Word Bearers Fluffy Players

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Hi,

 

I'm a first time 40k player who wants to build a fluffy Word Bearers army.

 

Was wondering if many others take this route over competitive power builds and how you best represent your sons of Lorgar with the current rules.

For example:

Do you use marks?

Are there units one tends to shy away from or are a 'must have' in this type of army?

Allies?

Do you write your own supporting fluff that explains differences to what we know from the official fluff? E.g. The composition of a host is really based on DA's preference so yours might happily be filled with plague marines if your apostle is favoured by nurgle.

Do you use the new DA or continue to proxy a lord?

 

Hopefully this will help stimulate my own thoughts on how to build my own army. In a community of fellow fluffy players who are not focused on optimal builds but how to best represent their chosen army on the field.

 

Thanks

[the jeske]

 

Do you use marks?

on lords,  oblits and spawns , nothing else needs marks.

 

Are there units one tends to shy away from or are a 'must have' in this type of army?

oblits , helldrake , cultists.

 

 

Allies?

Technicly WB could take demons , but it isn't realy a must have and for many people it is a slipery slope of demon ally , demon main , demon main no csm ally.

[Noctus Cornix]

 

Hi,

 

I'm a first time 40k player who wants to build a fluffy Word Bearers army.

 

Welcome to the Bolter and Chainsword! Glad to see a fellow Word Bearer around.

 

 

Do you use marks?

 

Absolutely. Word Bearers worship each of the Pantheon and can call upon them for their favor when they need. Taking marks in a Word Bearers army requires no adjustment to the fluff. We worship Chaos so why wouldn't we be able to use their powers?

 

Are there units one tends to shy away from or are a 'must have' in this type of army?

Allies?

 

Me personally? No, I have no units I shy away from. My army is sort of made to be a 'take what you want' sort of thing and I dip my toes into whatever I'm feeling like for the day on the rare chance I actually do play a game of 40k. As for allies? Certainly. Both Daemons and (Traitor)Guard make for perfect allies to Word Bearers

 

Do you write your own supporting fluff that explains differences to what we know from the official fluff? E.g. The composition of a host is really based on DA's preference so yours might happily be filled with plague marines if your apostle is favoured by nurgle.

 

A VAST majority of my fluff is deviant from that of the official fluff. I picked Word Bearers because of their twisted devotion and dark knightly feel to them. I try to keep that spirit alive, but I do what I like with my army so long as it makes sense to me and honestly you should to. Just enjoy it.

 

 

Do you use the new DA or continue to proxy a lord?

Well for my fluff personally, my Word Bearers follow their former Chapter Master anyways (Chapter of the Ruined King) and not some Dark Apostle who has no understanding of how to actually run a sizable warband.

 

If you want any ideas, feel free to talk a look at my thread if you'd like. From the Abyss: A Word Bearers Blog Shameless promotion, I know. :P

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Thanks Noctus :)

 

That's good to hear, I personally see no reason why they could not take marks but as I am sure you're aware there are a lot of people who are very set of a strictly undivided approach.

In the list I'm currently working on I use MoT on my Dark Apostle (partially for 3++ but I am also aiming to write my own back story to explain it - something along the lines of he is attempting to replicate Abaddon's favour of all the gods, gaining Tzeentch's first after recovering the Brand for him). I also use MoK on Possessed to make them better in combat. Plus, I feel that if most daemons are dedicated to one of the gods now (like how soul grinders and daemon princes have to be), it would make sense for possessed to have a mark as the daemons inside them would be of a certain god and would transfer some of their power over.

 

That is kind of how I want to build mine really. With fluffy units like the Dark Apostle and Possessed even though a lot of people won't use them at all. Hoping for a supplement some time soon though.

I actually have a small force of both Daemons and Guard to act as allies as I when I fancy so that's pretty cool then.

 

Awesome. That's actually what appealed to me about them too. I also really enjoyed playing them in Dawn of War though.

Yeah, definitely. I really want to write some of my own to bring my characters alive and give the army some character. Whilst I have a few ideas I am finding it hard to put it all together at the moment.

 

It's alright :P I actually appreciate seeing how other people have gone about starting their army. Been meaning to set up one myself.

