++ The Dark Council - A Word Bearers Community ++

[Khornestar]

Today the bearers of the word struck a blow against Guilliman himself on Drenthal.

 

I played this week's narrative mission for the Fate of Konor, which was my first game of 8th. Pick-up game with a cool/friendly opponent playing Guilliman leading some Ultramarines successors with imperial knight support.

 

The gist of the mission is attacker (Imperium) vs. defender (Chaos). The attacker can only deploy in the deployment zone, which is 6". 12" of distance, the defender gets a 24" deployment zone. There's a catastrophic explosion or similar disaster behind the imperial forces. At the start of the second turn (I think), the explosion destroys the first 6" of the table on the attacker's side, and every subsequent turn another 6" explode. The attacker has to get as many units as possible off the table on the defender's side. I think if they get 1/3 or more of their army's total points in units off the table, they win.

 

After a slaughter on both sides and a lot of lucky dice rolls, none of the imperial forces made it off the table. Well, Guilliman probably got teleported away or something, because he survived. The game ended at the end of turn 4 after his knight went down. He didn't have enough points on the table to win the game, though none of the units could have done so unless my army got tabled.

 

71 Power Level

 

My army was as follows:

 

Word Bearers Battalion (I think? the +3CP one with 2 HQ and 3 troops minimum):

 

HQ:

 

Warlord: Dark Apostle: Power Maul, Combi-melta

- Warlord Trait: Word Bearers +3" to aura trait

Sorcerer: Force Sword, Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Combi-melta

- Powers: Smite, Warp Time, Delightful Agonies

Daemon Prince of Slaanesh: Wings, Warp bolter, 2x Malefic claws, Intoxicating Elixir

- Powers: Smite, Diabolic Strength

 

TROOPS:

 

Chaos Space Marines x5: Unmarked, Icon of Vengeance, Plasma gun, Combi-plasma and power sword on champ

Chaos Space Marines x5: Unmarked, Icon of Vengeance, Plasma gun, Combi-plasma and power sword on champ

Cultists x30: Mark of Slaanesh, 3x Flamers, Autoguns

Cultists x30: Mark of Slaanesh, 3x Flamers, Autoguns

 

DEDICATED TRANSPORT:

 

Rhino: Combi-flamer, havoc launcher

 

HEAVY SUPPORT:

 

Maulerfiend: Lasher Tendrils

Maulerfiend: Lasher Tendrils

 

If I remember, Ultras had:

 

Lord of War: Guilliman

 

Hellblasters x5

Vindicator: Storm bolter, Demolisher cannon

Inceptors: 3x assault heavy bolters, whatever they're called

 

Imperial Knight: Gatling cannon, chainsword, icarus autocannon, 2x heavy stubbers

 

I couldn't give you a turn-by-turn, but breakdowns for my units:

 

Cultists: I put them in 2 groups of 30 going across most of the middle of the table. He shot one completely to pieces turn 1. I used the stratagem to redeploy the unit from my left flank to my deployment edge on the right side. That way they could block anything except his knight. I decided to be cheeky and use Veterans of the Long War shooting their autoguns on the knight, since they were within the daemon prince's re-roll 1's to hit aura. They actually took a wound off the knight. :D

 

Dark Apostle: Spent most of the game tied up with the vindicator. Blasted it for 6 damage with the combi-melta, but the power maul kept bouncing off its armor. Took some wounds from the demolisher but survived the game. Prevented the vindicator from getting across the table.

 

CSM with plasma: I was actually pleased. Rapid-firing overcharged plasma is pretty sick, and the gods kept the guns cool in their hands. One unit was there to shoot at the knight (failing to successfully inflict wounds) and ultimately die to its guns. The other shot up and charged the vindicator while slipping around the back to drag the hellblasters into combat. 3 died by the end of that combat, two from overwatching plasma and one from close combat. They shot up the hellblasters with their own overcharged plasma and killed 2 before charging, one more died in overwatch. The champ took a chop out of one of the hellblasters before they stomped him out.

