The Renegade Legion

[simison]

I'd say 1D3 per 5/10 units engaged in combat.

 

 

So, if he's in combat with a twenty man squad, he would rule 2D3?

[Slips]

Either 2 D3 (or a sigle d6) or 4D3 (if we go with per 5) / 2D6.

[Black Cohort]

His ability should not be tied to enemy unit size both for simplicity and so his opponent isn't punished for bringing a bigger squad.

[simison]

Agreed. The simpler 1d6 if in a challenge should suffice. Between the unique warp charge rule, and this flamer-force stave, I think we've got a pretty good idea on what Mahtva has and how he stands out as a Warden. I'll write up an initial entry for him later today.

[Slips]

Alright looks cool!

 

You should do mini fights with equivalent characters for them as your doing with Alex too. Though, whatever you do, try to avoid pitting any of them against Sigismund :P

[simison]

[You know I hadn't thought of that. I believe your idea has merit, though I'll need to be careful of matching heroes with their own weight class. And because you mentioned it, the first one will be Irvin vs Sigismund. But how many duels should I do? Should I just go through each legion and try to match the right unique characters? Also, if you don't want Dorn to face Alex next, you should give me another primarch.]

 

 

Even after dissolving into total insanity, the II legion still saw through each ploy that Alpharius and Omegon enacted. Neither knew why it had happened, but every single Warden had gone mad and launched a crusade of fire against the Imperium. By happenstance, an Alpha Legion scout ship had been the first to discover the truth and had alerted the rest of the Alpha Legion. The XXth legion had deployed to contain their erstwhile brothers, until reinforcements arrived to deliver the final blow. 

 

The tables abruptly shifted when a third of the legion charged against Alpharius' command position, despite using every trick he had known to make his location a secret. Lernean terminators died behind him as he struggled to escape from this unfolding disaster. Only a single kilometer away was a stormbird that could evacuate him to safety. So far, the secret tunnels he used hadn't been compromised. Almost there. He reached the exit and took a moment to deactivate the traps around it. Now safe, he opened the door onto the landing pad. A hideous cackle greeted him as his brother awaited him.

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Foreboding/Terrify/Shriek

 

Alpharius wins the roll, burning off 1 wound. Crazy Alex does not appreciate this and promptly takes 2 wounds off with Shriek and manifests Duelist before shooting back, removing 1 more wound. Alex tackles Alpharius, stabbing 2 more wounds, leaving Alpha on his last one already. Alpha stabs another one back. No IWND.

 

Crazy Alex promptly stabs off 4 more wounds, 1 for the kill and 3 more because he's now a demented backstabber. 

 

[Like Corax, Alpharius needs to shoot Alex down a few wounds before he gets too close.]

 

"Where is he?" Omegon demanded. They had lost contacted with his twin's position twenty minutes ago and the on-going lack of information unnerved him. 

 

"Sir! He's coming right at us!" One of his sons shouted. 

 

"My brother?"

 

"The Warden Primarch!" 

 

Omegon turned his head and saw his brother with a gaggle of Wardens running straight at their permission. With his enhanced vision, Omegon could see the grisly trophy Alexandros carried. "Open fire!"

[Slips]

Well, Sigismund will probably be a really good benchmark for Irvin since he is one of - if not THE - best character killer outside of Primarchs :p

 

I'd say you just look for similar characters regardless of Legion and match them up accordingly. Maybe make it HQ + Signature Squad (if they have one) if you think you can do it.

 

As for Dorn being next..I actually want to see that.

[simison]

Mahtva                                                                                                155 Points    

Guru of Banhi, Chief Librarian of the Halcyon Wardens, The Flame

 

                               WS    BS     S      T     W     I      A     LD     Sv

Mahtva                       6       4      4      4      2      5     4      9      2+

 

 

Unit Composition

• 1 (Unique)
  

​Unit Type

• Infantry (Character)
  

Wargear

• Artificer Armor
  
• Combat Shield
  
• Bolt Pistol 
  
• Fatiscebant Ignis
  
• Pugaree
  

​Special Rules

• Legiones Astartes (Halcyon Wardens)
  
• Independent Character
  
• Level 3 Psyker 
  
• Asymmetrical Zen
  

 

Asymmetrical Zen

While most battle psykers maintain a balance between offense and defense, Mahtva deliberately places more of his efforts in a strong offense at the cost of his defense. When generating warp charges, generate 1 more than his mastery level during your psychic phase. In contrast, during your opponent's psychic phase, generate 1 less than his mastery level.

