Salamanders rite of war - the awakening fire

[Sons of Ananta]

Ok.  Unless I'm missing something, hh6 kinda messed up the new Salamanders rite of war.

I love the storyline of zealot warrior monk Salamanders and their robo-messiah. Xiaphus Jurr is a great character (in story, in game he's kinda ... interesting) and when I saw there was a new rite of war around this theme I was delighted. Ok, it's not that strong, but it's still cool, and I wanted to build my army around the Mezoa storyline.

Except the restrictions make 'the awakening fire' virtually unplayable.

You have to have a Master of the Legion. Cassian Dracos doesn't have it, Xiaphus doesn't have it.

You have to take a Chaplain. Xiaphus isn't a chaplain as far as popular opinion can tell, and FW isn't answering my emails.

To use the psychic power, you have to take a psycher. Both Xiaphus and Dracos are psychic to a degree, but neither can take the power.

So to use the rite at all you have to take s delegatus/praetor, and a chaplain. To use it properly you need a librarian as well, which fills your HQ slots and means you can't take the guy who started it or the messiah that runs it.

Unless I'm missing something this is a damn mess!  Help me out?

Edited June 29, 2016 by Sons of Ananta

[apologist]

The Age of Darkness force org chart has three HQ choices:

1) Praetor (or Delegatus)

2) Centurion (with Chaplain upgrade)

3) Centurion (with Librarian upgrade)

 

Solved! It's undoubtedly limiting, but no more so than some of the other Rites of War (viz. the Word Bearers, for example).

 

Of course, that doesn't get to the root of the issue; which is that you'd (very reasonably) like to use the special characters. Personally, I'd suggest that you houserule that Xiaphas Jurr and Dracos count as Librarians for the purposes of this Rite of War.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Apologist

[Fenbain]

I thought Xiaphas was already a Chaplain and he developed/had innate psyker abilities?

[Charlo]

Totally agree with Sons of Ananta!

 

The rite is very silly, it seems fluff driven yet is totally unable to be fluffy.

 

People have speculated though, that like Erebus (who was later confirmed in an Email to count as a Chaplain and Diabolist for the purposes of the WB RoW limitations) that the Sally Chappy may well be soon.

[Sons of Ananta]

I thought Xiaphas was already a Chaplain and he developed/had innate psyker abilities?

This was exactly what I thought.  But on 2 places where I've looked the prevaliing opinion is that he doesn't count as a chaplain.

[Sons of Ananta]

It actually appears as though I might've got it backwards.  The description of the rite says the marines not assigned to the Retribution fleet delved into the Promethean cult.  Although the book spends zero time talking about the Salamanders on Nocturne, the fluff for the rite mentions them harnessing the power of their homeworld.

It looks like there are 2 sets of crazed messianic Salamanders, one lot following the Promethean Creed and another folloing robo messiah with Xiaphus in a Shattered Legion force.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

At the moment, it's very much like Apologist said above:

 

1.  Pick eiter a Praetor or Delegatus

2.  Chaplain Consul

3.  Librarian Consul

 

Leaving you with exactly one psyker who can use Fury of the Salamander.  Seems to be only legal build at the moment.

 

Personally, I'd allow the following though:

 

1.  Xiaphas Jurr  - Since he clearly is a chaplain in terms of fluff as well as his rules. He gets the Zealot USR which only chaplains can bestow and unlocks RoW via MotL.

Die-hard RAW players will potentially object to this though, since he's not clearly designated as a chaplain in his army list entry.

2.  Librarian Consul

3.  Librarian Consul

 

I'd expect FW to make this setup legal in a future FAQ along the way, thus enabling you to pick two librarians.

[Slips]

...How about using Nomus Rytan?

• Is a Chaplain
• Has Master of the Legion
• Has a 2+/4++ and Eternal Warrior
• Has a Two-Handed Armourbane Ap2 Power Maul
• Can take Regular Box Dread talon as a Command Squad if you felt like it.

However, he doesn't have any PML's.

[Caillum]

Yep, Nomus Rhy'Tan is pretty much the ideal choice here. I would always let people use him or Xiaphas Jurr as a Chaplain if the rules called for one. Similarly, Durak Rask should count as a Siege Breaker in a Death Guard force (it's not like he's super-powerful).

 

So with Nomus Rhy'Tan, you can have 2 ML2 Pyromancy Librarians. At least you get D6+4 warp charges, so you have a chance at getting "Fury of the Salamander" off. Still not brilliant though.

 

Personally, I'd take him and nothing else. At least the army has Fear and can force a final turn (which is a situational benefit at best).

[Sons of Ananta]

Using No'mus certainly works best in terms of making it the most effective build, but it doesn't work for the Mezoa storyline.  However, this is purely a fluff driven decision on my part, so thanks for the advice.

I've suggested to my local that for this rite we allow Xiaphus to count either as a Chaplain or MotL, and in either case a 10-15 pt cost would be fine.

I priced him up vs a librarian/chaplain at the same level, and he comes in at around the same as a lvl1 librarian, and given he is a limited psyker but gets zealot, that fits - so if I were to use him as a delegatus level operative and/or a full chaplain an extra cost would certainly be appropriate.

[Breakthrough]

Hi there I know its a bit necromancy, but besides, where there Updates meanwhile?

 

Cause I actually bought Firedrakes and Pyroclasts and more I read the more I am adding some more Salamanders for a little army, played as Salas infiltrated by AL :)