Legions Imperialis Legions Astartes Buying Guide

Updated 2025/11/30

Note: I’m publishing this in the pre-order window for the new kits so points and prices are in-flux, I’ll update once we have firmer info on both.

Introduction

The bulk of the Warhammer Horus Heresy universe is made up of the battle of brother on brother, the 18 space marine legions warring for Horus or the Emperor. While Astartes are far and away the dominant presence on the Warhammer: 30,000 battlefield, in LI it’s a little more balanced. Still the most popular army, you’ll see plenty of Solar Aux and Mechanicum forces as you play the game.

One thing I’ll note here, in most GW games Astartes play as a somewhat elite force. That is less the case in LI. You have good moral and tons of options, but your individual units don’t feel more powerful than the opposition. However your units are priced well so that isn’t a limitation and really lets you feel like you’re fielding an epic force.

Legions Imperialis Buying Guide Index

Overview
Legiones Astartes
Solar Auxilia (Coming soon)
Mechanicum (Coming eventually)

Note on points and prices:

All points given are approximate, they can vary a bit depending on unit options and how you split models up. It’s a pretty small band in LI but consider the points list below as +/-5%.

For prices I’m sticking to USD and GW’s MSRP. You can get these cheaper in the states, and other countries obviously have their own pricing, but the savings from a box set should be consistent across all of this.

Legiones Astartes - General Notes

When starting with Astartes you will need to pick a Legion. There are 18 legions and they all come with their own set of special rules. Some of these are very good, some of these are almost useless. It’s not ideal, but that’s the situation. That said, the Legion rules don’t break the game, if you have a weaker legion you’re not that far behind in a game versus someone with one of the best. My strong advice is to buy and paint the legion you like the look and lore of, but obviously do what makes sense to you. For more info on the legions see this Goonhammer article, note there are some slight changes to the game after that but I’d not worry about them too much. There are no limitations on what a given legion can take, but note that there are a couple Astartes legendary formations which are legion-specific, for info on those see Legion Builder or this Goonhammer article. Be aware that legendary formations specify weapons load-outs so if you care about WYSIWYG please take those into account. I’ll also note that the game is pretty friendly to allied detachments. Taking your main force from one legion and then building an allied detachment to take advantage of that legion’s specialty is a great idea, but you will want to learn how the game works before getting into that.

One thing I’ll note here is that many players will not put 5 marines on a base. That gets very crowded, personally I do 4 marines or 3 terminators. This means that if a set comes with 40 Tacticals for 8 bases of them, you can end up with 10 bases worth. Note - you’ll need to supply the extra bases and GW does not sell their 25mm LI bases separately.

The last thing I want to note is that the Astasrtes range in this game is extremely large. You can get whatever you like, but if you have a “collect them all” mentality that will quickly spiral out of control. My advice is two-fold, first - larger units or repeated are often better. Getting 2 boxes of one thing is often better than 2 different boxes. Second, when building your list, try and keep your Legion’s identity in mind. Many of the legion traits don’t directly play into this, but trying to preserve your Legion’s theme and flavor will both give you direction, and result in a more cohesive force.

Boxed Sets

Legiones Astartes Combined Arms Battle Group

Price: ?
Value: $238.50
Points: 1468

Okay now this is pretty exciting. Based on the packaging this looks to be a one-off release. If you’re interested in this pick it up, the last Astartes battle group sold out in a month or two. So what do we get? We start with your standard Astartes infantry box, great. Then we have a support box. Read the combat force two places up from this for more on that, but keep in mind this is a box you want 2 of. And we have 4 Kratos, again see the combat force for notes on these, they’re pretty damn good, but having 4 in two different boxed sets hurts.

After that things get interesting. It comes with a set of Sicaran Arcus or Punishers which are different from the Sicaran options in other sets. Punishers are quite good, all Sicarans are fast, but Punishers with their short range and very good anti-infantry damage output can take advantage of that speed to pick off enemy units. I might like the Arcus even more, they cost a few more points but have a very strong anti-tank profile, and importantly a 20” anti-air profile. Aircraft are very strong, but very fragile in this game if being shot with AA. Having a couple options in your list to shoot at air units is recommended and flexible, fast ones like this are great.

