Hello everyone!  I hope that everyone is staying safe.  With everyone locked down, I was hoping that a new article series would be beneficial to some of the readers out there.  Over the past couple of months, I've gotten to have quite a few conversations with a gentleman many of you may know:  Acebaur, one of the Black Templars moderators from the Bolter and Chainsword forum.  Over the course of these conversations, I've gotten to know him a bit better as a player and based on his questions, comments, and list-building, I asked him if he would be willing to be the subject of this experimental series.  As Acebaur is not an all-in competitive and tournament player, I thought it would be a great way for casual/competitive players to learn from his experiences and the questions he has been bringing to me.  Not everyone has the ability to travel around their respective countries, or internationally for that matter, to get in ultra-competitive games.  I would be willing to bet that most of us stick to a group of common friends and play with those people predominantly.  However, with that being the case...no one wants to consistently lose.  That is where I feel Acebaur sits.  He has a competitive mind, but has some self-imposed restrictions on how to assemble his Black Templars army.  This prevents his lists from becoming as competitive as they can possibly be and that is okay!  This series is going to look into his army's evolution and learning to become the best player he can be.  We are going to start with an interview with Acebaur so that everyone can get a better understanding of who he is and what he is all about.

Good afternoon everyone!  Over the course of the past few weeks, I've gotten a lot of emails asking to do some analysis on my lists: how I use them and why I chose those units.  So I am going to start with the list that has gone through a ton of iterations since Faith and Fury, to a point where I think its pretty optimized.  The meta has shifted, especially after the FAQ to nerf Iron Hands (and lesser so Raven Guard), so we've needed to adjust our lists slightly to compensate.  Let's take a look at my current version of my PA2 Sword Brethren list.

"Hello Laeroth,

I was wondering if you would consider doing a listbuilding article or just tips using only classic/mini Marines as a constraint. 

Seeing as the official Templar range is classic, and many Templar players are mini marine nostalgics from the codex days.
(also personal OCD with mixing models of different scales)

You are also the only publication that focuses on the boys in black, it would be grand.

Regards,"

Hello all!  Good to see you!  With the holidays and some big ITC tournaments over, we're getting back into the saddle for the the 2020 tournament season!  I have several articles pending, including an email response regarding classic marine list building and several tactica articles on using some of my posted lists.  I am also going to start working on updating the BT 101 guide, now that we've gotten the PA2 book and the follow-up FAQ for it.  However, for today, I wanted to do something a little bit more fun.  I want to show you a list that I've been playing around with for a couple weeks now and am hoping that I can get some heavy use out of it while I am painting up my current ITC list.

Hello everyone.  By now, everyone has had some time to play around with list building and digesting what PA2 has given us.  The book has given us a good amount of stuff to play around with, but it changes how we do things now.  We've got the benefit of having a very strong codex in the base Space Marines book, but a lot of what that codex does well is in the shooting phase.  So what we need to do is adapt the SM book to what our chapter does well:  getting into combat quickly and efficiently, then doing enough damage to take out your opponent.  Let's take a look at some of the things we can do.

Black Templar Stratagems (Vigilus and Faith):
We got several stratagems in Faith joining the two we retained from Vigilus. I am splitting this section into four parts, the “Mediocre”, The Good, and Amazing. Following a brief discussion on relevant vanilla codex Stratagems. 

The Bad:
 Between all of them we have only two....let us say mediocre. They are “Uphold the Honour of the Emperor” (from Vigilus) and “Shock and Awe”. Uphold is bad because it’s only usable on units with low wound count and characters are often overkilled. 

In contrast “Shock” is only bad because the cost of Land Raider Crusaders leave much to be desired. The other ones? Well they are good to bonkers.

(Marshal Laeroth -- So I have to disagree here.  I think there is still value in "Uphold" in the right circumstances.  Perhaps you want the chance to hold onto an objective or quarter of the board.  Maybe you were charged and you want to attack back against your opponent.  Lots of situations where a 5+ FNP in combat would be useful.  Its just unfortunate that it only affects certain units.  As for "Shock and Awe", I am not convinced it will be viable.  It requires you to get reasonably close to the enemy to unload the squad from the LRC, plus get in range for its guns.  This means your opponent can potentially charge the LRC and surround you, preventing you from disembarking.  Even more dangerous is if they can kill the LRC, then you'll likely lose the vast majority of your unit due to not being able to place your models.  But if you can pull it off, its a nice perk.)

