Longtime Dakkanaut
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Welcome back to my Primarch Series!
Today I'm covering, or more likely cowering, due to the challenge of designing the legendarily frightening Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, the Primarch of the Night Lords. This guy is scary. He's never really shown as being all too powerful, but no one ever suspects he's about to just go all-out-crazy, and then, yeah, he does. That surprise element and complete 180-style flip where he can be cold one moment, and then utterly ballistic the next, reminds me a lot of some people I know in my life. I once tried to attribute each of my friends to a different Primarch. And, of course, the one who declared that they least cared about the outcome became the most upset when I compared him to the Night Haunter. No one wants to be the Night Haunter, and the thought that this utterly twisted Primarch could reflect something deep in yourself hurts, and those that put up barriers to think they aren't, well they're the ones hurt most.
And this is because I believe Konrad Curze represents possibly the most dangerous part of the Emperor's psyche; his doubt. It's that fear that we won't be enough or do enough that can drive us into some of our deepest and blackest moments of despair. We see how everything has gone wrong, and we wish to right it, but don't feel we have the power to.
Enough philosophizing though; let's look at Curze. First, I've named him The Night Haunter, as that is the name he took upon for himself. In the fluff, this Primarch was slain by a Callidus Assassin (though the kill was never verified, it certainly seems likely that it was successful), but if we just say that he didn't die, and instead retreated to be alone again against the universe, then perhaps we could see the Night Haunter return. Unlike most of his Chaos brothers, Curze never sought out Daemonhood, nor did he even seem to want it. He was already a monster in his own eyes. Even his weapons and armour; none of these were of especially fine make. He didn't seek out power. He sought to hurt people. And he's very good at that. The rules here provide what might be the most potent debuffing character in the game, with multiple ways of reducing your opponent's effectiveness.
Firstly, since he never ascended to daemonhood, Curze reflects more of the standard Primarch profile for strength and wounds, and so doesn't degrade as he gets injured. He's equipped with a soundless Jump Pack that nevertheless gives him incredible speed, and his lightning claws bring up his attacks to match his legion's number, but otherwise are only as effective as the Night Lord's relic lightning claws. The Night Haunter employs throwing daggers, his Widowmakers, more as a means of debilitating his opponent, and he uses these to reduce the number of attacks that any large and lethal opponent may bring against him. Due to his deadly stealth, Konrad further makes his opponent's attacks ineffective, so if they do get chances to make shots on him, he'll be at -1 to hit. Unlike each other Primarch, the Night Haunter is known as standing almost separate of his own legion, whom he cares nothing for. As such, his Primarch of the VIIIth ability does not aid Night Lords in any way, and the Night Lords themselves only benefit circumstantially from Curze's presence.
However, fear certainly is his most potent weapon. I struggled trying to think of a way to make even a Primarch or a Knight run from the Knight Haunter, and discovered what I think is an interesting rule. It's something the reverse of the Ork "Mob Rule", but instead of giving you extra morale, it takes it away. As such, if you can get Curze into a one-on-one fight with a Knight, while that Knight's screening unit has been devastated (but not slain) that turn, then the Knight will have to make a Morale Test as if it had multiple models in its unit slain. Best to avoid this by keeping away from screen units, but that presents it own challenges. Outside of that, the Night Haunter is still terrifying, as he'll double the effective casualty count. A 5-man Space Marine squad brought down to a lone Sergeant is nearly guaranteed to flee when facing the Night Haunter.
Lastly, I wanted to capture the feel of the Midnight King's curse; his ability to see the future, but not change it. I paired this ability with some suggestions that, perhaps, Konrad Curze had a split personality; one loyal, and one chaotic. At the start of the battle you MUST select a character (and if your opponent's list, for some reason, doesn't have one, you'll be selecting one of your own), and that character becomes really bad at fighting or living. However, each turn after the first, you roll to see if the curse moves back to the Night Haunter instead. As such, if you can wait Curze out a bit, he may turn on himself and really start capping his own lethality.
Let me know what you think! As always, criticisms are welcome!
Next time: the greater Warrior ever.
The Night Haunter
Points: 350 Power Level: 18
The Night Haunter is armed with Mercy and Forgiveness, and with Widowmakers.
M 14"
WS 2+
BS 2+
S 7
T 6
W 9
A 6
Ld 10
Sv 2+
Weapons:
Widowmakers - Pistol 4 - 12" - user - AP -2 - Damage 1 - Whenever a model is wounded by a Widowmaker, reduce that model's Attacks by 1 until the start of your next turn, to a minimum of 1.
Mercy and Forgiveness - melee - user +1 - AP -3 - Damage D3 - You may make two additional attacks with Mercy and Forgiveness whenever you fight. You may reroll failed wound rolls for attacks made with Mercy and Forgiveness.
Wargear:
The Nightmare Mantle: The Night Haunter has a 4+ Invulnerable Save. Additionally, when a unit makes a Morale test, that unit counts each of its model slain by <Night Lords> twice when determining how many of its models were slain, provided that unit has line of sight to The Night Haunter.
Special Rules:
Death to the False Emperor
The King of Night: Enemy units must subtract 1 from hit rolls made against The Night Haunter. Additionally, during deployment, you can set up The Night Haunter in the shadows instead of placing him on the battlefield. At the end of any of your Movement phases, he may strike from the shadows into battle - set him up anywhere that is more than 9" away from any enemy models.
Primarch of the VIIIth: You may reroll failed hit rolls for The Night Haunter. The Night Haunter may not be selected to be your Warlord.
The Terror of Nostromo: Whilst The Night Haunter is within 1" of an enemy unit, that unit counts all casualties of each unit within 6" of themselves as being a casualty from their own unit.
Curse of Curze: At the start of the battle, select a Character to be cursed this battle. That Character must reroll all successful hit rolls, wound rolls, saving throws, and psychic tests this battle. At the start of each turn after the first, roll a dice, the result of which cannot be rerolled. On a roll of 1, the Night Haunter becomes cursed instead of that Character.
=Keywords= Character, Monster, Fly, Jump Pack, Primarch, Konrad Curze, The Night Haunter
=Faction Keywords= Chaos, Heretic Astartes, Night Lords
Psyker:
The Night Haunter can attempt to manifest two psychic powers in each friendly Psychic phase, and attempt to deny two psychic powers in each enemy Psychic phase. He knows the Smite and Visions of Death powers, and one power from the Nostromo Discipline. He must attempt to manifest Visions of Death each turn, if able.
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