Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Solar Auxilia Tactics

"What is the strongest weapon of mankind? The god-machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus? No! The Astartes Legions? No! The tank? The lasgun? The fist? Not at all! Courage and courage alone stands above them all!"

– Lord Solar Macharius (his time was later, but the sentiment was true back during the 31st Millennium)

"In war the greatest single deciding factor is will; without the will to do so, no sacrifice is made, no initiative seized, no objective taken and no enemy vanquished - all the guns in creation are useless without the will to pull the trigger."

– Goge Vandire, Sermons to the Frateris Templar, Vol XIII

This is the current tactics page for the Solar Auxilia in HH 2.0. The 1.0 tactics can be found here

For the generals on how to play the game and the basics on list building (as well as other tactica rules), you may want the General tactics page. You may also find the Horus Heresy general thread as "/HHG/" on /tg/.

Why play the Solar Auxilia

Enlist today!

Because in a time of angels and demigods, it takes true grit to be a mere man and to stand among them, let alone fight them. Solar Auxilia are the elite humans of the Horus Heresy, but that doesn't mean much when your going up against genetically engineered post-humans, wrapped in armour. Relying on their massed firepower, tanks and respectable 4+ armour saves to carry them to victory, while gritting their teeth and bearing the punishment that they can't brush off. It truly can be a hard time to be a mortal among demi-gods.

Alternatively, you might've seen their models and decided that a steampunk-fantasy 50's sci-fi cosmonaut aesthetic is your jam. And with the drip on those voidsmen, how could you not?

Pros

• Amazing looking models
• Stormtrooper tier soldiers with Imperial guard numbers.
• A wholly original army just for 30k, making it pretty unique.
• Models with one of the coolest aesthetics GW/FW have ever produced.
• One of the best shooting armies in the game.
• The new Cohorts doctrines give Solar Auxilia some very nice diversification in their playstyles and army building.
• Did we mention the models?

Cons

• Lost the hand holding mechanic for better WS from HH1, which are now only available in specific doctrines.
• Most artillery and blast weapons will evaporate units which each shot since they're all AP4 now. Thanks to Close-order subtype, you have a unit coherency of 1", which means your dudes will die in droves the moment your enemy pulls out a pie plate. This won't be a problem for your Marine playing opponents and their 3+ armour saves.
• This is not the Tank edition and most of your armour is far more limited in their usefulness and which guns are effective.
• Most of your stuff is more expensive now compared to 1E, and that's on top of core game mechanics favoring Marines. Point-per-point, you will lose to Astartes.
• Dreadnaughts are one of the most effective things in this edition, and you have none. Your options of taking them out are also limited.
• This army is expensive to build. Forget selling your own organs, you'll have to build a drug empire and spend your nights hunting people and harvesting all of their organs. (If you didn't get into it purely for the Skaramowski aesthetic, it can be a good 3d-print or conversion-friendly army - alternatives include Anvil Industries' Gothic Void Troopers, Cults' Steampunk Star models, Wargames Atlantic's Eisenkern, Necromunda's Van Saar or even Ash Wastes Nomads, and so on)

Core Warlord traits

Solar Auxilia do not get unique warlord traits, so you better pick the generic one that grants you the extra reaction in the phase of your choice.

• Bloody-Handed: +1 to combat resolution within 12". Extra fighting reaction.
• Stoic Defender: Grants pinning to the shooting attacks of his unit, provided they cause at least one unsaved wound. Extra shooting reaction.
• Ever-vigilant: Warlord's unit uses his Initiative+1 instead of the lowest Initiative in the unit when running. Extra movement reaction.
• Armoured Legate: Restricted to a Leman Russ Command Tank upgraded with Combat Doctrines if an Armoured Fist Pattern Cohort. The model gains a 5+ Invulnerable Save and +1 BS (taking it to 5).

Special Rules

• Close-Order Sub-Type: One of the key ways the army functions. The entire squad now has a unit coherency range of 1", cannot run or sweep, but they can move up to half their movement speed and still be able to shoot any heavy weapons as if they stood still.
  • It's most notably found on your Troop and HQ Tercios. It is not found on Veletaris so keep that in mind.

• Tercio & being in formation: Tercio is the other key way the army functions, basically allowing you to group multiple units in a single FOC slot. When units belonging to the same tercio/slot are within 3" of each other, they are considered "in formation". Being in formation gives your troopers benefits such as being able to react in the same way during a reaction that requires shooting or movement, and other things depending on your Cohort Doctrine.
  • The Imperial version of the Tau's Supporting Fire gimmick (before 9E wiped that off the board), this gives you the WALL OF GUNS as an overwatch weapon.

