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Hello everyone

I played 40k a while back but a little relocation left me decidedly without playing partners and competeing games made me give up my 40k playing.
However another move and I find myself in a vibrant 40k commuinty once more and the old flame has lit anew.

However the old tau went and got real popular and I don't fancy mirror matches, combined with the deplorable state of my old tau I'd try something new, and the black templars have always been something I loved, Is there codex even updated past 4th ed, are they even allowed to use the old rules and is that even close to Viable? could I maybe fill some gaps with allies? I don't need to be near the top of the powercurve, I just want to be able to put up a good fight and have the army look cool doing it.

Any advice and tips are greatly appreciated

Black Templars are now part of Codex Space Marines. They've been fully updated though, since they lack Librarians, they're probably one of the weakest Space Marine chapters... They're still gosh-darn Space Marines. They kick butt.

They kept crusader squads but got everyone of all the new stuff now.

Armoury wise, they have everything but librarians.

Welcome back.

 Juniperius wrote:
combined with the deplorable state of my old tau I'd try something new,

You do know that new Tau are really good right?

Yes as was said, Black Templar are still legal, you just need to buy the latest Space Marine codex. Not Angles of Death I think it's called but 7th edition Space Marine codex.

 JNAProductions wrote:
though, since they lack Librarians, they're probably one of the weakest Space Marine chapters..

Also if you actually want to take Crusader squads you're forced to take them as a CAD, there's no way to include them in any of the decurion formations.

Codex: Space Marines provides rules for the Black Templars as a faction, Angels of Death is an expansion that provides them with unique Warlord Traits and some extra formations. If you're interested in a fast or heavily-mechanized force Angels of Death is worth a look, otherwise it doesn't really help.

(That said the Black Templars' Warlord Trait table is the only place the 'run forward on failing a Morale test' rule survives today, so it might be worth grabbing for nostalgia if nothing else)

 Gashrog wrote:
Also if you actually want to take Crusader squads you're forced to take them as a CAD, there's no way to include them in any of the decurion formations.

But with all that... Still Spess Mehreens. Still one of the top in the game.

 Gashrog wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
though, since they lack Librarians, they're probably one of the weakest Space Marine chapters..

Also if you actually want to take Crusader squads you're forced to take them as a CAD, there's no way to include them in any of the decurion formations.

Just went and looked over this, and it seems to be so. I would be entirely okay with allowing a Black Templars army to take Crusader squads in place of Tactical squads in formations, but your playgroup may have a different answer.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Gashrog wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
though, since they lack Librarians, they're probably one of the weakest Space Marine chapters..

Also if you actually want to take Crusader squads you're forced to take them as a CAD, there's no way to include them in any of the decurion formations.

Just went and looked over this, and it seems to be so. I would be entirely okay with allowing a Black Templars army to take Crusader squads in place of Tactical squads in formations, but your playgroup may have a different answer.

The rebuttal to that is 'Free Landraiders in a gladius'

Indeed. It'd be nice to see a specific Black Templars detachment but it needs to be done with a bit of tailoring.

To be honest, if you want a formation/detachment for an army that doesn't have one, just dig out the old apocalypse datasheets. Few of them are that overpowered these days.

But also, bear in mind you can easily field a tactical squad-based black Templars army, and it works perfectly well. But they do lack that infantry charge feel that was so iconic to them.

 malamis wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Gashrog wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
though, since they lack Librarians, they're probably one of the weakest Space Marine chapters..

Also if you actually want to take Crusader squads you're forced to take them as a CAD, there's no way to include them in any of the decurion formations.

Just went and looked over this, and it seems to be so. I would be entirely okay with allowing a Black Templars army to take Crusader squads in place of Tactical squads in formations, but your playgroup may have a different answer.

The rebuttal to that is 'Free Landraiders in a gladius'

Gladius specifies free Rhinos, Razorbacks, or Drop Pods, fortunately, not free Dedicated Transports in general. On review of formations if 'Tactical Squad' can be replaced with 'Crusader Squad' there are very few further patches necessary (the only one I've found is letting the Stormlance Company's squads start embarked on Land Raiders).

Would probably be better if the BT had their own formations and their own metadetachments but it's not a bad stopgap houserule.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

locarno24 wrote:
...To be honest, if you want a formation/detachment for an army that doesn't have one, just dig out the old apocalypse datasheets. Few of them are that overpowered these days...

Started taking a look through Apocalypse out of curiosity. There aren't many that the BT would find interesting; beyond the usual armoured-squadron suspects that have been overwritten by normal-game formations there's one that makes Rhinos/Razorbacks into Assault Vehicles, that doesn't really help an army that can take Land Raider Dedicated Transports.

(Also the only Apocalypse formation I've found that would be particularly OP in normal 40k is the Dreamwalker Squadron, though that lets Wraithknights move and charge +5" with WS/BS9, so it's hard to top in that regard.)