Mortifactors in Fury of the Ancients

[Rejects of Anvilus]

So an interesting question came up on a FB thread yesterday where somebody asked if you could combine the Venerable Ancient and a Mortifactor into one unit. My initial thought was no, but looking at the rules I am not sure, so thought I would see what others think.

Keeper of the dead says "a detachment that includes a model with this special rule may take an additional legion Contemptor dreadnought talon composed of a single model as part of the same force organisational choice as the model with this special rule. The model with this special rule must join the the dreadnought which has been selected at the start of the battle during deployment".

Fury of the Ancient says "a single legion Contemptor dreadnought talon in the detachment composed of only one dreadnought must be selected as the detachments compulsory HQ choice. A legion Contemptor dreadnought talon selected in this manner must take the venerable ancient upgrade".

So when building the list I choose to use a Mortifactor, and select the single Contemptor unit, I then choose to use Fury of the Ancient and give that Contemptor the Venerable Ancient upgrade to it (as at this point it is a single model), and finish building my list with everything else. At the start of the battle I then combine the Mortifactor and Venerable Ancient together. 
 

I am not saying it’s not a little bit of a power gamer move, but rules as written seem to suggest it works. Anybody have any thoughts?

 

[Mandragola]

It seems to work. I don’t think there’s anything all that wrong with it to be honest. It’s probably quite fluffy to have a Mortifactor leading a unit of dreadnoughts and there isn’t anything especially powergamey about it that I can see. Are there nasty tricks you can pull?

Edited August 9, 2022 by Mandragola

[Xenith]

Don't see an issue. As you say, models are chosen and upgrades selected before the battle, all requirements are met, and the MF joins the dread at deployment. 

[Rejects of Anvilus]

Cheers, just seemed one of those things you shouldn’t be able to do, but maybe it is and I am being too pessimistic!

[The Scorpion]

It is thematic, the Venerable Ancient being side to side with the Mortifactor.

[Stitch5000]

You've already taken a Fury list at this point so you might as well crank it to 11. 

[Lord Krungharr]

I was planning to do this very same thing with spare points in my Ancients list.  Mine are all ancient metal Rogue Trader Contemptors and 5 Box-naughts, all older than many of the people I play against.  I should make a Mortifactor equally old or older too.

[oldhat]

1 hour ago, Lord Krungharr said:

I was planning to do this very same thing with spare points in my Ancients list.  Mine are all ancient metal Rogue Trader Contemptors and 5 Box-naughts, all older than many of the people I play against.  I should make a Mortifactor equally old or older too.

RT Era Techmarines

Use one of these as a base model. The one with the giant wrench is just *chef's kiss*

ETA - on this topic, how would you want to kit a Mortifactor for pairing with a Contemptor?

Edited August 10, 2022 by oldhat