 

Fatiscebant Ignis

This plain, metal rod is rarely suspected as an icon of Mahtva's authority. Only it battle does Mahtva reveal it's true form: a stave of living fire to consume his enemies. Yet, fire is a difficult element to master and, while it offers enormous power, it can come at a painful price.

 

                                  Range       S       AP       Type

Fatiscebant Ignis               -           +2       4         Melee, Soul Blaze, Gets Hot!, Concussive, Force, Restless Conflagration*

                                 Template      5       5

 

During close combat, anytime Mahtva rolls a 6, he may spend a warp charge point to activate this attack. Upon activation, he unleashes a flame attack with the secondary attack profile. If currently in a duel when activated, roll a D6 to determine how many wounds inflicted.

[simison]

"And this is why we never got along," Alexandros said sarcastically as he held Aegis before him.

 

The Praetorian of Terra ignored his quip. "Alexandros Darshan VonSalim. You are under orders to stand down and be brought before the Emperor in judgement. Will you yield?"

 

"Horus is burning through the Imperium. Can you afford to turn away my aid? Especially with Father struggling to defend Terra from the Golden Throne," Alexandros countered. "For once in your life, could you ignore the letter of the law and simply allow me to help?"

 

Dorn hefted Storm's Teeth. "I give you one last chance. Will you yield?"

 

Out of his many brothers, Alexandros enjoyed a great many friendships. There were exceptions of course. Some brothers brought nothing but misery when they met. Others avoided him entirely. Yet, out of all twenty of his brothers, only one frustrated him to the point beyond control. With a disgruntled grunt, he answered, "No."

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Foreboding/Shriek/Hallucination!

 

After not one, but two rerolls, Alex wins the first turn. He manifests both Foreboding and Shriek, but then rolls three 1's for Duelist. (I admit, I'm a little wary of three 1's after that last battle.) Shriek does 1 wound before Ultimatum adds 2 more. 

 

Dorn advances and doesn't fire so he can make the assault. Foreboding does nothing for poor rolls and Overwatch passes without fanfare. No Hammer of Wrath means Alex stabs first, dealing 1 more wound. Dorn makes his first swing...and rolls two 2's, two 1's and one 3....oy vey. One hit turns into one wound, but Aegis blocks. Dorn gets IWND.

 

Despite 8 warp charges, Alex doesn't Peril and Dorn fails to Deny by one 6. Dorn loses another wound, and rolls 2 hits, which fizzles against Aegis. No IWND.

 

[Again, not enough hitting, even when he only needs 3's to do so. With Shred, Dorn has a reasonable chance to get wounds, but he needs to hit first. Also, I'm not sure how to use Voice of Terra. Would it be better for him to not advance and open fire on Alex? I'm not inclined to think so, but when Dorn has a round to go first, we'll get a look at how useful the Voice might be.]

 

 The Primarch of the Imperial Fists is caught by his arms and is thrown against a wall. "Will you just listen to me, for once!?" Alexandros cried as he stomped a boot onto Dorn's neck, careful not to make it life-threatening. Dorn struggled, but the more he tried, the harder Alexandros squeezed. "I can help you protect Terra! Between the two of us, no legion can hope to break us! All you need to do is trust me. Is that so much to ask?"

 

The glare aimed at him wasn't encouraging.

[simison]

With that though, the Halcyon Warden Appendix is finished, unless I'm forgetting anything. And just in time too. It looks like I will be able to play an apoc game tomorrow with friends. 4K per player, 2 vs 2. I've already been cleared to use my Wardens, and the possible opponents are Dark Eldar/Eldar, Eldar/Black Templar/Knight Titan, and a Space Wolf or Tau or...something else. This guy can't make up his mind which army he wants to play, but I think he was playing Space Wolves this week, and he does have a detachment of Tau. 

