Need Help Picking Chapter Rules for Loyalist Night Lords

[Anthalt]

Hi everyone,

 

I am looking for stone advice on how to use my Space Marine chapter from a Chapter Rules perspective. I think I may have missed the boat on the topic a couple weeks back and didn't want to resurrect the post, so I've created this separate thread specific to my current Space Marine chapter project... Loyalist Night Lords.

 

So first, before I get into my thoughts on the rules... a little bit of background about the project and the story of my chapter, because in other circles when I have mentioned this idea without a bit of an introduction, people literally froth at the mouth to tell me that I'm Satan for such a blatant disregard of existing 40k lore. Let me assure you I know the lore well, this is just my story of 1 chapter among thousands.

 

I have always really loved Night Lords for their aesthetic and lore, and always felt Curze to be a really interesting character. I have recently gotten back into the hobby and decided I wanted to go with Night Lords, but also wanted to make use of the new primaris line of miniatures for their sleek design (truer scale marines with a return to the heresy era aesthetic reality sparked my interest). I have been converting them up ever since and have been really happy about the results. At the same time I was working on a short story to go along with my marines. The story is a call back to original Games Workshop lore, where events are shrouded in mystery:

 

Cawl, created the Storm Crows from Night Lords geneseed, similar to his Sons of the Phoenix project. However unlike the SotP, the Storm Crows were not a success. They showed many of the fatalistic symptoms of the original Night Lords, and several manifested the power of premonition famed of the Night Haunter. One extremly disturbing recurring premonition was an image of chapter members bowing to Curze. While some speculated it was a latent memory from the geneseed, others saw it as a vision of the future... in either case they were scheduled for exterminatus. But some escaped, and began a pilgrimage to find the man they were searching for.

 

Meanwhile, in the Eye of Terror, a handful of Night Lords also started having visions of Curze. A small portion decided to seek out and destroy the imposter.

 

The two sides adventure their way across the galaxy and eventually find themselves on a sunless world where their visions had shown they would find Curze. The two sides clashed violently until they found the appearance of Curze... at which point all present knew they had found what they had been seeking.

 

The result has been a growing warband/chapter mixing primaris marines with CSM in veteran positions, lead by Curze. For the time being, I have been running them as Raven Guard, with Curze as Shrike, but feel like I could definitely do better in creating a chapter match given the amazing new 'Make Your Own' options that marines now have access to.

 

Aspects of Night Lords that I have been considering highlighting with rules include:

- Terror Troops - what original Night Lords are known for and what people think when they think Night Lords. Fearsome aspect is an easy pick, but not very exciting to be honest...

- Fighting Dirty - hit and run tactics, never picking a fair fight, I love the story of Sevatar dueling Sigismund and winning the fight but losing the duel in disqualification by head butting him and think it's very Night Lords. Maybe Duelist representing getting that dirty elbow in, or Tactical Withdrawl to represent the hit and run style?

- Premonition - knowing where or when an enemy will appear is a big boon in war, even if it's only a vague idea. I was thinking maybe the master artificer for rerolling a dice per squad as a little "heads up, this is about to happen." Or Warded to represent the specific "duck now" against an artillery barrage.

- Fighting on Their Own Terms - lying in wait, leaping from the shadows to ambush enemies, or picking a position that favours them in the fight all feature heavily in the Nighf Lords omnibus. The Raven Guard tactics and strategies lend themselves to these ones a lot, granting advantage for positioning, disadvantaging enemies with tricks, and allowing tactical fronts and repositioning.

 

I would love to hear everyone's thoughts about how to use the chapter rules for these guys (and would love to hear if you have any thoughts on the idea itself).

[Helias_Tancred]

I was going to suggest Raven Guard. I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with the create-your-own chapter rules. I'd go with fear and speed.

[Ishagu]

Raven Guard

[Lucerne]

I'd say to vary which specific custom rules you use, but Terror troops , fighting dirty, and on your own terms are the best fits.

Premonition is more a Librarian psychic power thing than something associated with rank and file, so I'd give those a miss unless you;re homebrewing your own take on the concept.

 

Since loyalist, terror troops and on your own terms seems like the best approach to go for.

[eternal_warrior12]

My friend and I were just discussing this for my loyalist death guard. And he brought up night lords. Raven Guard are a good base but the successor traits mentioned are awesome. I wish we had some melee inceptor and inceptor HQ options.

[nusphigor]

Very cool idea man!

It seems like a neat idea to use the primaris as chaos chosen units, butbif you really want to go with the marine codex then i'd choose these two tactics:

Tactical Withdrawal: because the night lords are quite adept on fighting on their own terms, choosing when and who to strike.

Fearsome Aspect: i know it isnt that appealing but it does help a lot when using a melee focused army (specially with 9th ed rules for morale) and it keeps it fluffy at the same time

[Anthalt]

Thanks for the insight everyone! I think I will gone with true Raven Guard for now just so that I have access to Shrike, as my counts as Curze, and then play around with Fearsome Aspect, and either Stealth, or tactical withdrawal.

 

Very cool idea man!

It seems like a neat idea to use the primaris as chaos chosen units

I actually went the totally opposite way here and used the primaris as the meat and potatoes and the chaos as the elite veterans with years of combat experience. Scale-wise it is a little funky that the elites are shorter... but visually the chaos veterans looks much more decorated (all that chaos trim). I'll post some pics eventually!

[jeremy1391]

Thematically I’d use them as raven Guard successors with stealthy and fearsome aspect or whirlwind of rage.