Thursday 25 September 2014

Primarch Rules - A fluff discussion

Hey Bunnies!

Thought I would take a little look today at something that keeps me awake at night: Fluff. I want the game to be as realistic as possible to help reach the level of immersion I truly want!
I want to really feel part of the games and, although I dont want games to become boring/predictable, I do want balance and fun - both in terms of fluff and gameplay. Jervis Johnson is a big advocate of house rules and playing with your toys how you want - I certainly agree with him. If its wrong or broken, fix it!! 



So here are a couple of the rules I think should be changed:

Characters (including Primarch's) as Lords of War - they are just not good enough to merit this...if I had to choose between any character or a warhound titan, there would be no competition for damage output. Khall's Fix: Make them all HQs in 2000pt+ armies.

Knights - come on, these guys should be Lords of War. Some of the Forge World ones are crazy hard! Only tailored armies can defeat these. If I took my fluffy Emperor's Children army, I would get battered. Khall's Fix: Make Knights a Lord of War option. Create an extra points cost for fielding an entire force of them.

Primarch rules and statlines:

Angron - I find this guy a little underwhelming. I have seen him die to bolter fire too many times for it to be funny. He is T6 with 5 wounds and a 3+ save. His FnP is weak (for a brute who is subject to constant pain) at 6+. Khall's Fix: Give Angron a 4 or 5+ FnP. This will him slightly more survivable and makes sense.

Horus - perfect. Strong command rules and decent performance on pitch!

Fulgrim - perfect (since given the option of Fireblade). Fast and combat orientated.

Mortarion - In the Black Library novel 'Scars', Mortarion is described as being 'every bit as strong as Perturabo,'. He wields a massive scythe and is considered robust and strong. So why does he have S6 and Perturabo is S7? Furthermore, for a guy who drinks the worst poisons and toxins for fun, why is he not immune to poison like Alpharius is? Surely, of the 2 Mortarion is the most likely? Khall's Fix: Increase to S7 and either make immune to poison or give some sort of random affect to him (maybe too virulent or unknown origin etc).

Ferrus Manus - yeah he is fine

Vulkan - yup, fine too (although the model has a 1 handed hammer when Dawnbringer is renowned as being 2 handed lol)

Curze - pretty perfect. 

Lorgar - as normal he is fine. When transfigured he is broken for 1 reason...being able CHOOSE invisibility. This makes him almost unkillable! Lorgar was the runt of the litter and yes he may reach down in his pants and find some big-boy testicles later in the books, but he still doesn't become the top dog...he took a few hits from a warhound and withstood it quite well...where is the rule to cover that?? Khall's Fix: either make him able to only use invisibility once per game or have it so the affects of it do not fool equals (Primarch's, Greater Daemons, Avatars etc etc). Further more - D weapons never do more than D3 wounds when he is transcended. 

Perturabo - for some who is 'hard as iron' I feel that he is underwhelming a T6. Also, his weapons ability is equal to that of some of the famously close-combat orientated Primarch's (Fulgrim, Horus and Curze) which doesn't feel right. Khall's Fix: increase Perturabo to T7 and decrease to WS7.

Rogal Dorn - I am surprised by the direction they took Dorn, but not in a bad way. I guess I didn't really know enough about him to form a judgement.

Corax - this guy was meant to be a close combat monster, yet he has the same WS as much slower Primarch's (Vulkan, Ferrus Manus and Mortarion). It doesn't seem right. He fought well against Curze at Istvaan and they were quite evenly matched if I recall correctly. Khall's Fix: Up to WS8.

Alpharius - hmmm. Of all the Primarch's I have pictured so far, I believe this one is the furthest from what I expected. I would change quite a lot. I would diminish his statline but leave his rules as is :)

3 comments:

  1. I think they went with the 1handed hammer to for vulkan to A)show his massive strength after all that is a one handed strength 10 hammer that does not have unwieldy! B on the basis of the novel art work where he has it 1 handed...plus it wins on rule of cool :-)

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  2. Good set of rule tweaks. I wonder if they have ever been brought to Alan's attention?
    I know Alpharius seems odd, maybe there is something we do not know yet?

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