The Aphotican Oath - A Word Bearer Warband (Update: Aug 24)

[TyrMadclaw]

Wings > Jump pack for the Lord, same ability to fly around the board, but wings allows him to hide in a Rhino.

 

I know, but... jetpacks are cool... /whining voice.

 

 

Wings > Jump pack for the Lord, same ability to fly around the board, but wings allows him to hide in a Rhino.

 

Indeed, and you get 2 sets in the Possessed box. Its the best way to fly-if you're chaos.

 

But jetpacks are cooooooooooooooool...

 

 

Dude, jetpacks are cool! But a hover board would be RT-Era cool. Just sayin'.

[Brother Nihm]

a few pictures, and a lot of text.

I need my glasses, for I can see no pictures!

[Olis]

a few pictures, and a lot of text.

I need my glasses, for I can see no pictures!

 

Don't worry, I have mine on. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nope. Still no pics. :)

[MagicMan]

So have you thought much about campaign rules and such?

 

 

I could PM you the ones i came up with for me and my friends, using the Planetary Empires hexagonal campaign map set. Could give you a few ideas. Of course it might be better to concentrate on getting your army going first... :)

[Doghouse]

Interesting stuff! Definitely something that is right up my street. ;)

 

I think that models with a bit of though andt back story are so much more interesting than the bog standard stuff and I really like the emphasis on them being war bands as well.

 

I'm a big fan of Word Bearers and have found that spraying them black, then going over this with a fifty fifty mix of black and scab red before painting them in scab red is my preferred technique for painting them. It gives them a deep red that just screams evil to me. Glad to hear that you are mixing in the FW parts as well, it's always something that appeals to the background nut in me.

 

Best of luck with the army mate, like a lot of people on here I'll be following with interest.

 

As for wings? Go with the jump pack, wings are more practical in game terms but you can't make whooshing noises as you move the model across the board.

 

When in doubt always follow the rule of cool! ;)

 

Winning army formats are all well and good but at the end of the day a fluffy army is much more of a challenge to game with and make victory all the more sweeter.

[AlexCrute]

My instinct here is to both nod and say "Totally", while also shaking my head and saying "But... but no..."

 

My issue runs thusly. I didn't want to make it a mega "now or never" campaign - it was supposed to be just one of many countless similar operations all taking place in the Dark Millennium. Like, it wasn't whole Chapters answering the call, just 50-150 from every force. That said, it's so Marine-heavy, and the scope is so large, that it would be a bit of a major deal in some ways, at least on the subsector level. So yeah, it'll be more "critical" when things start falling into place.

 

Similarly, I wanted my guys to be pretty much standard, frontline Word Bearers - a look into the trenches, if you will. They're not the charismatic preachers leading kersquillions of dudes, they're the rugged, ragged edge, with a few thousand crew and cultists.

 

Right, so it's not the Fourth War for Armageddon. Even so, a Word Bearer is not a Word Bearer without ambition. This may not be a galactic-balance-of-power-altering engagement, but nonetheless a certain gravitas is something of a prerequisite for Space Marine involvement.

 

Is it weird that I'm more excited about your hobby than I am about my own right now? I should paint my own damn doods.

[Talthus]

I dunno if you've seen these guys, but they are worth checking out for inspiration for your Fallen:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=230122

 

Not mine sadly. Looking forward to more!

[Terminatorinhell]

The A-D-B making a hobby log, this will be watched incredibly closely and subscribed to!

[popkhorne]

wooo adb. cant wait to see the models,

 

 

oh and i'm disappointed in you for not choosing night lords...you used to be cool.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

wooo adb. cant wait to see the models,

 

 

oh and i'm disappointed in you for not choosing night lords...you used to be cool.

 

His homeboy is playing Night Lords in the campaign already. No need to double-up. :D

[A D-B]

I dunno if you've seen these guys, but they are worth checking out for inspiration for your Fallen:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=230122

 

Not mine sadly. Looking forward to more!

 

Smuh... abuh... So beautiful...

[A D-B]

So have you thought much about campaign rules and such?

