Signatures4

The Animus Malorum is the relic of Sergeant Attica Centurius, borne by the leader of the strike force — a champion's aura that drags the newly dead back into the fight. Once per battle, when a friendly Damned fighter within 6" of the bearer is taken Out of Action, the controlling player rolls: on a success, that fighter returns to play at once, set up in base contact with the bearer, or as near as can be, with a single Wound remaining. It is a roll, never a certainty — even the Animus Malorum cannot command every dead man to rise.

This is the battlefield face of the Legion's refusal to stay dead. Where an ordinary warband counts its fallen and grieves, the Damned may simply stand a corpse back up and send it on.

The Relentless Dead is the Legion's signature, and it stands in place of Combat Doctrines entirely. The Damned drill no stances. The dead have no discipline left to cycle, no drills to run — only the two faces this rule wears.

The Apparition: the whole gang is set up in reserve rather than deployed, then materialises onto the battlefield, each fighter placed more than 6" from any enemy. On the round a fighter arrives, its shooting Ignores Cover. This is the shock of a thing stepping out of nowhere with its gun already raised, and it lasts only that round.

Unhallowed Resilience: every Damned carries a 5+ ethereal field-save that ignores armour penetration and is taken instead of any armour save. Power armour keeps its own separate value. The field is no part of the plate — it is a shroud the warp draws over the top of it, and the killing blow passes into it and is gone.

Between them these two faces make the Legion a thing the enemy cannot keep out and cannot easily put down. It appears where it wills. It endures what should end it.

Combat Doctrines. The disciplined heart of the Astartes way of war, and the mechanic that sets a Chapter apart from any warhost that merely brings guns to a fight. At the start of each round the controlling player declares the strike force's stance, which may shift one step along the ladder from Devastator to Tactical to Assault. Under the Devastator stance the gang fires with lethal precision, adding to its ranged Hit rolls or re-rolling misses. Under the Tactical stance the brethren move with purpose, gaining ground and seizing objectives. Under the Assault stance they close for the kill, striking harder on the charge and running down a fleeing foe. A Chapter cannot hold every advantage at once; it flows through the phases of battle as its commanders read the field, and each brotherhood leans toward the end of the ladder that suits its character.

Finest Hour. Once in a battle, a commander seizes the moment the whole war seems to turn upon and drives his brethren to their greatest effort. Once per battle a Captain or Lieutenant may call upon it. Until the start of the next round the commander himself gains an additional Attack, and every friendly fighter within 6" re-rolls failed Wound rolls, the strike force striking as one at the instant it matters most. It is a single, decisive surge rather than a lasting boon — spent in the crisis of the fight, it does not come again. A wise commander holds it for the stroke that breaks the enemy rather than the one that merely bloodies him.