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One of my favorite set of rules in 40k right now is Codex: Orks. I love the idea that a Big Mek unlocks 1 Dread as troops, and a Warboss does the same for Nobz. Part of this enjoyment for me is the idea that everyone can customize their HQ.

To a lesser extent, I enjoy Wazzdakka making Bikes Troops. The difference is that Wazzdakka is a named character. I wish that the game was less centric on named characters for army diversity. I'm all for a slew of cool characters with rad models and wild rules, but a Salamanders army should not NEED Vulkan. Thinking of Marines...

In Codex: Space Marines, a Captain on a bike lets bikers in big enough squads count as troops. I love that.

From the same codex, Pedro Cantor makes all Sternguard scoring (Not troops). SUPER cool. However, the problem I have with that is that a Crimson fist army who passes up Pedro is suddenly confronted with the bizarre event of all their sternguard forgetting how to hold an objective. Stupid.

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This thread is about "Unlocking Style" HQs I wish existed in various codexes. Some of these get slightly complex.

Alphabetically!

Chaos Marines: This codex has a terrible case of what I described above as not liking. There are NO unlocking choices, and the non characters are super duper bland. Those who remember the glory days of the Chaos codex 3.5 will agree with me. You used to be able to do GREAT things with HQ. One of my favorite was the Chaos Lieutenant/Sorcerer. I love the idea of the much cheaper minor HQs. Rather than running 2 all powerful lord guys with identical stats commanding 30 troops you can have your kickass lord and his scheming kiss-ass assistant.

This codex is screaming to have unlocking HQ units. Here's how I would do it.

Any Lord with a Mark of Chaos allows his followers to use that Icon (for a cost). This is army-wide. For example, a Chaos HQ (Of any type) with the Mark of Khorne can have Chaos Marines, Raptors and everyone else with Icons of Khorne in his army. But, they would not have access to Icons of Tzeentch, because that would be like Black legion or Undivided or something. Thinking of which...

An HQ which takes Mark of Chaos Undivided allows the followers to take any marks they please! This is like the fluff! Golly!

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This next proposed change is the one which will send non-fluff gamers nerd-raging into a frenzy.

All the Cult type troops are moved into the Elites section. For those of you who don't know, that's Khorne Bezerkers, Plague Marines, Thousand Sons and Noise Marines.

If you have an army led by a Chaos Glory Commander, you have access to all of them, as Elites.
If you are lead by an HQ with a God specific Mark, the Cult Troops becomes a troop choice.

That might seem restrictive, but honestly and fiercely think that an army comprised of a Daemonprince of Slaanesh and Plauge Marines is stupid and un-fluffy.

On a side note, I'd love to see Cult upgrades on the commanders.

Any IC with the appropriate Mark may upgrade to a Cult commander to gain the following benefits:
Khorne Bezerker: +1 WS, Furious Charge
Plauge Marine: Defensive Grenades, FnP, -1 I
Thousand Sons: 3++, Slow and Purp.
Noise Marines: Sonic Weapons (Blaster, Doom Siren)

That has less to do with unlocking and more to do with making the non character HQ slots interesting.

I'll stop there for now, and let some comments in before I move on to Eldar. Feel free to post your own ideas for Codex: Chaos Marines HQ and how they should interact with the rest of the book.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've been exposed to ideas on Chaos Undivided Commanders and Cult troops.

Rather than the restrictive pattern I had set up, consider this:

All Cult Marines are Elites.

An HQ with an appropriate mark makes all squads of that Cult Marine troops choices. (Ex: Tzeentch Sorcerer has Thousand Sons as troops.)
Also...
An HQ with the Mark of Chaos Undivided may take 1 squad of each cult marine as troops. (Ex: Undivided Sorc has 7 Plauge Marines and 12 'Zerkers as Troops)

I like this much more, as it is less restrictive while remaining cool and fluffy.

Hi.
I would prefer a generic option to unlock army types.
And then give the named character as a SPECIFIC example of this type of HQ.

So not everyone HAS to used a named character to allow the army they want to use.

TTFN

I like this. Are you going to continue to every army?

I really like the idea of this too, and I am quite interested in what you are going to do to Eldar because this just seems like a novel idea.

Lanrak wrote:Hi.
I would prefer a generic option to unlock army types.
And then give the named character as a SPECIFIC example of this type of HQ.

So not everyone HAS to used a named character to allow the army they want to use.

I obviously agree with you wholeheartedly. I really wish there were more non-special character HQs with army wide rules.

Happygrunt wrote:I like this. Are you going to continue to every army?

I'm glad you like it. I'm going to try to do most of the armies.


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Thinking of that, onto Eldar!


The Eldar are an interesting army fluff-wise, because of the Aspect Warrior Cults. IMO, their Codex is still very well written and stands up even to the newer books. The Eldar fight in specific piecemeal squads, and are not quite as obvious in craftworld division as Space Marine Chapters.

In my mind, it is wrong to make any of these aspect warriors troops, or move anything from troops to elites. The codex is so great already.

The suggestions I'd make are must less radical than those made for Codex: Chaos Marines.

Eldar Farseer: May upgrade to a Spiritseer in order to take any sized squads of Wraithguard as troops. Farseers who do this may not take seer councils. Pretty simple there. Wraithguard are pretty expensive, so I don't see this being game changing.

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After a suggestion from dayve110, I think that the Autarch idea is too much a stretch.

Rather than having Autarches make a unit scoring, it would be much cooler if the phoenix lords did.

Even though Phoenix Lords are Special Characters, I like the idea.

The pheonix lords would be better for making certain aspects scoring, yes they are special charecters, but at least its a reason to actually take one.

dayve110 wrote:The pheonix lords would be better for making certain aspects scoring, yes they are special charecters, but at least its a reason to actually take one.

I like that idea alot. I wasn't too confident with the Autarch idea anyway. Thanks.