In this article I will be talking about the new Vigilus Detachment and lesser extent Chapter
Approved changes to our chapter. I have a gotten a few games under my belt with the
detachment now. So let’s talk about this detachment. It has three aspects it adds to our army.
Approved changes to our chapter. I have a gotten a few games under my belt with the
detachment now. So let’s talk about this detachment. It has three aspects it adds to our army.
1) Warlord Trait
2) New Stratagems
3) Hand Grenade
Warlord Trait: The Warlord Trait does two things. It adds an additional attack to a model’s profile
and any unmodified hit of a 6 results in double hits. This will take 1CP-2CP depending if you
already have a Warlord. Let’s compare this to Slamganius. Now to be fair let’s use our premier
combat relics on each character.
Marshall Sigislash, 103 Points, 1-3 CP w/TeethOfTerra;Storm Shield, Pack
Captain Slamganius 124 Points, 1-2 CP w/ RelicHammer;Shield, Pack, Visions
Now Sigislash has 7 Attacks on average with less AP and strength but chance to get more.
Averaging atleast 1 6, assuming average results we are expecting about 8 hits (7.81 Hits to be
exact). Then wounding MeQ 5.2 times then killing (3.4) 3-4. And fighting a Knight you wound 2.6
wounding 1.8 or causing 4 damage.
Slamganius has 4 Attacks and 5 on charge. He hits 5 times (4.9 hits). Wounding MeQ 4.1 times
killing 3-4 Marines. Vs Knights they wound 3.2 times or causing on average 9 damage.
For reference a SlamMarshall would instead vs MeQ 5 hits (3.98 hits and generates 1 auto hit).
Wounding 4.2 times causing 3.5 unsaved wounds vs MeQ. And fighting a knight causing 6
damage. Now both have a stratagem to cause additional attacks. Our is 2CP while Slam is 1CP.
Suffer Stratagem with Sigislash adds 2-3 more Dead MeQ and increases damage vs Knights by
2.
Death Visions with SlamCaptain instead causes 1 more dead MeQ on average vs Knights
increases damage by 3. Suffer w/ Marshall Slam adds 1-2 wounds vs MeQ and vs causing 3 more damage.
More on this stratagem later but essentially. Our Sigislash and Marshall Slam are very similar if
not the same to Slamganius. So at worst you are spending on averaging 2CP (similar CP to a
SlamGanius) for our own variation. But that alone makes our Formation worth it.
Stratagem: We have gotten two new Stratagems. Suffer Not and Uphold the Honor. Now before
I discuss these in greater detail. Let’s look at the the affected units of our formation.
1) Marshall
2) Company Veterans (including Bikers)
3) Company Champion (including Biker)
4) High Marshal Helbrecht
5) Emperor’s Champion
Now Marshall, Helbrecht and Emperor’s Champion are discussed in greater detail in the above
section. The warlord trait part is not relevant to Helbrecht or Champion the basic outline for how
Helbrecht would benefit from Suffer Not is covered. Champion does not benefit really given he
already rerolls wounds vs preferred target.
Veterans, got several benefits recently. In chapter approved several point reductions,
themselves, Storm Shields, And Power Fist (also Special Weapons). Now I will take a moment
to pause here and explain something about Veterans and Crusader Squads.
On the Internet you see folks bemoaning the death of Tactical Marines And Equivalents due to
points reduction. The biggest thing is that you aren’t taking Naked Veterans. So you are playing
more like 18-20 points compared to a Crusaders ‘12’. Second in regard to raw strength 4 of
naked Vang v Crusaders. Vanguard are only 12.5% or an 8th more efficient as Vangaurd have
4 strength 4 AP - Attacks at 14 points and paying 3.5 points per an attack. While Crusaders pay
24 points for 6 Attacks or paying 4 points per an attack.
Once we get into the issue of Packs. You are looking at 17 point Vanguard. In which case it’s
4.25 points per an attack compared to a Crusaders 4 points per an attack. So that means in the
larger sense, contrary to the Internet Wisdom, Crusaders are not invalidated by Vanguard. And
if you are taking Naked Vanguard it’s still better to accept a minor inefficient for the addition of
+4 CP.
