The Brigade of Scions

I’ve been getting back into 40k lately. The past few months haven’t given me much time to play, but I have been thinking about how I want to develop my army from its current, small beginnings. I’ve rather fallen for the Militarum Tempestus Scions. I have a couple of squads that I would use with my Imperial Guard, and frankly had more fun and use out of them than regular guardsmen. That may well be lack of experience and skill on my part rather than anything else, but I started to want more Scions to put on the field when Vigilus Defiant came out and I could use the drop squad specialist detachment.

The big issues with the Militarum Tempestus is their very limited unit choice. They only have three distinct units from which to choose – a squad of five Scions, a command squad of four Scions, and the Tempestor Prime. They do have access to other units, but they’re shared with the rest of the Astra Militarum and, indeed, Imperium in different ways. Assuming you stick with Scions, it’s only possible to field a battalion, as there just aren’t the units to fill out other detachments. I also want my Scions to benefit from the Militarum Tempestus doctrine, which they can only really get if they’re in a detachment by themselves.

However, I also like the idea of fielding a brigade, both from a flavour point of view – a combined arms unit that isn’t just squads and squads of soldiers – and because it builds in flexibility that is useful in the game. It would look pretty amazing, too. So, the plan is to build a brigade in terms of units, even if it doesn’t give me the nine extra command points.

A brigade requires 3 to 5 HQ choices, 6 to 12 troops, 3 to 8 elites, 3 to 5 fast attack, 3 to 5 heavy support, and up to two flyers. For each unit choice, there is a detachment that specialises in them – battalion for troops, vanguard for elites, outrider for fast attack, and spearhead for heavy support.

Dealing with the troops is straightforward. In a battalion detachment, there will be three Tempestor Primes (Tempestors Prime?) and six squads of Scions. The Primes will have command rods, so an order is possible to each squad.

The elites are a bit more complicated. Ideally, I’d have three Scions command squads in a vanguard detachment; however, you have to have a Tempestor Prime for each Command Squad, and a vanguard only allows two HQ choices. I could put the Command Squads in the battalion, but then I’m losing out on orders from the Tempestor Primes. I think I’m going to go, then, for two Tempestor Primes, two Militarum Tempestus Command Squads, and another elite. I’m sure Commissar Severina Raine would happily deploy with the Scions.

Onto the heavy support. While the Leman Russ in all its forms is loved for good reason, I don’t think it fits an army based on mobility and the look just isn’t right. Instead, I want to go for the faster, lighter Carnodon (which also has gold bits, which the Scions will love). The big loss is Grinding Advance. To make up for this somewhat, I’m going to make the detachment Tallarn, allowing them to move and fire heavy weapons from vehicles without penalty. Loaded up with volkite weaponry, they should be able to move forward and still deal out damage. The HQ would be a Lord Commissar.

Next up is the fast attack. The plan is to kitbash together some Scions with some of the Genestealer Cults’ Atalan Jackals motorcyclists to count as Rough Riders. I’m hoping that I’ll just have to use the heads and torsos from the Scions, but we’ll see. I’ve seen similar ideas using Space Marine bikes, and regular Astra Militarum with Atalan Jackals, but not Scions and Jackals, so it might be a bit unusual. The HQ would be a Primaris Psyker.

The last bit is some transport. Depending on points and budget, I’ll put in a couple of Valkyries (to drop people from) and Taurox Primes. Both are great for mobility, soak up and dish out a surprising amount of damage, and, in the case of the Valkyries, do some wonderful things with the Drop Force rules.

The army would look something like

• Battalion
  • HQ
    • 2x Tempestor Prime
  • Troops
    • 6x Scions (4 Scions and 1 Tempestor)
• Vanguard
  • HQ
    • 2x Tempestor Prime
  • Elites
    • 2x MT Command Squad
    • Commissar Severina Raine
• Spearhead
  • HQ
    • Lord Commissar
  • Heavy Support
    • 3x Carnodon
• Outrider
  • HQ
    • Primaris Psyker
  • Fast Attack
    • 3x Rough Riders (4 Rough Riders and a Rough Rider sergeant)
• Flyer
  • 2x Valkyire

That comes in somewhere around 1400 points, so I have plenty of room with which to play.