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Hello fellow dakka-ites. Been a while since I posted. Think I fell in a warp pocket or something. Anyway, so I'm browsing through the 40k wiki timeline out of boredom the other day & Ctrl+F'ing 'Nugle' and I came across an interesting blurb involving the Vile Savants. Apparently it's an installment for Dark Heresy RPG. But in reading the backstory on Lexicanum I got inspired to whip up a 40k TT datasheet for them & their Fydae Strain Zombies. For those not familiar here's the fluff:

History

Legend has it that a hospital ship tending to the wounded and sick around the Eye of Terror suffered a Gellar Field malfunction while in transit in the Warp. The Lord of Decay filled the disease and viruses on board the ship with life. The passengers and Officio Medicae personnel onboard were quickly possessed by this sentient illness, transformed into the first Vile Savants. Since then, the Vile Savants spread this daemonic virus wherever they go, increasing their ranks and sewing mayhem in the name of Nurgle.

Overview

The Savants themselves are hideous, bloated, stinking creations. Once men and women but now possessed by a Daemonic virus, they wear bio-containment suits to hold their decaying forms together. These foul entities are filled with a hatred of all things that live and breathe, and retain the skills and memories of their former selves. Individuals filled with bitterness and despair are particularly prone to succumb to the disease, which is drawn to the individuals from the Warp itself. From there, the plague will spread across a world, allowing it to expand rapidly across the Imperium. Savants are single-minded Daemonic entities and seek to only spread their infection and kill all before them. They can not be bargained with, reasoned with, or diverted from their task.

The Daemon Plague

The Warp-disease itself has been classified by the Ordo Malleus as the Fydae Strain, named after the region of the Calixis Sector where it was first encountered. It has been observed in spreading in a number of stages:

Stage One: A single individual is infected, often from the Warp itself which takes advantage of the individuals despair and bitterness. The carrier is subjected to fits of fever and terrible nightmares at first, but will apparently recover into perfect health after a matter of hours. However while the person may seem healthy, their soul has since become claimed by the Warp and is a highly contagious carrier for the plague.
Stage Two: The subject unwittingly spreads the plague. The sentient virus is clever, if left unchecked it will spread slowly and symptoms in new victims will not manifest for perhaps weeks. However if it is discovered, symptoms will suddenly erupt as the virus seeks to cause as much damage as possible before it is eradicated. Once the disease begins to manifest fully, the subjects begin to suffer from bloody flux, murderous fever, and green markings on the skin that will bring a spasm-wracked death.
Stage Three: Those claimed by the disease are reanimated, now possessed by the Daemonic virus. Cunning predators rather then mindless zombies, they seek to infect the living and kill all in their path.
Stage Four: Once the dead have risen in great numbers, reality will fall apart in the infected region and daemons of Nurgle will be summoned to the Materium. The Vile Savants themselves now emerge from the Warp, controlling the Fydae Strain Zombies to do their bidding.
Stage Five: Nearly all of the infected on a world are killed, while a small number of survivors are deliberately left to become new victims for future plagues. The Savants then leave, seeking to repeat the process elsewhere.


and here's the stats I came up with:

Vile Savants (70pts per Savant)

WS 4 BS 4 S 5 T 4 W 2 I 4 A 2 Ld 9 Sv 2+

Unit Type: Elite

Composition: 1

Wargear:

Fleshmetal

Special Rules:

Fearless
Feel No Pain
Hatred (Everything)
Vessels of Chaos

Options:

70 points per additional Savant (Max 10)

kind of a mash-up of Oblit & Possessed.


Fydae Strain Zombies (7pts per zombie)

WS 3 BS 3 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 5 A 2 Ld 7 Sv 6+

Unit Type: Troops

Composition: 10

Special Rules:

Fearless
Feel No Pain
Hatred (Everything)
Infect and Infiltrate*
Spread The Plague*

Options:

7 point per additional Fydae Strain Zombie (Max 30)

*Spread The Plague: After assault phase is resolved, roll D6 for every enemy model killed, 5+ replaces model with a Fydae Strain Zombie (No effect on Daemons, Necrons or Tyranids).

*Infect and Infiltrate/Deployment: At beginning of Turn 2, pick a unit of susceptible models that do not have Fearless SR. Enemy unit must make a morale test. If test is failed, all models make a toughness test. If failed, model is replaced with a Fydae Strain zombie. Once there are 10 Fydae Strain zombies on the board the Vile Savants arrive via deepstrike rules with no scatter using the zombies as a teleport icon.

For the models I was thinking of FW Plague Ogryns for the Savants & puppetswar Zombie Korps for the zombies.
Some parts pay seem a bit OP like the Hatred or I5 but I think it's fairly balanced & up'd the unit cost accordingly.
CC welcome.

Your rules make little sense for Necrons or Tyranids, the former being made of metal and the latter being canonically immune.

You've got a good point there. I ran into a similar problem when writing a custom datasheet for Grulgor with a Life-eater Virus special attack against Necrons. Could add a note saying no effect on inorganic enemies. Then again, what about the Poisoned SR? What happens when a model with Poisoned attacks a Necron? Doesn't say anything in the 6e rulebook that I can see. Then again, there's the possibility that a poison could be so corrosive that it destroys things like metal & tubes & there's turning a robot into a zombie. :/ And yes, nids would likely be unaffected.

