The Casual Heretic’s Crusade

[Casual Heresy]

Morning all.

 

I'm one of the many long time admirers of Templars who has finally jumped in with new supplement. But now thanks to a Twitter poll I'm planning on taking my Templars to the 40k Grand Tournament at Warhammer World in February.

 

Thought it would be fun idea to document my progress to hone my list and paint it in time. This will be the biggest competitive event I've ever attended so advice on list composition would be greatly appreciated. I'm not neccesarily out to win the whole thing but I'd like to win atleast a couple of my games.

 

First job though is to get the 2021 grand tournament mission pack and study the missions so I can put together lists that can achieve the objectives.

 

On the painting side I have a few units in progress so far, with these five assault terminators being the closest to being finished.

 

 

Now time for me to get to work.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Casual Heresy

[Medjugorje]

N I C E. 

 

cant wait to see your ideas and preporations about your list

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

Welcome to The Bandwagon Eternal Crusade! You join at an auspicious time as we are finally getting our signature rule set back (for the most part). I look forward to seeing your Crusade grow. 

 

A word of caution... Black Templars quickly becomes an obsession. Ask anyone here. ZEAL is contagious!

[Marshal Reinhard]

Welcome to the Eternal Crusade, brother!

[BayOkuz]

Welcome to the Crusade, Brother. May the Emperor shine on your path

[Casual Heresy]

Thank you all. I'm obsessed with Space Marines of all varieties so joining the Eternal Crusade one day was inevitable.

 

I haven't made much progress on a first version of the list yet, due to moving flat, but I've got a rough idea of what I want to field. Basically I know I want to try and get two threatening combat units in there. It may not be optimal but I want one of them to be the previously show assault terminators in a Crusader. For the second I'm currently thinking 5 Bladeguard in an Impulsor. Depending on match up these units can advance together to threaten a flank, or work independently. The goal with two beat stick units is that my opponent has two threats they can afford to ignore, hopefully giving the rest of the army a chance to wrack up the points early in the game. 

 

The rest of the list is up in the air but I'm currently thinking Primaris Crusader Squads to move up and hold the midfield. I'm thinking two ranged squads and one combat orientated one to counter attack. Attack bikes are a possibility to add to the anti-tank complement with multi-meltas and zip around claiming objectives or secondaries near the end of the game.

 

A Chaplain is a must. I want to unlock relic bearers to get the seal of sigismund on the terminators to add to the scary 'Distraction Carnifex' role. Need to decide if it will be a Terminator Chaplain to ride with the terminators or a primaris Chaplain on a bike.

 

Competitive gaming isn't the sole goal of this collection though, I'm looking forward to more casual games with my Templars going forward as well.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Casual Heresy

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

Fluffy? Can't go wrong with the Termie Chaplain. 

[Casual Heresy]

Greetings all, It's been a while.

 

Work in December got in the way of hobby time but I've been working away when I could and will hopefully be on track to have an army painted by the end off January. I've settled on a list I'm happy with. Long range anti-tank is a slight concern but this army is really about being in my opponent's face and controlling the mid board.

 

HQ

 

High Marshal Helbrecht

 

Terminator Chaplain with Master of Sanctity and Ancient Breviary

 

Troops

 

Primaris Crusader Squad with 3x auto-boltrifles, 2x pyre blasters, Sword Brother with sword and heavy bolt pistol, 4x neophytes with carbines.

 

Primaris Crusader Squad with 3x auto-boltrifles, 2x pyre blasters, Sword Brother with sword and heavy bolt pistol, 4x neophytes with shotguns.

 

Primaris Crusader Squad with 3x heavy bolt pistols and chainswords, 2x power fists, Sword Brother with axe and pyre pistol, 4x neophytes with pistols and chainswords.

 

Elites

 

Apothecary

 

5x bladeguard

 

5x assault terminators with hammers and shields, sergeant with sigismund's seal and champion of the feast.

 

Fast Attack

 

Attack bike with mulit melta.

 

Attack bike with mulit melta.

 

Attack bike with mulit melta.

