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I set out to create, with the help of the 40K community, a fun and compatible codex supplement. My gaming experience is very limited. I think if you do the math on some of these rules, fully-manned Crusader Squads can potentially deal out something like 100+ hits! So to all 'Grim-Dark' hobbyists, your contributions of experience are welcome!

I kept hearing about how expensive Helbrecht, Grimaldus, and the Emperor's Champion had become in relation to their function. So I knocked off a few points and made them (at least in my inexperienced mind) stronger.

I gave Helbrecht an additional Toughness point due to his bionics. Bionics is not a rule anymore, so this seemed a good way to reflect this.

Grimaldus is the Chaplain of Chaplains, so he is now Toughness 6 with a special Crozius Arcanum. The guy not only survived a collapsing temple, but walked away with wounds that shocked the Apothecaries. I'd say that makes him pretty tough. (If Cassius is mostly machine, why did Grimaldus get It Will Not Die when that's the Iron Hands' deal?)

The Emperor's Champion is also now T5 and Monster Hunter to help him out with Challenges. In every other respect, he (so far) remains the same as stated in Codex: Space Marines.

Another change I made was to the army selection over all. Since Sword Brethren Squads were removed all-together (thank goodness some say) I gave Black Templars Elite selections a Sword Brethren rule. I think it's safe to assume that if the Black Templars consider these knights as 'elite' they are probably Sword Brethren.

I've had people present concerns of how this new set of rules will help the Templars, as more Attacks doesn't mean they will live long enough to use them. Any ideas on how this can be fixed?

The sixth Warlord Trait is currently under examination, and is likely to change.

Why is Helbrecht only WS5? Further, why 30 points for Terminator Honours and the Holy Orb? They were borderline too expensive at 10.

Further, T5 on the Emperor's Champion isn't going to matter a whole lot, he's still a melee character with 2A base. Even with the +2S he's not going to kill a lot of enemies, and with AP3 he's back to losing to every Character he fights outside of Sergeants.

After getting a lot of good from feedback from many sources, changes have been made, some small, other dramatic.

Thank you to all and please keep commenting!

I like your ideas as my friend plays BT and he is pretty fanatical about them (as are you I am guessing by your user name!).

I have a few ideas for you (mostly to rein them in a bit I am afraid).

I feel the Emperors Champion is too cheap. 110 pts for a 3 wound WS 6 character with Strength 6 AP2 attacks that inflict instant death on a hit roll of 6 (re rolling a hit because of master crafted) is too much of a steal imo.

I would say raise his cost to around 150-160 or make his sword only inflict instant death during a challenge or when rolling to wound instead of hit.

Why is he T5 by the way? He has always been T4 in the past.

Also where is the justification for re-rolling inv saves? That is too much I think. Maybe re-roll failed saves of a 1 for his invuln?

Ditch Terminator Honours. These don't exist in other marine codexes any more and Chaos don't get an attack bonus from terminator armour any more. Also + 2 attacks and an LD bonus is way more than they ever did so I am curious why they have been buffed so much?

I think there needs to be some BT unique weapons and maybe armour in your reliquary. As they are basically knights in space, that seems to me to be the kind of relics they would go for.

I would love to see some kind of grailesque item to give them psychic resistance but as they already have adamantium will it's not really needed.

Next up vehicle upgrades.

I personally was glad to see the back of blessed hull when the BT got folded into the SM codex and would really not like to see it come back.

Yes I play eldar, and so rely on lance weapons to take down land raiders and the like from range, so that does affect my decision, but also GW have largely moved away from abilities in their books now that flat out disregard other armies special rules (for example the lance rule).

Perhaps the Blessed Hull could give the vehicle It Will Not Die and/or reduce the damage roll by one.

Ignoring Lance and reducing the armour pen roll by 1 is going overboard imo. A Bright or Dark Lance would not even be able to glance a land raider with this upgrade (strength 8 + 6 on the damage roll = 14 but -1 for the blessed hull would make it 13 so not even a glance).

Unless you meant for the damage roll to be reduced not the armour pen roll?

With these changes, I can see this upgrade being worth 30-35 pts.

Secrets of Oberon seem to be OK. It is pretty powerful on something like a land raider but you have made it sufficiently pricey to counter this.

I would not allow Secrets and Blessed Hull on the same vehicle though.

The name is a bit weird. Who is Oberon? What are his secrets and why do they make a tank harder to destroy?

My final comment is about the Warlord Traits.

They all seem fine except for Kill Them All. Relentless for an entire BT detachment is madness, even from a random warlord trait. I would say allow it for the Warlord and his unit or a 6-12" radius, but no more than that.

I do like your ideas (as much as it may seem I have criticised them!) and if it is OK, will show them to my BT playing friend and see what he thinks.

Thank you for commenting! This is exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for!

Yes, I am quite zealous myself. It seems to be the nature of the fanbase Black Templars attracts.

I wondered if I was making the Emperor's Champion a bit overboard, even for the beast that he is supposed to be. The T5 was supposed to help with the concerns folks have had for him getting insta-killed. But people have been telling me +1 Toughness won't do much aster all, so I'll put it back soon. I like your idea of Instant Death on to-wounds instead of to-hits. With this change, would he still be too cheap at 130?

I gave him a re-roll on the Inv. save because I thought 'Armor of Faith' deserved a more heroic ability than something he won't get to use outside of close combat. What if he gets blasted on his way across the board to challenge somebody? So I gave him, basically, a re-rolling Iron Halo. But you're right, the re-rolling 1's sounds more fair.

All the Reliquary items come strait from the Black Templars Codex of days-gone-by. I gave them abilities based on what I thought sounded more or less like what they did before. I didn't even think to add my own creations! I will be sure to utilize this idea! Thank you!

To be honest, it made me giggle a bit when you said Eldar Lances wouldn't even touch the Land Raiders. What a delicious thought! But I will knock it down. I did intend for this to mean -1 on the damage result for when the armor is penetrated.

Oberon is the name of an ancient, massive hover-tank armed with a short range Nova Cannon. It was basically stolen from the Mechanicus by the Black Templars during the Third War of Armageddon. This vehicle upgrade indicates that the Techmarines divulged enough technological mysteries from Oberon to improve their own tanks. You can read about it in Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Working on a new Warlord Trait now. Something along the lines of Only In Death does Duty End, but is a bit different from the way it was used by Grimaldus: Eternal Warrior & It Will Not Die too much?

What you have given me is constructive criticism, and I very much appreciate it! Thank you again.