Night Lords Warband

[Malediction]

So I've been planning on making a Chaos warband, despite the negative attention the Codex has been getting. 

 

I really like the Night Lords and their style of warfare so I'd like to make up a Night Lords warband but I also like the idea of developing my own colour scheme? Is it feasible that some Night Lords warbands changed their scheme?

 

My idea is to keep the left shoulder pad in the original Night Lords scheme, Terminators would keep closer to the original scheme than regular marines and skulls would be very prevalent throughout the army. 

 

So what do you think? 

 

 

[AekoldHelbrass]

Depends on what scheme do you have in mind. I would not go too far, and of course no bright colours.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I dunno, depends if they were scary bright colours, I mean clowns are brightly coloured yet more scary then Night Haunter himself.

[Kol Saresk]

Very plausible. An external example would be the Word Bearers. Leading up to and into the Heresy, we see four distinct schemes: slate grey, red-black with silver trim(Gal Vorbak), red with Silver death-masks and blue eye-pieces(Vakrah Jal) and the red with slate grey trim of 40K.

 

For an in-Legion example, the Bleeding Eyes(aRaptor Cult that had their death-masks fashioned to look as though they had bleeding eyes). One of the Raptor Lords at the end of Void Stalker has silvered plate. Page 436 of the same book mentions how some have splintered from the Legion in all but name while others have thrown away anything tying them to the VIII Legion from wearing the colors of their respective factions to dumping the name. Page 438 has mention of a warband called the Nightwing, but no colors are mentioned. More than a few of the fans believe the Brotherhood of Darkness might be a splinter warband due to the similarity in the symbol, both bearing a winged skull and they were black armor with red trim.

[Malediction]

Funnily enough I painted up a mini with a greyish-black colour with red trim. 

[Brother Heinrich]

Go for it man, That is the true beauty of the VIII Legion, there is not sweeping centralized mindset, our Father though he was bringing order and justice to the Galaxy, some like Talos believed in the vision of the long war and defeating Terra, others are like Xarl and really don't care whatsoever about anything outside of the next fight, some are corrupted by the powers of Chaos like Vandred, Uzas, and Cyrion, others are like Lucoryphus and are barely above animals. We are a fractured legion composed of hundreds of different interpretations of our father's last command, within that framework the possibilities are endless. It has also been shown that one doesn't need to be born on Nostramo either, so long as they understand fear as a weapon, they belong. That is the one unifying trait for all sons of the VIII, we know fear. 

[Scribe]

Gonna run out of "Likes" today...

 

However yeah, I am sure there would be a night lord band that has changed colours, why not.

[Flint13]

Heck yeah man. Go for it. Every new midnight clad brother and sister we can welcome into the fold, the better ^_^

 

From a fluff point of view, it's perfectly plausible. Renegades from other chapters joining the Nightlords are super popular. Same could work in the opposite direction. Or, many Nightlords loathed their brothers, Kurze, or the legion in general. I could definitely seem a warband trying to distance themselves from the "normal" Nightlords as much as possible. The first stop? New paint!

[Sception]

The Night Lords were a fractious bunch even while Haunter was alive. After his death, they largely broke up into separate warbands, and such a warband either changing the color scheme, or simply not charing about uniform wouldn't seem out of place.

 

With relatively few exceptions, actual heresy era veterans are in the minority in most chaos warbands, occupying veteran and leadership positions over post heresy recruits acquires from corrupted loyalist chapters and newly made chaos marines, largely made via stolen gene seed since the eye of terror tends to mutate chaos progenitor glands beyond the point of usability.

 

So a nightlords warband where only veteran or elite warriors like characters and terminators follow the night lords colors while other units sport a parchwork of other color schemes hinting at their previous identities would also be well within the framework of the current lore.

[AekoldHelbrass]

If you change colour scheme so much - what makes your warband a Night Lords after that? Only that you're playing underpowered unmarked bunch of cheap power armours? If will not be any different from a pile of other traitor-chapters-Night-Lords-wannabe.

