TROOPS, not to be confused with UNITS (as those include the Warlords), are the main combat cards of The Horus Heresy: Legions.
They are deployed in the Battlefield (or Board) and will stay indefinitely unless killed or returned to your hand. While there are no interactions with the "graveyard" of the game in the common sense (generally what you get is a Copy of a killed Troop), if a Troop returns to your hand you can replay it as many times as possible.
Troops will usually work the same as your Warlord (but with a much less amount of health) except they, unless stated otherwise by a Trait or the card itself, will have to wait till your next turn to be able to act (often called "Summoning Sickness", "Resting" or "First-turn-wait"). This allows both players to be able to proper respond to this summoned threat, and play accordingly after.
They can attack, defend (if they have Front Line or other reason that allows it), use activated abilities or passive abilities that will trigger when a condition is met. Almost all Troops come with a Trait or Active/Passive ability (or all of them), and you can add more of those with other cards (or the same card in some cases).
All Troops have a corresponding categorization, both to help you with knowing what the card is (for deck-building) as well as for that unique category to be used for/with other cards. A "Sub-category" might be granted by a Tribal Trait, but those don't change the "main" categorization (though some might add to it).
This category can't be removed (only Traits can), but a new category might be added (using Daemonhost). The only way to change a category is outright changing the card itself (granting 4 Marks of Chaos and transforming an Infantry into a Daemon).
Some Factions focus heavily on the use of a particular category of Troops (Iron Hands with Vehicles, for example), but all can be used by all Factions one way or another.
A player might add up to 2 (maximum) of the same Troop in any Deck, or 1 for Legendaries , but there's no limit to it if, during a match, they can create the same card over and over.
When building a Deck, while not absolutely fundamental, it is important to have in mind which group of Troops you add to it. You can add Infantry to your Ruinstorm Deck, but because of the Faction focusing on Daemons as its main play style, said Deck will have a harder time properly supporting those Troops. This is true even if a Faction have multiple types of Troops for plays: the Salamanders offer support for Astartes, Infantry and Vehicles, but building a Deck with all of them instead of a more clear, individual focus, will make you have a weaker presence in the match (as your solutions will only be tied to the cards you have at the moment, instead of an overall support).
This of course, is not a set "rule", and more of a general "recommendation". Many Decks work with a mash of different categories, or otherwise don't use Troops in them (often called "Gimmicky Decks"). However, one needs to have in mind that for high-level playing (meta-wise or High Terra ranking), these types of Decks usually don't do so well, and the more "well-constructed", finitely tuned Decks does.
Categories[]
● Warlord[]
- While is simple to think at this category as just "the player's avatar", Warlord haves its own support from cards, as well as being the only category shared by all Factions.
● Infantry[]
- The most "abundant" type of Troop.
- They're commonly not very strong (stats wise) and often used for extra support, the particular abilities they bring or as "sacrifices" for certain plays.
- Neutral Warlords synergize much better with Infantry, as they create more or generally have abilities that support them better.
- You can find them mostly in the Neutral Factions, and don't appear in others (like the Ruinstorm and Legio Custodes Factions, for example).
Best Factions for Infantry: Imperial Army, Mechanicum, Chaos, Sisters of Silence, Salamanders, Alpha Legion, Word Bearers, Defenders of Caliban, Agents of the Sigillite, Knight Houses.
● Astartes[]
- Generally well-balanced Troops.
- They receive a lot of support from their original Faction, and some specific support from the Neutral ones.
- This type of Troops are the best for "problem-solving", as their well balance of stats and the type of abilities they usually bring, help in any scenario one might be in.
- You can find them in all the Legiones Astartes Factions, and some make use of them too (like the Agents of the Sigillite) but don't appear in others that wouldn't, lore wise, use them (like the Sisters of Silence).
Best Factions for Astartes: All Legiones Astartes, Agents of the Sigillite, Blackshields, Imperial Army (support wise).
● Vehicle[]
- Generally bulky, strong and slow Troops, and because they're usually hard to remove, they come with a high Energy cost.
- They're great at bringing heavy ability damage (direct or indirect), defend or removals. However, they're also susceptible to Ordnance, which is a very common Effect.
- The most amount of support of any category.
