What Happened To Asmodai?

[Hive Mind]

Thanks to Dawn of War I've got back into 40k in the last year after more than ten years away. The first army I ever collected was Dark Angels and due to a near terminal case of nostalgia I've decided to pick them back up and put together a battle company of Angels, led by Asmodai.

But then I take an in-depth look thru the DA codex and notice that while Asmodai still exists in the fluff, there are no rules for him anymore and the Asmodai miniature is rocking an illegal weapon combo.

So what the hell happened to Asmodai?

PS. Yeah, I know that DA are considered one of if not the weakest armies available but I don't really care. I'm not a competitive player so save the 'DA suck' comments if you can.

[Brass Scorpion]

It appears you've already answered your own questions. He's simply part of the background material at this point and no longer a specific game choice, probably because they didn't want to make the now "illegal weapons combo" as you put it a game option or simply because he's somewhat redundant as a game choice with so many other similar character types. When a Codex is written many ideas are cut in the end for page space or for other practical reasons such as planned model support.

[Hive Mind]

Redundant because of similar character types? You mean just A.N Other Interrogator-Chaplain? Because otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense. All of the other 'Big Five' Marine chapters have at least one Chaplain SC (Cassius, Astorath, Lemartes, Grimaldus, Ulrik) and a lot of SC's have weapon combos that aren't allowed on other models.

I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't think it makes much sense. I can't see any real reason to get rid of Asmodai personally, except that maybe they thought DA had too many SC's with Azrael, Ezekiel, Sammael and Belial. Did Sammael and Belial exist ten years ago? I didn't have them but I don't know for sure that they didn't. Still, even that doesn't make a lot of sense in a world where you can only field two HQ's.

Is four the limit for special characters? BA have five (Dante, Tycho, Astorath, Lemartes, Mephiston). SW have eight (Njal, Logan, Ragnar, Arjac, Lukas, Canis, Ulrik, Bjorn). Tyranids have four (Doom, Parasite, Swarmlord, Old One Eye). UM have five (Telion, Calgar, Cassius, Tigurius, Sicarius). Orks have.. six? Seven? How many do Eldar have? IG?

I guess my point is that getting rid of Asmodai seems (to me) to be an unjustifiable shaft.

[Lerra]

Agreed - I'm hoping he makes a reappearance in the next DA codex. I wouldn't mind rules for Cypher, either. FWIW, IG and Grey Knights have about a dozen special characters each.

The DA codex was released in 4th when the design philosophy was to keep the codices simple and minimal. Since then, the game designers have shifted towards adding more depth and named characters to codices.

[Demonus]

How many do Eldar have?

How many useful ones? 1.5 (eldrad and maybe yriel sometimes)

Then they have the Phoenix Lords, most of which are overpriced and only 1 has a invulnerable save, so useless.

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

Belial existed in the Fluff as a 3rd Company Master, Sammual was also mentioned, they dropped him and finally brought him back with his own rules.

I agree, the miniature is a great peice, was sad to see him not get any loving with the 4th ed codex. I agree that every SM Chapter codex has atleast one Chaplain figure.

[Brotherjames]

Cypher needs rules and updated fluff for sure! Why you ask? I just happen to like his model and fluff that and I remember being younger and seeing him get invuls on 3d6 I believe and carries a ctan phase weapon via an old chaos codex