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Anyone have tips for fighting the Solar Auxilia, particularly at low point games? The fact that they don't seem to pay any tax to start squads and everything seems very efficient makes me worry about getting drowned in their numbers. I'm running Night Lords with Terror Assault Rite of War in an escalation league.

Volkite, lots and lots of volkite. The exploding wounds really helps against hordes, and volkite will usually get past their armour.

 Orodhen wrote:
Volkite, lots and lots of volkite. The exploding wounds really helps against hordes, and volkite will usually get past their armour.

Doesn't solar auxilia have 4+ which works against Volkite's AP5?

 Danielle Rae wrote:

 Orodhen wrote:
Volkite, lots and lots of volkite. The exploding wounds really helps against hordes, and volkite will usually get past their armour.

Doesn't solar auxilia have 4+ which works against Volkite's AP5?

Oops, yea my bad I must have been thinking of Militia/Cults. But Volkite should still perform quite well.

Quadd mortars, whirlwind scorpius, dual kheres assault cannon dreads, medusas.

Honestly, their troops are decent, but if I was a marine player I would be more concerned with all the heavy armor a solar Aux player can throw down, every squad can take a Dracosan, and they can take Leman Russ Squadron in fast attack and heavy support, get malcadors and better than legion Artillery tanks in heavy support AND can take tanks as HQ choices essentially (hello tank commander in Infernus).

 agurus1 wrote:
Honestly, their troops are decent, but if I was a marine player I would be more concerned with all the heavy armor a solar Aux player can throw down, every squad can take a Dracosan, and they can take Leman Russ Squadron in fast attack and heavy support, get malcadors and better than legion Artillery tanks in heavy support AND can take tanks as HQ choices essentially (hello tank commander in Infernus).

So... Leviathan dread in drop pod+xiphons and maybe some javelins?

Yeah you want things that can get around the AV14 front armor, as night lords you shouldn’t have too much of a problem doing that

Solar Auxilia tend to have stronger anti-infantry firepower than anti-armour firepower; one of the most reliably effective weapons I've been able to throw at them is just a Contemptor running at them with heavy flamer arms. It's hard for them to stop (AV13 makes it immune to blast-chargers and while they may have enough lascannons to power past the 5++ on one they probably don't for two), their tendency to cluster up means the heavy flamers can wipe even a twenty-man squad pretty casually, and if it gets close enough chainfists can carve up a Dracosan pretty fast.

Be aware of their stack of morale rules; strict reading of the rules as long as the Lord Marshal is on the table and not engaged in melee they're all Ld10, units in a Tercio reroll 6s on morale tests in the Shooting phase, and the Cohort Vexilla is a 24" bubble of pseudo-Stubborn ("ignore casualties when taking morale tests" probably means their morale tests when losing combat aren't penalized by combat resolution). If you can get the Lord Marshal into combat and/or kill him your life will become a lot easier.

I've resolved to get a couple squadrons of javelins and outflank them to put those juicy 2+ twin linked missile launchers into their side armor. Then I'll get a leviathan in a pod with twin melee and heavy flamers and run amock. Should be good vs astartes and auxilia.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Solar Auxilia tend to have stronger anti-infantry firepower than anti-armour firepower; one of the most reliably effective weapons I've been able to throw at them is just a Contemptor running at them with heavy flamer arms. It's hard for them to stop (AV13 makes it immune to blast-chargers and while they may have enough lascannons to power past the 5++ on one they probably don't for two), their tendency to cluster up means the heavy flamers can wipe even a twenty-man squad pretty casually, and if it gets close enough chainfists can carve up a Dracosan pretty fast.

Be aware of their stack of morale rules; strict reading of the rules as long as the Lord Marshal is on the table and not engaged in melee they're all Ld10, units in a Tercio reroll 6s on morale tests in the Shooting phase, and the Cohort Vexilla is a 24" bubble of pseudo-Stubborn ("ignore casualties when taking morale tests" probably means their morale tests when losing combat aren't penalized by combat resolution). If you can get the Lord Marshal into combat and/or kill him your life will become a lot easier.

