Sable brand units?

[XeonDragon]

So, following up from the thread on the sable brand... does anyone else think that the sable brand should support death-company-like type units? Maybe they could still do actions, but couldn't fall back, had to attack unit with the most wounds etc.?

 

It just occurs to be that the sable brand and black rage have similarities. From the Lexicanum (with some text cut by me)

 

 

Since the earliest days of the Raven Guard, some of their number have been prone to a battle madness known as the Sable Brand. This consists of cold-blooded determination to fight on with no regard for self-preservation coupled with an inability to separate the whispers of the dead from the words of the living... Though its effects are not permanent, it often is ever-present to those who suffer from it. During the Great Crusade Corax organized those afflicted into units of Shadow Killers. However after the Legion's near extinction on Isstvan V, the Primarch could no longer waste troops like this. After Isstvan V, Corax labored with various methods to control the Sable Brand. He developed the Trifold Path of Shadow as a result in an attempt to control the outbreaks of madness. The doctrine has indeed led to fewer battle-brothers becoming afflicted with the Sable Brand. However should the afflicted not be slain in battle, they are eventually incarcerated in the Ravenspire and used in experimentation by the Chapter's Apothecaries. This attempt to cure their gene-seed is carried out in total secrecy...

 

In turn shadow killers are described in the following terms:

 

Amongst the Raven Guard and the XIXth Legion that preceded them, there was a tendency amongst combat veterans placed in situations of extreme stress to forsake all pretense of self-preservation, fighting with a terrifying silent determination and the sole aim of causing as many casualties and as much destruction as possible before succumbing to their foe.

 

This strange blood-soaked ennui that drove many amongst the Raven Guard to sacrifice themselves in battle was known among the Terran XIXth Legion as becoming "Ash Blind", while the Raven Guard native to the later Legion homeworld of Deliverance knew it as the "Sable Brand", a condition heralded by the darkening of the entire eye to black. Those warriors who survived their suicidal furies sometimes recovered, their brethren never mentioning the incident in a typically Raven Guard display of reticence, but more often were evermore plagued in combat by the urge to slay until death took them, paying no heed to tactical plans.

 

The XIXth Legion, in the days before their Primarch Corax's return, made little attempt to organise the Ash Blind on the battlefield, relying on the flexible nature of their tactical doctrines to make the maximum use of their suicidal urges when they took hold. The Raven Lord later turned this aberrant effect of his gene-seed into a valuable weapon in his tactical arsenal, forming those afflicted by the Sable Brand into units of "Shadow Killers" and employing them as shock assault troops and assassins.

 

 

I really like the idea of Raven Guard having some death-company like units. The jump pack slash units of death would be an obvious choice, but maybe another "assassin" alternative would be having foot troops with concealed positions and maybe a Killing Rampage rule like the Eversor Assassin, maybe with a rule preventing them from falling back, having to charge if they are in charge range, give them the +1 to hit but maybe not the 6+++ that BA DC get?  

 

What do you think, is there room for Sable Brand units in a future RG codex? 

Edited June 1, 2022 by XeonDragon

[Kingnoname]

I would rather the ash blind to be distinct from death company/wulfen or other bezerker style units. Operating as individual operatives, range based, pre game moves. Basically just moritats from horus heresy. Maybe with some old tech like phosphex/volkite.

[XeonDragon]

On 6/25/2022 at 7:20 PM, Kingnoname said:

I would rather the ash blind to be distinct from death company/wulfen or other bezerker style units. Operating as individual operatives, range based, pre game moves. Basically just moritats from horus heresy. Maybe with some old tech like phosphex/volkite.

That sounds really cool as well :D

[9x19 Parabellum]

 I love both those ideas as well!