Gauging interest for a new Black Crusade game

[Steel Company]

- Steel is lore-hungry chap!

 

Yes... yes I am... :D

[Reyner]

Here is a quick run down of all Legion infantry that wasn't mentioned in the last few posts:

- Seeker Squad: Legion Seeker Squads were formed from those Legionaries who were chosen on pure merit as the best marksmen in their Legion. Comprised of a specialised force of Space Marines, it was the job of a Seeker Squad strike force to identify and take out an enemy's command structure, its warlords, officers, priests, demagogues, whatever form their commanders took, and slay them with a well-placed bolt round while the chaos of battle raged around them. The Alpha Legion are said to have first crystalised this tactic and squad configuration, with the Emperor’s approval, which soon spread to the other Legions, although its use sat poorly within the combat doctrine of some.

These guys had different bolt rounds they could use similar to the Sternguard of 40k. 

 

- Breacher Squad: A Legion Breacher Siege Squad was a specialised formation of the ancient Space Marine Legions used during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. Breacher Siege Squads utilised specialised tactics and wargear for the explicit purpose of acting as a vanguard assault force in the worst combat conditions imaginable and in the direst of war zones, known to the Legions as "Zones Mortalis" for the sheer likelihood of death faced by any who were forced to fight within them.

Heavy MK3 armour, big boarding shields and breaching equipment like lascutters, breaching charges.

 

- Heavy Support Squad: 30k version of Devastator Squad but everyone armed with the same heavy weapon including the sergeant.

 

- Support Squad: Like a tactical squad but everyone has a special weapon, unit all equipped with same gun. Like all plasma guns, volkite chargers or volkite calivers.

 

- Recon Squad: 30k version of Scouts but these are more akin to Wolf Scouts as they are full on marines. Can be used in recon armour (scout armour) or power armour and have access to sniper rifles or shotguns and melta bombs for up close sabotage. 

 

Specialist Legion Units:

Emperors Children:

• Palatine Blades - best swordsmen in the legion all rocking power swords and fancy armour. 
• Phoenix Terminator Squad - Fulgrims bodyguard, mainly used Tartatos Armour with phoenix spears - the 3rd Legions best 
• Kakaphoni - proto Noise Marines

Iron Warriors:

• ​Iron Havoc Squad - better version of the heavy support squad, very good shooters with anti armour and anti cover special rules. These guys are my favourite.
• Tyrant Siege Terminators - Cataphractii terminator plate, cyclone missile launchers, power fists and combi bolters. The ultimate Iron Warriors. You want something killed or a fortress opening these guys will do it. The most hardcore Iron Warriors get to join this formation.

Night Lords:

• Terror Squad - your typical Night Lords squad, send these guys in to spread terror before the main attack and then let them go wild during battle.
• Night Raptors - Chaos Raptors pretty much with some decent rules.

World Eaters:

• Inductii - special units created during the heresy with massively decreased training and "build" time, massively unstable - essentially full on Khorne Berserkers without actually worshipping Khorne.
• Red ButchersTerminators - World Eaters utterly lost to the butchers nails, armed with twin chain axes/power fists/chainfists - they literally had to chain these guys up between battles as they will not stop and their armour has to be remotely shut down and locked. 
• Rampager squad - marines with gladiator style weapons, utter lunatics and they also follow Kharns style of taking armour off their arms. One step behind Red Butchers bloodthirst and insanity wise.

Death Guard:

• ​Grave Wardens - terminator armoured poison/rad/chemical weapons experts. Assault grenade launchers, combi flamers, rad grenades. All the fun stuff.
• Deathshroud Terminators - Mortarions bodyguard rocking power scythes, pretty similar to their 40k versions. 

Word Bearers:

• Set of bastards.
• Ashen Circle - Destroyer marines with axes and hand flamers, burn enemy libraries/temples/stuff like that
• Gal Vorbak - the original, the best and the most powerful Possessed Marines. 

Sons of Horus:

• Justaerin Terminators - the First Company terminators, veterans of the Legion brutal in close combat. Abaddons best buddies.
• Reaver attack squads - the other half of the First Company, all in black with jump packs. Hardcore melee or ranged squads bouncing round causing havoc. My favourite Sons of Horus. 

 

I haven't gone into the Thousand Sons because I don't really know a lot about them but I will list them below and copy their fluff blurb from Forge World.

 

Sehkmet Terminators - psychic terminators, lots of shenanigans. 

The Sekhmet, also known widely as the Scarab Occult outside their Legion, were the elite of the First Fellowship of the Thousand Sons, and when called upon to do so, served as Magnus’ personal bodyguard. Clad in Terminator armour, each of them was a high initiate of the Prosperine Mysteries who had sublimated their abilities and emotions into the highest levels of spiritual control, and were able to shun injuries by mere strength of unified will that even to a Space Marine would have proved mortal.

