Also known as The Great Slaughter – the Battle for Beta-Garmon was a pivotal point during the dark years of the Horus Heresy. With both sides committing considerable forces to the battles, this soon became one of the bloodiest conflicts in the civil war so far. Following on from the Legions Imperialis release covering the same conflict, today The Battle for Beta-Garmon goes up for pre order, and alongside it the second wave of Solar Auxilia releases.

In this review we’ll be taking a look at the book, seeing what new gaming content is included and also checking out the new Solar Auxilia releases and seeing how the Malcador can be built to make it possible to swap out all of the weapons between games.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us free review copies to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your Warhammer The Horus Heresy releases through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of the new Solar Auxilia releases including the Malcador and Veletaris Storm Section, which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s jump into The Battle for Beta-Garmon!

Warhammer The Horus Heresy – The Battle for Beta-Garmon

In a surprising move of synchronization, it seems that Games Workshop have dropped Beta-Garmon themed expansions for both Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis at the same time, allowing us to not only fight through the conflict at Epic scale, but also using our Horus Heresy collection. This is a great idea and opens the door for lots of parallel releases like this. There is a downside to this that the lore explored in this book covers the same period, but there’s lots here that is not covered in the LI supplement. The Heresy Beta-Garmon book’s lore section covers almost 100 pages and not only focuses on the conflict itself, but also on the forces that took place in the conflict, in particular a greater focus on the Shattered Legions, Blackshields and the Solar Auxilia. All of these forces make up the majority of the gaming content later in the book, so it’s nice that they get so much of a focus, from background and force construction information, to example artwork of how they would alter their heraldry or debase it completely.

The Primarchs themselves also get a lot of love in the narrative, given that both The Khan and Sanguinius feature heavily in the storyline, and even though ultimately The Warmaster wins the conflict, there’s some exciting moments that are great inspiration to translate into the tabletop game.

The story ends with Horus begining his march towards Terra, and I’m really interested to see if that becomes the setting of the next campaign suppliment, or that perhaps we visit other warzones on the way. People have been waiting a long time to be able to recreate the Siege of Terra, and now that all the novels have been released then perhaps it is the right time to let players reenact this conflict.

The Garmon Bulwack

Like with the previous entry in the Campaigns of the Age of Darkness, The Siege of Cthonia, The Battle for Beta-Garmon includes a full campaign that recreates the events of the narrative conflict. Using the Onslaught Campaign system, players are able to fight through a series of linked battles (between 2 and 6) in order to determine the outcome of the conflict. The campaign is designed to be played by 2 players, but if you do have a larger group then it is possible to split into two teams representing the Traitors and Loyalists.

Like with the previous Campaign book the main mechanic involves the winning player for each battle making a successful “Seize the Moment” roll in order advance to a cinematic Decisive Battle to decide the fate of the campaign. Essentially, the more battles that have been won by won player compared to the victories of the other makes this roll easier – win 1 game and this will trigger on a dice roll of 6, but win 5 games in a row without your opponent winning then you automatically trigger the Decisive Battle. This makes it so that there’s always a chance that the underdog can come back to claim victory, but that there’s always an eventual tipping point where that chance is lost.

Just like with the Cthonia campaign book we also get some Campaign Strategems – These are selected at the start of the campaign and have effects on army construction or special rules during the game – for example Big Guys Never Tire allows you to take an extra Heavy slot, while Masters of the Crusade allows you to use Primarchs in smaller games that they would normally be allowed in.

We get a few features that capture the campaign – one of which is the Mortification Index – this is how Dorn tracked the cost of Loyalist lives against what ground they won and in game terms acts as a modifier to the Loyalists getting Strategic Advantage. After each game the Loylists work out Index points (3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for Slay the Warlord and 2 for killing all traitors) and subtract the number of Loyalist units slain – if the result is positive the Mortification index increases by 1 making it easier to gain strategic advantage, but if it is negative then it drops by 1 making it harder.

