Safety Factor fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Dec 3, 2023

Safety Factor fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Dec 17, 2023

• Day of Revelation is all about jump packs. It gives you reliable, if telegraphed, deep strike and both you and your opponent will know when and where you'll be arriving. This can let them prepare so if you run this you'll have to play around that a bit. Your regularly deployed units also gain Fearless for the first turn to help ensure you don't get tabled before your reinforcements arrive. Downsides are pretty minor here. Any unit that can deep strike must do so, your compulsory HQ choice must have a jump pack, you can't take fortifications, and you can't deploy via subterranean assault.
  
• Day of Sorrows is about holding ground at all costs. Crimson Paladins become non-compulsory troops with Line. Your units are stubborn within 6" of an objective and as they get whittled down below 50% they gain additional bonuses. Line (if they don't have it already), Heart of the Legion, and Hatred. The major downside here is that this Rite of War locks you out of alternate deployment methods like deep strike or outflanking. Even regular reserves are not allowed. You also must always issue a challenge in combat and your depleted units are forced to attempt a charge if they can.
  

• The Crimson Paladins are tanky terminators meant to hold ground. They gain Feel No Pain when outnumbered in combat and their shields reduce incoming wound rolls from melee attacks. They have power swords with rending (5+) and sunder so they can take on most things pretty well. Access to powerfists is limited, however. They also come with deep strike built in which is rare for 30k.
  
• The Dawnbreakers are your jump pack elites and come with either spears or anime swords. Both options are powerful so either build works, but we only have official models for the spears. These guys absolutely must get the charge to be effective, but they're an excellent unit. W2 with 2+ saves will protect them against bolters pretty well though their lack of an invulnerable save means heavy weapons will chew through them.
  
• Angel's Tears are a unique variant of a destroyer squad. They come with jump packs and dual volkite serpentas, but can upgrade to heavier weapons like rad grenade launchers or even assault cannons. They're primarily a ranged unit, but they're no slouches in combat either. They still have a destroyer statline with two attacks, chainswords, and rad grenades.
  
• They have a very silly contemptor dreadnought, the Incaendius, with a one-use rocket booster that lets it either move like a jump pack once per game or deep strike.
  
• Finally, they have a unit from the Exemplary Battles series of pdfs - The Ofanim Court. They're an alternate command squad meant to represent the legion's secret police/executioners. They're a very cool unit with unique greatswords and are meant for challenges. They gain some nice bonuses like +1I and rending on a 4+. They can also take jump packs. Unfortunately, they're limited to a unit of 5. Good for smaller scale games like ZM though and they're a great narrative piece. This unit doesn't have official models so you'll need to convert them.
  

• Covenant of Fire lets you take pyroclasts and flamer support squads as scoring troops. This is huge and pyroclasts in particular go from merely great to excellent. It also unlocks flamer predators as non-compulsory troops, but they're limited to flamestorm cannons and heavy flamer sponsons. The downsides are fairly minor - you can't deep strike though other options like outflanking and subterranean assault remain open, you can't take destroyers or moritats, and you must include a legion champion consul. This will likely be your go-to.
  
• The Awakening Fire is all about the weird cult stuff the legion gets into while Vulkan's missing. This is meant as an infantry army and your units have the option to gain Fear (1) for 20 points. They also ignore modifiers to pinning checks like shell shock. Weirdly, this Rite comes with its own psychic discipline for librarians and an additional HQ slot for a chaplain. One of the powers is a massive 18" bubble of dangerous/difficult terrain that only affects your enemies and the other is a pretty solid template weapon with pinning. It might be worth loading up on HQs and taking a couple librarians. Downsides are that you can only take one cavalry unit, jump packs aren't allowed, you must include a chaplain, and you obviously can't take Vulkan.
  

• Firedrake terminators are the quintessential cataphractii melee beatstick unit from last edition and are still good as hell. Thunder hammers, storm shields, and they re-roll 1s to hit in melee. Take a brick of them and toss it in a spartan. They're definitely not cheap, but the best your opponent can generally hope for is to slow them down by blowing up their ride. Attach a primus medicae to make them even tougher. Or a warmonger to let them deep strike. This is your classic death star unit.
  
• Pyroclasts are weapon specialists in artificer armor which gives them a 5+ invulnerable against flame, melta, plasma, and volkite weapons. Their flamers have an alternate firing mode equivalent to a meltagun. As mentioned, they become scoring troops in the Covenant of Fire Rite of War. You're probably going to want a couple units of these.
  
• Adherents are weird. They're a non-compulsory, non-scoring troops choice made up of W2 models with combi-flamers and the ability to be boosted to WS5 and gain Feel No Pain (6+). Don't rely on that, it involves an Ld7 check. Though they are somewhat special in that their combi-flamers are full on dragon's breath flamers. That said, I don't really get why you'd want these guys over vets or the Sanctifiers below, but if you're trying to represent the weird cult side of the legion they're a good unit. If they interacted with the Awakening Fire Rite of War (like maybe gaining Line?) they'd be better. Or maybe you're low on elites slots. They don't have official models so you'd need to convert them.
  
• Sanctifiers are the Salamanders' version of destroyers except they're WS5 and have two wounds. No rad grenades or other associated gear though. They also don't have Bitter Duty so you're free to add characters to them. Like destroyers, they all have the option of taking either two volkite serpentas or two (upgraded) hand flamers. Take the hand flamers. Use these guys in ZM. 2d6 Wall of Death hits per model. They will not disappoint. They have some other options like one in five can take a power weapon or a thunder hammer and the unit also has access to a unique rotor cannon variant. They can get pricy quickly so don't load them up with too much stuff. These guys are another unit without models, but the new mkIII kit will be a great base to work from.