Introduction to the Black Templars

 

My first article was tactical and while popular many readers said they want some background regarding this Chapter. First let me say if you like to play assault heavy armies you might want to consider Black Templars. While their rules aren’t overpowered they do benefit from having a true ninth edition codex. Black Templars aren’t as fast as Blood Angels or White Scars but they can be one of the most resilient Chapters… and they are fast enough.

Black Templars are a second founding successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists and their first Chapter Master, Sigismund, was around during the Horus Heresy - first Captain to the Primarch Dorn. Sigismund was one of the most skilled fighters ever. Dorn gave him his best armor and weapons during the Siege of Terra so he could lay waste to many champions of Chaos, triumphing over all he met in battle. Sigismund was the very first Emperor’s Champion. Alone Dorn and Sigismund held back the Emperor’s Children, which is truly a mighty feat.

Sigismund led the more zealous of the Imperial Fists with him to the founding of the Black Templars, and became their first High Marshal. Sigismund swore an oath upon leaving Terra, that he and his new Chapter would prove their loyalty by never resting in his duties against enemies of the Emperor. Sigismund spent much of this time remaining vigilant over the Cadian Gate, insisting that Horus' Traitors would one day return to plague the Imperium. Every High Marshal has renewed Sigismund's oath of never-ending crusade and as such, the Black Templars' Crusade has continued for over ten thousand years.

Black Templars are a fleet based Chapter and roam the galaxy in their warships, conducting long arduous crusades. Unlike many other chapters, the Black Templars do not have a homeworld. Eschewing the idea of one, they opt to live aboard their crusade fleets. These vary in size and are made up of dozens of Battle Barges, Strike Cruisers and other craft such as training vessels and huge forge ships.

Given this fleet-based nature, the Black Templars are rarely assembled as a Chapter, but are instead divided into many Crusades, every Crusade being responsible for its own recruiting as well as training of new Neophytes. This flexible, mobile nature allows the Templars to continue the first mission of the Black Templars: to actively seek out the enemies of the Emperor and destroy them before moving onwards to find the next foe.

The exact number of Crusade fleets active at any one time, as well as the size of the individual fleets, varies according to the Chapter's needs and abilities. The exact size of Crusade Fleets varies, with some numbering a handful of warriors while others may even number thousands. However the typical size of a Crusade Fleet is between 50 and 300 warriors.

The High Marshal himself has his own personal Battle Barge, the Eternal Crusader, a huge vessel that is the spiritual home of the entire Chapter and contains its most sacred relics, chapels, and reliquaries. It has been expanded and refitted many times and can currently hold twice as many Space Marines as a normal battle barge.

By their doctrine, the Black Templars abhor the traitor, the alien and the mutant. The last category includes psykers, but Black Templars do use psykers in other non-combatant roles, such as Astropaths and Navigators. Black Templars view these beings with special reverence as they see them as able to commune directly with the Emperor. The Black Templars are also one of the few Chapters to not utilize Librarians since the psychic catastrophe known as The Howling.

Black Templars place great emphasis on close combat prowess and honour. As such they can often be seen charging into suicidal situations to avenge fallen comrades. Black Templar Marines also set themselves apart from standard Codex doctrine by including Neophytes into squads of fully initiated Marines to help teach them the ways of battle and the art of combat.

The Black Templars have continued in the style of their first High Marshal, preferring close combat over ranged warfare. This is further emphasised by the fanaticism of Black Templars Initiates, whose righteous anger makes them impulsive and headstrong.

When making war, the Crusade will focus on two main tactics. The first is orbital assault; where the Crusade will use drop pods and Thunderhawks to perform a mass-landing in the wake of a heavy orbital bombardment. If resistance is still strong after this, the Templars will land their heavy armour and launch an armoured spearhead against the weakest link in the enemy's defensive line, using Crusader-pattern Land Raiders.

As part of their dedication to the Emperor and their Crusade, the Black Templars swear fell oaths of faith and protection. Before a battle, it is considered customary to renew one of these oaths, the particular vow serving as a focus on the particular aspect of their duties considered to be necessary to ensure success.

The Black Templars were the first Chapter to find the design for the Land Raider Crusader and were the first chapter to make use of it. The Crusader design replaces the lascannons mounted on standard Land Raiders with Hurricane-pattern bolters, placing a greater emphasis on anti-infantry firepower and freeing up greater space within to carry larger squads.

The Black Templars are also notorious for defying Codex doctrine that states a Chapter may only number 1000 battle brothers. This is partly due to the divided nature of the Chapter, being spread out everywhere on separate crusades (usually consisting of several hundred Battle-Brothers) and no one has thus been able to keep track of their exact numbers. However, it has been estimated that there may be several tens of thousands Black Templars Companies spread out around the galaxy - an almost unstoppable force if gathered at one place and cause for the Inquisition to keep a close eye on the Black Templars.

Introduction to Black Templars

Black Templars finally got their own codex in ninth edition along with a slew of new Primaris Space Marine units such as Chaplain Grimaldus and the Primaris Crusader Squad. Black Templars can be surprisingly resilient and are a melee centric Chapter.

