Be'lakor the Dark Master a.k.a Mister Telepathy

[Zhukov]

So, I received a PM of Lepaca concerning Be'lakor and in particular why he is good. I figured more people would benefit from me trying to answer this question with the best of my ability and I'm sure some others might having something to add. And I'm pretty sure Lepaca isn't the only one who doesn't quite understand Be'lakor, as I've come across quite a few people in various reports who field him without much clue.

 

What makes me qualified to answer this question? Don't know, I guess I fielded him in a tournament last weekend, with succes? That will have to do lol.

 

So yeah, why is Be'lakor good?

 

Is it because he's Eternal Warrior, with shrouding and a 4++? No. This is not that good considering he is 350 points and cannot get a 3+ armour save or Greater Rewards, or re-rolling 1's to save. His defensive profile is *not* impressive.

 

Is it because he has a good weapon? No. Fleshbane, armourbane and a re-roll is nice, but nothing too amazing. Daemon Princes in general hit hard, hitting a little bit harder is nice but not crucial.

 

Is it because he has an awesome name and awesomely named special rules? Yes, partly.

 

Is it because he has all telepathy powers by default, therefore not having to hope you roll good powers and therefore being able to plan around his powers when building a list? And knowing you'll Always have a usefull power because the Telepathy table is so divers? Yes, this is what makes him good.

 

What he is not: He is not a combat monster. Don't let yourself get fooled by Eternal Warrior, an improved invulnerable save and a nice weapon. Although casting invisibility on himself makes him fare a bit better in combat (and getting there), it's nothing worth nearly 350 points for this. It's the quickest way to failure. Be'lakor does not have the defensive stats to function (in most circumstances) as a combat unit, at least not early game. This goes for Be'lakor more than probably any other FMC we can field.

 

What he is: A super versatile psyker, being able to control the game and who, when given the chance to get there, can dominate later turns.

 

It's hard to tell what exactly to do, not only because I'm not even quite sure yet myself, but also because it depends so much on how the game goes.

 

Things you generally should avoid:

 

Getting killed somewhere in the early turns. You probably :cussed up, hard.

Putting yourself in a vulnerable position, just to get that Puppet Master off and then raging when the other guy rolls the dreaded 6 for Deny the Witch. No he is not Lucky, you are bad.

Losing all your wounds.

Dying.

 

Is it that easy? Sorta, yes. I dare to say he gets progressively stronger over the course of a game. When there are fewer units left, his powers have potentially way more impact. (disabling 20% of an army, instead of 10% with hallucination. Making 20% of your army 'invisible' instead of 10% etc). Not only that, once there are less and less threats on the board, or if you are up in the oppenent his face with your whole army, you suddenly might be able to use his offensive profile in close combat, without just dying for little in return.

 

So what you should do, in most cases:

Stay alive.

Don't die.

Hide if necessary, to not get vaporised.

 

The point should be clear by now. What you usually want to do is staying alive, casting some powers safely, gaining board control. I literally wondered after last weekends tournament what Be'lakor did in some games.... and I had problems figuring it out. In short... he helped winning my games lol. He offers control over the game, he's a giant toolbox, waiting to exploit a mistake from the oppenent, waiting for the right moment to strike... I mostly was hiding casting 1 or 2 powers (mostly invisiblity) and focusing on winning the missions.

 

Scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

 

Units he works well with:

 

Other FMC's. Casting invisiblity on Tzeentch Princes/Lord of Change is great.

Spawn or other combat units. Being able to get a 2+ cover save in simple area terrain can be crucial for combat units, especially if they lack sufficient cover ignoring stuff.

He makes said combat units better in actual close combat.

 

TL;DR:

 

He's good because he has a lot of tools, by having acces to all telepathy spells and having a decent combat profile as back-up.

You generally simply try to stay alive and be patient. (which goes for FMC builds in general)

[Scribe]

I completely SUCK at FMC usage, so good points to try and keep in mind. 

[RolandTHTG]

Good writeup.
I can definitely emphasize the "Don't let him die" part. I watched a local guy two games in a row just fly Belakor forward all alone and right in front of a gunline army, then be completely astonished when he got shot to death turn 1.

[Urauloth]

I almost wish he didn't have the great statline and rad as hell weapon because his amazing telepathy toolkit is absolutely his best trick and the #1 reason to take him.

[Excessus]

Yeah, it's definitely a combination of stuff that makes him so nice. A combination of better invul save, EW, a handy sword (with master crafted), shrouded(!) and all the telepathy powers, one of the (if not the) most diverse schools of magic out there! And in addition, his official model is quite small and can hide behind terrain easier than a regular prince can... ;)

 

Flying him from ruin to ruin gives him a nice 2+ cover save against shooting, and at least a 3+ cover save in regular terrain...makes him survive a heck of a lot more than out in the open that's for sure! I most often use invisibility on spawns, who not only will survive the run towards the enemy with their 2+ cover save, but also hit on 3+ for once against any opponents! :D

 

Do you need that cultist blob to tarpit that wraithknight? Put fearless on them and watch them stay in the same spot all battle long! :) Envious of your opponent's tanks? No problem, puppet master solves tyour problem! :D

 

 

...sooo much fun to do with him!

[battle captain corpus]

Zhukov thankyou for the well constructed and thought out help! I had really looked at Bel'akor in any real sense but now I understand why he is such a great choice.

Personally I woldnt be taking him, even at tourney, as he doesn't fit the theme or background to my army, but at least your article helps with "Know thine enemy!"

:D

 

BCC

[Sception]

I really need to get back to work on my own Be'lakor conversion.  it got knocked off a table and broke its wings, and even though I've done the necessary repairs, it still kinda took the wind out of my sails.

