Chapter Special character

[ulfunnar]

A quick background for my chapter:

The Thunder Bearers are a fleet based chapter that defends the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleets. They are Iron Hands successors and have a large Cult of the Omnissiah within the ranks. The Lord of the Armory is a prodigy whose understanding of machines is said to border on unnatural. The chapter has strong Norse influences, but where the Space Wolves focus on the wolf, the Thunder Bearers focus on the bear.

 

I threw together some rules for the Lord of the Armory, and put together a model. But while I think the model is amazing, the rules have nothing "special" about them.

 

The model is a GK Terminator (one with a spear) a full servo harness attached, and a conversion beamer instead of a storm bolter.

 

Kjallak Steelheart 210pts

WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv

6 5 4 5 3 4 2+2 10 2+/5+

Wargear: Termie Armor, Servo Harness, Conversion Beamer, Master Crafted Relic Blade.

Special Rules: as Master of the Forge

 

So, what I want is something on par with a Captain (i.e. not a 2 wound support character, but a leader character), who is more effective at range but not worthless up close. Unfortunately, I think this setup is too powerful up close. I gave him T5 because I want him more survivable, but I don't want to give him an Iron Halo, as that seems to be the realm of commanders only. I'm considering removing the power weapon from his spear, making it a master crafted weapon which gives +2 Strength.

 

Also, I don't think there is anything here that makes him stand out as a "Special" character. He doesn't have a rule allowing him to coach his fellows into fighting better (Bolter Drill, Voice of Experience), he doesn't inspire greatness (Inspiring Presence), and he doesn't lead an army especially well (Rites of Battle). The only thing that makes him more than a stock character is the combo of stats and loot, which feels wrong. I want to include a rule that plays on his understanding of machines beyond the scope of Blessing of the Omnissiah, but I can't think of anything that is both balanced and useful.

 

Any C&C greatly appreciated.

[Brother Tyler]

I'll be honest, the combination of the Cult Mechanicus with some bear totem thing doesn't really make sense to me. I think that you should pick one or the other. You might still incorporate bear iconography and such with a technologically savvy (in WH40K Imperium terms) Chapter, but I would leave it at that and not try to make more of it than simple use of iconography.

 

As for the increased Toughness, I'd chalk it up to a special rule about extensive bionics/augmetics and put that 5 in parenthesis, just like bikes. So he'd have a T of 4 for instant death purposes.

 

For his combat stats (WS & BS) I suggest focusing on either shooting or assault. My preference is for shooting because that seems more technologically savvy than assault, but choose whichever one you think best represents the character. If he's good at shooting, you might enhance his BS to a level equal to a Captain while leaving his assault-oriented stats at the normal level for a Master of the Forge. Alternately, if you're looking to make the character good at assault, you'd enhance his WS to Captain level while leaving his BS at normal Master of the Forge level. Even better, ignore the comparison to a Captain and just pick shooting or assault and increase the appropriate stat by 1. That solution would probably be much more acceptable to your gaming partner(s).

 

Personally, I'd drop the nemesis force weapon (the glaive that you're calling a spear). The signature weapon of the Cult Mechanicus (and, by extension, Techmarines) is the cog-shaped axe. I'd convert the mini to have that cog-shaped axe head. It would look much more in character with what you're trying to represent. You could even call it a relic blade, taking care of your +2 S idea, and master crafting it wouldn't seem out of place for a senior Techmarine.

[Chengar Qordath]

Also, I don't think there is anything here that makes him stand out as a "Special" character. He doesn't have a rule allowing him to coach his fellows into fighting better (Bolter Drill, Voice of Experience), he doesn't inspire greatness (Inspiring Presence), and he doesn't lead an army especially well (Rites of Battle). The only thing that makes him more than a stock character is the combo of stats and loot, which feels wrong. I want to include a rule that plays on his understanding of machines beyond the scope of Blessing of the Omnissiah, but I can't think of anything that is both balanced and useful.

Well, the first thing that springs to mind as a special army-wide upgrade for a character with a lot of tech skill is something similar to Vulkan's rules, which greatly increase the performance of certain weapons. Done right, that could make for an interesting and fluffy choice.

[Frosty the Pyro]

Some small notes/ideas

 

1. The conversion beamer replaces the servo harnass on the MotF

2. You state that your a fleet based chapter, this would sugest that your army would have a preference for chainfists and meltabombs (used to breatch hulls in boarding actions), so perhaps reroll to hit with meltabombs, and allow any unit with a power fist to upgrade it to a chainfist for +5 points.

3. or as a fleet based chapter you may want to look at some sort of fire suport, a modified orbital bombardment, or a T-Hawk strafing run

4. Or modified drop pods (to represent boarding torpedoes used in BFG) (perhaps place a str 8 large blast template over the drop pod before it lands or alow units to asullt (but not fire) when disembarking)

5. I agree that you should keep the WS as 4, 5 at most.

6. As a chapter with close ties to the admech you could look at something along those lines, allowing sergents to take a servo arm (25 pts i would think) alowing a blessing othe omnisiah roll (but requiring a 6+)

[Brother Tyler]

2. You state that your a fleet based chapter, this would sugest that your army would have a preference for chainfists and meltabombs (used to breatch hulls in boarding actions), so perhaps reroll to hit with meltabombs, and allow any unit with a power fist to upgrade it to a chainfist for +5 points.

