Word Bearers

[Shaggaroth]

What would be considered a true-to-fluff Word Bearer army? And what are viable choices for fluffy yet competitive Word Bearers force?

[davidren2401]

Two golden rules: No cult troops, no god specific icons. After that practically anything goes. A heavy focus on troops (by having say, 6 squads of CSMs and 3 squads of lesser daemons) would be both fluffy and effective. Fluffy because it harkens back to the old Word Bearer specific rule where they could have 9 troop slots and effective because troops are the only scoring units in 5th ed so the more the merrier. People often say a chaos lord with a tzeentch daemon weapon is the best way to represent a Dark Apostle (it gives them the 4+ inv save they used to have) but a Word Bearer's force could just as easily be lead by a Coryphaus, a proxy first officer for a Dark Apostle, who can be decked out with whatever gear you see fit.

[Uprising]

2401 nail it on the head. Word bearers basiclly is a horde heavy army with lots of daemons. For your hq i would suggest a DP. Also if you going to use any heavies use defilers because there fluffy and great.

[Dark Disciple]

Sorry guys but I'm going to have to completely contradict you here. The "fluffy" daemon bomb Word Bearers only came into existance with the last codex. Like many things in the new-ish Chaos Dex its down to personal interpretation and imagination.

I've always seen the Word Berears using Icons like the Greeks. Calling on the favour of a particular deity for a battle but never dedicating themselves fully to that god. For instance the Drak Apostle may decree that facing the Eldar the Host will fight with Icons of Slaanesh as well as chaos undivided. Outright cult units (unless your very clever ^_^ ) should be avoided but personally I dont see an issue with icons.

I'd definatly recommend reading Dark Apostle and Dark Disciple by Anthony Reynolds as they have some nice peices of background.

 

As davidren2401 pointed out your army could be lead by a Coryphaus, the bloody right hand of the Apostle, his First Acolyte (Apprentice) or even a senior champion within the host which gives you quite a lot of flexibility for HQ builds. If you want to use a Dark Apostle theres nothing to stop you using one of the other daemon weapons as each Crozius is supposed to be unique.

 

Welcome to the Faithful Brother, heed the words of the Prophet and the Urizen will smile upon you . <= Word Bearer speak for good luck, have fun and keep us up to date on how you get on :ph34r:

 

Discple.