The Renegade Legion

[simison]

I'm too late, Alexandros thought grimly to himself. Bolters fired on abominations as what was originally a diplomatic mission transformed into a rescue mission. The visions had come to him three days ago. A large raven flying high in the night sky, its proud coat slowly being overwhelmed by a taint. In his dreams, the raven faltered as the taint ruined its feathers before falling. The Seer instantly recognized his brother in the vision and had immediately set out for Deliverance. 

 

Instead of meeting guards at the entrance, the Wardens were attacked by what appeared to be Raven Guard. Telepathy quickly cleared away that misconception, revealing their corrupted roots as creations of the Clonelord. And so, Alexandros came to lead an assault on the Ravenspire. The abominations featured many enhanced psykers, but none could match the Seer's power. Level by level, they cleared out the Ravenspire, looking for any true sons of Deliverance, the vile Clonelord, or Corax. 

 

It was on the level beneath the command center they found Corax, fighting through another squad of the abominations. "Brother!" Alexandros called out, realizing his mistake an instant later. As the last of the abominations fell, the Primarch of the Raven Guard turned his eyes on the Wardens, madness staring through his eyes. Alexandros jumped in front of his sons, brandishing Aegis. "My sons! Finish our work! I'll see to my brother!"

 

With a screech, Corax attacked.

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Foreboding/Shriek/Invisibility

 

Alex wins the roll. He manifests Shriek which Corax chooses not to Deny, taking only 1 wound from it. No Invisibility and Alex barely gets Duelist with 1 success, and the Raven Lord fails to get a 6 out of four dice. Corax loses another wound to Ultimatum. Corax heals that one with IWND.

 

The Raven Lord jumps forward, putting him in easy distance for the charge and it will still give him Hammer of Wrath. For the first time, an archaeotech pistol wounds Alex. Alex then returns the favor by burning off 2 more wounds in Overwatch! Beware pistols! In close combat, Corax chooses Scourge fighting style. He gets 2 Hammer of Wrath attacks which both wound but are saved by Alex's armor. With 9 attacks, Corax scores only 2 hits...darn. Aegis wards off the 1 wound before Xiphos cuts down Corax to his last wound. Alex passes his Blind test, while no IWND.

 

Alex manifests Invisibility, which Corax allows, but then fails to manifests Duelist, wasting Corax's 6 Deny dice. Oops. The power is missed as Alex fails to get any to wound rolls. Corax maintains Scourge, giving him 1 hit, 1 wound, which Alex fails to save. Alex passes his Blind test, and Corax passes his Hit & Run test, getting 12 inches away. Both get IWND. 

 

Corax promptly closes the distance. His pistols are ineffective this time, before charging. Hammer of Wrath is ineffective, but he saves an overwatch wound. Corax maxes out his possible attacks at 10. 3 get through (thanks to Invisibility), and Shred ensures that all hits wound. Alex feels his life brought to the edge as he loses 2 wounds. Without his precognition, Alex fails to wound. He passes Blind, but no IWND.

 

With 5 warp charges, Alex pours it all into Duelist, getting a solitary 5 to activate it, which Corax fails to Deny. He promptly stabs through Corax's remaining wounds. Shred fails Corax as he only gets 1 wound which Aegis saves, meaning no Draw. 

 

Already weakened from the horrors of this place, Corax is still a dangerous opponent as his claws bloody Alex. In the end, Alexandros' defense holds firm and he brings down the Raven Lord. The moment Corax is unconscious, Alexandros vox's his sons. "Did you find the Clonelord? Did you find Fabius?"

 

"Negative, my lord. He took advantage of our attack and fled."

 

Alexandros grimaced. That is one evil that will surely come back to haunt us. He looked down at his brother, still sensing the madness within. "Contact the Liberator and have them send down three more squads. I want this place thoroughly secured in the hour. Also, alert the medical bay to prepare for my brother. I will see to it that he has brought back to us once again."

[simison]

I need to stay in one tense when making those duel reports. Anyway, Irvin's ready, so it's time to move onto Parykles/Periklez/Peryklez/Paryclez...which will apparently need work on spelling as well. As equerry, I have two major possible builds in mind. One emphasizes his warrior status: improving his stat line, giving him a unique weapon/armor, and special rules to enhance himself. Or I can emphasize his status as a commander: give him army-wide buffs, make him cheaper. Essentially Ethereal vs Commander mindsets.  

