The Horus Heresy
It is a time of legend.
The galaxy is in flames. The Emperor's glorious vision for humanity is in ruins.
His favoured son, Horus, has turned from his father's light and embraced Chaos.
His armies, the mighty and redoubtable Space Marines, are locked in a brutal civil war.
Once, these ultimate warriors fought side by side as brothers, protecting the galaxy and bringing
mankind back into the Emperor's light. Now they are divided.
Some remain loyal to the Emperor, whilst others have sided with the Warmaster.
Pre-eminent amongst them, the leaders of their thousands- strong Legions are the primarchs.
Magnificent, superhuman beings, they are the crowning achievement of the Emperor's genetic science.
Thrust into battle against one another, victory is uncertain for either side.
Worlds are burning. At Isstvan V, Horus dealt a vicious blow and three loyal Legions were all but destroyed.
War was begun, a conflict that will engulf all mankind in fire. Treachery and betrayal have usurped honour
and nobility. Assassins lurk in every shadow. Armies are gathering. All must choose a side or die.
Horus musters his armada, Terra itself the object of his wrath. Seated upon the Golden Throne,
the Emperor waits for his wayward son to return. But his true enemy is Chaos, a primordial force that seeks
to enslave mankind to its capricious whims.
The screams of the innocent and the pleas of the righteous resound
to the cruel laughter of Dark Gods. Suffering and damnation
await all should the Emperor fail and the war be lost.
The age of knowledge and enlightenment has ended.
The Age of Darkness has begun.
Battles in the Age of Darkness
Set in the 31st Millennium in a time known as The Age of Darkness, The Horus Heresy is the galaxy spanning civil war that tore the Imperium of Man apart and pitched brother against brother. As a Loyalist or Traitor you can fight these cataclysmic battles, and fight for the future of mankind.
Games of Warhammer 40,000 set during The Horus Heresy are played using the Battles in the Age of Darkness expansion. To play you will also need a copy of Warhammer 40,000 The Rules.
Battles in the Age of Darkness is a narrative framework and an expansive series campaigns set in the dark times of the Horus Heresy. It uses its own Allies Matrix and Force Organisation Charts, and presents its own distinct way of playing based on the armies which fought each other for control of the Imperium.
Horus Heresy games tend to be larger than standard games of Warhammer 40,000. Around 1,750-3,500 points per player is an ideal game size. Many players finding that forces of between 2,000 and 2,500 points each offer a satisfying game that can be completed in a single evening or afternoon.


The Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness Rulebook
The Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness is a tabletop game for two or more players, in which you command an army of Forge World and Citadel miniatures representing either those Loyalist forces who fight in the name of the Emperor or the Traitors who have chosen to side with Warmaster Horus. This 216-page hardback book provides you with all of the core rules and diagrams you will need to recreate and fight the wars of The Horus Heresy.







Campaign Books
The Horus Heresy Campaign Books are a series of books detailing the background of the Horus Heresy, the armies involved and the battle they fought, as well as including the Battles in the Age of Darkness expansion rules, army lists, unit profiles, full campaign systems, missions and more. Each book is leather bound with embossed metal corners and lavishly printed in full colour. We suggest starting with The Horus Heresy Book One - Betrayal.

Night falls on the Golden Age of Humanity. The Great Crusade draws to a close as the treachery of the Emperor’s favourite son is unveiled in blood and destruction on Isstvan III. Choosing this moment to rid the Legions most loyal to him of those in their ranks still dedicated to the Emperor’s service, the Warmaster commences the betrayal forever known as The Horus Heresy.

The news of Horus’ rebellion spreads and Space Marine Legions are sent to the Isstvan system to bring the traitors to heel. The true extent of the betrayal is only revealed on Isstvan V, in the grim aftermath of the battle known as the Dropsite Massacre, and the dark deeds leading up to the terrible slaughter.

In the aftermath of the bloody Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V, survivors were hunted with bitter resolve and given no respite. The great betrayal spreads to new battlegrounds, with Alpha Legion’s Invasion of Paramar V and the devastating clash between the Iron Warriors and Imperial fists in The Battle of Phall.

With the strength of half the Space Marine Legions at his hand, the campaign of the Warmaster Horus spreads through the Imperium, bringing treachery and war and leaving destruction in its wake. Adding to the might of the Legions on both sides are the other military forces of the Imperium, from the elite of the Imperial Army – the Solar Auxilia – to the Knight Households and their immense war machines.

Previously isolated from the brutal devastation of the Horus Heresy as it tore across the Imperium, the Ultramarines were drawn into Mankind’s civil war when betrayal reached Ultramar. The Word Bearers’ treacherous attack engulfed the entire system, pitching not only the Legions against each other, but also the massed ranks of the Imperial Army militia and the towering god-machines of the Legio Titanicus.