Now then to a more extended explanation on our Stratagems and Company Veteran. First
before chapter approved our army due to our rules heavily geared itself to playing Black Tide.
Cenobytes, Helm, CP hungry chapter strategem, and Crusader Squads. But one of our better
characters, High Marshal Helbrecht. Wanted to Buff a small highly elite force.
Our army simply didn’t have any units wanted to buff. Now this brings me to company veterans,
whom play into that very needed niche. Now unlike the BA equivalent stratagem, suffer not can
be used on our units.
Which means a unit of Fisty or Hammer Vets add depending on squad size 3-5 Attacks (And
adding on average 1/2 wounds when used on 4/5 man Squad). About the same or twice as a
good as when used on a Slam Marshall. Now unlike the Death Company (closest equivalent),
Company Vets don’t have an innate delivery mechanism.
The Drop Pod reduction means taking one maybe two is actually reasonable. And here is where
the Company Veteran small size is beneficial. As unlike most veteran units. You can include two
company veterans and a character in a pod.
More importantly you can include a 4 Man Company Veteran, a character and Faux Devi
Crusader Squad. I’m gonna hear folks “it’s no Death Company” or even how Vanguard should
benefit. The latter is a fluff question. And honestly? Sword Brethren are not Vanguard or
Sternguard, we don’t have those.
Our defining principles is our chapter is doesn’t abide by the rules and restrictions of the Codex
or even “Legion” of yore. We form squads based on brotherhood and Sword Brethren are more
like Wolf Guard than Vanguard or Sternguard veterans. There original rules were just vanilla
Marine Veterans minus a few things.
And in that sense Company Veterans are the best rule wise imitation of our Sword Brethren.
And with Death Company? Well as I always say, proper tool for the proper job. Death Company
are a fire and forget. These guys are not. We want to gear them up to make use of our
stratagem. Death Company want to keep cheap.
And the one thing we do have over them is the bodyguard rule. Which allows them to protect
our heavy hitters once combat is joined. And in combination with 5+ FNP, increases our
characters durability. While as general rule you want to use the FNP on our characters given
that what these guys will be fighting be high damage weapons. So taking 2 5+ FNP will still fail.
While character won’t die and are still effective up and till they last that final wound.
Biker Company Veterans are an exception to what I just mentioned. There main issue is the
Sergeant on RAW cannot take a Storm Shield. At 50-60 points a model assuming similar load
to our Foot Vets. You do want to use 5+ FNP as it make massive difference in melee. As with a
THammer for example as unlikely it might be, but passing 2 5+ is the difference between 1 and
2 Dead Biker. In general going foot w/Pod is better. The Pod variant regardless of loadout
averages to be to 40 points less. If you paying 10 points for an additional wound, it’s a better
payoff.
Also Company Champions are super meh, and shouldn’t use them. If for no other reason the
Emperor’s Champion fills an HQ slot and does that same role for only 25 points more but hits
like a Slam Captain. So the new stratagems and the affected units are massive boon to our
chapter now for this.
Relic: Holy Hand Grenade, massive flavor. It’s basically a one shot smite. That costs 1CP-2CP
depending what other relics you are taking. Named Characters cannot take it, our Marshall’s
likely taking Helm, Teeth or Eternal depending. Leaving it for Company Champions. Which run
into the issue of just taking the Emperor’s Champion.
Is it bad? I say yes. But ultimately something I touched on briefly above it’s a massive flavor
boon. And that this formation one of my favorite things is that it’s just that.
Our three of chapter stratagems if you didn’t notice now cover 3 of our 4 old vows. The Abhor
the Witch Vow became our deny named Abhor the Witch, the Suffer Not the Unclean, became
our attack buff named Suffer Not the Unclean, and finally Uphold the Honor became our FNP
stratagem named Uphold the Honor.
