Legions Subfaction

The Legions constitute the bloody sword of the empire. At the sharp edge of that sword are the regular legionnaires. In contrast to the standard forces of most opposing factions, Legionnaires are professional soldiers – scarred and battle-hardened veterans who are continuously trained. Encased in heavy armor, the legionnaires can outlast most foes, and together with their discipline of iron, they are a victory stealing force.

Supporting them are cohorts of elite praetorians, armed and trained for specific battlefield roles such as the Carnifexors whose halberds fell the enemy’s towering monsters.

The majority of the empire’s legions and fleets are deployed in the peripheral provinces where these freshly brutalized lands

are tyrannized by military governors. Uprisings are an almost annual event, and so too are incursions from beyond the empire’s new borders. Besides fighting pitched battles, legionnaires perform diverse roles as escorts, scouts, guards, border patrols, and couriers.

Centurion Background

As hard as nails and accustomed to the privations of campaigning, Centurions represent the ultimate combat officer. Just as the legions are the backbone of the empire, so the Centurions are the backbone of the legions, and it is upon their shoulders that the empire rests. Centurions are tasked with leading important missions, such as patrols of disputed borders; escorting important officials; conducting reconnaissance of enemy territory; leading resupply expeditions; commanding outpost garrisons; carrying out raids; supporting tax collectors; and couriering military intelligence. Due to their position of trust they are the ideal choice for delicate missions such as capturing enemy leaders,  tracking and executing rebels, sabotaging enemy resources etc.

Game Role

Like all the starterbox warlords, the Centurion is an all-rounder who can fight in melee and provide some support to buff units.

On the supporting side, the Centurion doubles his LEAD range for ordering tactics to friendly living

models/units. He also has an extremely useful unit tactic to increase MEL or POW by +1, which is extremely useful considering the low POW of Legionnaires.

He can also has a de-buff to cause enemy models/units to be unable to receive tactics, and additionally he can allow units to measure their charge range before declaring a charge.

On the melee side, he has MEL 8 and POW3 or 4 with most of his weapons. One ability allows him to spend one less action token on melee attacks, down to a

minimum of 1 ACT, against enemy models in base contact with him. So he can easily make 6 attacks per round.

His disarm ability causes an individual model damaged by a melee attack to spend one additional action token for its next melee attack, so he is ideal for pitting against warlords, creatures and characters. This is especially true because of his survivability, because he can easily reach DEF14 and ARM of 10 due to his item options.

The Centurion is very tough opponent who makes an ideal leader for a Legions warband. On the down side, he is heavy infantry so he needs normally 2-3 rounds of movement before he can get stuck in.

Princeptor Background

There are times when only brash recklessness, dirty tactics and outrageous brutality win the day. For such occasions, the Princeptor was created. Unlike other soldiers and officers of the Legions, the Princeptor is not a volunteer and did not spend months in parade-ground formation drills; instead the Princeptors are bought by the Legions from the underworld of the gladiator trade – the seedy and savage pit-fighting clubs. The lucky candidates wake up inside a secret military camp specialized in taming these wild and audacious individuals just sufficiently to make them manageable.

Game Role

The Princeptor is a pure and simplemelee character useful for delivering extra damage at key points in the battle line or capturing mission objectives in scenarios.

Besides his excellent fighting stats (MEL 7) he also has two excellent skills – Parry and Riposte. Parry allows him to avoid attacks which have hit, and Riposte allows him to make a return attack spending 1 less action token.

The hardened Will of the Princeptor means he can take on horror-causing enemies with no problem.

With DEF13, ARM7 and parry tactic, he has very good survivability for a melee character, making him ideal for binding enemy warlords and creatures. You can deploy 2 Princeptors in a regular warband and it often makes sense to do so.

In addition to his fighty side, the Princeptor also has a tactic he can order to units increasing their chance of making critical hits.

Legionnaires Background

The steel-booted behemoth known as the Legions is composed of career soldiers who are well-equipped and thoroughly trained professionals paid for their bloody work. The mainstay of the Legions is the regular Legionnaire, who is used for every conceivable dirty, dark and dangerous job the empire needs doing. Such assignments include pitched battles against terrifying monsters, making suicidal frontal assaults on fortifications, patrolling unstable borders, garrisoning outposts at the edge of civilization, policing occupied cities, The standard legionnaire is armed with gladius (short sword) for close-quarter fighting and pilums (throwing spears), which are hurled during assaults. Legionnaires enjoy effective protection from blows due to their banded armor of lorica segmentata and large scutum shields. In whatever barbaric cesspool or urban hellhole the empire places a standard, Legionnaires must be present to defend it.

Game Role

Legionnaires are “tanky” heavy infantry with professional soldier fighting stats. DEF13 and ARM9 are their awesome basic statistics, which can be increased to 15/11 when using their Testudo tactic. Besides being very difficult to kills, Legionnaires are also decent fighters, with a MEL of 6, which puts them above regular militia standard.

The drawbacks of the Legionnaires are their relatively slow speed (9 inches per round), and their low POW attacks.

Legionnaires are best used when buffed by a tactic from the Centurion or Princeptor and a spell from the Necromagus. It’s quite easy to buff them to POW4 even without charge bonus of fighting style bonus.

Legionnaires are the perfect core for a Legions warband and are also useful in Technostratum warbands.

Praetorian Carnifexors Background

Early in the glorious history of the legions, the empire collided with enemies it could not crush using conventional legionnaires, and so the Praetorians were conceived. For felling forests of heavy infantry and toppling monstrous beasts, the Lichelords created the Praetorian legions called Carnifexors. Praetorian Carnifexors wear heavy armor of chainmail and lorica segmentata, rendering them almost as invulnerable as ordinary legionnaires, but instead of the usual gladius, they wield heavy halberds which hit with considerably more power. Carnifexors are hardened veterans all, drawn from the best and bravest veterans among the regular legions.

Game Role

Carnifexors are heavy infantry, like the Legionnaires, but these are not tanky blocking troops; these are elite melee killers.

When attacked, they can chose to fight last instead of simultaneously, and then they are able to reduce the Action token cost of their attacks. They also gain a bonus on critical hits, so they have a great synergy with the Princeptor who can increase their chances of scoring criticals. Besides this, they have a basic MEL of 7 and a POW of 6, so they can cause a lot of damage.

Defensively they do okay with a basic Def of 13 and ARM of 8 plus7 life points. They are specialists in fighting together, so they gain +1 MEL and +1 DEF vs enemy models engaged by 2 or more Carnifexors.

Carnifexors are ideal for taking on enemies with a lot of life points or good armor, so elite infantry and cavalry or warlords or creatures. They do fine against cheap infantry too, but that could sometimes be a waste of their talents considering they cost 22 points each.