Horizon Wars: Midnight Imperium #04 - Astartes Infantry

Finally we get to where a lot of people have been desperate to get. Astartes infantry. The original Horizon Wars did its best to accommodate this, but ultimately failed to really be able to distinguish between the enormous variety of infantry types in miniatures wargaming. Midnight Dark does a little better.

Dreadnought

Starting at the top of the image, let's do the walking sarcophagi, ambulatory tombs of fallen heroes, the Dreadnoughts.

The Dreadnought begins - as it must, really - as an Elite Light Mech. And I think the basic stats for a Light Mech are pretty much on the money, so I've used neither Basic Upgrades, nor mech customisation, nor Heroic Qualities to change that.

I have, however, added a pilot with Heroic Rage to represent the ubiquitous power fist. However, if you're going to follow suit you will also have to lean on the fact that Ejection Protocols are optional and simply accept that a destroyed dreadnought doesn't get to eject its pilot if destroyed.

If you want to distinguish between the different Dreadnought weapon types, I'd recommend adding the Laser upgrade to those with the twin lascannon arm.

Astartes Squads

The basic tactical squad, equipped with bolters, I've fielded as Veteran Heavy Infantry with a +1 D Basic Upgrade.

If you have a sergeant mini with either the back banner or a dramatically flourished chainsword, you might feel moved to add either a 1*Command upgrade or a Hero or both to your squad.

The Devastator Squad with Missile Launchers, meanwhile, gets +1 F Basic Upgrade and the Missile weapon upgrade (obviously).

Unlike the others, Assault Squads start as Elite Mobile Infantry to get that vital Rapid(2) trait. You could easily go with Veteran instead for 2 points less. Then I gave them D+2 Basic upgrade for only 2 points. I was then torn between Airborne, letting them drop directly into battle, or Contragrav but, in the end, I went with Contragrav which allows them to ignore hazardous and treacherous terrain but makes them F -1 for Move & Shoot actions, which seems reasonable given that they all have bolt pistols.

The biggest issue with using Mobile Infantry is that they are P1, making them rubbish in CQB. Hence my decision to add a hero with Heroic Rage, which I'd advise as a standard feature for Assault Squads. This gives them +2 P when charging, which both makes sense and motivates the player to never let them be on the receiving end, which is a good idea, quite apart from the other benefits of having a hero attached to your element.

The Command Squad with its Company Ancient standard bearer, apothecary and officer needs a bit more of a boost. I've made this one Elite, but you could easily choose to keep it Veteran and save "Elite" for the Terminators and First Chapter. I decided to go in with a 2* Command upgrade with the Adjutant specialism, and added Combat Drugs to represent the apothecary.

Terminators

Everyone wants to know about terminators. So here's my very simple suggestion:

They're simply Elite Heavy Infantry with +2 D Basic Upgrade. If you want to play in a version of the game with teleporting, give it the Airborne utility upgrade as well.

Again, if you want to mix things up, you could add a hero. If you want to represent the Iron Hands, give everyone the Synthetic upgrade. If you want to represent Imperial Fists, you could do a mix of Reinforced Frontage and Projection Shields. There are lots of additional options to play with to make your Astartes infantry more distinct and characterful.

These are just my suggestions. If you think something else would be better, let me know in the comments!