Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Penal Legions


Regimental Doctrine

Redemption or Death
In a display of awe-inspiring compassion, the Imperium offers many criminals one last chance to earn the forgiveness of His Imperial Majesty. These Penal Legions are often short-lived, pumped with combat drugs and packed tight into transports, but some earn a reputation that eclipses their origins.
INFANTRY models with this doctrine add 1 to their Attacks characteristic. The first time each INFANTRY unit with this doctrine makes an Advance roll during the Movement phase, a Raw Recruits roll during the Shooting phase, or a charge roll during the Charge phase within 6" of a friendly COMMISSAR, you can use the Summary Execution ability to execute a model and re-roll that roll (do not include executed models when making Morale tests for these units). TRANSPORTS with this doctrine can carry twice as many models, provided they are all from the same Detachment.

Regimental Order

Trigger the Combat Drugs!
Potent cocktails of stimms, frenzon, satrophine, and other drugs are routinely used to improve the combat performance of malnourished malcontents.
Models in the ordered unit add 1 to their Strength and Toughness characteristics until the end of the turn. The ordered unit can charge even if it Advanced this turn.

Warlord Trait

Gaoler
Penal Legion commanders are as much jailers as leaders, and work to channel the savage desperation of the scum under their banner.
Each time you roll a hit roll of 6+ in the Fight phase for a PENAL LEGION, MILITARUM AUXILLA, or COMMISSAR unit within 6" of your Warlord, that model can immediately make an extra attack against the same unit using the same weapon. These extra attacks cannot themselves generate any further attacks.

Stratagem

Desperadoes (1 CP)
The Penal Legions are notorious scavengers, whose criminal instincts supplement their poor supply chain. It is rare for these soldiers not to acquire an unsanctioned assault weapon or two. Or three.
Use this Stratagem when a PENAL LEGION unit is selected to attack in the Shooting phase. The unit can treat all its Rapid Fire or Pistol weapons as Assault weapons until the end of the phase (e.g. a Rapid Fire 2 weapon is treated as an Assault 2 weapon). If the target is within 6", the unit does not suffer the penalty to hit rolls for Advancing and firing Assault weapons.

Heirloom of Conquest

Pugnus Formido
A viridian gauntlet with an adjustable energy field, this power fist was used as a tool of gentle correction on the Ogryn prison moon of Titan Secundus for over four hundred years.
PENAL LEGION OFFICER with a power fist only. When the bearer uses the Voice of Command ability and issues an order to a PENAL LEGION unit within 6" that has the Raw Recruits ability, it does not count towards the maximum number of orders this model may issue each turn.

Summary:
A heavily assault-focused Astra Militarum Regiment, with tools for getting into (and maybe even winning) combat, and nothing much else going for it. The Doctrine boosts your raw melee power much like Catachans, but also lets you reroll movement and raw recruits rolls... at a cost of mortal wounds. Explosive collars, yo! Meanwhile, your vehicles get jack-gak except your Transports, which can pack in loads of prisoners at once. The Order backs this up, boosting your charge range and helping you hit harder on the charge. With two re-rolls and Combat Drugs, you can on average charge an enemy up to 20" away at the start of your turn (and eat two mortal wounds doing it...). The Warlord Trait is a straightforward combat boost that scales with the number of attacks/rerolls you have; very nice in combination with the Doctrine and a Priest. And Yarrick. The Stratagem is a bit weenie, but it helps you out when you're advancing, offering a few extra shots on the move. Finally, the Heirloom of Conquest massages your reliance on Commissars by letting one of your Officers keep issuing orders. No need for a 4+ roll like the Laurels Of Command, but it only works on Raw Recruits – who only trigger the order on a 4+ anyway.

(models aren't mine)

I like it. I wish GW would release more stuff like this in the community hub.
I don't get what you mean with exploding collars. Is it a strat that detonates a squads collars killing the squad but doing mortal wounds to those around?

The order combined with the +1 Attack might be a little much.

Yea, they seem way too powerful. Combat Drugs should be a stratagem, not an Order.

 JNAProductions wrote:
The order combined with the +1 Attack might be a little much.