The Simply Good:
There is only two of our stratagems which belong to this category, “Vicious Riposte”, “Devout Push”, and “Crusader Relics”. 

The first one is....well simply put unreliable, but what makes it good is the fact we have several methods of feel no pain available to our boys. Meaning it we have more chances to proc it (NB a rolled 6 on a FNP save does not Proc this stratagem it simply means that instead of dying an model lives to try again). 

If we are taking 30 wounds, on 15 man marines squad. You would net 14 saves before all your neophytes dies, meaning 7 pass. Of that 33% or 2 mortals wound Proc. Then  for the 16 saves you take on marines. You save 10-11 of them. 25% of that or around 2-3 will proc mortal wounds.  You just did two smites worth of Mortal Wounds. That be 5 dead Zerkers, Ork Boyz or otherwise.

The second one is Crusader Relics, is not bad, because you have several good options for relics to gift to sergeants. Which be discussed in greater detail on next section. It’s more of a question of CP expenditure.

The final one, "Devout Push" is either amazing or just mediocre depending on interpretation and/or faq’ing. But simply put as of right now by raw you can get a very different reading than like intended.  For our purposes I am assuming worst case scenario. That it makes your pile-in and consolidation move 6”. Which allows for much better tagging, and performing a tri-lock.

(Marshal Laeroth -- I really like Vicious Riposte.  It allows us to throw cheap units as speed bumps against enemy units to slow their progress across the board.  This is especially useful against units that have a lot of attacks like Orc Boys, Nids swarms, or GSC units.  Its in your back pocket and is a threat that your opponent cannot ignore.  Crusader Relics is kind of hit or miss, depending on who your opponent is.  Its basically another relic in your army, but handily on a sergeant...which hides the relic a bit.  Devout Push is actually really good.  Even if it is FAQ'd to not allow you to pile into multiple combats, it does allow you to get more of your models into combat.  Which is especially nice if you tag more than one enemy unit into combat.  Even better if you FLY, so that you can get into position even better.)

The Amazing;
Our other stratagems, are nothing short of awesome. 

We have all played "Suffer Not the Unclean to Live", +1 attack and reroll wounds on either our company veterans espacially fist or hammer armed ones, or on a Smash character be it EChampion or Marshall never disappoints. 

The "Oaths of Honor" is the reroll wounds one we have for scouts, flavor grumbles aside, it’s amazing. Suddenly now we are can actually clear chaff easily with our own screens with a simple 1CP investment. Especially sense scouts likely be dead far before t3 meaning they wouldn’t benefit from our super doctrine.

The incredible notable ones are "Abhor the Witch", which is a 4+ CP rerollable (with CP use) deny the witch can be used after normal deny the witches are tried. Meaning you can use Grimaldus or other denies first.

"The Emperor's Will" is an advance and charge stratagem which allows us to shoot pistols for 1CP.

And then finally Tenacious Assault, 2CP to stop cowardice. While Night Lords got a strictly better one. Simply having this one as an option is awesome for us. Only downside it’s 2CP.

(Marshal Laeroth -- "Suffer" is pretty darn good.  It does cost 2 CP, but in combination with our super doctrine, it can turn a 5-man unit into a ridiculously dangerous unit.  Especially if you have a Captain nearby.  "Oaths" officially makes a 5-man Scout squad more dangerous than an equal sized Reiver or Incusor squad.  That's pretty impressive for a 55 point unit.  It gets even better as the size of the squad goes up, making a 10-man unit a legitimate first-turn threat to your opponent.  "Abhor" is just another tool in your chest to deny psychic powers for a tiny 1 CP fee.  24" range that can be used after any other Deny the Witch attempts, is huge.  Combo with our Chapter Tactics and psykers are going to have a difficult time against us.

