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I have recently realised that my WB army's HQ selection is not very in theme with the fluff.

I love the chaos named HQ but none of them is WB. I wish we can have a Erebus model and rules. :(

Any good suggestion other than a Dark Apostle?(you dont want your warlord to be a 2wound model with nothing much to bring to the whole list in general)

I've been considering double flying prince. But that is costly. and its kind of a jerk list to bring.

I am hoping the dakka community can help me with this.

Thanks guy.

Dark Apostles, Princes, Lords and Sorcerers all make sense. Sorcerers are also two wounds, so maybe a Terminator Lord or a single Flying Prince?

 jifel wrote:
Dark Apostles, Princes, Lords and Sorcerers all make sense. Sorcerers are also two wounds, so maybe a Terminator Lord or a single Flying Prince?

Lord Would make much sense I suppose. As Word Bearers are ruled by a apostle. Where there is a second in command which is the Coryphaus.
But Its still not right in a way. :/

I dont think Sorcerer would make sense. Word Bearers Despise sorcery if i recall correctly.

kissmymom wrote:

 jifel wrote:
Dark Apostles, Princes, Lords and Sorcerers all make sense. Sorcerers are also two wounds, so maybe a Terminator Lord or a single Flying Prince?

Lord Would make much sense I suppose. As Word Bearers are ruled by a apostle. Where there is a second in command which is the Coryphaus.
But Its still not right in a way. :/

I dont think Sorcerer would make sense. Word Bearers Despise sorcery if i recall correctly.

That's the World Eaters

Well for what regards named characters Abaddon would be a viable choice, as most legions/warbands have/will/would join him on a Black Crusade. As a matter of fact he can be used for almost everything but Emperor's Children and possible some other few exceptions.

You can also use Huron's model with Huron's rules (since he's unmarked) and forge a narrative for him as a very powerful role that is "played as" Huron.

For unnamed character I'd say that Dark Apostle would be the best choice, followed by Lords and Daemon Princes.
The problem with Daemon Princes is that they MUST be marked, while WB are explicitly unmarked. However it is perfectly legit for an unmarked legion to be helped by a given god... as long as the whole army is NOT a single-god list.

What's the rest of your army like? If you have a bunch of guys charging forward, you might not want a terminator lord. Have any bikes? Sorcerer on bike is pretty boss. I say go with what fits your army and make the narrative about who and what he is from that.

Diablix wrote:
Well for what regards named characters Abaddon would be a viable choice, as most legions/warbands have/will/would join him on a Black Crusade. As a matter of fact he can be used for almost everything but Emperor's Children and possible some other few exceptions.

You can also use Huron's model with Huron's rules (since he's unmarked) and forge a narrative for him as a very powerful role that is "played as" Huron.

For unnamed character I'd say that Dark Apostle would be the best choice, followed by Lords and Daemon Princes.
The problem with Daemon Princes is that they MUST be marked, while WB are explicitly unmarked. However it is perfectly legit for an unmarked legion to be helped by a given god... as long as the whole army is NOT a single-god list.

What I normally do is I have all 4 marks of chaos in my army. So it is undivided in a way.

For example. I will have a khorne prince with a tzeentch apostle and slaanesh cultist followed by nurgle oblitz(keeping the fluff and marking the right unit to make it competitive).

I am considering a chaos lord in terminator armour now. Its sad that I can't give the dark postle a terminator armour.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MWHistorian wrote:
What's the rest of your army like? If you have a bunch of guys charging forward, you might not want a terminator lord. Have any bikes? Sorcerer on bike is pretty boss. I say go with what fits your army and make the narrative about who and what he is from that.

Cultist(lots of them), chosens, daemon engines(keeping the fluff).
No bikes for me.

Can you elaborate more on how to do that and if possible give me an example.

Thanks in advanced.

I would say a Chaos Lord with Mace and Sigil of Corruption.

Cultists, huh? Put a Dark Apostle with them and they won't run away every time they take a casualty. That's what WB are all about!
Demon engines, put a Warpsmith in the back to fix them up and decrease the save on some enemy scenery. Word Bearers have a lot of logistical support and have a lot of Dark Mechanicum working for them. I think they have a whole demon forge world so demon engines with a warp smith works out pretty well. (plus, you might need that ability to jinx enemy cover.)

 MWHistorian wrote:
Cultists, huh? Put a Dark Apostle with them and they won't run away every time they take a casualty. That's what WB are all about!
Demon engines, put a Warpsmith in the back to fix them up and decrease the save on some enemy scenery. Word Bearers have a lot of logistical support and have a lot of Dark Mechanicum working for them. I think they have a whole demon forge world so demon engines with a warp smith works out pretty well. (plus, you might need that ability to jinx enemy cover.)

Yes I am aware of that. Good point man.

What I am really looking for is a warlord for the army. Someone who can take the punch and bring the pain as well. And at the same time keeping the fluff.

Dark apostle and warpsmith are very good support unit but they are not the kind of HQ where you opponent goes 'I better take him out before he gets close'

GW WHY DON'T WE HAVE A WORD BEARERS CHRARCTER ALREADY.

