In my previous post I was able to review some of the upcoming rules for the Night Lord’s Legion that recently leaked. I am very happy with what I have seen so far, and I am excited to dive into the Primarch, and other special units today.
Konrad Curze:
All right, it’s time to review El Jefe himself, aka edgy Batman aka the one Primarch Rogel Dorn feared aka the Night Haunter. Curze has a solid statline that is decent, he is squishier than some others with only T6 but has I7 and and a solid 7 attacks. As before, he has Hit and Run which is such a good rule, Fear (3) and Night Vision. As far as his special rules he gives all units Night Vision and Bloody Murder special rules as well as making them immune to Fear (something that has me worried that being bale to ignore fear will be common : / ) He also grants an additional reaction in the movement phase. His armor gives him the standard 2+/4++ but also allows him to ignore movement penalties and add 12″ to his movement when he runs making him one of the fastest primarchs on foot.
His two lightening claws are identical and useful if there is an ability that negates one weapon as we has two to choose from. His batmarangs now rend on a 4+making them significantly more useful. Curze can finally cast a psychic power though he perils if he rolls below a “7” but if he gets it off he receives a 4+++ and +1 attack which is very handy. Finally any time he,or his unit wipes out an enemy unit in melee or through sweeping advance every enemy unit that can draw line of sight to him must take a pinning test.
Thoughts: this is exactly how I picture Curze. He doesn’t want to be fighting other primarchs. Instead, rampage through your opponent’s back line picking on weak units and forcing your opponent to take additional pinning checks.
Sevatar:
Hands-down my favorite character from the HH series! I am pumped for Sev’s update. He gives free Deepstrike to any terminators in his army which is good, but this use to be a general Night Lord ability for +15 points. When fighting in a challenge against an opponent with WS 5+ he gets Instant Death which is a nice homage to his dueling prowess. He doesn’t have Night Vision which is odd, but he only has a pistol so it doesn’t really matter. His chainglaive is finally AP 2 which makes him one of the deadliest characters in a duel. He also gets a psychic power like Curze, only firing on a 7+. Sev’s isn’t quite as good only getting +1 WS and +1 A but it may be useful in a pinch.
Contekar Terminators:
These are still a relatively new unit to me so I don’t have a lot of notions about how they were used previously. Only the Sgt. gets the Eschaton power claw which is a bit disappointing. They still have the rule allowing a full squad to take up a HQ slot but we will have to see how crowded the elite slot is to fully rate the benefit. This is very much a shooty squad as they only have AP 3 weapons but come loaded with short range shooting options. While this unit can produce a lot of medium strength shots it will struggle vs heavy infantry.
Terror Squads:
Terror Squads seem largely unchanged (which is good) picking up Fear(1) and keeping their array of weapon options. Part of me would love to run an all-rotor cannon squad but I will likely stick to my volkites ( I am curious to see if their deflagrate still carries the preferred enemy bonus). these guys will tear up most light to medium infantry and are decent in close combat as well, with each model having a paired weapon.
Night Raptors:
While I always loved the models I found these units hard to use in the old system. Let’s see what the updates have brought. Any unit can get power weapons, or lightening claws which is a nice boost, especially if you want a pre-chaos version of Warp Talons. They keep their special weapon allotment which is also nice. They also get night Vision, Fear and Sudden Strike (1) (whatever that is). More importantly they pick up an extra wound (not sure if all jump units get this) and WS 5 which will make them decently tough. This unit seems well placed for a melee option against mid to upper tier infantry. They won’t do well in close combat against terminators but can harass them with plasma and melta guns. I think I am more likely to take them now but they are almost 200 points for only 5 models.
Conclusion:
Overall I am quite happy with these leaks. We will see about how well everything shakes out once the full rules drop. I have heard some concerns about the lack of “Line” for any special units in our roster but, as a more narrative player, I am not worried. I am curious to see if Fear is still an easy rule to avoid, and how easy it will be to force pinning checks. As many of the Night Lord rules depend on pinning I hope it will be a big part of the game.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