In addition, the successes of Sanguinius are also tracked – this is essentially a track of Loyalist Wins to Traitor Wins and allows the side with the most wins a +1 to strategic advantage. I’d have liked to have seen these have other effects, but strategic advantage means it is impactful while not competently taking away from the game.

If you do not already have The Siege of Cthonia, then the Core Missions pack is also reprinted here, meaning that you don’t need to carry around multiple books in order to play through the campaign.

Two showcase Apex Missions are also included, the first of which is a remake of the old Russ vs Magnus mission from the Prospero book – two primarchs start the game locked in combat with each other, and victory is essentially determined by who wins that fight, and the surrounding forces moving to take the fallen Primarch (Who becomes an objective marker)

The second has one side doing a falling withdrawal, trying to end the game within an extraction zone, while the other player attempts to stop them, but has their force split into two waves, a vanguard and a rearguard.

Both of these missions add some new ways of playing to the current addition with lots of flavour, though personally I thought the missions in the Cthonia book were a little more interesting.

Shattered Legions

The Battle for Beta-Garmon introduces rules for creating Shattered Legions – forces that consist of units from multiple legions who have all banded together as a single fighting force and use the mix of different backgrounds and fighting styles to their advantage. As you can imagine, this is a little more complex than a regular army, and the book actually calls out that your first games with a Shattered Legion will take a little longer than a “standard” army.

Essentially your army consists of models from 2 or 3 different Legions, and your swauds can be made up of any mix of them – so for example you could have a tactical squad with a mix of White Scars and Blood Angels, a Terminator squad of just Imperial Fists and an assault squad with models from all 3 legions in it. Characters can come from any of the selected legions and get access to their parent upgrades but you are not allowed to pick an legion specific units.

Each phase you calculate what the Majority and Miniority of a unit is, and a special rule will apply to each unit based on these ratios – Each unit also gets a flaw based on the majority of the unit too, so there’s a lot of rules checking to be done here and a cheat sheet is highly recommended in order to make things move a little quicker.

So for example if you had a unit with 6 Blood Angels and 4 Ultramarines then the unit would gain the Majority Bonus (+1 to Wound on the Charge) and the Flaw (Units that are eligible to charge must charge) for the Blood Angels and the Minority Bonus (+1 to hit for shooting as part of a reaction) for the Ultramarines – But if the ratio of models ever tips so that there are more Ultramarines than Blood Angels then the bonuses would flip to the unit getting the Ultramarine Majority Bonus (On a failed leadership test the enemy cannot make a reaction after being shot or charged) and the Ultramarine Flaw (Every time Ultramarines make a reaction make a leadership test, if they fail they cannot make the reaction) and gain the Minority Blood Angels Bonus (Charges cause Hammer of Wrath)

There’s some potential for gamey play here, but also lots of scope for some really thematic forces. I really dont think these are suitable for tournement play as there’s lots of book keeping and keeping tabs on the current majority status of each unit, but if does capture the feeling of each unit changing it’s fighting style based on what legions are present in it.

Blackshields

In contract to the Shattered Legions, the Blackshields are those forces that have forsaken their Primarch and have painted their armour black. These are a much easier to force to represent on the battlefield and get some cool bonuses.

Their unique advanced reaction “No Lords, No masters” shows their distain for Commanders and Primarchs in the fact that it gives a unit charged by Primarchs, unique units, models with master of the legion or the Warlord the fearless rule and a number of bonus attacks (1 if it is a character, 2 if it is unique)

Rather than Rites of War, Blackshields select a pair of Oaths of Vengence that gives them a unique playstyle – For example “The Eternal Vendetta” has you select a legion and get +1 to hit with Melee weapons when fighting that legion. Or “Only in Death Does Duty End” makes units automatically pass every morale check, but they instead take D3 wounds which can only be saved by Invulnerable Saves. Or what about an army of Blackshields armed with forbidden Xenos weaponry? The Taint of the Xenos allows you to swap Plasma guns, combi bolters and Nemesis Bolters for Deathlock Weapons (S6, AP4, Assualt 2 Deflagrate) or Plasma Pistoles for Doomlocks (The same but shorter range and Pistol 2) – both of these weapons have the Lethal Exposure rule which is like a more deadly Gets Hot – After shooting if you roll equal for less than the number of Xenos weapons in the unit then you take a wound with no saves allowed. There’s 12 different Oaths available and a lot of them offer potential for unique armies and cool conversions.