Note that Catachans get +1 Strength base, and can fight a second time with the Fix Bayonets! Order, at which point their melee performance is literally identical to a Penal Legion squad with the Trigger the Combat Drugs! Order. Unless you've got a Priest within 6", in which case the Catachans pull ahead by 50% because they're dishing out 2x2 S4 attacks instead of 1x3 S4 attacks.

The main benefit of Trigger the Combat Drugs! is the ability to Advance and charge in the same turn, which is absent from the bevvy of Orders that let you Advance and shoot, Fall back and shoot, shoot and embark, etc, because Astra Militarum never want to charge. The combat buff is necessary because +1A isn't enough to change that. Even with a Doctrine, an Order, and a Priest, a charging Penal Legion Infantry Squads hits like... a unit of 10 regular Ork Boyz with no pistols, no Green Tide, no Nob, worse Leadership, and worse WS. And they need to re-up that Order every turn, because otherwise they're back to flailing slightly more at the enemy than normal infantry.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 vim_the_good wrote:
I like it. I wish GW would release more stuff like this in the community hub.
I don't get what you mean with exploding collars. Is it a strat that detonates a squads collars killing the squad but doing mortal wounds to those around?

Just a reference to the fact that some Penal Legions use explosive collars to keep troops in line. Though that could certainly work as an explanation for the Fire On My Position Stratagem.

Actually, it would make sense for Penal Legions to have an Heirloom or Stratagem allowing you to apply Summary Execution through vox systems, just like an Order.

Except to use TtCD! you only need to use the order, then charge.

To use Fix Bayonets! you have to charge or be charged, survive one to two rounds of combat, then use the order in the shooting phase.

 JNAProductions wrote:
Except to use TtCD! you only need to use the order, then charge.

To use Fix Bayonets! you have to charge or be charged, survive one to two rounds of combat, then use the order in the shooting phase.

Yeah, and it's almost always better to use Fix Bayonets! over Trigger The Combat Drugs! if you can. The latter boosts the wounds you inflict by =>16%, while the former boosts the hits you inflict by 50%.

So the logic goes:

1) If you're in melee, you want to use Fix Bayonets! (or Get Back in the Fight!, but let's assume we're melee-focused here).
2) Therefore, Trigger the Combat Drugs! needs to be useful outside of melee, while still encouraging melee.
3) Advance and charge is a solid melee-focused movement option that can't be found elsewhere.
4) Advance and charge is nearly useless to units that can take orders, because they're crap at combat.
5) Therefore, it needs to provide an extra combat boost for that initial Fight phase.

(note that this doesn't account for the fact that the Penal Legion's sole vehicle bonus is a transport boost, which doesn't synergize hugely well with advancing)

Note that Catachans don't get a "charge bonus"; instead, they get a bonus to flamers that helps other units shoot the close range target, wittling them down ahead of melee. Note also that flamers are the best Overwatch weapons by a long shot. As a result, Penal Legion are also trading that harder hit on the charge for much harder targets. Hell, even their Regimental Stratagems are opposites: the Penal Legion lets you shoot when you Advance (and charge), while the Catachans punish chargers.

So for Catachans it goes:
1) Burn Them Out! and shoot.
2) Rest of army shoots at coverless opponent.
3) Coverless opponent charges, eats flamer Overwatch.
4) Fight phase. You have S4 and 1A, enemy fights first.
5) Either Get Back In The Fight! for more flamers, or Fix Bayonets! for two S4 melee attacks.

For Penal Legion it goes:
1) Trigger the Combat Drugs! No shooting except Assault.
2) Rest of your army can shoot at opponent, who has cover.
3) You charge, and eat Overwatch.
4) Fight phase. You have S4 and 2A, you fight first.
5) Enemy Fight phase. You have S3 and 2A.
6) Either Get Back In The Fight! for shooting, or Fix Bayonets! for four S3 melee attacks.

If we assume a Catachan Squad and a Penal Legion Squad, both with a flamer and an Officer nearby, are targeting each other, it plays out like this:

Catachans get in range first: Catachans deal 5 wounds with Burn Them Out or 7 wounds with First Rank Fire, so pick the former if the Penal Legion are in cover. Penal Legion lose one or two more models to Morale, kill two Catachan in their Shoot phase, lose two more models to Overwatch, then die in the Fight or Morale phase. Total Catachan losses: two.

