Building a fluffy Word Bearer's force

[Skirax]

Afternoon gents
 
I've been playing 40,000 for nearly ten years and I've had Word Bearers on the mind ever since I read the Word Bearers anthology, which was just fantastic. Then I read The First Heretic and decided it was time to build a force based entirely on the fluff and not engineered to winning games (since I've never really cared for such a thing).
 
Now, my plan is to have the following core units:
 
Ten Chaos Space Marines, with Power Weapon (modelled as a crozius) and a Combi-Flamer on the Champion, with a Flamer, Plasma Pistol, Icon of Vengeance, Veterans of the Long War, mounted in a Rhino, twice. (So 20 over all)

So the thought here is to have units that are built around key icons of religious fervour, which tends to almost always be flame. They also have been fighting for 10,000 (obviously) so VotLW was pretty important, and the Icon of Vengeance (I think it's this wargear, my codex is elsewhere) gives them Fearless to represent determination in their cause. The Rhino will be decked out with many speakers and vox units on it to show the WB's use of rhetoric, commemorative of the old Dirge Caster.

 

Ten Cultists, at the very basic of what they can be, four times. 

As you all know, Word Bearers use heavy amounts of Cultists to throw at the enemy guns. Now some may be asking, "Why four Cultists and two Chaos Space Marines (units)?" Well, I always got the impression that the Word Bearers are the shepherds, while the Cultists are the sheep, and hence there must be a larger number of Cultists than Chaos Space Marines.

 

Five Possessed Chaos Space Marines in a Rhino

I love the idea of a Dark Apostle or Word Bearers Lord being accompanied into battle by the ultimate symbols of Chaos worship, plain and simple. 

 

A Chaos Lord representing Erebus, the First Dark Apostle. 

Very, very obvious.

 

So thanks for reading this far guys, my question now is how do I expand this force remaining true to the fluff? 

 

Thanks,

Ski

[minigun762]

I think a Helbrute would be a good fluff addition to nearly any Chaos army.

It's a cheap model, so you're not laying out a lot of money on Ebay and Dreadnoughts are up there with Terminators and Rhinos as far as iconic Marine units. A good mixed loadout with a Reaper or Plasma Cannon will keep it cheap but take full advantage of the Crazed rule.

 

While I know you aren't building an army purely for competitive reasons, I'd consider buying a Land Raider and a few more Possessed and putting them in with your HQ.

Logically speaking, the leader of a warband is going to have access to the best available weapons and transports, and surrounding yourself with an honor guard of your most devote and "evolved" Marines makes perfect sense.

[Riptor]

Just as a quick mention, I know you are going for a fluffy list, a couple of recommendations that should be able to help you out with little change to the models you have.

Firstly, swap the plasma pistols on the Chaos Marine squads for another of your special weapon (Flamers, it seems). I would also say to change atleast one unit to all Melta for anti-tank (Melta can still be used to effectively purge away those foul idols of the false emperor and his lackeys).

 

Cultists are a tough one, I was originally going to recommend you bunch them up into two squads, but unfortunately they are quite susceptable without a chaos lord or dark apostle to give them fearless.

Possibly consider something like, at higher point, allying with the black legion supplement (Or at 2,000 points, just doubling your force org) in order to take two more cheap-ish lords, modelling the as 'lesser' apostles, and then bunching the cultists to two 20 man, or if you have the points and models, maybe even 30 man. This would give you some fearless blobs to hold objectives, all the while sticking with the 'fanatical followers' motif.

And whilst we are onmthe subject of cultists, have you considered a flamer per 10 cultists for more firepower (literally)?

[Danny Cyanide]

If I was going to do a Word Bearers force it would use daemon allies, because what are word Bearers if not daemon happy!

[HJL]

My word bearers army is dedicated to fluff. I run a dark apostle (warlord) and a lord (coryphaus) attached to 5 terminators (anointed) with 2x 10csm tooled up with plasma or melta, 2x 35 man cultist squads (must have more cultists than marines), a maulerfiend and a couple of hellbrutes and then everything else as a random assortment of daemon troops and a great unclean one. I typicaly play 2000pts. Its a very fun list and also does reasonably well.

 

Oh, and no transports! If you die marching across the field then your faith in the dark gods simply wasnt strong enough and death was your punishment!

[totgeboren]

I have themed every single model in my army to look like a Word Bearers, by having purity seals, parchment, chains and ofc a WB paintjob.

Lately I have been using a Lord on jetbike (count-as Disc of Tzeentch) leading some bikes, and having some cc marines in a Land raider following, plus cultists for boring stuff like holding objectives.

 

The army is still definitely a WB army, but I recommend that you don't box yourself in too much. Remember that a WB host is often quite a bit bigger than the tiny army you put on the table, so feel free to use most if not all units (maybe not cults all that much though).

[Urauloth]

Plasma pistols in your CSM squads seems like a really terrible idea tbqh. For the same price you could have an actual plasma gun (there, or somewhere else if you want that squad to be assault-oriented with the flamer and all). More to the point, If you want to give your squad a high strength, 12" range, single shot ap2 assault weapon, a meltagun is 5pts cheaper than a plasma pistol and won't blow up in your face.

 

Of course, none of this is fluff advice, just a manifestation of my contempt for plasma pistols. On the subject of fluff, I feel raptors get overlooked in word bearer hosts quite often. The legion had assault companies who were every bit as fanatical as the rest of them, and since they've retained their structure better than most of the traitor legions, it stands to reason their assault squads are the least likely to have wandered off to join the weird cults of preening egotists that are "common" raptors. The vox-amps on the new models still fit if instead of screeching through them they use them to broadcast the hosts's prayers and battle chants. That's what I'm doing with mine, anyway.