Black Legion: A Supplemental Review

[minionboy]

Well, the book is out and as an avid Black Legionnaire, I couldn't resist buying it and reading it the moment it came out.

 

Fluff: 5/5.  Finally a full account of what happened in all the Black Crusades.  Additionally, they also really give you the sense of how Abaddon inherited the chapter and had to destroy what they stood for and rebuild them from the ground up in order to save them.

 

Art: 3/5. The art was all good quality, a few new pieces, but plenty of recycled work.  I wasn't blown away by any of it, but at the same time I thought it was all adequate.

 

40k Army List: 3/5. Not as bad as I expected actually.  Overall the best thing by far is the ability to ally with CSM, giving you more FOC slots, and their Artefacts are quite handy.  The Artefacts if anything really show that someone in GW is listening to the community, the complaining about the lack of a generic daemon sword and eternal warrior was heard and we were given options to remedy these.

 

Altar of War: 4/5. All these missions are quite fun sounding and pretty well balanced.  Like the rest of the Altar of War series, I think these give you some fun options for friendly games.

 

Strategems: 3/5.  These are all quite nice to add a bit of diversity to your Cities of Death and Planet Strike games.  Again, these all seemed interesting and adequate, but nothing that blew my socks off.  It's nice to see that GW hasn't abandoned them.

 

Echoes of War: 3/5. Like the Altar of War missions, these actually sound like they'd be quite enjoyable to play, provided you have the army and your friends have the armies appropriate to play them.

 

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with it, but for the sake of brevity, I wont copy/paste my 7 pages of text here, so instead, check out my blog for my full review: http://www.thediceabide.com/2013/08/black-legion-a-supplemental-review/

[Dosjetka]

Thanks for the review. There's been a lot of moaning about, so it's nice to see someone with a different take on the supplement.

[Sception]

Nice review, sounds about like what I had gathered from other discussion.

 

Wish I had an ipad*.  In the mean time, I'll just have to work on getting models ready for the ebook release.

 

 

*almost.  I almost wish I had an ipad.  I have a friend with one, and he's nothing but complaints about how overly locked down and proprietary it is.

[40kChrista]

That's a good review, and I agree with all of it. Although I'd give the rules a 4 instead of 3, but I'm pretty easy to please.

The more detailed version is nice, and thought out. Thanks for that!

[Sception]

Where as I'd almost give the rules a 2. I don't hate them, but it feels like there's a lot of missed opportunities here, and the armies the rules for this supplement encourage (small, elite forces with veterans and chosen) don't really seem to match the fluff of the faction (the most numerous chaos marine faction, who will take anyone who will swear to the Despoiler, not just the elite).

Particularly in the traits and items, there was a lot of stuff they could have done to highlight black legion flavor that they didn't do. Black Legion likes to deep strike terminators, but with the vet terminators being even more expensive than usual (to say nothing of abby's bodyguard), the lack of teleport homers makes that tactic even less appetizing than in the parent book. Access to homing beacons, whether a beacon icon or even just a single artefact that was a beacon, would have really nailed that aspect, and IMO was a super obvious call and I'm baffled how they missed it.

Also, Black Legion way back in the day had extra emphasis on their apothecaries - adding chaos apothecary equivalents as an option, again whether as some sort of squad upgrade or as an artefact, would have been a great nod to that old fluff, while also being an in game nod to Black Legion keeping their numbers up even if those numbers weren't directly apparent on the table.

The items we got weren't bad (well, there's one dud, but only one is pretty good), but they don't feel particularly characterful to the Black Legion specifically. The daemon sword and EW skull in particular feel like options that should have been in the main book. The warlord traits likewise aren't awful (well, the single shot flamer is, but most trait lists have a dud or two, so whatever), but apart from 1 and 6 they don't feel especially black legiony, and black crusader was in the parent book anyway.

It's not that the rules are weak. I wouldn't want stronger options. And I don't really object to the troop chosen / must take vets business, so long as it specified that such a list represented the veteran core warbands of the legion, rather than the bulk of its numbers and fighting strength. But I think they could have done a better job capturing the character of the legion in the traits and wargear. This list just feels like 'alternate generic CSM traits and artefacts' rather than 'black legion specific traits and artefacts'.

Oh, and abby's bodyguard is insultingly overpriced. But then again, GW doesn't play test, so every book has its over and under priced options, I just can't get that worked up about it.