Cohort Doctrines

Honestly, the best bit of the older Militia rules applied to the Auxilia, to the point it deserves a section of its own. There are eight options to pick from, which are unlocked either by a model with the Combat Doctrines special rules, or a model without upgraded to have it via a specific Combat Doctrine.

<tabs> <tab name="Solar Pattern Cohorts"> The regiments that most resemble those of the early Great Crusade, such as the 1st to 10th "Saturnyne Rams", and the cohorts based upon them. These favour an older, more elite style of warfare, very focused on aerial insertions and boarding actions. This is the elite option.
Pros:

• Auxilia Veletaris Tercios may be taken a Troop choices. The boys are fucking back!
  • Due to the disappearance of the Flamer section from the Auxilia Infantry Tercio, using this Doctrine and taking Heavy Flamers on your Veletaris Vanguard is now the only way to get massed Flamers from Troops.
• All unit in a Veletaris Tercio can take Arvus Transports as dedicated transports.
  • Provides an interesting alternate deployment method for your Veletaris; namely, Deep Striking in their flying transport. That said, it's extremely frail and will die to any sort of Interceptor fire, so think carefully.
• All Auxilia Veletaris Tercios taken as Troop choices gain Line, enabling you to skip Infantry Tercios altogether and build a crack close-quarters infantry core.

Cons:

• The detachment cannot take more than one Armoured Tercio and only one Artillery Tercio.
  • Neither of these stops you bringing some allies with tanks and artillery however, assuming the 9 tanks of the basic Tercio aren't enough. Likewise, the Artillery Tercio allows up to 9 Rapiers, so this should not be a problem. Moreover, you can always take non-Tercio units, as your Heavy Support slots aren't actually restricted. Wanted more Leman Russes? Here, take a squadron of Malcadors instead.

</tab> <tab name="Ultramar Pattern Cohorts"> A new formation meant to tackle the evolution of battle in the late Crusade, pioneered by none of other than Roboute Guilliman, proving himself once again the master of all of the myriad disciplines of war. These are cohorts like the 255th Calth High Guard and the 204th Manachean cohort. The massed infantry option.
Pros:

• Auxilia Rifle Tercios can include up to 6 units. Considering you had 6 Troop slots, could take 3 units in each to begin with and had no special weapons units, this is not truly necessary.
• Lasrifle sections and Line Command sections gain +1 to hit while shooting when their bases are all in contact with each other.
  • A mirror to the old Close Formation Fighting of 1.0, except holding hands buffs your shooting instead of your melee now. This can be difficult to use; it's kind of the whole point of taking the Doctrine, but using it is basically inviting your opponent to unload all of his blasts/templates on you. Since there's otherwise no FOC limitations, consider taking some Valdors to shut enemy artillery up with Shock Pulse so that your infantry can form up in peace.
  • Alternatively, you're not required to actually form up in a square; take a leaf from the Napoleonic British by forming thin lines so you can still be extremely annoying to hit with Blast/Template weapons, while most of the unit will probably still be in range because Lasrifles has 30" range in a game where everyone else's basic infantry has 24" or less.

Cons:

• Lasrifle sections and Line Command sections cannot take any dedicated transports. This can be problematic for the purposes of taking objectives, as Close-order prevents Running and you have reduced initiative for movement Reactions.

</tab> <tab name="Reborn Cohorts"> Recently disbanded regiments whose veterans, upon hearing of the Heresy, decided to come out of retirement to kick some ass. While a bit more grizzled, those years have clearly taken their toll on the soldiers. The most famous example is Agathon's 1522nd cohort, better known as "The Lord Marshal's Own".
Pros:

• All infantry units in the detachment gain +1Ld and the Stubborn rule.
• If a unit has not moved, it may re-roll to-hit rolls of 1 when shooting.
  • Rerolling 1s is not as good as +1 to hit, but it says a unit, meaning EVERYONE GETS IT. The 10 Plasma/Melta weapons your HQ sections get? Reroll 1s. Gravis Lascannon Leman Russ? Reroll 1s. Valdor? Reroll 1s. Your Lasrifle sections and your Heavy Support choices all have good range, so standing still should not be a problem. You're also assumed as being stationary for the purposes of shooting during Reactions, so you get improved Return Fire and Overwatch, which you're already very good at because your infantry come in Tercios. Rerolling 1s to-hit also makes Gets Hot! a very minute concern, so Plasma weapons/Valdors basically don't blow themselves up anymore.