Penal Legion get in range first: Penal Legion deal 4 wounds with regular Shooting, charge and lose 3 models to Overwatch. In the Fight phase, they inflict 3 wounds and take one in turn. Catachan lose two or three models to Morale and Penal Legion lose one. Total Penal Legion losses: five.

Astra Militarum just aren't built for charging, and the Penal Legion's order only massages that, it doesn't really change it. Their main advantage, thanks to doctrine-transports, rerolls, the order, and the stratagem, is mobility, and they have to eat mortal wounds and Elite slots and lose ranged firepower to get the most out of that. Hell, looking at the results above I'm tempted to add "Fall Back and Charge" to the list of things Combat Drugs can do, just to keep the Penal Legion charging.

No.

"Penal Legions" aren't Regiments or even really anything that would be having some kind of Trait. They should be Conscripts at best.

I like this a lot, especially how a lot of their abilities track to their 5th edition abilities. My one issue is with the transports. They're already very good at charging, so tacking on transport abilities as their only benefit seems a little excessive in the mobility department.

I like the visual of overseers in a tank driving a penal legionnaire squad forward, herding them towards the enemy by forcing them to choose between advancing or being crushed under the treads. There's also not a lot they get in the way of morale buffs. Maybe have some kind of Leadership benefit when the squad is between a tank and the enemy?

 Formerly Wu wrote:
I like this a lot, especially how a lot of their abilities track to their 5th edition abilities. My one issue is with the transports. They're already very good at charging, so tacking on transport abilities as their only benefit seems a little excessive in the mobility department.

I like the visual of overseers in a tank driving a penal legionnaire squad forward, herding them towards the enemy by forcing them to choose between advancing or being crushed under the treads. There's also not a lot they get in the way of morale buffs. Maybe have some kind of Leadership benefit when the squad is between a tank and the enemy?

Yeah. It's a bit mono-focused, and that's something that does concern me... but at the same time, being guard they need to be very mono-focused to be even halfway acceptable at melee. Transport capacity being prison-grade (and all other vehicles being unimproved) makes sense, but this is a Regiment that already gets to reroll its advance rolls and (potentially) advance-and-charge. Half the time you won't even NEED transports; the only "unique" reason to double transport capacity is so you can actually jam a squad of Conscripts (or more than four Ogryn) inside a Chimera. The poor Leadership also bothers me, though it's currently somewhat addressed by the Commissar getting enough "buffs" that you'd definitely be expected to take one or two.

I'll have to think about what to do for both of these. My instinct for Penal Legion vehicles is either that they're gakky prison transports (which might not be a good choice, see above), or that they'd fire on their own troops without hesitation, which feels like it's treading on the Valhallan toes. I suppose it could be an indirect close-range buff; some kind of re-roll on shooting rolls if you're shooting at an enemy unit within 6" of a Penal Legion Infantry unit, to represent heavy bombardment very close to your own troops?

 Kanluwen wrote:
No.

"Penal Legions" aren't Regiments or even really anything that would be having some kind of Trait. They should be Conscripts at best.

Just to clarify; you don't feel that the Savlar Chem-Dogs, the Last Chancers, or the Merov Indentured would play any differently than normal vanilla Astra Militarum, and in fact shouldn't be recognized as Regiments at all, despite a wealth of background material detailing the specialist formations and tactics employed by the various Regiments of the Penal Legions, including multiple different army lists, unit entries, and special characters across the game's history?

RevlidRas wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No.

"Penal Legions" aren't Regiments or even really anything that would be having some kind of Trait. They should be Conscripts at best.

Just to clarify; you don't feel that the Savlar Chem-Dogs, the Last Chancers, or the Merov Indentured would play any differently than normal vanilla Astra Militarum, and in fact shouldn't be recognized as Regiments at all, despite a wealth of background material detailing the specialist formations and tactics employed by the various Regiments of the Penal Legions, including multiple different army lists, unit entries, and special characters across the game's history?

