The Great Slaughter - Legions Imperialis Review
Good morning, all! Today I’m going to tell you about the upcoming expansion for my top-focus game at the moment - Legions Imperialis. Games Workshop were incredibly kind and send out a PDF copy of The Great Slaughter for me to have a nosey at, and I was very happy to do so. So, grab a brew, prepare the tiny Astartes hordes and check out below if this book is something you might be keen on.
Lore:
As with almost all Games Workshop gaming expansion publications, about half of this book is lore, and the rest is gaming material. The lore focuses on the outlying battles around the Beta-Garmon sector, a crucial lynchpin asset to the Imperium that was the last bastion between Horus and the Traitors manning their assault on the Sol system (spoiler alert, it didn’t end well).
The lore is fine, and the realistic artwork depicting our favourite range of toy tanks and god-machines are, as always, lovely to admire. What is particularly nice is the amount of PROPER nerdy bits of these sections. By this, I mean the maps with great big red legion markers, fixed next to arrows headed for key locations on a massive expanse of land with little dots and million-man inhabited settlements and cities throughout. Likewise, I’m a sucker for boot numbers. We have a breakdown of what forces were represented and in what number at the battle for Nyrcon City and the outlying lands. For the traitors, this comes to some 23,000 Astartes, 3.7 million mortal soldiers of Auxilia and militia, 82 Knights and 22 god machines. It all makes for a fantastic imagining of the resources around this mere speck of space during the age of darkness. It’s all very rich and compelling and makes me want to revisit Titandeath again. Although, the two stories don’t cross over in any given detail that I’ve noticed. Overall, the lore is fine and enjoyable for those who appreciate that element of the hobby.
Campaigns:
Here’s the important bit! This book offers a suitable resources for planning and playing your own linked games and campaigns within Legions Imperialis. There are two that ways you can go about this:
WARFRONT - A series of linked games that form your narrative amongst a group of players. Players are matched against one another (up to 8 per campaign) and muster their armies as per the norm. You play your games and campaign points are accrued as you go. Once that round of battles ends, you reshuffle the players and play another round. Requisition points are accrued from games you play that can be spent to add additional points you can add to your army. These points can be spent on filling optional slots in any given formations up the legal limit and are granted to players at the end of games. Thus, a victory or draw nets you D6x15 requisition points, and a defeat nets you D6x10. The campaign ends once either the total amount of games are played or a player achieves the maximum amount of Victory Points.
This seems a fair and admin-safe way to play a campaign of Legions Imperialis amongst a group of 4 to 8 players. It’d be great for a store or gaming club to have their games fought with a more distinctive sense of purpose.
CONQUEST - Draw your battle lines and mark your targeted sectors, conquest involves a campaign set around a map of your own creation!
This is the chewy, delicious centre of this book. The rules are set out to enable you to design your map and forge the narrative for a hugely immersive way to play Legions Imperialis. The book comes with an example of a map that you can copy based on the Second Battle of Nyrcon City. Fortunately, this offers a huge scope to create your own map as you desire. The book mentions hex-based maps specifically but there’s no reason you can’t be endlessly creative in the format of your map campaign.
Each faction involved in the campaign (Loyalist and Traitor) has an assigned commander. Then each player for each faction rolls a dice that assigns their territory on the map. Leaving some (or hopefully plenty) of neutral territories to conquer/liberate/ransack.
A Conquest Campaign Sequence involves 8 steps:
Determine Invaders
Invade Territories
Protect Territories
Determine Battles
Muster Armies
Resolve Battles
Capture Territories
Cycle End Phase
The territories in question being sought after vary from Titan Forges (that, when conquered, allow you a great contingency of titans for your factions allocation), to Militarum Aerodromes that enable a wider allowance of territories you can opt to attack, to Plains which increase the movement capability of your cavalry units in that game. These are just a few given examples of the different territories given in the book. There are also mechanics for boons that are awarded to players outstanding in their command (or being voted for by the other players) that grant a bonus for the next game. There’s also support for cross-system warfare across a sector of multiple planets being fought over.
Overall, This is the chunk of the book that I’m paying money for. As an event organiser and thirster for all things narrative and campaign-based, this is what I’ve wanted for Legions Imperialis since day dot.
MISSIONS:
There are four additional missions in this book. This seems a little light, and I was hoping for an Open War element of randomly generated mission packs. Hopefully, that will come in good time.
TITANDEATH:
This is an interesting premise for this release. We’ve had Adeptus Titanicus for over half a decade now, and whilst it is by no means a perfect system with its clunky and cumbersome admin terminals and heavy turn sequence, it is hugely adored by its cult followers, including myself.
This “AT-Lite” method of playing the game is something that I intend to get around to at some point. Condensed to 8 pages of rules that cover primary and secondary objectives, amongst various specific missions outside of that page count, it’ll be interesting to see how it translates alongside Titanicus. If this can be played within an hour, without losing too much of the excellent flavour and micro-management that Titanicus is renowned for, it’ll be winner.
FORMATIONS AND DETACHMENTS:
All the lovely new reveals we’ve had since late last year are now accounted for in this book. From drop pods, to Dracosan to artillery batteries, Spartans, scimitar bikes, it’s the whole lot.
Rules-wise they’re all fairly well represented at a glance. I’m eager to see them shake up the meta of lascannon sponsons, Vanquisher cannons and Ogryns that are heaving the scene currently. The drawback of this, of course, is that we have no idea when almost all of these units will be available to buy. This is the single biggest barrier and impediment to Legions Imperialis, quickly followed by the continual stock and supply issues that see it desperately hard to purchase once the items are eventually released. I am already saddened to see this book has already been massively under-allocated to stores, so will likely be a rarity among players which is massively disappointing.
OVERALL:
This book is a no-brainer for me as a purchase. The campaign elements are what I’ll be pouring over for many evenings to come as I plan my own bit of imperial space to bring to ruination or rescue with some pals and our hordes of tiny soldiers and tanks. If you’re a narrative gamer and are eager to get some campaigns on the go for Legions Imperialis, buy this book, providing you can find it upon release.
It being light on missions is a shame, but I feel that the the lore compensates for this in adding inspirational reading to get the creative juices flowing. Titandeath rules would be the lowest on the on the list of reasons to buy this book, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I’ll certainly give them a go when time permits. The thing that I absolutely cannot wait for is cross-campaigns between Legions Imperialis, Titandeath/Adeptus Titanicus and Age of Darkness games! The sooner we can incorporate some void-based Battlefleet Gothic elements in here, the better!
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Thanks for reading and your support.
PEACE!
Chris - The Unrelenting Brush