Cons:

• The detachment cannot take more than a single Armoured Tercio and only one Artillery Tercio. See the Solar Pattern tab for comments.
• Infantry units are considered to have Initiative 1 for the purposes of making reactions, running and sweeping advances. They also reduce their Initiative by 1 when determining the order of attack during the assault phase.
  • Not as bad as it sounds, as -1I isn't a big problem when you hit after Space Marines in any case (Lasrifle sections are I3, everyone else takes Unwieldy weapons to fight 2+ armour). Plus, it does absolutely nothing to hinder your shooting, which is where you did your damage.

</tab> <tab name="Feral Pattern Cohorts"> Regiments that recruit from savage worlds or barbaric cultures, resulting in fearsome but overly aggressive troopers akin to the 142th Cthonian Headhunters or 905th Ash Scorpions from Lethe.
Pros:

• Any unit made of purely infantry models may purchase Fear (1) for +25pts. This is regardless of size, so bulk up those squad size numbers.
• Your boys gain Counter-attack (1) from being in formation. This encourages you to cram as many models a possible into each Tercio. Also mitigates the impact of being forced to charge; even if you fail and get charged instead, you still get your +1A.

Cons:

• You must charge as soon as you are given the chance. So much for the famed Saturnyne Ordos discipline. Leeeeerooooy Jenkins, it is!
  • Unlike other factions, you can't work around this by firing weapons that prevent charging. Close-order allows charging after firing Heavy/Rapid Fire weapons, so your infantry can effectively always charge and therefore must charge. Better get them melee weapon upgrades.
• Loyalist armies can't handle the tribal drip (read; skulls on ropes and tribal tattoos on the armour) and treat feral cohorts as Distrusted Allies regardless of what the Allies Matrix says. No word on Custodes/Sisters of Silence, who as Agents of the Emperor are Sworn Brothers with all Loyalist armies and do not appear on the Matrix at all. Also this being Loyalist only makes more sense for allies with some Legions than some others.

</tab> <tab name="Armoured Fist Pattern Cohorts"> "Achtung Panzer!" This cohort is built around tanks and multiple Solar Auxilia armies were fielded like this during the Heresy, as the tanks helped level the playing field when facing off against the Astartes legions.
Pros:

• Auxilia Armoured Tercios may be taken as non-compulsory troops, but each can only be made up of a single squadron of Leman Russ Strike tanks.
• A single Leman Russ Command tank must be selected as the Warlord (locking out any HQ choice that outranks him). The Command tank gains the Armoured Legate Warlord trait (+1 BS, 5++) and Cohort Doctrines, allowing you to skip taking a Legate Marshal.

Cons:

• All infantry units must begin the game embarked in transports or in Reserves. You need your Lasrifle sections to take objectives, but they're far too slow to reach objectives while footslogging in from Reserves and Dracosans are too expensive to give every squad, so expect to field squads with 10 guys in an Aurox.

</tab> <tab name="Penal Pattern Cohorts"> The Solar Auxilia was meant to be the elite of the Imperial Army, but that didn't stop governors and Excertus officers from cutting corners in both budget and recruitment. This resulted in less cohesive cohorts, who nevertheless managed to give exemplary service on many occasions.
Pros:

• All models gain Furious Charge (1) and Feel No Pain (6+). Puts you up to Space Marine strength on the charge, while Feel No Pain (6+) means you can skip Medicae. However, you're still T3 and will suffer ID from everything from Power Maul onwards, so watch out.
• Any models can replace their lasrifles and volkite chargers with a variety of S3 AP- weapons for free: autorifle/lasgun (24" Rapid Fire), lascarbine (18" Assault 2 AP6), shotguns (12" Assault 2 Concussive (1)) or stubcarbines (12" Assault 3 S3). In addition, one Auxilia in any lasrifle section may take instead a Heavy Stubber for plus 5 points per model. The stubcarbine actually does more damage when in range than the Lasrifle, the shotgun can level the playing field for Rifle sections against MEQs in melee, and there are reasons below as to why you'd replace the Lasrifle with nominally inferior weapons in the lasgun/lascarbine.
  • Dropping Volkites is as stupid as it sounds; Veletaris replace their Volkites with Storm Axes, so if you're taking a shotgun for Concussive you're not taking the Axe, defeating the whole purpose of taking Concussive to begin with, while the Volkite outperforms everything on the list damage-wise by a country mile.
  • Bayonets only come on Lasrifles, so you cannot combine your Furious Charge (1) with bayonets for S5 if you've taken replacement weapons. It makes zero sense for autoguns/lasguns to not get them, but it is what it is.

Cons:

• All your units lose the Close-Order sub-type. Enjoy the extra coherency range and say goodbye to your heavy guns.
  • Your infantry are basically back to being Imperial Guard. Losing Close-order means you cannot move and fire Heavy weapons (AKA Lasrifles), so get your mobility back by taking Rapid Fire/Assault weapons. However, if you've taken a Heavy Stubber, you can't move and shoot anyway, so keep the Lasrifles in that case.
• You can only take one Auxilia Veletaris Tercio. Not much of a drawback, as one Tercio is 3 units. If you still don't have enough short ranged firepower/melee, take Tactical Command Tercios.

