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Hi all,

How clear of a description of Loken's Kill Team during Saturnine does the novel give? Numbers, units, legions in attendance, etc? Is it left vague? I have little interest in the novel itself so I'm hesitant to buy it and read it.

Reason I'm asking is I'd like to build a Shattered Legions force in 30k based around Loken and there are scarce few options for that (without abandoning theme or lore and just building a force of models and units I like, I guess).
He either:
a) Participates in the Great Crusade, Pre-heresy
b) Is battling on Istvaan
c) Is participating in single-squad sized Knights Errant missions
d) Leading a "kill team" defending Saturnine.

Of all of those, d is the most appealing. So if somebody who has read the book could let me know how much detail (and maybe... the detail itself?) the novel goes into on this force, that would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

It's a great book. I would definitely recommend getting it. The infiltration and counterstrike section is very well written in my opinion. I can't remember how deep a detail it goes into squad members but it definitely covers it.

Does it work as a standalone read or would jumping into just that book find me very confused? I'm generally familiar with the wider fluff of the Heresy but not very well on much of the specifics.

Kill-Team in Saturnine means something different to "modern" 40k. The Kill-Teams assembled by Dorn in Saturnine are about 100 strong, a standard Space Marine company, rather than the small squads in the Deathwatch, and they were specifically made to counter Abbadons insertion teams, again company size units.
Loken's unit was a mix of Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Loyalist Blackshields, and the remains of the Death Guard led to Terra at the start of the Heresy by Garro. Loken, Garro, Helig Gallor (Death Guard), Endryd Harr (Blackshield), and Bel Sepatus (Blood Angels) were the leaders of the unit.

As for reading the book as a standalone, solid pass on that idea. There are so many characters that have important stories elsewhere in the Heresy series that if you don't know who they are, their contribution means nothing. Don't get me wrong it is thus far the best book of the Siege but the plot relies on a lot of threads that started back at the beginning of the series getting tied off.

It's probably better to read Dan Abnett's author notes with regarding what he was trying to achieve with the Saturnine Gambit, which was an effort to make each of the four warzones in the book seem like its own place. Saturnine is Sons of Horus walking into a trap and asking "Hey, has this basement always been this way?

To which the 7 kill-teams (four of which are drawn away to the top of Saturnine Wall to repel the Emperor's Children) answer: "Always has been."

 Gert wrote:
Loken's unit was a mix of Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Loyalist Blackshields, and the remains of the Death Guard led to Terra at the start of the Heresy by Garro.

Awesome, this is the kind of stuff I was looking for! I'm assuming that within the 100 men they have a vague enough mix of "units" (Imperial Fist breachers and heavy support, Blood Angels despoilers, Death Guard Tacticals/Veterans, and Blackshield Marauders, for example) that I could make a force based off of it now!

Thanks for the replies! Too bad the book relies so much on others. Sounds very interesting, but that's what I was worried about with basically any book of the HH series. Don't really want to dig through 30 books of dreck to get the 4 good stories and all

I've found if you do the big events (Isstvaan 3/5, Calth) then just pick stuff that you want to follow on from it works pretty well. Then if you want to know more but CBA with books just go on a wiki.