The Legion of the Damned for Epic Armageddon

[Brother Tyler]

Back in 2007, Specialist Games had a contest in which players were challenged to submit an army list for Epic Armageddon. I submitted a version of the following list for the Legion of the Damned (I didn't win :sweat: ). I'm looking to make updates before I finalize an article in the Librarium.

Of all the legends of the Imperium, one of the strangest is that of the Legion of the Damned. The Inquisitors of Terra have amassed dozens of reports describing the inexplicable manifestation of these other-worldly warriors upon battlefields where the warriors of Mankind battle without hope against impossible odds. The Legion comes unannounced and unlooked for. Their aspect is frightening and bizarre, a ghostly apparition from some bygone era or a time yet to come.

They appear in the guise of the Emperor’s finest, the Space Marines, like yet unlike the proud Chapters that guard Humanity. Their armour is black as midnight and marked with symbols of death and damnation; skulls grin cheerlessly from helm and boltgun and bones twist amidst the flames of purgatory.

Wreathed in spectral fury they descend upon the foes of Mankind, battling them without warcry or battleshout until the enemy is scattered and the day is saved. Equally mysteriously they vanish again once victory is won, disappearing back to whatever hellish realm they came from. Are they the Emperor’s will made manifest, or perhaps some dire creation of Chaos? None can say.

To: ++Inquisition Clearance Insufficient++

From: ++Inquisition Clearance Insufficient++

Date: 999.M41

Subject: Adeptus Astartes, ++Inquisition Clearance Insufficient++ Chapter

Thought for the day: Knowledge is power. Guard it well.

Revered Lord,

Sightings of the ++Inquisition Clearance Insufficient++ during the defence of Armageddon continue to be reported from battlefields dispersed across the planet, and each coincides with a reported sighting of the ship known as the “Black Avenger”.

Maximum effort has been made to either suppress these reports or to correct perceptions as to which Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes was observed in action, with most efforts succeeding, often through the subsequent loss of the witnesses in combat. Though noted by the Armageddon High Command as being less zealous than her predecessor, Canoness Carmina of the Adepta Sororitas Order of the Argent Shroud unknowingly assisted us in our efforts when she purged the ranks of her order and the civilian witnesses present at one sighting in the Fire Wastes.

I remain,

Your obedient servant

LEGION OF THE DAMNED STRIKE FORCE ARMY LIST

A Legion of the Damned strike force may be taken as an allied force in any army representing a force of the Imperium (Space Marines, Imperial Guard, etc.). The Legion of the Damned strike force may consist of 1 formation for every full 1,000 points in the army. A Tactical unit must be the first formation taken in the Legion of the Damned force.

When the Legion of the Damned strike force deploys on the tabletop, the strategy rating of the army it joins improves to 5 (unless it was already 5 or better). All Legion of the Damned formations have an initiative rating of 1+. The “They Shall Know No Fear” rule applies to all Legion of the Damned formations (see 5.1.1).

LEGION OF THE DAMNED SPECIAL RULES

All Legion of the Damned formations benefit from the following special rules: Fearless, Invulnerable Save, Teleport, Terrifying.

Terrifying

Enemy units involved in assault against Legion of the Damned units subtract –1 from the result roll (as long as they survive the combat of course!)

Strike Force

A Legion of the Damned force may consist of up to 1 Battle Barge and up to twenty of the following units: Tactical, Dreadnought. All Legion of the Damned units are held in Reserve and the entire force will arrive on a turn decided by rolling a D6:

Strike Force D6

D6 roll

4+

3+

2+

All units deploy using the Teleport rule, starting with the Tactical unit that includes Sergeant Centurius. Other units must arrive within 12 cm of the Tactical unit that includes Sergeant Centurius.

LEGION OF THE DAMNED DETACHMENTS

Battle Barge	One Battle Barge	None	350 points
Tactical	Four Tactical units	Dreadnought, Sergeant Centurius	300 points

LEGION OF THE DAMNED UPGRADES

Dreadnought	Add one Dreadnought. A Legion of the Damned force may include only one Dreadnought.	75 points
Sergeant Centurius	Add Sergeant Centurius to one Legion of the Damned Tactical unit in the formation. One Legion of the Damned Tactical unit must include this upgrade, and there may be only one Sergeant Centurius in the Legion of the Damned force.	100 points

SERGEANT CENTURIUS

Sergeant Centurius counts as a Space Marine Commander. He has the Commander special ability and is equipped with the Animus Malorum.

Animus Malorum

If the Tactical unit that Sergeant Centurius is in shoots at an enemy infantry formation and succeeds in destroying at least one unit within 12 cm If the attack succeeds, all Blast markers on any one Legion of the Damned unit may be removed.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Looks pretty good, like how you handled the Animus Malorum on Epic scale. I don't know enough about Epic to really comment on balance and such, though.

 

Also, there's been occasional mention of LotD Terminators (in this old Datasheet, not sure about anywhere else), might be worth including?

[Brother Tyler]

The version I submitted actually included Terminators, but I've gone back to the 1st and old 2nd edition roots for this (with one small tidbit from late 2nd/3rd edition).