As the fires of total war consume worlds, and whole Legions clash - away from the front lines the Knights-Errant are abroad, carrying out missions bestowed upon them by the very highest authority on distant Terra. The Shattered Legions pursue bloody vengeance against the hated Traitors, and Blackshields - orphaned or outcast Legiones Astartes harbour their own objectives.

The Horus Heresy Book Seven – Inferno is a supplement for The Horus Heresy which depicts the cataclysmic battle of the Burning of Prospero, home planet of the Thousand Sons Legion, the near-destruction of that Legion, the fall of its Primarch, Magnus, and the tangled web of fate and treachery which led up to it. This book includes the rules and background for using the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves Legions in games of The Horus Heresy.




Army Lists
The Horus Heresy Army Lists collect together and update the army lists and unit profiles from across the campaign books. These hardback books are the perfect companion to the campaign books, and an indispensable reference when planning armies and playing games.

Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Legions includes the unique units and special rules for the thirteen Legions covered so far, including their mighty Primarchs.

Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Army List covers every unit available to any Space Marine army.

Mechanicum: Taghmata Army List features the war machines and automata in service of the Mechanicum, including rules for the colossal Warlord Titan.

Crusade Imperialis: Army Lists features the massed ranks of the Imperial Army, from the militia of a thousand worlds to the elite Solar Auxilia, and also includes the Questoris Knights, and army of devastating war machines.
Choose your Legion
The Space Marines of the Legiones Astartes were created as superhuman warriors to spearhead the Emperor of Mankind's crusade to reclaim the lost worlds of humanity and forge a new empire amongst the stars. Each of the 18 Legions was led by a Primarch, a gene forged son of the Emperor, created to be the wisest counsel, fiercest combatant, and most accomplished general.
Each Legion has its own character and doctrines, and over centuries of battle, under the direction of their Primarch, each has created units unique to their army. Select a Legion below and find out more.
Dark Angels - The Ist Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The Ist Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Lion El'Jonson
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Dark Angels were the first of the Emperor's Space Marine Legions, and in their earliest incarnation fought as the personal army of the Master of Humanity. Unyielding, technologically capable, ruthless and insular, the Dark Angels at the time of the Horus Heresy were a powerful and highly independent Legion, used to operating on its own to conduct large scale campaigns and compliance actions.
Tactics
As the Ist Legion, the Dark Angels were originally outfitted with a panoply of arms drawn not from the fruits of the Emperors pact with Mars but instead from the arsenal of the Unification Wars of Ancient Terra; relic weapons and technologies of great potency. Long after the other Legions were formed, and the Great Crusade standardised much of the Space Marine Legions' wargear, the Dark Angels retained many of these ancient and potent relics, as well as the techno-arcana that resided within them. These they continued to employ; weapons whose secrets were never fully yielded to Mars or their Space Marine brethren by the Emperor's own command.
Emperor's Children - The IIIrd Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The IIIrd Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Fulgrim
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Emperor's Children have always striven to be exemplars above all others in the arts of war; paragons of martial virtue and excellence, scorning those who did not meet their own, perhaps unattainable, standards. This led them to seek perfection in war as a fluid, lightning-quick force whose battles were preordained victories bought about by a combination of acute strategic planning and flawless execution. Their attitudes and manner led some to name them as arrogant and vainglorious long before the Horus Heresy, but the Legion's warriors were always ready to answer any such slight with blood.
Tactics
To the Emperor's Children, before their fall from grace, war was a matter of perfection incarnated in violence intent and action. The Legion took great pride both in its excellence on any battlefield, and its ability to systematise and replicate any tactic or strategic deployment it needed, and execute them flawlessly on command. Of the innumerable such formations and tactics the Emperor's Children operated, one that found favour with the Legion's Praetors looking to achieve faultless victory - and thereby glory in the eyes of their peers and Primarch - was the Maru Skara.
Iron Warriors - The IVth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The IVth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Perturabo
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Iron Warriors were the grim, cold-hearted masters of the science of war among the Space Marines, the exemplars of strength and discipline turned exclusively to the systematic destruction of an enemy. The Legion was commanded by its Primarch Perturabo as an extension of his own mind and body, the will of each Legionary utterly sublimated to his conception of victory. More so than in any other Legion, the life of each warrior was secondary to his duty, as much a resource to be expended in the relentless calculus of war as bolt shell or lascannon charge.
Tactics
