Codex: Order of the Faithful Blade

[Chengar Qordath]

I was mainly thinking along the lines of precedent; artificial arms are handed out like candy in the 40kverse, it just seems a little incongruous. Of course, being fancy wraithbone etc. could account for that, I suppose.

Wraithbone is supposed to be a pretty tough substance; according to the Eldar codex, it's more resilient then Adamantium.

 

Agonizers are known to come in all shapes and sizes, it staying as a sword (albeit likely a devilish-looking Dark Eldar blade) is a given. Only the latest 'dex decided they were primarily whips; I believe the older Dark Eldar Archon model featured a jagged claw Agonizer? The backstory's good and should def stay in the fluff, but simply having "Agonizer" in the statline would take out a little bit of minutiae; useful since this is a special character with unique interactions with another special character - if there's anyway to slightly simplify the characters without harming their design, it should prob be taken.

You make a persuasive argument, sir.

 

Yeah, the copy&paste worried me a bit as well, especially with the rumour-trail suggesting that they had originally expanded the entry to a 5th Ed. aesthetic, but were then instructed to reign it in to maintain inter-codex consistency (not long before older marine codexes were FAQed to be closer to 5ed; /sigh.) I'm just hoping this doesn't lock the Harlequin entry into its current phase in an attempt to maintain that consistency when the Eldar 'dex is updated.

Indeed; while I've had my share of disagreements with how Ward does codices, at least he is willing to make balance tweaks like making units that were overpriced in one codex more reasonable in the next one. Harlequins are one of the most interesting units in the game from a fluff/background perspective, and it is a real pity that their in-game stats don't support their out-of-game capabilities.

 

Random thought; maybe grant Morrigan a satellite character as well? I'm pretty fond of the idea of having unique retinue bits for unique Inquisitors, the retinue is as much a part of the character as their own statline/wargear. Perhaps a darker spin on the mystic/banisher; her selection of daemonic artifacts has to come from somewhere, after all.

Had a bit of inspiration on this point: I'll post something as soon as I get it written up.

[Chengar Qordath]

Binder..........60 Points

Binder

4

4

3

3

2

4

1

10

4+/5++

Binder {HQ}

Infantry (unique)

1 Binder

Bolt Pistol Close Combat Weapon Bound Armor Frag and Krak Grenades

Psyker Artificer of the Profane

Scourging

Fluff: “I serve Inquistior Allard; that's all I need to know about my past.“

The exact origins of the individual known simply as Binder remain a mystery, even to Binder himself. All that is known for certain about him is his absolute loyalty to Inquisitor Allard, and his impressive talent for binding and controlling the denizens of the Warp, thus granting him the name he is known by. Many speculate that his talent for controlling daemons hints towards dark origins, and that his inability to remember anything of his past prior to entering Inquisitor Allard's service is a result of being mind-cleansed.

Some speculate that prior to his mind-cleansing he was a servant of the Ruinous Powers. The fact that Binder first entered Morrigan's service shortly after she purged the Cult of the Awakened, a particularly persistent Chaos cult notable for possessing a number of daemonic artifacts, no doubt helps to fuel these rumors.

While Binder almost always works at Inquisitor Allard's side, she has been known to loan him out to trusted allies within the Inquisition on occasion. More than one of these Inquisitors has attempted to acquire Binder's services for themselves, only to find their effort stymied by his stubborn absolute loyalty to Inquisitor Allard.

Special Rules:
Artificer of the Profane: Binder is unusually talented at dealing with warp-touched artifacts of all sorts, and is responsible for managing and maintaining any such devices and entities that fall into Inquisitor Allard's hands. He is also directly responsible for the creation of some of the lesser artifacts in Inquisitor Allard's hands, and has bound several Daemonhosts in her service. Any Daemonhosts in the army may roll twice and pick which roll they prefer, and any Daemonblades may choose to re-roll their power selection (if the player chooses to re-roll, then they must accept the results of the re-roll).

Wargear:
Bound Armor Binder's armor is a relatively simple set of standard stormtrooper carapace armor into which he sealed a minor warp predator. In addition to the normal effects of Carapace Armor, bound armor grants him a 5+ invulnerable save.

Rhona Karim..........85 Points

Rhona Karim

5

4

3

3

2

4

2

9

-

Rhona Karim {HQ}

Infantry (unique)

1 Rhona Karim

Bolt Pistol Power Weapon Frag Grenades

Brutality Fury Dodge Furious Charge Preferred Enemy (Dark Eldar)

Fluff: “We're wasting time with all this worthless talking and investigating; just kill the bastard already.“

A hideously scarred warrior from the feral world of Grax, Rhona is a brutally skilled combatant whose combat style mixes skill and savagery in equal measure. Rhona has revealed little of her past, and usually answers any inquiries with a string of expletives, punctuated with a knife thrown in the general direction of whoever was foolish enough to ask the question. While she has never said where her scars come from, her burning hatred of the Dark Eldar is usually taken as a sign that they are responsible in some way.