 

Rhino: I forgot to shoot it turns 1 and 2, and it didn't have any targets turn 3 because everything was either locked in combat or out of LOS. I planned to use it to block the knight's advance since it can stomp over infantry, but that became unnecessary when the knight went down. It lost a few wounds to shooting from the knight, was otherwise fine.

 

Maulerfiends: I put one of them as a sacrificial fire magnet on the right flank deployed directly across from the knight. As predicted, it was ripped apart turn 1 by the knight's chainsword after getting shot up by the vindicator and hellblasters. The second maulerfiend was the mother :cuss MVP. Survived 2 rounds of combat with the knight unscathed, and after 2 rounds of combat took the knight down to 3 wounds. Guilliman decapitated it eventually, but it had no business surviving so many shots and attacks from the knight. I used daemonforge twice, and had it buffed with diabolic strength and delightful agonies during the first round of combat.

 

Daemon Prince: I could have used him better, but he did a good enough job. The knight consolidated into him turn 1, so I hopped him out of combat to prevent him from getting killed in 1 turn. He buffed the maulerfiend and hung back, waiting for the right time to charge Guilliman. Turn 3 was that turn, but he only took 4 wounds from Guilliman before the primarch fought back and cut him down in one round of combat. He also killed a single inceptor with the warp bolter turn 1.

 

Sorcerer: Turn 1 he killed an inceptor with a well-aimed blast from his combi-melta and also buffed the maulerfiend with delightful agonies after smiting something (can't remember what). Turn 2 he lost a couple of wounds but charged Guilliman alongside the daemon prince. Guilliman passed all his saves, so turn 3 the sorcerer flapped out of combat to smite an inceptor down and combi-melt the last one. I can't remember how or when, but he cut down the last 2 hellblasters with his force sword. During the psychic phase of turn 4, he won the game. The knight had 3 wounds left, and was the closest visible target. Drawing on the powers of the warp, the sorcerer hurled a magic missile at the knight, which penetrated its armor and obliterated its noble pilot after rolling a 5 for the d3 mortal wounds.

 

All in all a fun game. The narrative rules and a cool opponent made for a good intro to 8th edition. Guilliman is a beast. None of the Word Bearers stuff came into play, unfortunately. The re-roll morale didn't get used a single time, nor did my 9" auras from the warlord, nor did I pay to take the Cursed Crozius on him. Stratagems were what allowed me to use my maulerfiend to its fullest potential and redeploy the cultists in a meaningful way.

 

Loving 8th, glad to start it out by cutting down Guilliman's progeny.

[MaliGn]

Just been reading my copy of the codex and noticed that in the Word Bearers fluff section there is a titbit that there are rumoured sightings of Lorgar "walking the mortal realms in terrible splendour, preaching the word of Chaos at the head of a Word Bearers force of shocking strength and conviction."

 

I'm not expecting anything in a hurry, but compared to the alpha legion or the night Lords it's certainly a hint we may yet see the return of the Urizen

[Khornestar]

Nearing completion of my Dark Apostle. He was originally going to be of the World Eaters, but I'm reading the Word Bearers Omnibus right now and I couldn't help changing his paint scheme. He'll still be included in World Eaters army lists from time to time, since there's no reason he couldn't be.

 

The lights on my desk are casting a yellowish hue on the model that's sorta distorting the colors a bit, but you get the general idea. The scrolls are supposed to be of human skin, the script written in blood during times of rage and eagerness for bloodshed. The cursed crozius was originally going to be glowing red, but both because I couldn't come up with a scheme I was happy with and because throughout the novels they're described as being made of "black iron," I decided to go with a very black metallic color. The brass of the cursed crozius is corroded with time and oxidation, while the brass portions of his armor are more carefully maintained and polished. The former allows for the idea that this is an ancient object, and I wanted to communicate that through the corrosion. His faithful followers need only look upon as his badge of office, reminded of the ten millennia of hatred and warfare against the Imperium.

