Codex Rewrites

[Lucius Vane]

I've been working on rewriting these for some time now and I thought I'd post my current "completed" documents here. They are, of course, still open for revision and if anyone has any constructive criticism, I'd be very grateful. When I update or finish a new codex, I'll be sure and update this post.

I hope you find them useful.

Codex Imperialis -
Codex: Assassins
Codex: Deathwatch
Codex: Ecclisiarchy

Codex Xenos -
Codex: Tyranids

[Son of Sanguinius]

Reading the Tyranids codex as I write this. Many horrendously biased opinions follow. Enjoy

- Make the second set of scything talons confer the shred special rule.
- Make crushing claws confer Strength 10, AP 1, and Unwieldy.
- Drop the Patriarch's Strength by 1. Deduct 15 points. I like Planetary Subversion a lot. May steal it.
- I don't see any point in taking Malanthropes as you present them. Way too many points for a synapse unit that can't hit that hard.
- Parasite is too expensive.
- I like the Lictors, but I'd drop them to 60. Even then, that's a lot of points for a 2W model that can't hide in a unit.
- Same goes for Zoanthropes. It's a slow 6 wounds with only three serious weapons that costs over 200 points.
- Are Tervigons supposed to be scoring?
- I'd drop the Broodlord to T4, but that's mostly a flavor thing.
- I think gargoyles need deep strike.
- I'd change the Carnifex to S7 and T7, increase its base attacks to 4.
- Change Living Battering Ram to causes Hammer of Wrath hits equal to its remaining wounds.
- Make the Trygon S8. Huge creature.
- Keep the Biovores at 30-35 ppm but give them one spore type for free

Overall, I like it, but it doesn't feel like much of change from Codex Tyranids, which I believe needs a complete overhaul to do the bugs true justice

[Son of Sanguinius]

Reading Codex Imperialis, and again, there isn't enough change to warrant the great production value you've put into this! Damn shame.

The Assassins should have unique profiles, especially if you're doing a codex for them.

Callidus
- Callidus are really, really fast, so I'd make them beasts.
- Phase sword should have AP1, Fleshbane, Armorbane. Let peeps have their Inv saves.
- I'd replace demo charge with a rule that makes one unit take a dangerous terrain test when it arrives from reserves or by outflanking
- A Word should be -1 to enemy Reserves rolls.

Culexus
- Make the Speculum have the Fleshbane rule instead of S5.
- Grant 1 shot to the speculum for each psyker unit and each demon unit within 12"
- Psychic Abomination should be 2+ for deny the witch and count as a psychic hood
- reduce Soulless to 12"
- Psyker Assassin can say that the assassin's attacks always count as being precision when targeting a psyker

Eversor
- Eversor should be Beasts unit type
- executioner pistol needs poisoned (4+)
- Frenzon should confer rage, hatred, and shred

Vindicare
- Deadshot should say all shots are precision shots and cannot be stopped by Look out Sir
- Spy Mask should confer Ignores Cover

[Lucius Vane]

Hi! Thanks for giving me your feedback. I'm going to address your post on the assassin codex now and go into more depth on the tyranids later, but for now I'll just let you know that I agree about the malanthrope and am hammering out a solution as we speak.

I think you're right that I've unnecessarily limited myself with the single profile on the assassins. On the other parts of your post I agree on some points and disagree with others. I'll include a rough synopsis of my proposed changes here.

Callidus-
I disagree with your changes here. I believe all of her sabatoge options are appropriately scaled. Of course you're more than welcome to argue your point. But there's nothing you can say or do that will make get rid of the ignoring all saves part of her weapon. That's my favorite part haha

Stats would be:
WS8 BS6 S4 T4 W2 I8 A4 Ld10 Sv-

For the Eversor, I would do the following:
WS7 BS5 S4 T4 W2 I6 A5 Ld10 Sv-
Feel No Pain (4+)
Pistol gains Poisoned
Frenzon- Remove first paragraph an instead state that he moves as if he were a Beast.

Culexus:
WS6 BS6 S4 T4 W2 I6 A3 Ld10 Sv-
Animus Speculum- fleshbane on a multishot ap1 weapon seems like too much. I think changing it to psykers and models with the Daemon special rule is a good idea.
Soulless- I agree on dropping that to 12".
Deny the witch on a 2+ is good, but psychic hood on top of all his other debuffs would be overkill I think.
Psyocculum and psyker assassin: add daemons to these as well.

Vindicare:
WS6 BS8 S4 T4 W2 I6 A3 Ld10 Sv-

I like both of your ideas, both ignoring saves and denying Look Out Sir saves will help keep him cost effective. However I don't want to otherwise change the wording of deadshot.

