Ancient Tirion Fording Captain of the Ardentguard

[Saintnz]

Ancient Tirion Fording    Captain
of the Ardentguard

 

WS         BS           S              T
             W            I               A             LD           SV           PTS

 6             6              4              5              3             5              3              10           2+           155

 

Tirion Fording may be purchased as an upgrade to a squad of
Ardentguard.

 

Unit type: Infantry (character)

Wargear: Mantle of the Praetorian, Ash Bringer, Boltgun, Boltpistol,
frag&krak grenades.

Special rules: The faithful, The Praetorian, Divine Shield, And they shall know
no fear.

                Mantle of the Praetorian:
As much a badge of office as it is a suit of armour. This ornate suit of
artificer armour grants Tirion a 2+ armour and  5+ invulnerable save and the feel no pain
special rule.

Ash Bringer: this artefact of the great crusade belonged to one of the
custodian guards who defended the imperial palace during the Horus Heresy.
Stolen by Arghast the defiler, Fording slew him at the battle of Two Suns and
cleansed the weapon for its righteous use. It has the following profile: Rng: -
S: +2 Ap: 3 Type: melee, soulblaze, Ash bringer, master crafted.

  Ash Bringer: whenever the ash bringer’s
soulblaze rule inflicts one or more unsaved wounds, roll a D6 for every unit
within 6” of the unit that suffered the wound. On a roll of a 5+, that unit is
set ablaze as for the soul blaze special rule. NOTE this soulblaze does not
benefit from the ash bringer rule.

  The Praetorian: Tirion Fording embodies
what it means to be a noble warrior, upholding the virtues of the Space Marine.
He is the Commander of the Ardentguard they are the Shield of the chapter
stalwart in their charge. Units of Ardentguard form honour guards for the
chapters command. If Tirion Fording is in your army you may take one more unit
of Ardentguard than would normally be allowed. Additionally, if Tirion is in
combat with a model that has the ‘independent character’ rule or ’unit type:
character’, that model MUST direct its attacks against Tirion and cannot accept
nor issue challenges. When charging you must ensure the model(s) affected by
this rule end their charge in base contact with Tirion.  

  Divine shield: A model with this rule
discards the first wound suffered in the first round of each combat they are
involved in.

 

 

[Rapture747]

He has a lot going on, which is typically not a good thing if you ever want to actually play with him (the less for your opponent to remember, the better).

 

Good:

Having him as a character rather than an IC is an interesting limitation. But without the squad's stats and rules, it makes it difficult to judge him.

 

I think that the unique armor is a cool idea and trading a point of invulnerable save for FNP is pretty close to a wash.

 

Bad:

The point cost is a bit off. A regular Captain with artificier armor and a standard relic blade is 135 points. That is at 1 less BS and T. Toughness increases are suspect because they change the ID threshhold, which is also import when you are incorporating FNP. If we thrown in a Mark of Nurgle for 15 points and tack on the BS increase for 5 points, there is still a lot that this guy has left over.

 

The Praetorian reads like a way to get around the limitations that a challenge sticks on combat. It will essentially allow your unit to treat opposing characters and independent characters as pinatas while their attacks bounce off the Divine shield.

 

The Divine Shield will get you a stare from across the table when your opponent's MC hits you with a smash attack and you tell him that it doesn't count. I know that it only counts during the first round, but situationally it is very powerful.

 

 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't be thrilled to play against him using the standard codex, but I would at least be willing to give it a shot (minus The Praetorian).