Vigilus Armies of Faith and other Crusade Hooks

[ThePenitentOne]

Okay so the Goons put up their T'au  Crusade rules review yesterday and their Vigilus Narative review today and both are giving me serious Campaign hook ideas. I thought I'd throw something up here for the Crusaders to see what you think of these reviews and whether or not they give you guys the same kinds of ideas they're giving me.

 

First of all, links:

 

T'au Review:  https://www.goonhammer.com/codex-tau-empire-the-crusade-rules-review/

Vigilus Review:  https://www.goonhammer.com/war-zone-nachmund-vigilus-alone-the-narrative-play-review/

 

 

Thoughts on T'au:

 

So my thinking here is can you combine the system generation rules from the T'au dex and the GSC dex, and then have a T'au player Crusade to bring the system into the fold while the GSC is working in the shadows to subvert the same system.

 

The system itself would likely best be Imperial, so both T'au and GSC squaring off against Imps to start, but eventually able to hit each other once either has assumed control of a planet. This also sets up some crazy potential for alliances of convenience- like the T'au showing up on the day of Ascension to curry favour (and diplomacy points) by assisting a vastly outnumbered Imperial force.

 

I think the system creation rules that appear in these dexes are useful for players of map based campaigns, even if those campaigns don't include these armies or even use crusade armies at all. From my point of view, this material is worth the cost of the dex even if I never play T'au.

 

Thoughts on Vigilus:

 

First of all, YEEEEAAAAH!

 

GW, you clever, evil geniuses, you've made me appreciate Marines who aren't acting as Chambers Militant for the Inquisition. It took 33 years, but you did it!

 

The trailer for this edition showed Sisters, Marines and Guard fighting together against a common foe, and that is exactly what this delivers. The goons mention some of the more obvious connections, like Sisters + Templars- which is pretty fly. I think there is so much potential here for Sisters players to really dig in and become the beacons of faith in mixed Imperial armies- like letting the priests be the relic bearers and broadcast auras to guard and marines, while they maintain martial-themed upgrades. I think modelling shrines and objective markers, and all of the Imperial Statuary kits really come into their own.

 

Saint Katherine's Aegis Tangent: 

 

If you've read any of my recent posts, you'll know I'm updating Saint Katherine's Aegis now that there is enough bespoke Crusade content to do it better. My GSC starts with a Space Hulk mission; I've already played it through once, but with all the redesign stuff going on elsewhere in the campaign, I wanted to refine the mission and start over so that the campaign can get started on the right foot to better fall in line with what's available now.

 

The models that I have to face off against the Stealers are the Blood Angels Terminators that came in the box; I don't have any Death Watch Terminators to fill the role, so this battle was always going to be Blood Angels vs. GSC. It also worked because BA are dealing with Stealers in spades during the current era, The problem was that I never had a way to use the Blood Angels because the Space Hulk models were the only BA I had. I was contemplating trying to convert them to Death Watch, but they don't have separate shoulder pads.

 

So I came up with a weird idea to have the Stealers use automated escape pods to make planetfall and start the campaign. But it always seemed a little wonky for aliens to use this technology- it felt like I had to compromise fluff based on the models I had available. It always would have been fluffier to have the GSC critically damage the ship, forcing it to land. At that point, they get to escape and hide within the ruins and slums of Orison's wake while the Blood Angels seek support from local Imperials to contact Mission Control and repair their vessel. 

 

So now, if I've got BA on the planet, and there were already Sisters and Guard on the planet... Those BA have a way to fit in that they never had before.

 

And what that means is that I've got a really, really good reason to paint those terminators after 8 years of bare red plastic shame.

Edited February 3, 2022 by ThePenitentOne

[WrathOfTheLion]

The GSC/T'au interaction interests me. I think it'd be cool if the T'au have 'conquered' the world, but it's really been subverted by the Genestealer Cults. The T'au don't know this though, the world is subverted, not openly owned by the Genestealers, and still 'acts' as it should.

 

The Space Marine stuff doesn't interest me to be honest. It looks like just another line of things mainly focusing on Black Templars, which they've been doing for like six months now. I get that many people like them, but I personally don't care at all, so it's kind of old for me. I get they're still marketing that release, but it doesn't interest me and I take it as a bit of a minus to the campaign book that the content there is so immediately associable with them.

 

I wish the SM stuff was immediately more thematically tied with the 'Wardens of the Gauntlet' concept, but maybe it is and I just need to read it more.

Edited February 3, 2022 by WrathOfTheLion

[ThePenitentOne]

Yeah, I felt like the banner rules could have equally applied to certain Sororitas or Guard units- why can't an Imagifier or an IG  command squad tote a Relic banner?

 

I'm just happy to have an excuse to use 12 Blood Angel Terminators (other than the Space Hulk set the came with). Not sure so few models justifies the cost of the supplement- I might just use the rules from the SM dex. I very much like mixing Guard and Sisters though.

 

Cool thought on the T'au vs GSC.