Just to clarify:
Penal Legions are a broad umbrella. It's like saying that Deathwatch should have been a <Chapter Tactic> for the Codex Marine book--it doesn't work unless you apply only one aspect of them.
Savlar Chem-Dogs are the closest thing to a workable concept for a Penal Legion. They're conscripted from criminals, but then given training and motivation to serve as Guardsmen.
Last Chancers are a nonsense thing at this point, but the closest analogue is the Deathwatch setup of "mixed units"...and that really only applies to the survivors intended for the 'real' mission that Schaffer recruited them for.
Merov Indentured barely are a footnote in the Deathwatch RPG and I'd ignore them just from that perspective.

 Kanluwen wrote:

RevlidRas wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
No.

"Penal Legions" aren't Regiments or even really anything that would be having some kind of Trait. They should be Conscripts at best.

Just to clarify; you don't feel that the Savlar Chem-Dogs, the Last Chancers, or the Merov Indentured would play any differently than normal vanilla Astra Militarum, and in fact shouldn't be recognized as Regiments at all, despite a wealth of background material detailing the specialist formations and tactics employed by the various Regiments of the Penal Legions, including multiple different army lists, unit entries, and special characters across the game's history?

Just to clarify:
Penal Legions are a broad umbrella. It's like saying that Deathwatch should have been a <Chapter Tactic> for the Codex Marine book--it doesn't work unless you apply only one aspect of them.
Savlar Chem-Dogs are the closest thing to a workable concept for a Penal Legion. They're conscripted from criminals, but then given training and motivation to serve as Guardsmen.
Last Chancers are a nonsense thing at this point, but the closest analogue is the Deathwatch setup of "mixed units"...and that really only applies to the survivors intended for the 'real' mission that Schaffer recruited them for.
Merov Indentured barely are a footnote in the Deathwatch RPG and I'd ignore them just from that perspective.

I understand what you're saying now, but we know that certain distinct characteristics are shared across almost all Penal Legions. Explosive collars, rampant execution, unconventional scavenged equipment, poor discipline and high individualism, high-intensity combat drugs, elite disciplinary units, low levels of armoured support, and so on; these are found across all of the Legions Penetante, regardless of their specific point of origin. In fact, I don't think Penal Legions are even formally named after a point of origin. The Last Chancers are the 13th Penal Legion, for example, while the 13th Black Crusade included the 901st Penal Legion.

This rule set is intended to briefly represent those common characteristics: you can represent a hard-bitten Savlar Chem-Dogs regiment by taking the Penal Legion Doctrine and a bunch of Veterans and Rough Riders, or you can represent the prison-swept dregs of a Last Chancers regiment by taking a bunch of Conscripts. I could rename these traits to "Savlar Chem-Dogs" instead of "Penal Legions" and nothing would really change, it'd just be a bit less honest about my intentions.

And here's where your problem lies: you think there's a single "Penal Legion" mode of organization. There isn't--they're ad hoc organizations made up as needed for specific warzones/campaigns.

There isn't. Explosive Collars aren't always used(Savlar would be dead by now if they were), rampant execution isn't always a solution(again: Savlar would be dead), etc, etc.

Honestly? I don't see anything that really 'works' about the concept as a whole organization for an army--especially one that somehow has Auxilia elements.

If I were you, I'd just come up with a unit idea instead.

 Kanluwen wrote:
And here's where your problem lies: you think there's a single "Penal Legion" mode of organization. There isn't--they're ad hoc organizations made up as needed for specific warzones/campaigns.

There isn't. Explosive Collars aren't always used(Savlar would be dead by now if they were), rampant execution isn't always a solution(again: Savlar would be dead), etc, etc.

Explosive collars aren't used in the Savlar Chem-Dogs, no, but that's why it's only represented here as a "fluffy" explanation for how a single Commissar can theoretically perform a Summary Execution on every unit in your army every turn. As for execution, it's worth noting that the very first Savlar army list in Chapter Approved 2003 included Commissars as a mandatory HQ choice; you had to have 1-5. Take what you will from that.

Not sure on the source (white dwarf or dex) but in the Rogue Trader / 2ed time frame there were rules for penal legion troops that could be self detonated and used a template (5"?) to resolve hits.

I would say use the rules you provided on conscripts and you would be fine. Maybe some of the support elements (heavy weapon squads?) would be somehow prone to shooting their own if the penal conscripts did not perform well?