 

The bloodletter skull thing is a sort of ethereal relic, since technically there should be no physical remains of dead demons. He uses it to incite bloodlust among the faithful. I also wanted a visually similar motif to tie him together with the Sorcerer I posted earlier in the thread. Not that they're chums and wouldn't kill each other given the opportunity, but they will work together if the Dark Council demands it. Each serves their purpose.

 

He needs highlights all over the place, touching up here and there, and some blood on the hammer, among a few other choice places. I'm thinking of having blood flowing from all of the runes in his armor, but I'm not sure yet.

 

 

[Lord Asvaldir]

Man that's one nice looking dark apostle. The hammer head actually looked better than the standard cursed crozius. The part looks familiar but I can't place what kit it is from. 

 

@MaliGn: Not holding my breath for a Logar model, much as I'd love to see on of course. The return of all the daemon primarchs to actually join the fight again was expected given the new lore, but I'd say Fulgrim and Angron are a much higher priority for model releases. 

[MaliGn]

Man that's one nice looking dark apostle. The hammer head actually looked better than the standard cursed crozius. The part looks familiar but I can't place what kit it is from.

 

@MaliGn: Not holding my breath for a Logar model, much as I'd love to see on of course. The return of all the daemon primarchs to actually join the fight again was expected given the new lore, but I'd say Fulgrim and Angron are a much higher priority for model releases.

I entirely agree, but the only others even mentioned seem to be peturabo and Lorgar so it just seemed like more of a chance than the others was all.

[Khornestar]

Man that's one nice looking dark apostle. The hammer head actually looked better than the standard cursed crozius. The part looks familiar but I can't place what kit it is from. 

 

@MaliGn: Not holding my breath for a Logar model, much as I'd love to see on of course. The return of all the daemon primarchs to actually join the fight again was expected given the new lore, but I'd say Fulgrim and Angron are a much higher priority for model releases. 

 

Thanks Asvaldir, it's from the WFB Chaos Varanguard kit.

[Confused Word Bearer]

It’s my birthday! :D

 

…And I still haven’t gotten anything done. But I will soon! Hopefully.

 

On the bright side I’ve managed to think up of a color scheme for Khorne Daemons whilst procrastinating and gotten a copy of the new codex, which is really nice! How are Word Bearers doing in 8th for all of you so far? The legion tactic seems a bit bland but kinda useful though.

[Lord Asvaldir]

Our tactic is both bland and mostly useless. Sure, on paper rerolling moral sounds nice, last edition it would have been a solid rule but this edition it rarely is handy, because either you take small squads that never care about moral or you have big squads like 30 cultists where if they take say fifteen casualties in one turn, a reroll is only going to save a handful of our men. I like the spirit of the rule though, so what our rule could have been instead is something like an army wide commissar effect. Considering one of the craftsworld's just got that as their tactic it would be perfectly reasonable for WB, but o well. 

 

As far as WB are doing in general in 8th, unfortunately I usually feel these days like I'm just playing a generic chaos army and missing out on the fun tricks a bunch of the other legions get. Pretty much all I've been trying to do to make my WB army unique is focus more on summoning, make sure of our stratagem, and at least possessed aren't complete garbage like they were last edition so I take them to. What I've found with summoning is you just have to be cautious-don't assume you're going to get over an 8 for your summoning roll, and plan exactly what units you want to summon before the game, and only leave enough pts for those units so you're not wasting any pts. That way summoning basically just turns into a method for deep striking daemons. 

[Bloody Legionnaire]

What are the strongest HQ options for Word Bearers right now? 

[ChaosReigns]

My Biker Lord with the Cursed Crozius has been doing the gods' work with a Biker squad as his retainers. He’s pretty beastly in combat (especially against Imperial units!) and a lot more durable than a character on foot (barring a Daemon Prince, of course).