 

Heavy Support

 

Land Raider Crusader with multi melta

 

Dedicated Transport

 

Impulsor with shield dome, storm bolters and multi melta.

 

Will it be the most effective list? No idea. But it's a selection of units I feel I can use effectively and that I know I will enjoy using, 

[Brother Kraskor]

Potentially more effective would be having a defensive relic on the Termies or BGV, and having a Chief Apoc there to bring him back every turn. I saw a video by Implausible Nature about Primaris Crusaders and their assessment was they're best off with Chainswords & Power Fists. 

[Tokugawa]

I felt sorry, but word "land raider" and "effective" really can't appear in same paragraph today.

[Prot]

Here's my two cents on the Land raider. 

 

For right now, assuming the GT is going to use a decent (strong) sense of terrain, it's extremely hard to be move efficiently, and with out being impeded on the table top.

 

If your taking Oath as a BT player, the Land Raider is (in my opinion and experience) very counter productive to that. (If you get it in the middle somehow, it can be easily tied up, block your access to the center point, and inevitably is extremely difficult to get you 2 points for that center point.

 

You need something that can bully the middle. These lists that have heavy infantry are fun, but they need help to truly own the middle. Dreads of any type (I've found) make opponents that would otherwise slam into a Landraider, think twice about one / two / three Dreads sitting on or near the middle.

 

It doesn't have to be dreads but I am thinking of what I've used. Even the Warsuits have been very good for me (but far less utility because they don't get -1 dmg, or Core).

 

I'd suggest to start you play a test game with your favoured secondaries with a Landraider... then with out. And take it from there.

[Casual Heresy]

Well sadly my keeping up with progress due to real life being a bit of a rollercoaster between work, moving house and family illness, and then almost not making it to Nottingham due to Storm Eunice. But thank you all for your input.

 

Painting time was severely limited, and though I had to finish painting in the hotel the night before, I did it and had an absolute blast over the weekend. I achieved my goal of not coming last (44th out of 52) and I was the highest scoring Templar player present (we'll quietly ignore that I was the only one...)

 

I won my first game against Tyranids but then lost four against Necrons, Orks, Drukhari and Space Marines in that order. All were fun games and generally quite close in points. I made some mistakes in hindsight, but on many occasions I had some really bad luck, or my opponent had better luck.

 

I held your advice in mind with the Land Raider Prot, and in the end it performed better than expected. In all my games apart from the one against a nasty Necron wraith list it delivered the terminators where they needed to be and then surprisingly survived up to turn 3 or more and caused havoc. In my fourth game it killed more Raiders than the other anti-tank units, and in the other games it was generally able to draw a lot of fire power that would have stopped the units that were scoring me points doing so.

 

Overall I had a great time, and learned alot about how I like to play this game.

 

Going forward I want to go back over the last few units to touch up and bring them up to the standard I'm happy with. Then It's time to add some new units. Top of the list are dreadnoughts with 2 redemptors and a contemptor in the pipeline. But now that I've got a 2000pt list fully painted I can be a bit more chill about painting.

 

Think I'll change this thread into a project log for my templars as they grow. Does anyone know how to change a thread title?

 

I'll post pics of the finished army next week once I've moved house and have space to unpack my hobby stuff again.

[Marshal Reinhard]

unless i'm mistaken you can change the title if you edit the first post

[Casual Heresy]

Thank you Reinhard!

[Casual Heresy]

Well covid and moving have eaten into hobby time, to the point I haven't even been able to get a picture of the army that went to the GT.

 

But (hopefully) I'm going to the Throne of Skulls event in August at Warhammer World. Since the army is tournament legal from last time I can work on new units without the fear of running out of painting time between now and then. Much of the army's core will stay the same, but but with some new characters and dreadnoughts this time around.

 

HQ

 

Grimaldus, Warlord

 

Primaris Castellan with axe and combi-flamer

 

Primaris Master of the Forge with The Skull of the Cacodominus. Hero of the Chapter (Warden of the Ancients)

 

Troops

 

Primaris Crusader Squad with 3x auto-boltrifles, 2x pyre blasters, Sword Brother with sword and heavy bolt pistol, 4x neophytes with carbines.