If you like the Legion - you like the colour scheme, you can tune it a little, but overall theme of midnight blue + metallic trims is distinctive for Night Lords.

[Noctus Cornix]

Better idea. Build the Nightkillers. They're name, symbol, and colorscheme is almost identical to Night Lords so use them as a Night Lords splinter warband.

 

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Nightkillers

 

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110713212130/warhammer40k/images/thumb/2/27/Nightkillers_Marine.png/300px-Nightkillers_Marine.png

 

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110713210948/warhammer40k/images/thumb/e/e0/Killershshoulderguard.jpg/180px-Killershshoulderguard.jpg

[Kol Saresk]

If you change colour scheme so much - what makes your warband a Night Lords after that? Only that you're playing underpowered unmarked bunch of cheap power armours? If will not be any different from a pile of other traitor-chapters-Night-Lords-wannabe.

 

'Six Great Companies,' Tovac said. 'The Raven will be one of the Kyroptera, but he's given no men to command? Why include him at all?'

 

Alastor said nothing. He merely forced a tight smile.

 

Sevatar nodded to the question. 'He is one of us, whether he was born of Nostramo or not, and no matter what blood beats through his veins. To be Eighth Legion is more than flesh and bone. He earned his place among the elite at Istvaan. Do you dispute it?'

 

It should also be noted that on page 325 of Prince of Crows, Alastor is shown to still be wearing his armor in the colors of the Raven Guard.

 

 

 

But as I pointed out earlier, there is a fluff source that says more than a few of the VIII Legion were no longer wearing the Midnight Clad. If some weren't wearing the Midnight Clad, whose to say some weren't just wearing a variation of it? Page 438 of Void Stalker mentions Hemek, leader of the Nightwing, a splinter warband. The only difference in color worth noting was that the crests on his helm were black-veined cobalt.

 

There is already plenty of evidence to justify a different color scheme, regardless of how conservative or radical it may be.

 

Although Noctus has a killer idea of using the Nightkillers(unintentional, I swear), especially since they're one of those "blank slate" warbands.

[the jeske]

Strange no organisation military or not ever worked like that. Everything that has a structure ends being closed , even if it starts with wearing the banners of openess to all.

[AekoldHelbrass]

But as I pointed out earlier, there is a fluff source that says more than a few of the VIII Legion were no longer wearing the Midnight Clad. If some weren't wearing the Midnight Clad, whose to say some weren't just wearing a variation of it? Page 438 of Void Stalker mentions Hemek, leader of the Nightwing, a splinter warband. The only difference in color worth noting was that the crests on his helm were black-veined cobalt.

While I don't like new fluff for Night Lords, I'm not declining its existence and I'm not trying to go against it. My questions was to original author about what motivates him to do Night Lords if he doesn't want their colour scheme. I mean, really, if I wanted to collect Flesh Tearers company who joined Black Legion (using Berzerker rules and black power armour with bronze trims), does it mean I want Flesh Tearers? It doesn't to me.

 

On the other hand, a lot of Night Lords players are using either BA or RG rules nowadays, but they are painting their miniatures in NL colours. So colour defines heritage, not rules.

 

That's why I'd like to hear from original author what is his motivation.

[Sception]

But every military body also takes recruits. And many military bodies, after defeat, broke up into various indepenent mercenary groups that persisted long after, rather than remaining coherent or simply vanishing.

[A D-B]

The amount of colour variation between Legions of 100,000 soldiers, from different cultures, spread - for decades and decades - across different sections of the galaxy and rarely meeting each other, will be immense. Even in the Word Bearers' IA article, you have examples of different helms.

 

Don't feel constrained by dark blue and lightning if you have another spin on it. Use it as a base and go from there. Traditionalist warbands will stick with those colours, using only slight variations. Others will put their own flair on it, with greater variation. Or have a specific variant on it, from Campaign X, or in Warlord Y's personal heraldry. Legions are big, awesome things, perfect for this level of customisation.