Best Factions for Vehicles: Imperial Army, Mechanicum, Chaos, Iron Hands, Salamanders, Emperor's Children, Ultramarines, Iron Warriors, Legio Custodes, Traitor and Loyalist Legios, Knight Houses.
● Daemon[]
- Varied type of Troop, that's only found in the Ruinstorm Faction or the Chaos Faction.
- Only those Factions, plus the Word Bearers, offer support for them.
- Ruinstorm Daemons focus on making themself stronger while the Chaos Daemons are strong by itself but with the downside of the Maintenance Trait.
- The Trait Daemonhost, if applied to a Troop, adds the category Daemon to it (Infantry/Daemon, Astartes/Daemon, etc).
Best Factions for Daemons: Chaos, Ruinstorm, Word Bearers, Sons of Horus.
● Structure[]
- The lowest amount of Troops, but can be used by any Faction.
- Usually serves as walls, or ways to support the rest of your Deck.
- All of them comes with the Trait Can't Attack, but make it up with high Hp. However, they're susceptible to Ordnance, a very common Trait
- Very low amount of Factions that support them.
Best Factions for Structures: Imperial Fists, Traitor and Loyalist Legios, Knight Houses.
Special Category[]
Categories that only certain Factions have/can use, and only them can offer support.
● Custodian[]
- From the Legio Custodes Faction.
- Really powerful Troops at a low cost.
- Because of this, all of them have the offset of having the Sentinel Trait.
● Titan Weapon[]
- From the Loyalist and Traitor Legios.
- Usually will have some activated board damage ability, or massive direct damage.
- You can choose which ones to "equip" to a Titan Warlord (or comes pre chosen) before a match (up to 2 from each side).
- All of them comes with the Can't Attack Trait, and in most cases the Shutdown Trait. They have, however, Warlord-like amounts of Hp.
- Because they take a Unit slot in the board, you can only have 2 Troops at a time (unless you lose a Titan Weapon, freeing the space).
- Susceptible to the Ordnance Trait.
● Weapon[]
- From the Knight Houses Faction.
- They work in a similar fashion to Tactics, as they are place on the board, but can't be interacted by the enemy.
- Weapons can be changed by placing a new one on top of the current one.
- They come with an original set Hp, and the only way to destroy them is by attacking the equipped Warlord (as they share the player Hp).
- Weapons offer diverse activated abilities (which are tied to your available Plasma Energy), but mostly focus on dealing damage of some kind.
Troops by Faction[]
-Click in any to see the full list of that Faction Troops.
Traitor[]
File:Sohicon.pngSons of Horus · File:Worldeatersiconbig.pngWorld Eaters · File:Emperorschildreniconbig.pngEmperor's Children · File:Deathguardiconbig.pngDeath Guard · File:Ironwarriorsiconbig.pngIron Warriors · File:Alphalegioniconbig.pngAlpha Legion · File:Nightlordsiconbig.pngNight Lords · File:Thousandsonsiconbig.pngThousand Sons · File:Wordbearersiconbig.pngWord Bearers
Loyalist[]
File:Ironhandsiconbig.pngIron Hands · File:Salamandersiconbig.pngSalamanders · File:Ravenguardiconbig.pngRaven Guard · File:Spacewolvesiconbig.pngSpace Wolves ·File:Ultramarinesiconbig.pngUltramarines · File:Bloodangelslegacyiconbig.pngBlood Angels · File:Whitescarslegacyiconbig.pngWhite Scars · File:Darkangelslegacyiconbig.pngDark Angels · File:Imperialfistlegacyiconbig.pngImperial Fists
Auxiliary[]
File:Custodesiconbig.pngLegio Custodes · File:Ruinstormlegacyiconbig.pngRuinstorm · File:Sisterslegacyiconbig.pngSisters of Silence · File:Agentslegacyiconbig.pngAgents of the Sigillite · File:Traitorlegioslegacyiconbig.pngTraitor Legios · File:Loyalistlegioslegacyiconbig.pngLoyalist Legios
Unaligned[]
File:Blackshieldsiconbig.pngBlackshields · File:Defenderslegacyiconbig.pngDefenders of Caliban · File:Knighthouseslegacyiconbig.pngKnight Houses
Neutral[]
File:Imperialarmyiconbig.pngImperial Army · File:Mechanicusiconbig.pngMechanicum · File:Chaosiconbig.pngChaos
