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I have been playing around with The Dark Apostle. Funny how some units get overlooked. This guy is great in a variety of ways, and makes a very solid second HQ choice and I'll explain why. Mind you, there are probably as many viable reasons as to why this guy sits on the shelf come tournament day, and I'll look at that too. Feel free to add your own comments to either side of the equation!

1: Zealot! This USR is great for helping units stay on the board via fearless, and it helps out by giving your unit hatred. Takes away the ability to go to ground, but that is a very un-chaosy thing to do.
2: Boons! If your set this guy up in a unit that can do melee well and can handle challenges you could end up with a veritable superman, or even a nice little present from the dark gods. Probably best to challenge with your units champ rather than the DA, but that is situational. Also, rerolling gifts of mutation before deployment is very nice.
3: Access to the goods! One of my favourite things to do is give this guy the Burning Brand. I enjoy the look on people's faces when I lay down the burn on an entire unit. Even more so when that unit goes up in a blaze later on. Also, the DA can be super handy when deep striking, just give him that Dimensional Key and run him into the first challenge he can win. If all goes well then you can plop down your strikers anywhere you want, no scatter, plus your enemies will then be in both dangerous and difficult terrain for the rest of that phase. The Key doesn't take up a weapon slot so you get to keep that handy maul. If you really want some nasty tricks take Huron and the Apostle, put the Apostle and Huron in the same unit, toss them in a Rhino with garlic and herbs, infiltrate, cover and bake for 15 minutes then unleash. That's two flame templates out the top of your Rhino, one of which will make Marines wet their ceramites. Very caliente! Technically speaking though you could get the same results with Huron and anyone else able to take the Brand, but the DA does it cheaper.
4: 4+ Invul! Yeah that's right, he gets a free sigil of corruption. Toss a MoT on there and you have a 3+ save no matter what happens. To get that on a Lord or Sorc you have to pay 40 points, DA gets it for 15...

Now the bad...

1: 2 wounds! Yeah, that's right. Nearly as likely to trip on his own skirt and die as anyone else. When you consider that even the mighty Sorcerer has only 2 wounds it doesn't seem so bad though.
2: USR actually costs 10 to 20 points! Yep, that's right too. To really take advantage of the Boon reroll you need to take at least a Gift of Mutation on the DA, and preferably one on the champ in his squad as well that way you can maybe make use of the reroll before the game. Otherwise you might not even get to make use of this USR.
3: Limited Gear! Yeah, you might get access to the neat stuff but if you were looking to get a powerfist or claws you will be disappointed. This is somewhat offset by the fact that he gets a power maul, but the ap will leave you wishing for something a little better.
4: Niche Unit! This guy is very rigid in what he can really do. Sure you can use him to unlock some neat powers and he might even be pretty stompy with the special weapons but he will be outmatched in most situations. Against TEQ he's pretty beat, so this limits his potential in CC and he can't really do much long range stuff without the Brand, as he only gets to select gear from the ranged section.

In total I give the Dark Apostle a thumbs up for being a solid support HQ, but you have to play him accordingly. He doesn't have staying power, or even versatility, but if you play him right he will amaze you. Use him to fry Space Marines, use him for challenges, or just use him to put some backbone into weaker units like cultists. In an army full of specialized units, he's really just another special teams player, but sometimes you can win just by getting into field goal range and letting the kicker do his job.

Also, he's pretty much included in the Dark Vengeance box! The Chosen Champion with the power maul is a veritable shoe in, with a tiny bit of kitbashing you'll have an Apostle who looks just as good as the one from GW!

Thoughts, comments? How do you use your Dark Apostles?

The only way I've been able to maximize my DA's potential has been stuffing him in the middle of my squad of 20 cultists, give everyone Mark of Khorne, and if you are feeling particularly funny this day, give him the Plasma Pistol and Axe of Blind Fury and go for broke.

Also, I believe he gets the Aura of Dark Glory. Not Sigil of Corruption. Which means he's sitting on a 5++ not 4++ (unless you hax with MoTz).

