The Mortis Crusade - return from the warp

[Marshall Bretton]

So I have been away from templars for a very long for a number of reasons, however with the new release I have been inspired to restart the crusade and move into the primaris era. Given my old crusade thread has been archived after being inactive for so long I thought I would start a new thread to record my new beginning.

 

A brief history of the Mortis Crusade.

 

 

Lead by Marshal Breton, recruited into the templars some 300 years ago when, as a boy of 14, he led the defence of his fuedal world against an undead uprising masterminded by a coven of chaos sorcerors. Armed with nothing but swords, lances and courage, he held the defences together for 3 months after the initial assault which annihilated the worlds capital city and destroyed any form of command structure present amongst the armies of the fuedal lords, including the King and all but 3 of his Barons.

 

The future marshal rallied a host of knights and their men at arms into an elite force to battle the undead hordes. The warriors fell back gradually before the terrible onslaught, never able to defeat them, but fighting nonetheless. At one point the warrior even managed to lead a break through of the enemy lines, attacking the chaos sorcerors directly and managing to kill one of the foul creatures, though at great cost. This continued until the arrival of the black templars broke the back of the undead horde. The knights had been forced back to their last stronghold in the far north of their lands. They fought on the walls knowing their death was close and determined to sell their lives dearly. Out of nowhere, giant black clad warriors appeard amongst the massed ranks of walking dead and started killing at will. Massive black objects dropped from the heavens discourging more deadly warriors who slaughtered all before them.

 

One object smashed to earth directly beside the coven of chaos sorcerors on a hill towards the rear of the army. Out of this pod leapt a golden armoured warrior and his crimson cloaked brothers, they fought an epic battle against the foul sorcerors, eventually killing them all. After several hours of fighting the battle was finally over, and the last bastion of this world still stood firm.

 

The Black templars recognised the courage and skill required to hold the terrible army of the dead and their sorcerous masters at bay. They immediately recruited the commander and his 2 closest advisors (men of similar age to the commander themselves) into their ranks.

 

Since that day the 3 warriors have fought togeher across hundreds of worlds, steadily rising through the ranks of the chapter until the commander became the crusade Marshal. His staunchest ally and advisor from both his lives, the man who had led the faith of the knights during the defence and kept their belief in the Emperor true, became the crusades master of sanctity some 5 years later. His sworn bodyguard and closest friend now serves as the Emperors champion, and has done so for the last 50 years.

 

The entire incident gave the marshall a burning hatred for all the forces of chaos, but sorcerors in particular, a fiery Zeal that burns within him to this day and helped with his rise through the ranks of the chapter.

 

 

 

At the outbreak of the great rift, The crusade had been pushing deep into the mortis cluster, a large group of star systems previously cut off by warp storms and lost to imperial records. When the cadian gate fell and the astronomicon failed, the crusade was almost lost. The terrible warpstorms which had previously cut the Mortis cluster off from the rest of the imperium returned more devastating than ever. For over a century the crusade attempted to make their way back to imperial space, relying on short range warp jumps and being forced to fight at every step. Their losses were significant and there was no way to replenish their numbers, only the ability of the battle barge, Duty Eternal, to manufacture ammunition and armour kept the crusade from being destroyed.

 

When the crusade finally emerged from the edges of the warpstorms, only their battle barge and a few dozen hardened warriors remained from a once mighty crusade. The galaxy they found was much changed from what they had known before with primarchs returned and a new breed of Astartes. Wasting no time, Marshal Breton immediately set course to rendezvous with the High Marshal and report back. Learning much of the new order, the marshal and his entire surviving household immediately volunteered to cross the Rubicon primaris. Now, reforged in the light of the Emperor, and reinforced back to full strength, the crusade prepares to head once more in to the darkest parts of the Emperor's domain to bring his light.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Gaius Maximus

[Marshall Bretton]

So brothers, I am looking for a bit of help deciding on what loadout to give my reborn marshal. Previously he has always been armed with a greatsword and a stormshield however I am conscious that the primaris options are more restrictive than before and stormshields aren't as valuable as they used to be.

 

I want to maintain him as a melee character however I want to know if there is any value gearing him as the primaris captain from the indomitus kit, or if I would be better using one of the new loadout options we have available from the supplement.

 

My thought are either:

Primaris marshal, power sword, relic shield

 

Or

Primaris marshal, power sword, combi flamer

[Marshal Reinhard]

Welcome back to the Eternal Crusade, brother!

 

Part of me wants to say make both options a possiblity, but I realize you're wanting to model your main marshal and may not wanna magnetize so you want to pick ones that will work in the long run

 

I'll hazard to say go with the auto-flamer and powersword combo, as we can get some durability in other ways from the new codex, and this gives him decent utility in shooting as well.