 

Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal - Psychic master swordsmen, one of the main characters in the Ahriman book series is one of these guys. Badass Thousand Sons. 

The Khenetai Occult were a mystical sect within the Thousand Sons Order of the Jackal who served as the guardians of the five Prosperine Cults as well as their reliquaries and sanctums. Bound together by oath and ritually-forged psychic bonds, each of the elite were all initiates of the Cults’ inner secrets and adepts in their techniques, philosophies and arts.

The foremost warriors of the Khenetai formed cabals of ‘blades’; sublimely skilled warriors who had honed their psychic powers to be at one with their sword mastery. Their dual force swords were shaped from single sheets of psycho-crystalline infused ceramite and gilt, with sigils said to correspond to the wielder’s secret names and the deeds they had performed. In battle they wore armour forged and shaped by the Legion’s blind artificers using fire and the force of their minds alone, and fought with a unified precision that made them seem a single warrior manifested many times, rather than a group of individual fighters.

 

There are some other unique Thousand Sons units but I never got their book so I don't know them much. There is a Recon/Seeker squad equivalent and something else marine based I think, they also have unique Robot units. 

 

 

I can go into some brief stuff on HQ units if you want or let Beren handle that :D 

[No Foes Remain]

Thanks for the welcome Mazer, I await for Noctus with payment of several hundred slaves and weapons. Now to decide on what to be (my main problem when RP-ing) Night Lord, Iron Warrior or traitor Pale Nomad (pre-corax Raven Guard)...

[Commissar Molotov]

Whilst discussing, you might find this (written by AD-B ) to be of some interest: What it's like. Edited August 1, 2019 by Commissar Molotov

[Beren]

Well that saves me some time.

 

 

For the Thousand Sons:

 

Everybody's a psyker

They get to replace plasma weapons with aether-fire ones.

 

Bolt or rotor weappns can take Asphyx munitions

 

The other infantry unit is the Ammitara Occult Intercession Cabal, dedicated to misdirection, reconaaisance and sabotage and are basically psychic assassin psykers.

 

 

 

Other things worth noting:

 

Base Terminator Squads don't have access to teleportation and use the Tartaros(more advanced and faster) or the Cataphracti( older and slower but more heavily armoured).

 

In addition to units, Legions also get specific wargear. For example: Nightlords get Terminator teleport beacons and chainglaives, World Eaters get increased access to chainaxes, Alpha Legion get Banestrike rounds, Shattersphere Grenades and Power Daggers etc

[Reyner]

I knew I missed something! Alpha Legion units!

 

Headhunters - Seekers with Alpha Legion flair, specifically better at sneaking around and infiltrating.

 

Lernaean Terminators - the guys you send in to clear the enemy out and hold the ground. Bit weird special weapon wise since they have Volkite Chargers (15" range) but can take a conversion beamer as a heavy weapon which needs to be at long range to be effective... They look ace though lots of detail on the cataphractii armour. 

[Mazer Rackham]

Thank you everyone for your contributions - exceptionally useful for me!

 

@ Mol - I'd forgotten all about that post of ADB's, nice!

 

@ No Foes Remain, I know what you mean, I was toying with Raven Guard Reject, Night Lord Terrorist or Alpha Legion Sniper myself.  Depends on how much I want to cultivate my inner murderer - it would be something absolutely outside my zone to RP such a despicable creature.

 

MR.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Mazer Rackham

[No Foes Remain]

You obviously don't work in retail like me, so its really easy for me to come up with a murderous night lord. And I play a lot of total war so coming up with an iron warrior who just wants to break things ain't hard either. Though a Pale Nomad, who hates Corax for gate 42 and the Emperor for putting Corax in charge, who turned to Horus during the heresy has a nice ring to it.

[Reyner]

I'd make a good Iron Warrior too but I think I would enjoy a joyful Death Guard so much more. 

[Xin Ceithan]

There seems to be a general trend towards starting from the Heresy. Which certainly allows for some interesting developments along the slide to damnation!

 

Also... Volkites!!!

 

Would that start from characters originally from the same Legion (and if so, which ?) with some stragglers picked up at / after Istvaan or a mixed force of survivors ( shattered legions style, but eeeeevil ).

[Beren]

I think I might have a World Eater character in mind.

[Steel Company]

Xin, I recall that in the Black Thorn OOC thread, I did some rough work on Volkite weapons that while nasty seemed to fit well with in the system.