I also want to give a Daemon Prince a try, although I haven’t painted or assembled mine just yet. It seems like the best combo for anyone not playing Iron Warriors is to run double Malefic Talons with the Intoxicating Elixir and Diabolic Strength. Tons of attacks (nine if I recall, I don’t have my codex with me) at strength 10 AP -2, damage 2. Normally I dislike taking a Mark on any of my units but I think you can do it guilt free with a Daemon Prince considering you don’t have a choice...

I’ll say as well, the Voice of Lorgar warlord trait is less flashy than some of its competition, as it were, but it shouldn’t be dismissed. On a Dark Apostle or Daemon Prince especially the trait has the potential to make a huge difference over the course of a game.

[Sonoftherubric21]

To really make Word Bearers work it feels like we need to take daemons (a good amount of them), prince as the warlord with voice of lorgar to effect both daemons of the same mark AND our troops. 

And to mix and match daemons in the list I was tempted to use nurgle daemons for objective holding.

 

I want to use the changeling, a large group of possessed, and a sorcerer. Everyone can see where I am going with that little module. 4++ invul at -1 to hit due to changeling and tzeentch mark. Seems like a decent little setup. (the perks of owning 12 Gal Vorbak models) 

Then fill the rest of the list with chaos marines and walkers (preferably daemon engines) as I think they would all benefit in some form or another. Any validity to this? 

 

Obviously both the strategem and the Curse Crozius + Voice of Lorgar would help a good deal and play a part. 

 

then I do another 15 some odd marines in rhinos with melta/combi meltas.  Doesn't seem like a bad list. 

[Slave to Darkness]

So what have you guys been up to since the codex dropped? Anybody working on new units?? Lets see what you guys have been doing!

[ChaosReigns]

Y'know, I think another thing that is worth pointing out about Tzeentchian Possessed is that they'd be a superb target for Boon of Change from a Lord of Change or Herald of Tzeentch. All of the possibilities on the D3 would benefit Possessed, but +1 attack or +1 toughness has the potential to be truly excellent, I think, especially in conjunction with Weaver of Fates from a Sorcerer or Daemon Prince.

[Lord Asvaldir]

Brothers, have any of you made Word Bearers noise marines? I remember having seen "choir marines" made by a WB player at some point. I know they are not a lore friendly unit for WB but frankly I'm tired of not having access to the good cult troops, so I'm adding some Word Bearers with the berzerker implants and some WBs with sonic weapons. I'm thinking of using dark angels veterans for their bodies with warp talon heads. I don't particularly like the GW sonic weapons though so I am looking for a 3rd party alternative. 

[Zectz]

For 3rd party weapons check out spellcrow. They have a lot of 'chaos' stuff and some specific ones designed for converting sonic/rubric etc.

[Lexington]

Brothers, have any of you made Word Bearers noise marines? I remember having seen "choir marines" made by a WB player at some point. I know they are not a lore friendly unit for WB but frankly I'm tired of not having access to the good cult troops

WB Noise Marines seem completely lore-friendly to me, to be honest. Maybe they're converts, maybe they got offered a choice between joining up or dying (those Legion battles in the Eye get nasty), or maybe some Word Bearers got a bit too far into their Slaaneshi worship and sold their soul to rock n' roll. In any case, Chaos fluff is hugely varied - go nuts!

[Lord Asvaldir]

For 3rd party weapons check out spellcrow. They have a lot of 'chaos' stuff and some specific ones designed for converting sonic/rubric etc.

 

I'll check them out thanks. 

 

 

Brothers, have any of you made Word Bearers noise marines? I remember having seen "choir marines" made by a WB player at some point. I know they are not a lore friendly unit for WB but frankly I'm tired of not having access to the good cult troops

WB Noise Marines seem completely lore-friendly to me, to be honest. Maybe they're converts, maybe they got offered a choice between joining up or dying (those Legion battles in the Eye get nasty), or maybe some Word Bearers got a bit too far into their Slaaneshi worship and sold their soul to rock n' roll. In any case, Chaos fluff is hugely varied - go nuts!