</tab> <tab name="Siege Pattern Cohorts"> The Solar Auxilia that clearly spent too much time around the Iron Warriors, and gained an affinity for siegecraft and being a bucket load of heavy artillery to rain hell upon their opponent. After all, "A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand Lasrifles."
Pros:

• Armoured Tercios and Artillery Tercios can be taken as both Heavy Support and Elite choices. Can actually be useful, as the Solar Auxilia Elites section isn't very good barring Veletaris (which come in Tercios anyway), while allowing you to spam the big guns you need to take out Dreadnoughts and the like.
• You can re-roll the scatter direction die when firing Blast and Barrage weapons.

Cons:

• You MUST purchase dedicated transports for every unit. You don't need to start the game in said transports, but that sorta defeats the purpose of having to pay for them. You want to rain hell as you advance? Mechanize. Like Armoured Fist, this means taking small infantry units or taking Dracosans.

</tab> <tab name="Iron Pattern Cohorts"> Because Forge World loves to cram battle-automata wherever they can, and we're not here to complain.
Pros:

• Castellax and Thallax Maniples can be taken as Elites.
• Legate Marshals, Auxilia Marshals, and Auxilia Captains can each buy Cortex Controllers for 15 points so you keep the bots under control. Additionally, the Legate Marshal gains Master of Automata to keep with the bots.

Cons:

• You can only take one Auxilia Armoured Tercio and only one Auxilia Artillery Tercio. Not a big downside considering how much you can cram into a single Tercio of any type.

</tab> </tabs>

Wargear of the Solar Auxilia

Ranged Weapons

Artillery Cannons

• Demolisher Cannon A completely different weapon from 1.0. Instead of being a 5" S10 AP2 pie plate of doom capable of destroying everything under it, it's now S12 AP3 3" Sunder Brutal (3) Rending (6+). It won't do anything against Dreadnoughts due to being AP3, but it's an excellent anti-Automata weapon, as it wounds easily, causes lots of wounds and ignores armour. Also useful in a pinch as anti-vehicle, as S12 Sunder will more or less guarantee penetration.
• Earthshaker Cannon Being AP4 instead of AP3 makes it basically worthless against MEQs. Ordnance S9 makes it still serviceable against vehicles, but you're not worried about vehicles this edition. Can be useful against non-Space Marine armies, but is that really a selling point in the Space Marine civil war game?

Auto Weapons

• Autocannon Widely available as sponson/hull mounts on tanks. Has gained Rending (6+) for improved performance in general, but remember that it's not a Defensive Weapon because it's S7, so it must fire on whatever the main cannon is shooting unless you have other special rules. This generally isn't a problem because the autocannon can do literally anything serviceably, but you can get actual Defensive weapons if you want emergency anti-infantry, while you should have taken a Lascannon if you wanted heavy duty anti-vehicle.

Heavy Stubber A literal modern day HMG. Widely available as a pintle mount on all of your vehicles, as you don't get combi-bolters. 3 shots of S4 AP6 really isn't much, but it's only 5 points so you'll make your points back if you kill just 1 guy. Also a Defensive weapon due to being <S7, so it can act as point defense and fire independently of your main guns. Not bad to be honest.

• Battle Cannon Nerfed into the ground because people were complaining about low AP pie plates making massed infantry unplayable. Instead of the previous MEQ-murdering S8 AP3 5" blast, now a S8 AP4 3" blast. The blast is too small to be useful against infantry, while against everything else it is far outperformed by its brother...
• Vanquisher Battle Cannon Lost Armourbane, but is now 2-shot and has Brutal (2). An excellent anti-Dreadnought weapon, as you can wound reliably, cause multiple hits and then cause multiple wounds. Also gained Sunder, so still very good against vehicles.

