Warhammer 40K Hot Mess: Imperial Agents Navigator Needs Help
Goatboy here with a continued look into some of the weird options in the new 40K Codex: Imperial Agents. What on Holy Terra is up with the Navigator!?
The Navigator is a really odd looking model. I like it as it feels weird and interesting. I just think the rules are not that interesting. I don’t really know what it is supposed to do. Honestly, why does it even in the rules beyond just having a rather interesting to look at model. Let’s see if we can juice it up a bit.
The Navigator’s Problem
I think this is one of the few models I haven’t painted yet. I might have one in a pile of stuff somewhere but I have never had the “joy” of building and painting this weird little plastic dudesman. It feels like such an odd choice in the codex just due to the fact these sort of models are supposed to be in the background of an army and not really a part of it. It feels like someone wanted the model to have rules but didn’t understand that it should have actually decent rules or else why even bother?
Its current rules have it do some kind of “psychic” like attack when someone is within 12” and fail a Battleshock test (-2 if they are infantry). It also doesn’t let models deploy within 12” of it just due to how creepy its helmet is. Its rules are just weird as one of them doesn’t always happen as much, and the other is limited to a distance within the model, instead of any unit it’s joined with. This all leads me to see the Navigator’s use is just as another 3-wound option in a rather cheap unit.
Fixing the Navigator
So, how do we fix it? Well, I think we fix the Navigator by just dumping the unit, creating a whole new thing, and then utilizing its rules interaction with this new unit. Yup, I think the only way to really fix this is to create a truly weird Inquisitor Retinue and have this Navigator become an ability holder in the unit.
New Retinue
I think the best retinue unit we currently have in the released codexes is the CSM Dark Commune. It isn’t the best unit but it really gives you the idea of a bunch of creeps running around as a team that can join up with a unit making them creepier. If we take the Navigator and give him a gang of awesome little mini units, then we all of a sudden have a reason to buy this model.
Let’s make this unit at most a gang of 10, with 5 “special” options, 3 guards, and finally 2 Servitors. We can let one of the Servitors be the heavy weapon specialist, and the other one can be some sort of shield generator option. The 5 options would then be the Navigator, some kind of combat dude, a healer of some sort, the Jokaero techbro Space Monkey, and finally a mini leader option to help out. This gang of jerks would then follow around their Inquisitor and cause all kinds of problems.
New Rules
From there, we can let the Navigator let its 12 no Deep Strike bubble align with the unit instead of the model. This would be a nice update and allow his bubble to be useful in protecting an area, as well as keeping the Inquisitor a bit safer. From there, I think we can look at the idea that the Navigator might do some fun things like let the player pick one of their units in reserves and allow them to come down a turn earlier – breaking the rules a bit. You can also allow the Navigator to ignore the whole have to come down by Turn 3 option or even allow some kind of Up and Down deployment.
Heck just make them be a Navigator instead of some kind of weird helmet dude doing odd things in the backfield. I know this doesn’t feel like just a discussion of the Navigator but it feels like there is a ton of little weird units that could have been combined into a cool unit instead of just sitting around attached to a cheap Battleline unit.
For the Emperor!