"Emperor's Will" is also a huge threat to our opponents.  This allows us to bring an advance deployed unit dangerously close to a first turn charge without using concealed positions or deep strike.  When you can potentially get a Crusader blob squad into close combat on turn one with a little bit of luck?  Awesome.  Finally, "Tenacious Assault" will be used frequently to prevent key opponent's from falling back from our combats if we were not able to take them down.  Very good synergy with small concealed position units that can survive a turn of combat.  This is how you dictate the battle and protect yourself from return fire.)

The Vanilla Base:
I won’t go into too much detail here, but essentially:

"Honor of the Chapter", fight twice is awesome for our boys in black. "Only in Death Does Duty End", letting one of our characters fight again after dying, is amazing in one sense a 1CP cheaper Honor. 

"Hero of the Chapter", second warlord trait, especially given we are essentially always using Master Swordsman, a second way to open warlord trait is welcome.  

Finally "Trans-human Anatomy", which makes us only woundable on 4+. Remember how we stressed one should always be taking tide squads? This is another reason for that. 

Now there are other good vanilla stratagems, Hellfire and Gravitic Amplification for example but those are more list dependent. But in summary, Marines have an extensively good stratagems, we add on top of that several goods ones of our own. Vanilla Marine ones tend to be more list building reliant while ours, save two, are not so at all. 

In general our solid strategems is where GW had really knocked our rules out of the park.  We'll see you in Part Five!

~Schlitzaf~

Part 3: Black Templar and Codex Marine Litanies

Likely the most exciting part for any of our boys in black; new litanies. Now we have the standard six litanies, which have several notable ones.

Those are mostly tied to shooting, so I’m only gonna focus on three of those the six litanies; Canticles of Hate and Mantra of Strength especially. You also have Exhortation of Rage which is also solid.

Mantra of Strength, is a +1 damage, strength, and attack on a Chappy. That is one of the two components of the Smash Chappy build, using Crozius Relic, Benediction of Fury. But in fairness, between EChampion, and Master Swordsman we have two Marine Smash level characters on the onset of any build. Making a third a questionable worth. Especially given our limited number of litany counts.

Canticle of Hate; gives an additional 2" charge range to any unit in the 6" aura range, makes all pile-in and consolidations 6” instead of 3". Not stackable with other buffs. Now there is some minor anti-synergy elsewhere. But by and large this is an amazing trait. And one regardless of striking build, concealing or footslogging mandatory. Given its an essentially an extra 12” movement for all of our units in combat. 

Exhortation of Rage: Select a friendly <CHAPTER> unit within 6". Their unmodified 6s to hit in melee generate another attack with that weapon, which cannot proc extra attacks itself. This is Grimaldus static ability as a litany. As with Grimaldus it’s a solid ability, and as anyone who played with our Vigilus WT can attest more reliable than it seems. Or anyone playing with or more hopefully against death to false Emperor.  Main issue is it competes with all the other solid litanies we have.

(Marshal Laeroth -- So yeah.  Our generic SM litanies are pretty decent.  The real big go-to though will be Canticle of Hate, as this will all but guarantee that we're going to make our charges and ensure all of our models get to fight.  Mantra of Strength helps create a cheaper smash captain.  Just remember that the Chaplain has to be on the board at the start of the turn when they are using it, so more than likely you are slogging your Chaplains.  A good way to increase their speed is via jump packs or bikes.)

Black Templar Litanies: We have six. Two amazing, two average and two that leave much to be desired. The two amazing ones, are Litany of Divine Protection and Fires of Devotion. 

Each of those litanies are pick one unit within 6” for both and that unit gains a 5+ Feel No Pain (Divine Protection) or +1 attack when it charges or heroic intervenes (Fires of Devotion). The latter can be used to buff smash characters. But it alongside divine protection are best used on large squads. Like Crusader Squads.

These two litanies alone make running one or two tide Crusader worth the price of admission.

(Marshal Laeroth -- These two are going to be your bread and butter litanies for one of your chaplains.  The 5+ FNP litany can help preserve the integrity of larger Crusader squads, Vanguard Veterans, or even Terminators.  It also works on vehicles, so this can help keep your LRC alive to drop off its load.  Between this litany and our mortal wound defense, we've potentially have some of the most durable units out there.  Then the Fires of Devotion is a huge offensive buff for units, especially larger squads.  The higher number of attacks helps activate our super doctrine and a huge number of auto-wounds.  Things of note is that we need to choose that unit right away in the turn, so plan accordingly.  You should ALWAYS have at least one Chaplain in your list with these two litanies...they are that good.)