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

I'd also like to add thanks for the topic & it great seen more topics like this in general.  After my friend let me borrow the Imperial Fist supplement to read the background, since there quite a bit of Iron Warriors in there & how Be'lakor helping the Warsmith in the background.  I've been interested on adding Be'lakor to my army.  But I've not seen him use local yet beside in Warhammer Fantasy games. 

 

Once I got money I'm hoping to order Be'lakor soon & try him out in a few games with my Iron Warriors army.

[Lepaca]

Thanks for the detailed analysis, Zhukov. Be'lakor seems like great fun, and I'll propably give him a try soon (although his price still seems rather steep).

[Rune_Priest_Rhapsody]

As a new chaos player articles like this are true gems, thank you Zhukov!! Sometimes when asking questions online you run up against cookie cutter answers and over used under explained answers. This has none of that. AND it's short and sweet, to the point. Well done.

 

End of Line

[Zhukov]

Thank you for all your kind comments, appreciated and might help motivating me to write more things.

[Lepaca]

Let's just hope that the next edition doesn't ruin him. :D

[Tenebris]

You know, speaking of Be'Lakor I have felt the urge to procure one so I have done my homework, shuffled some online talian 40k communities on FB where people sell stuff and you know from stuff, stuff happens ... and...

 

http://shrani.si/f/1R/2y/2nJpj1QL/belakor.jpg

 

Some of the best spent 10 eur for his hobby, Full metal awesomeness, now that I have managed to find a 60mm base even better. Cheap as chips and a nigh new model, only basecoated.  

[Sception]

Let's just hope that the next edition doesn't ruin him.

Considering that most of his utility comes from his mastery of telepathy, and that the entirety of the psychic phase including the rulebook psychic lores are looking at a rewrite, this is actually a legitimate possibility. at the very least, opponents are going to have a chance to 'dispel' buffs like invisibility. On the other hand, if the power of psykers in general is considerably ramped up by the new rules, Be'Lakor could be even more potent than he already is.

Not something to get too worked up over yet, but definitely something to watch closely.

[Lagrath]

He may become worse, but personally I am wondering if the ability to get extra charges from failed morale tests will translate into giving Be'lakor extra "dispel dice" as he gets extra charges. That might be really strong.

[Hellrender]

We'll see in a few weeks :) play him while you can, cuz he is quite fun if you have a decent amount of terrain on the table!

[Sception]

The psychic phase seems to be one of the main selling points of the new edition.  Yeah, they might flub it, but I very much doubt that powerful psychers like Belakor will be getting worse.  Yeah, the opponent will have a chance to dispel his buffs, but then again he'll be gaining the chance to dispel theirs.  It mostly comes down to how the telepathy lore shapes up, but I really don't think its something to worry about or stop anyone from picking this guy up if you've been thinking about adding him to your forces.

[the jeske]

That depends only on the "lores" he will get access to . Who knows maybe ahriman will suddenly turn in to McDestroyer [imagine a witch fire psy power being limited in raw power , by the fact that witchfire turns to 1 per dude& 2 per MC and Aman keeps his staff , and suddenly start swinging multiple  mini D templates per turn] and Belfegor starts being the suck . Core rules will decide . Lores , scenarios ,unbound vs warforged special rules  that will make  stuff bad/good .

[Sception]

Since the rulebook changes presumably won't include rewrites of the rules for specific units, I think it's safe to assume that Be'Lakor will have the same lore access as he currently has - all of telepathy and nothing else. Yes, that means his usefulness will hang pretty heavily on the usefulness of telepathy in the new rules. I'm not exactly super worried about this, but there it is. If telepathy stays good, then so will Be'Lakor. If telepathy is ruined somehow, than he will be too, but there aren't any hints of that happening, yet.

[Tenebris]

Today I have participated in a Doubles tournament and I must say that Be'Lakor was in both games my MVP. In the first game it was utter abuse taking control of Leman Russ tanks and blasting infantry up, or taking over all those nice lascannon squads when there were no more vehicles around. In the second game Be'Lakor lasted up to turn three when he was killed by the Eldar and their pesky Ignore Cover shooting but at least he wrecked some havoc. 

 

It is an interesting thing to observe how massive a conventional firepower can Be'Lakor tank in cover. He literally ate fire from an Imperial Guard platoon and the only wound in the first game was from Perils of the Warp. Also Invisibility is golden on Spawn, they were nigh unkillable. 

 

In short, a swiss army knife is this Undivided daemon prince, not a frontline unit but a very dangerous harasser. 

[Emperor's Furor]

I can't seem to find him on the GW site any more :/

[Iron Skull Mask]

Yeah. Probably a new and bigger model is coming soon...

[EricBasser]

When Crimson Slaughter first came out, I couldn't find possessed on GW website. Some digging, and I found that if they don't have the product in stock, they sometimes remove it from online to stop back orders piling up. It could be the same case here. I still think he's a great sculpt, so hopefully they don't remake him.

[Hellrender]

He is under Warriors of Chaos under WFB. i couldnt find him either, went to the GW when i was on holiday, and he helped me find him.

Even the blackshirt said it was weird you couldnt find him with search.

[tbone]

I'm thinking ol' Belakor may be CSM's best daemon summoner.  Since all pychers ('cept GK) get access to Malefic daemonolgy, I don't see a reason why he wouldn't roll 3 dice on that chart, along with knowing all of Telepathy.  Also having EW maybe be super helpful for dealing with the perils of the warp.  If they are anything like fantasy's miscasts, I'd expect some S 10 templates...er... blasts

Also, with the changes to jink (you can choose to jink on a 4+, but have to snap fire (not a big deal)) providing a 2+ cover save and grounding tests only at the end of shooting and only on a wound...this guy can stay up in the air buffing, debuffing, summoning daemons, throwing out witchfires, and then come down for some late game cleanup :)