 

 

I'm still excited about the supplement, though.  The rules, while they aren't what I was hoping for, don't sound bad exactly, and I'm hearing great things about the art and fluff, which is what I'm mainly interested in anyway.

[the jeske]

Rules wise it seems like GW noticed that people play a lot of 1999 games and aren't buying those extra hvy support/FA/Elite units for their armies . What the supplements give for chaos is an effective second FoC under 2k points and by taking cultists as HQ for the BL part we go around the whole must buy Vet thing. It does make stuff like Forgefiends or maulers actualy usable . But the real problem with it is that it is still better to run 2xhavocks/2x2oblits and/or 4 drakes , then all those units that maybe ok from time to time. But I guess everyone knew why helldrakes were a bad unit as soon as they got leaked . The fail part ruleswise is that the codex doesn't realy give us a new way to play. Chosen are a bad unit no matter what we do with them . Melee , shoty , balanced doesn't matter . They are high cost csm that have to take a vet upgrade . IMO the rules for the BL army should be vets as troops and everything that can gets a free Vets upgrade. The items are ok  I guess. Too high costs for my taste , an almost HQ cost for a one use weapon that can't hurt flyers can diviate out of range, with serpent shields in 6th seems to be a bit too much. The heart is worse then a chainfist for a lord , no idea how it interacts with MC smash attack.if it turns one aoe smash attack in to 2xstr ID to all in btb then our DPs just got a second weapon to use. The sword and EW should have been in the main book , but others have said it too. 

 

The fluff is nice . Wish there was more about the legion wars and as always the non BL sons of horus runing alive irk me to no end , but I guess it is an eastern thing .

 

 

All in all the codex didn't disappoint . Not because it is awesome , but because it was build on the base of Kelly dex . The E and T supplements weren't game breaking awesome either , but the difference between them[in rules, fluff wise I would say that the chaos one is the best of the 3] and the chaos one is that there actualy were eldar players who wanted to play W.guard and Tau players who wanted a suit army . Even without abadon chosen still are bad . Terminators or Possessed would have been better [and still very BL] , but not having new models kind of a pre constructed the codex for its writers .

[Sception]

I'm still hoping for new dreadclaw rules from FW.  If they fix the rules to work, instead of reference outdated FW flier and pod rules that don't make sense in 6e, and get them for a reasonable price as a dedicated transport, at least for our elite units and dreads, then that could change a lot of things.  Particularly for chosen, who might not feel so overpriced if you could guarantee at least one round of rapid fire ranged shooting.

[the jeske]

You would need a new chaos codex or new chaos FW book and a new Dread model , for that to happen. Technicly not impossible .

[Sception]

I could see the dreadclaw being updated for the horus heresy line, with a note on 'usable in 40k as a dedicated transport for such and such units'.  They'd probably just make it a fast attack again, which would suck, but at least with allies you can get two of them and still get two drakes, might not be as awful as it used to be.

 

Hopefully the next time we get an actual codex, GW will realize that plain old drop pods should never have been loyalist exclusives to begin with, and that they can make a lot of money from chaos players by just throwing a spikey bit sprue in with the drop pod model they already make.

[Galron]

Wasnt the dreadclaw in the Aeronautica book released a year or so ago? Still a crappy excuse to try and impersonate a drop pod. Even the Heresy version is horrible. Is it really that hard to simply make drop pods usable by both chaos and loyalists? Both use them over and over in the fluff, give the chaos drop pod a combi-bolter and an option for a havok launcher and call it a day.

 

Was not inpressed and wished they would have worked on one of the nonstandard legions like Alpha Legion or Night Lords instead. As it has been often repeated, the Black Legion is the Ultramarines of chaos and what the main codex represents.

[Sception]

It was, but on top of being overpriced and eating fast slots (although the latter is slightly less of an issue with self-allying as an option), its rules were copy-pasted from its earlier incarnation, making them practically unusable since they're based on FW flier rules that have been outdated since 6e, and FW drop pod rules that have been outdated since the 4e Space Marine codex.

[Xenith]

I...think this has gone off track a little, from the review of the BL book, to complaining that we dont have stuff, like every other thread in this section of the forum.

 

Thanks for the review, I checked your extended one also. If I had the cash, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but C:SM probably has to come first!

[Scribe]

I actually like it. I have been railing HARD on Warseer about the treatment of Chaos, and the fluff/rule interactions. This supplement gives a boost to both. Not the power of the rules necessarily, but the interaction between the story, the history, and the rules, which to me, matters.