The reason I don't use BBoS on my DA is because I actually use it in a much better hax formation with my Chaos Sorcerer.

Now, this build catches a lot of flack because Oh you're wasting the BBoS on a unit that you want using Psyker stuff and Oh, point costs, however, for all intents and purposes in my army, this guy is golden.

Sorcerer w/ Force Sword, Burning Brand (BBoS), Mark of Tzeentch, Sigil of Corruption and Disc of Tzeentch.

Disc of Tzeentch confers Jetbike status to the Sorcerer giving him crazy mobility and range. BBoS increases that range with Torrent. Jetbike also gives you Armored Steed which gives you a bunch of other neat stuff, but specifically Toughness 1.

So essentially, my Sorcerer is getting Mark of Nurgle and Mark of Tzeentch for the price of just being really Tzeentch.

With Psyker lvl 3, I have a very mobile, very well ranged, very versatile and very anti-psyker model at my disposal. I currently don't have anything to stick him with that can keep up and, considering how I play and strategy wise, he really needs jetbikes flying with him, I'm still looking at potential models.

My favorite are the Legion Jetbikes from Forgeworld. @,___,@

Stick him in a squad of 20 CSM with MoK, icon of wrath and CCW. They now are practically zerkers but cheaper and have Hatred due to the DA

Nope, he does indeed have a 4++, 3++ with tzeentch. I also use mine in a blob of cultists.

TheRedWingArmada wrote:


With Psyker lvl 3, I have a very mobile, very well ranged, very versatile and very anti-psyker model at my disposal. I currently don't have anything to stick him with that can keep up and, considering how I play and strategy wise, he really needs jetbikes flying with him, I'm still looking at potential models.

I guess the only thing you can really do is put him with a biker squad. Mind you, if you knew that you weren't facing any pyskers you could do the same thing with the DA and give his bike squad MoN, just hide the DA behind the T6 bikers and viola! BBoS, T5, all the biker goodies, like jink and Hammer of Wrath. I think I may have just solved my current Tau problem...

You can also give him the Scroll of Magnus and laugh as he becomes a Psyker lvl 1 gaining new and exciting abilities each turn hell.. if you end up rolling on the Tzeentch table and subsequently get Boon of Mutation, you can effectively weaponize it getting to re-roll if you dislike the outcome, or turn yourself into a gibbering Spawn XD

GoliothOnline wrote:
You can also give him the Scroll of Magnus and laugh as he becomes a Psyker lvl 1 gaining new and exciting abilities each turn hell.. if you end up rolling on the Tzeentch table and subsequently get Boon of Mutation, you can effectively weaponize it getting to re-roll if you dislike the outcome, or turn yourself into a gibbering Spawn XD

I've heard about this build, but the Scroll only works if you're MoTz. That said, I wouldn't do it because perils is more likely to kill your DA than anything else.

Something I forgot to add in my above; eventually I'll be upgrading my Khorne Cultists to Khorne Berzerkers and letting that DA get some real work done.

Something else to consider too; what are peoples thoughts on a Dark Apostle leading a group of Zombie Cultists? :O Worth it or just goofy?

 Musashi363 wrote:
Nope, he does indeed have a 4++, 3++ with tzeentch. I also use mine in a blob of cultists.

Mine too, but I like to add Arimon's book to give him psychic powers

I personally dislike the zombie cultists as they lose their guns, which I mean yeah they're crap autoguns but... hey.

I'm actually thinking of running a DA on a Disc and putting him with my bikers... The bike have trouble sticking around with only 3 models.

You can't give the DA a bike, jet pack, or any of the steeds IIRC

I agree this HQ is overlooked and not a throw away choice.

I don't run use DAs in games, but a friend does and runs 2 in the same army. He uses one of them with Khorne Chosen with flamers, cc weapons and the like. He uses the other with a large blob of cc cultists.

From what I can see, they are great for getting the troops up the board, but, damn, it seems like the DAs go down quick. It seems like they get shot down every game right at the worst time, then the unit they were with breaks.

 chillis wrote:
You can't give the DA a bike, jet pack, or any of the steeds IIRC

Yes you can.