[Black Cohort]

I would go army wide buffs personally. Also did you see my question about if he was too old when the legion arrived to undergo full transformation to a space marine?

[simison]

I did, and did reply earlier. I was not in favor of that as an idea. But when I rethink of it, it would add some variety since the only two we have that have undergone similar transformations both joined Chaos. And, since we're leaning toward the Ethereal route, it would make him cheaper to field and perhaps it would fit the fluff better if he were more human than transhuman, lending him an advantage toward diplomacy as he has an easier time interacting with humanity. 

 

Okay, you've won me over Cohort. 

 

Unfortunately, we only have Kor's stats, so he'll have to serve as the baseline for a 'half-breed' space marine. Compared to a proper Centurion/Captain, he is -1 on WS/BS/A, -2 on Toughness/Initiative, but plus 2 on his Wounds and max Leadership. Now, the rules state that wherever his stats match that of an astartes, it's due to his custom-made terminator suit. Now, using my IG codex as a guide, high WS/BS isn't reliant on biology so there's no reason to ding him on that. Both Straken and Yarrick have above-human S/T due to bionics alone, so, I'm guessing the Terminus Consolaris is mostly providing for his high wound count. No human has Initiative above 4 or Attacks above 3, so there are two limits we're going to place on him. 

 

Here's a basic idea of his stat line:

 

                               WS     BS     S      T     W     I      A     LD     Sv

The Equerry                5        4      4      5      2      3      2     10      2+

 

Between the bionics and VotM (Veterans of the Maelstrom), he maintains a higher Toughness and max Leadership, but he's -1 on BS/A and -2 on Initiative, which is going to make him around 15 points cheaper than your standard Centurion. That's before gear though. He can still fight as well as any Myrmidon, he's just slower. 

 

He'll come with the standard Myrmidon gear, the only change I'm thinking is changing his close combat weapon to something unique, maybe a power/chain fist, or an Eviscerator, or a unique power lance. 

 

Special rules will definitely need to be changed. Independent Character will replace Implacable Advance & Favored of Alexandros. 

 

Then comes the unique rules. Currently, Alexandros provides a bonus to invul saves, Deny the Witch, and morale boost to any force he deploys with. The Equerry is definitely going to provide some kind of morale boost, but beyond that I'm not sure. 

[Black Cohort]

Stats look good, I missed your initial response on the augmented human bit, but I think it fits your legion to have an augmented human. I think an awesome power spear would work well, perhaps one that makes it better when he is charged instead of when he charges?

[Slips]

I'd give him a special Power Spear in the form of a Trident.

 

Thinking about it, he could use the prongs to block attacks from bladed melee weapons by locking them in the prongs.

[simison]

"Is it wrong to be curious?"

 

Corax frowned at his brother. "It is a waste of time."

 

"How so?" Alexandros countered. "We may be the pinnacle of Father's genius in war, but even we train and prepare for war. A spar is just as beneficial to us as it is to our sons."

 

The Raven Lord silently stared at him.

 

"And, it would enlighten each other of the extent of our abilities. We could use that information to hone our ability to fight together. Is that not practical?"

 

Corax sighed before saying, "Very well."

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Perfect Timing/Foreboding/Shriek/Dominate

 

Alex wins the roll. He manifests Foreboding and Shriek, the latter doing no damage. Although Corax saves his Deny dice for Duelist, his one 6 isn't enough to stop 3 successes (4,5,6). One wound is burned off by Ultimatum. No IWND. 

 

After a jump move, Corax fires but his rounds bounce off Alex's armor. 2 more wounds lost in Overwatch before Corax crashes into Alex. Hammer of Wrath does nothing, while Scourge and the charge gives Corax 10 attacks. As opposed to the other two rounds, Corax hits 9 times, then wounds 7 times with Shred. 5 wounds go unsaved before the reroll. Alex avoids early defeat, but still takes 3 wounds. But then Alex defeats Corax in the return swing.

 

[....that was quick. Seriously, if Corax could consistently hit more often he'd win more.]

 

Panting and covered in sweat, the blinding speed of the spar came to a hard end when the tip end of Xiphos was pointed at Corax's right eye. With a grimace, Corax asked, "Satisfied?"

 

Alexandros nods as he replays the first three seconds of the spar. Were it not for his visions, he would've been overwhelmed by Corax's unrelenting attacks. "That was enlightening."

