Few armies exemplify the tenets of Faith & Fury quite like the Black Templars, so their inclusion in this, the second book of Psychic Awakening, is the perfect match!
This article was originally published on the Warhammer-community site.
In fact, they have an entire codex supplement’s worth of awesome (and zealously violent) rules within its pages, so today, we’re taking a quick peek at some of our favourites.
But before we do, let’s just remind ourselves of who the Black Templars are and how they fight…
Who Are They?
The Black Templars are a successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists, created during the Second Founding in the wake of the Horus Heresy. They were led by Sigismund, the Emperor’s Champion, whose swordsmanship and remorseless death-dealing were legendary.
He immediately set forth on a crusade with the full strength of his newly founded Chapter behind him. 10 millennia later, the Black Templars still rove the galaxy in crusading fleets, purging aliens, traitors and heretics wherever they may be found.
On the Battlefield
The Black Templars are notoriously aggressive in battle, and their Chapter Tactic in Codex: Space Marines perfectly represents their holy fervour.
But what about their new rules in Faith & Fury? Well, there are loads! First up is Knights of Sigismund, which is available to armies comprised entirely of Black Templars.
In addition to updated datasheets for their unique units – High Marshal Helbrecht, Chaplain Grimaldus, the Emperor’s Champion and iconic Crusader Squads – Faith & Fury includes some incredibly thematic rules with which to marshal* your Black Templar crusade.
New Warlord Traits, Stratagems, Relics and even a bespoke set of Litanies for their Chaplains offer the Black Templars enormous depth of character. For example, if you want to represent the Black Templars’ famous hatred of psykers, why not take the Epitome of Piety Warlord Trait to thwart their witchcraft?
Rather than their own bespoke psychic discipline,** the Black Templars have six Litanies of the Devout for their Chaplains to choose from. Looking to make the most of a massed charge into the enemy line? Spearhead your attack with a Chaplain orating with Fires of Devotion to add some extra punch!
The Black Templars have always had an affinity for the Land Raider Crusader (in fact, it was originally a variation of their own design), and have long mastered the art of launching devastating charges from these mighty assault tanks.
The Black Templars deserve to shine above all others in this field, and the aptly-named Shock and Awe Stratagem ensures they do just that. Simply load up your finest melee unit into a Crusader and activate it when you charge to shut down enemy Overwatch and let the slaughter commence!
Since the days of Sigismund, the Black Templars have favoured the sword as their melee weapon of choice, and their armouries are filled with countless masterwork blades. If you want to prove your Marshal’s mastery of the blade on the battlefield, arm him with the Sword of Judgement Chapter Relic and he’ll carve through anything in his path with ease.
Faith & Fury also includes Tactical Objectives, a name generator and updated matched play points values for the Black Templars, so if these holy warriors are your Space Marines of choice, make sure you pre-order your copy this weekend. Until then, grab yourself a Land Raider Crusader to take advantage of the brutal Shock and Awe Stratagem when your book arrives!
* Sorry – we couldn’t resist!
** Black Templars hate psykers. Like, REALLY hate them! So much so, in fact, that they can’t have any Librarians. We reckon they must have quite the backlog of overdue books…
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Is it only me or is it bit… underwhelming? After all of those previous suplements, doctrines were supper powerful. This stratagem is cool… but no-one plays land rider anyway and unless it gets some changes its probably gonna stay that way. The sword is good tho.
Well, they’ve rarely shown the most powerful abilities in these previews. The Doctrine is a bit of a letdown, but in all honesty Chapter Doctrines have brought such an insane level of power creep that I can’t feel too sorry for them.
Are you mad?
If Ynnari had gotten only half of only what’s shown in this preview in PA1, I’d be ecstatic.
Ignore overwatch alone is pretty much make-or-break for assault/cc armies these days.
You should have picked an example that didn’t need the landraider ?
If Ynnari had an open-play Strat for charging from a Ynnari Land Raider, I‘d take that at this point. Betters can’t be choosers, lol.
If Ynari had stratagem that gave them this bonus if they disembarked form Wave serpent this turn, it would have cost 2 or 3cp. Because wave serpent can be harder to kill than land rider. Slap spirit stones, vectored engines and this thing is actually durable while being still cheaper than land ridder crusader. And guess what. Its transport, so you can take 4 of them, it will be affordable and at least one will survive till it is in range for charge. You can have 3 land ridders, for around 800pts, or 4 wave serpent for around 640pts. get it now?
