The Renegade Legion

[Raktra]

Still leaps and bounds more prepared than I am, mate.

[simison]

You're welcomed to use the information. I've thought about compiling all of the posts that are about the structure of a legion, fluff or rule-wise and putting it in its own topic for the community's use.

[simison]

"You could surrender, you know? The Dark Prince would be pleased to add another capable individual such as yourself to his Court."

 

Fulgrim didn't know what he was hearing. He was deaf to Isstvan V's pain as the battle continued around them, and completely at a loss of what to make of his brother. In his prime, Alexandros was a balance of pride and humility who wore fine armor of white and red with a cape of deep purple. The being who stood before him shared only a few of those qualities, his armor a painful menagerie of riotous colors. "Alex, what have you become?"

 

With a grin, Alex answered, "Free. Free of my Father's overbearing stupidity. Free of the meaningless burden of 'nobility'. Free to enjoy the pleasures offered by an entire galaxy for an eternity. Come Fulgrim, why don't you join me?"

 

With a pained scowl, Fulgrim raised his Fireblade and muttered, "Never."

[simison]

Alex's Usable Powers - Foreboding/Shriek

 

Fulgrim wins the first roll. Firebrand gets the hits and the wounds, but Aegis blocks them both. 

 

Alex fails to Shriek, but gets Duelist before opening fire, plasma-burning off 2 wounds. And then a big surprise! Alex fails his charge, though Fulgrim's Overwatch is negligible.

 

Fulgrim moves and stops in front of Alex's face, an inch away and shoots. Alex laughs as the Volkite Charger does nothing before firing his Overwatch, which gets a hit but fails to wound, sparing Fulgrim from using his pansy 5++.  Despite 7 attacks, Fulgrim fails to wound. In return, he takes a wound but forces a Blind test, which Alex passes. Fulgrim gets IWND.

 

Duelist stays, and it keeps Alex out of harm's way before he ....he....the heck!? He gets all 5 hits, which translate into 5 wounds (with rerolls, of course, but not many needed) and then Fulgrim promptly rolls triple 1's and a 2 & 5, which knocks out his remaining wounds.

 

[imagine how terrifying would it be if Fulgrim was in a duel with somebody who had been hit by Concussive?]

 

 

"Oh! If only you could realize how ironic this is, Fulgrim!" Alex giggled out as he disarmed his brother and forced him to his knees.

 

Fulgrim glanced between Alex and Fireblade, which is only an arm's length away. He was faster, he knew that, but how much faster? 

 

"Did you know, Fulgrim, that I took your place? That if I had followed my destiny, I would've been safe and far removed from all of this insanity?"  Alex continued, laughing out the words as tears streamed down his face. "That means its all your fault, Fulgrim! ALL YOUR FAULT! How will you repay me for this, hm?"

 

"Your choices were your own, Alex!" Fulgrim spat back before lunging. His hand snapped around Fireblade's hilt. A sharp pain cut through his neck. And the last thing he saw was a cycle of ground, sky, and his headless body falling forward as his head tumbled away. 

[simison]

As much as I want to dive into the next section, I need a moment to collect my thoughts because I've been cheating for most of this time. As I've said before, one major theme of the 2nd Legion is "Unity through Diversity", but while I've certainly emphasized the Greek side, and shown tidbits of the original roman legion side, I haven't done much with the Indian side, other than the Parisada and Mahtva. So, it's time to correct that.

 

Almost every legion thus far, has had a unique ...'formation' as part of their legion identity. The Grand Battalions of the Iron Warriors, the Clans of the Iron Hands, the Harrows of the Alpha Legion, etc. I'm trying to come up with two such formations for the Wardens. The first one easily came to mind. Formations that utilize the use of shield-infantry, I'm thinking about calling them Walls/Blockades/Palisades/Ramparts or something more Greek-related. Phalanx would be nice if the blasted Imperial Fists weren't crawling over the term.

 

But I also want a formation emphasizing the Indian martial tradition. Unfortunately, my history stockpile is lacking info here so I think I'm just going to have to do a round of research, unless anyone can give me a boost.

 

While those will serve as the main front of Warden unique military organizations, there will be two other levels of organizations that are part of the Warden life. One of them will be the Paths..

 

...

