Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Black Templars – the Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Let’s take a look at the grimdarks’ favorite crusaders, the Black Templars, and see how their codex shapes up.
Look I know Black Templars don’t dance – they only crush the foul spawn of Chaos. We call it the Black Templar Stomp. I would expect all of their parties would have very bland pizza cut into very tiny slices and a limit of 1 per person. But enough of that nonsense – let’s all rejoice as the current Marine book is now finished with everything having some kind of Supplement. Yay, let’s rejoice as we can only go so long without some kind of Marine release.
A quick overview of the book – I like it. I don’t think it is Ad-mech broken and feel like it sits in a weird place in the meta. It is going to be a problem for Grey Knights and Thousand Sons as it has a lot of anti psychic hate plus it is an army designed to get into your business. Thus it feels like a very anti-meta choice as a lot of players that don’t want to buy pre-nerfed bird flyers for Ad-Mech might look at the boyz in gold and blue or the silver jerks. I know I am currently enamored with the Grey Knights so I am looking at this book as something that could make me sad when I see an army designed to give me a ton of negatives to my psychic powers.
Let’s break it down simply enough with the Good, Bad, and Ugly.
The Good
Overall this looks to be a fun and not an overly complicated army. That is probably the best thing about this book is that it seems easy enough to play. It plays like a huge horde of angry Marines destined to punch bad guys in the face with swords, bolters, and fists. I always like an army that fits into their theme and this one does it in spades. You want a bunch of Zealots? You got it. You want big units of Marines – you got that too. You want a bunch of relics that you can say some kind of holy python nonsense as you utilize it in the game – you got that too.
Vows & Strats
The first thing that sticks out is that the army has this neat Vow system. The book has 4 Vows you can choose when you select a mission. Each of them has some extra rules followed by a Passion detriment. Overall they seem pretty good and will help fit into the army you a throwing your boys in black at. I really like Uphold the Honour of the Emperor because it sounds pretty metal and it seems pretty decent. It gives everyone a 5+ invulnerable save and you ignore wound rolls of 1-2 against you. You lose the benefits of Cover but I think having a 5+ invulnerable save as well as other options for FNP means you get a really batch of jerks. There is of course an anti psychic one and other fun options as well. I like anything that lets you choose before the game as it gives you some fun chances to tailor your deployment as well as cosplay vowing to the Emperor.
Next up you get a nice batch of Stratagems with all kinds of fun options. I really like the Incendiary Shells that give your Astartes Shotgun Damage 2. You mix that up with the Tactical Doctrine and you got some pain coming from your Crusader units. We have some of the same ones from before as well – plus a lot of do better in Assault options. I always like Exploding 6’s and having one for your Sword Brethren seems pretty good. There is of course some other fun “make a super Sarge” option as well which gives you a nice little character buff to someone hiding in a unit of Crusaders. Mix this in with some of the Relic stuff and you got a buff force coming to take your “evil” candy.
Litanies & Relics
Of course, you can’t be a Black Templar army without some Litanies am I right? This army is all about Vowing, shouting at bad guys, and praying to the Emperor. With the army built of huge units of Marines, some of these Litanies seem pretty legit. The 5+ FNP on a unit looks to be powerful as well as the Mortals on wounds of 6. I also like the ability to double up on a Vow if needed. If you can’t figure out from the Special Characters and the way the army works – your Chaplains are going to be very important and will be how your army works as you buff guys up with Prayer and drag stuff around the table.
I like the Relics and all the weird Upgrade Relics you can do for units. There is of course a Relic to make you shout better (increase Aura’s), Relics that hate Psykers, a pretty neat Shroud for a turn (4+ inv save Aura for a turn), Another benefit to doing Litanies, More Anti Psyker stuff, and even some Bones that will make your Assault character a pain to deal with (Damage reduced to 1). I talked a little bit about the Unit upgrades and I think that is where the neat bits of this codex show up. There are a few “relic bearer” options to help give your Crusader unit some neat stuff. They range from making the Sword Brethren in the unit better to the Holy Hand Grenade. I prefer the weapons and abilities that go to the unit versus the single guy is a badass. Still, it is neat to make a ton of little “Emperor Champions”.
Datasheets
Finally, we hit the datasheets and it is interesting to see the Marshal and the Castellan get called out as specific Primaris options. I will be talking about Firstborn later this week – but it is nice to see GW really pushing to make it all Primaris for the newest Marine book. They also had some interesting options for the Gladiator’s and Repulsor which is interesting. Those guys got more Multi-Meltas which could make for some fun options. Thankfully all the Special Characters seem pretty good. Helbrecht is your Chapter Master which is pretty spicy as he looks like a beast to deal with. 8 wounds, a ton of attacks, and even some shooting makes this guy a golden beat stick. Oh and he even adds a +1 to strength to your core units too. I love how he has a swipe attack too so he won’t get bogged down by Poxwalkers and other small things.
Grimaldus seems interesting too as he is built of the Chaplain and his 3 little buddies who carry some banners and other Relics of the Black Templars. All 3 abilities are pretty good with a 6+ FNP, a +1 to Litany rolls (and he can do 2), and then a better Advance roll of 3+d3. I really do hate how his Plasma pistol can kill him but I guess that is fluffy. I think any Character should just have a “Master Crafted” Plasma pistol which is always overcharged (D2) but won’t kill you if you roll a 1. Still, this guy is gonna show up and then you can have another Chaplain with rolling 2 dice for a Litany and I think you can do another upgraded Chaplain too. This guy gives you a lot of chances to get your Litanies off and get rolling thru the bad guys.
The Emperor’s Primaris Champion is here too and he looks pretty awesome. He will wreck you as you come into an enemy character and he continues to do so. He gets Rerolls to hit and wound vs enemies, strikes first, and gets a -1 to hit him in combat. You can’t give him any relics but there are a few Warlord traits you could use to boost him up. Plus the model is pretty boss.
The two new important units are the Primaris Crusader Squad and the Primaris Sword Brethern squad. The Crusader squad is a chance to have a 20 man Primaris unit. We know how powerful a big tough unit can be especially with all the Litany Bonus’s and Stratagems. I talked about the Shotgun and you can easily give your 8 bowl haircuts Shotguns and watch as they throw out a lot of damage 2 weapons especially in the right doctrine. You can also hide some Powerfists in the unit – especially with the cool Relic one that doesn’t have a -1 to hit. I get the feeling will see a unit of 20 or so running around the table. The Sword Brethren seem ok but I wish they had access to Storm Shields or something like it. I like the idea of Shield guys but I am sure will see Bladeguard Vets showing up in the lists especially with an army designed to get in and get to punching. The Sword Bro’s ignore the picked Vows passion too.
The Bad
I am not a fan of all the Warlord traits. I really wish we had more “unit boost” options that could be helpful. Of course, I think you can just take some of the Marine ones if you want especially with creating some crazy beat stick characters if needed. I am sure this is why the Emperor’s champion couldn’t take a relic. I also find it weird we don’t have a boosted “Doctrine” time like some of the other supplements.
The extra Secondaries are a bit weird as they seem complicated and too fluffy to be really good. I expect most players to pick Oath as it seems really set for this army as you want to get there, get to the middle, and get to punching. There is an interesting one that lets you gain points if you took an objective from the enemy in your turn but it has to be something you take to gain those points – so it is less exciting.
The Ugly
I still think the flamer should have been damage 2. It would have been awesome and make the Black Templars pretty hot. Still there isn’t a ton ugly as the new models look fantastic, the army seems fun, and it is easy as heck to paint.