At some point Rhona fell into the hands of slavers, and her combat prowess saw her sold to the gladiatorial arenas of Theralis Secundus. The arena's bloodsports naturally drew the attention of the darker powers of the Warp, and before long it became a den of foulness and corruption. One day after a day full of long and difficult battles, the arena's jailers made the fatal error of assuming that the gladiators weak and tired, and grew lax in their security. The error of their negligence rapidly became apparent when Rhona sensed an opportunity and led the other gladiators in an uprising.

It was this uprising that brought Rhona to Inquisitor Allard's attention. Morrigan had been in the middle of investigating rumors of an underground arena whose bloodsports were serving to corrupt loyal Imperial citizens into venerating the Blood God, and it was Rhona's uprising that finally broke the case open and allowed the inquisitor to launch a complete purge of the cult. The Inquisitor felt confident that she could find a place for a warrior or Rhona's skill, and offered Rhona a place within her retinue. The ex-gladiator was initially hesitant, but Morrigan's role in purging the cult responsible for running the gladiatorial arenas eventually won Rhona's loyalty.

Special Rules:
Brutality: Rhona is a savage warrior who delights in the thrill of combat and is quick to exploit any opening her opponent offers her. Any time Rhona makes a successful save against a wound suffered in close combat, she gets to immediately make an additional attack against the unit that inflicted the saved wound. This additional attack does not benefit from the any bonus strength she may have received from the Furious Charge rule.

Fury: For every unsaved wound Rhona inflicts in close combat, she may immediately make an additional attack. Her additional attacks will not generate further additional attacks if they inflict unsaved wounds.

Dodge Rhona has a 4+ Invulnerable save in close combat.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Wraithbone is supposed to be a pretty tough substance; according to the Eldar codex, it's more resilient then Adamantium.

Huh, wow, I guess that explains how Eldar transports pull off FAV12.

 

Indeed; while I've had my share of disagreements with how Ward does codices, at least he is willing to make balance tweaks like making units that were overpriced in one codex more reasonable in the next one. Harlequins are one of the most interesting units in the game from a fluff/background perspective, and it is a real pity that their in-game stats don't support their out-of-game capabilities.

Yeah, Blood Angels devestators were crying bloodtears of sanguinejoy onto their bloodfists over having reasonably-priced weapons.

 

Like Binder, pulls the concept off well, good complement character. Just checking, his Daemonblade ability doesn't effect Lesser Daemonblades, right? The fluff for him's good, plays the radical angle without being over the top. Might be fun to model him with lobotomy-esque deep-mind-cleansing scars.

 

Rhona's pretty good; I see her value mainly in defining the character of part of Morrigan's retinue, encouraging taking Deathcults and Arcos (presumably representing others with similar backgrounds to her) to complement the Daemonhosts. Might want to rename Dodge to Lightning Reflexes, a la the assassins, or perhaps bump her down to the Uncanny Reflexes of Deathcult Assassins - it seems a tad awkward that she has a Dodge save superior to that of Deathcult assassins while having 2 less Initiative than them. Although, if you want to keep the 4++ for balance reasons, maybe have gladiator-esque armour studded with refractor generators on her favoured arm to represent the save.

 

Maybe drop Fury or Brutality, it seems a little odd that she sports two special rules primarily seen in different extra-elite Blood Angels-types. Then again, them being on a S/T3 model stops that from being ridiculous.

[Chengar Qordath]

Yeah, Blood Angels devastators were bloody crying bloodtears of sanguinejoy onto their bloodfists over having bloody reasonably-priced sanguine bloodweapons.

Well, at least ignoring badly written fluff is a lot easier than ignoring badly-written rules. Also, your post need the word blood in it a few more times to accurately reflect how often it was used in the Blood Angels Codex of Blood.

 

Like Binder, pulls the concept off well, good complement character. Just checking, his Daemonblade ability doesn't effect Lesser Daemonblades, right? The fluff for him's good, plays the radical angle without being over the top. Might be fun to model him with lobotomy-esque deep-mind-cleansing scars.

Lobotomy-eque scars sound nice, and his ability doesn't effect Lesser Daemonblades since that could get a bit ridiculous if someone took several Martyr squads armed with them. I did want to avoid the hazard of taking the Radical angle too far; some people seem to forget that Radicals are still loyal servants of the Imperium, and run them as basically working for Chaos.

 

Rhona's pretty good; I see her value mainly in defining the character of part of Morrigan's retinue, encouraging taking Deathcults and Arcos (presumably representing others with similar backgrounds to her) to complement the Daemonhosts. Might want to rename Dodge to Lightning Reflexes, a la the assassins, or perhaps bump her down to the Uncanny Reflexes of Deathcult Assassins - it seems a tad awkward that she has a Dodge save superior to that of Deathcult assassins while having 2 less Initiative than them. Although, if you want to keep the 4++ for balance reasons, maybe have gladiator-esque armour studded with refractor generators on her favoured arm to represent the save.