I htink the cohort vexilla just means they can rally when at below 25%, as combat res & casualties are 2 different things.

 Danielle Rae wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Solar Auxilia tend to have stronger anti-infantry firepower than anti-armour firepower; one of the most reliably effective weapons I've been able to throw at them is just a Contemptor running at them with heavy flamer arms. It's hard for them to stop (AV13 makes it immune to blast-chargers and while they may have enough lascannons to power past the 5++ on one they probably don't for two), their tendency to cluster up means the heavy flamers can wipe even a twenty-man squad pretty casually, and if it gets close enough chainfists can carve up a Dracosan pretty fast.

Be aware of their stack of morale rules; strict reading of the rules as long as the Lord Marshal is on the table and not engaged in melee they're all Ld10, units in a Tercio reroll 6s on morale tests in the Shooting phase, and the Cohort Vexilla is a 24" bubble of pseudo-Stubborn ("ignore casualties when taking morale tests" probably means their morale tests when losing combat aren't penalized by combat resolution). If you can get the Lord Marshal into combat and/or kill him your life will become a lot easier.

I htink the cohort vexilla just means they can rally when at below 25%, as combat res & casualties are 2 different things.

That's part of the problem. The wording is vague and it's hard to figure out what it means. If it said they ignore casualties when making regroup tests your interpretation would be obviously correct, but it doesn't, it says morale tests. There are three places where morale tests could be affected by casualties: taking 25% casualties in a phase, break tests in combat, and regroup tests. Does it mean casualties have no effect on any of them (regroup at full Ld and don't take morale from shooting and stubborn in melee)? Some of them? Something else entirely?

My playgroup has chosen to play the flag as if it gives +1 to combat resolution to affected squads; it allows it to be a meaningful Ld-buff centerpiece sitting in the middle of your line making everyone harder to break while having a clear and obvious effect and making the Solar Auxilia less unbreakable than if they got to make break tests at Stubborn Ld10.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Danielle Rae wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Solar Auxilia tend to have stronger anti-infantry firepower than anti-armour firepower; one of the most reliably effective weapons I've been able to throw at them is just a Contemptor running at them with heavy flamer arms. It's hard for them to stop (AV13 makes it immune to blast-chargers and while they may have enough lascannons to power past the 5++ on one they probably don't for two), their tendency to cluster up means the heavy flamers can wipe even a twenty-man squad pretty casually, and if it gets close enough chainfists can carve up a Dracosan pretty fast.

Be aware of their stack of morale rules; strict reading of the rules as long as the Lord Marshal is on the table and not engaged in melee they're all Ld10, units in a Tercio reroll 6s on morale tests in the Shooting phase, and the Cohort Vexilla is a 24" bubble of pseudo-Stubborn ("ignore casualties when taking morale tests" probably means their morale tests when losing combat aren't penalized by combat resolution). If you can get the Lord Marshal into combat and/or kill him your life will become a lot easier.

I htink the cohort vexilla just means they can rally when at below 25%, as combat res & casualties are 2 different things.

That's part of the problem. The wording is vague and it's hard to figure out what it means. If it said they ignore casualties when making regroup tests your interpretation would be obviously correct, but it doesn't, it says morale tests. There are three places where morale tests could be affected by casualties: taking 25% casualties in a phase, break tests in combat, and regroup tests. Does it mean casualties have no effect on any of them (regroup at full Ld and don't take morale from shooting and stubborn in melee)? Some of them? Something else entirely?

My playgroup has chosen to play the flag as if it gives +1 to combat resolution to affected squads; it allows it to be a meaningful Ld-buff centerpiece sitting in the middle of your line making everyone harder to break while having a clear and obvious effect and making the Solar Auxilia less unbreakable than if they got to make break tests at Stubborn Ld10.

My local league organizer just clarified that it just means they can make regroup tests at lower than 25% model count.

Javelins are fantastic, they're always worth it in a list because they're so inexepensive and fast attack slots tend to have the fewest options compared to other foc slots. Greatly reccomend giving your javelins a couple hunter killer missiles, they're only 5pts a missile.