Las Weapons

• Laspistol Same old S3 AP- Pistol. Don't expect to see this a lot, as only your sergeants get it and they will almost always get to choose their unit's normal gun instead, or can take better pistols like...
• Blast Pistol The Hellpistols of the 31st Millennium. Actually very powerful weapons at S6 AP4 Pistol 2 (stronger than a Volkite Charger!), but only available to HQ sections (where it competes directly with special weapons) and unit sergeants, where its 9" range can be troublesome when the rest of the squad has 15" or 30".
• Lasrifle: The mainstays of the Solar Auxilia. Unlike last edition, these have all the attachments stock and thus have two different settings to use. Volley is your classic lasgun-like with 30" Heavy 2 S3 AP6. Blast Charger gives you the high-power punch with 18" Heavy 1 S6 AP4.
  • That range will be a necessity, as the Close-Order sub-type severely hampers the mobility of the men carrying them. That said, Close-order also lets you at least move somewhat while firing the Lasrifle.
• Multi-laser "What if I tied 3 Blast Charger rifles together?" You get this. 3 shots of S6 AP6, available by the bucketload on your vehicles. You don't get Heavy Bolters anymore, so it will have to be this for anti-light infantry. Is a Defensive Weapon on vehicles due to being <S7, so don't be too worried if the main gun is an anti-tank weapon.
• Lascannon "What if my Multi-laser fired one big shot instead?" Improved from last edition, as it has gained Sunder for improved penetration rolls. Also an instrument for killing the much-improved Terminators and Dreadnoughts in this edition, as you need the S9 to ID 2W TEQs now and Dreadnoughts now have a 2+ armour save.
• Gravis lascannon 2 of the above, so you get 2 shots.

Equipment

• Void Armour: Space Carapace armour that gives a 4+ armour save.
• Reinforced Void Armour: Void armour that also has the Heavy Sub-type.
• Heavy Void Armour: Power armour, as it gives the wearer as 3+ save and the Heavy Sub-type.
• Auxillia Vexilla: The basic one. +1 to combat resolution and stop your voidsmen from running off the table.
• Cohorts Vexilla: Only found on the command squad. It makes said squad "Line" and buffs the leadership of units nearby.
• Command Vox: The master vox. Any unit with one can share their Leadership with any other unit that has a Vox Interlock or another one of these, allowing them to use the officer's decent leadership. Works from Reserve, so feel free to hide your Legate Marshal in a Line Command Section in Reserve to broadcast his Ld10 to your entire army.
  • Vox Interlock: 1-way radio, allowing units to use the Leadership of anyone with a Command Vox. Useless without a Command Vox, so don't take 9 of these without actually having a squad with a Command Vox.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Solar Auxilia Legate Marshal: 85 points, 0-1 restriction, Infantry (Heavy, Character) - the old Lord Marshal LORD MARSHAL upgrade gets their own entry. Comes with Laspistol, Close combat weapon, Heavy Void Armour (for a 3+ save), Refractor Field, and frag and krak grenades. Can upgrade their pistol to a Blast Pistol, Needle Pistol, Hand Flamer, Volkite Serpenta, Plasma Pistol, Inferno Pistol or Archaeotech Pistol. They may also upgrade their CCW to a Power Weapon, Charnabal Weapon, Thunder Hammer, Power Fist or Paragon Blade. Any one weapon may be made master-crafted for 10 points. They may swap their armour with Artificer (you may remove the Heavy Sub-Type if you do), they may take an Iron Halo, as well as a Cyber-Familiar and Melta Bombs (those are 20 points. 20!). So you can give them a 2+ save and 3++ invuln, and with the way snipers work now you absolutely should. Battle-hardened (1) 2+/3++ 4W makes him basically impossible to kill without S8 AP2, but WS5 S3 means he won't be killing Praetors anytime soon. Also has Stubborn and COMBAT DOCTRINES.
  • COMBAT DOCTRINES unlock special bonuses for your army - these are your Rites of War, but are much more characterful, telling us the origins of your Auxilia army - so you will be seeing a Legate Marshal in nearly every list.
  • Always put this guy in a unit with a Command Vox. This lets everyone in the army with a Vox Interlock use his Ld10 for Morale checks and Pinning, which you'll need because your basic Auxilia trooper is Ld6 and their sergeants are Ld7-8.

• Auxilia Tactical Command Tercio: The most elite Tercio in the list, composed of 1-3 units, one of which must be the Tactical Command section. This is for your fancy custom elites and where you get your special weapons (Plasma, Melta, combi-weapons, etc.) as Veletaris and Lasrifle Sections have little to no choice in weapon upgrades. You can also take Power/Charnabal weapons, but this is not recommended as you could have taken Storm Axe Veletaris for that instead, whereas as aforementioned this is your only source of special weapons. Unlike Veletaris/Rifle Sections, your sections come 5-10 here. The whole Tercio gets Refractor Fields for 5++ and has 2W on everyone except for the officers, who are somehow even tougher.
  • 1 Solar Auxilia Tactical Command Section: The big banner squad, and while said banner is by no means mandatory, refusing to take it should be paramount to admitting defeat. The squad consists of a Solar Auxilia Captain with 3A 3W (yes, he has more wounds than a Space Marine Centurion) and his four friends who have Stubborn. They all come with Refractor Fields, Void armour, Melta Bombs and Lasrifles, but they can be upgraded to take a series of much better weapons like Volkite Chargers, Power Weapons paired with Blast Pistols, Combi-weapons and a couple of special weapons. The Captain can take Heavy Void armour, and be further upgraded to a Marshal (same thing except WS5 A4). The four companions can take between them a Command Vox, a Augury Scanner and a Auxilia or Cohort Vexilla, and the squad can add five more companions more for a squad of ten and some ablative wounds.
  • 0-2 Solar Auxilia Companion Section: A squad of five Companions from the Command section, but as their own squad and a WS5 Ld8 3A sergeant. They can be upped to a squad of 10 and they're pretty good since they are essentially Veletaris+. Have the same weapon options as the Command Section, so equip them accordingly.