Solar Auxilia

Theres a lot of new Solar Auxilia content in this book, and is probably a required purchase for Solar aux players who want to use all the new kits coming alongside it.

The first thing we get that is new are rules for Legiones Auxilia – this represents Solar Auxilia forces who are fighting alongside the Legiones Astartes as an allied Detachment. If you take a detachment of Solar Auxilia alongside a Legion detachment then your Solar Aux gain a new ability based on the Legion making up the main force. So for example the Dark Angels grant “Unity of Mind” which means that if a Solar Auxilia unit makes a reaction, then a friendly Dark Angels unit within 6″ can also make the same reaction, or for Solar Auxilia fighting alongside the White Scars they grant Feel no Pain 6+ within their own deployment zone of on an objective (To representing them fighting to the last wherever the White Scars plant their standard)

The Trators get some really nice ones too – Solar Auxilia fighting with the Night Lords are given combat drugs to help them shrug off the terrors of their Legion’s fighting style which in game terms gives them the Rage 2 rule, or the Solar Aux fighting alongside the Sons of Horus get a +2 charge bonus when charging a unit that has been shot by a friendly Sons of Horus unit.

I really like these rules and should add some cool flavour for adding an allied detachment into your army.

If you dont want to add a full detachment however, and just want to paint up a couple of cool units, then the new Legiones Consularis Overseer option may be for you – this allows you to take a tertio of 1-3 rifle sections or militia as part of his retinue. Really nice for representing a unit of PDF or cultists attached to a wider army without having to use an allied detachment.

With new Sentinels introduced in this book, Solar Aux players get access to a new Cohort Doctrine the Reconnaissance Pattern Cohorts – this represents armies that have a large number of Sentinels, and actually unlocks Light Sentinel Squadrons as both a Troops and Line choice, allows Heavy Sentinels in squads of 5 and makes Veletaris gain Outflank, however they can only take a single Auxilia Armoured Tercio and a single Artillery Tercio

Lifeward Section

A new Retinue is added for Marshals that makes use of the new command kit – this is essentially a tooled up retinue with access to Thunder Hammers, Power Fists, Power Weapons, Charnabal weapons and all the pistols in the kit. This is nice as you get to use those awesome weapons, though they are still on some very fragile bodies!

Hermes Light Sentinel

Taken in squads of 2-6 and clocking in as a pretty cheap Fast option, these are a fast movement 10 unit with access to a multilaser or grenade launcher. When they run they gain Shrouded, which makes up for them being only T5 with 2 wounds and a 4+ save. I can see these being pretty handy in the Sentinel cohort where they are scoring and can make a dash to objectives early in the game and redploy to where they are needed later.

Hermes Veletaris Sentinel

A little more expensive and filling the Elite choice is another pattern of Sentinel that hasn’t actually been shown off yet. Slower at movement 8 they instead have a 3+ save and are armed with Volkie Calivers or a Heavy flamer. What’s really cool is that they can be included in a Velataris Tercio to fight alongside the Storm Sections which really helps maximise your slots (Which are often filled quickly in a Solar Auxilia army)

Hermes Heavy Sentinel

The most expensive Sentinel and filling the heavy slot, these retain their rules from the recent Soalr Auxilia Army Set and make a nice little weapon platform to support your tercios.

Solar Auxilia Kits

Just stepping away from The Battle for Beta-Garmon for one moment, alongside the book there’s also a large wave of Solar Auxilia kits also up for pre order which we’ve managed to build up.