 

Primaris Crusader Squad with 3x auto-boltrifles, 2x pyre blasters, Sword Brother with sword and heavy bolt pistol, 4x neophytes with shotguns.

 

Primaris Crusader Squad with 3x heavy bolt pistols and chainswords, 2x power fists, Sword Brother with axe and pyre pistol, 4x neophytes with pistols and chainswords.

 

Elites

 

5x bladeguard, sergeant with neo-volkite pistol

 

Redemptor Dreadnought with Macro Plasma Incinerator, Icarus Rocket Pod, Onslaught Gatling Cannon and 2x Stormbolters

 

Redemptor Dreadnought with Macro Plasma Incinerator, Icarus Rocket Pod, Onslaught Gatling Cannon and 2x Stormbolters

 

Relic Contemptor Dreadnought with 2x Twin Volkite Culverin

 

Fast Attack

 

Attack bike with mulit melta.

 

Attack bike with mulit melta.

 

Attack bike with mulit melta.

 

 

Dedicated Transport

 

Impulsor with Ironhail Skytalon Array, storm bolters and multi melta.

 

 

I actually have everything in this list either already fully painted or on hand and ready to build/paint. I really enjoyed using the terminators and Land Raider the last list but wanted to try a dread heavy list this time as 1) Dreadnoughts are one of my favourite unit types, 2) I never actually used a Redemptor and now have two to work with in the pile of potential.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Casual Heresy

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Text is blacked out unfortunately.

[Casual Heresy]

That's extremely odd. I've edited the colour now so should be visible on the default board version but no idea how that happened.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Solid list… I highly recommend the relic axe for the Castellan.

[Casual Heresy]

Thanks Black Blow Fly. Relics will be up in the air until I've played around with a few, but wanted to try the skull first for some psychic defense. The axe is high on the list though.

 

After a stressful minute on eventbrite, I am actually going to the tournament! Time to get building some dreadnoughts!

[Casual Heresy]

Glad to see bolter and chainsword back and looking forward to utilising these new features for posting. 
 

I haven’t been idle on the Templars though real life has meant not making as much progress as I’d like. Today I finished the last model for the new additions for August’s tournament. So soon on the painting desk will be 2x redemptors, a contempor, Primaris tech marine, Primaris Castellan and Grimaldus and co. 
 

The recent points changes have worked substantially in my favour. The 2000pt list I previously wrote has dropped by almost 70pts. Currently mulling over a few ideas to fill, which include dropping the castellan for helbrecht. 
 

For now I will leave you with pics of the army that went to Nottingham in August. 
 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the models.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Very nice !! Whose the Marine with a Stormshield and thunderhammer ? Must be a terminator.

Edited June 26, 2022 by Black Blow Fly

[Casual Heresy]

Thank you both!

Black Blow Fly: Yeah that’s the sergeant of my kitbashed terminator assault squad. The squad is based on the deathwing Knight bodies, bitz from the old BT upgrade frame, blade guard storm shields, and other oddments from my bitzboxes. (In progress photo because I’m too lazy to cross the room and get them out for a photo. It’s past my bed time). 
 

 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

They look mean as Hell !!

[Casual Heresy]

Thank you Black Blow Fly!

I got my first game with the full tournament list yesterday against my mate’s Death Guard. I want to tweak relics/warlord traits but overall I’m very happy with how the list works. Everything performed as I hoped. The Dreadnoughts were unassailable most of the game and we’re able to respond to any threat. I kept all three close together so the redemptors could benefit from wisdom of the ancients on the contemptor every turn. Grimaldus felt a little underwhelming, but I think it’s more down to my inexperience using him. 
 

The Nephilium points changes have given me some wiggle room so considering some tweaks. I may drop Grimaldus and the castellan for helbrecht and either a standard chaplain or a biker. May also go with a marshal with axe and plasma pistol instead of the castellan as I missed rerolling 1s to hit on the blade guard more than rerolling 1s to wound benefitted me. 
 

Either way need to focus on painting for a bit. Currently planning to have the Dreadnought finished by the end of next week.