 

Maybe drop Fury or Brutality, it seems a little odd that she sports two special rules primarily seen in different extra-elite Blood Angels-types. Then again, them being on a S/T3 model stops that from being ridiculous.

I'd hesitate to give her Uncanny/Lightning Reflexes, since not having a save against shooting is part of her current balancing (I do find it ironic that a character who hates Dark Eldar actually has a few common points with DE Wyches, since both are gladiators). However, I'll probably end up re-working her statline a fair bit, since I've gotten one or two new bits of inspiration. Brutality is also going to go; the main reason I had Fury and Brutality both is that I wrote the unit entry in two phases, and didn't realize until later that I'd given Rhona two attack-granting abilities.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Yeah, Blood Angels devastators were bloody crying bloodtears of sanguinejoy onto their bloodfists over having bloody reasonably-priced sanguine bloodweapons.

Well, at least ignoring badly written fluff is a lot easier than ignoring badly-written rules. Also, your post need the word blood in it a few more times to accurately reflect how often it was used in the Blood Angels Codex of Blood.

Thanks for that, the greatest enemy of theming, after all, is subtlety. Bloodsubtlety.

 

I'd hesitate to give her Uncanny/Lightning Reflexes, since not having a save against shooting is part of her current balancing (I do find it ironic that a character who hates Dark Eldar actually has a few common points with DE Wyches, since both are gladiators). However, I'll probably end up re-working her statline a fair bit, since I've gotten one or two new bits of inspiration. Brutality is also going to go; the main reason I had Fury and Brutality both is that I wrote the unit entry in two phases, and didn't realize until later that I'd given Rhona two attack-granting abilities.

Ohhhh, right, missed that distinction. It still might be worth shifting it uncanny/lightning reflexes, having inconsistent dodging mechanics within the same unit is kinda awkward (shame there wasn't enough inter-codex cooperation for there to be gamewide consistency.)

 

Keeping Fury over Brutality is good, since the mechanic is a bit more widespread.

 

Heh, I can picture her current similarity to Wyches being intentional on the part of DE who attacked her. Why kill her outright if when there's a chance of driving her to despair with a "he who fights with monsters" moment decades later?

[Chengar Qordath]

Ohhhh, right, missed that distinction. It still might be worth shifting it uncanny/lightning reflexes, having inconsistent dodging mechanics within the same unit is kinda awkward (shame there wasn't enough inter-codex cooperation for there to be gamewide consistency.)

 

Keeping Fury over Brutality is good, since the mechanic is a bit more widespread.

 

Heh, I can picture her current similarity to Wyches being intentional on the part of DE who attacked her. Why kill her outright if when there's a chance of driving her to despair with a "he who fights with monsters" moment decades later?

I'm thinking I might go with giving her Uncanny Reflexes, and then have her gladiator weapons improve her invulnerable save in close combat. I'm also inclined to bump her up to the DCA statline for consistency.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

I'm thinking I might go with giving her Uncanny Reflexes, and then have her gladiator weapons improve her invulnerable save in close combat. I'm also inclined to bump her up to the DCA statline for consistency.

 

Sounds like a reasonable approach (although I think the DCA profile is a bit much for a mostly-unaugmented human, but in the contexts of balance and unit consistency, it would be fine) as long as Furious Charge is dropped - since she'd gain a natural S4 and I6 this would be no real loss, and a standard human being able to reach I7 seems kinda crazy. This would also make including other DCAs as other ex-gladiators feel a bit more natural. Perhaps add a short line to the fluff with Morrigan classifying the gladiatorial arena she was in as a Khornate Death Cult, to make the usage of the DCA profiles gel a bit better?

[Chengar Qordath]

Rhona Karim..........75 Points

Rhona Karim

5

3

4

3

2

6

2

9

-

Rhona Karim {HQ}

Infantry (unique)

1 Rhona Karim

Two Gladius Power Swords Frag Grenades

Fury Uncanny Reflexes Preferred Enemy (Dark Eldar)

Fluff: “We're wasting time with all this worthless talking and investigating; just kill the bastard already.“

A hideously scarred warrior from the feral world of Grax, Rhona is a brutally skilled combatant whose combat style mixes skill and savagery in equal measure. Rhona has revealed little of her past, and usually answers any inquiries with a string of expletives, punctuated with a knife thrown in the general direction of whoever was foolish enough to ask the question. While she has never said where her scars come from, her burning hatred of the Dark Eldar is usually taken as a sign that they are responsible in some way.

At some point Rhona fell into the hands of slavers, and her combat prowess saw her sold to the gladiatorial arenas of Theralis Secundus. The arena's vicious battles naturally drew the attention of the darker powers of the Warp, and before long it became a den of foulness and corruption, with the bloodsport of the arena feeding a growing Khornate Death Cult. One day after a day full of long and difficult battles, the arena's jailers made the fatal error of assuming that the gladiators weak and tired, and grew lax in their security. The error of their negligence rapidly became apparent when Rhona sensed an opportunity and led the other gladiators in an uprising.

