Erelim, Dark Sanguinary Guard

[Vash113]

I was reading through Trial of Blood and came to the story Gabriel Seth: Flesh Tearer. In the story Seth visits the secret sanctum of Astorath the Grim on Baal. The Sanctum is known only to a handful of Blood Angels and the Chapter Masters of the successor chapters and is guarded by a group of Blood Angels Chaplains that Gabriel Seth refers to as the Erelim. Garbed entirely in black, with even the bone adornments and skull helms of their armor daubed in ash-black, and with black winged Jump Packs just like Astorath the Grim, Seth describes the Erelim as a dark reflection of the Sanguinary Guard.

 

I find the idea really intriguing and think it would be an interesting group to model and field. Though how to do so would be the biggest problem. I suppose just in Apoc games I could build five Chaplains with winged Jump Packs painted black and have them escort Astorath the Grim around.

 

Anyway did anyone else see this bit of fluff and find it interesting? What are your guys thoughts on this?

[bigted]

You could run them as SG instead in smaller games if you painted them black? Maybe give them all axes, and if you have another SG squad give them swords, which are kinda opposites of each other? Not as cool as a bunch of Chaplains running around, but still fun

[xXxVATIKINxXx]

Love the idea and I've actually already building my first unit of sang guard with this painting theme in mind. My army has falling victim to the black rage! Look forward to hearing and seeing your progress :)

[Sabouras]

Sounds great idea...

Waiting for photos......

[The_Chaplain]

An interesting bit of fluff for sure-- but not entirely sure how you could translate it to the tabletop (rules wise). There are several suitable models for the job-- the legion of the damned sergeant, chaplain with jump pack, Ivanus enkomi, etc have bits that could be made to work modeling such a unit. Too bad the wargear options for chaplains are so woefully limited!!

[Shaezus]

Cheap question: if the Erelim are busy baby-sitting Astorath in the field, who is guarding the sanctum?

 

Covered in posts above but I think he difficulty in putting this accurately onto the tabletop is reflected in the fluff.

 

Don't mean to be a naysayer - I love the idea! Such a unit needs to be represented by brethren with different stats to SG though. Even more powerful than them.

[Father Mapple]

Legion of the Damned bodies and shoulder pads, death company arms, sanguinary guard jump packs and wings. 

 

Run as Death Company - veteran stats, power weapons for all if needed, leadership isn't needed, they go with Astorath, and they're really elite beat sticks.

 

Or Sanguinary Guard, since a 2+ save is just as good or better than an invulnerable save versus AP3 or better. That'd fit the bill well. Give them masks as wargear since they're all bony and scary.

[Brother apocalyptic]

This sounds awesome.. Might have to do this with the next Sang guards unit I buy... And then mix en all up

[marine7312000]

I actually thought about this when I read the book myself and decided that I would probably run them as a command squad. I then searched for the name Erelim and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_angelic_hierarchy .

[Emperors Immortals]

I had a reclusiarch last en with apprenticed chaplains. I used LoTD models and ran it as sterguard.

 

Interesting idea.

[Helias_Tancred]

Cheap question: if the Erelim are busy baby-sitting Astorath in the field, who is guarding the sanctum?

 

Covered in posts above but I think he difficulty in putting this accurately onto the tabletop is reflected in the fluff.

 

Don't mean to be a naysayer - I love the idea! Such a unit needs to be represented by brethren with different stats to SG though. Even more powerful than them.

 

I would imagine Astorath leaves behind a group to guard the sanctum.

[Vash113]

Cheap question: if the Erelim are busy baby-sitting Astorath in the field, who is guarding the sanctum?

 

Covered in posts above but I think he difficulty in putting this accurately onto the tabletop is reflected in the fluff.

 

Don't mean to be a naysayer - I love the idea! Such a unit needs to be represented by brethren with different stats to SG though. Even more powerful than them.

 

Like Tiberius said there's no mention of specifically how many Erelim there are, while yea I suspect the intention was that they never really leave the sanctum I don't think it's outside the bounds of possibility that there are enough for five to head out with Astorath while others guard the Sanctum.

 

I also don't think Sanguinary Guard are the best fit rules-wise for the Erelim. It's an easy option and I'd certainly love to see pics of anyone who uses the theme. Myself though I think the idea of having them as Death Company all armed with power maces sounds like a more accurate way of representing them and making them an effective bodyguard for Astorath.

 

I was considering, if I eventually undertake the project to build a squad, using the three of the four poses of resin Chaplains, plus the Jump Pack Chaplain, and Lemartes, swapping out all of their backpacks for Sanguinary Guard winged Jetpacks and otherwise using them as-is. Unfortunately the third pose of Resin Chaplain GW had produced, the one with the plasma pistol and the more bucket-helm looking helmet is no longer on the website, nor is the bare-headed shouting one. For example these two:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Warhammer-40k-Space-Marine-Chaplain-Metal-Painted-/231435442636?pt=Games_US&hash=item35e2a099cc

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Warhammer-40k-Space-Marines-Space-Marine-Chaplain-Part-Metal-w63-/400827696543?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item5d5331459f

 

So I'd be stuck with four Chaplain bodies and missing a fourth. I could use the new plastic one from the Reclusium Command Squad set but I don't like mixing materials in squads, if the rest are resin I'd prefer to stick with resin but it looks like that's not an option. Perhaps using the suggested Legion of the Damned would solve the problem. Swap out Lemartes and fill the missing spot with the two LotD Sergeants. Yea that's probably what I'll eventually do but with a price tag of more than $120 I likely won't get around to it anytime soon. Still the idea is tempting so I may try to swing it, we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Rules wise I'll probably wind up just running them as 5 Chaplains in Apoc only games, my Blood Angel force is more than large enough for Apoc anyway.

