Feuer Faust's Fallen

[feuer_faust]

I have decided to make my Chaos army that of the Fallen Dark Angels. This due in part to my primary opponent's army (Dark Angels) and due in part to my inability to make up my mind for very long when it comes to paint schemes.

 

The actual amount of Fallen present in the army will be somewhat small; I'm thinking the chaos lord and either some Chosen or a unit of troops. It doesn't seem like there are ever that many Fallen in a place at once, so this might represent that decently enough. The rest will be made up of the rag-tag mercenaries and cravens of the Chaos Space Marine legions and their minions. There might be an Iron Warrior warpsmith and his pet Maulerfiend, as well as Night Lord Raptors and plague marines of the Purge. Chaos is always described as a legion of infighting warbands, and as being quite mercenary besides.

 

The goals of this particular group of Fallen is nothing less than the liberation of mankind from the Imperium. Quite specifically, the modern Imperium is nothing like the promised one the former Dark Angels fought and died for, and they're quite upset about it. They know that if they are successful, the galaxy will be subjected to the twisted whims of chaos and xenos alike, and a goodly portion of the human population will suffer and die. It's worth that price, however, as these Fallen believe that after destroying the Imperium, destroying Chaos and aliens will be easy. Then, with the spare survivors of this age of horror, they will forge a new, better society. The leaders of this new society, of course, will be the Fallen (so we don't get confused and think these are Robin Hood "save the poor" sorts of guys... they're villains).

 

That's about where I've gotten, any feedback or ideas is appreciated.

[Olis]

Hmm. So they're the delusional, "we're the medicine" kind of bad guys, eh? Renegades but with a greater goal. Do any of them have a megalomaniacal bent, perchance? Have they revealed their intentions to their minions? Do they keep them in the dark and use whatever 'tools' come to hand?

[feuer_faust]

Oh, definitely the delusional messiah types. I am sure that, individual motivations run from "at last, the power denied to me" to "we'll just make a better Imperium! With blackjack!"

 

The overall plan definitely is not shared with mercenaries, although local militias and rabble might be promised a brighter future free from the shackles of tyranny. This sect of the Fallen definitely despise chaos worshippers, and in particular the Chaos Marines. The primary reason likely stems from their abhorrence of the whole God-Emperor bit, as they feel that they have enough power on their own to forge destiny without the nonexistent favors of the Emperor or the fickle gifts of the Chaos Gods. To succumb to worship is, for them, the greatest sin against mankind's natural greatness (somewhat similar to how daemons feel concerning working for mortals).

 

While these particular Fallen aren't exactly quiet about their dislike of Chaos, they also are loathe to throw away perfectly serviceable tools. As such, they pay whatever bizarre or mundane bounty that is required to secure that extra help. They know that in the end, sudden but inevitable betrayals will occur. They just know that will be at the top of the heap after all's said and done.

 

On a side note, I am going to think of a warband name, perhaps, to go along with "The Fallen", since they might not want to call themselves that. Or maybe they do, just ironically.

[Aegnor]

Seems like a sound premise for a Fallen led war band. Do they try to stay away from the Unforgiven, or do they plan to start their destruction of the Imperium with the descendants of the 1st Legion?

[feuer_faust]

Hmm, that's a fair question, and one I hadn't considered. Due to my selection of opponents, I'm going to be fighting Dark Angels fairly frequently. Thus, while I'm sure that most Fallen would rather stay away, I'm guessing that these guys not only willingly engage the Dark Angels in battle, but likely try to get them to turn traitor as well. Perhaps that's part of their overall goal, proving to their misguided brothers that if their own Imperium can be subverted with cults and rebels so easily and frequently, perhaps it's too sick to defend in the first place. Odds are most Dark Angels will stubbornly defend the Imperium anyway, but the Fallen are never so picky as to turn down any defectors, even if it's just one marine who survives a horrific ambush that the Fallen laid for them.

[Conn Eremon]

For the purpose of forging a narrative and all that, the Dark Angels army could be actively hunting you and trying to bring you to ruin and repentance. Not every Fallen is a Cypher, forever eluding the First Legion, so it stands to reason that most Fallen armies are uncovered, hunted down and assaulted.

 

It just seems more fitting for the Dark Angels to seek out the battles the two get caught up in.

[hummus]

Hmm, that's a fair question, and one I hadn't considered. Due to my selection of opponents, I'm going to be fighting Dark Angels fairly frequently. Thus, while I'm sure that most Fallen would rather stay away, I'm guessing that these guys not only willingly engage the Dark Angels in battle, but likely try to get them to turn traitor as well. Perhaps that's part of their overall goal, proving to their misguided brothers that if their own Imperium can be subverted with cults and rebels so easily and frequently, perhaps it's too sick to defend in the first place. Odds are most Dark Angels will stubbornly defend the Imperium anyway, but the Fallen are never so picky as to turn down any defectors, even if it's just one marine who survives a horrific ambush that the Fallen laid for them.

Perhaps your Fallen HQ could be a dark apostle then

[feuer_faust]

Cormac, that's fair enough reasoning. Although I might counter with the fact that it's taken them ten thousand years and there are still Fallen lurking about. Maybe it's a 50/50 sort of thing, a game of "Cat and Also Cat".

 

Hummus: that's a great idea and one I never even considered. Would be especially good if another sorcerer or lord was present, letting the Fallen be the secret power behind the overt warlord. :D

[feuer_faust]

A bit of an update here. In particular, I stopped doing anything for a while since I moved to Texas. And then back to Colorado. Huzzah!

 

I'm a fan of the Alpha Legion, both for its colors and its whole infiltrate, sow discord, we're totally chaos/we're totally not chaos deal. And frankly, a lot of it meshes with my Fallen idea pretty well. To that end, I'm considering featuring Alpha Legion in at least one squad (or maybe a prominent transport). Sure, they're both incredibly sneaky and untrusting, but they have the greatest chance of working together and not getting butt-hurt when the inevitable betrayal happens (comes in the profession). To that end, they might be eyeing each other suspiciously mid-battle...

 

And to that end, I've been thinking about making my unit of Fallen come from the Dark Angels book. Specifically, they'd be "come the Apocalypse" with the rest of the armor, and their singular sense of purpose (some might say arrogance) would let them Know No Fear. However, they would still despise and hate the rest of the army, and would keep a healthy distance less they find themselves targets of opportunity. Although the only downside is that the Inner Circle models wouldn't get their preferred enemy bonus against these particular Fallen (which could be them fighting carefully to NOT kill them for interrogations... although if they'd prefer ANYONE as enemies, it'd be the Fallen).

 

In my last couple of games, I fielded the Fallen as Chosen with Veterans of the Long war... both games they were the last to survive (even leaving the table in one game where we found ourselves out-VPd by a good 3 to 1). So the army's definitely keeping to it's own fluff!

 

Any thoughts or input?

[Knurd]

While I was reading this it seemed you had an Alpha Legion vibe going. Although I'm not sure if the Alpha Legion plays well with others (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

A different tactic could be to send disposible Marines somewhere to draw the Unforgiven while they do their primary objective. I guess more of a smoke and mirrors approach.