I think WB have free reign on choosing their HQ. The newer fluff may give certain titles to each role but it's been established for awhile that Dark Apostles can build their Host however they see fit and I understand this to also mean a Dark Apostle could be originally from a variety of positions or subfactions as long as he is faithful and blessed.

 minigun762 wrote:
I think WB have free reign on choosing their HQ. The newer fluff may give certain titles to each role but it's been established for awhile that Dark Apostles can build their Host however they see fit and I understand this to also mean a Dark Apostle could be originally from a variety of positions or subfactions as long as he is faithful and blessed.

WB are explicitly undivided. They despise anyone who only serves 1 god(emperor's children in particular).

So far. In my opinion. The nearest ro fluff would be a dark apostle, followed by chaos lord(count as a coryphaus), warpsmith(dark magos), then a daemon prince.

The rest are pretty much out. I remember reading somewhere that word bearers are zealous but they don't not fancy sorcery at all.

I don't know if my post was clear.
I wasn't suggesting a Cult HQ choice, just saying that a DA could've been a Techmarine, an Apothecary, A Sorcerer or a basic Grunt who, through faith and cunning, has been elevated.

My Word Bearers are lead by a Warlord (MoT), combi melta, power axe, and sigil. The warbands oblits carry MoN, and terminators MoT. Nothing else is marked.

For my WB army, I use a Dark Apostle with Black Mace and a MoT, hidden deep in a blob of cultists.

You could run one DA and have a Lord as the Coryphaus.


But do you really want a "I must kill him now" HQ? I prefer it when people go "Oh It's just a DA, and I walk 70 cultists into their face while they worry about the SOul Grinder/Bloodthrister/Nurgle Spawn/Daemonettes, followed by him walking over some random Character and getting buffed.

Word Bearers are free to use whichever HQ they want. I'm currently using a Daemon Prince (Ascended Dark Apostle) and a Sorcerer. I'll get a Dark Apostle (first acolyte) and Terminator Lord later. You shouldn't feel bad about using marks. My Raptors are blessed by Khorne but they still worship all Chaos gods.

Yes, they can still get marks. It means they favor one god, but still worship the entire pantheon.
But if you want a bad to the bone, tough as nails HQ, just get a terminator lord and find a place for him in your army. Up front? Guarding the rear? In transport? Mid field? Whatever.

My Word Bearers are led by a 'counts as' Kharn. I know he's MoK, but I rationalize that as instead of really being a devotee of Khorne, the MoK just represents his fanatical devotion to the Word, and he'll lapse into a rage in combat.

By not taking Marks of Chaos, your limiting the power of your army in some very real ways. Try not to think of the Marks as such, instead take them for the rules they confer and rationalize them however you see fit.

I see the Chaos lord as the true leader of a space marine force. Even Word Bearers have superior champions that are blessed by the gods and the sheer amount of flexibility that can be used when modelling a Chaos lord leaves me baffled every single time.
I like the DA, but he just doesn't cut it for me, when i think about the big nasty that has been roaming the galaxy for 10k years.

A lord would be a good fluffy selection for a Word Bearer HQ choice.

No reason you can't have marks as far as I can see. Not everyone is marked by choice. My fluff for my own WB canon has the host being marked against their will after losing their Apostle, which is an easy way for me to have a Lord as my Warlord.

My word bearer force is predominantly Noise Marines, I don't use the sonic weapon models though, I fluff it out as special ammo kind of like Chaos Sternguard. You can have anything you want with a little fluff to back it up.

Thanks guy. This thread has been really helpful.

I did not think about warpsmith before this. I guess the idea of a dark apostle with a 3+ invul and a lord as coryphaus would work best. Using the DA as warlord.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MWHistorian wrote:
Yes, they can still get marks. It means they favor one god, but still worship the entire pantheon.
But if you want a bad to the bone, tough as nails HQ, just get a terminator lord and find a place for him in your army. Up front? Guarding the rear? In transport? Mid field? Whatever.

My choice would be foot slogging with cultist blob.

Imho the Dark Apostle we can field right now doesn't keep up with how they are portrayed in the fluff. I get that they are intended now as an advisor for a mighty warlord like Erebus was for Horus, but in the case of Word Bearer warbands they are supposed to actually lead the actions of the warband and if they are the first in command why shouldn't they be able to get every piece of equipment they desire?
So I still field my Dark Apostle in Termi armor with the converted Crozius as a Lord like I did in 5th edition.

I actually use marks to represent heavy mutation on my guys as I think that just GoM on the Champion is a bit few to represent the highly mutated force I want to field.

You can always field a DA model and 'counts as' him to a Lord. He won't get the Zealot/Demagogue shenanigans so this isn't really ideal. We undivided fans got a bit left out in the Codex (well, so did the cult guys to be fair). I tend to mark my Black Legion stuff where appropriate, for example I figure Obliterators who are ravaged by a mutating virus should be a bit tougher than regular marines, hence the MoN. Of course I wouldn't defile my black armour with globs of pus and open wounds to symbolise a true allegiance to Nurgle.

I like the idea of using a DA as warlord and a Lord as the 'Corypharus' (sp? I'm no bearer). I find my Lords tend to die in challenges and give up Slay the Warlord easily, so I started using a lesser HQ in a bunker to lead (sorceror for example) while the Lord focuses on killing stuff - or dying horribly.

I use a daemon prince and converted Huron Blackheart. He is the closest Chaos has to an major undivided lord. Plus his random psyker abilities could reflect some light teachings from Tzeentch.