 

 

I could PM you the ones i came up with for me and my friends, using the Planetary Empires hexagonal campaign map set. Could give you a few ideas. Of course it might be better to concentrate on getting your army going first... :P

 

There's been a small change, in that now I'll be running it with Andy, and we're working on minor benefits for each major victory, as we go planet-by-planet, and the campaign evolves. Suggestions are always welcome, natch.

[A D-B]

Katie lost her uber-close-up lens at the last Games Day (I also lost one of my many hats), so while I work out a way to get some photos of my first Word Bearer, here are the players, with photos I hurriedly stole off their Facebook pages:

 

The Odrysian Reclamation

 

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2665/5799993798_5e2c63757e.jpg

This is Andy. He'll either be playing Grey Knights, or Eldar. He's not sure yet.

He wins a lot of Warhammer Fantasy tournaments, and makes the most skin-achingly unfluffy army lists on Earth in the name of victory, but he's decided to play nicely this time. He likes the gym, and thinks the capacity to injure another human being is somehow a worthwhile thing to train for. At night, he spends his time worrying about his carbohydrate intake. During the day, he works at Black Library as the Marketing Overlord.

 

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5799993972_f76f8174c6.jpg

This is Handsome Ben. He'll be playing the Imperial Guard. Handsome Ben has actually quit LARP, but I'm using this photo because it's adorable, and I like how angry he looks. Ben spends his days working in a video game store, and his nights burying the bodies of his many foes. I think LARP swords are rubber or something, so I don't know if he actually kills anyone, but I like that he makes an effort to try.

 

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5037/5799994508_8598a7c7f1.jpg

This is Sarah. She'll be playing the Silver Skulls. She spends most of her time being married to Handsome Ben, and doing acceptable DPS on her charming Blood Elf Paladin. She's a Black Library author by night, and works in a hospital by day. Between the day and the night (in that magic hour between reality and unreality) she fights crime and raises a ginger-haired spawn called Jamie.

 

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2216/5799995014_17c066f33c.jpg

This is Emma, in the black top (and in the distance), and she'll be playing Eldar. In real life, she does something icky with X-rays, either giving people cancer or seeing if they already have it - I can't remember which. She is one of the few gang members with a real job, and like all gamer girls, she plays (guess what?) a Blood Elf Paladin.

 

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5061/5799459039_02014dc55d.jpg

This is Steve, who'll be playing the Dark Angels. In addition to being Irish, he also spends all of his time and money on video games, like any self-respecting guy in his 20s. Once, over Skype, I spent a while listening to him complaining about trying to assemble a Whirlwind. If anyone drops out of the campaign, I suspect it'll be him first. Interestingly, that photo isn't actually blurred - Stephen projects a displacement field wherever he goes, as a means to confuse nearby predators. Occasionally, we call Steve "The Admiral". No one remembers why.

 

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5304/5799442397_e79dae489e.jpg

This is Katie. She'll be playing the Shadow Wolves, as well as marrying me in the summer. I have no idea why this photo has a black border around it, but I'm too lazy to chop it off. Katie is tiny, Irish, and is generally considered to be more pixie than human. Because she's a girl, her WarCraft character is a Blood Elf Paladin. She spends her days as a classroom assistant in a school for small, loud children, and spends her nights stealing all of the goddamn blanket.

 

 

The Bitter Tide

 

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3152/5799993554_cc9323f4d5.jpg

This is John. He'll be playing a warband of Night Lords and their various allies. He works in GW in the licensing department, doing... whatever it is he does. It's all a bit secretive. Either way, John is totally having a baby later this year, which is pretty terrifying. I heard kids cost money and like to eat minis. That would make them anathema to the whole campaign. We'll be watching this closely. Developments as they come in.

 

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3408/5799993358_640f015a25.jpg

This is Rachel, or more often, RayeRaye, who'll also be playing Night Lords (and as a pure NL force, I believe). She spends a lot of her time in the same way as Katie (i.e. having freckles, being a redhead), but also works in Black Library as Princess of Making E-Books. That may not be her official title, but it's close enough. RayeRaye is probably going to proxy with Codex: Space Marines, which means the rest of us actually have high hopes that she'll be the one to win things for the Red Team.

 

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5320/5799994672_850dee4b59.jpg

This is me, about four hours after I found out I was a New York Times Bestseller with The First Heretic, and wondering what to spend all the money on. I'll be playing Word Bearers, perhaps with some associated allies. I spend my nights missing all my novel deadlines. I spend my days doing exactly the same thing.