It was this uprising that brought Rhona to Inquisitor Allard's attention. Morrigan had been in the middle of investigating rumors of an underground arena whose bloodsports were serving to corrupt loyal Imperial citizens into venerating the Blood God, and it was Rhona's uprising that finally broke the case open and allowed the inquisitor to launch a complete purge of the cult. The Inquisitor felt confident that she could find a place for a warrior or Rhona's skill, and offered Rhona a place within her retinue. The ex-gladiator was initially hesitant, but Morrigan's role in purging the cult responsible for running the gladiatorial arenas eventually won Rhona's loyalty.

Special Rules:
Fury: For every unsaved wound Rhona inflicts in close combat, she may immediately make an additional attack. Her additional attacks will not generate further additional attacks if they inflict unsaved wounds.

Wargear:
Gladius Power Swords: These power blades are based on the weapon Rhona used in her time as a gladiator, although obviously of far higher quality than the weapons most gladiators have access to. In addition to the normal effects of power weapons, these blades increase her invulnerable save by +1 against wounds suffered in close combat.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Looks good, much more streamlined. It might be worth explicitly mentioning if the pair of gladius grants +1 attack, though - feels a bit pedantic, but judging by the reaction to nemesis falchions, there's some debate over whether or not "Pair of" is simply part of the equipment's title or not.

 

Alos, had a thought on the Vanus temple - perhaps the model which grants the rules would not be an actual Vanus assassin, but a mindwiped, completely subordinate minion of the assassin? The fluff premise would be that a Vanus assassin can't respond quickly enough to radio requests for info from the battlefield, but also wouldn't allow an outsider access to their collected data (the Imperium isn't exactly a trusting place), so a subordinate (the lexicanum mentions a Vanus temple "Infocyte" - is this some sort of subordinate-type post?) with access to the data through some cogitator implants or whatnot (and probably loaded with an explosive failsafe) is assigned to the army's command. Keeps the gameplay benefits of having an actual model on the board without the fluff problems of it being a Vanus assassin.

[Chengar Qordath]

Looks good, much more streamlined. It might be worth explicitly mentioning if the pair of gladius grants +1 attack, though - feels a bit pedantic, but judging by the reaction to nemesis falchions, there's some debate over whether or not "Pair of" is simply part of the equipment's title or not.

 

Alos, had a thought on the Vanus temple - perhaps the model which grants the rules would not be an actual Vanus assassin, but a mindwiped, completely subordinate minion of the assassin? The fluff premise would be that a Vanus assassin can't respond quickly enough to radio requests for info from the battlefield, but also wouldn't allow an outsider access to their collected data (the Imperium isn't exactly a trusting place), so a subordinate (the lexicanum mentions a Vanus temple "Infocyte" - is this some sort of subordinate-type post?) with access to the data through some cogitator implants or whatnot (and probably loaded with an explosive failsafe) is assigned to the army's command. Keeps the gameplay benefits of having an actual model on the board without the fluff problems of it being a Vanus assassin.

Changed it from "Pair of" to "Two" to avoid that issue, although I think claiming that a pair of weapons are not supposed to be two weapons is more than a little odd.

 

On the Vanus, I do like the idea that the model on the table doesn't represent the Vanus him/herself, but rather the only person who has a secure communication line with the Vanus. Their come gear would probably be set to self-destruct upon death, just to make sure it doesn't fall into the hands of the enemy and either compromise Imperial intelligence or give them a way to track the Vanus to his secure location.

[*Furyou Miko]

Like the idea of the Vanus 'spotter'. :P Maybe he drops a S8 blast marker when his comm set blows up?

 

Binder looks nice and fluffy. Reminds me of something, though. I can't quite think what at the moment.

 

Rhona I like too - it's amusing how different the two profiles are. Also, I have this great image of a "Shut up, Hannibal!" moment between her and a Dark Eldar Succubus.

 

Aereso of the Dripping Blade: "we're not so different, you and I... both tasting the joy of battle, relishing the-"

 

Rhona: "Whatever." DEFENESTRATE!

[Chengar Qordath]

Rhona I like too - it's amusing how different the two profiles are. Also, I have this great image of a "Shut up, Hannibal!" moment between her and a Dark Eldar Succubus.

 

Aereso of the Dripping Blade: "we're not so different, you and I... both tasting the joy of battle, relishing the-"

 

Rhona: "Whatever." DEFENESTRATE!

Or my personal preference, adding to the fun by combining it with a Pre-Mortem One Liner.

 

Aereso of the Dripping Blade: "we're not so different, you and I... both tasting the joy of battle, relishing the-"

 

Rhona: No, we're completely different. For starters, I'm not spurting blood out of my severed neck after being decapitated.

 

Aereso: What are you... *CHOP*

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Like the idea of the Vanus 'spotter'. ;) Maybe he drops a S8 blast marker when his comm set blows up?

I was thinking more along the lines of there being a crackle and a fizzle as the poor man's brain dribbles out of his ears, but then again "We'll replace half of his brain with a cogitator. The other half is being switched out for plastic explosives." might be more the Imperium's style.