 

I like it to the point of building up a faction of Black Legion.

[Sception]

Start a 'Black like my ...' thread to chronicle your progress!

[Scribe]

I probably will. :]

[Tenebris]

Half way trough the supplement. The fluff is amazing. Abby is indeed a serious man.

[Artein]

Certainly not Failbaddon anymore. That's the fluff that he deserves.

[Sception]

Abaddon gets a fantastic treatment in this book.  I still wish we came away with more in terms of key personalities within the legion apart from Abby, but I'll just content myself with the most important figure in the legion getting a much needed fluff face lift.  Now if only the model would follow suit....

[the jeske]

I wish there was more about the BL apothecaries and techmarines . They had some of the greatest in all legions history.

[Sception]

Yeah, I don't dislike most of what we got, but it seemed like there were options for more specifically black legionny stuff they could have added, whether harking back to old fluff with the apothecaries and techmarines, or in terms of newer stuff giving some more detail to some of the particular personalities within the Black Legion apart from just Abaddon.

 

Overall I'm happy with the book, mind.  It rates a 'pass' from me, on par with or slightly ahead of my feelings about the Iyanden supplement, even if it's not a home run like the Farsight book.

 

On the terminator front, I still don't get how the author missed that what the 'speartip' deep striking terminator assault needed to function was not even pricier terminators, what it needed was a homing beacon, or the option for abby's personal squad at least to deep strike without scatter.  But at least they tried, at least there's something there, even if it isn't what was needed to make the tactic work, and in fact makes it worse by being too expensive, which is exactly what unreliable deep striking doesn't need.  But again, at least they tried on that front.  But characters apart from abaddon are barely mentioned, and the old apothecary stuff doesn't even get that treatment.

[the jeske]

chaos terminators shouldn't deep strike . they should infiltrate using huron.

[Sception]

Deep striking chaos terminator lords & retinues are an iconic image of chaos, particularly for the Black Legion.  That Kelly didn't realize the extent to which he gutted that already fluffy-but-suboptimal choice by outright eliminating our access to homing beacons is still a sore spot for me.  That this book thought the way to encourage us to start deep striking anything more than minimal combi weapon squads was to give us a unit of terminators that was even more expensive and vulnerable without doing anything to mitigate the risks of losing that whole squad should you try to deep strike it is a travesty.

 

I'm complaining that doing so should be a viable tactic, not claiming that it is.  You're right, Huron is by far the best way to run Chaos terminators, even if you include FW transport options like the storm eagle or spartan.  I'm simply lamenting that that's the case, especially for Black Legion in particular.  I consider it a failing of the supplement.  Not an overwhelming one, or one that tarnishes the whole product, or would make me regret buying it.  Just a missed opportunity for something easy that could have enhanced the black-legionness of armies run under the supplement.

[Trevak Dal]

I was thinking last night-about how since Noise marines are pretty popular and Mark of Slaanesh sorcerers have that power that buffs them so nicely, that now you could effectively have Slaanesh marked lord to unlock and two Slaanesh marked sorcerers without going Double FOC.

[the jeske]

I'm complaining that doing so should be a viable tactic, not claiming that it is.

Ah ok . I don't realy care about representation of fluff in rules that would actualy be used. What chaos sm should realy have been given in the Kelly dex was drop pods of some sort . And I don't realy care if those would be pods , claws , portals you could set up etc. Having just rhinos as transports makes the army boring [or rather more boring].

 

 

I was thinking last night-about how since Noise marines are pretty

popular and Mark of Slaanesh sorcerers have that power that buffs them

so nicely, that now you could effectively have Slaanesh marked lord to

unlock and two Slaanesh marked sorcerers without going Double FOC.

Not realy worth it . The same sorc as udivided with telephaty would do better . The same sorc merged in to one DP would also do better.

[Slayer le Boucher]

Like the mission with Doombreed, even if it is only a regular Deamon prince of Khorne and doesn't have anything special apart from his "Warlord trait".

 

To come back to the Dreadclaws, Galron sorry to say this, but having the exact same pods as SM, is wrong and stupid.

 

We allready have everything else from them, excepte for the good stuff, for once we have a nice transport, its only flaws are that it comes in play in DS like regular DS units so turn 2 and that it is a FA slot, aside from that, Dreadclaws are far superior.