If you're planning to get a leviathan, I'd recommend against doing dual close combat, the grav is probably the best option and really good all around weapon, you can still do close combat for the other arm. Also very worth giving it the phosphex discharger. Pod is an awesome choice, you'll be able to keep the pressure on their lines right from the start.

 Crablezworth wrote:
Javelins are fantastic, they're always worth it in a list because they're so inexepensive and fast attack slots tend to have the fewest options compared to other foc slots. Greatly reccomend giving your javelins a couple hunter killer missiles, they're only 5pts a missile.

If you're planning to get a leviathan, I'd recommend against doing dual close combat, the grav is probably the best option and really good all around weapon, you can still do close combat for the other arm. Also very worth giving it the phosphex discharger. Pod is an awesome choice, you'll be able to keep the pressure on their lines right from the start.

After seeing some beautiful conversions I've resolved to build 3-6 javelins. Is it best to give them cyclone launchers or lascannons? My instinct says to give them cyclones and multi-meltas. I'm also gonna get a xiphon to deal with flyers and potentially put some extra hurt on tanks.

Missile and multi-melta IMO is the best loadout. The main thing is cuz you hit on 2's against most targetse because of strafing run, so add to that the re-roll and the missiles all be it not a huge amount of firepower are really reliable outside of having jinked. The hunter killers are worth it because they're inexpensive and help as an insurance policy. The multi-melta means an opponent really can't ignore them when they get within 12.

Lascanon is ok but to me it screams having to outflank to make the best of weaker side armour, just that one bump from like 14 to 13 makes a big difference, but often I don't think it'd be as useful because a lot of vehicles like rhinos and land raiders don't get any weaker on the flanks, it is a nice way to circumvent flare shields though. But all of those benefits transfer to the missile louadout as well if the plan is to outflank.


I had a xiphon for a while, I liked it but I feel like it was hit and miss. The less I tended to face opponents with flyers, the less I tended to put it in my list for the next game. They're a decent counter to a fire raptor, they're ok at tank hunting but a lot relies on a decent damage roll cuz you're not rolling a tonne of dice. I actually think the lightning is better overall because you can magnetize it and have far more flexibility with loadouts. One of my opponents used to have 2 of them and could loud each out with 4 very effective anti armour missiles. But you can also do cool stuff like phosphex, there's just more options than the xiphon.

 agurus1 wrote:
Honestly, their troops are decent, but if I was a marine player I would be more concerned with all the heavy armor a solar Aux player can throw down, every squad can take a Dracosan, and they can take Leman Russ Squadron in fast attack and heavy support, get malcadors and better than legion Artillery tanks in heavy support AND can take tanks as HQ choices essentially (hello tank commander in Infernus).

Is an infernus on the list of tanks a Tank Commander can ride in? I thought it wasn't, but if it is that's fantastic.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

 agurus1 wrote:
Honestly, their troops are decent, but if I was a marine player I would be more concerned with all the heavy armor a solar Aux player can throw down, every squad can take a Dracosan, and they can take Leman Russ Squadron in fast attack and heavy support, get malcadors and better than legion Artillery tanks in heavy support AND can take tanks as HQ choices essentially (hello tank commander in Infernus).

Is an infernus on the list of tanks a Tank Commander can ride in? I thought it wasn't, but if it is that's fantastic.

Yeah pretty sure it specifies any malcador type tank or something in the tank commander pop out box. Least ways however it is written made most of the people I’ve encounered interpret it that way, even at national events.

Edit: hmmm maybe not , now that I look at it, it specifies Malcador tanks, and Valdor tank Destroyers, if they had to mention Valdors separately, I imagine that Infernus don’t count then? Which also begs the question are Valdors and Infernus tanks not affected by the “not a superheavy” nerf that malcadors got across the board?

Edit #2: ah nvm the Infernus is technically the Malcador-Infernus Special Weapon tank so yeah I’d say a tank commander can hop in.

Well, let me know, as a curious Solar Auxilia player. I have assumed that a tank commander could not command a Malcador infernus.

Looks at my edits in my previous post. Seems like it’s ok.