 

Thanks again, looking forward to having a look through your thread.

[Tenebris]

Hmm

 

Dark Apostle HQ, with perhaps some Lord as Coryphaus. At least three squads of Cultists, one squad of Marines for some flavor and the rest is either Heldrake or Obliterator spam. The Helcult option is also a great addition to a Word Bearers host, actually making two out of three Cultist squads Fearless, leaving your Dark Apostle to babysit just one. An argument can be made for some Terminators but it goes in the realm of spare points. In all fairness marks should be used only on HQ and on Obliterators. The rest of the army you would want it in true Word Bearer style, cheap, expendable, brainwashed and effective in big numbers. Hell, you can even proxy the Raptors as an approximation for the Ashen Circle. 

[Rain]

The reason some people are opposed to marks on Word Bearers is that their original fluff had them worshiping Chaos as a truly "undivided" pantheon, seeing each god more as an aspect of a greater whole than as individual entities. Currently however, it seems like GW has moved away from that idea entirely, so marked WB are fine. The Mark of Chaos Undivided isn't even a thing anymore, and daemon princes must take marks, and as there are obviously WB daemon princes, WB do have specific marks in current fluff. As do followers of every Chaos legion. That said, I'd still stay away from things like Berzerkers or Plague Marines unless you intend to have them as "allies" (in the fluff sense, not the rules sense) from their respective legion which is of course totally fluffy and fine.

[incinerator950]

GW or random BL authors? 

[the jeske]

GW did it in the gav dex. The whole mark thing and WB is a strange thing . Either being marked by a god  works totaly different then it did in the past or the new chaos fluff makes no sense at all , because gods do not like for their worshipers to buff other gods , that is why abadon and belfegor were [and oddly are , because their fluff hasn't changed] so special.

 

Mechanics wise there are no WB anymore , so any mark is good [technicly , practicly its MoN on lords and oblits and that is more or less it] .

[MaliGn]

I've been thinking about how to run my own, I've essentially decided that the war band's structure is formed around a dark apostle and a cadre of dark acolytes. Each acolyte has his own preferred combat doctrine and they are employed by the apostle according to his visions of how victory will be gained. Certain acolytes would be more about the holy fervour, whereas others might be expert tacticians better suited forcontrol of a massive battlefront, others again might be particularly devoted to one of the pantheon. Each would have battle brothers with a particular loyalty to him, although they would all naturally follow the apostle. This way I can either use them as unit champions or promote any of them to Lord for a particular battle.

I'm still working on this idea as while it is a refinement of what I had been planning for a while it is a bit different. I've recently been reading through DanThe Demon's old night lords plog and this inspired me to choose this way forward.

Since I decided that my Dark Apostle would wear black armour in a parody of Imperial Chaplains, the Dark Acolytes sport black chest plates and bone helmets as a mark of distinction.

In terms of what units I take, since I am mostly a converter and painter it's all about the modelling idea. Since each squad would follow it's acolyte in terms of combat doctrine it can make for some neat themes.

[NoLifeKing]

Chaos undivided doesn't really translate to being blessed by all 4 gods of chaos. Its more like this: 4 different people all hate each other and will hate those who ally themselves with any other of the 4. and being chaos undivided represents neutral ground between the 4 forces in which you aren't hated nor specifically loved by any of them. 

As undivided servants maintain their neutral status by not sealing the deal with any single god of chaos but continue serving them all in equal measure. This leaves the members of chaos undivided  without the many gifts that falling under a single god might grant, but also does not earn you an enemy in the other gods.

I think this is well represented in the mechanics by simply leaving the model unmarked

[Scribe]

There was more an undivided 'thing' around the Liber Chaotica and 3.5 Era....but its been abandoned.

[Kol Saresk]

Undivided was supposed to represent the alliance and lack of division(hence undivided) between the myriad forces f Chaos. The prime example being Abaddon who took the four various Marks and combine them into one, removing the dividing conflict that would normally happen between two Gods choosing the same person. As a result, his Legion mirrors him by having warbands from every walk of Chaos from Khorne to Tzeentch.

