Word Bearers - Starting with

[MorglumNecksnapper]

Reading the Horus Heresy novels made me look at the Word Bearers more and more. And now there is no more escaping , I'm starting a Word Bearers army.

To start with a little background. I only own Orks and Eldar and I never played any Space Marines, I also only play 100% Orks or Eldar, never used an allied detachment. With the Word Bearers I want to use a Chaos Daemon allied forced. Also I really do not care much about 'strong' and 'weak' units. For me fluff and how they look is most important. For instance I have already decided that the Gal Vorbak and Zardu Layak will be in this army, just because of looks . My aim is to create an army list with your help.

Where I am at right now is Troops. Which ones to use and what models to use for them.

Which ones to use

An army has to have 1 HQ and 2 Troops. My HQ will be High Chaplain Erebus or Zardu Layak. Eventually I will buy both and switch them out in the list, but for now it will be Zardu Layak with his Blade-slaves. Now for Troops. In the 'Betrayal' book I see that Tactical Support and Reconnaissance squads do not fill compulsory Troop selection slots, so I can choose between Tactical, Assault and Breacher siege squads. Simply picking the cheapest will be 2x Legion Tactical squad. I could also go for 2x Ashen Circle, made possible by Zardu Layak.

Are these all the choices I have for troops and/or any opinions on which choice to make?

[Caillum]

Minimum Tacticals is probably the best value option, but you've mentioned a leaning towards fluff, so why not try running Ashen Circle? Zardu's Warlord Trait is useless otherwise and he has a great list of rules that mesh well with Assault.

 

You'll need a Chaplain as well due to the "Charismatic Leadership" Legion Trait - either he or Zardu will do well with a big unit of Gal Vorbak in a Spartan.

 

Have you got a theme for your Daemon allies? Khorne will look good with Word Bearers, but the real Daemon bonus is all the Psykers, so maybe Tzeentch?

 

The rules in HH1: Betrayal are a bit outdated now - the Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List book is definitely worth getting, and Word Bearers have been updated in HH5: Tempest, so they're both very important to have.

[MorglumNecksnapper]

Minimum Tacticals is probably the best value option, but you've mentioned a leaning towards fluff, so why not try running Ashen Circle? Zardu's Warlord Trait is useless otherwise and he has a great list of rules that mesh well with Assault.

 

You'll need a Chaplain as well due to the "Charismatic Leadership" Legion Trait - either he or Zardu will do well with a big unit of Gal Vorbak in a Spartan.

 

Have you got a theme for your Daemon allies? Khorne will look good with Word Bearers, but the real Daemon bonus is all the Psykers, so maybe Tzeentch?

 

The rules in HH1: Betrayal are a bit outdated now - the Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List book is definitely worth getting, and Word Bearers have been updated in HH5: Tempest, so they're both very important to have.

 

I don't have the Legiones Astartes Crusade Armies book, might look into that one, I do have HH5 with the updated Word Bearers rules. I don't really have a theme yet for the army, as most units I like to use are monster/Daemon like, I guess I'm going for a monster-themed army ;). For the Daemons I'm looking at Soul Grinder + Daemon prince + bloodletters, or Soul Grinder + Karanak + hounds, or more monster-like Daemon Prince + Giant Spined Chaos Beast + Giant Chaos Spawn + bloodletters (?).  Eventually my Lord of War will be Samus, or Cor'bax.

 

No choosing with the Chaplain, have to have him according to the rules, so I added him. The Gal Vorbak are great (looking), so the reason I wasn't looking at the Ashen Circle is because they look like marines. With the Tacticals I can use Possessed for bits and pieces.

 

 

So:

HQ: Zardu Layak

HQ: Chaplain consul

Troops: 10 men tactical squad

Troops: 10 men tactical squad

 

Which models to use

Input on which model to use for the chaplain consul is very welcome, would like him to have a skull instead of a normal head. The Troops I am thinking of Chaos Space Marine with Possessed bits and Word Bearer MKIV should pads. Need some bolt pistols and chainswords too as I want the tacticals to have those. Another option would be Chaos Space Marine with Deathguard bodies upgrade.

 

Ideas on which models to use for the Chaplain consul and troops more than welcome :).

[ChainMachete]

Which models to use

Input on which model to use for the chaplain consul is very welcome, would like him to have a skull instead of a normal head. The Troops I am thinking of Chaos Space Marine with Possessed bits and Word Bearer MKIV should pads. Need some bolt pistols and chainswords too as I want the tacticals to have those. Another option would be Chaos Space Marine with Deathguard bodies upgrade.

Ideas on which models to use for the Chaplain consul and troops more than welcome .

I've probably already posted this before, but here's my Chaplain

The head, chest front piece and little incense ball came from the Ford World Minotaur librarian. The back of the head plume needed a little trimming to fit with the backpack from the MkIII armour and the chest piece needed a little cleaning up to remove the Minotaur iconography, but it was still a fairly easy conversion.

I built the crozius so that it could use the rules for a power axe rather than maul, but still look like a crozius. I used the power maul from one of the Dark Vengeance chosen plus part of the standard MkIII power axe to build it.

Since I took this photo, I've also put him on a 32mm base.