The Tyranids descended into a system out over by the death guard and Imperial forces. The zombie plague used by nurgle, his rot, and all his other diseases did nothing to the Tyranids as they were around in enough force for the hive mind to overpower Nurgle.

The Tyranids promptly ate both sides of the conflict.

Would it make sense for Chaos Daemons to become zombies? I personally cannot think of how... granted Chaos Daemons are gakky weird things that are warp energy that is emotions of living beings.

Chaos Daemons would be affected IMO. Thing is the zombie rule is only on the Fydae Strain zombies, not the Savants so up against things like Daemons that have higher WS & 5+ inv saves or Tyranid Carnifexes an enemy with WS 3 S 3 isn't very likely to take down the bigger creatures like fexes & bloodthirsters, much less land a hit. I omitted nids altogether just in case.
Been toying around with an idea for their deployment too. On turn 2, all enemy units that do not have fearless SR take a morale test & if failed 1 of the group takes a toughness test & if that is failed they suffer a wound & if killed are replaced with a zombie. Once you get a mass of 10 zombies in one spot on the board the savants use that as a teleport icon and enter the table next to the zombies. Too complicated? I think it might be fun if it works & that first loan zombie isn't ground down immediately.

Hrmmm might I ask why other daemons would be affected? Just curious msyelf.

Okay, I just deleted my third rant paragraph & I um.. can't find a reason. Makes the game more fun? On the one hand, it's not like Daemons are immune to Chaos psychic attacks & the plague is more than just an organic viral contagion & fueled by Chaos so strong enough. But on the other hand if I'm omitting nids because they are too alien & toxic then why not omit Daemons on the fact that half the time they aren't corporeal & a zombie can't exactly grab ahold of them & bite. Also, there's the fact that the virus itself seems to come from Chaos initially:
"A single individual is infected, often from the Warp itself which takes advantage of the individuals despair and bitterness" & I don't see a Pink Horror or Bloodletter succumbing to despair or bitterness. Aright aright. I'll omit Daemons too. I do agree though. They wouldn't really be affected. So, going on the premise that this plague is a virus of Chaos feeding on negative emotions for a chance to eek into the materium then how 'bout it can only affect organic beings capable of despair or bitterness? Let's go down the list shall we:
Space Marines: Yes
IG: Yes
Grey Knights: Yes (let's face it they won't land a wound anyway. WS3 S3)
CSM: Yes
Daemons: No (only Daemons susceptible to despair or bitterness are made of it by the fact that they are Daemons of Nurgle so unaffected. No Daemons affected)
Eldar: Yes
Dark Eldar: Yes
Orks: Can't say I've ever really seen a sad, emo Ork but I gotta say Yes. I think they would be capable/susceptible. Plus Zombie Orks just sounds like fun.
Necrons: No. Not organic
Sisters: Yes
Tau: Yes
Tyranids: No. Tyranids only have one emotion. Hunger.
I'll see if I can whip up something about there deployment & update the first post with that & omissions.

 SickSick6 wrote:
You've got a good point there. I ran into a similar problem when writing a custom datasheet for Grulgor with a Life-eater Virus special attack against Necrons. Could add a note saying no effect on inorganic enemies. Then again, what about the Poisoned SR? What happens when a model with Poisoned attacks a Necron? Doesn't say anything in the 6e rulebook that I can see. Then again, there's the possibility that a poison could be so corrosive that it destroys things like metal & tubes & there's turning a robot into a zombie. :/ And yes, nids would likely be unaffected.

You must not be familiar with 3e crons. In the 3e cron book it describes how poison affect crons (acid cartridges instead of toxins)

 A GumyBear wrote:

 SickSick6 wrote:
You've got a good point there. I ran into a similar problem when writing a custom datasheet for Grulgor with a Life-eater Virus special attack against Necrons. Could add a note saying no effect on inorganic enemies. Then again, what about the Poisoned SR? What happens when a model with Poisoned attacks a Necron? Doesn't say anything in the 6e rulebook that I can see. Then again, there's the possibility that a poison could be so corrosive that it destroys things like metal & tubes & there's turning a robot into a zombie. :/ And yes, nids would likely be unaffected.

You must not be familiar with 3e crons. In the 3e cron book it describes how poison affect crons (acid cartridges instead of toxins)

Zombie necrons would be silly and stupid.

 A GumyBear wrote:
You must not be familiar with 3e crons. In the 3e cron book it describes how poison affect crons (acid cartridges instead of toxins)

Interesting. But that was 3rd ed & from what I hear 'crons are due for a 6th around the corner. And toxic/corrosive or not, we're still talkin about zombies here. Not poisoned blades or psychic blight wind attacks. Don't think they would do much against metal skin. Plus yes, zombie necrons would be kinda silly. I mean, they're already kind of zombies.. robot zombies. Think I'll just omit 'crons to keep it simple. I've updated the initial post. Added a custom deployment too.