Cult Troops in a Khorne Army

[Macbeefin]

I assume that we all play thematic armies in this forum - seeing as a pure Khorne force would have a tough time in a competitive setting at the moment. If you're like me, you might really like the way some of the other cult troops work, and are keen to try them on the table; but at the same time be dedicated to the Khornate theme of your army. I feel like the best way around this is to 'create' fluff for custom units, that, in table top terms, would represent cult troops that would otherwise break the theme of your army - Noise Marines, Plague Marines, Thousand Sons. After a bit of thinking I came up with this bit of fluff for a Khornate 'counts as' Noise Marine unit:

 

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Firebrands (counts as Noise Marines)

Firebrands embody Khorne’s obsession with burning and incinerating. The combat doctrine followed by Firebrands is simple – it involves getting in to close quarters combat while being covered by flame based weaponry. Khorne has gifted those which choose to walk the path of the Firebrand with enhanced reflexes at close quarters. Firebrands develop a sick pleasure with hearing the screams of agony and terror of their burning victims as they sprint headlong into combat to alleviate their enemies of their scorched skulls.

The weaponry that defines a squad of Firebrands is more brutally sophisticated than mere flamers.

The Brand of Khorne (counts as Doom Siren) – Khorne’s fury possesses the very flames that erupt from this weapon. A bout from a Brand can incinerate even the impervious power armour in seconds. The Brand of Khorne is traditionally offered to a Firebrand Champion.

Napalm Projector (counts as Blastmaster) – This weapon incorporates air-bursting incendiary rounds that can be utilized in two different ways. A Napalm Projector has two separated barrels, each of different diameters. The first barrel can be loaded with bolter sized incendiary rounds, intended to take out individual targets, by exploding in proximity to the target and dispersing promethium based napalm over a small area. The second barrel can be loaded with a larger, grenade sized explosive, which explodes in the air above a target, raining down the deadly promethium based napalm over a large area.

Incendiary Rounds (counts as Sonic Blaster) – many Firebrands choose to swap out the standard issue bolt rounds for air bursting incendiary rounds, similar to those utilized by a Napalm Projector. Many also modify their bolters to increase the output of incendiary rounds. However, this is not a warband wide occurrence, as many find the increased fire rate of their bolters limits the speed at which they can reach combat.

Firebrands undergo the ritual lobotomisation that their berzerker brethren do – indeed the first Firebrands were berzerkers themselves who often disregarded their chainaxes and bolt pistols in favour of flamers, perhaps taking inspiration from Khârn’s rampage on Skalathrax. Accompanying the lobotomy is a more traditional initiation – prospective Firebrands receive brands of a stylized World Eaters icon on their right cheeks. The icon depicts the jaws of the World Eaters around a planet blazing with fire. Furthermore, initiates must walk naked through a storm of fire and retrieve their weapon for their initiation to be complete. Such is the transformation from Space Marine to Firebrand. 

 

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Plague Marines wouldn't be too hard to come up with fluff for - a Khorne equivalent would be so bloodthirsty that his pain thresholds would be far above those of the average Space Marine. With Rubrics, however, I'm having a little trouble reconciling their equivalent in my head...

 

Does anyone have any ideas regarding fluff equivalents for Rubrics or Plagues? Any criticism or different ideas for Noise Marines? All thought is appreciated.

[Wraith776]

Not sure about rubrics, but I think your on the right track for the plague marines. And I love what you've done with the noise marines so far

[Hellios]

Khorne Berzerkers should be able to take flamers... or Havocs should be able to upgrade to Khorne Berzerkers...

[caboosebe]

Plague Marines: Pit Fighters

Those Khorne Berzerkers that have lost so many limbs and had them replaced by bionics that they become a lot slower. What they have lost in speed, they gained in durability of steel limbs that continue to function after a normal limb would have been cut off. 

When they do land a blow on their enemy, their bionic limbs give them extra strength (poison) 

 

Rubics: Gore Fiends

Obsessed with giving more blood to the Blood God, these berserkers found a new way to deal with their enemies. Having created special bolters, they fire a highly explosive round that blows up their enemies from the inside out. Being far more effective then the normal explosion of bolters, and spraying the battlefield in a shower of blood, these Khorne Berzerkers are given a grudging respect from other Khornates even though they do not use close combat as often as a normal Blood God Follower would do. 

[Macbeefin]

I was thinking something similar in terms of bolters for Thousand Sons. The harder part is reconciling the fact they have a 4+ invulnerable save and are led into combat by a sorceror, but I think you've almost resolved that yourself. If Gore Fiends were mutilated ex-Berzerkers who have had extensive bionic replacement this could be a suitable fluff explanation - although it does work well for Plagues as well. At the same time, how acceptable do you think bionic replacement is for Khorne devotees? The lack of blood in their wounds might anger a certain god of blood....

[caboosebe]

On the part of bloodless bionics:

A. The Blood God doesn't care where the blood flows from, only that is does. If the bionic users keep killing and spilling blood, he does not care.

B. The bionics mutate over time, becoming warp infused and with some kind of blood/fluid running through it.

 

On the part about the 4+ invul save

Blood Mist: the Gore Fiends are surround by a permanent mist of blood. (Because of the blowing up enemies) which gives attackers a hard time to kill these Khornates. This may be in the form of weapons jamming because of the Blood Mist getting in their circuits or firing at the Gore Fiends but are in reality just the shadows in the mist.