Masters of siege warfare and attrition assault tactics, the Iron Warriors favour the use of murderous firepower as their principal agency of war, and are renowned for their use of heavy armour and fortifications, spurning vainglorious ideals of personal combat and valour for the brutal determination to achieve victory by any means necessary. This culminated in tactical formations such as that which became known as the Hammer of Olympia; designed to carry out an unyielding close range attack and shatter the strongest enemy defence line under a weight of armoured warriors and a hurricane of fire.
White Scars - The Vth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The Vth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Jaghatai Khan
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
A bolt of lightning in clear skies, a sudden gale from an unexpected quarter - the White Scars are war's sudden and merciless onslaught. Swift action and a joy for the rush of combat and clash of blades are the hallmarks of their battles, tempered by a quiet and hidden wisdom that few took the time to uncover. The White Scars thrive in the chaotic heart of battle, anticipating its vicissitudes and flowing with them, always to be found where the foe is weakest, where they were least expected, and leaving only cold corpses in their wake.
Tactics
White Scar Legionaries are often organised into a fighting unit known as a Chogorian Brotherhood. Composed of a body of Legionaries mounted entirely on fleet warbikes and Scimitar jetbikes, or in other transport vehicles, these formations were ideal for harrying campaigns or lightning strike warfare. When faced with a dug-in foe, some elements of the Brotherhood would dismount to fight on foot, moving to encircle the foe and support their brethren.
Space Wolves - The VIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The VIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Leman Russ
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
Since the days of the VIth Legion's inception on Terra, it has remained a Legion apart from its fellows, its origins shrouded as it garnered a fearsome reputation for its warriors' prowess as a shock-assault force as well as tireless pursuers and a peerless hunter-killer force. Unexpected violence was the Legion's calling card, its campaigns unsubtle, but brutally swift. Like their latter-day namesakes, the wolves of old Terra, its warriors' assaults are calculated exercises in ferocity, aimed to tear and rend until the foe lies in ruins or is driven to its death.
Tactics
Conditioned to hold a near-suicidal disregard for danger and trained to exploit this to the fullest on the battlefield, the heavy infantry that form the core of the Legion's battalions are a force that has been honed in battle against the countless enemies of Mankind and, it is whispered, against their own wayward brothers. For, unlike their brother Legions, the Space Wolves were kept under the tight control of the Imperial Court and unleashed at the Emperor's command as often to chastise those who would renege on their oaths of service as to destroy those who resisted the offer of Compliance.
Imperial Fists - The VIIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The VIIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Rogal Dorn
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Legionaries of the Imperial Fists, sons of the Primarch Rogal Dorn, were known as the stoic praetorians of Terra, faultlessly loyal, disciplined and methodical, and renowned as masters of assault and defence, fleet warfare and void combat. As the Imperium expanded ever outwards, so the crusaders of the Imperial Fists were to be found at the leading edge of the advance. In the wake of victory, the Imperial Fists would construct mighty fortresses that were as much garrisons against rebellion as they were beacons of Unification, ensuring that the work of the Great Crusade would stand eternal.
Tactics
The Imperial Fists were a capable Legion in any theatre of warfare, their temperament and training meant they favoured a style of warfare that combined phenomenally resilient interlocking defence with calculated bursts of relentless aggression. Key to this and its distinction over the practices of many other Legions was that it combined in lock-step strengths of each legionary as a whole. One such tactical example of this was an infantry formation known as the Stone Gauntlet, which turned the mass of the Legion's Breachers and Warders into a grinding, implacable battering ram of force.
Night Lords - The VIIIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The VIIIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Konrad Curze, aka Night Haunter
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
Even before the Dropsite Massacre, the Night Lords Legion was in many eyes already renegade in all but name. Having devoted themselves to the arts of terror and punishment in the service of the Emperor, they became a byword for fear itself during the Great Crusade, and the mere rumour of their approach was enough to send entire planets into panicked surrender. The Legion's Primarch, Konrad Curze, was the master of such terrifying surprise assaults and brutal punitive campaigns - a macabre figure obsessed with death and judgment.
Tactics
The infamous specialty of the Night Lords Legion was the Terror Assault, often conducted under conditions of complete darkness, whether natural or artificially induced. Such attacks were not just designed to overwhelm their foe, but to sow as much gut-wrenching terror in both its victims and any who were left to survive to tell the tale, as to shroud whole worlds in a pall of fear
Blood Angels - The IXth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The IXth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- The Angel Sanguinius
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
In battle, the Blood Angels Legion was the incarnation of the Emperor's wrath upon those who rejected the gift of Unity. Led by their angelic Primarch Sanguinius, their coming was nothing less than apocalyptic judgement delivered upon the guilty from on high.
