Codex: Night Watch Marines

[ETP]

The Night Watch is a chapter founded my radical members of the Ordo Xenos and Adeptus Mechanicus. It was created with geneseed from an unknown source, some speculate stolen from the Raven Guard, while others hint at more sinister origins. Regardless the gene now holds a flaw which slows the development of the marines. This coupled with limited access to certain technologies (the black carapace in particular) mean that the Chapter is composed to a great deal of Marine Scouts who adapt to fill most of the roles. However the masters of the chapter have other tools at their disposal and the Night Watch goes to battle with their own (often proscribed) technologies with which to even the field.
They strike from the darkness. They are swift and merciless. They are the Night Watch.

The following link is to the pdf of the current version of the book. Thus far all characters, units and equipment are ready. The fluff has been left aside for the moment because I really want to solidify the rules. My playing group is making a "custom dex" campaign, and I would like my rules as polished, and as interesting as possible before we begin.

*Note* I would like comments and suggestions about everything, but in particular I have had trouble finding appropriate point costs for Special Characters. Any suggestions for valid costs in this regard would be really appreciated.

http://rapidshare.com/files/400266178/Night_Watch_Codex.pdf

[Master Bryss]

The link doesn't seem to work... because where the asterisks are should be the letters t w a t, which is completely antisocial. I've found it though. This is initial thoughts as I skim.

Hopkins- Usually Chapter Masters get Orbital Bombardment. I'd increase the cost to 200 personally. or 185 minus Bombardment

Spacey- Seems fine.

Lorre- I'd increase him by 10 to 165. I generally like to leave a fairly large points gap for special rules.

Other specials- Seem fine. I like the concept of a ghost Librarian. If he is actually a ghost I'd remove his normal armour.

Captain- I'd drop him to 110 on account of the armour.

Librarian- Again, drop to 110.

Advance squad- Reword auxialiary GL to be a plain GL as it doesn't attach to anything.

Rhino- Nice idea with the GL

Psychic powers- I wouldn't have a psychic power that deploys sentry guns, as it's not really that psychic. You can't expect to mind message someone in space and immediately get a gun sent down, it needs to be prepaered and suchlike.

All in all though I really like this army and concept. I'd love to play a game against it with my own custom chapter, since we both have the theme of main troops that are weaker than standard guys.

[ETP]

Thank you Master Bryss for your comments.

Firstly, thanks for pointing out the link. It seems like the forums swearing filter thought that since i didnt put a space between "Night" and "Watch" that my codex was about "Nigh FemaleGenitalSlang ch".

I appreciate that you took the effort both to find the link on your own and to comment on it.

You are right that chapter masters get orbital bombarbment in the regular codex, and it hadnt occurred to me. I think its suitable to up his price and give him that ability, good catch.

Lorre and the Librarian were also good points, i dont know why i kept the scout armor on the librarian.

As for the standard captain and librarian, both of them have scout and infiltrate but i guess the 4+ does balance and being 110 is a nice price. I may try this in my next revision.

Last point is the psychic power that deploys the sentry guns. Fluff wise what it does is opens up a pre-set portal to the location where the sentry guns are held. The portal in question cannot transport any living thing as it goes directly through the warp. However ill keep your comment in mind in case i hear other similar complaints.

Thanks again, comment anytime! and now that the link above is fixed i hope to see what other people have to say aswell.

[murrburger]

Okay, I have a few problems with this mini-dex. I'll try to be as constructive as I can, though.

The first part is in terms of fluff:

My first issue is with your chapter size. 3000 is triple that of a normal chapter (Space Wolves and Templars being the exceptions). Is your chapter Loyalist? If so, how do they get around the restriction of 1000 men? They're obviously not as famous/powerful as the two I mentioned before. (Nor should they be)

The High Lords have very strict policies on gene seed. Does your chapter send in tithes like they should? Do they try and fake them? How do you prevent the High Lords from finding out your chapter isn't 'fit to serve'?

Lascutter seems a bit weird. I don't really know why it's more powerful than a powerfist.

Don't say it's the Inquisitor that's saving your ***. He has a Daemon-slaying weapon, so obviously he's a pretty important guy. Why is he hanging out with your non-codex chapter with three times the allowed marines? Is he a renegade too? The Inquisition isn't a homogenous body; it's made up of many different factions and Inquisitors, all vying for power. So, is the Inquisitor on the run, too? Are you protecting him?

The idea of a Inquisitor buddy has been done to death, but if you use a lot of thought, you can make it work.

Castle isn't a null, is he? That would be a bit too much for me.

On the Master of the Forge... he doesn't seem to be very much like a Techmarine. Is he a renegade Mechanicus guy? Is he a Xenologist? What would happen if the AdMech found out he was using Xenos tech?

The Librarian - I'm kind of concerned that he has Mind War. I don't really know about his Ghostlyness. It could work if you give some good justifications.

Grav-Gun Devastators bother me a bit, but for the same reason as the Techmarine. So I won't repreat them.

How does Own the Night work? Is it psychic, an eclipse? As it is, it seems kind of silly.

Speaking about silly, the names bother me a bit. You don't really need full names on all your characters. Just last names sound better. They also sound a bit out of place in 40K. (At least with SM)

On units, you seem to fall into the D&D/MTG trap of silly names. AbjectiveNoun Noun. Try naming the vehicles after patterns, or whatever. I know Blood Angels have a lot of Blood, and Wolves a lot of Wolfs, but... well, it's just my personal taste.

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On the rules...

Own the Night should just make every mission have turn 1 as night fighting. (It is the best turn to have the rule, and you won't have random 'eclipses' during the game)

Lascutter seems a bit weird. I don't really know why it's more powerful than a powerfist.

You have the best psychic power from the Marine codex, a Blood Angel power (FotD) as well as Through the Looking Glass (Insanely powerful) and Gated Sentry (Huge blob of text with dubious fluff). The rest of copied ones are kind of meh, but your other original powers are interesting. The vehicle spinning ones seems powerful. (The wording on it needs to be cleaned up, though.)

For the Inquisitor, compare his Book to Corbulo's ability. He is extremely powerful, and should be more expensive.

For the 1st Company Captain (I assume that's what he is), maybe try to make him a bit less like Lysander. He's pretty much the same except for his weapon, and his lack of Storm Shield.

It's kind of weird how hot-shot lasguns cost more than Storm Bolters for Captains, or why hot-shots are an option on Scouts. (Kasrkin conversions?)

The Barrier Field is a bit weird, although it functions very much as a vehicle.

On the Scout Squads, maybe you can have the option of a special weapon? And/or pump up the cost a bit and make them bs/ws 4? Something to make them a bit 'better' than normal scouts. (They do have to stay scouts for longer. Stalker Veterans)

Storms as dedicated vehicles is an interesting choice. I like it.

Battle Sentinels need to be cheaper. They're pretty bad compared to Land Speeders.

I like your (awesome) movie references for Mr. Landspeeder. That's cool.

For the Sentry Guns, just let them shoot at whatever they want. It makes things a lot less complicated.

At first, I thought Grav Gun devastators were cheatery, but at second glance, I see that they're not so bad.

The Drop Pod seems kind of cheap. It'll pretty much demolish Orks and Pals.

The Super Seige Shield seems very good, althought the vehicle it's on is expensive. I think it might still be a little bit too good. What's wrong with having a normal vindicator?

Stormraven is Stormraven. Maybe change Skies of Blood to a different name?


Sorry, this turned out to be really long. I know I slammed your codex a lot, but that's because I want to see it grow and develop. An all Scout army sounds very interesting, and I'll be keep a watch on this thread.