Why are Black Templars resilient? First, the faction has a built-in 5+++ after save versus mortal wounds and that’s amazing in the current state of the game… they can stick around while other factions just melt. Second, Black Templars have access to a vow (basically your Chapter tactics) that provides a 5++ invulnerable save for every unit (including your vehicles) plus they can never be wounded on a to wound roll of 2 or less (mini Transhuman). Ninth edition is one of the deadliest versions of the game yet so these inherent buffs are what provides them their super resilience and it makes a big difference on the table top.

Unit Analysis:

Now I’ll cover some of the new Primaris units, such as the Emperor’s Champion and the Primaris Crusader Squad.

Emperor’s Champion - Clocking in at only 100 points, this HQ is both an efficient character killer and can literally tear apart enemy infantry units. It’s common for Black Templar players to run two Chaplains along with High Marshal Helbrecht. While Chaplains are great at buffing core units, the ability to nuke a beastly enemy character can quickly turn a battle. The Emperor’s Champion has two battle stances and is -1 to hit in melee. He also rerolls all hits and wounds versus enemy characters, can heroically intervene up to 6" to reach an enemy character… and finally he also fights first versus  enemy characters. One battle stance (sweeping blow) he hits on 2+, S7, AP3, 2D per attack. The other stance (thrusting strike) he hits on 3+, S8, AP4, 3D per attack. The first stance is great versus infantry units up to two wounds per model, while the second stance is perfect for most any enemy character - AP4 ignoring armor saves up to 3+! A good Warlord Trait for the Emperor’s Champion is Master of Arms, which allows him to always fight first and gain +1 attack when he charges for a total of seven attacks. I always use he thrusting strike stance versus everything.

Primaris Crusader Squad (PCS) - This troop choice can do something no other Space Marine infantry unit can do, field up to 20 models! I haven’t tried it yet and it seems the sweet spot for a large squad is 15 Marines… however the option is there. Buffing a large squad with a 5+++ after save, reroll hits and/or inflicting mortal wounds on a hit roll of 6 to wound in melee via your Chaplains turns them into a nigh unstoppable force. I find the unit to be better than assault intercessors and typically run 10 man squads. You can go shooty, choppy or a combination; however it’s best to focus on one aspect. Here are my current two builds:

(Choppy)

Sword Brother - Power Axe & Heavy Bolt Pistol

3x Initiate - Chainsword  & x Heavy Bolt Pistol

2x Initiate - Powerfist & Heavy Bolt Pistol

4x Neophyte - Chainsword & Bolt Pistol

(Shooty)

Sword Brother - Power Axe & Heavy Bolt Pistol

3x Initiate - Auto Bolt Rifle

2x Initiate - Pyre Blaster

4x Neophyte - Shotgun

My army does not have a lot of shooting so the shooty unit fills quite a valuable roll, often holding an objective in my deployment zone and providing ranged firepower. The choppy unit will go forward to take objectives and tangle with enemy units… it can hit like a truck too with a lot of attacks at full strength.

In conclusion I’ve provided a brief introduction to the faction as well cover two of our more important units. My next article will go more into tactics and I’ll present more of our units for review.

How to Optimize Armor of Contempt

 How to Optimize Armor of Contempt (AoC)

AoC has been out for awhile now and given a sorely needed boost to Space Marines. Let’s take a look how it works and how to best take advantage.

The rule:

Each time an attack is allocated to an Adeptus Astartes, Sanctic Astartes, Heretic Astartes or Adepta Sororitas model, worsen the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.

This rule does not apply to any of the following:

• Models equipped with a storm shield, a relic shield or a combat shield (or a Relic that replaces one of these shields).

• Models with either the Sacresant Shield or Force Shielding ability (Celestian Sacresant and Nemesis Dreadknight units).

• Models that are under the effects of any other rule that worsens or reduces the Armour Penetration characteristic of an attack.

A simple example is a Space Marine in the open shot by enemy bolt rifle (AP1). If a wound occurs then the Space Marine armor save is 3+ ignoring AP1. Here’s a table up to AP4:

AP     Sv  (NO COVER)

 0      3+

 1       3+

 2       4+

 3       5+

 4       6+

AP     Sv  (COVER)

 0       2+

 1        2+

 2       3+

 3       4+

 4       5+

Now let’s consider the same example for a Terminator:

AP     Sv  (NO COVER)

 0       2+

 1        2+

 2       3+

 3       4+

 4       5+

AP     Sv  (COVER)

 0       2+

 1        2+

 2       2+

 3       3+

 4       4+

Now let’s consider the case of a Terminator with a storm shield (does not benefit from AoC):

AP     Sv  (NO COVER)

 0       2+

 1        2+

 2       3+

 3       4+

 4       4+

AP     Sv  (COVER)

 0       2+

 1        2+

 2       2+

 3       3+

 4       4+

So AoC is great versus both ranged and melee attacks, although the Terminator with a storm shield is still the most resilient. The difference for melee is there’s no benefit from cover. If you’re playing a melee centric army versus Space Marines the assault doctrine (typically does not occur prior to turn 3) coupled with at least an AP1 melee weapon (effectively AP2) helps dampen the benefit of