 

However, the blast would probably need to be AP4/5, or else he would be a death sentence for his attached unit, which would make him undesirable in an army built out of reasonably expensive/elite units.

Rhona: "Whatever." DEFENESTRATE!

She gets her own satellite special character - a servitor bonded with a window frame.

Rhona: No, we're completely different. For starters, I'm not spurting blood out of my severed neck after being decapitated.

 

Aereso: What are you... *CHOP*

Or we could go for the best of both worlds and replace her swords with a bladed window frame.

[Chengar Qordath]

Like the idea of the Vanus 'spotter'. :tu: Maybe he drops a S8 blast marker when his comm set blows up?

I was thinking more along the lines of there being a crackle and a fizzle as the poor man's brain dribbles out of his ears, but then again "We'll replace half of his brain with a cogitator. The other half is being switched out for plastic explosives." might be more the Imperium's style.

 

However, the blast would probably need to be AP4/5, or else he would be a death sentence for his attached unit, which would make him undesirable in an army built out of reasonably expensive/elite units.

The Imperium has always been quite fond of overkill; I expect that, if their tech was up to it, the Imperium would put a mini-nuke inside the operative's head. Maybe we could make that an upgrade option? :woot:

 

For the self-destruct explosion, I would be inclined to the steal the Bio-Meltdown rule from the Eversor Assassin; They're pretty much the same thing after all, and when the precedent is usable there's no harm in sticking to it.

[Chengar Qordath]

Vanus Temple Contact ..........140 Points

Vanus Temple Contact

3

4

3

3

2

3

2

10

4+

Vanus Temple Contact {Elite}

Infantry

1 Vanus Temple Contact

Carapace Armor Hellgun Frag and Krak Grenades

Reactive Deployment Comm Disruption Perfect Intelligence Temple Fail-safe Independent Character

Fluff: Unlike the other assassin temples, the Vanus are not field operatives who hunt down and directly kill the enemies of the Imperium; in fact, some of the temple's operatives never leave the safety of the temple's central compound in their entire career. Vanus assassins also lack the extensive combat training and enhancements of the other temple; in a direct clash of arms, the average Vanus is probably no more dangerous than an Imperial Guardsman. However, despite this seeming weakness, Vanus temple assassins are among the deadliest individuals in the galaxy. The Vanus Temple assassins are information brokers and manipulators without peer, capable of learning their target's darkest secrets with ease, and finding the perfect time, place, and manner to spread those facts to bring about their target's demise. Their abilities make them an invaluable asset on the battlefield, allowing the Vanus to feed vital tactical data to Imperial commanders and subtly disrupt enemy operations.

However, a Vanus assassin has no place on the battlefield, as they lack the combat ability of the other temples, and breaking into intelligence networks and gathering clear information is far more difficult on the front lines, where an assassin must constantly be on the lookout for threats. Thus, when aiding in combat operations, a Vanus will find a secure location far away from the actual battlefield, and instead relay instructions directly through a carefully prepared operative, usually a specially trained Inquisitorial Stormtrooper. Use of a proxy allows the Vanus to directly interact with Imperial commanders and overlook the battlefield while still allowing the assassin to maintain a safe distance from actual combat operations.

Reactive Deployment: The Vanus Assassin uses their information gathering abilities to determine the exact disposition of enemy forces, and feeds this information directly to the Imperial commander, allowing him to alter his own deployment in order to counteract the enemy. After both sides have deployed at the start of the game, the side possessing a Vanus assassin may reposition 1+d3 unit; no units may be deployed outside its normal deployment zone

Comm Disruption: The Vanus Assassins are supremely skilled at the disruption of enemy communications, and seriously delay the arrival of any enemy reinforcements by jamming communications, relaying false orders, and arranging for sudden obstacles to appear in the path of the enemy reserves. All of the opponent's reserve rolls are at a -1 (does not stack with any other penalty to reserve rolls) and owning player may force their opponent to reroll one reserve roll per turn.

Perfect Intelligence: By possessing complete knowledge of the enemy's deployment, the Vanus Assassin makes outmaneuvering the enemy force and striking from its flank far simpler than it would otherwise be. At the start of the game, designate d3 units; these units the ability to outflank. If any of the selected units already possessed the ability to outflank, they may now re-roll to determine which table edge they enter from.

Temple Fail-safes: Given the highly secretive nature of the Vanus Temple, the possibility of their contacts leaving behind anything that could compromise Vanus operations is a constant concern. If a contact's gear should fall into enemy hands, it could catastrophically compromise the information-gathering capabilities of the Vanus temple, and even worse is the possibility of a contact being captured by the enemy. Consequently, all Vanus contacts carry an explosive self-destruct mechanism designed to automatically trigger if the contact should perish or suffer suffer incapacitation; it can also be triggered manually by the contact, or remotely by the assassin. If an enemy attack removes him from the table or his unit is caught in a sweeping advance, immediately place a small blast template centered over the contact. All models under the template, both friend and foe, suffer a strength 5 AP 5 hit, and the Vanus is removed from play.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Contact looks good; powerful, but appropriately priced/tied to a relatively squishy model. Will probably die in most every game, but not a huge fluff worry since I doubt any Inquisitor/Assassin is going to be too broken-hearted over the death of a single squishy minion.