 

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5158/5799994360_0af454254c.jpg

This is Scottish Ben. He'll be playing a primarily Nurgle-aligned warband. In addition to being Scottish, Ben is also a drummer, which is pretty annoying - you can hear him banging his knuckles on the desk over Skype, when he should be paying attention to more important things, like his Orc Warrior's damage output. Ben's going to be a writer for BL in the near future, by the way. Keep your eyes peeled. I have no idea who the scary guy with green teeth is, but I hope he never touches me. I'm worried that he touched Ben.

 

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3370/5799994830_1486d4887e.jpg

This is Sander, who'll be playing an Iron Warriors warband. He's Dutch, which isn't really his fault, but for some reason he's doing the hand-on-chin thoughtful pose seriously, which I only did for a joke. That's pretty lame. Sander spends his days whining about how he hates his school. He spends his nights whining about how he hates his school, while also being my arena partner in WarCraft.

 

And thus, the battle lines were drawn.

 

Go, Red Team.

[Dorns Padawan]

Made me laugh with you character description of everyone! I remember Andy from BL Live this year, your right - he is a beefy mofo haha!!! You gonna do a simmilar post when everyone gets there armys together? Do you intend on fleshing out some short story fluff along the way for your campaign in between keeping to you actual deadlines for BL ;) ? Really liking this so far - sounds like you guys are having great fun with this!!!

[Tyrannicide]

Only an author could pull off such characterful descriptions of a gaming group. ;) That was awesome, A D-B.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

I read all those descriptions in Dan Aykroyd's SGT Joe Friday from Dragnet's voice. ^_^

[Shuggnuggath]

Wow, this sounds like an awesome campaign. I bet you are going to curse your dread when he layzors your own tanks ;-)

[subtlebrush]

I bet you are going to curse your dread when he layzors your own tanks ;-)

 

 

Or laugh insanely then pass it off as "I knew it would do that" haha

[Marmande]

Smuh... abuh... So beautiful...

 

To reduce someone like you to incomprehensible gibberish, they must be pretty good. :woot:

[MagicMan]

Suggestions are always welcome, natch.

 

 

 

Well for the campaign i run for my buddies, you earn a number of strategem points depending on how you fare on the campaign map.

 

2 Points for a victory, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. You can spend 3 of these these points to give you a roll on the strategem table which can either affect your campaign map abilities, or your battlemap abilities.

 

 

I wish they had spoilers, but the table goes something like this. You roll a dice, and consult the chart. Simples!

 

 

 

Roll a dice to determine chart type, roll a dice to determine strategem.

 

 

1-2 Advanced Technology Table

1 Energy Field

All your units receive a 5+ cover save during the enemy’s first Shooting phase.

2 Special Ammunition All the units in your army have the Tank Hunter Universal special rule.

3 Special Combat Weapons

All the units in your army have the Preferred Enemy (all enemy units) special rule.

4 Sensor Array

Nominate a point anywhere on the table at the start of each of your Shooting phases. All attacks made on a target within 6” of this point count their Ballistic Skill as being one point higher than normal.

5 Energy Shield Relay

At the start of the battle nominate a point anywhere in your deployment zone. All friendly models within 12” of this point increase their invulnerable saves by +1. If they don’t have such a save, then they receive an invulnerable save of 6+.

6 Roll on the Overrun table.

 

3-4 Special Operations Table

1 Ambush

You will set up second, and will Seize the Initiative on a roll of 4 or more.

2 Home Ground

All units in your army have the ‘Move through cover’ Universal Rule.

 

3 Sewer Rats

Place 2 + D3 markers to represent sewer entrances. Any infantry unit held in reserves may enter the table within 2’’ of any sewer entrance from turn 2 onwards. The unit counts as disembarking from a stationary vehicle.

4 Booby Trap

Roll a D6 at the start of each of your turns. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the turn number, one enemy vehicle of your choice takes a penetrating hit.

5 Hologram

You will always set up first. As you do so, secretly write down three units. After deployment is complete (including Infiltrators and Scouts) deployment, you may redeploy the units you wrote down to anywhere in your deployment area, or to reserve.