Elites

• Auxilia Veletaris Tercio: The elite stormtrooper analogues, all given BS/WS4 and reinforced void armour, including the Heavy sub-type to help resist templates and blasts. Section sergeants can all take heavy void armor, giving them a 3+ save. The entire Tercio besides the Vanguard Section gets Volkite Chargers as part of their standard loadout, which gives them a good means on handling MEQs. They also lack the Close-Order sub-type, making them less of a juicy target to burn alive with templates.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Veletaris Command Section: Your classic command squad can replace all their guns for power weapons, but anyone with half a brain can recognize that this would be an extremely stupid idea as it gives up one of your greatest advantages in being a Tercio unless you brought that Vanguard Section to pin them down or you're building a melee Tercio. Veletaris have marine-tier WS4 I4, but 1A and no pistol, so think carefully about equipping this unit for melee. For ranged damage output, just take another Storm Section, who at the same price get 5 more dudes and can go up to 20.
  • 0-3 Solar Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section: The volkite gunlines, and you get quite a few of them at 8 points per model. As with the Command Section, you can replace their guns with Storm Axes so you aren't stuck with mere CCWs. Storm Axes are +2S AP2 Unwieldy (so you're at WS4 S5 AP2 like Power Axe MEQs); they're Two-handed, but you have no pistol/CCW so you don't care.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Veletaris Vanguard Section: Rather than volkite, these guys get to carry rotor cannons to pin anything you want your other forces to mow down. Of course, if you're dealing with hordes such as the Imperial Army or daemons, then you'd be better suited by grabbing heavy flamers for an entire block of templates.

• Solar Auxilia Medicae Section: Cheap as chips at 15 point a pop, but only Feel No Pain (6+), because whoever wrote the rules hates you. But hey, you can take plasma pistols and actual close combat weapons like Charnabal/Power and Power Fists now! If you're taking any, be sure to give these to your Command Tercio squads with Plasma Guns, as it gives them another layer of protection against AP4 Gets Hot!.

• Solar Auxilia Surgeon-Primus Aevos Jovan: Has Bitter Duty which means that he doesn't get to join anyone anymore, which is perhaps for the best as he's Bulky(5) thanks to his auto-gurney. How does he stay protected then? He has a low-priority-target aura that prevents him from being targeted from further than 12" away, unless he shoots first. Within 12", he gives -1Ld to everyone (friend or foe) because he's Victor Frankenstein in the 31st Millennium.
  • Instead of conferring Feel No Pain, he now straight up makes your guys come back to life. Once a turn, you can roll a D6 for any friendly Infantry model that dies within 12" of him in Movement/Shooting Phases. On a 1 it comes back with 1 wound and dies at the end of your next turn while having +1S/T until then. On 2-5, it just comes back with 1 wound. On a 6 however, it comes back with ALL WOUNDS. Legate Marshal got sniped by Recon Squads? Just respawn him, no biggie. You can also take up to 3 Orderlies, which you can sacrifice to the Auto-Gurney to increase or decrease your roll by 1, in case you want to make sure your Legate Marshal/Ogryn/(insert important model) comes back.

• Charonite Ogryn Section:they cost 40 pts per Ogryn, have S/T5, Rage (2), Hammer of Wrath (2), Feel No Pain (5+) and 4 attacks at S7 AP3 weapon with Rending (6+), what's not to like? Well, a lot, actually. First of all, at WS4 they aren't effective against dedicated Marine melee squads. Second, thanks to Bitter Duty your characters won't be joining them. Third, while they have a safety net of Death Frenzy (basically, if you fail a Morale check, remove one model and count that check as passed while getting +1 attack per model for the next turn for your trouble), their Ld of 6 will do jack shit against Pinning or any other shenanigans with Ld. Oh, and their Claws also lost Instant Death rule, because heavens forbid you actually hurt any Dreadnaught or TEQ in close combat. They still come with no DT, but can be transported by Dracosans now.

