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I'm reading The Last Heretic right now, and, just like when I read Thousand sons and Prospero Burns with the 1K Sons, I got really into how I would represent the Word Bearers on the table-top. Turns out, there isn't really a good way to do that with the current CSM codex. I don't want to rip on Phil Kelly's writing, just discuss a cool way to represent a former legion that venerates all the chaos gods equally. This is what I got:
Spoiler:
Special Detachment: 4 HQ, 6 troops, 3 Elite, fast and Heavy; Dark Apostles can be taken for every other HQ slot and do not take up an FOC slot; All units that can take a mark must. Also, before each movement phase, roll on this table for each unit with a mark:
D6............Result 1......................Nothing
2......................Grants Mark of Khorne; units that already have mark of khorne are granted Ranpage
3......................Grants Mark of Nurgle; units that already have Mark of Nurgle gain +1W and IWND 4......................Grants Mark of Slaanesh; Units that already have mark of Slaanesh gain Fleet and Move Through Cover
5......................Grants Mark of Tzeench; units that already have Mark of Tzeench gain Preferred Enemy on one enemy unit chosen after rolling and improve their invulreble save by one point
I went to Hershey Park in central PA this year, and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed. I fully expected the entire theme park to be make entirely of chocolate, but no. Here in America, we have "building codes," and some other nonsense about chocolate melting if don't store it someplace kept below room temperature.
Bit too bland to be honest. You'd expect some new units and wargear at the least. All we have here is 2 extra HQs, an awful HQ that can be taken more than once (although why you'd want to in the first place is beyond me), and your units are made more expensive due to the fact that they must be marked.
Here's a couple of ideas just off the top of my head:
1: Aspiring Diabolist - Any Aspiring Champion in the army may be elevated to an Aspiring Diabolist for 25pts, replacing one weapon with a Power Maul. The Diabolist grants the unit the Hatred and Crusader special rules.
Couple of artefacts
- Cursed Crozius
Range -. S+2, Ap3, Melee, Shred, Concussive, Instant Death
- Tarot of Fortune
At the beginning of your shooting phase, choose a unit within 12" and line of sight og the bearer, and roll a D6/ On a 2+, the bearer's units may re-roll all failed To Hit rolls against the target until the end of the turn.
The gods are fickle however, and on a 1, the bearer's unit must re-roll all successful hits instead.
Use these as inspiration. A boring table and extra HQs does not a supplement make.
It is a nightmare of bookkeeping. I know it is fun to make tables, but I think you should step back and consider what this means in practice:
At a bare minimum, you have around 10-12 units with marks. As pretty much everything in the CSM codex can take a mark, you're going to be swimming in marks. Let's just use 10 since it is a nice, easy number. Twice per turn (since you have it as every movement phase), you need to stop the game and roll a d6 for each unit, as well as keep track of these changes.
That is 100 d6 rolls and 100 mark changes/modifications in a 5-turn game.
Valkyrie wrote: Bit too bland to be honest. You'd expect some new units and wargear at the least. All we have here is 2 extra HQs, an awful HQ that can be taken more than once (although why you'd want to in the first place is beyond me), and your units are made more expensive due to the fact that they must be marked.
Here's a couple of ideas just off the top of my head:
1: Aspiring Diabolist - Any Aspiring Champion in the army may be elevated to an Aspiring Diabolist for 25pts, replacing one weapon with a Power Maul. The Diabolist grants the unit the Hatred and Crusader special rules.
Couple of artefacts
- Cursed Crozius Range -. S+2, Ap3, Melee, Shred, Concussive, Instant Death
- Tarot of Fortune At the beginning of your shooting phase, choose a unit within 12" and line of sight og the bearer, and roll a D6/ On a 2+, the bearer's units may re-roll all failed To Hit rolls against the target until the end of the turn. The gods are fickle however, and on a 1, the bearer's unit must re-roll all successful hits instead.
Use these as inspiration. A boring table and extra HQs does not a supplement make.