 

 

I like your thinking, and you're right with chaos there is always a way to make things work out lore wise. I'll probably have them being a unit that's gone a bit too far towards Slaanesh worship. 

[Leonite]

My brothers... BEHOLD WHAT I HAVE BEEN POSTING ANYWHERE I CAN! My Word Bearer's Corphycus/Diabolist... in 40K terms, my Lord/Sorcerer. I just call him the former as he WAS a Diabolist in the heresy days and still is somewhat.

 

 

 

[ChaosReigns]

I dig it.

 

That Sorcerer model is super cool too. It’s honestly sort of a shame Forge World only had it as an event miniature because it suits the Word Bearers so well.

 

Anyway, as for Word Bearers Noise Marines, I don’t see why not, honestly. Even something as simple as just saying that they’re mercenaries or auxiliaries would do the job.

[Leonite]

I was lucky enough to get one while up at Warhammer World. Same with the Chaos Warrior Helmet... although admittedly I almost waited for Gabriel Angelos instead... but I loved his model too much to desecrate it without getting an undesecrated one and... I didn't have the funds. 

[Dragonlover]

So it looks like my Nine Legions project is heading in a decidedly zealous direction at some point in 2018. I'm currently in the 'faff about with some lists' stage, and I'm desperately trying to cut 50 points from this one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [22 PL, 310pts] ++

 

+ No Force Org Slot +

 

Legion: Word Bearers

 

+ Troops +

 

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 80pts]: 19x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon, No Chaos Mark

. Cultist Champion: Brutal assault weapon and Autopistol

 

Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 40pts]: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun, No Chaos Mark

. Cultist Champion: Autogun

 

Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 40pts]: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun, No Chaos Mark

. Cultist Champion: Autogun

 

+ HQ +

 

Chaos Lord [5 PL, 74pts]: Bolt pistol, Chainsword, No Chaos Mark

 

Dark Apostle [5 PL, 76pts]: Bolt pistol, No Chaos Mark, Power maul

 

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [68 PL, 1240pts] ++

 

+ No Force Org Slot +

 

Legion: Word Bearers

 

+ Heavy Support +

 

Chaos Land Raider [19 PL, 356pts]: No Chaos Mark, Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

 

+ Troops +

 

Chaos Space Marines [9 PL, 180pts]: No Chaos Mark

. Aspiring Champion: Lightning Claw, Power fist

. 7x Marine w/ Boltgun

. Marine w/ special weapon: Plasma gun

. Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

 

Chaos Space Marines [9 PL, 180pts]: No Chaos Mark

. Aspiring Champion: Lightning Claw, Power fist

. 7x Marine w/ Boltgun

. Marine w/ special weapon: Plasma gun

. Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

 

Chaos Space Marines [9 PL, 180pts]: No Chaos Mark

. Aspiring Champion: Lightning Claw, Power fist

. 7x Marine w/ Boltgun

. Marine w/ special weapon: Plasma gun

. Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

 

+ HQ +

 

Exalted Champion [5 PL, 70pts]: Bolt pistol, Chainsword, No Chaos Mark

 

Sorcerer [6 PL, 98pts]: Bolt pistol, Force sword, No Chaos Mark, Prescience, Warptime

 

+ Elites +

 

Possessed [11 PL, 176pts]: No Chaos Mark, 8x Possessed

 

++ Total: [90 PL, 1550pts] ++

 

The basic plan is Apostle, Champion and Possessed in the Land Raider, while the Sorcerer Warptimes the big cultist blob up the table and everything else advances behind.

 

Dragonlover

[Zectz]

Who's the Warlord and what trait are you taking?

 

Having Power Fist & Lightning Claw on the aspiring champions seems a bit overkill. Can stick to 1 weapon in my opinion, I get what you're trying to do with the list but it is lacking anti tank/monster overall. A bit strange to give the aspiring champions 2 weapons but none to the exalted champion or chaos lord.

