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So with the release of FoC, we have inquisitorial, AM and SoB themed special characters available to all imperial armies- even being taken as the required HQ choice in CAD.

Had a game yesterday vs a space marine player who had taken Celestine as the HQ choice. The only HQ choice. I gotta say; I didn't expect myself to rage so hard internally at the sight. Don't know why they did it. It just really got up my nose that an obviously Sisters themed character was being fielded by this filthy astartes army..
Needless to say , my internal rage was channeled into wiping that false saint from existence- easy to do when my exorcists roll epically and she fails her Ld. Probably ruined the other guys day but I'm unashamed.

What does dakka think? Are you with GWs obvious marketing ploy to move more models? Are you a puritan who believes that special characters should be restricted to their army? Am I just being irrationally salty?



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Ah crap, had the wrong tab open. Can we get this moved to General Discussion? Sorry >.<

I love it, personally. I can't wait for more.

I’m not opposed to it, but can’t say I like it. Neutral.

Some combos make more sense then others. I could see Celestian swooping in to take command of a guard force that had lost all their command, rallying them to victory. If you think of the battles we have on the table as part of an overall war, just a tiny critical bit of it, it makes a lot of sense.

Most of the time the imperial war machine is not a mono-build. It’s a mish-mash of forces, thrown together against the darkness. Cadia exemplifies this. Should each character have their faction backing them? Yes. But they might already be dead, or fighting two tables over. But this section of the battleline is where their presence was needed.

I could easily see a character looking at the strategic map, realizing something critical needed to be done, and grabbing whoever was on hand to go do it. And the forces on hand, or near the objective might be wildly disparate.

It's time to come to terms with the fact that individual factions as we knew them are gone. The line has been getting increasingly blurry since the reintroduction of allies. Do I like it? Not at all. But that's the prevailing wind and there's not much point trying to piss into it.

 Nevelon wrote:
Some combos make more sense then others. Most of the time the imperial war machine is not a mono-build. It’s a mish-mash of forces, thrown together against the darkness.

Agreed on that. It's not that odd for a (more into human relations than ordinary) Space Marine Captain to at least stop and give a freshly field-promoted Guard Lt some tactical pointers, or a Canoness to lead those same Guards by example when they really have to hold the line. And both of them would listen to what Ursakar E. Creed has to say about defending the place.

The specific example was just the silliest one IMO. I had time to thumb through the book today and while Celestine's arrival fired new hope and determination in the defenders the SM in particular (except for the Black Templars) just went meh, whatever works. Most marines wouldn't follow her for the inspiration so she'd have to be the sort of tactical genius even they rarely see in order for it to make sense.

I've always looked at a game of 40k as a small part of a larger battle. Sure they could be a completely independent fight with nothing else going on. But I tend to lean toward the idea, that there are fights going on all around the game I am playing (sort of like how it looks at a large tournament). So Celestine leading some Space Marines could easily represent her coming over during a larger fight, and filling in for a fallen Captain for the time being.

I like it in general, I think it makes sense for the imperium to want to help itself out. The space marines may be proud but I don't think they'd let that stop them from winning a fight.

I can understand it all from a narrative point of view and that's how I've usually seen the game. I dunno, maybe I'm just disappointed that a new model/sculpt gets released for what has always been a sisters unit that is so pant-droppingly fantastic and could have been something truly special for the old mono sister players; but then GW sets her up to be passed around like a $2 hooker :(

Depends on the Astartes.
Some Space Marines wouldn't have an issue taking orders from St Celestine, others...a mate of mine made a diorama with Creed staring down a squad of Wolf Guard who dwarfed him and clearly wanted to kill him.

Giantwalkingchair wrote:
I can understand it all from a narrative point of view and that's how I've usually seen the game. I dunno, maybe I'm just disappointed that a new model/sculpt gets released for what has always been a sisters unit that is so pant-droppingly fantastic and could have been something truly special for the old mono sister players; but then GW sets her up to be passed around like a $2 hooker :(

To be fair, a lot of characters from specific factions also do the rounds. They just come with little tax units so they can join their superfriends deathstars.

Shared HQs just prevent little naked squads cowering in the corners.

I don't mind the idea of someone commandeering a bunch of guardsmen, that sort of thing happens in the fluff all the time. However, the example of celestine and the SM's that the OP provided also pissed me off and I don't know why. Maybe GW could make it so you had to give these multi-factional characters a retinue from their original army.

If the SM's were Templars, Scorpions and someone else who has real good ties with the SoB/Ecclessiachy, I wouldn't mind so much either. Same with Raven Guard, Sallies, Smurfs or Raptors working with Guard, compared to the Flesh Tearers or Marines Malevolent.

Note: I'm not saying that SM armies should be restricted based on their paint scheme, but as a pure background person it still irritates me.

On one hand, I like the idea of allies, and have liked it since the old 3e Inquisitional codecies. That said, I also think that it needs some compositional restrictions. And the main thing here being that while I like having allied HQ units (for example, Inquisitors belong everywhere), but I think that not every character should be thrown into every Imperium army.

Hopefully 8th edition will bring compositional bonuses similar to AoS, where it allows you to mix forces freely, but encourages more faction-specific forces with better buffs the more narrow your specialization. Because right now, everything is kind of a mess where Imperium armies get to throw everything and the kitchen sink into any given list.

Celestine for Space Marines bothers me a little (It would be nice to see even a cheap-as-chips Librarian filling in the SM command role) but it at least makes some sense.

What I'm not too keen on are things that don't make sense. Like Lord Commissars with Space Marines - why would they need him?