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Hello all,

So with the betrayal at calth box set now out and in full swing, I have decided to start a 30k legion army, Space marines are my favorite 40k army.

Not decided on a legion yet but have a question regarding 30k army within 40k use.

Please note I do not own any of the 30k rule books so apologies for not doing my research.

1. Can 30k armies legally be played in a 40k match and if so are any restrictions or certain rules in place?.

2. How do you build a 30k army in terms of force organisation, is it the same as the 40k one?.

Thank you.

1. The HH books provides some guideline for playing 30K armies vs. 40K armies. You can take their advice or not take it as you see fit. 30K uses 40K rules so there's no underlying incompatibility.

2. Horus Heresy armies use several FOCs. They don't use the CAD from the main rulebook, and there are no formations or Unbound like in 40k

Both run on the same basic force organisation charts, although, 30k has a few small changes.
Lords of war can only be taken in 2k points and above, and cannot exceed 25% of your army total.

There are no set rules for playing them in 40k, but people generally revert to the full 40k basic layouts.

No formations in 30k.
You get allies and that's it.

Each chapter has specific legion rules that effect their army.
These range from restricting certain units to adding other.


Legion praetor's (commanders) are allowed to take a rite of war.
This changes the structure of your army somewhat.
Each chapter has its own specific one too.

These range from moving units about on the chart to adding more of one and removing others.



Building wise, grab a HQ and 2 troops and your golden.
Some chapter rites of war make you take a third one however.

You also don't have to take a rite of war.



Hope that helps.

1) with opponent permission yes. FW recommends both of the players use the age of darkness force org, and the idea that only troops score instead of everything.

2) to keep it simple: for entry level armies, you have: NO formations, NO double CAD, NO unbound. You have the Age of Darkness FoC which is 3 HQ, 4 Elite, Regular CAD for everything else. You're allowed a single lord of war ONLY in games 2,000 points or beyond, and it can only be up to 25% of your army's cost.


there's also things like praetors and RoWs, but that's not to urgent for just getting started. if you got a Calth box, I reccomend an army that's something like this:

1 Praetor (either HQ model)
1 Centurion (either HQ model, does NOT have to be a chaplain. I'd recommend master of signal or seige breaker)

2 15-man tactical squads w/ kitted out sergeants

5 terminators (any build, really)
1 contemptor w/ kheres + fist

this isn't the end-all, be-all calth list, but it lets you expand in any direction for any legion without too much fenagling of the models.

Thank you for the replies.

I have decided on starting the 30k Mechanicum, as I love the look of the models.

What would be the best place to start purchase wise for this particular force?.

Also any tips or information on them that could be helpful for a new player would be great and appreciated.

Thank you.

It all depends on what type of mechanical force you wanna do. Generally a magos + some thallax for most of the armies, and castellax instead for a cybernetica list.

A bit of everything really, im not sure exactly how it all works, going to pick the book up tomorrow

Listen. Obviously you need just 9 mortars and a siege master. that is pretty much it.

Shinzra wrote:
A bit of everything really, im not sure exactly how it all works, going to pick the book up tomorrow

So you wanna play Taghmata. Then I would recommend the Techpriest Dominus from GW. You can pretty much build any flavour of Magos/Archmagos out of it.
As well as 6+ Thallaxii, some Castellax, 20-40 Thralls.
Thanatar, Krios Venator, Triaros, Myrmidons are good too.
Some stuff, like Scyllax or Krios are a little special(Depending, what you use them for.).
Some stuff, like Techpriest Auxillia are a little difficult. I think most people take Techpriests from GW and kitbash the Servo-automata(Like I did). Or take the old servitors from GW.
But get the book first, there are two other lists in it, and its brilliant written.