 

Heh, random thought, maybe have the Failsafe go off if he ever fails a leadership test and falls back - the Assassin decides a cowardly contact is useless, and pushes the big red button.

[Chengar Qordath]

Contact looks good; powerful, but appropriately priced/tied to a relatively squishy model. Will probably die in most every game, but not a huge fluff worry since I doubt any Inquisitor/Assassin is going to be too broken-hearted over the death of a single squishy minion.

 

Heh, random thought, maybe have the Failsafe go off if he ever fails a leadership test and falls back - the Assassin decides a cowardly contact is useless, and pushes the big red button.

I was pondering just giving the player the ability to detonate the contact whenever they want and/or just auto-detonating the contact once everyone is in from reserves (and thus, the contact's special rules no longer matter)

 

I think auto-killing just for falling back might be a bit too harsh; units can rally and regroup after all. and Vanus Assassins probably don't care much about physical courage anyway. Now, fluffwise I would say that falling back off the table-edge gets the contact kaboomed, since that would be completely leaving the battlefield.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

If there's the option for the player to choose when to detonate, it would probably be best to limit the detonation to a specific phase/time to avoid any ambiguity-based problems. Perhaps he doesn't grant a killpoint if detonated manually (a manual detonation might be more reliable than an automated one - leaving the detonation until after the contact is dead risks the explosives being damaged, there being salvageable remains etc) to add some incentive to the action? Edit: Or it might just be best to leave it as a very situational, not that important ability (like how the Hospitalers in the Inq. Project have the option of making a single 4+ Poisoned attack with their Vivisectors - a characterful ability with no impact on cost that will usually be ignored.)

[Chengar Qordath]

I've actually been considering precisely that idea, but I'm inclined towards keeping manual detonation an occasionally useful and flavorful ability, and nothing more. Having the contact not give up a KP if he's blown up might be a bit too easily exploited, especially since once everyone's models have come in from reserve the contact basically devolves into being a very expensive stormtrooper, so there's little reason not to kaboom him at that point.

 

Also, pondering the idea of offering one or two units like Seraphim the option of buying the Supremely Faithful rule. I would probably have it be a flat upgrade cost, like "the unit may upgrade it's Faithful rule to Supremely Faithful for 25 points." That would give people an incentive to field larger squads for point-efficiency, though the upgrade needs to cost enough to not make it a no-brainer on any 10-woman squad..

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Yeah, that might be the best route. One thought on how to balance it if it was used, though - making the explosion have a higher AP, causing detonating to seriously maim the attached squad. In that case, a manual detonation would only be performed when absolutely necessary. As for when to allow manual detonation - perhaps only at the beginning of the owning player's assault phase? It's probably the time it would be used the most anyways, and it would prevent any awkward situations (like if he's detonated in the owning player's shooting phase, destroying 25% of his unit - do they fall back?! and other weird stuff like that.)

 

Hrm, the supremely faithful purchase thing could work - perhaps allow the upgrade for Lancers, and drop Knights down to regular Faithful and allow them to purchase Supremely? As for the actual upgrade, perhaps it's an ornate shield with a reliquary attached to it? That would maintain the shield-heavy appearance of the army. Perhaps it also acts as a suppression for the wielder? 25-30 points might be a good range for such an upgrade, but not certain.

 

That would split the army into three Faith-tiers; the auto-faithing Celestians, the faithful who can buy auto-faith; seraphim/lancers/knights and the rest of the army with regular faithful.

 

Hmmm, this makes me think of the Devoted squads; they have auto-faith, but to represent their zealous mob-frenzy, rather than the disciplined tactics and superior skills of the Celestians. Maybe have a rule-quirk to represent this? I'm thinking maybe have them roll a d6 at the start of every turn; if it's a 5+ they get carried away and must use the same act of faith they used in the previous turn. Not a crippling negative, but shows that they're less skilled at using Faith abilities than Celestians.

[Chengar Qordath]

Yeah, that might be the best route. One thought on how to balance it if it was used, though - making the explosion have a higher AP, causing detonating to seriously maim the attached squad. In that case, a manual detonation would only be performed when absolutely necessary. As for when to allow manual detonation - perhaps only at the beginning of the owning player's assault phase? It's probably the time it would be used the most anyways, and it would prevent any awkward situations (like if he's detonated in the owning player's shooting phase, destroying 25% of his unit - do they fall back?! and other weird stuff like that.)

Beginning of the assault phase works; it probably wouldn't hurt to specify that he has to explode himself before making any assault moves, since otherwise he might get used as a suicide bomber a bit too much.