That's actually really cool. The dark crozius is a little much, though? maybe make it AP4. I had thought of making up special character rules for Erebus as well, but couldn't think of anything flavorful that was really that different from his Horus Heresy rules.
I could change the table so that it only affected characters, but a similar problem would come up with the 10+ rolls a turn. The inspiration for this was finding some way to represent the word bearers' polytheism that makes them stand out among warbands that usually associate with only one of the Big Bads.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Okay. Here's a better version of the above: [spoiler] Special FOC: 4 HQ, 3 Elite, Fast, Heavy, 6 troop. All units in the detachment gain Crusader and Zealot USRs; All units that can take a mark of chaos must take one and aspiring champions of Chaos Space Marine Squads or champions of cult troop units can be upgraded to Aspiring Diabolists to gain +1 A, WS, BS and replace all melee weapons with a Bolt Pistol and a Cursed Crozius for 25 pts.
Cursed Crozius: S+2, AP 4, Melee, concussive, Rending
Relics
The Illuminarium: S+2, AP 2, Melee, Concussive, Smash, Strikedown-- 50 pts
Fire of the Word: Range-Template, S 5, AP 4, Assault 2, Torrent, pinning-- 20 pts
Tarot of the Dark Gods: At the beginning of the shooting phase, roll a D6. On 3+ the bearer's unit re-rolls failed to hit rolls. On a 1-2, the must re-roll successful to- hit rolls.
Special Character: Erebus, First Chaplain of the Word Bearers.
WS5/BS5/S4/T4/I5/W3/A3/Ld10/Sv3+,4++
Zealot, Adamantium Will, Psyker (Mastery 1), Harbinger of Chaos; Erebus generates powers from Biomancy, Pyromancy, telepathy, telekinesis, Divination and Malefic Daemonology
Power Armor, Bolt Pistol, Cursed Crozius, Sigil of Corruption. Harbinger of Chaos: Enemy Psykers roll perils on ALL doubles; When rolling for warp charges, roll 2D6; the turn player generates the higher number of warp charges and the enemy player generates the lower number rolled.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/10/13 22:34:47
I went to Hershey Park in central PA this year, and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed. I fully expected the entire theme park to be make entirely of chocolate, but no. Here in America, we have "building codes," and some other nonsense about chocolate melting if don't store it someplace kept below room temperature.
Much better, but there's still some issues. I would just remove the bit about taking Marks alltogether. The cost just adds up too quickly: after marking a few squads you'll find yourself spending probably 100+ points that could be used elsewhere.
I like the changes to the Diabolist, but personally I'd keep it at +1WS, I can't imagine BS training being top of their priorities, and he'd have 5 attacks on the charge with +1A, 7 if he's given MoK, which seems a bit much.
Regarding Erebus, let's use his profile from HH2 - Massacre as a baseline:
WS5 BS4 S4 T4 W3 I5 A3 Ld10 Sv2+ so pretty similar to what you've got. The thing with Erebus however, is that he was more of a priest/preacher rather than an actual Psyker, which was more of a Thousand Sons thing. With this in mind, I'd keep him as a Psyker but simply give him access to Divination and Malefic Daemonology, and reduce his Harbringer of Chaos effect to a 12" radius.
The HH version of Erebus costs 195pts, but includes extra rules which are only really in place in the HH ruleset, so I'd price him at 160-170pts.
Automatically Appended Next Post: This was another unit I came up with a while back.
Spoiler:
Chaos Black Altar
The Black Altars have rarely seen the battlefield in recent years. Once a common sight amongst Traitor Legions, in particular the Word Bearers, such relics of bygone days have either been lost to the ravages of time, or sealed within the deepest vaults of monasteries dedicated to the Ruinous Powers. Such items however are still encountered occasionally, mounted atop a converted Land Raider chassis, accompanied by a high-ranking Dark Apostle, whos purpose is to instill fear amongst his enemies and to bolster the morale of his subordinates.