 

Wait a second, that just hit me. That sounds too Eldar-y. Need another name, but the general idea are specializations that have either little or nothing to do with combat, but secretly tie into the legion weakness that I've been hinting at.

 

The third one is going to be a small surprise, but a different take on something old. That's all for now.

 

Dharma

Hoplon

[simison]

[Last one!]

 

"Eidolon!"

 

Perturabo was as confused as Fulgrim. After stealing his strength, Fulgrim had ordered his Lord Commander to attend to him. Eidolon, operating on a plan beyond Perturabo, approached his lord and made a cut across Fulgrim's skin. Then, Eidolon was about to shove several Eldar stones, but stopped at the last moment. 

 

Now the Lord Commander was walking away from Fulgrim, ignoring every command. He stopped a few feet away and offered a whole cache of Eldar stones to the air. Perturabo knew some form of madness had engulfed his brother's legion, but this was stranger still. 

 

"Next time, brother," A voice said as a being materialized before them all. "Choose a lackey with a bit more willpower. If I wanted to, I could make this man dance." The being accepted the 'gift' as he revealed himself.

 

"Alex?" Fulgrim and Perturabo exclaimed. 

 

"Now that I have these," Alex declared before his sword cut off Eidolon's head. He turned to Fulgrim. "I will end any hope you have of corrupting yourself further."

 

All hell broke loose.

[simison]

[Wow, I'm so used to posting the prelude that I did it even though I still have plenty of time to do the whole fight. Sorry about that!]

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Foreboding/Shriek

 

Fulgrim wins the first roll and opens fire and scores the first wound.

 

No Shriek, but yes Duelist. Fulgrim takes some plasma to the face before Alex fails the charge again! Overwatch does nothing, but Fulgrim is about to get stabby. Alex gets IWND.

 

Firebrand does nothing. Unlike his trip-happy brother, Fulgrim makes his charge, but takes a plasma wound for it. The resulting fight is lackluster as neither wounds the other. Fulgrim gets IWND.

 

Duelist stays as the primarchs duel it out. (That was bad, forgive me.) Aegis' grav generator prevents Fulgrim from wounding, but that doesn't stop Alex from clobbering Fulgrim and knocking him down to his last wound.

 

Fulgrim gets a couple of wounds in, but none of them stick, while Alex gets that last wound to stick to Fulgrim. 

 

[Fireblade is a much better weapon than the Laer Blade.]

 

 

"You've really lost your touch, haven't you, brother?"

 

Fulgrim snarled before Xiphos sliced through his midsection. Blood and stomach acid spewed out, adding another layer of misery as Fulgrim was forced back. "You shouldn't be here. You can't be here!"

 

"You forget, I am the Seer," Alex wearily replied as he prepared for the final blow. "I foresaw this fight over a year ago. And now, I'll allow you to die with a scrap of decency. Farewell, Fulgrim."

 

Fulgrim launched himself at Alex. The Seer swung his sword and bifurcated the would-be Daemon Prince.

[simison]

Okay, I've finally completed all of the (existing) Primarch duels. With the exception of Vulkan (who won 2/3), most of the duels clocked in at 2 out of 3 wins for Alex with some who didn't win at all (Corax/Fulgrim/etc). As it stands, I know I'm changing Voice of Reason and was thinking about his new Warlord Trait. Nobody commented on the Warlord trait, so I'll talk to my friends about that. I am trading out Instant Death for Force for Xiphos. I'm thinking about replacing Rending with a special rule that allows Alex to always wound on a 6, not sure if it should affect vehicles (the idea being is that Alex is extremely adept at locating weak spoints).

 

Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions for the primarch before I claim his Alpha stage to be done?

[Raktra]

Won't he always wound on 6 anyway (minus T10)?

[simison]

Well, you've already mentioned the T10, and there are a variety of ways to reduce Str.

[Slips]

Be and Iron Hand in normal Power Armor and get shot at?

 

Be Flare Shield Equipped.

 

Most S reducing Mechanics are for Shooting. For CC its mostly reducing the number of attacks or initiative. As Far as I know..

[Raktra]

Yeah, aside from Horus, Enfeeble and maybe some obscure DA thing I can't think of any. Against vehicles you could do the Nurgle daemon thing - any 6 that doesn't pen/glance is an auto-glance.

[Slips]

I'm wary on giving him a Melee Deflagrate Rule; much like the Knight Castigator but, only activates on a 6 to wound.