You know you can also run a plain non-consul Legion Centurion or Legion Centurion with Early Crusade Honours instead of a chaplain alongside Zardu. Should save you a few points, though if you decide on the early crusade variant, you need to get him before the end of the month (think he goes out of print then).

Remember unless you're using Zardu for Ashen Circle troops or daemon allies, you don't want him as your warlord since his warlord trait is otherwise quite useless. That's where that early crusade centurion is quite useful. But if you want daemons, I guess you don't have much choice.

For daemon allies I prefer daemonettes to bloodletters unless you want to summon stuff (then it's pink horrors). And you can never go wrong with flesh hounds. At lower points I like a Khorne herald on a bloodcrusher with my hounds. But at higher points, Be'lakor is amazing.

[MorglumNecksnapper]

 

I've probably already posted this before, but here's my Chaplain

 

The head, chest front piece and little incense ball came from the Ford World Minotaur librarian. The back of the head plume needed a little trimming to fit with the backpack from the MkIII armour and the chest piece needed a little cleaning up to remove the Minotaur iconography, but it was still a fairly easy conversion.

 

I built the crozius so that it could use the rules for a power axe rather than maul, but still look like a crozius. I used the power maul from one of the Dark Vengeance chosen plus part of the standard MkIII power axe to build it.

 

Since I took this photo, I've also put him on a 32mm base.

 

You know you can also run a plain non-consul Legion Centurion or Legion Centurion with Early Crusade Honours instead of a chaplain alongside Zardu. Should save you a few points, though if you decide on the early crusade variant, you need to get him before the end of the month (think he goes out of print then).

 

Remember unless you're using Zardu for Ashen Circle troops or daemon allies, you don't want him as your warlord since his warlord trait is otherwise quite useless. That's where that early crusade centurion is quite useful. But if you want daemons, I guess you don't have much choice.

 

For daemon allies I prefer daemonettes to bloodletters unless you want to summon stuff (then it's pink horrors). And you can never go wrong with flesh hounds. At lower points I like a Khorne herald on a bloodcrusher with my hounds. But at higher points, Be'lakor is amazing.

 

 

Thanks very much for the picture of your chaplain. As I mentioned I never played Space Marines so I'm not familiar at all yet with which models are available. I like the chest and face and the general 'gladiator' look :). Nice straight lines on the XVII on the shoulder aswell. I re-read the rules and you're right, Chaplain consul or Legion Centurion are both possible. I don't like the limited model on the Forgeworld site though, so don't know what model to choose just yet.

 

With the daemons I don't wanna go with much summoning, so bloodletters or hounds. I'm thinking of keeping the point cost low with the Daemon allies, because I first wanna focus on the Forgeworld Word Bearer models, so herald on bloodcrusher with some hounds sounds good.

 

Thanks again for your input. More people with ideas on what models to use for Chaplain consul, a Legion Centurion or 'mutated'/'daemon' Space Marines? Ideas more than welcome.

[ChainMachete]

Thanks very much for the picture of your chaplain. As I mentioned I never played Space Marines so I'm not familiar at all yet with which models are available. I like the chest and face and the general 'gladiator' look . Nice straight lines on the XVII on the shoulder aswell. I re-read the rules and you're right, Chaplain consul or Legion Centurion are both possible. I don't like the limited model on the Forgeworld site though, so don't know what model to choose just yet.

With the daemons I don't wanna go with much summoning, so bloodletters or hounds. I'm thinking of keeping the point cost low with the Daemon allies, because I first wanna focus on the Forgeworld Word Bearer models, so herald on bloodcrusher with some hounds sounds good.

Thanks again for your input. More people with ideas on what models to use for Chaplain consul, a Legion Centurion or 'mutated'/'daemon' Space Marines? Ideas more than welcome.

I think most peoples problem with the limited centurion model is the face. Plus you can get virtually the same model in the Praetor set - different equipment so you can't use the Centurion with Early Crusade Honours, but with an extra terminator armoured praetor for only a little more money.

As well as buying the new centurion model, I've also kit-bashed my own centurion using the Word Bearer upgrade kits. I used the bare head in the head upgrade kit for my custom centurion, but it would also make the limited edition centurion look a lot better. As well as the bare Word Bearer head, I also ended up using one of the MkIV Word Bearer torsos, a breacher shield, a slightly modified power sword (to represent a tainted weapon) and melta bombs to finish him off. So now I have the choice of my chaplain and two different centurions to help fulfill my Charismatic Leadership requirements.

Another thing worth remembering, is that the Daemon Codex is one of the oldest codexes currently in print and will probably get updated in the next 6 months. So I wouldn't spend a fortune on a load of daemon models that might get their rules drastically updated in the near future.

Have a think about Daemonettes instead of Bloodletters. They are slightly cheaper and have rending, fleet and an extra attack instead of power swords and furious charge like the Bloodletters. I've found them far more flexible, being more effective against terminators, cultists and mechanicum plus the ability to damage AV12. In 40k, Bloodletters really are the least effective of the lesser daemons. In 30k, with much more power armour, they fare a little better, but I still prefer Daemonettes. And if you can get the older Juan Diaz sculpts, they look much better and are easier to hide.