Why are Word Bearers so awful?

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

So, I've heard for a little while now that Word Bearers are the objectively worst Codex: CSM faction. After building an army of them (small and supported by a Chaos Knight, but still) I'm seeing why. Upon looking into it... yeah, we aren't the best. Their Legion Trait is literally ATSKNF. Granted, it's fluffy (fanatics, plus we're probably the only Legion which is still mostly a Legion instead of splintered warbands) and it's nice to have, but come on. Advance and charge same turn? Yes, please, I even abandoned the World Eaters trait for my Khorne stuff just because I like advance and charge so much better. World Eaters and Emperor's Children get Berzerkers and Noise Marines, respectively, as troops, on top of bonus attacks (World Eaters) or fight first (Emperor's Children). Black Legion get Assault for free on Rapid Fire weapons, Alpha Legion get the Raven Guard Chapter Tactic... and Word Bearers get ATSKNF as theirs. Whoop-dee-doo. It is the woooooorst.

 

Granted, we do get neat stuff, in the Voice of Lorgar Warlord Trait (good for Dark Apostles) and the Cursed Crozius (again, good for Dark Apostles) but in general, they're... actually only good for Dark Apostles. Which makes sense,and is suuuuuper fluffy, but also kind of trash. But why? Why do we have to be such relative trash? At the moment, they don't even get unique characters. They could easily give us Erebus and Kor Phaeron; Erebus would be a Dark Apostle, and Kor Phaeron would be a unique Chaos Lord in Termie armor. The two could even synergize well, with some sort of complementing ability. That would make us good. Maybe a unique Raptor variant from the Ashen Circle, maybe a better Possessed unique to us. Instead, we're just reskinned and worse Black Legion with no uniques. Why?

[Marshal Loss]

It's because GW doesn't really know what to do with us (and they certainly haven't tried very hard). Maybe it's their smurf bias. :P That being said, virtually all of the other Traitor Legions are in the same position as us when it comes to characters & unique units. At least we're not reliant on ancient kits like the World Eaters & EC are, for now.

 

I'm confident that things will change eventually and we will receive a better Legion trait. I'd really like to see a stratagem that allows us to apply the daemon keyword to a unit (even if for a relatively hefty cost), something akin to Dark Channeling in 30k. Perhaps the ability to include daemons in a detachment without losing our bonuses. There are lots of different avenues they could take.

 

And while I'd love to see either Erebus or Kor Phaeron, I kind of suspect that when GW get around to giving each Legion a unique character, they are going to make up someone new. Just a gut feeling.