[shandwen]

The string of chaplains would be great.  I'm not sure what the best choice to play them as would be though, probably vanguard vets (power mauls) with a stormshield or two (in place of rosariuses).

On a seperate note bare-headed chaplains are becoming a rarity probably because some of the newer fluff says that some chapters chaplains are never to be seen without their helm by regular battlebrothers.

[Vash113]

The string of chaplains would be great.  I'm not sure what the best choice to play them as would be though, probably vanguard vets (power mauls) with a stormshield or two (in place of rosariuses).

On a seperate note bare-headed chaplains are becoming a rarity probably because some of the newer fluff says that some chapters chaplains are never to be seen without their helm by regular battlebrothers.

 

Vanguard is not a bad idea to field them. As for the headless chaplains, I don't think that's GW's intention. As the new plastic has both a bare and helmet head option.

[Arkangilos]

just out of curiosity, what is in this sanctum guarded by them? Like, why is it a secret place, and so well guarded?

[marine7312000]

I don't remember it specifically saying what they're guarding. I'm guessing however that they would be guarding the Chapter's relics.

[Vash113]

just out of curiosity, what is in this sanctum guarded by them? Like, why is it a secret place, and so well guarded?

 

Well given that it's Astorath's sanctum and it's secret the implication is that it's a site dedicated to the Death Company and the duties of Astorath. Possibly the place holds the names of all those battle-brothers who have fallen to the Black Rage, or is a repository of lore on the curse.

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

this is pretty cool, 

the way i see it, the BA are split into a number of cult centres / lodge type things.

 

The sanguiniam, reclusiam, and for want of a better word, the warrior's lodge. These are exemplified by Corbulo, Astorath, and the Sanguinor. These are all outside of the regular command structure of a company, and represent the more arcane ways in which a line soldier could progress within the chapter, as they are initiated into the mysteries of Sanguinius' bloodline. In fact, my army is due for a bit of a tidy up, so perhaps I can use this to represent honour markings etc (in white, black and gold respectively)....

 

I've been toying with the idea of doing some new dark sanguinary guard (my current SG are in fact very dark red with bone helmets). I was thinking of using some of the chaos space marines or berserker models as a base, as their helmets are quite skull like (or in some cases, skulls). 

[Vash113]

this is pretty cool, 

the way i see it, the BA are split into a number of cult centres / lodge type things.

 

The sanguiniam, reclusiam, and for want of a better word, the warrior's lodge. These are exemplified by Corbulo, Astorath, and the Sanguinor. These are all outside of the regular command structure of a company, and represent the more arcane ways in which a line soldier could progress within the chapter, as they are initiated into the mysteries of Sanguinius' bloodline. In fact, my army is due for a bit of a tidy up, so perhaps I can use this to represent honour markings etc (in white, black and gold respectively)....

 

I've been toying with the idea of doing some new dark sanguinary guard (my current SG are in fact very dark red with bone helmets). I was thinking of using some of the chaos space marines or berserker models as a base, as their helmets are quite skull like (or in some cases, skulls). 

 

The problem with the Khorn Berserker kit is it's rather dated and looks it, the armor and details just aren't up to the crisp, clean standards of newer kits. Makes them stand out, and not in a good way in my experience. If you want skull helms I'd suggest looking at 3rd party manufacturers, maybe Kromlech?

[shaun03]

The heads from terror Sq for night lord by forge world would suit your project well.

 

And /Or just got with the raptor models ( switching some of there heads)there rather dark looking and comiing with more bat lookinhd will stand out more than the feather ones, that was always my biggest judgment of astorh was he wings. Felt they need to embrace the darker side and save the feathers for SG and Dante.

 

But as long as you flowing the rule of cool, the unit will work just fine on the battel feild.

[Vash113]

The heads from terror Sq for night lord by forge world would suit your project well.

 

And /Or just got with the raptor models ( switching some of there heads)there rather dark looking and comiing with more bat lookinhd will stand out more than the feather ones, that was always my biggest judgment of astorh was he wings. Felt they need to embrace the darker side and save the feathers for SG and Dante.

 

But as long as you flowing the rule of cool, the unit will work just fine on the battel feild.

 

I like the Terror Squad heads but they're not really... chaplain like IMO, more batlike and varmpirish which I guess would be good for some representations of BA but if and when I build the squad I dunno if that's the direction I'd take it. As for the new Raptors/Warp Talons kit the armor and models are quite chaos looking, making them loyalist would be hard and they don't really have "wings" let alone bat wings. For that maybe the Tyranid Warrior wings would work better but I don't see them in the GW webstore anymore... drat.

[shaun03]

Yeah the GW raptor kits won't work, I was talking about the FW ones, my fault for not saying which set I was talking about. I think the wings for Nids went away. eBay might have knock off fw ones.

[Vash113]

Thanks to my friend the Chaplain I have three spare Sanguinary Guard Jump Packs. I initially envisioned a squad of five but I'm going to start with three. The full-skull helm Chaplain from the webstore and the two Legion of the Damned Sergeants. Hopefully I'll have them done up in a couple of weeks. 

 

As for rules-wise I'm going to field them as three Captains, not Chaplains. For a couple of reasons. First, as the dark guardians of the Death Company I don't think these guys would be very inspirational or spouting a lot of oratory, instead I see them as more silent, ominous killers. Using the Captain profile they get access to Artificer Armor, retain a 4+ Invulnerable save, can take a variety of weapons instead of the Crozius, and get a better stat-line including a 3rd wound. They lose Zealot, which hurts, but for the advantages I think it will be worth it, and make for an interesting group of psychos to spread throughout my Sanguinary Guard army in Apoc/Unbound games.