 

But when we reached the Word Bearers "Undivided" became "Unaligned" even though they're the ones who take a pantheon approach which implies asking specific Gods for specific favors that are supposed to fall within their "realms of responsibilities".

[Brother Heinrich]

My friend, whose Word Bearers I'm currently painting, runs this list:

 

Primary Detachment:

• Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armor

• 5 Chaos Terminators with Combi-Meltas and Power Weapons

• Chaos Landraider

• 20 Cultists

• 10 Chaos Marines with 2 Plasma Guns in a Rhino

 

Allied Detachment:

• Herald of Slaanesh

• 20 Daemonettes

• Soul Grinder with a Phlegm Cannon

• 6 Screamers of Tzeentch

 

That's his 1500 point list. It's really fun to play against and really conveys the "feel" of the Word Bearers on the tabletop. His Sorcerer camps inside the mass of cultist minions and usually holds down a home objective, while the terminators and chaos marine move up in the landraider and rhino. The soul grinder provides fire support from the opposite side of the field while the screamers provide a good in-your-face disruption unit. He's also got 3 troop choices which is definitely a plus in objective games.

 

As for fluff he wrote background for a good amount of his characters, his lord is Othudel Los, master of the Forsaken Truth chapter of the Word Bearers Legion. His ship is a Desolater Class Battleship known as The Crimson Pillar. His Terminator champion is called Maunauk and is actually an Imperial Fist traitor.

 

Hope that helps to inspire you and give you some ideas. Welcome to the B&C!

[Dragonlover]

I plan on having a small Word Bearer contingent with Orks as allies. Thing is, I'm just gonna use the codex, the models will be converted to be the cultist rabble and their cobbled together machinery.

 

Dragonlover

[MaliGn]

It has however been a long held understanding that Word Bearers warbands follow the decrees of their dark apostles. Which vary wildly and are subject to the influence of the gods over that Apostle's visions and their connection to chaos. Which basically says go crazy and do what you like then blame it on the warp, dress it up in some religious way and off you go.

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

You should check out - 21st Host of the Word Bearer topic over on warseer.  As well as some great models painted & converted, the memeber also has some background which is pretty cool as well on there force:

 

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?344133-21st-Host-of-the-Word-Bearers-Legion&highlight=throne+skulls

 

IP

 

 

[Dallas Drake]

Hi,

I'm a first time 40k player who wants to build a fluffy Word Bearers army.

Was wondering if many others take this route over competitive power builds and how you best represent your sons of Lorgar with the current rules.

For example:

Do you use marks?

Are there units one tends to shy away from or are a 'must have' in this type of army?

Allies?

Do you write your own supporting fluff that explains differences to what we know from the official fluff? E.g. The composition of a host is really based on DA's preference so yours might happily be filled with plague marines if your apostle is favoured by nurgle.

Do you use the new DA or continue to proxy a lord?

Hopefully this will help stimulate my own thoughts on how to build my own army. In a community of fellow fluffy players who are not focused on optimal builds but how to best represent their chosen army on the field.

Thanks

Do you use marks? Yes

Are there units one tends to shy away from or are a 'must have' in this type of army? Not really. Must have for me is a unit of Possessed. I don't take any Cult Troops (not my thing).

Allies? Daemons, but only after 2k for me. I usually make sure I get a Bloodthirster in there somewhere

At 2K I run (Crimson Slaughter)

HQ Sorcerer Psychic Level +2 Prophet of Voices Balestar of Mannon Melta Bombs

HQ Lord Mark of Nurgle Bike Daemonheart Blade of the Relentless

TROOP Possessed Chaos Space Marines x 15 Mark of Khorne Icon of Wrath

TROOP Cultists x 10 Autoguns x 7 Flamer

TROOP Cultists x 10 Autoguns x 7 Flamer

FAST Heldrake

FAST Heldrake

FAST Chaos Bikes x 5 Mark of Nurgle Meltagun x2

HEAVY Obliterator x 1 Mark of Nurgle

HEAVY Obliterator x 2 Mark of Nurgle

HEAVY Obliterator x 2 Mark of Nurgle

DATA SUP

ELITE Helbrute

TROOP Cultists x 10

TROOP Cultists x 10