 

Without question, I am fielding Alexandros and at least two Myrmidon squads, probably the Medicae again. Definitely going to need some AA, so I'll try out the Contemptor-Mortis dreadnoughts. Beyond that, just need to balance it out. And, this time, I might field one unit using a different legion's rules. I'm going to start working on it right now and welcome any suggestions.

[Russ Brother 92]

I'm a little confused though - how did you get two rerolls? If it's rerolling a reroll, I don't feel it should be allowed as it's a definitive part of the rules "you can't reroll a reroll..."

 

He also seems to (very easily might I add) trump every Primarch he's faced barring perhaps Horus.

[simison]

It's the first roll to see who goes first. That one has to be kept rerolling until somebody wins it.

 

As for trumping, not far off but not quite. In all honesty, I probably shouldn't have done the Corax and maybe Alpharius fights, since they're not true duelists. The first three, Horus, Lorgar (Transcended), and Mortarion put up much bigger fights and were able to kill Alex at least once. And that's one reason I'm holding Fulgrim for last. He's supposed to be the ultimate duelist, so he'll provide a good ending mark. I'm not sure about Dorn yet because it's only been one fight so far. 

 

And I have my initial list. I apologize for the formatting, but it's so much simpler to copy and paste.

 

Halcyon Wardens

LoW: Alexandros                                                                                                                                  Total – 460

HQ: Primus Medicae + Artificer Armor [10] + Refractor Field [10]                                                         Total - 105

TRP: Myrmidon SQD [200] + Cyclone [15] + PF [5]                                                                              Total – 220

TRP: Myrmidon SQD [200] + Cyclone [15] + PF [5]                                                                              Total – 220

TRP: Breacher SQD + 10 Breachers [100]                                                                                             Total – 325

TRP: TAC SQD [150] + 10 men [100]                                                                                                    Total – 250

TRP: TAC SQD [150] + 10 men [100]                                                                                                    Total – 250

EL: Contemptor Dreadnought + 2^ndCCW [Fr]                                                                                       Total – 175

DT: Dreadnought Drop Pod                                                                                                                   Total – 60

EL: Contemptor-Mortis [155] + T-L Laz [30]                                                                                          Total – 185

DT: Dreadnought Drop Pod                                                                                                                   Total – 60

EL: Contemptor [175] + T-L Autocannon [5]                                                                                          Total – 180

EL: Parisada Detachment [25] + 1 Psyker [25]                                                                                      Total - 50                          

F/A: Storm Eagle Assault Gunship [210] + T-L MM [15] + T-L Laz [40]                                                 Total – 265

H/S: Fire Raptor Gunship                                                                                                                       Total – 200

H/S: Sicaran Battle Tank [135] + Laz sponsons [40] + Prefect [10]                                                        Total – 185

H/S: Sicaran Battle Tank [135] + H.B. Sponsons [20] + Prefect [10]                                                       Total – 165

H/S: Spartan [295] + Armored Ceramite [20]                                                                                          Total – 315

H/S: Land Raider Achilles                                                                                                                       Total – 300

 

 

It comes to 4k exactly and is easily using most of my models that I own....actually, maybe a little more than I own because I only have about 15 TACs, so I'm going to have to do some kind of substitution there. Initial idea is to break the army into 1 third - 2 thirds: 1 TAC squad, 1 Myrmidon squad and possibly the Sicaran tanks hang back to secure rear objective/deal with drop pod enemies. Meanwhile, Alex with Breacher Squad load up into the Spartan, while the other Myrmidon squad take the achilles and advance toward the next objective/toward the enemy with a Contemptor up front providing an improved cover save. Contemptor-Mortis in Drop pod to deal with air power, while the other Contemptor melee is to drop for early harassment and early kills. Other TAC squad in Storm Eagle for late game objective grabbing. One psyker will be attached to the advancing Myrmidon, and the other in the rear. 

 

Who my ally is will probably make a big difference. Nate will be there, and he'll have the most experience out of the four of us, but the other two have played a bunch of games, so there'll be no slouching. The biggest enemy unit might be Nate's wraithknight or his Knight Titan. And that's the general idea I have.