Next up we have Land Raiders and these I’m a bit less hot on. They cost 3.5x the price of a Rhino with the same transport capacity. What do they gain for that? They swap the Rhino’s anti-infantry point defense for a underwhelming lascannon profile. This is an upgrade but not a huge one as they only get one attack per model. On a more positive note the save goes from 4+ to 2+ and they gain Assault Transport letting units charge out of them. Lastly they gain CAF +2 allowing them to punch above their weight in melee, a surprisingly effective tactic for transports after unloading their troops. At the end of the day I think Land Raiders are fine, I think Rhinos are more flexible given their far cheaper cost, but having access to Land Raiders isn’t a bad thing.

Lastly we have Xiphon Interceptors, 6 of them. These are pretty good, aircraft are great in LI and fighters like these can be used as anti-air while still having pretty solid ground attack profiles. You get 6 because that’s what comes in a box, but honestly that’s probably overkill. Max squadron size is 4, and while I could see taking 2 units of 3 I think that would be pretty rare. Generally I like pairs of interceptors, though list building slots for them are often tight. Still, very happy to see these here and I think any marine player would like some of these in their collection.

So, where does this box stand? I can’t say anything for sure until we have pricing, but unless that’s surprisingly bad I strongly recommend anyone interested in LI or Astartes pick this up while you can. The extra Kratos are kind of a pain, and between them, the Land Raiders, and the Xiphons it’s a hard sell to get 2 of this box, but overall it’s still great.

Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Legions Imperialis

Price: $215
Value: $359
Points: 1708
Marine points: 502
Warhound points: 300x2
50:50 split value: $179.50

Starting with the most complicated box to talk about, we have the Legions Imperialis starter set. So there are a lot of numbers above, but the core ones are the price, what that comes to if you bought everything separately, and then what you’d be looking at if you split this. And splitting this gets complicated when there is one rule book.

So, where does that leave us? I think the starting set is a fine set. Warhounds are okay, very cool, not bad, but expensive for the firepower they bring and not as mobile as you might think. The other things is that it gives you have a box of Predators and Scicarans, which are fine units but you really don’t want squads this small.

On the good side you get a box of the Marine Infantry set which is core to building out the army. You really want at least 2 and more like 3 or 4 of this box so getting one here is good.

If you’re looking to get into the game because this comes with a rule book and some decent options getting 2 of these boxes to split still makes sense. You’ll each get a rule book, over 1000 points of your army, and 2 Warhounds. Two Warhounds is probably overkill, but it’s still not a bad deal and I really love the Warhound models. Alternatively you could get one box, split that, and split a second rule book’s price. That avoids the Warhound issue but does leave both players with fewer tanks than they might like.

The last note that needs to be made is on the tokens this comes with, they suck. They’re very thin paper and you don’t want to use them. There are a lot of 3d printed options, some acrylic, and GW’s new plastic ones. You’ll want to get one of these options, see the appendix at the end.

Legions Imperialis: Legiones Astartes Combat Force

Price: $170
Value: $238.50
Points: 1023

Coming next is the Combat Force. Combat Forces are new for LA and they represent an evergreen (not-limited) product similar to Combat Patrol, Spearhead, or Battalion boxes from some of GW’s other lines.

The Marine one is pretty solid, again it includes an infantry box, great as you want 2-4 of these. And unlike the starter this also comes with some Rhinos, not enough Rhinos, but 5 is a good start and transports are very good in this game. Any time you can get more Rhinos into your collection or a list you should do so.

It also includes the support box which comes with Leviathans, Deredeos, Rapiers, and Tarantulas. These are all pretty valuable units, however there is a big asterisk there. You get minimum squad sizes of these, and that’s split across 2 weapons. If you care about WYIWYG you really want at least 2 support boxes.

So should you get 2 copies of this? No. The issue is the tanks. You’re getting 4 Kratos and 4 Scicarans. There is nothing wrong with this, both are good units. But also this is about as many as I’d like of each. 4 Kratos is 270 points, fitting 8 into a list is certainly possible, but with how many tanks Marines have I don’t think it’s something I’d like to do very often.

Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Legions Imperialis Saturnine Battle Group

Price: ?
Value: ?
Points: ?

This box contains three existing boxes: Vindicators, Mastadons, and Fire Raptors. Between those three you’re looking at $159 in value and 710 in points. If I had to guess I’d say this is 2 boxes of a new Saturnine sprue, which would make the box $265 in value. If the prices matches the other combat patrols at $170 that will be a great value, particularly as Fire Raptors are otherwise one of the pricer units to buy with only 2 to a box.

It’s also hard to say how good this will be. I suspect Saturnine will be even tankier, shootier terminators, but maybe slightly weaker in close combat. Two wounds seems likely and judging from Ogryn that will be great. Having a new command stand option is also very nice. I suspect the dreadnoughts will be harder to use, slow and short ranged.