 

The early 2nd edition rules limited the Legion of the Damned to "Tactical" squads, with the option to upgrade one Sergeant to Centurius for free, though the late 2nd edition rules we saw a number of changes, including the option to take a Commander, a Command Squad, and Dreadnoughts. Early 3rd edition went back to just the squad (no Centurius this time), but 3rd edition went back to the expanded list. 4th edition saw the Apocalypse formation and the ability to take a Captain and Terminator squads. 5th edition, meanwhile, has gone back to just the squad.

 

If you go way back to Rogue Trader, the Legion of the Damned had no officers, no Terminators, etc. They had one ship, the Absolute (not given in rules, but described in an obscure bit of fluff).

 

The only concession I've made to the expanded list is to add the option to take a Dreadnought. If I go totally hard-core and limit the army list by a strict reading of the (old) fluff, the Dreadnought will be removed. This will put the Legion of the Damned in line with the current rules (which only allows for the "Tactical" squads. I'll leave Centurius because he's so cool.

 

Now if GW changes the rules/background of the Legion of the Damned and allows for a broader range of units, I'll adjust this accordingly.

 

Note: Look for my BFG rules for the Legion's ship soon (like some time today).

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Ohhhh, gotcha. Personally, if I were writing these, I'd leave the Terminators in as an optional upgrade; letting the player choose whether or not they go by the newer or older fluff.

[Vaaish]

Allowing the LOTD to be used as allies and then adjusting the SR to 5 regardless of the army they joined is very very bad. Armies like Marines live on their ability to win the DR rolls so they can implement their plans in a timely manner, what your rule does is negate this entirely for the small sum of 400 points. For example, IG and Skitarii both have SR2 while titans have SR3. Taking one 400 point formation now gives all three of those forces SR5 which greatly increases their odds of winning the roll.

 

I would eliminate this entirely since a LOTD force would appear without call in the most dire circumstances when the battle seems lost. That means they aren't actively planning the strategy or are even part of the force per se. If you really want to have them affect the SR, let them win the SR automatically on the turn they arrive, however I would also caution against that as it's an unnecessary special rule.

 

Second, what are the stats for the units?

 

Last, the rules for the sergeant is confusing since you have to take him and there can only be one upgraded to him. Instead make a separate detachment as core that includes him and then put the normal detachment as support.

[Brother Tyler]

D'oh! I thought I'd replied in the discussion, but I evidently did not.

 

I concur on the SR assessment. I'll remove it. If it's retained, it will be changed so that the side with the LotD wins SR automatically on the turn after the LotD arrive only if the LotD remain on the battlefield. This would represent the forces of the Imperium rallying with the sudden appearance of the strange Space Marines. That's a bit complicated, though, so it will only be included if I can make it simple and practical.

 

The stats for the units are the normal Space Marine stats. They simply benefit from the special rules included in this set of rules. I'll have to clarify that. The rules for Space Marines in Epic Armageddon can be seen here (you'll have to scroll down a bit - look for page 15 of the file/page 72 in the rulebook).

 

I need to update the Strike Force rule so that the LotD don't appear on Turn 1.

 

Centurius and the Battle Barge are going to be optional. This will allow for smaller engagements. Centurius will be retained as an upgrade, however, in line with the other Epic army lists (notably the White Scars).

 

Yes, I think I'll add the other types of units with caveats identifying which lore players might adhere to in using them.

[Octavulg]

Why include the Battle Barge, out of curiosity? Space Marines already have them (though they're widely perceived as poor choices), and pretty much every other Imperial force can get Lunars or Emperors, both of which are probably superior. It would seem a choice that would be unlikely to be taken (especially since it'll use up a spot that could be spent adding more Tacticals).

 

I'd definitely have their appearance be possible in Turn 1, likely in Turn 2, and certain in Turn 3. Toys you never get to play with aren't any fun (says the man with a million unpainted miniatures :mellow:).

 

I'd omit the unit limit of twenty. If someone really wants to play a 6000 point game and bring 6 detachments of LotD, why should we stop them?

 

Considering the short range of the Animus Malorum, I'd have it remove a Blast Marker (or two) after a successful assault.

[Brother Tyler]

The initial version was intended to force certain fluff restrictions.

 

I think you're right on the battle-barge, however - it's unnecessary.

 

The limit of 20 units is based on the fact that only around 200 Fire Hawks survived to become the Legion of the Damned. Based on that, there shouldn't be any more than 200 Legion of the Damned models on the table.

 

The Animus Malorum limit is based on an adaptation of the rules from late 2nd edition for Centurius. I see where you're going, though, and the principle might be used to alter the current version of the rules in a certain way (because I agree that the current rules are a bit limiting). So a modification might be to allow all Blast markers from any one Legion of the Damned unit within 12 cm to be removed. This still limits the benefit to one Legion of the Damned unit, but extends the benefit to any in proximity to Centurius.

[Octavulg]

Twenty units of LotD would be only 100. <_< Less, if you based them right (at 3 per base, you could have 66 units!).

