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Not sure if this should go in lists or here in Gen. but here goes:


I just purchased a Dark Apostle, and am assembling my "first" squad of CSM for my uber fancy, pretty fluffy Word Bearer army. By fancy, I am of course referring to how many scrolls, seals, paper and cloth crap EVERYONE will have, so that they can show proper devotion and whatnot.


Thing is, the current book is a bit sparse on what exactly an army of zealots would look like. By this, I'm referring to whether they'd be heavily armed with flame weapons, or whether they prefer plasma, etc.

I currently still have my 1500+ points of Typhus lead Nurgley goodness, but ultimately I want this army to be completely stand alone, look cool as heck and not completely suck.

You will find that Chaos zealots do not tend toward any specific kind of weapon type, vehicle, or the like.

Instead, they are identified by how they use those weapons and vehicles - as you say, seals, pyres, and so on.

So take what you desire.

I generally imagine the Word Bearers as a Chaos mirror of the Ecclesiarchy. They use Flames weapons, but also have a preference for CC.

The Word Bearers Novels by Anthony Reynolds are worth a read. The WB generally use quite a diverse array of weapons in that book. Despite being zealots, they are actually quite organized and cohesive, and beat the Imperium in planning quite handily, so there's that.

And don't forget possessed. Being fanatically devoted to the Dark Gods means they offer themselves up to possession quite frequently. And the cultist cannon fodder, Wb have no shortage of that.

Read Anthony's Word Bearer trilogy, then, and only then, will you understand the proper application of the Word of Lorgar

edit:apologies, wrong author

 Lobukia wrote:
Read ADB's Word Bearer trilogy, then, and only then, will you understand the proper application of the Word of Lorgar

Lol, I actually had, and read the first book way back when I first started playing (subsequently, I got rid off basically all the novels I could when I stopped playing)

But I have added it back onto my list, and near the top.

They like cultists.

I remember that, towards the end of the first book, they stuck gasmasks on their cultists to work at high heights. So they might look like Death Korps of Krieg or Steel Legion troops.

Use the Crimson Slaughter codex for a super fluffy Word Bearers force. The only thing you technically lose out on is no VotLW for your Legionnaires, but Possessed as Troops, better relics and the ability to turn a Sorcerer into a Daemon are fluffy as hell!
Plus their Warlord Trait table is objectively better suited to WB's than the basic table in the main codex. Only thing you miss out on is the potential to Infiltrate D3 units and Black Crusader trait.

Well the true true fluffy way to play a Word Bearers is to use the Word Bearers legion. Especially as they can ally with daemons.

But then you're looking at several different books.

One question in regards to general build... do guys use icons on standard CSM troopers?

Well if you don't have marks you can only use the Icon of Chaos glory IIRC. It makes them fearless, which really isn't bad at all. One of the biggest complaints about CSM is leadership.

Big CSM squads with Fearless and Cultsts with Dark Apostles would be interesting.

 Delicate Swarm wrote:
Well if you don't have marks you can only use the Icon of Chaos glory IIRC. It makes them fearless, which really isn't bad at all. One of the biggest complaints about CSM is leadership.

Big CSM squads with Fearless and Cultsts with Dark Apostles would be interesting.

My only complaint about the Dark Apostle is that for some inexplicable reason, we can't give them Termie armour/Jump pack/Bike like loyalist scum can. This stupidity alone makes an otherwise amazing force multiplier all but useless.

The only times I've ever seen an Apostle outside of the Fearless Cultist blob or a CS Possessed unit is if someone is just wanting to be 100% fluffy with their army. (Typically Word Bearers)
If they could get access to just basic wargear they'd be staples in almost every Chaos Marine army.

Experiment 626 wrote:
My only complaint about the Dark Apostle is that for some inexplicable reason, we can't give them Termie armour/Jump pack/Bike like loyalist scum can.

The Dark Apostle model has none of those options. No model, no rules.

^^
I see what you did there.


But yeah, the Dark Apostle really isn't bad. In the FW Legion rules the "Diabolist" can be upgraded to a ML1 psyker, which the Apostle really should have as well. Wierdly enough the Diabolist also can't have a bike or TDA. Normally you'd expect more from FW.