 

-It would be suitably different than Force and Instant Death on 6s and would be easily justified as psychic backlash/feedback/you-name-it from his weapon.

 

-The Bonus Attack could have a predetermined Stats; Such as S7 Ap3 Concussive - something like that. Or keep Alex's profile.

 

-It would only apply to wounds caused by Xiphos - a distinction that may or may not be necessary.

 

-The Generated Attacks would not be able to cause another one should they roll the requisite 6 to wound.

 

You could also keep it as a Castable Psychic Power like Force so that you opponent would still have a chance to deny it.

My only qualm with this is that, RNGesus willing, it could be VERY powerful or not come into effect at all. But, the warp is fickle and fluctuates so it could be justified.

[simison]

Slipstreams, I'm confused. Deflargate causes an additional wound for every unsaved wound from the original attack pool. What I'm suggesting is a weaker version of Murderous Strike. Instead of Instant Death on a 6, it's an auto-wound. If I include anything vehicle-related, it'd be Raktra's auto-glance, and I'm wavering on that as it is.

[Slips]

Yeahhh I was pretty confused/tired (Still Am) as I wrote that and promptly hit the post button

...I Dunno, I haven't been replying here much since I'm having trouble coming up with stuff >_> as evidenced with the confusing post above.

[simison]

Well, it's not necessary to create anything new. Do you think the auto-wound rule is too much as it is?

[Slips]

If it still permits a save - no; if it doesn't - yes.

[simison]

It does in fact permit a save, and I am a little embarrassed that I never clarified that. Whether Invul or FNP (if it applies), only reason I can't say armor is because the sword is already AP 2. And the rule would tie only to Xiphos. So, if you could disarm (tricksy Eldar) then he would lose it. 

[Slips]

Glad we caught on to that :p

 

Well, since he's a Primarch and will mostly be fighting other Primarchs or Big Characters, they're mostly bound to have Eternal Warrior; negating instant death entirely.

 

But, not causing instant death also makes it so that non-EW multi-wound units don't get immediately obliterated by him on a failed ID Save.

 

So it has its benefits and drawbacks; seems fair to me.

[simison]

Which just leaves the vehicle question. At Str 6, only Land Raiders or any other such heavily armored vehicles would be ignoring him without peril. I'm split on the issue because I'm not sure if I'm going too far in giving Alex the ability to potentially harm such huge vehicles. Not all of the Primarchs have the ability to destroy vehicles, so it's not like he'd be the only one. But Raktra's rule is pretty restrained if all it does is glance such vehicles, and you'd still want to aim Alex at infantry since he'd excel there, or have him act purely as the force multiplier that he can be. Fluff-wise, it could easily fit next to the auto-wound rule (I am trying so hard not to say 'precision strike'), since Alex's combat style is taking the hits as he finds the tiny holes in enemy defenses. 

[Raktra]

I was thinking it could be justified by psychic shockwaves rattling the machine spirit/crew brainz until the thing just sort of stopped. Or you could nick Fulgrim's haywire grenades.

[simison]

Fulgrim has plasma grenades. Either way, I've opted for a simpler path. I forgot to give Alex assault grenades, so I gave him Frags and Melta bombs and just left Xiphos with the auto-wounds on 6, which I've dubbed Surgical Strike. That should be it for Alex....sort of. I need to field him more as a Warlord and see how well that works out.

[simison]

Unit Organization and Structure within the Legion

 

After the experimental deployment of the I^st Legion, the II^nd Legion became the first 'standard' legion. Hierachy was divided as written in the Principia Belicosa. The squad was the smallest military unit, usually composed of ten marines. While the squad was organized to be able to operate independently for small periods of time, they were limited against what types of enemy units they could engage by their primary weapons. The company, a collection of ten squads, was the smallest independent military unit, capable of being fielded against enemy infantry or armor units as needed. When it was necessary for companies to operate interdependently during an operation, a battalion was deployed. At the zenith of the legion organization was the chapter. Although this organization would be shared with the rest of the legions (excluding the mysterious XX^th), the II^nd Legion made it a mark of pride that they set the standard, so to speak.

[simison]

It's time to bring out Irvin, but who should his first opponent be? Remember, he's supposed to be a mix of beatstick and combat multiplier.

[Raktra]

Typhon?