These follow on amazingly from the initial wave that came in the launch box, with the Storm Section in particular being favourites of mine – there’s just something about a human with a massive axe ready to attack a Space Marine! Include in the kit are options for Volkite for the Iconic Axe – though the Rotor cannon is missing, which I suspect will be released later as a seperate kit,

The Malcador is a gorgeous tank that uses the same basic chassis as the Draconsan – something that Games Workshop have done when having the universal Land Raider and Rhino chassis for the Marine tanks. With not much work at all it is very easy to make it possible to keep all of the weapons on the tank interchangeable

I was originally worried that it would take lots of magnets in order to make the weapons removable – but all you need is some blutac and to be careful when you assemble the tank. For the main gun, simply leave the part that the barrel connects into as two separate pieces – this is held in place by the top panel, and for this you can simply blutac it down to make it removable – then you simply take out the connector, split it apart and insert the gun that you need

The front gun connects just like the Dracosan, so again a blob of blutac makes this super easy to do – but again you could use magnets

And finally you get enough of the sponson weapons for any loadout – a little blob of blu tac is all that is needed to hold these in place while still being able to rotate and elevate them

Legiones Astartes

Rounding out the new suppliment are a number of new Legiones Astartes characters and units.

For the Sons of Horus we have “Little” Horus Aximand. He has a cool Warlord trait that causes him to regain D3 wounds when he is slain, making him very slippery – though this has no effect on Instant Death, so watch out for power fists and lascannons!

He has a nice rule that means he gains a bonus victory point if he slays Loken in combat, and a bonus 2 if he kills him in a challange – this is one of those rules that will rarely come up in a game, but when it does it’s a really nice narrative touch. And Loken will have to be careful as Aximand’s weapon Mourn-it-all is pretty nasty too with S+1 AP2 Master Crafted and Murderous Stike 5+

Also joining the Sons of Horus is Tybalt Marr “The Either” who once per game can cause all units within 12″ to take a pinning test and wields an AP2 blade with Fleshbane and Murderous Strike 6+

The White Scars gain Hibou Khan, who gives an attached unit Rampage 2 and can be taken in Shattered Legions. He wields a nice Power Weapon “Breath of the Storm” which is S+2 Ap3, Sudden Strike, Breaching 4+ and Murderous Strike 6+

We have another Shattered Legions character for the Iron Hands in the form of Shadrak Meduson who has his own custom stolen Banestrike Bolter and a nice Gladius with Breaching 5+

Finally, the Blackshields get a character with Endryd Haar – he gives three non-bulky units Scout at the start of the game and wields the amazingly named Terawatt Pattern Power Gauntlet which allows him to trade half his attacks in order to overcharge it and make it Strength 12

Finally, the book includes a couple of units that are made up using the upcoming Command Squad Kit. The first is a new cheap HQ option the Legion Optae – this is essentially the sergeant of the command squad turned into a HQ choice and who has a range of weapon options that I suspect will be reflected in the new kit. He does have a cool rule that means he automatically regroups, and when he does his squad has no restrictions of charging and shooting which is really nice.

He can take a 4 man command squad as a retinue (And interestingly, a Centurion can also take this retinue) and if this happens he becomes the squad leader. Like with the Solar Aux command Squad gaining a few new construction options I feel this is a way of making a new unit that is compatible with the new kit – we’ll revisit this unit once the kit is released to see what is included on it and how it matches up against the profile.

Summary

In summary this is another great supplement to The Horus Heresy that adds not only new units, but gives some considerable lore and a decent campaign format in order to give your games some narrative structure.

I do worry that we may get the “Necromunda” effect where as more and more units are added outside of the core army list books it may get to the point where you need to carry a small library around with you, as was sometimes the case in the previous edition of Horus Heresy – hopefully before we get to that point we see some updated and consolidated books for the core army lists, which would perhaps be a good chance to tweak some of the stuff that doesnt quite work or needs some love.

Despite the extra carrying that Solar Aux players will need to do, this nicely expands the units they have access to and should prove fun to use in battle. The new Solar Auxilia kits in particular are gorgeous and with those I have high hopes for both the rest of the Solar Aux line and the heavily hinted plastic Mechanicum of Mars line!

The Battle for Beta Garmon is up for pre order today and is released on Saturday 6th April

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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