 BrotherHaraldus wrote:

 chillis wrote:
You can't give the DA a bike, jet pack, or any of the steeds IIRC

Yes you can.

NO THEY CAN"T = No special issue war gear allowed and no deanomic steeds either :(

Great Post! I have this model and have been trying to fit him into a list. This has given me a lot of ideas.

Yeah sadly you can't give him a mount which sucks (If you look under steeds I think it says "chaos lords and chaos sorcerers only"). Let's compare him to a lord with sigil of corruption and a power weapon (105 points)

Lord has:
+1 WS +1 BS +1 W +1 I +1 A

Can choose what power weapon to use (doesn't have to be maul).

Dark Apostle has:
Hatred for him and his unit
6" leadership bubble

So the question is "Is zealot worth 5 stat points, 3 of them in critical stats (WS, W, A)?". I would say no. But you can maybe build your army around making it worth the trade off:

30 cultists and another 30 cultists who try to stay within his 6" leadership bubble.

For my points though I'd rather take a jugger lord or abaddon (although he prevents sweeping advance). Or a tzeentch herald to buff them up with some prescience (and if you're lucky forewarning = 4++ or 3++ with MoT).

Honestly, I think when you compare him to other HQ choices, he's a terrible waste of points!

If you give him or anyone in the squad he joins a gift of mutation they don't get to re roll because of his 'beseech the dark gods' rule.

Gift of mutations happen before deployment, the rule specifically states that. Beseech the dark gods only confers the re roll ability to rolls on the chaos boon table that happen AFTER deployment. Therefor, you kill no characters in the game, you get no re rolls. And I don't think a re roll is all that great when you consider you are rolling on the D66 table! Far too much randomness there for it to be a rule worth taking.

Power mauls are a terrible weapon. AP 4 just doesn't cut it on a HQ model who needs to be winning challenges and slaying worshippers of a false god. They need AP3 at least. And to get that you have to pay for an upgrade.

As a chaos HQ I still think he's weaker than soggy toilet paper. Granted with a MoT you can get a 3++, but hell, he needs that! 1 S8 AP2 weapon and he smooshed! (And there are a lot of those weapons!)

A sorcerer is 45 points LESS! And has a force weapon and at least mastery level 1! And their stat line is exactly the same! Apart from the fact that the sorcerer has acces to pretty much ANY wargear he wants, and the DA can't take any form of mount at all!

I'd argue even a warp smith is better than a DA! But when you add the points you need to make the DA effective there is no contest! Kharn essentially does his job better than him, and won't be that many points more by the time you have added kit. That means Huron is the same points, a lord and a sorcerer are a hell of a lot cheaper - and even a foot walking DP isn't that far off the points value, and 100 times better.

I think it's pretty plain to see, the reason the DA gets overlooked is because he is arguably the WORST HQ in the book. All in all, he's crap.

In a not very competitve Meta its nice little HQ.

But yeah once you are in a more competitive environment, he is limited to what roles he can fill, the lack of bike, mount and jumppack or wings is a real bummer.

Apart from being a nice buff for Cultists blobs, there isn't much hhe can do.

Once again proof that this codex is poorly conceived.

 TheRedWingArmada wrote:

GoliothOnline wrote:
You can also give him the Scroll of Magnus and laugh as he becomes a Psyker lvl 1 gaining new and exciting abilities each turn hell.. if you end up rolling on the Tzeentch table and subsequently get Boon of Mutation, you can effectively weaponize it getting to re-roll if you dislike the outcome, or turn yourself into a gibbering Spawn XD

I've heard about this build, but the Scroll only works if you're MoTz. That said, I wouldn't do it because perils is more likely to kill your DA than anything else.

Something I forgot to add in my above; eventually I'll be upgrading my Khorne Cultists to Khorne Berzerkers and letting that DA get some real work done.

Something else to consider too; what are peoples thoughts on a Dark Apostle leading a group of Zombie Cultists? :O Worth it or just goofy?

put the scrolls on a guy on a bike, take less damage....