Blood Angels in Shadow War: Armageddon

[Brother Tyler]

I've been working on rules for a [power armoured] Space Marines faction in Shadow War: Armageddon and have taken an initial stab at things. These rules include rules for the Blood Angels.

 

You can see Playtest V1.0 here.

 

I'd appreciate any feedback that you can provide to make this a better (and balanced) product.

[Brother Tyler]

Here is the final version of the Blood Angels rules in my project:

BLOOD ANGELS

The Blood Angels and their successor Chapters are renowned for their willingness to charge headlong into the guns of the foe. They will face down the most suicidal odds, and their hunger for engaging in hand-to-hand combat is well known. Some observers have taken these traits to indicate that the Blood Angels are overeager for battle, that they are somehow foolhardy, ill-disciplined, or even tainted. The truth is both more tragic and far nobler.

A Blood Angels Veteran Sergeant has access to a hand flamer and inferno pistol. A Blood Angels Vanguard Veteran special operative may exchange his bolt pistol with a hand flamer or inferno pistol; and he may exchange his chainsword for a glaive encarmine.

The Red Thirst: In a turn in which a Blood Angels fighter charges into combat, that model adds 1 to its Initiative characteristic until the end of the Assault phase.

Blood Angels troopers may take Combat, Ferocity, and Agility skills.

Blood Angels Specialists may take Ferocity, Guerilla, Shooting, and Stealth skills.

Blood Angels Leaders may take Combat, Ferocity, Guerilla, Agility, Shooting, and Stealth skills.

There are also some larger changes, though these affect all Chapters. These include some additional weapons and wargear (power mauls, power axes, power fists, grav weapons).

[Brother Tyler]

With the main Space Marine Kill Teams rules nearly finished (just getting some pictures in so that I can make them available for download), I've moved forward with the Chapters that participated in the Badab War.

 

For fans of the Blood Angels and their successors, the Lamenters participated in the Badab War on the side of the Secessionists.

 

You can see my initial stab at rules for the Lamenters here. Note that I've made them exactly like the Blood Angels, but I'm open to making some adjustments if we can find compelling evidence to support such changes.

 

P.S. The Flesh Tearers will be covered in a later expansion to the Space Marine Kill Teams rules.

[Lord_Caerolion]

I've always kinda liked the idea for the Lamenters, to take inspiration from copy Brother-Captain Stern's rules, that they can get up to three rerolls each turn, to represent the Forge World idea that in one regard, fate seems to make them successful...

 

...Only to screw them over hard later, so for each reroll the Lamenters player gains from this rule, their opponent gains two to use in their next player turn.

 

I think it gets a nice mix of their unluckiness, without just making them a "Hard Mode Blood Angels", or ignoring it completely.

[Spagunk]

So I play the Arkham horror card game with friends and one of the characters has a specific flaw built in where they have to essentially re-roll any successes and only if the second item is a success will it count. Perhaps you can do something similar for Lamentors? Kind of similar to the captain re-roll of 1's but for successes.

Edited January 18, 2018 by Spagunk

[Brother Tyler]

Well, the starting rules (i.e., the Blood Angels rules) are based on the rules that Forge World gave them.

 

The only other thing I could find that looked promising was the bit about them having somehow mitigated the gene-seed flaw. Of course, that lore is in direct conflict with both the Forge World and regular GW rules for them, both of which drive them to use the normal Blood Angels rules.

 

As for their misfortune, that appears to manifest on a macro-level - bad things happen to the Chapter as a whole. There hasn't been any lore about them being lucky/unlucky on an individual level (which is what the suggestions drive towards).

 

Keep in mind that the goal with the rules I'm developing is to provide for very small differences and nuances to distinguish Chapters. I blanket re-roll as suggested is a major impact, far beyond what other Chapters have in their rules. It would have to be offset by a corresponding benefit (in the case of the "re-roll all successes" suggestion) or drawback (in the case of "three re-rolls per game" suggestion). Each of the suggestions would have to be toned down significantly.

 

The lore is that they are unlucky, but succeed anyways, so I would lean towards the re-rolling successes idea. Since it's luck and not performance on the battlefield, though, I would shift the re-rolls to elements of the game that are luck-based (e.g., rolling for who gets to set up first, perhaps ammo rolls, post-game campaign stuff, etc.).

 

To be honest, my original question was leading more towards tweaks in terms of skills, since I figured those would be easier to justify (since the rules for the Lamenters have always followed the Blood Angels, with one exception).

 

Now that I think of it, I'm going to need to look up the Index Astartes article on the Cursed Founding. I forget what rules the Lamenters were given in that article, but they might provide a neat template we can adapt (though they're pre-Chapter Tactics).

[Panzer]

Any plans on making a Primaris BA team for SW:A? :P

[Brother Tyler]

Perhaps eventually. I have a plan for "Shadow War: Warhammer 40,000" that includes a broad range of factions. For now, though, I'm focused on pre-Dark Imperium settings. Primaris power levels in the Shadow War level of gaming have run through my mind, though. ;)

[Lord_Caerolion]

Well, the starting rules (i.e., the Blood Angels rules) are based on the rules that Forge World gave them.

 

The only other thing I could find that looked promising was the bit about them having somehow mitigated the gene-seed flaw. Of course, that lore is in direct conflict with both the Forge World and regular GW rules for them, both of which drive them to use the normal Blood Angels rules.

 

As for their misfortune, that appears to manifest on a macro-level - bad things happen to the Chapter as a whole. There hasn't been any lore about them being lucky/unlucky on an individual level (which is what the suggestions drive towards).

 

Keep in mind that the goal with the rules I'm developing is to provide for very small differences and nuances to distinguish Chapters. I blanket re-roll as suggested is a major impact, far beyond what other Chapters have in their rules. It would have to be offset by a corresponding benefit (in the case of the "re-roll all successes" suggestion) or drawback (in the case of "three re-rolls per game" suggestion). Each of the suggestions would have to be toned down significantly.

 

The lore is that they are unlucky, but succeed anyways, so I would lean towards the re-rolling successes idea. Since it's luck and not performance on the battlefield, though, I would shift the re-rolls to elements of the game that are luck-based (e.g., rolling for who gets to set up first, perhaps ammo rolls, post-game campaign stuff, etc.).

 

To be honest, my original question was leading more towards tweaks in terms of skills, since I figured those would be easier to justify (since the rules for the Lamenters have always followed the Blood Angels, with one exception).

 

Now that I think of it, I'm going to need to look up the Index Astartes article on the Cursed Founding. I forget what rules the Lamenters were given in that article, but they might provide a neat template we can adapt (though they're pre-Chapter Tactics).

 

I interpret it more that they're successful, but pay heavily for it. They succeed in breakthroughs against all odds, but get cut off and surrounded, they liberate slave populations beyond expectations, but lack the means to evacuate so many. Re-rolling successes gives more of an impression that they are generally unlucky in what they do. My idea was more trying to represent the whole "they kinda do have good luck, it just really comes back to bite them later". I like the idea of getting a reroll in "luck-based" rolls, although rerolls on campaign stuff would mean they get less benefits in pick-up games. 

 

In regards to the skills, what you've got is perfect, really. They don't differ too much from Blood Angels in most senses, they just tend to use a bit less unique stuff.