The Fallen

Cypher! 

I've gone completely off the deep end. I'm going to build an all foot Fallen Dark Angels themed army, and it's going to be awesome. 

This was going to just be a fun little attachment to use for Zone Mortalis, until I started looking at all the different Chapter Tactics varieties, and realized this might be a great way to play marines in a totally new way. It'll also be a way to get more bad guys on the table. Our group is largely imperial/eldar focused, so hopefully this will add a little spice to our campaign and apocalypse games. 

Check out Attic Wars to see a write-up of our recent Apocalypse mega battle. 

Tactical marine test scheme

Color Scheme

Black can be hard or easy depending on what you're trying to achieve. The armor is really just a backdrop for marines; they have so many symbols, decorations, and bits of wargear that really draw they eye, so the armor doesn't need to be too distracting, at least not for a tabletop quality army. For these guys I simply primed black and zenithally airbrushed Citadel Incubus Darkness, with a highlight of Celestra Gray. 

I blew through Cypher in a single evening, and generally got the effect I was looking for, but might go back and clean up his robes with some wet-blending. I was going for pure white that is weathered and filthy, and used washes and white highlights, but it looks a bit sloppy. Good enough to get him on the table though.

Army List

The list I'm contemplating now will use the Cypher dataslate, and Codex Space Marines with the Forgeworld Raptors Chapter Tactics.

I chose to not use the Chaos Marines book for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it sucks. Hard. More importantly though, I think the Fallen Dark Angels often seem more renegade than corrupted by chaos, and the regular book seems a better way to achieve this.

The Raptors Chapter Tactics is a lot like their parent chapter, the Raven Guard's. Everything can scout, and gets stealth on turn one. In addition, Raptors bolters and bolt pistols are rending if they are stationary that turn. This is a lot more useful than using jump packs in the movement and assault phases, since I'm not planning on taking assault marines. And also because it is totally freakin' awesome. 

In addition I'm going to try out Lias Issodon, the Raptors chapter master, as some sort of Fallen warlord. He has a number of special rules that make him seem very appropriate for the role of a sneaky renegade space marine dickhole. Like Cypher, he has shrouded. He also has BS 6 and a 30" range salvo 2/4 bolter that uses the sternguard special ammo. He gets to re-roll reserves, and gives the opponent -1 to their rolls. He also has a special rule that does 1D6+3 AP - hits (or 1D3 haywire hits) to a unit or vehicle before the game begins. Seriously? What a dickhole. He's not particularly killy in close combat (power sword, WS 5, 4 wounds, 3 attacks, 2+/4++ save), but he is really more of a support character. 

So here's the 1850 list I'm considering:

HQ

Cypher

Lias Issodon

Elite

10x sternguard (no combis)

Troops

10x space marines (combi-plas, plasma gun, heavy bolter)

10x space marines (combi-melta, meltagun, multimelta)

10x space marines (combi-melta, meltagun, multimelta)

10x space marines (combi-flamer, flamer, las cannon)

10x space marines (combi-flamer, flamer, las cannon)

Heavy

5x devastator (4x missile launcher)

5x devastator (4x missile launcher)

5x devastator (4x missile launcher)

Everything scouts, and whoever Cypher joins can can infiltrate. This will typically be the sternguard. Issodon could join one of the tac squads, to give shrouded, or he could go with Cypher and make the sternguard even more killy. Tac squads can outflank to try to deal with particular threats (melta for vehicles, flamers for infantry), or post up and make a fifty man rending bolter fortress in the center of the board.

Lots of bodies, but it could definitely suffer from a lack of maneuverability. Really it's meant to be a fun army, and I can always supplement the list with some transports down the road. 

So the real question: do I go all in and buy $500 dollars worth of Forgeworld marines, and super awesome old school special and heavy weapons, or do I do this super cheap and fast with pretty-damn-good-for-what-you-pay Dark Vengeance marines...