Does that seem like a good way to change it up?

[Son of Sanguinius]

Sounds fun. I lean toward really hard hitting stuff because you end up paying over 100 points for a two wound model that can't join units. I want to be able to put down an assassin on the table and have my opponent consider him (her) a serious threat.

[Lucius Vane]

Ecclisiarchy, Assassin and Tyranid links have all been updated.

[Haravikk]

But there's nothing you can say or do that will make get rid of the ignoring all saves part of her weapon. That's my favorite part haha

I agree a bit with Son of Sanguinus on that point, but perhaps forcing the enemy to re-roll successful Invulnerable Saves would be sufficient? Even with a 4+ Invulnerable Save (the most common strong save) that's still reducing the odds from 50% to 25% I think, even worse for the poor sods on 6+ invulnerable saves


I've mostly read the Ecclesiarchy list though; there are some very interesting ideas in it and I'll have to have another couple of reads through to really comment on it, so I'll just give some initial thoughts. As usual I hope not to come across too negatively, but it's always the things I'm unsure about that I need to highlight:

• Living Saint - This is a fun character option, but it seems a bit weird IMO, since I don't think they're all that common! The usual case of simply treating Celestine as someone else tends to cover that kind of thing, only really a minor issue.
• Uriah Jacobus - This is maybe just my preference, but while it was nice to see Jacobus back in the White Dwarf list, I didn't like his rules at all; he's an accomplished Missionary, yet his rules make him one of the best combat unit upgrades available, and in the White Dwarf list he's practically essential for getting the most out of Faith points. The latter isn't such a big deal in your list due to the more reliable Faith system, but he always struck me as more grizzled and resilient than inciting squads into some kind of rampage; nothing against your version of him as it's faithful to the White Dwarf version, but if any character should be changed I'd say it's him personally; my own thought is that as a missionary he should be aimed at being the ideal leader for a unit with Scout.
• Arch Angels - I guess I'm finding it a bit hard to see the value in these; even with the improvements they're still not that great at close combat, and they've lost much of the ability of Seraphim to soften up an enemy first. It kind of seems like they're just defensive sponges for a living saint which, though useful, makes them seem a bit uninspiring as a unit compared to regular Seraphim who I'd probably still favour purely for the extra shooting I get in before I have to resort to close combat.
• Repressor - I know it's largely what the Forge World rules are, but I always found their Repressor a bit lacklustre; a Rhino with some bundled upgrades and extra fire points are fine, but then for getting troops about I could just use the Rhino with a dozer blade and save the 20 points for something else. The plough on a Repressor seems more likely to be a Siege Shield at least, maybe even with some better front armour into the bargain to represent the fact that they're pretty much meant for squeezing down roadways strewn in rubble, and likely under hostile fire. On a related note, are you sure the Hull Point values are right?
• Exorcist - Not so sure about the Skyfire option. I know sisters don't really have any good options against flyers right now but the Exorcist is already a high profile target, and seems a bit weird to lump it with the double duty, especially when most sisters lists will include one regardless. Might make more sense to move Skyfire to a unit, such as Afflicters perhaps? Maybe give them a weapon option so they can take on the anti-air role, or an Act of Faith? I dunno.
• Sanctifiers - While I love the tank as a vehicle, I'm a bit unsure about whether it feels like a Sisters of Battle vehicle or not. I guess they just don't strike me as an army that would (or should) have siege vehicles when they could just send in Sisters Repentia, Penitent Engines or Arco Flagellants, or call in the Imperial Guard instead. Besides which, they kind of strike me as an army that would have less access to vehicles overall compared to a Space Marine chapter, so they'd more likely focus on vehicles they can use all the time. However, the ramming ability is the kind of thing that could better distinguish a Repressor from being simply a Rhino 2.0, or become an upgrade for them.
• Drop Pod - The Drop Pod is a similar thing, it's just so quintessentially Space Marine that it doesn't seem like something that Sisters would use or have access to. Remember their space fleets are really just transports rather than anything heavily armed, or even proper strike cruisers. They rely on the Imperial Navy for anything major, and the navy just use regular transports. It's another one of these things that I like, I mean I fully intend to make a Sisters themed Drop Pod, but at the same time I may do the same to a Storm Raven one day and I wouldn't expect them to actually get that either.
• Acts of Faith - I like a lot of these, and while I had my doubts on Spirit of Martyr coming back as it was, the ability to represent acts of different difficulty solves that pretty well. Anyway, I think it might be easier if the unit specific acts were with the units themselves structurally; it gets a bit fiddly to flick back and forth all the time. At the very least the unit entries should confirm which extra acts they get. It's merely a structural thing though

Anyway, these are just my thoughts