3. or as a fleet based chapter you may want to look at some sort of fire suport, a modified orbital bombardment, or a T-Hawk strafing run

4. Or modified drop pods (to represent boarding torpedoes used in BFG) (perhaps place a str 8 large blast template over the drop pod before it lands or alow units to asullt (but not fire) when disembarking)

I couldn't disagree with these ideas more. Being "fleet based" doesn't make a Chapter any better than other Chapters at boarding actions. All Astartes Chapters are exceptionally skilled and experienced at boarding actions. All Chapters have to make extensive use of ships in order to get to any battle that isn't a home game, so fleet based Chapters wouldn't necessarily have developed any exceptional skills or tactics based on them being fleet based. Other fleet based Chapters include the Dark Angels, Imperial Fists, and Black Templars (among others), and these provide a good example of both the range in difference between fleet based Chapters and in what being fleet based might develop in a Chapter (which equates to practically nothing in WH40K terms). Fleet based Chapters aren't inherently better than other Chapters with regard to their drop pods, orbital fire support, thunderhawks, etc.

 

On the notion of boarding torpedoes, everyone (okay, I mean all Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes) use these, so while they're certainly reasonable for this Chapter, they're better done as a generic set of special rules via Forge World, special mission rules, or Apocalypse (unless GW does some sort of "boarding action" rules, that would be nifty).

[Frosty the Pyro]

His disecription of "fleet based chapter that defends the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleets" had me thinking that his chapter had a great deal of fleet combat, where as most space marines use their fleets primarily as a get from point A to point B, and even other fleet based marines fight more on the ground than in their (or enemies) ships. So yes all space marines know how to perform boarding actions, and are very good at it, these folks sounded like they would have more experence than others. I could be wrong, maybe ulfanar ment that they do most of their fighting on the ground defending the admechs their dudes on the ground in which case those ideas are completely off base. I mean All Astartes Chapters are exceptionally skilled and experienced at everything, But a chapter that does something more than other chapters are going to be better at it. If a Salamander, a Raven Guard, and a White Scare are having a competion on who does the best bike combat, my money is on the White Scare.

[ulfunnar]

Thanks for the input guys. This is what I'm thinking now.

 

Kjallak Steelheart 230 pts

WS 4

BS 5

S 4

T 4

W 3

I 4

A 2+2

Ld 10

 

Wargear: Servo-harness, Aegis Invictus

 

Aegis Invictus: Terminator Armor which incorporates a Conversion Beamer and INCREASES the AP of all attacks against it by one. This means that the wearer gets an armor save against weapons which are normally AP 2, but not those which are AP 1 or deny an armor save completely.

 

Special Rules: Bolster Defenses, Master of the Armory, Blessing of the Omnissiah, Masterwork Division

 

Masterwork Division: Kjallak has personally modified the vehicles under his command. At the beginning of the game, roll once on the masterwork table for each vehicle in the army. Venerable dreadnoughts may add or subtract one from the roll. Roll once for all Drop Pods in the army.

 

Masterwork table

2 Front Armor +1. As 7 if this takes armor above 14. Drop pods become 13 all around.

3 Rear Armor +1. As 7 if this takes armor above 14. Drop pods become 13 all around.

4 Attackers subtract 1 from rolls on the damage chart if their AP is 4 or higher. Not cumulative with AP - penalty.

5 BS +1

6 Vehicle ignores Crew Shaken results on a d6 roll of 5+. No effect if the vehicle is shaken because of Extra Armor.

7 Vehicle was built recently and hasn't been modified

8 WS +1. As 7 if Vehicle doesn't have WS

9 Vehicle may re-roll difficult terrain tests. Use the second result even if its worse.

10 If Vehicle fires no weapons this turn, it may move an additional d6 inches. As 7 if Vehicle is a walker.

11 The Vehicle ignores armor saves in close combat even if its DCCW is destroyed. As 7 if Vehicle doesn't have DCCW.

12 A +2. As 7 if Vehicle doesn't have A

 

Open to suggestions on the Masterwork table.

 

@ Frosty the Pyro: I realize that servo-harness and conversion beamer are one or the other. The thing that I thought of first when making the character was that I wanted someone who could use both.

 

On the subject of fleet based chapter, I imagine they fight about half their battles in space. When following the Explorators, they probably find as many bits of old tech planetside as on a hulk.

 

I dropped the WS and T and kept the 5+ invul save, but I made him immune to AP 2. Hopefully this makes him tough against ranged weapons like Lascannons, but still reasonably squishy in CC versus a dedicated unit.