 

Hrm, the supremely faithful purchase thing could work - perhaps allow the upgrade for Lancers, and drop Knights down to regular Faithful and allow them to purchase Supremely? As for the actual upgrade, perhaps it's an ornate shield with a reliquary attached to it? That would maintain the shield-heavy appearance of the army. Perhaps it also acts as a suppression for the wielder? 25-30 points might be a good range for such an upgrade, but not certain.

 

That would split the army into three Faith-tiers; the auto-faithing Celestians, the faithful who can buy auto-faith; seraphim/lancers/knights and the rest of the army with regular faithful.

 

Hmmm, this makes me think of the Devoted squads; they have auto-faith, but to represent their zealous mob-frenzy, rather than the disciplined tactics and superior skills of the Celestians. Maybe have a rule-quirk to represent this? I'm thinking maybe have them roll a d6 at the start of every turn; if it's a 5+ they get carried away and must use the same act of faith they used in the previous turn. Not a crippling negative, but shows that they're less skilled at using Faith abilities than Celestians.

A fancy shield could certainly work, or it could go to a more generic holy relic type of item (I suppose it could be the new rule for the Simulacrum Imperialis). One thouight on it being tied to an item of wargear; would that mean losing the model with said bit of wargear means losing Supremely Faithful? If it is, I foresee said model getting sniped a lot.

 

Knights might need a bit of a fluff tweak if they're losing SF, since the main reason they have it at the moment is that they're Celestians. Then again, we could probably justify the lack of SF by saying that Knights have to spend more time on the martial disciplines (and tending to their mounts) and thus aren't quite as devout as the other veterans. Maybe I could also tie their fluff origins into Durand, since if the Knights are her brainchild/under her command that could also explain them being a bit less faithful.

 

Like your idea for the Devoted rule; to counterbalance the negative, maybe we could say that if they use the same AoF as last turn, they don't have to make a Ld test to activate it.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

One of my main thoughts with the shield was that many of the units which would use it (most all, come to think of it) are highly mobile ones on which something like a Simulacrum Imperialis might look a little awkward (only the Grox-riders could really pull it off, I think), although this could simply be fixed with creative modeling. The holder wouldn't be too vulnerable on account of wound allocation, and leaving the few "sniper" units (Vindicare, Telion etc) out there able to do their thing would be far from crippling. Then again, allowing the squad to upgrade to vet.s is also viable.

 

As for Knights, having 4 (well, 5 including the retinue) Celestian-rank units might be a bit much, having them be on par with the Lancers might be a better choice (this would work well with the part about having to devote much time to training with the mount and maintaining it). Tying it into Durand would also be neat in highlighting the warrior-path/faith divide between Durand and Sioban; interesting potential for Durand-themed (Sisters on mounts-heavy) and Sioban-themed (Celestian/Devoted-heavy) armies.

 

That would make sense with the Devoted; the rule does imply that in those cases the Devoted Sisters get carried away and continue the previous AoF, and do not notice the squad leader trying to lead them into a new AoF. This could also lead to an interesting fluff point for Supremely Faithful units, why they still have to test to use an AoF they used in the previous turn - it would be representative of them momentarily letting their Faith-ability slip so they do not become overwhelmed by it and fall into an undisciplined frenzy.

[Chengar Qordath]

Throwing together a new Knight entry, that also shows the Faith upgrade option.

 

Also, given that the Knights are now fluff-tied to Durand, I'm tempted to give her the option of taking a Grox-mount. Needless to say, this would be an expensive upgrade (I'm thinking 50 points).

 

Knight Squad

Knight

4

4

4

4

2

4

3

9

3+

 

Knight Squad {Fast Attack}.......... 200 points

Cavalry

5 Knights

Power armour Close Combat Weapon Suppression Shield Frag grenades

Adepta Sororitas Stubborn Faithful Grox Mount

• Any Knight may replace their Close Combat Weapon with:
  
  • A Power Weapon: 10 points
    
  • An Eviscerator: 15 points
    
  • A Blessed Weapon: 20 points
    

  [*]Any Knight may take meltabombs: 5 points

  [*]One Knight may carry a Sister Hospitaller on her mount (Counts as being equipped with a medi-pack): 30 points

  [*]The unit may be equipped with an Order Relic: 30 points

 

Fluff:

While the reforms of Andraste the Unacknowledged resulted in substantial changes to the organization of the Order the Faithful Blade, one of the most important changes she made to the Order was cultivating a flexible, corps of junior officers and encouraging her subordinates to exercise their own initiative and find new ways to address problems as they arose.

 

The Knights are a relatively recent addition to the Order's arsenal, and the brainchild of Athena Durand. The origin of the Knights lies on an otherwise unremarkable agri-world where the Order's forces engaged a small WAAAGH! under the command of Warboss Fastabetta. Fastabetta proved to be a formidable foe, and his large force of bike-mounted Nobs allowed him to secure victories against the Order, Fastabetta's bikers proved to be a deadly threat to the Order; while the Order's heavy infantry could break the bikers, the Orks used their speed to avoid getting caught in close combat with the Martyrs and Blades of the Order. While the Order's Lancers could outmaneuver the bikers, they proved unable to pin down the Orks long enough to achieve a decisive result; while the Lancers could charge with devastating force, they had little staying power in a sustained battle.