Troops

• Auxilia Infantry Tercio: The bread and butter of your army, with most of your universal Line units. No longer includes Veletaris or Flamer sections (moved to Elites), nor Aegis Lines. No longer locked into sizes of 20, it makes your army marginally less expensive to collect as you may use leftover voidsmen from one unit to bulk up the numbers of another. However, the Close-Order sub-type makes these guys the most prone to being wiped out by pieplates and templates.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Line Command Section: As the force leading your tercios, you'll be needing these guys behind the rest of your guns. A Command Vox will hardly do you wrong in keeping order in the squad as you're otherwise stuck relying on that mere Ld7 for everything.
  • 1-3 Solar Auxilia Rifle Section: The most budget force you can ever get, as each model is only 5 points. Each soldier carries a lasrifle, which actually have variable settings, with a lasgun-tier Volley that shoots twice each time and the heavy-power Blast Charger so you have the chance to wound marines with a single S6 shot. If you're worried about melee and aren't facing against marines with Power Mauls that can paste them within seconds, then you might be okay with bayonets.

Dedicated Transports

• Dracosan Armoured Transport: Ol' reliable Malcador chassis. Still the best looking vehicle in the range, still more expensive than most of the squads it carries, still not a superheavy or an assault vehicle, still unavailable to Ogryns who need it the most. That being said, the new variety of squads of the squads have given the Dracosan a much needed flexibility in its use. With a transport capacity of 22, it can comfortably move around a deathstar unit, plus Marshall and medic. Has the choice of purchasing a Demolisher cannon for 50 point, at the expense of reducing it's transport capacity to 10 and not by 10, leaving it in a rather akward spot for transporting smaller units. In addition, the dracosan may also equip
• Aurox Transport: Your rhino equivalent. Cheap as chips at only 30pts, maybe 40 after upgrades. Can only carry 10 models but since your basic lasrifle voidsman can move and shoot it is an appealing prospect for transport. Not much so for protection since its armor is paper-thin, but since Auxilia won't ever be carrying elite terminators or artificer-armored units, it's not that big of a deal. These lil' buggers aren't cheap in ca$h however, so whatever money you think you are saving by splitting your 20-man squads into multiple min size ones will soon evaporate if you're planning to mechanize.

Fast Attack

• Arvus Transport: A flying bus. Has lost its options - expect for these to come back via Panoptica team (if you use their excellent rules).
• Divisio Aeronautica Primaris-Lightning: Comes at 150 points, costs more than the Thunderbolt (it does have +4" M, but lacks the extra autocannons) for the sole reasons of being able to take Kraken Penetrators you know and love - 36" S8 AP1 Armourbane and One Use. However, since this edition is not Vehicle-friendly, their value has greatly diminished, and they lack Brutal to deal with Dreadnaughts. There are also Sunfury missiles, but they are hilariously bad.
• Divisio Aeronautica Thunderbolt: Comes at 120 points, and has more weapons and special rules than the Lightning.

Heavy Support

• Auxilia Armoured Tercio: Your Leman Russes. Many Cohort Doctrines restrict you to one Armoured Tercio par detachment, but since you can cram up to 9 tanks in here its not that big of an issue.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Armoured Command Section: Moved from HQ to command of their own Tercio, and riding a single basic Leman Russ with battlecannon, but one which can take tasty upgrades (Flare Shield for 20pts and Cognis-Signum for 25pts). Like the standard Russ, it also has the Outflank special rule by default. That being said, it's +50 points over the already poor Battle Cannon Leman Russ, while buying a cognis-signum means you've just spent 225 points to give 3 tanks +1 BS and 4 ablative hull points. Is this really worth it?
  • Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Squadron: 150 points give you a 14/13/10 vehicle with four HP and Outflank that moves 12". It comes with either a battlecannon, two gravis lascannons, two gravis autocannons, or a Vanquisher Battlecannon with co-axial autocannon for a measly +5pts. The squadron can include a pair of additional tanks with a discount of 15 points each.
    • Yes, RAW Solar Auxilia Russes have 4 lascannons or autocannons in their turrets. It might be a typo or just an attempt to account for the Exterminator Autocannon having a higher rate of fire, either way you'll need those to put up a fight against Legiones Astartes, as well as to make them remotely competitive against the Vanquisher; the 2 Gravis Lascannons may have 4 shots, but the Vanquisher is a 2-shot weapon with reroll to-hit (co-axial weapon) and Brutal (2).
  • Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Assault Squadron: Carries either a demolisher cannon (underrated but still mean), Executioner Plasma Cannon (5" Plasma Cannon) or Volkite Macro-Saker. Does not have Outflank, but is Reinforced. Weapon choices aren't rocket science; Demolisher for anti-vehicle/Automata, Executioner for anti-TEQ, Macro-Saker for anti-light infantry.

