Horus Heresy: Saturnine Terminators
- Nicholas Smith
- Jul 22
- 5 min read
Greetings one and all,
They're big, they’re kinda goofy looking, I mean, they're basically just shoulders with heads… Of course, that's what I thought. But I think I might be needing to eat my words. So today, we’re looking at the New Saturnine Terminators and what they’re like to build, and maybe, looking at some of their rules as well. So get ready to march alongside the chonkiest bois.
First Impression and Building
I’m holding the sprues at the moment, and I have to admit. I need the build guide. 2 models spread over two sprues, with one having most of the body and legs, while the other has the weapons, heads, arms and shoulder pads.
When it comes to building them, I would advise taking it slow. The instructions are rather good and although there are a lot of small and fiddly bits, if you just cut out what you need at that moment and make sure you have a little container to put the bits in (trust me, I thought I lost a piece and tore my desk apart looking for it) ut’ll make things easier. The only thing I might suggest, though, is putting the shoulder pads together before putting in part 57/53. But that's just my opinion.
Rules
It would be safe to say that there has not really been a model like this before. The closest thing I can think of to compare the Saturnine Terminators to are the 40K Space Marine Centurions in terms of scale and role.
Let’s start with the statline.
Two things jump out at me first. Firstly, damn these things are slow, but as they’re basically mobile fire platforms, this isn’t an issue… Or it wouldn’t be if the ranges on the weapons they carry weren’t also relatively short. The second thing is the toughness and wounds. T6 is rather good. In fact, they're only one point lower than the Contemptor, so you're gonna have to level heavier weapons than boltguns to take these guys down. And even then, they’ve got 3 wounds each!
Moving on to Wargear and as standard, Saturnine Terminators get; Plasma Bombard, Saturnine Disruption Fist, Occulix Targeting Auspex and a Thermal Diffraction Field. Alongside this, there is the option to replace the Saturnine Disruption Fist with either a Plasma Bombard or a Twin Heavy Disintegrator, or if you choose to keep the Saturnine Disruption Fist, you can equip it with a Particle Shredder. Lastly, you can replace the original Plasma Bombard with a Twin Heavy Disintegrator.
Let’s take a closer look at these weapons.
Plasma Bombard
As you can see, it’s like the plasma weapons we all know and love, but this one has barrage. So no line-of-sight needed. The only downside I can see is that it’s got a short range (this is going to be a theme), and maximum fire shot will overload on a 1 or 2. But thanks to the Thermal Diffraction Field, that’s not as bad as it sounds.
Saturnine Disruption Fist
This is kind of a meek Power Fist. It’s not as slow as a regular Power Fist, with only a -2 IM, but it only has a +2 SM. It does do three damage though, which is rather tasty.
Particle Shredder
This is a brand new weapon that uses a flame template. With RS 6 and AP 2, it’s going to chew through any normal marine that even gets close, and with breaching +6, even terminators should be a little concerned about charging this unit.
Twin Heavy Disintegrator
Another new weapon (or at least a variation on the old disintegrator). This is another short-range but very powerful weapon, perfect for taking on elite infantry or light vehicles. A unit fully armed with these will take down a Contemptor Dreadnought in a single round of shooting, something that in second was bloody hard without the right build.
Now, on to the other bits, starting with:
The Occulix Targeting Auspex. It’s nice and simple. If you don’t move in the Movement Phase, you get Fire Protocols (2), so you can fire both your guns (if you’ve equipped them with a double loadout. And personally, why wouldn't you?).
Secondly, the Thermal Diffraction Field. This is a little more interesting. It gives a -1 to strength from weapons with the Las, Plasma, Melta and Flame traits. As well as this, any hits generated that initiate the Overload special rule will only initiate the Breaching special rule on a Wounding roll of +6.
Special Rules
Saturnine Terminators have four special rules, none of which are hard to understand (even though they seem to have been written in a rather clunky fashion).
Bulky (4) - They take up 4 slots in a transport.
Explodes 6+ - Before being removed as a casualty, roll a dice. If you roll equal to or above the given number, every unit with 1 or more models within 6 inches take S8 AP - hits equal to the number of wounds or hull points the model that exploded started with (so for a saturnine Terminator, you’d be looking at 3 S8 AP - wounds on each unit of 1 or more within 6inches).
Implacable Advance - Treat weapons with the Heavy (x) or Ordnance (x) traits as having the Assault trait.
Slow and Purposeful - You can’t use a model with this special rule and also use the Pursue special rule (AKA they're too fat to run).
Summary
And there we go. I wasn’t expecting to like this model. I thought they looked dumb, but now I’ve built one and can see it in my hands, it’s not too bad. Yes the shoulder pads are big, but they fit with the scale of the model. The rules are also rather good, though I’d like to see the ability to just give them melee weapons as well and let them tear units apart that way… Also lore wise, they don’t work with certain chapters (like the World Eaters for example), but now I've warmed up to them, I think I might paint another two just in case I feel like deleting a Dreadnought.
Hi, thank you for reading my article. I hope you enjoyed it and that it was useful to you. Articles like these take a lot of time to research and write, so if you did enjoy it or found it useful maybe you’d be so kind as to drop me a donation. That way I can continue to fund the products and books I need to keep delivering high quality articles like this.
You can donate to me at https://ko-fi.com/graypaints
For updates when I release an article, why not Subscribe and join us on our Social Media pages?
Comments