 

 

Strange no organisation military or not ever worked like that. Everything that has a structure ends being closed , even if it starts with wearing the banners of openess to all.

 

Actually, the exact opposite is true. Google a country's army. Any country's army, but preferably, say, something English/British, or Russian, or German, in keeping with 40K's themes. Check out all the variation in uniforms. 

 

That's pretty much the deal here. 

[Kol Saresk]

 

 

 

But as I pointed out earlier, there is a fluff source that says more than a few of the VIII Legion were no longer wearing the Midnight Clad. If some weren't wearing the Midnight Clad, whose to say some weren't just wearing a variation of it? Page 438 of Void Stalker mentions Hemek, leader of the Nightwing, a splinter warband. The only difference in color worth noting was that the crests on his helm were black-veined cobalt.

While I don't like new fluff for Night Lords, I'm not declining its existence and I'm not trying to go against it. My questions was to original author about what motivates him to do Night Lords if he doesn't want their colour scheme. I mean, really, if I wanted to collect Flesh Tearers company who joined Black Legion (using Berzerker rules and black power armour with bronze trims), does it mean I want Flesh Tearers? It doesn't to me.

 

On the other hand, a lot of Night Lords players are using either BA or RG rules nowadays, but they are painting their miniatures in NL colours. So colour defines heritage, not rules.

 

That's why I'd like to hear from original author what is his motivation.

 

 

Ah, okay. I misunderstood.

[Sception]

Fluff, theme, unit selection, and play style all define heritage.  Color's just part of that, especially in chaos where, with the exception of Black Legion, your colors generally aren't being dictated down to you by a leadership that cares about the dress code.

[Malediction]

I've been swayed by the idea that a major divergence from the standard scheme of Night Lords would just make them look like regular CSM, even with their distinctive helmets. 

 

A small divergence per warband doesn't seem like a bad idea though?

 

 

Something like this, although the painter doesn't give me as much flexibility as I'd like. Basically I'd like to incorporate some greyish-black and red into the scheme. My motivation is to have a unique Night Lords army that appears to be a part of the Legion, as it should, but also has a few elements to mark it out as an individual company within the Legion influenced by its commanding officers, if that makes sense?

 

I read a bit about the Night Lords already, enough to endear me to the Legion but I'd like some suggestions for further stuff to read. The A D-B novels are on my to-read list already.

[Kol Saresk]

Yep, it makes perfect sense. Now, not knowing what you have read, I would suggest Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier, Savage Weapons in the Age of Darkness Horus Heresy anthology, Prince of Crows in the Shadows of Treachery anthology, The Core in Fear the Alien anthology, and Throne of Lies which can be purchased as either an audiobook or can be found in the Treacheries of the Space Marines anthology. I feel like I'm forgetting something else, but basically this is everything that focuses on the Night Lords in some form or fashion. Many of these(will pretty much all of them except Lord of the Night) are written by A D-B.

 

There is Vulkan Lives, but it focuses on Curze, and it hasn't exactly received the best critique from Night Lord fans concerning Curze, my opinion included. That said, I do think it was an okay book, but I would recommend going after it only after you have read pretty much everything else, mostly because its the newest publication but also so you can develop your own idea on what to expect of Curze.

[Brother Heinrich]

 

There is Vulkan Lives, but it focuses on Curze, and it hasn't exactly received the best critique from Night Lord fans.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7kZ3YDU2OWo/Ted7iaGIv-I/AAAAAAAAAKM/yPyXjsXLV_A/s1600/RageFace.png

[Kol Saresk]

Hey! You chopped off the part where it said my opinion included! That's misquoting! You evil Night Lord you!

[Brother Heinrich]

I'm nothin' if not a back stabbin' fool...

 

http://www.danconnolly.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/roberto_jpg_595x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg

[Noctus Cornix]

Ease yourself, brother Heinrich. You don't want to do this.

[Malediction]

Here's a question; the trim on Night Lords armour is sometimes described as gold and at others times brass. Which is it and how bright is it as well?