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I haven’t written in this forum often. Whenever I am online I am usually doing coursework. I had a blog that I tried to maintain but that fell by the wayside.

Anyway, I was thinking today and wanted to see what some others thought about the ideas I had.

Black Templars. They were my first major army in 40k. Even though I wanted to start with Necrons, I decided to start with a Space Marine army first and chose the Templars.
They are really a strange army to pin down. If you look at the other Marine armies you see combat roles. Space Wolves are good close-range fighters, that because of their counter-attack and other awesomeness, others are more apprehensive to close with them. Blood Angels are speedy assault armies that excel at getting in fast. Assault Marines as troops choices? Wow! Ultramarines and the rest of those are good at everything but not really spectacular at anything. I’m not sure what niche Dark Angels fill. I know they have the popular Ravenwing contingent. (Someone enlighten me?)

What are Templars good at? Some (myself included) think it is close combat and that is sorta true. With the vow that gave preferred enemy this was the best choice for them and fit the fluff. What role should a Templar army fill in 6th edition now that Assault is not nearly as good as it was? I think the new focus on shooting is a boon to the game. It is a SCI-FI setting and the focus should be the guns, but where does that leave the Black Templars?

Personally, I would like to see a return to the original concept. Imagine a disheveled, disorganized horde of Templar Initiates plodding towards their enemy, shrugging off shots to close with their swords. Templars should be mainly foot slogging and close combat but how can we make it worth a player’s time to play that?
The first suggested rule is that all units should have the “crusader” special rule. It seems to be made for them. To be able to get more out of a phase they won’t really use sounds good to me. I also think the squad limit for initiates should be raised to 20. Neophytes are really uninteresting unless they are the ones holding the heavy weapons? They may not happen but I’d like to see a squad of 20 space marines slogging down the field.

It is obvious that the vow system needs to be updated. Perhaps we should have a few vows that will fit into the fluff? Preferred enemy is not the beast it was but still cool. However, I would prefer it changed to hatred and a lower point cost. I would like to see a vow that effectively counters the new psychic powers. Another vow I would like to see would be to give each Marine Feel no pain.

“Woah, wait. That is going overboard” I can hear you saying. Yes, they should have “feel no pain” but only against shooting attacks.
That should be the benefit to trying to slog through it. They can shrug off cannon fire and move forward with their horde to get in close.

As the Black Templar codex is, it allows for the “large, jumbled crusader horde” but I’d like a few rule changes just to make that viable. So, the main idea is to encourage large units of infantry moving through the battlefield. The vows can dictate how you do this: Staying power with “feel no pain” or prowess with hatred or preferred enemy.
The rest of the list should reflect this with a de-emphasis on vehicles. Transports are there but they are not as good in other lists. Of course GW will only release a new codex if there are some good models to go with it. Instead of new vehicles to clog up the list, perhaps there should be better and more varied elite choices? Maybe a few new special characters?
Well these are just a few ideas I was having. The new game seems to favor more variety than 5th edition and I think a Templar army that follows the fluff a little more will do just that.
Thoughts?

The problem is, fluff-wise the Templars prefer two types of assaults: mechanized spearheads and drop pod assaults. De-emphasizing mech would run counter to the fluff.

You may also have missed it, but we no longer have PE; it was FAQ'd to Rage instead.

I will concede that the fluff as it stands does favor drop pods and armored vehicles, probably the Land Raider Crusader. I don't think this negates my idea though.

And yes, my mistake, PE is now rage.

But what about the idea of a counter-shooting army of infantry that is geared for assault?

From a fluff perspective I think that Templar marines should by default have rage and hatred (all). Beyond that point you can have vows for other things. Counter-Attack for AAC would be fluffy as hell, Uphold the Honor of the Emperor would fit nicely with FNP (restricted to range attacks, the denied cover save still applies), Adamantium Will for Abhor the Witch obviously, and furious charge for Suffer not the Unclean to Live.

Black Templar transports and drop-pods have a special rule that allow units within them to assault the same turn they disembark, albeit as a disordered charge (meaning no rage bonus).