Tactics
The Legion's tactical doctrines were heavily focused on the use of powerful shock assaults to shatter an enemy's resistance in a single, devastating blow. Because of this, flamer and melta weaponry was favoured at the tactical level, both because of its effectiveness and its ability to provide a fearsome display in action.
Iron Hands - The Xth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The Xth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Ferrus Manus (also known as "The Gorgon")
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Iron Hands were among the most technologically adept and remorseless of the Space Marine Legions. Under their Primarch Ferrus Manus, they were the brutal and unstoppable lords of the engines of war, wielding weapons and armoured tanks with the skill a master swordsman might a blade. Proud and relentless, the Legion fought for many years at the forefront of the Great Crusade, and won victories uncounted, though many labelled them as callous and as inhuman as the machines they employed with such devastating skill.
Tactics
The Irons Hands' preference for close range, brutal engagements, where their relentless firepower could be brought to its fullest effect, was exemplified by a tactic that became known as the 'head of the Gorgon'. This was where the enemy would be brought to bale, held in place and allowed to smash itself to pieces against the body of the Legion's forces, while reserve forces of mechanised armour encircled them, before closing in to create a withering crossfire.
World Eaters - The XIIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XIIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Angron the Conqueror
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
Of all the Space Marine Legions in the Emperor's service, the World Eaters were among the most feared; savage conquerors who neither knew nor gave quarter in battle. With their Primarch Angron at their head, they grew ever closer to becoming true monsters; butchers and madmen whose fury was fuelled by bloodshed, and was such that no sane warrior would stand willingly against them.
Tactics
Long before the dawning of the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters had stood on the edge of an abyss created by their own unquenchable bloodlust, the bitter rage of their Primarch and the self-mutilation of their own brains and nervous systems. Baptised in the blood of their fellow Legionaries and their own brothers at Isstvaan III, whether they knew it or not, the Legion had toppled headlong into that abyss, and in that darkness, the Ruinous Powers were waiting to claim their souls. Blindly and unknowingly the World Eaters went to their doom with each sweep of their chainaxes and each life torn apart before them, and as the blood flowed, the madness within them grew ever worse.
Ultramarines - The XIIIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XIIIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Roboute Guilliman
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Ultramarines Legion prosecuted the Emperor's wars with reason, discipline and resolve; every warrior striving to match the example of their Primarch, Roboute Guilliman. The most numerous of the Space Marine Legions at the end of the Great Crusade, the Ultramarines Legion formed the bulwark of the Imperium's domains in the galactic east, far from Terra, and served as their wardens and protectors. A highly unified fighting force, the Ultramarines possessed an enviable reputation for strategy and tactical coherence, talents which enabled them to defeat mighty armies with little loss to their own strength.
Tactics
The Ultramarines pride themselves above all things on their unity of purpose and their seamless tactical integration in battle. for many years they have been accorded as being the most numerous of the Space Marine Legions and under their Primarch, they have forged a significant range of tactical doctrines which hone their unity and strength in numbers to lethal advantage.
Death Guard - The XIVth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XIVth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Mortarion the Reaper
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Death Guard Legion were stalwart and implacable fighters, warriors who had made a specialty both of endurance under the harshest of circumstances and of overcoming the most nightmarish and inhospitable of war zones. Their name became a byword for unflinching determination and triumph through bloody, gruelling attrition when all else failed, and as a Legion they were key to some of the most difficult victories and arduous campaigns of the Great Crusade.
Tactics
Under the guiding hand of their sinister Primarch Mortarion, the Death Guard Legion became famed for their particular expertise in the darker arts of warfare, such as the use of bio-alchem and rad weaponry. Although specialising in entrenched and attritional warfare, the Legion also had a number of formations and tactics that enabled it to operate in concentrated and crushing force in an attack - one such was dubbed 'The Reaping' by those who had fought alongside the Death Guard during the Great Crusade.
Thousand Sons - The XVth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XVth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Magnus the Red
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Thousand Sons were born of capricious fate and have ever walked a precarious path between duty and damnation. The nascent Legion was spared destruction by the discovery of its Primarch, the one-eyed giant Magnus the Red. Only by Magnus' devotion to his newly-found sons, his vast intellect and his mastery of the arcane was the Legion saved.
Tactics
Of all the Space Marine Legions, the Thousand Sons made the greatest use of those possessed of psychic ability, integrating these warrior-mystics into a labyrinthine command structure so that they, by the application of their powers, could alter the very flow of cause and effect to achieve flawless victories.