The average litanies are Fervent Acclamation and Oath of Glory. Each of those are basically for niche builds. Acclamation adds 3” to any aura for BT Units (NOT just BT Characters) within 6”.  Meaning you can easily get 12” auras one something like a Marshall or other character w/ Helm. Or 9” aura for named character auras and for non-Helm aura litanies. Oath of Glory is choose one unit and it always fight first. 

It’s a solid choice but one you’d one to use with the always fight first warlord trait. I would not discount it just keep in mind it’s for a more niche build. 

The other litanies are (Vow of Retribution) a minus -2 leadership within 6” to enemy units and (Psalm of Remorseless Persecution) which is a re-roll wound rolls of 1. Basically like taking a lieutenant (Castallen).  Neither of them are pointless just mostly superfluous, leadership modifiers are underrated. Killing 2 marines and stacking -2 aura means they now fail leadership on a 5 or 6. For an MSU Squad that is notable. Psalm gives you a Castallen with a solid relic for cheaper. 

The final litany is our basic Chappy Litany. Chappy can recite it and al BT Units 6” can reroll hit rolls in melee. We have Marshall’s, Helbrecht, CP-Chapter Masters I never feel a desire to use this ability but it is one we have. 

Overall rating for Litanies: 4.5 out 5. I only don’t give a 5 because I dislike giving perfect scores for anything. But this makes us taking multiple chaplains viable and useful. Were pre-v2 Marines we often ran into redundant HQ’s after the 3rd or 4th.

~Schlitzaf~

Black Templar Unique Datasheets: Faith and Fury

As Templar’s we have five unique datasheets, and the Sword Brethren Specialist Detachment. They are for reference, Crusader Squad (Crusaders) Emperor’s Champion (EChamp), Grimaldus (Grim), Helbrecht, Cenobyte Servitors (Cenos) and then a psuedo unique unit via that is Company Veterans with the Sword Brethren Keyword. I will discuss each of these in turn.

The Crusader Squad:
Crusaders the single biggest, disappointment in the book. Games Workshop (GW) took it out to the back and shot it. They remove the Faux-Devi Configuration (Heavy-Special-Special at 5 Man), didn’t give us the point reduction to match Tacticals on Initaites (Init) and kept Neophytes (Neo) same price as Scouts. Instead we got a lackluster ability that if equal or more Init to Neo’s in a Crusader Squad, Neo’s may reroll 1 to hit in melee. 

That said, Crusaders still have a role. That role is simply now only real as Tide Crusaders or 8-9 man squads in Rhino’s or Pods. Shock Assault has made 1A Power Weapons solid and worth the price of admission, and having larger squads are important for buffs and strategems  to which will be elaborated on later.  

A Templar Force should always include 1 Tide Squad or 14 man and larger Crusader Squad. Debatably even two of those squads. Simply for how good they take our buffs. And as always to save points, you should always be taking these units with as equal Init-Neo ratio as possible. And secondly it should be noted that Sword Brothern do not count as Init’s for Equal Init-Neo ratio. Still a mediocre to good unit just not the best of its style of unit anymore.

Overall 3 out of 5.

(Marshal Laeroth -- While I would agree that it is disappointing that initiates did not get a point cost update to match tactical marines, it isn't so much of a problem to me since we're really only going to see 20-30 point differences at max in a list.  Losing the min/max weapon configuration was also a blow, but its not something I've not been expecting for several editions now.  The biggest use of our Crusader squads is to become a large block of dudes that are recipients of our new litany/warlord trait buffs.  Fully buffed and in the Assault Doctrine (or via Crusader Helm), we can put out ridiculous amounts of unsaved wounds.  Knights of Sigismund works better with higher amounts of attacks and a large Crusader squad fits the bill perfectly.  Protect them with our 5+ FNP litany and increase their offensive potential with the +1 attack litany...then you have a scary unit indeed.  But alas, the unit does not have concealed position or the ability to deep strike without a drop pod, so you will only be able to fit one or two footslogging units in your list.  3.5 stars.)