The existing units are all pretty good, Mastadons are one way to speed up those slow terminators or dreads, and I really like having access to Demolisher (special rule letting you target and destroy buildings) which they and the Vindicators bring. Fire Raptors have a lot of well, fire and until now seeing planes in these boxes hadn’t happened.

All that said, this doesn’t seem like a box to buy 2 of, it’s going to be very points-intensive and I can’t see wanting to bring 16 Saturnine Dreadnoughts unless their rules turn out really bonkers.

Contents and box for Saturnine Battle Group

Noteworthy Unit Boxes

This section is going to cover some boxes that are not included in the above sets, or are something you want more of than those sets will give you. These units are very much not a tier list, but a guide to building a balanced force, or fitting a Legion’s theme.

Legiones Astartes Infantry (257 points)
These come in three of the four boxed sets above, but are still worth mentioning here. Each box only comes with 2 stands of the special infantry types and all of those can be taken in units of 8 stands. This means that I really think you eventually want 4 copies of this. Now one route would be 2x starter box (split), 1 Combat Patrol, 1 Combined Arms Battle Group. But that’s a big investment. If you don’t think you’re doing that, or if you plan on more than one legion, you’ll probably want a box or two of these to fill out units. And remember that you don’t have to put 5 models on a base.
Rhino Transport Detachment (100 points)
The other entry here that appears in a boxed set is the humble Rhino. Rhinos are very good in this game, very flexible, and very annoying for your opponent to have to deal with them after they’ve unloaded. Each Rhino can hold 2 stands so you’ll end up wanting a good number of them. I think 10 from this set is a fine place to start, and if you have this set and the Combat Patrol, 15 isn’t really overkill though you usually won’t bring that many.
Legiones Astartes Fast Attack (230 points)
This is similar to the Infantry or Support boxes as it comes with a selection of units. Here are your classic fast attack choices. This is a box that to me really depends on your legion. White Scars? At least two of these. Death Guard? I’ll pass.
Spartan Assault Tanks (280 points)
We’re going a little transport heavy here but transports are really good. I like the Spartan over the Land Raider if you’re looking for a heavy transport without going all the way to Mastadons. The Spartan is twice as many points as the Land Raider and for that you get 2.5x the transport, 2.5x the firepower, and 2x the wounds. Now one issue here is that with transport (5) you’ll be wasting one slot if taking Terminators in these, but I think they’re still pretty solid. For 70 points a model they do the transport of 5 Rhinos (50 points) and leave you with a heavy tank at the end rather than 5 annoying APCs.
Cerberus Heavy Tank (295 points)
One of the newer units in the game the Cerberus is a premier anti-armor unit in the Astartes list. Its neutron laser battery is one of the best anti-tank weapons in the game with 3 very good dice. On top of that anything hit by it can only fire one weapon is is half move next turn. This means your opponent needs to keep their titans away from it, and it’s also very effective at shutting down super heavies.
Drop Pods (40 points)
Okay, so this one is on here because it’s noteworthy in a bad way. Drop Pods are very cool in LI, but oh man they’re expensive. For the price and transport capacity of 10 Rhinos you only get 4 Drop Pods. And if you’re using Drop Pods everything needs to take them. If you want to build a Drop Pod force more power to you and it will look amazing. But your wallet and painting queue will hate you.

TL;DR Buyer’s Guide

Without a doubt you want to start with one of the boxed sets above. Most will get you over 1000 points which is enough for a starting game. If you want to expand from there to 2000+ points here are some options.

New Stuff Route

~$230 Legiones Astartes Combined Arms Battle Group
~$170 Saturnine Battle Group
Total: ~$420, ~2750 points

These two boxes are probably your best bet for getting to 2000 points cheaply, and depending on point costs should go well over. My big concern here is you’re very Saturnine reliant and I think your next buy after this has to be a second box of Astartes infantry.

I’m Not Like the Other Girls Route

~$230 Legiones Astartes Combined Arms Battle Group
$53 Legiones Astartes Infantry
$53 Rhino Transport Detachment
$53 Cerberus Heavy Tank
Total: ~$389, ~2120 points

This is one of the cheaper ways to get to 2000 points and will give you a good mix of units. By buying some specific boxes you can avoid over-buying certain units though you will have very limited list building options at 2000 points.