 

Durand, at the time a relatively young squad leader, finally hit upon the solution to this problem. After requisitioning several grox from one of the local farmers, Durand managed to train her squad to use the powerful and aggressive animals as mounts. In the next clash with Fastabetta's forces, Durand's grox-cavalry proved itself, successfully engaging and destroying the bikers who had plagued the Order's forces for so long. The success or Durand's Knights prompted her commander to retain Durand's corps of Knights after the battle, and before long other Order commanders began adopting the idea and incorporating Knights into their own forces. The creation of the Knights also brought Durand to the attention of the highest-ranking members of the Order, and was a significant factor in her promotion to Palatine.

 

Grox Mount: The Grox is a fast, powerful, and highly aggressive creature. Units mounted upon a Grox gain +1 to Strength, Toughness, Wounds, and Attacks (bonuses already included in the unit profile for knights). In addition, they gains the Furious Charge USR. Note that the added strength is applied before any other modifiers (such as Eviscerators) and the added toughness increases the model's instant death threshold.

 

Order Relic: Like many Imperial institutions, the Order of the Faithful Blade has a collection of relics and holy items which are frequently used to inspire their forces on the battlefield. Because of the Order's disagreements with the greater structure of the Adepta Sororitas, the Order has never enjoyed easy access to the valued and powerful relics of the Imperial Saints. Because of this, most of the relics in the hands of the Order have a history that is intimately connected to the Order itself.

 

A unit equipped with a Relic of the Order replaces its Faithful rule with the Supremely Faithful rule. While the Relic is a piece of wargear, it is not tied to any specific model; if the sister carrying the relic fell in battle, another would immediately secure the relic before it could be lost or fall into enemy hands.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Looks pretty good, they might be a tad expensive now that they don't have auto-faith, but that's more of a play-testing type of thing.

 

Relic is good, but maybe mention something like "Only the most skilled and pious of the Order are entrusted with such relics" to suggest that they have the Relic because they're Supremely Faithful, not the other way around. This might be a bit better fluffwise than the picking it back up explanation - it's sensible, but unfortunately doesn't have precedent where it really should (such as how Space Marines have been portrayed as incredibly high-strung about their banners touching the ground.) Plus, in some cases there probably wouldn't be anything left to pick up (pasted by a Plasma Cannon, for instance.)

 

I don't think Durand's mount need be more expensive than a regular Palantine's (I doubt she'd edge out the regular Palatine in this regard, what with her base-price and all), 40 points should be good.

 

On the note of fluff, firstly, Durand's "The logical solution to our problems is to ride dinosaurs." line of thought is probably the best application of logic in the history of the Imperium of Man. XD Still, perhaps have some event which made the potential of Grox a bit more obvious to Durand? Maybe the planet's community, which the OotFB may sometimes recruit from, has grox-racing events (meaning a few Sisters would already have some skill with riding the beasts), or that a few mobs of Orks got mauled by a wandering herd of grox during one of the battles.

 

...Fastabetta XD

[Chengar Qordath]

Looks pretty good, they might be a tad expensive now that they don't have auto-faith, but that's more of a play-testing type of thing.

I did give them a bit of a bump-down in price.

 

Relic is good, but maybe mention something like "Only the most skilled and pious of the Order are entrusted with such relics" to suggest that they have the Relic because they're Supremely Faithful, not the other way around. This might be a bit better fluffwise than the picking it back up explanation - it's sensible, but unfortunately doesn't have precedent where it really should (such as how Space Marines have been portrayed as incredibly high-strung about their banners touching the ground.) Plus, in some cases there probably wouldn't be anything left to pick up (pasted by a Plasma Cannon, for instance.)

Adding in a line to that effect works, and is a bit less hazardous than bringing up one of the logical inconsistencies in the rules.

 

I don't think Durand's mount need be more expensive than a regular Palantine's (I doubt she'd edge out the regular Palatine in this regard, what with her base-price and all), 40 points should be good.

Durand on a Grox is a bit nastier than a regular Palatine, though. ten extra points isn't anything crazy.

 

On the note of fluff, firstly, Durand's "The logical solution to our problems is to ride dinosaurs." line of thought is probably the best application of logic in the history of the Imperium of Man. XD Still, perhaps have some event which made the potential of Grox a bit more obvious to Durand? Maybe the planet's community, which the OotFB may sometimes recruit from, has grox-racing events (meaning a few Sisters would already have some skill with riding the beasts), or that a few mobs of Orks got mauled by a wandering herd of grox during one of the battles.

Riding a dinosaur is always a logical solution to whatever problem you face.

 

Considering their generally nasty temperament, how about having her see a couple Orks run down and mauled by Grox? After all, an agri-world would have plenty of Grox around, and in the middle of a WAAAGH! plenty of them are likely to be running around wild and hungry.

 

...Fastabetta XD

Kult of Speed for the win.