Emperor’s Champion:
A Templar player should not leave home without one. A 75 points it hits against proper targets as hard as a vanilla smash captain. Before the supplement, after the supplement? He now has a -1 to hit in melee, and another attack. 

He has three layers of “buffs”, the first layer is if he is within 1” of a character or monster add 1 to his attacks and to his strength. The second layer if he is rolling to wound Monsters or Characters he rerolls wound rolls. Third and final layer if he attacking characters he rerolls hot roll. 

With 5-6 attacks depending, strength 6-7 and potentially rerolling all or just wound. He is solid unit. And 75 points he is dirt cheap. Never leave home without him. The only downside, and it’s a significant one is his lack of a pack. 

Overall rating 4.5 out of 5.

(Marshal Laeroth -- He certainly is a close combat beast, upgraded from the previous SM 8.0 codex.  Now he can certainly take on a smash captain and win.  However, I would disagree with Schlitzaf in only having one fault besides having the jet pack.  He has another:  no auras or buffs for other units around him.  He is entirely a selfish character, even if he is good at that.  No force-multipliers in the list makes it hard for me to justify taking him, when Chaplains vastly improve the efficiency of our other units. 3.5 stars.)

High Chaplain Grimaldus:
Of our characters, empirically the big winner. He has a relic crozius now (-2 AP and 2 Damage), cast 2 Litanies, kept his additional attack aura, can deny the witch.  There is one debatable nerf he got which I’ll discuss about in the Ceno’s.

At 90 points, like the EChampion, never leave home without him. Especially given that we have a whole host of amazing litanies and he grants us two without command point (CP) investment. As with the Emperor’s Champion his primary downside is his lack of a pack. 

But unlike EChampion, he cannot utilize his abilities if you pod him. And he still has a disappointingly 3 attacks. It should be noted his mandatory warlord trait (WT) grants an additional deny and that WT adds plus 1 to any deny tests taken by the user. 

Overall 4 out of 5.

(Marshal Laeroth -- HUGE buffs for Grimaldus.  If you are running anything worthwhile on foot (i.e. not deep striking/concealed positions), you need to be taking this character. He is ridiculously good.  While he is slower than his generic jump pack chaplains, he already has several rules baked into his cost without the use of CP.  Combo Grimaldus with a large crusader squad and you're doing stupid amounts of damage, while being able to deny psychic powers.  Just remember that his litanies do not work inside of transports, so he's stuck on hoofing it. 4.5 stars.)

High Marshall Helbrecht: 
Helbrecht is a solid character, at 150 he is pricy and requires you too think.  Sense he does hit hard but costs an intercessor more than a vanilla smash captain. 

His major change has been his aura is now units within 6” vs models within 6”. He got another attack and his sword procs, on charging or HI’ing vs just him charging.  I don’t play him in my lists personally but, he is still a supremely solid character and worth the price of admission. He like our other characters suffers from the lack of a pack. 

Overall 3.5 out of 5.

(Marshal Laeroth -- Slight upgrade to the new wording on rerolling hits and another attack.  Otherwise, functionally the same as before.  He did get an improved warlord trait (+1 charge/HI) so that's awesome.  Still kind pretty good for 150 points though.  3.5 stars)

Cenobyte Servitors:
Ceno’s got a nerf and a sideways nerf. First if in same detachment as our boy Grim, they don’t take up a slot. Easily fixed but it’s an issue especially since we are almost always taking a Brigade-Battlelion with how many good stratagems we have.  

The second is now instead of battle shock immunity they improve our mortal wound save to 4+. Which is makes us go “Smite? What Smite.” At 6 points a unit, I’d never leave home without one. Ever. 

On price alone I consider them mandatory. And a amazing unit.

5 out of 5.