Starter Set Completionist Route:

$215 Buy 2x starter sets and split with a Solar Aux player
~$220 Legiones Astartes Combined Arms Battle Group
$170 Legiones Astartes Combat Force
Total: $605, ~4000 points

This will give you a huge number of units and options to go in any direction you want. This hits 4x copies of the Infantry box, and 2x copies of the support box, the boxes that you most want to duplicate. You’ll have options for 3000 point lists and a ton of choice at 2000.

Starting List Building

List building is a big subject and I can’t cover all the permutations above, but here I want to provide a little guidance on what to aim for early in your collection. In this section I’m going to present some basic list building blocks as well as talking about what you need to worry about.

List building pillars:

Infantry to hold objectives
This is the name of the game. LI missions are based around holding objectives and infantry are best at it. Not to say tanks can’t hold them, but tanks can’t contest them, and infantry in buildings are extremely durable for their low points cost.
Ways to get infantry on mid-field objectives
For all their positives, infantry are slow. You want a way to get them up to objectives outside of your deployment zone. This can be done via transports, or infiltration. Alpha Legion and Raven Guard can infiltrate units which makes them two of the best legions. Everyone else should look into Rhinos or various other metal boxes for at least some of their infantry.
Ways to get infantry out of objectives
Having now read those two points, assume your opponent knows the same. They’ll have infantry on objectives, in buildings for that juicy cover save. Your list should have a plan for this and the three I’d recommend are:
Close combat units (Terminators and Assault marines for Astartes)
Ignores cover weapons (pretty limited options here, though Heavy Support Legionaries with missile launchers are a good option)
The Demolisher special rule (Vindicators, Typhons, Mastadons)
Ways to deal with super heavies and titans (1500+ points)
Your opponent in larger games will likely have some big bads and you want a way to deal with them that isn’t just Predators with autocannons. Some good options here are Cerberuses, the upcoming Falchion, or just massed anti-tank weapons
Ways to deal with flyers (1500+ points)
I’ve said it before but flyers are very good and you need anti-air units to contest them and deny space to them. This is a real strength of marines and Deredeos, Tarantulas, Sicaran Arcus, Fire Raptors, and Xiphons can all do this.

Below is an example list entirely built from the Combined Arms Battle Group. Note that this list is either ignoring WYSIWYG or has some un-optimal units with the Rapiers and Dreadnoughts. I wouldn’t call this list particularly good, but it’s one of the best ways to get to 1500 points from that box. Adding a second infantry box will help a lot, as would another unit of tanks so you can run the Arcuses as one unit of 4.

Legion Command Squad, 6 Contemptors (oops), 8 tactical, 6 tactical, 5 land raider, 4 Leviathan, 4 Rapier, 2 Xiphon, Armoured Company, Kratos Commander, 2 Arcus, 2 Arcus, 3 Kratos, 2 Xiphon

Expanding and Reviewing the List

To the right is a list expanded from the Combined Arms Battle Group box and the list above. Note that I’ve not picked weapon load-outs and this is still probably going to violate WYSIWYG.

Infantry to hold objectives
We have 3 tactical squads. A large one in Rhinos with Plasma and the Command Squad attached will aim to move up the board. One with 4 missiles attached does not have transports and will aim for mid-range fire while hopefully holding an objective. Then a third squad of 6 will likely sit on a back objective. These six however do have Rhinos so if you want to try and threaten a point with them you can. Otherwise have these six sit in the back field and harass your opponent with their Rhinos.
Ways to get infantry on mid-field objectives
Check and check. Note there is also a Terminator detachment in Land Raiders. I’d like this squad to be larger but they will still hit pretty hard.
Ways to get infantry out of objectives
The list is a little weak here. The Terminators can do some work, and Leviathans do have Wrecker but that’s about it aside from layering firepower on squads on objectives. You also have 4 missile launchers ignoring cover if needed.
Ways to deal with super heavies and titans (1500+ points)
Yup, good on this one. 4 Cerberuses is overkill for a game this size but we need the points and they’re great into any tank squadrons. The land raiders can also help here.
Ways to deal with flyers (1500+ points)
Again, check and check. Deredeos, Arcus, and Xiphons can all use sky-fire.

At the end of the day this isn’t a list that would win a tournament, but it should have game against most opponents and comes in under $400 which is pretty good for a full-sized GW army. My next buy for the list would be a squadron of some kind of medium tanks to allow the Arcus squad to go to 4 models. Maybe Vindicators to help versus buildings. After that bulking out your options with a 3rd and 4th Infantry box is always good.