[Reyner]

How would this even work if everyones character were from different legions? Like they all eventually joined together as part of a warband or something? 

[Steel Company]

I would assume as such, the concept I've got going on would be open to working with other legionaries, as he knows they would have skills he lacks.

[Morovir]

The majority may have been those who were abandoned on Istvaan V to hunt down the loyalists.

[Noctus Cornix]

Heya, folks. Here's the thing. 

 

I had previously mentioned this in the opening post, I believe, but the Heresy option requires basically everyone to be from the same Legion. Which means everyone would need to agree up a single Legion that they would all need to be from. I MIGHT allow an exception or two, depending on how many people we have and what your idea is, but that's about it. The concept of the Legion is to delve into the nature of brotherhood and what it might have been like to be a member of one of the legions that have turned traitor, only to see it spiral downwards and tear apart in the fires of treachery. 

 

I cannot honestly fathom the idea of having a killteam of marines from varying different legions in the Horus Heresy. It's too much of a stretch and I don't honestly feel inclined to do so as it strips from the intended experience. There's a great deal that can be explored with a single legion, from culture and every-day traditions, to the relationships of squads and officers. Might even be able to do things with that respective Primarch. 

 

Doing a killteam of separate legionaries would mostly kill a great deal of opportunities that would would be on offer. This isn't Knights Errant. Far as my understanding goes, there wasn't anything like that on the Traitors side. 

 

If you lads want to all play marines from different legions, that's totally cool. We'll just start somewhere in a more general approximation to the 41st Millenium where it makes more logical sense.

 

P.S. Steel Company, your Thousand Sons idea would be usable if we went the 40k Black Crusade route. He would be nonviable if we went the Horus Heresy option, given the nature of Ahriman's Rubric occurring decades after the Heresy ended.   

Edited August 2, 2019 by Noctus Cornix

[Beren]

Well, there's always Blackshields.

[Steel Company]

Like I sad Nox, I'm cool either way.

 

My top traitor legions are:

 

Iron Warriors

World Eaters

Night Lords

Thousands Sons

Calibanite Dark Angel's (Fallen)

 

That being said I'm happy to go with the flow of the group.

[Noctus Cornix]

Black Shields are interesting, in theory, but I'm uncertain as to whether they would provide the breadth of story experiences that a Legion would provide. They're all a bit too nebulous for much background lore, which means I'd have to start from scratch with a lot of them. More so, Black Shields don't really have much of a play in the game in the Heresy. They're all just sort of doing their own thing and their interests lack the impact that an actual Legionnaire would have. At that point, you might as well just be playing standard Black Crusade.

[Slips]

While I am somewhat reluctant to take on another pbp game, the premise youre putting forth is interesting enough for me.

 

Personally, if we started from a Legion, I'd be very interested in playing Alpha Legionnaires who were tasked with infiltrating other legions and sabotaging stuff prior to Istvaan V kicking off.

 

This would also be interesting since, to everyone but the Alpha Legion, everyone is Alpharius. But, internally, we have our own characters like Armillus Dynat and Autilon Skorr.

[No Foes Remain]

I can see two options for us really, we could put it to a vote or we could go the Shattered Legion route as the traitors had their own shattered forces who were hunting down those who escaped Isstvan.

 

 

But I am down for whatever, I like all the legions (aside from the III^rd post fall) so I am easy to please.

[Noctus Cornix]

As I said, I won't be doing separate legions for Horus Heresy. Most of the stuff involving shattered legions, especially for the traitors seems to describe them more as basically chunks of different legions being shoved together like a bunch of companies slapped together and thrown out to do some task. I don't really see it working on an individual level, and I'm not honestly willing to do that. 

 

The ONLY route I could probably see that happening is if there were enough members to represent two squads, in which case I could allow them to be a squad from one legion, and the second squad from another. But, again, that begins to break down some cohesion and spreads the narrative thin, even if it does add some opportunity for rivalries or even outright fighting one another. I'm willing to play with the idea, but I don't know how well it would work.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Noctus Cornix

[Beren]

A vote should probably be for your top three choices, or something similar, otherwise it risks us all going for a different Legion.

[Noctus Cornix]

That's a good idea, Beren. 

 

Everyone, drop me a list of your top three favorites of legions you would be interested in playing. I can use that to start trying to narrow down who what legion you'll all be from. 

[Steel Company]

Gosh to cut it down to three (that would be workable for a Heresy force...)

 

Nightlords (they don't get a ton of spot light, and could be interesting to explore)

World Eaters (Could be fun to play one that is trying to free himself from Khorn's embrace)

Luna Wolves... Sons of Horus (the price of failure, trying to hold on to what they can while the galaxy has turned against them)