(Marshal Laeroth -- While I think these guys are a great filler for 6 points each, especially when they improve our mortal wound protection...they are certainly Kill Point bait for your opponent and an easy way to help them get "kill more" in ITC missions.  But, if we're being honest, we're losing 6 points of models while your opponent is spending their shooting on relatively unneeded units. 4.5 stars)

Company Veterans:
A unit that gains Sword Brethren keyword we got in Vigilus not directly affected by anything in our book. Buffed indirectly because whole host of other buffs we got. 

Notably in our codex our chapter tactic changed and the fact these models take mortal wounds when character body blocking. Means we can reduce damage they take due to body blocking for characters. This can be improved to a 4+ due to Cenos. 

The detachment itself is something I’d always take. So taking a couple units of these guys to have another target for suffer in case master swordsman marshal is unable to is biggest reason. 

Also small squads of them to fill elite slots in a brigade. Alongside Ceno’s make a Brigade easy to fill for us. Overall 3.5 out of 5.

(Marshal Laeroth -- These guys are still the most versatile unit in the whole book for us.  While they don't have access to jump packs, they can be huge first turn drop pod threats to your opponent for minimal points.  Add in their mortal wound shenanigans and excellent prowess in close combat, these guys should be a consideration in all types of lists.  Their only big downfall is the unit size maximum of 5, which limits their use of stratagems (I think may have been intentional by GW to prevent being too strong. 4.5 stars.)

*It should be noted EChampion has a power level 9, so it’s a possibility that our point values are incorrect and potentially might be rectified.  

We'll see you soon for the next part!

~Schlitzaf~

Evening all,

Been busy a lot this year but with Faith and Fury leaks, I wanted to talk about ours boys in black. First and foremost; is our overall rules.

Quite good, there are only a couple issues which I’ll dedicate to individual sections. The review will plan to cover in order;
Part 1) Chapter Tactics, Chapter Doctrine & Army Rules
Part 2) Unique Datasheets, Sword Brethren Specialist Part 1
Part 3) Litanies 
Part 4) Stratagems and Sword Brethren Specialist Part 2
Part 5) Warlord Traits & Relics
————--
Army Rules:
Just for a quick review our Chapter Tactics is Reroll Charges dice, coupled with 5++ Mortal Wound Feel No Pain. And our Super Doctrine is during Assault Doctrine, any time a BT Model rolls an unmodified 6 to hit after charging or making a heroic intervention, that hits caused an automatic hit/wound. And we get another set of 6 Litanies.

The main thing here is that, reroll charges increases our charge threat range from 7” to 9”. Mortal Wound negation allows us to endure what other armies would curl up and die too. And Doctrines increase our firepower output. The Assault Doctrine Benefit reduces the pain of variance especially for our lower attack weapon.

(Marshal Laeroth -- Our reroll charge dice is huge bonus to the style of list we're trying to build.  With a ~56% chance to make a 9" charge, we've become the premiere deep strike/concealed position assault army.  Adding in Knights of Sigismund, we've finally got that nice little oomph to push us over the edge in close combat.  It makes our basic models dangerous with Shock Assault and Assault Doctrine.  The 5+ mortal wound defense almost invalidates whole strategies as you take 1/3rd of the mortal wounds off the table right off the bat.  Awesome.)

Our other two army level rules are no librarians (or Adeptus Astartes Psykers if you want to be specific) and we may not use Chapter Champion Stratagem.*

These five rules, are two downsides and then the standard chapter tactics and super doctrine common to all codex space marine chapters. And due to a lack of witches, we get a litany table. Assault Super Doctrine is a mediocre one for a variety of reasons. 

And as a melee focused list and fact our lists will majority be pistol armed, you’d almost want to forgo combat doctrines entirely. I wouldn’t for reasons discussed in part 5 and in following section about our various unique units.

*Now as some of you might have realized by raw (rules as written) we have access to the Imperial Fist Supplement, as Scions of Dorn. It should be noted that is likely to rectified sooner rather than later.

(Marshal Laeroth -- I agree.  I don't think it would be wise to build lists around the use of Imperial Fist rules, as it is almost guaranteed that this will be something fixed in our upcoming FAQ.  Its better to start learning how to use our rules, rather than gain 2 weeks of a gimmick.)

Pardon the brevity of this section, the datasheet one is gonna be a bit longer than this one.  We will see you soon in Part 2!

~Schlitzaf~