Chaos SC

[*Furyou Miko]

Magistra Aeronwy

Magistra	5	5	3	4	2	4	1	10	3+/3++
Acolyte	3	4	3	3	1	3	2	7	3+/5++
Armour Wraith	2	3	4	4	1	3	1	9	3+/4++

The mysterious figure known as Magistra Aeronwy rarely goes by her true name. A chaos witch of no small power, she is uniquely favoured by Tzeentch with the ability to alter her appearance at will. She has used this ability to deadly purpose on many occasions, though her favourite war story involves her infiltration of an Order Minoris of the Adepta Sororitas; the Order of the Blazing Staff. Aeronwy infiltrated the Order posing as an Initiate who had been much-loved at the Schola by those who went with her. She began her work almost immediately, through whispered conversations in the dark of the night and careful manipulation of discussion during training and indoctrination. A fully initiated Sister of Battle is immune to the corrupting promises of Chaos, but a novice... a novice has no such strength of will, especially once branded with a daemon mark. Within ten years, the Order of the Blazing Staff was no more, the daemontouched Novices having risen to Sister, Sister Superior... and, eventually, to Canoness. The loyalists were killed in a single night of blood and lightning. What remained... were the Sisters of Dusk.
As if an army of fanatically loyal initiates were not enough, Aeronwy proceeded with the next phase of her plan. Gathering the power of her acolytes, she cast a ritual, binding Horrors and Tzintchlings to the dead Sister's armour in a vile mockery of Ahriman's great spell. The result was a powerful force of armoured wraiths with all the power of a Rubrik Marine... and all the quicksilver madness of a Daemon of Change. With her army of followers and golems, the Magistra has carved herself out a little empire, right in the heart of Segmentum Ultra. However, it is only a matter of time before the Ecclesiarchy notice one of their convents going silent and sends agents to investigate...

Magistra Aeronwy is an Elites choice for any Chaos Space Marine army, but she may also be taken as a HQ choice for a Lost and the Damned or Witch Hunter Adversary army.

Magistra Aeronwy {Elites}..........170 points

Infantry

1 Magistra Aeronwy 2 Acolytes 2 Armour Wraiths

Power Armour, Bolter, CCW, Mark of Tzeentch [bonus included above] Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades (Acolytes and Magistra only) Dark Rosarius, Force Weapon (Magistra only)

Guidance (Armour Wraiths only) Psyker (Magistra and Acolytes only) Inferno Ammunition Battle Squads Significant Resources

Chaos Rhino (C:CSM) Immolator (C:WH) Repressor (IA2Up2)

• The unit may include up to eight additional Acolytes for 20 points each
• The unit may include up to eight additional Armour Wraiths for 20 points each
• Any Acolyte may exchange her Bolt Pistol for a Rending Close Combat Weapon for 5 points
• Two Acolytes in every five may exchange their Bolters for a Meltagun for 10 points each, or a Flamer or Eviscerator for 20 points each.
  

Guidance: As long as there is at least one Psyker with the Mark of Tzeentch in the unit, the Armour Wraiths act normally. However, if for any reason there is no suitable model in the unit, the daemons controlling the armour begin to lose coherency and focus. To represent this, they gain the Slow and Purposeful and Rage special rules. However, they ignore vehicles for purposes of the Rage rule.
Psyker:Magistra Aeronwy must chose two of the following Psyker powers: Doombolt, Warptime, Wind of Chaos, Gift of Chaos, Bolt of Change. This choice is made at the start of the battle. An Acolyte must choose one of the following Psyker powers: Bolt of Change, Warptime, Illusion.

Illusion:

The Acolyte bends and twists the minds of her enemies, concealing her allies from view. Any unit wishing to fire upon the squad must first pass a Ballistic Skill check on 2d6, dropping the lowest die. If there is a mix of ballistic skills in the unit, use the model with the highest Leadership's BS.

Inferno Ammunition: Between Aeronwy and her Acolytes, there is more than enough Warp energy floating around to ensorcel the entire unit's weapons. All Bolter and Template weapons fielded by the unit become AP 3.
Battle Squads: If Magistra Aeronwy is in the army, up to five Sisterhood of Dusk Battle Squads may be included for 60 points each. These squads do not take up space within the Force Organisation chart. A Battle Squad consists of one Acolyte and two Armour Wraiths, and may take any options available to Magistra Aeronwy's unit with the following exception;

• The unit may include up to three additional Acolytes for 20 points each
  • One in every two Acolytes may take a Meltagun for +10 points, or a Flamer or Eviscerator for +20 points
    

  [*]The unit may include up to fifteen additional Armour Wraiths for 20 points each
  

Significant Resources: If the unit numbers more than nine models, it may take multiple transports to a maximum transport capacity of twenty four. The squad may enter multiple transports, however all transports carrying members of the same squad must remain within Squadron Coherency.