• Auxilia Artillery Tercio: The heavy weapons teams of the Solar Auxilia, now in Tercio format. These consists as usual of three units, of which at least one rapier or tarantula unit is mandatory.
  • 0-1 Solar Auxilia Artillery Command Section: Command Squad like the one in the troop slot Tercio, with option to take a Cognis-signum. Honestly nothing too impressive. You're better off taking more rapiers.
  • Solar Auxilia Tarantula Sentry Battery: A bit broken - expect the Liber Panoptica peeps to fix this.
  • Solar Auxilia Rapier Battery: Comes with multi-laser battery, but can swap for Gravis Heavy Bolter, Laser Destroyer or Quad Launcher (with frag only, but these can upgrades with Incendiary, Shatter or Splinter).

• Solar Auxilia Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron: Up to three tanks at 225 points each give you a 13/13/12 chassis with 14" movement. For 10pts it can trade its battlecannon for 2 gravis lascannons (4 shots!) or Vanquisher battlecannon. That said, the Vanquisher is better provided on Leman Russes because they get a co-axial weapon. The heavy bolter on the front and sides can be exchanged for an autocannon, multilaser or heavy flamer, or upgraded to a lascannon for 10 and 25 points respectively. If you want heavy duty anti-vehicle, the front heavy bolter can be exchanged for a Demolisher cannon for 50 points. It can also take a flare shield and dozer blade, in case you're building a plan around these things.

• Solar Auxilia Armoured Battery: Your basilisks or medusae. 200 points per vehicle is ridiculously expensive for an AP4 gun, even with 240" range, S9 and Large Blast, Shred and Pinning. Can be exchanged for Medusa Mortar that trades 204" of range and Shred for Rending (6+). Thanks, but no thanks. If you really want high strength AP4, take some Leman Russes.

• Solar Auxilia Valdor Tank Hunter: Take to taste instead of Vanquishers? Trade in some of your superlative anti-Dreadnought ability (no more Brutal) for anti-armor (shut enemy blast weapons up with Shock Pulse). However, you only get 1 per slot as opposed to 9 Leman Russ Vanquishers.

• Solar Auxilia Cyclops Demolition Vehicle: You will laugh in the face of your enemies! 1-3 cyclops, each of which come with an operator (who acts independently after deployment, so hide them!). Can also be carried in an Aurox, Arvus or Dracosan - you must pick one for each Cyclops. Now just attacks in close combat with a single autohit that also removes the Cyclops itself. The problem is while previously the little suicide robot blew up at I10, now it does at I1. S10 AP1 Instant Death, Armourbane and Brutal (2) means you'd want to target high value targets, but WS1, T5, 2 Wounds and 3+ pretty much guarantees anything bar Vehicles is quite capable of beating the little guy to death before he does anything, unless you're already in combat using another unit that can take the hits instead. In short - bad unit has somehow been made worse.

Lords of War

• Malcador Infernus: No longer a bomb! Also no longer AP3, so no reason to take this instead of the below.

• Solar Auxilia Stormhammer: Fantastic at 500 points. The Stormhammer Cannon has the old Battle Cannon statline of S8 AP3 and a 7" blast; ordinarily not spectacular, but an absolute world-beater by 2.0 standards because it can ID entire squads of MEQs through their armor. It has upgrades but they are inconsequential since at such a perfectly rounded value, this tank is the perfect way to reduce or expand the size of your army to match that of of your opponent's. Like all Solar Auxilia kits, its quite expensive. But chances are that this unit might give returns sooner than later both on and off the table. Take this at every opportunity; the main cannon is absolutely disgusting against Space Marine armies, and it's bristling with anti-infantry Defensive weapons that can take out closer infantry targets. Its BS3 isn't even that much of a concern; scattering doesn't matter too much with a 7" blast, and if you're close enough you can eliminate even that by using your co-axial weapon.

Allies

• Legiones Astartes
• Agents of the Emperor
• Mechanicum
• Knight Households
• Legiones Custodes
• Sisters of Silence

Army Tactics

Warhammer 30,000 Tactics Articles
General Tactics	General (7E) Movement (7E) Psychic (7E) Fortifications (7E)
Imperium	Legiones Astartes (7E)
	Legio Custodes (7E) Sisters of Silence (7E) Mechanicum (Legio Mechanicum • Taghmata Omnissiah)
	Questoris Knights (7E) Solar Auxilia (7E) Imperialis Militia (7E)
Chaos	Ruinstorm Daemons (7E • 7E Codex) Warp Cults(7E)