stand next to it later in the game).

The next one, the Battle of the Phall System, can savely be ignored I'd say. It gives one of your assault gunships (Storm Eagle or Thunderhawk) a bonus of 1 to its Jink save, or a 6+ one on the THawk which usually can't Jink - not all that bad so far, but it's very expensive for what it does, so that's a no go for me.

You think you've seen ugly? Well, this vehicle has witnessed the Thramas Crusade, with the Night Lords slaughtering at will - and thus absolutely nothing will faze its machine spirit any more, and it projects that bravery in a wide radius around it. Like Murder, this is probably best used to anchor your gun line, and this time you've got a lot more leeway with your positioning because of the larger area covered - but it's quite expensive.

Among a Machine Spirits's worst nightmares must be the sight of its creators tearing each other apart, as happened during the Schism of Mars. Having witnessed the horrors spawned by the forges of the Dark Mechanicum, this vehicle has become quite adept at Hunting mechanized opposition of any kind, especially the demonic variety, and is resistant to most assaults on its systems (i.e. Haywire). Since it's not all that expensive, this is a nice boost for your average Predator Annihilator, or maybe even standard Land Raider.

The culmination of the Horus Heresy, the Battle of Terra, of course has its own Legacy of Glory. Any machine that has lived through this battle of battles simply Will Not Die, Period. Sadly, this is quite expensive, and thus best reserved for you largest and most valuable assets - I'd say Land Raider/Storm Eagle level and upwards.

The last three Leagcies of Glory are more generic and not tied to a single battle. First, you can make your vehicle an Icon of Glory - this is about as expensive as it sounds, but gives it a boost to its combat skills and makes it the ideal command post for your Warlord, boosting his Command Traits as long as he's near it. The drawback is that its glory is such that it counts as a secondary objective for you opponent to destroy it - and since that can easily cost you the game, I personally wouldn't use this.

Shrouded Provenance is a very stylish one. Pretty much the only thing that is known about this vehicle is that it is Venerable - but since noone knows what side it was on during the Heresy, it's also hard to trust it, meaning you always treat it as an Ally of Convenience to its own detachment (doesn't use the Allies slot though of course). That obviously rules it out for transports, but it might be quite nice on a Super Heavy when you don't expect many D weapons - even Meltas go from a 50% to a 25% chance of causing those extra hull points on a pen when you're Venerable...

And last up is Ancient Mariner - a very cheap upgrade for a transport that lets any squad transported in it re-roll any Archeotech Artifact or Mysterious Terrain they encounter and don't like. Gimmicky at best I'd say...

And that wraps up this overview of the Legacies of Glory - a very fun concept in my opinion, with some great modelling opportunities and some potentially powerful battlefield applications as well. What do you guys think?

[DWest]

I love the Legacies, but one question; Battle of Sarosh-- I'm sort-of assuming that since it grants Interceptor, you can pop the buff during the opponent's movement phase and intercept something, but I'm not solid on that actually being the case.

Also, I believe Battle of Calth has to do with how the Ultras should have been bent over a barrel, but they rallied and drove the Word Bearers back, so it represents that "what doesn't kill me, was the last mistake you'll ever make" kind of situation.

[Tyrendian]

I love the Legacies, but one question; Battle of Sarosh-- I'm sort-of assuming that since it grants Interceptor, you can pop the buff during the opponent's movement phase and intercept something, but I'm not solid on that actually being the case.

Also, I believe Battle of Calth has to do with how the Ultras should have been bent over a barrel, but they rallied and drove the Word Bearers back, so it represents that "what doesn't kill me, was the last mistake you'll ever make" kind of situation.

yeah it never specifies timing for that, so I'm also assuming it works whenever you want it to - RAW it doesn't even give a duration, so the rules stay there for the rest of the game - which is not RAI I think, and I wouldn't try to play it that way either.
And yeah that's probably what Calth is about - still bit of a stretch if you ask me, far less clear cut than the others...

