Legions Imperialis

What is Legions Imperialis?

Legions Imperialis is Games Workshop's epic-scale game of the Horus Heresy: whole armies of tanks, infantry stands, aircraft and Titans at 8 mm, where the main Horus Heresy game fields squads at 28 mm. It is its own product line, with its own boxes and its own rules, and the successor to the Epic games that players still call Epic 30k.

The forces share their names with the larger game — the Legiones Astartes, the Solar Auxilia, the Mechanicum, the Knights and the Titan Legions — so a shop listing that says "Malcador" or "Sicaran" may be either scale, and some shops title the range "Legion Imperialis". Every row on this page is the 8 mm box; the 28 mm kits are on the Horus Heresy page.

The Legions Imperialis starter set

Games Workshop's boxed game is the usual first purchase: two complete opposing forces — Legiones Astartes and Solar Auxilia, infantry stands, Dreadnoughts and tanks — with a pair of Warhound Titans, the rulebook, dice, tokens and transfers. Because each half is a playable force, two people starting together often split one box.

Where a shop we compare lists it, it leads the boxes above with today's price at each of them. If you only want one side, the army boxes and single squadrons are the other way in, and the card for each says what it costs on its own.

Legions Imperialis armies

The Legiones Astartes are the Space Marine legions: tactical infantry, Terminators, Dreadnoughts and the Rhino, Predator and Sicaran tanks, painted as whichever of the eighteen legions you choose. The Solar Auxilia are the Imperial Army — massed lasrifle infantry, Leman Russ and Malcador tanks, and the Imperial Navy aircraft. The Mechanicum fields battle-automata and its own Knights.

Questoris Knights and the Titans are sold in their own boxes and fight beside any of them. Each force with enough boxes we can price has its own page, linked at the top of this one, with every box for it cheapest shop first.

What does a Legions Imperialis army cost?

Most of the range is sold as a squadron or detachment in one box — several tanks or a block of infantry stands for one price — so a box goes further than a single 28 mm kit does. Titans and the larger Knights are the exceptions, sold in smaller numbers at a higher price.

Each price here is what a shop was charging when we last checked it, in the market you are browsing. A box nobody we compare stocks says so rather than showing an old number as though you could still pay it.

Painting Legions Imperialis

At 8 mm the work is in volume, not detail: a squadron or a tray of infantry stands is painted at once, and a light primer, a drybrush and a wash or contrast coat carry most of it. Edge highlights that make a 28 mm tank are barely visible at this size; clean base colours and a strong livery read better across the table.

The liveries are the Horus Heresy ones — the same eighteen legions and the same Auxilia cohorts — so the Heresy scheme pages and the paints they list apply unchanged. Our 8 mm painting guide, first in the list below, covers what changes at this size: brighter colours, thin priming, batch-painting the infantry stands, and the Titans.

Where next

The Horus Heresy at 28 mm · Horus Heresy paint schemes · Painting the Heresy liveries