6 Roll on the Overrun table.

 

 

 

 

5-6 Overwhelming Force Table

1 Battle Fate

Once during the game you may change the roll of a single D6 rolled by either player, from the score rolled to the score of your choice. The dice may not be re-rolled – the number you choose must be used.

2 Forced March

After deployment (including Infiltrators and Scouts), all units other than Infiltrators or Scouts may move D6”.

3 Hold At All Costs

All units in your army have the ‘Stubborn’ Universal Rule.

4 Capture And Secure

At the start of the battle nominate a point anywhere on the table. All of your units that are within 6’’ of this point have the Fearless and Counter Attack Universal rules.

5 Hatred

At the start of the battle you can decide whether all the units in your army, or all the units in the enemy army, or all of the units in both armies, have the Rage and Furious Charge universal special rules. You must choose one of the three options.

6 Roll on the Overrun table.

 

‘’We’ve Been Overrun!’’ Table

1 With great risks come great rewards, sometimes…

Your opponent may make a roll on the Overrun table. You gain no stratagem for this battle.

2 Strafing Run

At any point in the battle you may call down D3 strafing runs from supporting air forces. The strafing run counts as a twin linked assault cannon, and may be fired at any unit, using vehicles rear armour for penetration rolls.

3 Preliminary Bombardment

After deployment but before the game begins, place D3+1 Large Blast templates anywhere on the battlefield, although they must be within 12 inches of each other. The Bombardment counts as an Ordnance weapon with unlimited range, and uses the following profile: Strength 5, AP 5.

 

4 Vortex Grenade

Secretly record which of your independent characters has the vortex grenade. They may throw the grenade instead of shooting. The grenade counts as an Ordnance weapon with a range of 6” and a 3” blast marker. Any models and removable terrain features under the final position of the template are destroyed, with no saves of any kind allowed. At the start of each player turn the vortex tears through the fabric of reality and reappears 2D6” away in a random direction. If you roll a double for the distance the vortex disappears.

5 Virus Bomb

After deployment but before the first turn, nominate a point anywhere on the table. All enemy units within 12” of this point suffer a number of wounds equal to 2D6 minus the unit’s Toughness value, with no armour or cover saves allowed. Vehicle units are not affected.

6 Divine Intervention

Prepare 250 points of elite troops (Choices must be made from the Elites Slot only) to support you in the battle. They do not count towards your army’s points or force organisation slots. They start in reserve and may deep strike onto the battlefield from turn 3 onwards. Alternatively, choose an advantage of your choice from the Overrun table.

 

 

 

Campaign Map Strategem Table

1 Path Finders

Add +1 to any dice roll made by any of your armies trying to move sectors this campaign turn.

2 Sabotage

Prevent an enemy army of your choice from moving this campaign turn.

3 Orbital Scans

You may dictate the player order for the next D3 turns.

 

4 ‘A word in your ear, sir…’

Select an enemy army of your choice, and make all their campaign moves for them, for this turn. Dice rolls to move apply as normal. You may force the enemy army to engage yourself or another player’s sector/armies.

5 Virus Bomb

D3 + 1 connected Sectors of your choice become neutral territory. You may not choose a sector controlled by an army counter, you may not choose an opponent’s starting base, and you may not choose a sector containing a Manufactory/City/Shrine/Hive.

6 Space Port

Move one of your army counters to any unoccupied position on the Campaign Map on a 2+. You may not move to a sector containing a Manufactory/City/Shrine/Hive. If you roll a 1, the army is lost, and returns to your starting base.

 

 

The campaign map table is seperate, and you just choose to roll on that one. It adds a lot of diversity to the games, plus its kinda random, so you won't always be taking a virus bomb to the fight with you.

 

 

Man thats a wall of text, lol.

[Ravendove]

This thread needs more pictures of miniatures.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

This thread needs more pictures of miniatures.

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/Zeonfiend/ts.jpg

 

:D

[Yogi]

Nice write up.

 

Also I never knew Rayeraye did the ebooks. That's pretty cool.

[Legio Draconis]

Khestra thats was wile funny.

[Pyroriffic]

The Red Team will be GOIN' DAAAAARN.