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

Then there's the probably second most bloody battle of the time - the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre. Any machine spirit that has completed an orbital drop into that kind of hell will naturally be quite adept at it, meaning it will always hit the exact mark when Deep Striking. This might be fun for Blood Angels Land Raiders, if only to see your opponent's face - the obvious use though is on a Drop Pod containing cargo that is critical for your battle plans, like a large squad of Honour Guard with assorted Characters or maybe even Sternguard that want to chirurgically make use of their combi weapons - and the upgrade is cheaper than a Sternguard model to boot, so why not!.

<SNIP>

What do you guys think?

I have used Isstvan V on my Raven Guard, Storm Eagle a couple times. I have found it to be really powerfully for a number of reasons. One is that it is so nice to be able to target the enemy back corner to deep strike with out fear of drifting of the board. Also this combined with a Zooming Entrance form reserves is great synergy. Also a Deep striking Flyer can face any direction. This is like a free Vector dance to me. Also to have this on a Raven Guard, Drop ship is very fluffy. If some one tried to tell me their Land Raider had this, i would feel sick.

[DWest]

If some one tried to tell me their Land Raider had this, i would feel sick.

Blood Angels specifically gain Deep Strike for their Land Raiders (the theory being, the rest of the army is too fast for the LR to keep up, so they plop it into place with a Thunderhawk)

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

Blood Angels specifically gain Deep Strike for their Land Raiders (the theory being, the rest of the army is too fast for the LR to keep up, so they plop it into place with a Thunderhawk)

I'm not saying that it would make me sick to play against a Blood Angel Land raider that came in via Deep Strike. I'm saying if some one tried to tell me that their Land Raider had the Legacy of Glory, Isstvan V, I would have 2nd thoughts about playing them. I don't seem to recall any mention of the Blood Angels, or anyone for that mater, dropping Land Raiders out of the sky on Isstvan V.

[Tyrendian]

I'm not saying that it would make me sick to play against a Blood Angel Land raider that came in via Deep Strike. I'm saying if some one tried to tell me that their Land Raider had the Legacy of Glory, Isstvan V, I would have 2nd thoughts about playing them. I don't seem to recall any mention of the Blood Angels, or anyone for that mater, dropping Land Raiders out of the sky on Isstvan V.

huh? then how do you think they got them there?... combat drop via Thunderhawk Transporter (or other variant of your choice). And on the subject of it being Blood Angels now, I'll just quote myself:

There's no need for you to play one of the original Legions though - many of these venerated War Machines have been passed on to other chapters, salvaged from a battlefield or even taken as Spoils of War and reconsecrated. That way, one might have a Salamanders Land Raider that crunched through the fires of burning Prospero! Off course, you should consider modelling such a venerable tank accordingly to represent its history.

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

Yeh i do hear you but i still cant keep it down. Sure there were Land Raiders on Isstvan V and sure a Blood Angel chapter could have ended up with one some how but... To say the Land Raiders Machine spirit learned how to do pin point deep strikes from the events there is a bridge to far for me. By the rules as printed i would say it would be "legal" but to me doing so would just seem to be a bit "un-fluffy". Maybe if they said the Legacy was for the Drop ship doing the off loading....

[Tyrendian]

Yeh i do hear you but i still cant keep it down. Sure there were Land Raiders on Isstvan V and sure a Blood Angel chapter could have ended up with one some how but... To say the Land Raiders Machine spirit learned how to do pin point deep strikes from the events there is a bridge to far for me. By the rules as printed i would say it would be "legal" but to me doing so would just seem to be a bit "un-fluffy". Maybe if they said the Legacy was for the Drop ship doing the off loading....

I do also see where you're coming from... now that you say it, I'm not even sure they specify it's the vehicle's machine spirit itself... that bit might just have been my fancy way of saying things... and no book on hand to check (friend borrowed it). Also, couldn't the Land Raider's machine spirit, certainly a very old and powerful one, communicate with the Drop-Ship's somehow and guide it?

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

"Nervertheless, the vehicle's machine spirits remembers them yet, its demeanor shaped by the horrors it witnessed at the very birth of the imperium of Man"

I might be a bit to tight with my fluff and need to chill but it just smell of cheeeeze.