[Marshall Bretton]

Welcome back to the Eternal Crusade, brother!

 

Part of me wants to say make both options a possiblity, but I realize you're wanting to model your main marshal and may not wanna magnetize so you want to pick ones that will work in the long run

 

I'll hazard to say go with the auto-flamer and powersword combo, as we can get some durability in other ways from the new codex, and this gives him decent utility in shooting as well.

Thanks for the advice brother. In terms of the modelling I can probably make both options work on the same model, particularly as I very rarely play these days and the group I play with isn't bothered with WYSIWYG. My original model was based on the cover art from our previous codex and I'm planning to try and convert the new marshal to look the same so the shield or bolter would likely just sit on the back of the model.

 

Thanks again and I would appreciate any other advice people have on how to gear a melee marshal with the new book

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I commend your imagination. There is room for improvement, though.

Lead by Marshal Breton, recruited into the templars some 300 years ago when, as a boy of 14, he led the defence of his feudal world against an undead uprising masterminded by a coven of Chaos sorcerors.

This is outright Mary Sue-ish. Why was a 14-year-old made a military leader? Was he a prince, i.e., the king's son, given nominal command so he may gain experience? Did a Cardinal have a vision from the God-Emperor, identifying the child as one fated to lead the planet's people to salvation, i.e., Breton is a genderbent Joan of Arc? In both cases, ACTUAL command of the army, should be in an older, more experienced general's hands.

 

Nitpicks:

You repeatedly misspelled feudal as "fuedal", transposing the "e" and "u". "Chaos" should always be capitalized when referring to the Ruinous Powers.

I want to maintain him as a melee character however I want to know if there is any value gearing him as the primaris captain from the indomitus kit, or if I would be better using one of the new loadout options we have available from the supplement.

 

My thought are either:

Primaris marshal, power sword, relic shield

 

Or

Primaris marshal, power sword, combi flamer

I previously proposed Terminator armor with a "servo-turret" replacing the Cyclone missile launcher, freeing both the Terminator's hands to wield melee weapons. If Iron Father Feirros can get away with mounting a heavy bolter to his armor, then Marshal Breton should get away with simultaneously wielding a power sword (right hand), relic shield (left hand), and combi-flamer (remote control weapon, mounted on his backpack).

[Marshall Bretton]

I commend your imagination. There is room for improvement, though.

 

Lead by Marshal Breton, recruited into the templars some 300 years ago when, as a boy of 14, he led the defence of his feudal world against an undead uprising masterminded by a coven of Chaos sorcerors.

This is outright Mary Sue-ish. Why was a 14-year-old made a military leader? Was he a prince, i.e., the king's son, given nominal command so he may gain experience? Did a Cardinal have a vision from the God-Emperor, identifying the child as one fated to lead the planet's people to salvation, i.e., Breton is a genderbent Joan of Arc? In both cases, ACTUAL command of the army, should be in an older, more experienced general's hands.

 

Nitpicks:

You repeatedly misspelled feudal as "fuedal", transposing the "e" and "u". "Chaos" should always be capitalized when referring to the Ruinous Powers.

I want to maintain him as a melee character however I want to know if there is any value gearing him as the primaris captain from the indomitus kit, or if I would be better using one of the new loadout options we have available from the supplement.

 

My thought are either:

Primaris marshal, power sword, relic shield

 

Or

Primaris marshal, power sword, combi flamer

I previously proposed Terminator armor with a "servo-turret" replacing the Cyclone missile launcher, freeing both the Terminator's hands to wield melee weapons. If Iron Father Feirros can get away with mounting a heavy bolter to his armor, then Marshal Breton should get away with simultaneously wielding a power sword (right hand), relic shield (left hand), and combi-flamer (remote control weapon, mounted on his backpack).

Not going to lie, I wrote the bulk of that in 2013 so yes it definitely needs some refinement but I will get to that when I have time to sit down at a pc rather than doing it on my phone lol. I appreciate the feedback though thanks, I will definitely look to make it a bit more realistic.

 

Good point on the model though, hadn't thought of a servo turret, definitely some interesting modelling options there

Edited October 11, 2021 by Gaius Maximus

[Marshal Reinhard]

Hate to throw a spanner into modelling ideas, but if you want to be rules legal, the wording of the datasheet of the primaris captain, even with the added options from the codex supplement, do not actually allow you to take all three. Gone are the days of a free shopping list where you just add what you want and pay points, now we essentially pick from combinations.

 

The stock primaris captain comes with just a mastercrafted auto bolt rifle & bolt pistol and to take either option discussed (Mastercrafted powersword & relic shield or Mastercrafted powersword & auto-flamer, requires you to not already have the mastercrafted powersword and to replace the mastercrafted auto bolt rifle & bolt pistol. You take one and immediately become ineligble to take the other.