Developer's Notes:
Feel no Pain? - I made Illusion grant FnP rather than a Cover Save because otherwise it would be almost pointless - the unit has a plethora of armour and invulnerable saves already, and the other option would be to improve their Invulnerable again... they already have the Mark of Tzeentch. Using FnP means that the Illusion acts as an additional layer of defence - the other alternative would be to force Night Fighting, but that seems unneccesarily complex for an already rules-heavy unit.

Flamers at 20 points?! - Their Meltaguns are bog standard, meaning the normal 10 points cost is fine, but Flamers recieve a massive boost from the Inferno Ammunition special rule, becoming Marine-slaughtering beasts. It had to cost its value.

Witch Hunters? - The Magistra has access to the Order of the Blazing Staff's armouries, including their Immolators. However, the updated Immolator from Codex: Sisters of Battle has the Shield of Faith, a decidedly UnChaos ability. Since as far as I know there's no way to put a Mark of Tzeentch on a vehicle, the older rules fit better.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Pretty fun looking unit, brings some more of the fun ol' treachery and corruption into the Chaos 'dex. Plus, unique units are too rarely seen. A couple of points -

 

Wraiths: they currently feel pretty much exactly like Rubrics - perhaps alter their stats to reflect their human/daemonic heritage? T4 should probably stay to represent the tough-golemy-ness, but maybe WS2/BS3/S3/I3 to match them with the Pink Horror Statline (although a drop in BS would necessitate a drop in price, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.)

 

Guidance: The Rage USR doesn't actually force a unit to Assault an enemy unit, and it still allows for shooting, so the negative effects on unguided wraiths could be well represented with just Slow & Purposeful + Rage, maybe with a byline about them ignoring vehicles for the purpose of Rage. Maybe specify any Psykers must also bear the Mark of Tzeentch, to prevent any nasty Nurgle Sorcerers from leading the unit around?

 

Illusion: FnP does feel a bit weird since typically a target being hard to hit is represented through a cover save, but I get what you're going for with not giving 'em a cover save. There might be a better way to represent it, though - maybe an amped up version of the Changeling's illusion-type rule from the Daemons 'dex, or the Blood Angels' Shackle Soul?

 

Combat Squads: unsure about this one. While it's mechanically sound, it grants the unit a huge amount of tactical/deployment flexibility, which doesn't seem to really match up with theming of the unit (Tzeentchian trickery notwithstanding; these folks are more about sorcery/rubrics.) It feels kinda out of place. Instead, maybe have a secondary unit entry of an Acolyte and several Wraiths which can only be purchased if Magistra's unit is included in the force, so multiple units may still be included?

 

---

 

Unrelated to the rules themselves, perhaps try moving the options list outside of the infobox? Takes much less space;

 

Magistra Aeronwy {Elites}..........170 points

• Infantry
  

• 1 Magistra Aeronwy
  
• 2 Acolytes
  
• 2 Armour Wraiths
  

• Power Armour, Bolter, CCW, Mark of Tzeentch [bonus included above]
  
• Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades (Acolytes and Magistra only)
  
• Dark Rosarius, Force Weapon (Magistra only)
  

• Guidance (Armour Wraiths only)
  
• Psyker (Magistra and Acolytes only)
  
• Inferno Ammunition
  
• Combat Squads
  

• Chaos Rhino
  
• Immolator
  
• Repressor
  
• If the unit numbers more than nine models, it may take multiple transports to a maximum transport capacity of twenty four.
  

Options:

• The unit may include up to eight additional Acolytes for 20 points each
  
• The unit may include up to eight additional Armour Wraiths for 24 points each
  
• Any Acolyte may exchange her Bolt Pistol for a Rending Close Combat Weapon for 5 points
  
• Two Acolytes in every five may exchange their Bolters for a Meltagun for 10 points each, or a Flamer or Eviscerator for 20 points each.
  

[Chengar Qordath]

Another possibility for the Illusion power would be something like the Culexus' Etherium rule.

 

Like the unit; has a nice amount of uniqueness and flavor to it.

[*Furyou Miko]

Taken into account your advice - you're right, the Horror's WS/BS does make more sense. I was considering dropping the S by 1 as well because they've got less leverage, (Sororitas armour being smaller than Marine armour), but the difference isn't that big, and in any case they can use Sarissas rather than Astartes Combat Knives.

