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Mostly as a cool flavor trinket, to give a little bit of character to your characters, of whom there are now more identical copies of than ever.

Some of them are definitely better than others, but they're rarely a big deal. The only one that really speaks to me at least is the IG one for CP generation.

That's why they're free. I would not pay points for a Blade of Admonition if it cost more than the power sword it replaces. Hell, I'm questioning if I even want to pay the cost of a power sword for it.

I wish they added like 80 or so relics in the main rule book for everyone to use like they used to in Fantasy. Bring back points. That way I could customize the gak outta all of my HQ's.

I hate using standardized wargear for my HQ's or even worse. Being forced to use whatever comes with the model. I'm looking at you Dark Eldar Archon, who has the most useless wargear in the galaxy apparently.

I do wish you could stack relics on characters to be honest. For example for my biker captain i like both the shield eternal and armour indomitus but i cant decide which us worth it more a special storm shield or a 2+ armour save. I get why they don't want you stacking them but they should at least bring flavourful upgrades like artificer armour back

 Irbis wrote:

 Crimson wrote:
It would be better if they just costed points. They now all 'cost' the same, but are not really equally good, so many of them will never be used.

So? Some ere situational, yes, but I don't think I saw 8th edition relic no one used yet.

Deathguard has a couple of canidates for never used ever though. My favorite one is the grenade relic. Throw a way a relic, if you miss your hit roll, it's just gone, if you hit it might still do nothing and is gone as well.
On the same page: 2+ armor for any character including daemon princes that kills horde units attacking the bearer.

As for them costing points, what? Relics used to cost points in garbage system that was 7th. It was unnecessary fiddly, slowed building lists down, and necessitated reshuffles every single time you wanted to change it. It was such a chore most of people really just picked 1 and never changed it. Now they can be swapped on the fly chance of change is much larger, and the game benefited on old, trash system being deleted and rightly sent to dumpster. Simplicity is really worth dropping the hassle, +/- 5 pts in 2000 pts game changes literally nothing meaning time saves >>> any ""balance"" that might be gained by adding meaningless minutiae. Ditto for spell costs in early editions, and warlord traits/vows, approach 8th took might not be perfect but beats literally every single previous edition.

Fully agree. Relics are a nice way to customize army and HQs. Some of the terrible ones might need some buffs, but I don't think point costs are required - some cost points anyways because you need to buy a certain type of weapon to replace.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Mostly as a cool flavor trinket, to give a little bit of character to your characters, of whom there are now more identical copies of than ever.

Some of them are definitely better than others, but they're rarely a big deal. The only one that really speaks to me at least is the IG one for CP generation.

That's why they're free. I would not pay points for a Blade of Admonition if it cost more than the power sword it replaces. Hell, I'm questioning if I even want to pay the cost of a power sword for it.

But you're paying for it something much more valuable than couple of points, namely the opportunity to take a much better relic.

I think Relics are there to help you personalise your commanders a bit. The execution might not be perfect, but I think the idea is fine and nowhere near broken enough to warrant a heavy-handed "fix" (i.e. removing them entirely).

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
I consider myself a casual player too.

For example, the "Blade of Conquest" is at the low end of the list of IG relics, but it is the one I choose. I combine it with the Vostroyan "Honoured Duellist" warlord trait, and any cursory glance at the homebrew background thread should say why:

Lord Marshal Katerina Malinenko (my regimental commander; she rarely sees the table but she's in my master list for the regiment of course) is a member of the Senatus Concordia, the aristocracy of her homeworld, and is second-in-line for the ruler of House Malinenko and its territories on Concordia. She has duelist-style swordsmanship, and uses a Dark Age of Technology fencing sabre (that would have been called a Paragon Blade in the Horus Heresy) that has been passed down through her family for generations named Gloriana.

So the Honoured Duelist Warlord Trait and Blade of Conquest make perfect sense, even if they're not "meta".

I think this sort of thing is exactly what Relics are meant for.

Wyldhunt wrote:
I mean, the fluff is kind of neat sometimes, but you could easily just write up a backstory for your mastercrafted bolter or whatever most of the time and get the same result.

Well, to use the above example, an IG Power Sword is S3 AP-3 D1. The Blade of Conquest is S5 AP-4 Dd3. So, whilst I could skip it and make up a story for my ordinary power sword, it wouldn't change the fact that said power sword is worthless garbage.

Then you have the relics that simply don't have mundane counterparts. For example, what if I want to use the Death Mask of Ollanius (which gives a 4++ and lets the model heal d3 wounds once per game)? There is no mundane wargear that can replicate either of those abilities, so all I can do is come up with an elaborate backstory for why my HQ has naff-all.