 

Plus the 3 Chaos marine squads don't seem like they would be achieving much to be honest. Those Melta guns are not going to get in range of anything they want to hit before being shot off the table. You have enough pushing/advancing units, can change the role of those marine squads into a more backline unit with lascannons and no melee weapon to bring some more reliable anti tank as those Melta guns are not going to get much use I would think.

 

You have a lot of CP from 2 battalions, I'm curious what stratagems are you planing to use if you are not taking any marks on the units?

 

If you're set on keeping the marine squads the same theme and just want to find a way to save 50 points then perhaps remove the lightning claw & power fist from all 3. That's -60. Then you have 10 points left to add a more simpler melee weapons on 2 of the squads like a Power maul or axe.

[Dragonlover]

Haven't even thought about who the Warlord is or what trait to run yet.

 

The fist and claw is a relic of the models current setup, I may well turn them into pairs of claws down the line. Same with the meltas now I think about it. The conversions I've made are quite involved in places so I'm not sure how viable weapon swaps are going to be. I'll have to dig them out and have a look.

 

No marks purely because I was more focused on getting the list down on paper before I worried about the next level of stuff. Push comes to shove though it's 9 rerolls over the course of the game which is nothing to sneeze at.

 

I'll consider the role switch for the CSM squads, but it comes down to parts availability: the whole army is gonna be converted from DV Chosen and Evil Craft stuff. Not sure anyone does a lascannon that fits the aesthetic, it's been a while since I looked.

 

Dragonlover

[Khornestar]

With all the unassembled/unpainted power armored CSM I have and never use, I think I'm gonna just go all-in on them and paint 'em up as Word Bearers. I don't really care about how good they are in-game at this point, because I'm not even using them, and although I love Khorne above all other gods, the WB are my favorite legion.

 

I'm also gonna go beyond that, I'm gonna build some of Erebus's 40k army. I absolutely love how much hate Erebus gets as the architect of the heresy. I also love that his conniving ass pulled it off.

 

Anyway, are there any good illustrations of what he looks like in the 41st millennium? I like his 30k model, but I dunno if it's really as chaotic as it should be, all things considered. I'd probably rather make my own version. 

 

Do we know what he's up to in the current timeline? All the info I can find suggests he's part of the Dark Council, and as part of the 13th Black Crusade is leading a Word Bearers army that summoned a ton of daemons into the Cadian sector. Not sure if that's the "old" 13th crusade or the current one, but it doesn't really matter. 

 

Thoughts? Anyone seen a cool conversion out there that they can share?

 

*edit*

Well, I created a post in Amicus that was moved here. Apologies for double-posting, I just wanted as much exposure as possible. 

[ChaosReigns]

So, as promised (ages ago, it seems) I'm back to report on the first outing for my Hellforged Leviathan with dual grav bombards.

 

Suffice to say that it was the MVP for me that game, which was against a mechanized Imperial Guard list at 1500 points. I had fifty Cultists as chaff to ensure it wasn't going to get charged, and to be fair it does have two Hellflamers for a particularly vicious overwatch. With some judicious use of Warptime the 18 inch range on the bombards was irrelevant, and since I tend to favour very aggressive play and lots of short-ranged firepower anyway the Leviathan fit quite nicely into my list. Those bombards are just as brutal as their stats would suggest - the Leviathan was basically shredding a Leman Russ every turn, because each unsaved wound does a flat 5 damage to vehicles at -5 AP. At one point, with some lucky rolling, I managed to massively overkill one of my opponent's tanks to the tune of 25 damage between the two bombards. It was absolutely insane.

 

The Leviathan managed to survive the game largely intact, having only lost 4 or 5 of its 14 wounds. That toughness 8 is fantastic, but more importantly having a 5+ invulnerable save is, as always, a useful added defense against high AP weaponry like multi-meltas and lascannons. Granted, I think my opponent will make destroying my Leviathan his first priority the next time we play, but that just means that the remainder of my army can race towards his lines unmolested. ;)