 

>> I don't have access to those books at the moment, but I'll try and remember to look them up when I go to the store later (Why is it that GW has 'stores', where everyone else has 'shops'? ><).

 

How much of a point drop do you think that's worth? The Acolytes are pretty combatty with their three attacks (four on the charge) and Rending potential, but the unit as a whole has a fairly poor WS, especially if I give the Wraiths WS2.

 

I'm not sure about the points anyway - Acolytes have standard VSS stat lines, which used to be statted at 25 odd points each, but they're cheaper now... but then there's the psyker abilities as well.

 

At the same time, I don't want to make the unit prohibitously expensive. I probably spelled that wrong. >>

 

Points costs aside, i've also replaced Combat Squads with Battle Squads. Tell me what you think? (At the moment there's no reason to take them over Thousand Son squads, which needs changing).

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

In the GK 'dex, a henchman equipped with Power Armour/Hot-shot Lasgun costs 19 points. Since those are per-model upgrades rather than unit defaults, a relatively small increase (if any) would be applied to make 'em Armour Wraiths. 20pts, maybe. Keep in mind when pricing that 4+ Cover is incredibly common - in the majority of situations, Inferno Bolters don't so much as ignore 3+ saves as they do reduce them to a 4+.

 

The gist of the Changeling's special rule is that he can force one enemy unit within 24" of him that's trying to shoot to take a leadership test. If they fail, they shoot whoever the Changeling tells them to. Shackle Soul forces an enemy unit within 12" to take a leadership test each time it tries to move/shoot/assault, if failed, they can't do that action. Etherium forces any enemy unit trying to shoot the Culexus to pass a leadership test on 3d6, or be unable to shoot him (they can choose to shoot another unit, and vehicles are also affected, count as leadership 10). Etherium would probably be the best model to base Illusion off've.

 

Maybe have Battle Squads be in a different FOC? (Or outside the FOC with a 0-5 limit or somesuch.) They'd be a bit cheaper than Thousand Sons, but not scoring, leaving room for both in the army.

[*Furyou Miko]

>> How many points is 'Scoring' worth?

 

It never did make sense that unguided Thousand Sons could hold objectives. Surely they aren't smart enough?

 

I've swapped Battle Squads out of the FoC in either case, making them pseudo-Elites, I guess? Although I know I'd personally balk at a pseudo-elite that cost 20 points each with WS2/BS3... are there any options like that in other codices?

 

Of the Illusions, I like the Changeling's the best, but that's kind of his Deal, so... the etherium is probably best, but I don't want to just lift it straight from there...

 

How about an Initiative check, rather than a Leadership check? 2d6 drop lowest?

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Since the Wraiths are accompanied by a decently skilled Sorcerer, they don't seem that jarring in Elites (at least in my view).

 

Apparently the one thing Thousand Sons use the Rubric Marines for outside of battle is to guard things, so I guess they can be 'programmed' to protect an area? That'd be a neat rule for Rubrics, select an objective before the battle, and if they're un-accompanied they'll walk over to it, although that'd probably be too complicated of a mechanic to include for every Rubric unit in a full-on chaos 'dex.

 

A statistics check sounds good, but maybe make it a Ballistic Skill check instead? That'd seem kinda fitting.

 

Not sure if scoring has a proper value per se, it's mainly an encouragement to include more of the weaker units in your army. Maybe it should, though - it kinda falls apart with some FoC swaps, like when Purifiers are put in Troops.

[*Furyou Miko]

Cool. Sorted the Illusion power - also made a note of whose Ld to use in mixed squads (E.G. Scout squads) - use the model with the highest Ld's ballistic skill (So a Scout squad with their sergeant will test against BS4, for example, or a Battle Sister squad with a Canoness will test on BS 5). Since Ballistic Skill is a lot more likely to vary within a squad (Especially a C:SM squad) than Initiative.

 

Also moved the clumsy multiple transports option to a dedicated Special Rule and explained how to handle putting half a squad in one transport and half of it in another (e.g. 12-woman squad in two Immolators), based off the IA9 (think its 9?) rules for transporting Sentinels in Valkyries.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Dunno about the splitting into transport rules, feels a bit messy. The Sentinels-in-Valkyries instance of those rules is probably because the writers had no other choice when it came to loading 'em in a transport. Just having Battle Squads in other transports would have the same sorta feel. To keep a big Magistra mob viable, maybe just give her unit the ability to Deep Strike?