[Slips]

Honestly, the list looks good if only you could bump up the # of Infantry in the individual squads. You have a lot of vehicular threats so I don't really see your troops being prioritized all that much initially. 

 

Concerning the Duel with Dorn, hopefully you didn't forget the special rule of his armor where he cannot be wounded on greater than a 3+, right? so you could only wound him on 4+, 5+ and 6+ rules (is how I interpret it, anyways).

 

I also agree with Russbrother on Re-rolling re-rolls. IIRC, the BRB says you cannot Re-roll Re-rolls...soo...yeah...

[simison]

First, it's the roll to see who goes first. I apologize for using the word 'reroll', but somebody has to go first and a draw just don't cut it. 

 

Second, I was under the impression the rule meant you could never wound him on a 2+, since it has to be greater than a 3+. Hmmm, would that mean he ignores auto wounds too? Either way, Alex can only wound Dorn on a 4+, since Xiphos uses his base strength of 6 vs Dorn's Toughness of 6. 

 

Finally, I am happy to report the Wardens (with an uncomfirmed alliance with Eldar/Dark Eldar) won their first battle. Victory was achieved by 2 victory points, though Alexandros was critically wounded when he was caught without Duelist and charged by a 15-man blood claw unit while being tied in a duel with a Black Templar Chaplain with the Shield Eternal. 

 

Highlights: A Myrmidon squad deployed on the left flank successfully dealt with a drop podding Contemptor Dreadnought attacking them, though it tied them up for most of the battle.

 

The Sicaran tanks and their Prefects survived the battle nearly unscathed and dealt damage here and there, with one excellent round of shooting knocking off 3 hull points of the Knight titan. 

 

The Dreadnought Drop Pod transporting the melee Contemptor absorbed an entire turn of shooting from a Vindicator, Demolisher Leman Russ, and an armored Sentinel. The melee Contemptor didn't share in its luck after securing the nearby objective only to be hit by a Space Wolf psychic power and shot down by nearby Long Fangs. 

 

On the last turn, the Fire Raptor killed that same Long Fang squad with a single turret. 

 

Low points: The other Myrmidon squad wasn't able to accomplish much before running into a 6-man Thunderwolf Cavalry with Storm shields. Tied them up for a couple of turns, but ultimately was killed. 

 

Achilles vs Achilles isn't much of a fight. In fact, killing an Achilles is 3x harder than killing a Spartan Assault tank.

 

 

Beyond that, the Wardens proved their durability by losing only 5 units (1 Contemptor, Alex, Myrmidon Sqd, Drop pod, & the Breachers)

[Slips]

Was just making sure you didn't forget Dorns rather unique armor rule! And since it was for determining who went first, then yeah...ignore that last comment.

 

Glad to see the Halcyon Wardens are a capable force. Means we got some things right :p

 

Next would be to see how your other special characters fare and how their Legion rules interact with Irvin and his way of changing things up.

[simison]

This is true. Wednesday is usually 40k day, so I'll see if I can set up another 2k game with Irvin in command. 

 

Though, I have to say, one of the biggest troubles I had during the Apoc game was simply going back and forth between all of the different weapon systems on my vehicles.

 

And, that reminds me, a psyker can't buff units outside a transport, but does that also apply to 'Sire of...' rules and other army-wide buffs? Because of that, Alex wasn't being too useful in the Spartan (which immobilized itself in a ruin on turn 3, *sigh*). If that does apply, does that mean I should have Alex footslog with his bodyguards? I'm wary of putting him in a Myrmidon unit (ironically) because they can't run and he can't improve their invul save. 

 

I also errata'd the Myrmidon entry, allowing only 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher for every 5 Myrmidon. 

[simison]

Alright, by far, the biggest complaint I received about the Wardens were centered on the Myrmidon. Most of it about were about their cost, so I went and did another round of research on unique Terminators with special attention on the Salamanders' Firedrakes. In short, I've come to the same conclusion. While additional terminators are always cheaper, the first terminators' price ranges from 40 - 60. To make the Myrmidon more balanced, I've increased the model price base to 50 points per model and removed the Split Fire special rule. 

