Hi All,
Well, I am still recovering from the wildest narrative experience I have ever had at NOVA. In the mean time let’s take a look at the custom rules for the Alpha Legion and the Emperor’s Children.
Alpha Legion
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Just kidding!
The Alphas get a decent agenda that has your opponent set up two objectives that you must sabotage to get 3 exp for each one. Only infantry can sabotage them though. This is a pretty good agenda and works well with foot characters.
Their requisition is good if you like cultists as you can make a cultist unit Blooded for 1 RP when you add it to your roster.
Their upgrade table is pretty solid. The first option allows you advance and/or shoot while performing an action and characters do not lose their auras. The second option allows you to use the pre-game 9” move strat on the unit for free or the one that sends the unit into strategic reserves. The last gives you the benefit of light cover if the enemy is more than 12” away. All told a very good set of upgrades. Their relic is also a good choice, giving you a S+1 AP -4 D2 power sword that ignores invulns on a wound of “6”.
All together these rules help infantry armies and you can put together an army that is very good at actions (and thus at specific crusade events). Their relic is useful for any model starting out to give it a bit of punch while also setting you up for the Murder Sword.
Emperor’s Children
Note that RAW you have to pay a lot of RP to get your units Marks as it operates in a weird grey-zone in the rules. Chaos units can’t start with marks but EC must have them. As with anything, talk to your GM.
The agenda is a very solid option for the EC. Each time a unit destroys an enemy unit that was at full strength when it started shooting, or killed an enemy unit without taking any wounds it gets 1 exp. You also get a point of EXP if you do not fail a morale test or fall back. This is a better version of the Night Lord agenda as you largely get to control how much exp you get. Furthermore, you will L-O-V-E playing vs Knights or MSU armies.
Their requisition grants a free battle honor to a unit above 71 exp allowing you to build a crusade unit with more honors than any other army can field. It’s good in long campaigns, mediocre in short events. The EC also get the best upgrade table hands down. The first gives your unit a 6+++ going to a 5+++ if the unit is below half-strength. The second gives you the ability to use 2 CP strats for free, one grants +1 S and +1 WS when fighting, the other is the “fight on death” start. The last one automatically marks a unit for greatness if it kills an enemy unit during a game (this is so insanely powerful, GM’s consider making this max 1 per army).
The last item is a relic that allows the bearer to heal 1 lost wound for each wound it inflicts in combat (max 3) Once again this is so obscenely good there is no other legion that deserves it.
In summary EC armies could be a major issue you in crusade campaigns. If you allow players to pick unit upgrades, they will out-gain exp for every other army. As with any rule, your mileage may vary but they have some real issues.
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