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So I'm working on a Space Marine chapter, redesigning it after some flame in general...

Turns out mixing geneseeds is a bad idea... who knew...

I have some rules for one of the HQs; Lord Vayellith, 6th company. Commands the Chaos Warders, a section of the Dark Crusaders chapter which deals with stopping Chaos sorcery, hence the name.

WS8 BS4 S4 T4 W3 I5 A* Ld10 Sv2+/5++ Cost: 190 points

Artificer armour, dragon glaive*, storm bolter, frag and krak grenades, dark signum*

*Dragon Glaive: A varient of the normal glaive, which is a power weapon that gives +2 Initiative. The Dragon Glaive is a Glaive that gives +1 attacks.

*Dark Signum: An artifact sourced from geneseed mutations harvested from select chapters, the Dark Signum grants a 5+ Invulnerable save.


Special Rules: And They Shall Know No Fear, Forsaken, Channeled Strikes*, Fearless, Independant Character, Blink*, Die, curs!*, Beyond his Peers*

*Forsaken: Select units in the Codex have Forsaken instead of Crusade. Forsaken renders the unit unable to benefit from the bonuses of Crusade, but at the start of every turn the unit may benefit from one of the following bonuses (these bonuses only last for a single turn):

- +1 Attacks
- +1Initiative
- +1 Leadership
- a 6+ Invulnerable save

*Channeled Strikes: Chaos Warders fight with very different styles than other Marines - they have D3 attacks, rolling at the start of each Assault phase.

*Blink: Instead of consolidating, Vayellith may instead teleport up to 6". In addition, when he charges or is charged he may teleport into base contact with any enemy model, before who can attack is decided.

*Die, curs!: Vayellith allocates the Wounds he deals in close combat.

*Beyond his Peers: Vayellith's skills are far greater than any mere Chaos Warder. He adds +2 to the D3 roll when determining his attacks. Note that this can take him above 3 attacks.
Eg, Vayellith rolls his D3 and gets a 2. He will have 2 attacks + 1 for the Dragon Glaive +2 for Beyond his Peers, for a total of 5, plus any bonuses for assaulting.


Thoughts?

I honestly am not sure if this is balanced or not. It is a very interesting way of doing things, it seems cool, so you should playtest it, then tell us how it works..

DakkaDakka wrote:

WS8 is too much. WS6 is normal for Captains, and WS 7 is reserved for the absolute top Astartes swordsmen. WS7 is also the realm of phoenix lords and archons, who are far superior to normal astartes. Cut it back to at lest 7 or preferably 6. I'd make it 6 and let him re-roll any 1s to hit.

D3 attacks every assault for the entire force? Big no. Probably not even for the first assault, otherwise he'd be worth a lot more points.

Blink is weird and unnecessary. Die curs is OP, I'd get rid of it. Singling out klaw nobz? Taking out Guard Commissars? No.

Change beyond his peers to something more normal, like re-rolling wounds.

I'd just give him an Iron Halo instead of the 'Dark Signum' for a 4+ invuln. Besides, a signum is what dev sergeants use to coordinate fire.

And allowing your whole army to select a different benefit at the start of every turn is also over the top.

As is, I wouldn't play against that unless he was...260pts, if not more. Too many army wide buffs and rules. Pick one, or two rules tops. That's it. Keep it simple.

Blacksails is correct.No one in C:SM has WS 7+, and very few other MEQs do. Brotherhood Champions, Draigo, Crowe, Sanguinior and Mephiston is the only ones I can think of.

Lose Blink and Beyond his peers, and D3 attacks rules.

Die Curs is cool, and gives a CC equivilent to Sgt Telions Eye of Vengeance and Vindicare's Deadshot rules.

I would change forsaken to D3 units, for the whole game, similar to GKGM's Grand Stratagy.

Other than that, I like it, especially as he isn't EW.

Alright, sorry about unclear wording.

Crusade is the Chapter equivalent of Combat Tactics, however units like Darkened and Chaos Warders have Forsaken instead. It does not affect the whole army, only models which are (at cheapest) 30+ points.

Channeled Strikes does not stack from turn to turn and is intended to be similar to GK Brotherhood Champions (and Crowe, for that matter).

Also, I didn't post fluff as that would be OT, but I will eventually put the whole codex up on Dakka and that will explain Blink and Channeled Strikes (the latter of which is partially due to the construction of the Glaives, pictures also in Codex: Dark Crusaders).

I feel an Iron Halo on a character that is, to put it bluntly, untrusted by the rest of the Imperium, would be a little weird fluff-wise.

Playtesting in process, just mathammer atm vs models of equivalent points. S4 hurts him a bit.

Finally, some of the rules are army special rules for the Dark Crusaders but I had to explain them as I didn't post the army special rules. Dragon Glaives and Dark Signums are wargear available to models other than Vayellith. Ditto Forsaken and Channeled Strikes.
Besides, Forsaken is supposed to be worse than Crusade due to less army synergy.

Sorry for wall of text and unclear wording, still getting used to writing rules in clear ways.

I find it best to just word it like you would see it in a Codex, and make a list of special rules and Wargear. I'll show you how I would write up Calgar's rules.

WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
6 5 4 4 4 5 4 10 3+

Wargear
Gauntlets of Ultramar
Therse are a pair of Powerfists that have a built in bolter with the profile below

Range Str AP Type
24" 4 2 Assault 2.


Special Rules
EW
God of War
Calgar, and any model with the combat tactics rule may choose to pass or fail Morale tests.
Titanic Might
Calgar may rerroll to wound, both from shooting and assault.
ATSKNF
Combat Tacrtics
IC.

Seems cool. Maybe a little OP. The cost needs to be double IMHO.