[simison]

Dorn's thumb hovered over Storm's Teeth's activation rune. Even with his incredible response time, he knew the damage being done was catastrophic. One rampaging Primarch was terrifying enough, but two? And, of the two, Dorn didn't know which was the worse because one of them was somehow avoiding all of their detection. The other, for better or for worse, was conducting himself with much less subtly. 

 

He was soon sprinting past bodies of space marines. Armored in yellow. His sons. Rage whispered into his ear, begging him to unleash it and bask in vengeance. The Praetorian of Terra ignored it. He had built his life around the ideals of the Imperial Creed. Even if some of his other brothers ignored it, Dorn would never betray it. He did not have much time to ruminate on the subject as he deactivated a barricade. On the other side was his target.

 

"Brother! Cease and desist immediately!" Dorn pleaded as he entered one of the smaller ship hangars. "Whatever plot you and Konrad have conspired to enact will be brought to an end!" 

 

Alexandros thrusted and ended the life of a Thallax. As the cyborg collapsed, Alexandros shuddered and Dorn could hear a quiet noise emanate from him. Is that laughter?  When Alexandros turned, surprise caught Dorn off-guard. His brother's face was streaming with tears and a look of utter horror and misery. "Rogal..." He whispered. "Please, make the visions stop." 

 

Dorn knew of his brother's power of predicting the future, but never did Alexandros ever refer to what he saw as 'visions'. He always preferred the terms 'possibilities', 'alternate realities' or other terms without a mystical nature to them. No, visions sounded much more like what Konrad referred to what he saw. The Praetorian kept ready for attack, but tried one more appeal. "Brother, I do not know what happened between you and Konrad, but whatever damage done, you can be restored."

 

Alexandros wildly shook his head. "No, no, it's too late," he replied as his gaze drew toward upward. "I've seen too much. Too much, too much, too much." His stare snapped back toward Dorn. He pointed Xiphos at him and charged. "JUST KILL ME!"

 

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Shriek/Invisibility

Dorn wins the roll and holds position as he opens on Alex. One rending shot bypasses armor but is stopped by invul. 

 

Alex has 5 warp charges, splits them 2 - Shriek & 3 - Duelist. Botches on Shriek, then gets 1 success on Duelist, which Dorn Denies! Ultimatum burns off 1 wound. For the first time since I started this series, a Primarch fails the charge. Granted, needed a 12, but its still a first. 

 

Dorn eschews the Voice of Terra as he advances, then charges. Alex is unprepared as he hits 1, then fails to wound. Dorn takes advantage of his weakness and scores 2 wounds on Alex. Dorn gets IWND.

 

Alex Perils on Duelist and loses Invisibility for the rest of the fight. Even with Duelist, he only scores 1 wound on Dorn before Dorn deals 1 wound in return. No IWND.

 

Dorn suffers 2 more wounds before he gets his chance to strike back. 2 hits, then double 6's on the wound roll put him in a good place. Alex rolls a 3 & 1, then rerolls a 6 & 1, ending the fight. 

 

[Well, Dorn was able to hit, Shred ensured that translated into wounds, and even with reroll, Aegis can't block it all.]

 

While there was no love lost between them, Dorn rued this fight. Whatever madness had infected Alexandros had weakened him, his vaunted defense suffering from cracks, which allowed Dorn to inflict grievous injuries. As they fought, Alex's technique grew wilder and sloppier. With a final blow, Dorn's mighty chainblade cut through Alexandro's left arm before he slammed its pommel into Alexandros' skull. The Primarch of the Wardens fell. 

 

Around them, Imperial Fists rushed in, only seconds behind their gene-father's last strike, Sigismund at their head. His greatest son walked up to him. "What do we do with him, my lord?" 

 

"Secure him and see to his injuries," Dorn answered as he sheathed Storm's Teeth. "I will not go down in history as the first Primarch to slay one of his brothers, and I want to know what transpired between him and Konrad."

[Slips]

Like these fights a lot, really shows that its mostly up to RNGesus to see if your Primarch comes out on top :P

I'm wondering if you used Dorns special rule to halve his attacks, rounding down after all bonuses, to get +2S and ID. Granted against Eternal Warrior, this would be less worth it.