Sure. But the stuff you’re charging with is T3, 4 or 5+ armour, not T4 with a 3+ or 4+ or even an invul. to whether the overwatch.
Moreover, anything Ynnari can put in the transport will also have far fewer attacks, unless you’re bringing units from all 3 Eldar-Books AND burn 2 CP to get that 1 attack on the charge Marines just get for free with Shock Assault.
It’ll also be much lower strength and AP, no access to Chapter Master crazy re-rolls, etc.., no ability to actually get maximum value out of setting up that charge with things like Honour the Chapter, etc.., etc..
Yes, they have fewer attacks and worse saves. And they are cheaper. And you do have harder hitting options if you need(harlequins, waraithguard). And you do have options form 3 books, that is shtick of ynarii, if you are not at least considering taking things form other books, you are doing it wrong. The fact that Ynari are greknights level bad now doesn’t justify in any shape or form statement that those things that BT got are good or amazing. Are they better than Ynari haphazardly-slapt-together stuff? Yes. But this is comparinng apples to oranges.
So backt to my point. Landraiddders are hilariously bad this ed, and unless they get massive point decrease, or other change by proxy make this start is nearly unusable.
Doctrine is to restricted to be truly good, and requires setup of successor chapter traits to make use out and supper specific units.
Warlord trait is meh at best when you can take inquisitor or/and culexus assassin.
All that compared to other previous marines releases so far loos underwhelming. When i saw what IH got in preview i tough someone lost his mind. Ravenguard was good, so were IF and Salamanders. Im looking at this and asking myself what? why? All other chapters have a reason to play them as mono chapter army. Im looking at this and wonder how to buff this shit, and is it even worth with allies. Do they bring anything to the table?
Again, balance by definition is balance against any and all armies in the game.
There are no apple and oranges.
If it is better than the worst army in the game, it’s not balanced.
If it were balanced, it would be balanced against all of them and there’d be no inferior army to any other army.
Yes there is difference. Example. Give stratagem that says for 1 cp, 6 on hit in melee deal additional 1 mw.
It would be ok For custodes. it would be Broken in Orks.
Give it to tau and it would be fucking joke.
Baseline is difrent.
So one one last time.
“Are you mad?
If Ynnari had gotten only half of only what’s shown in this preview in PA1, I’d be ecstatic.
Ignore overwatch alone is pretty much make-or-break for assault/cc armies these days.”
Maybe Ynari would be better with those things. But for Black templars its underwhelming. Your subjective feelings about would it would work elsewhere are by no means any form of good judgment how things in this environment ah Space marines are. And approach in line with “others have it worse, you should be happy what you got” is not very good.
So far its not that great but at least they tried and there may stratagems that are actually good, the Sword is really cool. At this point Im taking whatever they throw at me, this army hasn’t had proper good rules in 10+ years and with this the studio has put more effort into the army then they’ve ever done since at least 5th edition, so Im grateful for it even if its not as great as the rest.
In Ynari case they didnt get shorter end of stick. They got wet moist noodle instead of stick. I agree that deny overwatch is powerfull…but landrider is not. And if its destroyed(and it will be) you cant use this strat anymore. Id rather slap inqisitor for deny overwatch.
Doctrine would be ok, if not for so many restrictions. You have to charge and it canot be vehicle? And only ince turn 3? I gues it can be used if you use succesor rules and get two hits on 6 and charge afther falback.
Litanies may be hiden gem but we dont know yet, also warlord traits, since this one probably isnt the strongest one. But from overwhiew allone… I mean they are ok so far but nothing bonkers as it was in other SM previevs.
why is someone talking all about Ynari on this thread when it is a review of the BT stuff?
The idea of the thread should have been to discuss these new black templars strats, traits etc in respect to their current / previous standing; not comparing it to other factions and what they have or haven’t got. OK so Ynari have been nerfed and you dont like it but every faction gets their time in the sun, it just so happens now is the marines, chaos and sisters time.
I think what has been mentioned so far is better than the current standings for BT, it can only help to improve their effectiveness and useability however i do agree with the fact that the landraider is a bullet magnet and will likely be popped by opponent very early on. I also think that the assault doctorine ability is possibly not going to benefit too much as i tend to stay in dev doctorine so my artillery and heavy support makes best use of taking out enemy armour so my cc units can get in their lines.
Just my thoughts however, but as a pure BT player i see these changes as good!