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So, besides the rule book, which books do I need if I want to play:

Custodes?
Imperial Knights?
Salamanders?

The black books are listed as campaign books, but it seems the red book "The Horus Heresy Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Army List" collect everything from black book 1-6? and "The Horus Heresy Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Legions" collects stuff from black book 1 to 5 (why not also book 6)?
What is missing compared to getting all 6 black books?

It seems black book 2 "Massacre" contains rules for Salamanders, and book 4 "Conquest" for Imperial Knights and book 5 "Inferno" Custodes?

And what the heck is Crusade Imperialis?

*confused*

Custodes: Book 8 (Malevolence) only.
Imperial Knights: Crusade Imperialis Army Lists red book for the core list and most of the Knights, free PDFs for Armigers, Acastus Knights, and Dominus Knights.
Salamanders: Legion army list red book (core list), Age of Darkness Legions red book (Salamanders appendix).

Books 1-5 are entirely redundant, all rules content in them has been overwritten/updated by the red books.

The generic Legion list expansion and the additional Rites of War in book 6 have been overwritten/updated by the red book. The Blackshield rules (neutral/"pirate" Astartes), Shattered Legion rules (mixed-Legion armies), Knights-Errant (special operatives led by Garro acting for Malcador, represented in the game by special HQ choices), and several named characters have not.

The only things you'll be missing for the Salamanders if you just get the red books are Xiaphas Jurr and Cassian Dracos Reborn, who are named characters printed in book 6.

Crusade Imperialis is a red book that collects updated versions of the Solar Auxilia and Questoris Knight Crusade lists from black book 4 and the Militia and Cults list from black book 5. It fully replaces the rules content for those army lists from those books.

Thank you very much!

Hmm if I use Battlescribe, then what books are necessary?

Battlescribe does have errors. For instance, according to it, I can't give my Fulmentarius Terminators Cyclone Missile Launchers, regardless of what weapon loadout I give them, whereas I believe the red book states that as long as they stick to Combi-Bolters, I can take them.

Arcanis161 wrote:
Battlescribe does have errors. For instance, according to it, I can't give my Fulmentarius Terminators Cyclone Missile Launchers, regardless of what weapon loadout I give them, whereas I believe the red book states that as long as they stick to Combi-Bolters, I can take them.

Try updating your data? The option exists for me (select the "entire squad may take" bullet point instead of the "entire squad may exchange their combi-bolters for" bullet point).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Totto wrote:
Hmm if I use Battlescribe, then what books are necessary?

You could try using Battlescribe alone instead of getting any books, but it isn't always accurate and you can end up giving units illegal loadouts by accident if you don't know what they're supposed to be able to take. You can give the aforementioned Fulmentarii autocannons and Cyclone launchers in Battlescribe, which is illegal, and the list error warnings can be confusing if you don't know what the unit's supposed to be able to take.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

Arcanis161 wrote:
Battlescribe does have errors. For instance, according to it, I can't give my Fulmentarius Terminators Cyclone Missile Launchers, regardless of what weapon loadout I give them, whereas I believe the red book states that as long as they stick to Combi-Bolters, I can take them.

Try updating your data? The option exists for me (select the "entire squad may take" bullet point instead of the "entire squad may exchange their combi-bolters for" bullet point).

Problem I'm encountering is that it forces me to pick one of the "entire squad may exchange their Combi-Bolters for", and then when I do, it gives me an error saying "Fulmentarius Terminators has 1 too many selections from Entire Squad may take: (maximum 0)". I mean, I just deal when list building as I know what's right, but I guess the point is that Battlescribe won't be 1:1 with the rules in the red books.

Arcanis161 wrote:
...but I guess the point is that Battlescribe won't be 1:1 with the rules in the red books.

Agreed. Battlescribe is a valuable tool but you will need to be very careful trying to completely replace army books with it.