Some even say that if a Gore Fiend kills (explodes) enough enemies and bathes in the bloody mist, the Lord of Blood himself blesses the blood that remains of the armour of said Gore Fiend, giving him an extra layer of protection

 

On the part of the Sorcerer:

Gore Crazed/Fanatic

Usually a former Tech-Marine, these Gore Crazed have renounced their duties to repair the weapons and armour of their brethren. Instead they concentrate on creating ever more destructive weaponry to extract the blood of their enemies. More madmen's then engineers, they infuse their weapons with warp energy, giving it an unpredictable nature. (magic, perils of the warp)      

 

 

Edit: Give Gore Fiends bionics and lose the Blood Mist.

Pit Fighters become Berzerkers who fight with shield (extra toughness, slower).

Your imagination is your limit

[Targetlock]

this all very cool ideas :) love to see some conversions of them!

[Iron_Within]

You could also if you want for the Plague Marine Aesthetic add some of the mythology of the likes of the green knight. 

 

Pit Fighters: These warriors, would often allow their opponent the first blow when fighting on the Red Sands, so strong is their faith believing their own blood must flow every time they fight along with their offerings. Only the largest and most brutal warriors survived this informal initiation. Even today the Pit Fighters will dare their opponents to strike the first blow. Pit Fighters often wield a combination of weapons all designed to ensure the greatest loss of blood; from Razor Flails, to enormous two handed chainaxes, the Pit Fighters weapons are further blessed by Khorne to always let the blood flow (accounting for poisoned weapons).

[Canardwc]

Interesting subject, i did the same some time ago to play with the entire codex instead of only a part of it.

Mark of Slaanesh : Wired Reflexes (Shadowrun RPG).
Mark of Tzeentch : It can be Blood Protection or Cyborg part, just like orks for example.
Mark of Nurgle : Skull Cult. The Champion's head becomes a skull.

Noise marines with sonic weapons : Apprentices Techmancers. They use experimental weapons to kill for the name of the Blood God. I have some minies. It's FW mkIII marines with GK psylencers (no one uses it so it's cheap bits).

Noise marines with doom siren and additional weapons : Gladiators with Wired Reflexes. The Champion has a anger roar (doom siren).

Rubric marines : Khorne droids led by a Khorne Engineer. He has a mind control shoulder gun (Ld test).

 

Plague marines : Skull Cult. Miniatures with skulls instead of head and dark angels robes. They pray the Skull God.

Special Characters

Arhiman : Khorne Great Engineer. Lots of mind control weapons around him.

Typhus : Khorne Enslaver. He leads thousands of mindless bloodthirsty slaves.  I use Archaon on foot. http://zeliste40k.fr/index.php?q=im&gal=156&idx=7017&from=9

 

Huron : Old scout member of the original legion. I use this miniature. https://scontent-b-cdg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/282889_10151326235619096_1966169913_n.jpg

 

Fabius Bile : World Eaters Master Apothecary. New Neural System for his marines. I'll use a FW apothecary marine ( ordered right now) but still don't know how i will convert it.

Lucius : The eternal gladiator of Khorne. Same thing as noises marines.

Abaddon : Sme kind of Big Lord of Khorne. It's not really a problem.



The important thing is to convert minies to show your opponents you made some efforts to play a nice khorne army.

 

[Macbeefin]

I really like the idea of rubrics being Khorne droids. Did you ever convert any models to represent these?

[Canardwc]

Not yet. I'll make them with marines and a lot of bionics parts or maybe kinds of robots like http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110703075006/warhammer40k/images/b/bd/Knight_Paladins.jpg. The Engineer is quick easy to do, marine with some dendrites and SF guns, maybe tau parts too. 

I will show you pictures of my "noise marines" maybe this weekend if i have time to do so.

[stev]

I love this idea. Back when the berzerker kit first came out i made a squad of undead zombie berzerkers. i never knew what to do with them, posessed didnt seem to fit so i usually ended up trying to come up with my own rules.

 

Tho using them as plague marines....hard to kill, in fact they might even stand back up again if you do manage it...that makes sense.

 

To justify it fluff wise...there was that story about the ork army khorne was impressed with so he bought them to his realm to fight his daemons. they fought so well that he keeps raising them back to life the next day to fight the battle over and over again...so this squad could be something similar, warriors that have taken so many skull for khorne that he doesnt let them die ao they can keep claiming more...kinda like how Khârn was resurrected after the siege of terra....only a bit more gory looking

 

Alternatively, these are warriors who have disappointed khorne in some way, and now he wont let them die and finally rest until they have taken enough skulls to redeem themselves....

 

What do you think? Any of these ideas workable??

[caboosebe]

Looks like this one DakkaDakka Iron Warriors as Plague Marines already had the idea.

[Lootzer]

I've got now a similiar project - creating unit of "coutns as" PM using shields and parts from WFB Chaos Knights parts. Got the parts ordered already but they're in a long queue of my painting backlog...

[Slayer le Boucher]

Plague Marines of Khorne- Zerkers with boarding shields.

 

Rubrics - Bionics with Flames of Hate engulfing them and giving the bolts penetration force

Or like in Space crusade and Epic Space Marines Chaos Droids.(use of Necrons Cryptguards or something)

http://taran.pagesperso-orange.fr/images/mdk_android.JPG

[Canardwc]

My Apprentices techmancers (noise marines)

[Angelos Dante]

wow great pics of the noise/napalm marines!