[Black Cohort]

Alex seems to do a lot of damage on overwatch. You must be rolling really lucky to be getting two hits on two shots that often.

[simison]

It's Foreboding. It's easy to get off and when it does, it almost guarantees at least 2 hits. Combine it with Precognition and it's near guarantee of 2 wounds. And Corax's Invul save is only a 5+. I also did get a couple of 6's in several of those rolls too, so half of it is just luck.

[Black Cohort]

Ok makes sense now that you go through it.

[simison]

Indeed. Alright, the easy part: Periklz/Periclz/Paruclez/Perikles.....Perikles, Perikles....Bah! I will get this name down! 

 

His weapon. Thinking of making it a master-crafted power lance, with S: +2/+1 and AP: 2/3. The first numbers represent the weapon's profile when he's charged and the other numbers are the stats at all other times. Tempted to based it on a sarissa, which, at its size, would make it Unwieldy. The only other rule I would give it is Rending. 

 

For special rules, one rule I would like to use, allowing him to give Counter-Attack to all units with LA:HW within 24 inches of him. Another rule is to give Stubborn to the whole army. Then again, both of these are in the Rite of War, so perhaps not. Another idea is to make him buff ranged units in particular. In lieu of him firing, he can instead choose D3 units and for that turn, they either have +1 BS or they may reroll 1's. 

 

For some reason, the Equerry is giving me much more trouble than anyone else has.

 

 

 

Also, with the Corax duels done much quicker than I anticipated, I need another Primarch after Alpharius. Again, I'd like to hear from someone who hasn't made a suggestion already. Do you have one, Augustus?

[Black Cohort]

What If he grants Preferred Enemy (one unit type chosen at army creation) to his squad or D3 squads, the other option I was thinking of was shred?

[Slips]

did you try using the Other fighting styles of Corax or only Scourge?

 

Also, a straight 1 on 1 with Corax doesn't seem all to fair for him since he and his legion specialize in Hit and Run tactics, wouldn't you say?

[simison]

Cohort, I like the Preferred Enemy idea more. I haven't used that special rule at all in the II Legion, which would give him some unique traits. For the morale boost, I'm thinking he'll just take the Inspiring Presence warlord trait from the main rulebook.

 

Slipstreams, I did not. The first one was outright useless against Alex, and Shadow Walk seemed more geared towards hordes and wouldn't have stopped the rerolls. Scourge seemed like the best option, and with the way the dice kept rolling for his to-hit rolls the answer seemed to be to throw in more dice at it.

 

And I agree. In fact, I pointed that out in the first duel between Alex and Corax, this is not how the Raven Lord fights and show his reluctance again for the sparring duel. In reality, the only time Corax should get into melee with Alex is well after the latter has been wounded in battle. 

[Slips]

For the Spear of the Equerry, if you give it unwieldy (striking at init 1), how about give him another  bonus that, upon being charged, his first round of combat ignores Unwiedly/Strikes at his initiative?

[simison]

I think that'll work, Slipstreams. That means I should have enough material and turn out a character profile...if I can get the blasted name right!

[Slips]

I'd love to offer help with that but, coming up with names ain't my forte.

[simison]

Actually, should I give the Equerry the Crusader or Zealot special rules? He's certainly dedicated to the cause enough.

 

And, I've given up and just going with Pericles. He wouldn't be the first Space Marine to share the exact same name as a historical person. *glances at Dante*

[Slips]

you think about Pyrrhicles? Meaning that any victory enemies won over him were Pyrrhic in Nature? (the few he lost, anyways)

[simison]

Wait, are you talking about Pericles, the superb Athenian statesman/general, Pyrrhus, the Greek general from which we get the phrase pyrrhic, or are you suggesting that name for the Equerry?

 

Also, I will replace Stubborn with Zealot for the Equerry.

[Slips]

...why not both?

 

Also, I can see him as a Zealot to his Primarchs cause more than a Crusader.

[simison]

Pericles Pyrrhus....going to have to think on that one.

 

​Alpha Legionaries fell to his blade as the High Lord of the Halcyon Wardens cut his way through. Almost there, I know he's around here somewhere, Alexandros thought as he and his Myrmidon fought through the encirclement of the drop site. So far, his plan was going well. A simple illusion had sent Angron attacking the Traitors' forces. Breaking the laer demon's hold over Fulgrim had required much more concentration. More than enough for him to deem it foolhardy to challenge Mortarion at the same time. Despite that sacrifice, the Loyalists had achieved enough of a breakthrough to avoid certain defeat when the trap had been sprung. For a moment, the Loyalists feared they had been completely surrounded by their enemies. The Iron Warriors reversal was going to cost Perturabo a high price, but confusion in the Alpha Legion ranks had ensured it wouldn't be too high. 

