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.

Hey guys, I've had read the rules for legions imperialis, and for my first impressions, I'm getting really hyped about it. Everything seems very well balanced, streamlined and comprehensive. However, one thing that I'm confused are transports.. are they mandatory for every infantry unit? Can I have units with transport in same detachment with units that don't have transport? I'm really looking forward your answer.
Also, how are you experienced with legions imperialis?

It…..depends!

Transports come in two flavours.

Transports, and Dedicated Transports.

Dedicated Transports eat up points, but not slots. They’re typically doled out by Formation Special Rules. But, you can’t field more than you have Transportable Units in that Formation.

Other vehicles (Landraiders, Spartans) are fielded as regular detachments, but can carry other units.

Oh, I didnt know they were two different things, now it makes much more sense. Thank you.

 Spreelock wrote:
Hey guys, I've had read the rules for legions imperialis, and for my first impressions, I'm getting really hyped about it. Everything seems very well balanced, streamlined and comprehensive. However, one thing that I'm confused are transports.. are they mandatory for every infantry unit? Can I have units with transport in same detachment with units that don't have transport? I'm really looking forward your answer.
Also, how are you experienced with legions imperialis?

Well balanced, streamlined and comprehensive are certainly words I would not expect to see in the same sentence with LI
The game as it stands is thoroughly lopsided in infantry's favour, internal list balance is wacky to say the least, there are sections in the rule book that screech to a halt if you try to read them too literally and so on. The editing work is a mess, there are plenty of utterly baffling game design decisions and they've committed the foundational sin of muddled abstraction levels between what the game is envisioned to be (battalion level grand tactical) and what it actually is (a minutely detailed web of differences that should not matter at the scale being played).

But.

As discussed to death in many places already, that doesn't mean it's unfun, just that it's being compared to much sharper design in the family of great editions of Epic before it and found wanting. On its own it's fine, it's got better gameplay than 28 mm 40k and similar games if that's the benchmark one is looking at it from. But even then you need to approach it with a co-operative attitude, because it is absolutely unsuitable for cut-throat tournament play. We've already seen the infiltrating murder-tides of endless ogryns, 200+ missile launcher marine forces, sentinel boogaloos with buckets for dice and so on. There is a laundry list of "just don't" issues one should consider in order to avoid skewed and unpleasant matches, but with that settled between two or more sensible adults that want to use cool looking forces in cool scenarios, there is fun to be had. And that's fine, even if you will see many of those already familiar with other editions of Epic scratching their heads about the absolutely bonkers chickanery going on with LI's committee-addled ruleswriting.

About the transports question: the Special Rules page on "Transport" will tell you that generally the whole detachment must mount up if any units do and exceptions to this are basically those moments when some of your taxis get blown up, but the passengers manage to survive. They are also independent of their cargo, being a detachment of their own with a separate order and all that jazz.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I think that those lists tooled up with certain units can still have their downsides, it's already present in every other game system. For example, in 40k I've played alot with Imperial guard, focused on shooting and artillery, which leaves my army vulnerable to melee oriented armies. There's not alot of tournaments or leagues in my area for legions imperialis, so it's up to me and my buddies to have balanced and fun games.

So, just to clarify if I'm getting this transport question right;
- transports in their own slots (may include flyers in their own slot, can have as few as I want)
- transports as dedicated (dont take up slot, but must have enough for entire detachment, or is it entire formation?)

 Spreelock wrote:
Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I think that those lists tooled up with certain units can still have their downsides, it's already present in every other game system. For example, in 40k I've played alot with Imperial guard, focused on shooting and artillery, which leaves my army vulnerable to melee oriented armies. There's not alot of tournaments or leagues in my area for legions imperialis, so it's up to me and my buddies to have balanced and fun games.

So, just to clarify if I'm getting this transport question right;
- transports in their own slots (may include flyers in their own slot, can have as few as I want)
- transports as dedicated (dont take up slot, but must have enough for entire detachment, or is it entire formation?)

You'd think so, but that is observably not the case with LI. The issues are systemic rather than intended features of rock-paper-scissors list building. The aforementioned internal wackiness between units in the army lists means that there are objectively better choices (missile marines are better than plasma marines in every single use-case and cost the same), core rules benefit certain units (infantry can triple move while other types can't, infantry can garrison buildings to massively up their otherwise squishy durability, melee ignoring armour massively shafts vehicles of all sorts) and on and on it goes. This is exacerbated by GW shuffling their writing team every now and then, resulting in some general ideas being set out and ignored immediately afterwards (such as units becoming cheaper if you buy them in larger detachments, unless we're talking about anything that was released during the Great Slaughter expansion, in which case, none of that for you then because reasons).

But yes, between buddies a lot of that is easy to fix by taking varied forces, playing smaller games, both sides agreeing to take titans (because most titans are overcosted and relatively fragile) or limiting Infiltrate to sensible levels.

On transports, yes:
- Regular transports bought in "Transport" slots on the FOC are fully independent detachments of their own, no strings attached. You can have packs of Rhinos just roaming around, tying down enemy battle tanks or gunning down infantry with very good Point Defence guns. These can pick up other suitably sized detachments on the table pretty freely during the game. Fliers are usually bought through "Air Support" slots, though they might also have the Transport-rule, like Thunderhawks.
- Transports can also be bought as "Dedicated Transports", which do not take up a FOC slot, if allowed by the formation's rules. These are also their own detachments, but they can only ferry around one particular infantry element and their size is tied to that infantry detachment's needs. DT detachments do not count towards calculating your Breaking Point at the beginning of the game, making your formation easier to break as casualties mount.

It’s for an entire detachment, but you can carry multiple detachments, as specified by the formation’s special rule.