Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Will Black Templar’s Cure My Marine Blues?
Goatboy is back with some thoughts on the upcoming Black Templar’s releases because apparently we marine releases every few months.
Goatboy here and it looks like will be seeing more Black Armored Marines chained up to their bolters/chainswords and screaming about death to Mitch or something. It’s been a long time since dancing around Armageddon. After languishing as a small “supplement” in a campaign book we finally see the Black Templars getting the expansive DLC all the other Marines got. That’s right – Codex Supplement: Black Templar Vanilla Primaris Protein Powder coming to hit the table top.
Of course this supplement comes with what looks like a plethora of new miniatures. Continuing the new GW method of releasing a fancy boxed set with Codex, Cards, and a pile of minis they will release later – Black Templars get this extra special treatment. I like these things as they are usually decent deals and get you a nice bit of stuff to “start” your army with. This release looks pretty good with my only “issue” being it might mean the whole Crusader unit won’t get the 20 man blob of jerks like the olden days. It’s probably for the best as we’ve see 20 man units become a bit of an issue if you can mix a ton of aura/buffs, etc. and create a super big dumb unit of death. It is looking like the Black Templars went all in on the Primaris upgrade so it won’t be nearly as “hampered” by first born as some of the other Marine lists we see now.
On the rules front, I am not sure what they will do to make these Marines good. I have some thoughts based on how other armies are working currently. For example, I could easily see a “Litany-based army” that utilizes a lot of “prayer” action(s) to create these bubbles of powerful interactions. We a similar idea a bit with the Admech and Sister setups – but this book could really amp it up. You could create neat “Litany” disciplines that range from shooting powers (Ignore Cover, bonuses to wound/hit, exploding 6’s) to the normal assault options (More Explosions to hit, advance/charge, extra assault goodness). I am sure we could have a ton of “buff” options to help them out with the holy light of the emperor. We also see the prayer aspect in AoS and I find that it’s a mechanic that is “missing” in 40k that could be brought over. I just think it is a big and easy way to make a “holy warrior” army feel like a holy army of doom.
Besides that, I expect a doctrine trait that hits in the Assault doctrine. I am not sure what will see – we already have plus’s to hit, plus’s to wound, and extra damage. I could see the exploding 6’s go here – but just a single hit might not be worth it or too little too late. I wonder if a better thing would be some kind of increase movement after winning an assault like a super consolidate. Or even something as crazy as just getting to attack again too once it hits the Assault doctrine phase. It just needs to be different from the other ones and it gets hard when you got a plethora of Marines with a few that are already assault based (Wolves, BA, White Scars).
From there I bet we could have some kind of cool “first” turn thing that sets up the crusading idea. Either some kind of pre-game move or something else that helps amp them up. The whole army can chant something as they bring up the line with “things” that add bonuses. I don’t expect this to happen as the boxed set would include any kind of cool miniature like that. If we look at the minis we obviously have the High Marshal which will most likely be a Chaplain mixed with a Captain (if I had my way with it). Then we have the Champion which will just be a bad m’fer who is ready to wreck characters, units, and whatever else gets in the way.
Speaking of units – doesn’t this crusader unit just seem odd. There just doesn’t seem to be enough models. I am hoping we see a Neophyte box or something that comes out to help fill these units out. They look like bigger scouts, which makes sense, but there isn’t another way to “create” the model with current bits. They look too much like bigger scouts which has me wondering if a “True Bigger Scout box” is coming and we finally start to see “firstborn” go to the wayside. Just like the Sword Brethren start to look like an idea for Vanguard Primaris Veterans. We’ll see what happens to show up as we know a new Marine book is going to be coming out at some point.
So are you excited about the new Black Templar? I like seeing this book get a real Supplement and I think the new models seems neat. I don’t think I will play them as I am stuck in the whole Grey Knight/Dreadknight nonsense for right now with Orks looming on the horizon for myself. Will they be good and become a terror for the dreaded DE that is roaming the tops of tables and crushing the poor souls of the downtrodden Marine players?
Black Templars – Coming SOON!