 

There! Alexandros' head snapped toward his prey, the only Primarch shorter than he was. No matter how many deceptions Alpharius employed, none were powerful enough to deceive the Seer. No wonder contact between the Alpha Legion and the Halcyon Wardens were non-existent. In seconds, the Alpha Legion Primarch knew he had been found. Both Primarchs aimed Plasma Blasters at each other.

 

Alex's Usable Powers - Foreboding/Shriek/Invisibility

 

Mirroring fluff, Alex wins the first roll. Manifests Foreboding, fails to do so for Shriek & Invisibility, and Alpharius Denies Duelist. Interesting. Alpharius loses 1 wound to Ultimatum, which he heals with IWND.

 

Alpharius gives Alex a taste of his own medicine, but Aegis protects against burning plasma. Due to Venom Spheres, he gets Hammer of Wrath, which does wound and is promptly blocked. Even without Duelist, Alex cuts off 2 more wounds before Alpharius stabs 1 off of him (thanks only to Preferred Enemy). Alpharius gets IWND.

 

Alex Perils on Duelist (Power Drain), but he's ready to fight. Alpharius proves otherwise as he saves all of the wounds. Overconfidence keeps Alpharius from wounding (and a bunch of 2's and 3's). Alex gets IWND.

 

Alpharius suffers 2 wounds again before dealing a wound to Alex. Alpha gets IWND.

 

With 9 warp charges, Alex divides them 5/4 between Invisibility and Duelist. With 5 Deny Dice, Alpha's options aren't looking pretty. With 3 successes on Invisibility, Alpha decides to focus on preventing Duelist. He fails to Deny by 1, but Alex still Perils (Power Drain). Against the empowered Alex, Alpha loses another 2 wounds, while Alex proves impervious. Alpha gets IWND.

 

Alpha suffers 1 wound before doing nothing. No IWND.

 

Alex throws 6 charges into Duelist and comes out with it and no Perils. Alpha is reduced down to his last wound before getting all 5's and 6's to hit. The wounding roll isn't as strong, but it's enough to stab another wound off of Alex, leaving both on their last legs. Until Alex gets IWND. 

 

Alpha refuses to fall as he makes 3 invul saves then loses half of his hit pool to three 2's. Only 1 wound which is saved. Alpha gets IWND.

 

Three 4's keeps Duelist without danger, and 1 failed invul save leaves Alpha on his last wound, again. Another pair of 2's and a 3 end his chance to wound Alex. No IWND.

 

2 wounds come at Alpha, he rolls a 6 and a 1, which ends him. 

 

[so many 2's! That was the magic number of this fight and the worst number for Alpharius, since that was low enough to fail but not enough to trigger Preferred Enemy. Still, even with that bad luck, Alpharius came close to killing Alex, twice.]

 

No famous last words or oaths of defiance accompany the death of the Primarch. Only a name echoing in his mind: Omegon. In a few seconds, Alexandros is able to pull the name and the information on it out of his dying brother's mind. The revelation catches the Seer by surprise, but he is unable to think on it before the Battle of Isstvan V embroils him again.

[simison]

Pyrrhicles the Paragon                                                               130 Points    

Master of the Myrmidon, Equerry to Alexandros

 

                               WS     BS     S      T     W     I      A     LD     Sv

Pyrrhicles                   5        4      4      5      2      3      2     10      2+

 

 

Unit Composition

• 1 (Unique)

​Unit Type

• Infantry (Character)

Wargear

• Cataphractii Terminator Armor
• Tower Shield
• Sirens Grenade Launcher
• Vigilance

​Special Rules

• Legiones Astartes (Halcyon Wardens)
• Independent Character
• Zealot
• Split Fire
• Master of the Legion
• Veteran of the Maelstrom
• Guru of Logistics

 

 

There's the first half. Will post the rest tomorrow. ​                   

[Black Cohort]

Overall it looks good

[Russ Brother 92]

Just gotta say I love that SR - "Guru of Logistics..." :D brilliant - everything seems to be coming together rather well.