The only vow is now Accept Any Challenge, which makes me curious in the long term. Finally,
to recap while it’s not utterly broken, the detachment is solid. At worse we get our own
Slamganius, and at best it fills a vital niche in our army sorely lacking.
~~~Schlitzaf~~~~
2) New Stratagems
3) Hand Grenade
Warlord Trait: The Warlord Trait does two things. It adds an additional attack to a model’s profile
and any unmodified hit of a 6 results in double hits. This will take 1CP-2CP depending if you
already have a Warlord. Let’s compare this to Slamganius. Now to be fair let’s use our premier
combat relics on each character.
Marshall Sigislash, 103 Points, 1-3 CP w/TeethOfTerra;Storm Shield, Pack
Captain Slamganius 124 Points, 1-2 CP w/ RelicHammer;Shield, Pack, Visions
Now Sigislash has 7 Attacks on average with less AP and strength but chance to get more.
Averaging atleast 1 6, assuming average results we are expecting about 8 hits (7.81 Hits to be
exact). Then wounding MeQ 5.2 times then killing (3.4) 3-4. And fighting a Knight you wound 2.6
wounding 1.8 or causing 4 damage.
Slamganius has 4 Attacks and 5 on charge. He hits 5 times (4.9 hits). Wounding MeQ 4.1 times
killing 3-4 Marines. Vs Knights they wound 3.2 times or causing on average 9 damage.
For reference a SlamMarshall would instead vs MeQ 5 hits (3.98 hits and generates 1 auto hit).
Wounding 4.2 times causing 3.5 unsaved wounds vs MeQ. And fighting a knight causing 6
damage. Now both have a stratagem to cause additional attacks. Our is 2CP while Slam is 1CP.
Suffer Stratagem with Sigislash adds 2-3 more Dead MeQ and increases damage vs Knights by
2.
Death Visions with SlamCaptain instead causes 1 more dead MeQ on average vs Knights
increases damage by 3. Suffer w/ Marshall Slam adds 1-2 wounds vs MeQ and vs causing 3 more damage.
More on this stratagem later but essentially. Our Sigislash and Marshall Slam are very similar if
not the same to Slamganius. So at worst you are spending on averaging 2CP (similar CP to a
SlamGanius) for our own variation. But that alone makes our Formation worth it.
Stratagem: We have gotten two new Stratagems. Suffer Not and Uphold the Honor. Now before
I discuss these in greater detail. Let’s look at the the affected units of our formation.
1) Marshall
2) Company Veterans (including Bikers)
3) Company Champion (including Biker)
4) High Marshal Helbrecht
5) Emperor’s Champion
Now Marshall, Helbrecht and Emperor’s Champion are discussed in greater detail in the above
section. The warlord trait part is not relevant to Helbrecht or Champion the basic outline for how
Helbrecht would benefit from Suffer Not is covered. Champion does not benefit really given he
already rerolls wounds vs preferred target.
Veterans, got several benefits recently. In chapter approved several point reductions,
themselves, Storm Shields, And Power Fist (also Special Weapons). Now I will take a moment
to pause here and explain something about Veterans and Crusader Squads.
On the Internet you see folks bemoaning the death of Tactical Marines And Equivalents due to
points reduction. The biggest thing is that you aren’t taking Naked Veterans. So you are playing
more like 18-20 points compared to a Crusaders ‘12’. Second in regard to raw strength 4 of
naked Vang v Crusaders. Vanguard are only 12.5% or an 8th more efficient as Vangaurd have
4 strength 4 AP - Attacks at 14 points and paying 3.5 points per an attack. While Crusaders pay
24 points for 6 Attacks or paying 4 points per an attack.
Once we get into the issue of Packs. You are looking at 17 point Vanguard. In which case it’s
4.25 points per an attack compared to a Crusaders 4 points per an attack. So that means in the
larger sense, contrary to the Internet Wisdom, Crusaders are not invalidated by Vanguard. And
if you are taking Naked Vanguard it’s still better to accept a minor inefficient for the addition of
+4 CP.