However, there are times when not even the darkest relics contained within the Altar can stir the Ruinous Powers' attentions, at which point the Apostle is forced to offer a blood sacrifice. The internal hold of the Land Raider is used as a holding cell for those "chosen" for such a task. Within the once-proud war machine, groups of human and sometimes even xenos species huddle in masses, most against their will, waiting for the moment when the Apostle's assistants will pluck them from the hold and spill their blood upon the black slate of the unholy Altar.
0-1 Black Altar: 350 Points Tank, Open Topped (Unique) BS4 Armour: F14 S14 R14 HP4
Transport Capacity: 1 Dark Apostle included in the base points value + 20 Cultists (not included). The Dark Apostle is armed with the standard loadout and may not be upgraded further. Note that due to the nature of the artefact, only Cultists and the Dark Apostle can embark upon the vehicle.
Weapons 2 Sponson Twin-Linked Lascannons Dark Altar of Chaos
Special Rules Assault Vehicle Daemonic Possession
Black Altar of Chaos: The altar allows the Dark Apostle to use one of the following spells each turn. Such spells are counted as Psychic Attacks, but do not require a Psychic Test, and are not subject to the Deny the Witch rule. Note that the vehicle is not counted as a Psychic Pilot, and therefore will not be affected by weapons which specifically target Psykers.
- Blessings of the Unholy: This is a blessing with a range of 12". Pick a single friendly model within range. The selected model must take a Toughness test, taking a S4 Ap2 hit if failing. Regardless of wherever he passes or fails the test, the model may then immediatly roll on the Chaos Boon table, re-rolling Spawnhood and Dark Apotheosis results.
- Horrific Incantation: This is a witchfire power with the following profile, and does not affect the number of weapons the vehicle may fire. Range: 36" S- Ap3 Heavy 1, Large Blast The strength of the shot is equal to D3 + the current turn number. Eg a shot fired on Turn 3 will have a Strength value of 3+D3. Treat values higher than 10 as Destroyer
- Runious Enlightenment: This is a blessing with a range of 6". Choose a single friendly model within range. The chosen unit may re-roll any rolls of 1 until the end of the player turn.
- Spectral Anomalies: This is a nova power with the following profile Range 12" S5 Ap- Heavy D6, Rending
Sacrificial Altar: You may choose to sacrifice members from a unit of Cultists embarked upon the Dark Altar to boost the Dark Altar's power. After choosing the Altar's power for that turn you may remove Cultists from the unit to change the power's effects by the following manner:
- Blessing of the Unholy - Costs D6 Cultists: The selected model may re-roll the Toughness test if failed. - Horrific Incantation - Costs D6 Cultists: The Strengh value is D6 + Turn number rather than D3 - Ruinous Enlightenment - Costs 2D6 Cultists: The range of the power is increased by 6" - Spectral Anomalies - Costs D6 Cultists: The power inflicts 2D6 hits rather than D6.
Note that models sacrificed in this manner do not generate any form of victory point for the enemy, nor will this effect cause them to take a Morale Check. Also note that the Cultists sacrificed can be from any unit currently embarked, not necessarily one which began the game embarked upon the Altar.
So imagine a Land Raider. Remove the top of the hull and place the Apostle and the Altar at the back near the engines. The rest of the insides are just a holding cell for Cultists waiting to be sacrificed.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/10/16 15:15:32
2014/10/14 20:49:15
Subject: Re:Post-Heresy Word Bearers Supplement Idea
This provides nothing the current C:CSM can't already do.
Also, the current C:CSM and C:CD does Word Bearers just fine.
"'players must agree how they are going to select their armies, and if any restrictions apply to the number and type of models they can use."
This is an actual rule in the actual rulebook. Quit whining about how you can imagine someone's army touching you in a bad place and play by the actual rules.
Freelance Ontologist
When people ask, "What's the point in understanding everything?" they've just disqualified themselves from using questions and should disappear in a puff of paradox. But they don't understand and just continue existing, which are also their only two strategies for life.
2014/11/07 05:17:31
Subject: Re:Post-Heresy Word Bearers Supplement Idea