Sons of Horus - The XVIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XVIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Horus, aka Horus Lupercal
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris Maximus
Preferred Style of Fighting
In the Sons of Horus Legion was perhaps the most perfect mix of savagery and reason found. In battle their core combat doctrine was the application of overwhelming force directed to where the foe was weakest, and such was the Legion's mastery of this tactic that often they could turn the tide of an entire conflict with a single, well-placed and brutal attack. Such was the power and vigour of the Legion that it amassed more victories than any other force of the Great Crusade, and such was the talent and reputation of its Primarch Horus, that it was to him that the mantle of Warmaster was to fall, with such disastrous consequences for the Imperium.
Tactics
With the treachery of the Warmaster, their gene-father, the Sons of Horus Legion grew ever more savage and proud. They fought with callous, calculated fury, born both of the darkness in their hearts and the shadowed powers which Horus had found communion with. Their battle tactics became ever more predatory, a highly co-ordinated strike force which encircles and tears apart its victims like a pack of nightmarish predators.
Word Bearers - The XVIIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XVIIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Lorgar the Urizen, aka Lorgar Aurelian
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris Maximus
Preferred Style of Fighting
Once a Legion whose loyalty to the Emperor and fanaticism were absolute, the Word Bearers were the foremost iconoclasts of the Great Crusade, tearing down false idols and scourging worlds of aberrant cults and xenos taint. But its master, the Primarch Lorgar, eventually fell into the error of leading his Legion and those they conquered into worshipping the Emperor as a god, requiring their brutal censure. In the aftermath of this punishment, although the Legion appeared to return to the path set out for them, secretly malice and resentment festered in the Word Bearers' hearts and they would fall prey to the machinations of the fell powers of the Warp, becoming a poisonous canker at the heart of the Imperium.
Tactics
Before the canker of corruption took root within the Word bearers Legion, it was renowned for the cohesion and selfless sacrifice with which it fought in the Emperor's name. After it came to the worship of older and more nightmarish gods, parts of the Legion took to enacting horrific rites on the eve of battle to curry favour from the Warp. Such warbands soon became shadowed with the foulest and most unnatural evil, often paying with the blood and souls of their own brethren to appease their new masters.
Salamanders - The XVIIIth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XVIIIth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Vulkan
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Space Marines of the Salamanders Legion were the lords of fire and forge, they were masters of artifice and possessed of a fearsome and impregnable sense of honour and duty. Unyielding defenders of humanity on one hand and uncompromising destroyers of all who stood against them on the other, they embodied the ideals of the Great Crusade and its goals, bearing any toil and sacrifice in order to achieve victory.
Tactics
Under the tutelage and spiritual leadership of their Primarch Vulkan, the Salamanders have become a Legion of warrior mystics; slow to anger, deliberate in action and supremely disciplined. But when their fury is unleashed, it is a terrible thing to behold and carried out with all the arts of warfare and artifice at their disposal; an unstoppable tide of fire and destruction purging all before it.
Raven Guard - The XIXth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XIXth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Corvus Corax, aka the Raven Lord
- ++ Allegiance:
- Loyalist
Preferred Style of Fighting
The Raven Guard Legion were quick to exact justice and retribution upon the tyrant and the oppressor by striking from the shadows with lightning speed and shocking strength. The annals of the Great Crusade told few tales of the deeds the Legion enacted, for they and their Primarch, Corax, ever shunned the glare of adulation and the trappings of glory. Though able to engage in any sphere of warfare, the Raven Guard Legion favoured the tactics of patience, guile and subtlety, relying on unmatched skill in reconnaissance and infiltration in order to identify their foe's weakest point and then rapidly strike at it with precisely applied force.
Tactics
Strategically, where possible, the Raven Guard favoured the clinical effectiveness of the decapitation strike. Launched either with complete surprise, or against a foe lured in by a raiding force set up as bait, this was a highly organised and precisely targeted attack, whose murderous and unforgiving force was contained and directed with precision, like the predatory strike of a raptor at its prey.
Alpha Legion - The XXth Legion
Legion Overview
- ++ Numeration:
- The XXth Legion
- ++ Primogenitor:
- Alpharius
- ++ Allegiance:
- Traitoris
Preferred Style of Fighting
Of all of the Legiones Astartes, the least is known for certain of the Alpha Legion, a force shrouded in mystery, deceit and myth. What was known was that the warriors of the Alpha Legion were the unsurpassed masters of misdirection and guile in warfare.
Tactics
The deceit and subterfuge for which the Alpha Legion was famed was a means to an end; the end more often than not placing their foes at a disadvantage on the battlefield, leaving them vulnerable to sudden surprise attack by rapid moving strike forces whose goal was nothing short of wholesale slaughter.