Also, man, the fluff from those Primarch Fights

[simison]

A lot of it really depends on the Psychic phase. Again and again, whenever Alex doesn't have his powers, he goes from nearly unbeatable to just a decent fighter. Which fits the spirit I intended. One of the least physically-imposing Primarch's but quick and the third most powerful Psyker makes him deadly. 

 

I haven't because Shred compensates for the 5+ he needs as opposed to hits which has no reroll. For the last fight, I'll go ahead and use it and see if it makes a difference since it does move his edge almost equally from 'to hit' to 'to wound'. 

 

Also, thank you! I was seriously consider stopping my little blurbs because no one seemed to be enjoying them, even though I was putting little tidbits that will make their way to the 'canon' storyline. 

[Raktra]

I only just realised this was your thread. I wanted to chip in and help like you did for me, but I appear to be too late :c But I'm here!

[simison]

I appreciated it. A lot of the initial stuff has been done, but you're more than welcome to go through what I have and add any more comments. As it stands right now, I have the Appendix side done, but as we all know, sometimes you need to tweak things and add errata/Faqs as needed. 

 

And there's one very specific way you can help me: pick the next Primarch to fight. I've gone through 5 with Dorn being 6, and I'm still asking people to choose the next fights so they get to see their favorite (or least favorite) Primarch go toe-to-toe with Alexandros.

 

Since I'm on the subject, the amount of rule-making left is almost to an end. At this point, actual play experience is needed to make sure the rules are translating fluffy intent into battlefield practicality. That said, there is one major area of rules left: campaign creations. Every Horus Heresy rulebook has come with a campaign to feature the mentioned legions and the Wardens will receive the same treatment. 

 

But, that's for later. For the next segment, I am going to focus on fluff creation, writing out the actual Warden chapter that you'd normally find in the rulebooks. So no actual stories (that's for The Third Son), just codex-style background info. I imagine it'll be primarily solo, but there'll be times when I'll need help coming up with stuff, so we'll see. 

 

And the character duels will continue with Irvin coming after Alex and Pyrrhicles then finally Mahtva. (Out of curiosity, has anyone figured out where I got the name?)

 

So, that's the short-term and long-term goals. Beyond the long-term goals, I'd like to write a major What if? scenario where the Wardens never suffer the Cataclysm and are there when the Horus Heresy hits. Actually, I'd like to do 2 versions of it. 

 

One, is pretty much a major writing part that I'll be spearheading.

 

Two is where the Cataclysm does occur, but the Wardens return to make their impact felt. For this, I'd like to try to make it a kind of community game of it. The vague idea is that I'd have polls or voting sessions and dice rolling make events happen. 

 

For example: Alex is uses Divination to figure out the next critical point of the Horus Heresy which happens to be the Emperor's Children exterminating the Laer. He moves to intercept:

 

Vote!

1) Slaanesh - "Don't let him near my future legion!" Warp Storm stops the Wardens from reaching the EC

2) Khorne - "Let him! More blood to spill in the oncoming war and no legion for Slaanesh!" Wardens reach EC

3) Let Fate Decide! Roll D3 to decide what happens next

 

Obviously very rough idea, but I think it can be fun.

[Slips]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Mahatma Ghandi? :p

 

As for the Fate of the EC : Do you mean that the choice results in the Particular Alignment of the EC or is it the Alignment of the HW?

 

If you were to do a vote style "choose their fate" deal I think it'd be best to have all four gods represented with a 5th "random" option. You could also expand it to affect Loyalist Legions and do a Dornian Heresy type deal.

[simison]

Yes, you're right Slipstreams. You get an internet cookie. I was trying to think up a name, going through past Indian conquerors and generals, when I happened to think of him. And the irony was simply too delicious to pass up. 

 

In that particular example, it would affect the alignment of the EC. The Wardens would start Loyalist, but I think it'd be possibly to add a Corruption Counter or some sort of system. 

 

The original idea was to have all 4 Chaos gods weigh in, but I just wanted to throw out a quick example. The fifth item could be a loyalist weighing in or the Emperor himself trying to guide the Wardens. 

[Tiberius Cato]

I like that idea a lot, I'd definitely participate in that kind of scenario (aslong as I don't have to game ofc, ain't got nobody to play with :( )