Supporting Allies with Quake Bolt/Morkai's Teeth Bolts

[L30n1d4s]

Looking through the new rules for Space Wolves and Blood Angels, something I had missed before but jumped out to me recently was that both the Blood Angel Special Issue Wargear Bolts (i.e. Quake Bolts) and the Space Wolves Special Issue Wargear Bolts (i.e. Morkai's Teeth Bolts) have their rules written in such a way that their effects are not limited to only <Blood Angel> or <Space Wolves>  attacks, respectively.

 

 

 

More specifically, if you score a hit (no need to wound or anything else) with either of these special "Relic Bolts," then, until the end of the turn, ANY melee attacks directed at the "marked" enemy unit gain +1 to Hit (i.e. Blood Angel Quake Bolts) or, until the end of the turn, ANY attacks directed at the "Marked" unit can re-roll to Wound rolls of 1 (i.e. Space Wolves Morkai's Teeth Bolts).

 

 

 

So, what does this mean? Well, since these affect ANY attacks, that means that allied, non-Space Wolf/Blood Angel units can benefit from them as well. Since these two armies can only be allied with other Imperium forces, it limits the selection somewhat, but I still can think of multiple allied forces that might benefit pretty significantly from this (or even give you a reason to include a small Blood Angel/Space Wolf patrol to get access to these "Relic Bolts"):

 

 

 

1 - Astra Militarum -- While the Guard are struggling competitively a bit right now, the ability to "mark" a unit and then have all your Heavy Weapon Teams, Tank Commanders, Manticores with Full Payload, deep striking Scions, etc. etc. re-roll to Wounds of 1 against that unit is quite powerful, especially considering the volume of raw shooting that an AM gun line can put out. Alternately, if you are running Catachans and/or big Bullgryn squads, taking an allied Blood Angel character with Quake Bolts to "tag" a unit and then give them +1 to hit in close combat can be very powerful indeed, making the massed Catchan S4 attacks even more deadly or the Bullgryn even more reliable as a counter-charge unit.

 

 

2 - Sisters of Battle -- With the volume of medium-short ranged fire that the 9th edition Sisters can now generate, re-rolling 1s to Wound is quite significant, even with the incoming Palantine character that will give them access to a re-rolls 1s to Wound aura. Even better, imagine pumping up the already very dangerous Bloody Rose melee armies (i.e. lots of Repentia, Zeraphym, etc.) with +1 to hit in melee? 

 

 

3 - AdMech -- Whether massed shooting (like Kataphrons, Castellan Robots, Ironstriders, Skorpius Disintegrators, etc.) or hard-hitting melee units (i.e. both kinds of Electro-Priests coming out of Termite Assault Drills), this is a definitely a force that can benefit from either or both of these the abilities conferred by these two kinds of "Relic Bolts" on an enemy unit.

 

 

4 - Grey Knights -- Since they lack their own version of a Lieutenant, allowing GKs to drop in some "on demand" re-rolls of 1s to Wound against a selected target is quite valuable, especially given the amount of shooting and close combat attacks that GKs can generate to benefit from this. Also, GKs currently don't have many ways to add +1 to Hit in melee, so Quake Bolts buffing up a unit of Daemon Hammer Terminators or even just a "vanilla" Strike Squad getting stuck in with a bunch of NFW attacks can be quite a force-multiplier.

 

 

5 - Imperial Knights -- Perhaps more than any faction, Knights can really benefit from support from either/both of these Relic Bolts, allowing them to truly get the most mileage out of their powerful (but limited) weaponry, both in shooting and combat... imagine a Knight hitting in close combat with 15 Stomp Attacks, all of which are benefiting from +1 to Hit and re-rolls of 1s to Wound!

 

 

6 - Assassins -- While all 4 Assassin types natively hit on 2+s in both shooting and melee, outside of the Eversor's ability to re-roll wounds with his Gauntlet in melee they pretty much lack any way to improve the reliability of their "to Wound" rolls, so tagging a key unit with a Morkai's Teeth round can make them all measurably more effective and reliable in both shooting and combat.

 

 

7 - Custodes -- The Golden Boys already have WS2+ across the board, so little reason to need Quake Bolts, but outside Trajan's Aura and a few special weapon profiles, they don't have much access to buffs to their ability to Wound. Just like Imperial Knights, being such a small/elite faction, they really need to make all their attacks count, so being able to tag a key enemy with re-rolls of 1s to Wound can really improve their overall competitiveness, I think.

 

 

8 - Other Space Marines -- All Imperial Space Marines already have plenty of access to re-rolls of 1s to Wound (mainly via Lieutenants) and many of them have ways to get +1 to hit in melee, but these factions can still benefit significantly from allied support using either of these Relics. Importantly, neither of the benefits from either of these Relic Bolt types  are locked to "Core" units, so you can use them to benefit things like Centurions, Vehicles, and Characters that normally have very limited access to such buffs (i.e. imagine a Fire Raptor getting re-rolls of 1s to Wound for shooting or a Biker Smash Chaplain getting to re-roll all 1s to Wound in close combat).

 

 

 

Of course, there is the down side of using Allies (i.e. lost CP to get extra detachments, loss of Combat Dotrines unless the allies are also Space Marines, loss of super Doctrines, etc.), so that might prevent one from using these Bolts to buff allies, but just having this in your hip pocket if you do field an allied Imperium force can be quite useful, I think.

Edited November 29, 2020 by L30n1d4s

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I’m not really seeing much mixed lists anymore .

[Karhedron]

True, mixed lists have become unpopular since you have to pay CPs and lose super-Doctrine bonuses (at least for Marines).

 

But L30n1d4s makes a good point. Is it worth paying the tax for a Patrol detachment? 2CPs for a Patrol, 1 CP for the Relic. 200-ish points will get you a Captain of some variety and a Troop choice to hold a backfield Objective.

 

So it is worth 200 points and 3CPs to provide +1 to Hit or rerolls of 1 to-Wound vs 1 target for as long as said units remain alive? My hunch is that the price may be a bit high for a bonus that can only be applied vs 1 unit per turn and can be negated by assaulting the Captain. My hunch is that the extra points and CPs spent on buffing the main army would be more effective but maybe there are some armies against which is would be profitable.

[Gloomfoe]

 

Good catch. That reroll ones to wound on guard vehicles is very good. They can only do that via a tank ace ability and that's very limited. And it doesn't really hurt guard at all to bring a patrol of marines. So the marines won't have their super duper doctrine, big deal. Bring a librarian for psychic shenanigans(is that 5++ aura for imperium??? Cuz that's what guard tanks want as well) or a smash cpt to kill things. Combine with the guard WL trait "old grudges" and now you have wound rerolls on multiple targets

Edited December 5, 2020 by Gloomfoe

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I’m glad the game is moving away from this type of monkey business .