Marshal Arthur

Personally, I’m hoping all the major regiments will get their own unique unit like Cadian Shocktroops. Previously it probably didn’t make financial sense to release kits for too many regiments since most people stuck to a single regiment, but if a Krieg player can field Cadian Shocktroops and a Cadian player can field Death Korps Veterans then they’re no longer splitting their player base. It could be a good incentive to release plastic kits for multiple regiments and give each unit some distinctive loadout or rules to reflect their regiment’s preferred fighting style while generic infantry squads represent newer troops with fewer battles under their belts.

The mini-transhuman will still be worth it against some armies, and if you run crusader squads then the 5+ is still useful on the neophytes. I do think against some armies it might not be an auto-take anymore but for the most part I still see it being the standard vow.

That's fair. My friend runs a lot of mining lasers and relies on glass cannon melee units like acolytes who usually don't survive more than one round of sustained combat.

Congrats on the win. One of the guys in my crusade league runs GSC and I find Uphold is usually the best choice against him. His shooting relies on a relatively small number of high strength high AP shots so hurting his wound rolls and AP really puts a dent in his shooting, and his guys have little armor anyways so the extra AP from Assault Doctrine isn't always essential, nor is the consistent +1 A when his melee units really want to finish you off in one round or they risk annihilation.

Crusade is ultimately about narrative so I'd recommend picking oaths that fit your army's story. For example, my crusade is based off of Arthurian legend so I'm focusing on oaths to unlock the sword of the lost crusader. The idea is my marshal is searching a star system for shards of an ancient relic blade called Caliburn, and once I find all the pieces I'll probably choose the relic agenda to try and reclaim it. Of course it also helps to pick oaths that work with your particular enemies and agendas. My main opponent plays GSC, so the oath that requires me to kill enemy characters is useful because he has a lot of them and his characters are all pretty squishy. That said, if you don't play often I'd recommend starting with a smaller oath. Maybe just do a two part oath so you can accomplish it sooner and get a feel for things.

I'm thrilled to see that they're viable. On a related note, I'm playing a crusade with some friends right now and I was wondering if any of you have found fun combinations of battle honors to really amp up the sword brethren? The fact we don't have a single champion in the squad gives us a lot of flexibility with weapon enhancements and battle traits and I think we can come up with some fun buffs.

As of now I've only played two games with the new supplement (but I've painted oh so many new models). I had one crushing defeat against Snakebite Beast Snaggas and just had a crushing victory against the new GSC. Admittedly, we did a narrative mission that made the cultists deployment a little less reliable (we had to a reinforcement roll anytime we brought in reserves and he failed to bring in any of his reserves turn two, although I also failed to bring in most of mine). A properly buffed crusader squad with uphold can really absorb a lot of punishment from their heavy weapons and can fly up the board with Grimaldus advance buff. I'm also pretty proud of Grimaldus. Not only did he shut down a good chunk of my opponent's psychic powers but he also took a charge from a patriarch and survived with one wound. Some intercessors helped plink a few more wounds off the patriarch and in my next turn Grimaldus finished him off. Again, the mission we played didn't do my opponent any favors and he was using a new army and new codex for the first time so I don't think it's the best indicator but he's a good player and very meticulous with his movement so I at least feel more confident that we have the tools necessary to blunt a GSC attack and then respond in kind.

I really can't decide what I would want more, a crusader squad or a sword brethren squad. With the crusader squad you could take three initiates and three neophytes, or maybe swap the third neophyte for a sword brother. It would give us a good environment to use the pyreblaster (assuming it has solid rules in kill team) and you'd get a good mix of ranged and melee weapons to really fit the diversity of a crusader squad. With the sword brethren, however, you have so many unique weapon options that every model could have a completely different loadout and really feel like individual warriors.

This is purely speculative, but with all the character we can add to our new models I feel like they would be perfect fodder for unique kill team rules. If GW were to ever write up a unique Black Templar kill team in White Dwarf or a future kill team release what would you like to see? Would you expect a crusader squad kill team or a small elite team of sword brethren? And how would you expect it to be composed?

I got the launch box and plan to get the combat patrol, Grim, Helbrecht, an upgrade sprue, and two boxes of sword brethren. On a related note, has anyone found good helmet bits for the neophytes? The skitarii heads I used on my old scouts are too small but space marine helmets look a little too big.

Anyone notice that the laurel on the champion Sprue is a separate piece. It should be pretty easy to place it on the helm rather than over it.

I’m so excited for this, everything looks great, although I expect the market to be flooded with secondhand dreads soon after.

I just bought a house and the Kill Team box so I'm right there with you. I could use a little more time to save up, and this gives me some room to finish painting the Octarius models.

I would love that rule. A friend of mine proxied the new ork named character on the great white squig and his reducing damage ability was so incredibly annoying.