 

Regarding the Animus Malorum, I'm not thinking of the limited range of the effect, I'm just thinking of the limited range of the weapon itself (in 2e). Anything with a range less than about 24" is usually better off as an Assault effect (whether Firefight or whatever). "Remove all Blast Markers" feels really powerful, though I suspect it'll never be more than two or three.

 

Also, we should probably stop using the term unit and formation interchangably. :P :lol:

[Brother Tyler]

Hey, you're right. I must have been confusing my WH40K Tactical squads with my Epic Tactical squads when I originally wrote the rules. ;) The limit of twenty formations will be increased to forty.

 

As for the Animus Malorum, it's not a weapon. Yes, it has a weapon-like effect, but it's not a weapon. In regular WH40K, the 2nd edition rules for the Animus Malorum allowed it to attack one enemy model within 12", potentially insta-killing the model and applying its wounds to the Legionnaires. Re-reading my original version of the rules, my wording sucked (I don't know what happened to my punctuation and grammar). I simplified things a bit from how the A.M. worked in WH40K, however. The WH40K version had two effects. The first was insta-killing an enemy model (on a successful psychic test) and the second was applying the enemy model's wounds to Legion of the Damned models. I streamlined this, removing the negative effect on the enemy (no insta-kill) and just automatically "giving lifeforce" to a Legion of the Damned unit (by removing any Blast Markers on it). This simplification is an adaptation to the differences in the Epic rules, preventing these rules from introducing any wonky new mechanism. Looking at the range, however, I agree that it needs to be extended. The WH40K 12" range converts to 15 cm in Epic (matching a bolt pistol's range). To be fair, perhaps the effect should simply be to remove up to two Blast Markers.

 

I had a long debate about the relative merits of allowing a Turn 1 appearance over having an automatic appearance later in the game, but decided that the simplest approach is to just go back to a chance for a Turn 1 appearance (you win ;) ).

 

Summary of changes to be made:

• Remove battle-barge
  
• Increase from twenty to forty formations ;)
  
• Increase Animus Malorum effect range to 15 cm
  
• Remove the Strategy Rating effect
  
• Use arrival table as currently shown in post 1 (Turn 1)
  
• Increase range of units available, with an explanation of different versions of the Legion of the Damned through game edition history. Terminators only appear on the Apocalypse datasheet, but 3rd edition also allowed for a Commander and a Command Squad.
  

Pending:

• Centurius as a separate entry (despite my previous comment, I'm still considering Vaaish's recommendation for just making Centurius a separate unit entry. This is more an issue of me taking the time to write out how it would work rather than a consideration for the merits (since it is a sound recommendation).
  
• Number of Blast Markers that may be removed if the Animus Malorum is used successfully.
  

[Octavulg]

As for the Animus Malorum, it's not a weapon. Yes, it has a weapon-like effect, but it's not a weapon. In regular WH40K, the 2nd edition rules for the Animus Malorum allowed it to attack one enemy model within 12", potentially insta-killing the model and applying its wounds to the Legionnaires. Re-reading my original version of the rules, my wording sucked (I don't know what happened to my punctuation and grammar). I simplified things a bit from how the A.M. worked in WH40K, however. The WH40K version had two effects. The first was insta-killing an enemy model (on a successful psychic test) and the second was applying the enemy model's wounds to Legion of the Damned models. I streamlined this, removing the negative effect on the enemy (no insta-kill) and just automatically "giving lifeforce" to a Legion of the Damned unit (by removing any Blast Markers on it). This simplification is an adaptation to the differences in the Epic rules, preventing these rules from introducing any wonky new mechanism. Looking at the range, however, I agree that it needs to be extended. The WH40K 12" range converts to 15 cm in Epic (matching a bolt pistol's range). To be fair, perhaps the effect should simply be to remove up to two Blast Markers.

 

I think you misunderstand my concern.* A 12" range in 40K would usually translate to no range in Epic - i.e. it would be an effect in Assaults rather than in shooting. So it being triggered by shooting would be...odd. I'd have it be triggered by assault and firefights, myself. As to the range of its effect, now that I think about it a 15cm range could certainly work fine. As to the scale thereof...blast marker removal is valuable for Space Marines. OTOH, the LotD will have to walk around a lot and aren't that numerous. So even removing all Blast Markers wouldn't be THAT horrific.

 

*It's almost like discussing the translation of things from one game to another game that uses similar terminology can be confusing. :D

 

I had a long debate about the relative merits of allowing a Turn 1 appearance over having an automatic appearance later in the game, but decided that the simplest approach is to just go back to a chance for a Turn 1 appearance (you win cool.gif ).

 

No. The Emperor wins. ;)

 

Increase range of units available, with an explanation of different versions of the Legion of the Damned through game edition history. Terminators only appear on the Apocalypse datasheet, but 3rd edition also allowed for a Commander and a Command Squad.

 

Using the Cursed FOunding rules (which I think were in 3e), they could actually have everything - vehicles, Dreads, Devs, etc. Though don't think that's necessarily compelled or wise, mind you.

 

Also, whee, Epic!