Now then to a more extended explanation on our Stratagems and Company Veteran. First
before chapter approved our army due to our rules heavily geared itself to playing Black Tide.
Cenobytes, Helm, CP hungry chapter strategem, and Crusader Squads. But one of our better
characters, High Marshal Helbrecht. Wanted to Buff a small highly elite force.
Our army simply didn’t have any units wanted to buff. Now this brings me to company veterans,
whom play into that very needed niche. Now unlike the BA equivalent stratagem, suffer not can
be used on our units.
Which means a unit of Fisty or Hammer Vets add depending on squad size 3-5 Attacks (And
adding on average 1/2 wounds when used on 4/5 man Squad). About the same or twice as a
good as when used on a Slam Marshall. Now unlike the Death Company (closest equivalent),
Company Vets don’t have an innate delivery mechanism.
The Drop Pod reduction means taking one maybe two is actually reasonable. And here is where
the Company Veteran small size is beneficial. As unlike most veteran units. You can include two
company veterans and a character in a pod.
More importantly you can include a 4 Man Company Veteran, a character and Faux Devi
Crusader Squad. I’m gonna hear folks “it’s no Death Company” or even how Vanguard should
benefit. The latter is a fluff question. And honestly? Sword Brethren are not Vanguard or
Sternguard, we don’t have those.
Our defining principles is our chapter is doesn’t abide by the rules and restrictions of the Codex
or even “Legion” of yore. We form squads based on brotherhood and Sword Brethren are more
like Wolf Guard than Vanguard or Sternguard veterans. There original rules were just vanilla
Marine Veterans minus a few things.
And in that sense Company Veterans are the best rule wise imitation of our Sword Brethren.
And with Death Company? Well as I always say, proper tool for the proper job. Death Company
are a fire and forget. These guys are not. We want to gear them up to make use of our
stratagem. Death Company want to keep cheap.
And the one thing we do have over them is the bodyguard rule. Which allows them to protect
our heavy hitters once combat is joined. And in combination with 5+ FNP, increases our
characters durability. While as general rule you want to use the FNP on our characters given
that what these guys will be fighting be high damage weapons. So taking 2 5+ FNP will still fail.
While character won’t die and are still effective up and till they last that final wound.
Biker Company Veterans are an exception to what I just mentioned. There main issue is the
Sergeant on RAW cannot take a Storm Shield. At 50-60 points a model assuming similar load
to our Foot Vets. You do want to use 5+ FNP as it make massive difference in melee. As with a
THammer for example as unlikely it might be, but passing 2 5+ is the difference between 1 and
2 Dead Biker. In general going foot w/Pod is better. The Pod variant regardless of loadout
averages to be to 40 points less. If you paying 10 points for an additional wound, it’s a better
payoff.
Also Company Champions are super meh, and shouldn’t use them. If for no other reason the
Emperor’s Champion fills an HQ slot and does that same role for only 25 points more but hits
like a Slam Captain. So the new stratagems and the affected units are massive boon to our
chapter now for this.
Relic: Holy Hand Grenade, massive flavor. It’s basically a one shot smite. That costs 1CP-2CP
depending what other relics you are taking. Named Characters cannot take it, our Marshall’s
likely taking Helm, Teeth or Eternal depending. Leaving it for Company Champions. Which run
into the issue of just taking the Emperor’s Champion.
Is it bad? I say yes. But ultimately something I touched on briefly above it’s a massive flavor
boon. And that this formation one of my favorite things is that it’s just that.
Our three of chapter stratagems if you didn’t notice now cover 3 of our 4 old vows. The Abhor
the Witch Vow became our deny named Abhor the Witch, the Suffer Not the Unclean, became
our attack buff named Suffer Not the Unclean, and finally Uphold the Honor became our FNP
stratagem named Uphold the Honor.
The only vow is now Accept Any Challenge, which makes me curious in the long term. Finally,
to recap while it’s not utterly broken, the detachment is solid. At worse we get our own
Slamganius, and at best it fills a vital niche in our army sorely lacking.
~~~Schlitzaf~~~~
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