Angels of the Lion



Grand Master Bardiel Sanctus, Grand Master of the Household, Provider of the Sanctuary


Points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
163 5 5 4 4 3 5 4 10 3+


Wargear: Storm Bolter, The Final Sanctuary, Frag and Krak Grenades.


Special Rules:



Stubborn: Bardiel Sanctus is a member of the Deathwing and is therefore Stubborn as described in the Dark Angels Second Edition Codex.


Independent Character: Unless accompanied by a Command squad, Bardiel Sanctus is an independent character, and follows the rules described in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.


Command Squad: Bardiel Sanctus may be accompanied by a Command squad as described in the Dark Angels Second Edition Codex. Bardiel and his command squad will count as one HQ choice.


The Final Sanctuary: Bardiel Sanctus carries The Final Sanctuary as a sign of his esteemed position of Grand Master. The Final Sanctuary is of great importance to Bardiel as it is a sign of remembrance for all the Angels of the Lion Marines who have died while in his presence. The Final Sanctuary is a potent power weapon, fueled not only by Bardiel's competence with the sword, but it is said that the essence of past Angels of the Lion seem to be a source of great strength. In game terms it allows Bardiel to use it as a power weapon and strike as if he had strength 6 in close combat.


Team Training: Bardiel Sanctus will often train new scouts with Chaplain Lazarus, both giving scouts extensive battlefield knowledge and fighting skills, but they will also work together in helping the scouts learn the fine art of humour and sarcasm. In game terms, whenever Bardiel Sanctus is being used as the HQ for the battle force, Chaplain Lazarus will always lend his services as the battle forces Chaplain. Thus Bardiel Sanctus and Chaplain Lazarus MUST be used together in a battle. These two will also fight closely together, making mocking comments of their enemies and boosting morale with jokes. Bardiel Sanctus and Chaplain Lazarus must remain within 6" of each other at all times.


Armour of the Lion: Bardiel Sanctus will make extensive use of the Armour he has worn, during his time as an Angels of the Lion Marine. Bardiel will always ensure he wears the best Armour suited for the mission he is on, enabling him to offer his skills to those under his command. In game terms, this means Bardiel will have a selection of 3 Armour Types:


Dreadful Company: When in battle, Bardiel will not only use his skills as a warrior to attack his enemies, but he will use skills as an orator and poor comedian. If a unit has to take a Morale check after losing a close combat with Bardiel Sanctus, the morale test is taken at -1 Leadership.


Victory through Humour: Bardiel Sanctus is an excellent orator, using these skills and his sense of humour and sarcasm to boost the Morale of those under his command, usually encouraging marines to further acts of bravery and lunacy. Any Angel of the Lion unit that is within 6" of Bardiel will count as being Stubborn.


Easily Distracted: Bardiel Sanctus, despite his excellent skills as a warrior, will sometimes be overcome by some of his own jokes, causing him and any unit he is with to be caught up in some trivial discussion about his jokes, the weather, and any other unrelated topic than the one at hand. To represent this, Bardiel (and the squad he is with if he is with one) are required to roll a D6 if there are enemies within 24". On a 3-6, Bardiel re-focuses his mind on the battle and leads his squad as normal. On a 1-2, the unit and Bardiel become too wrapped up in their pointless discussions, with Bardiel's crude jokes and tainted ideas becoming worse as the battle around them progresses, thus the squad will refuse to do anything, until the discussions have come to a sane agreement.

Bardiel (and any Angels of the Lion Marines that are with him) may not move in the movement phase or the assault phase. However, he will still be able to shoot at his enemies, as he will usually find them disturbing his baffled thoughts and lame comments. In addition, Bardiel will NOT count as being Stubborn for the remainder of the turn as his mind is off elsewhere, focused on some pointless issue.





Designer's Notes:

I wanted something to cover some of my 'unusual' traits that I've shown on the B&C, namely my really twisted joke like nature and reflecting it in my in-game self. "Dreadful Company" is a variant of Daemonic Visage from Codex: Chaos Space Marines, and I thought it would be great to use as it shows how throughout an entire universe, my sad crude humour will affect even the best warriors...


"Victory Through Humour" is a variant of Demagogue, once again from Codex: Chaos Space Marines. This rule was put in to show that over my time as a Commander, I can use my humour to re-boost my men's morale, but telling them calm and oddly relaxing stories and making crude comments about our enemies, often bringing great delight to my warriors and a light hearted chuckle. I thought it may be a bit powerful allowing units within 6" to be Stubborn initially, but I remembered Stubborn was only allowing to pass Morale tests, so I thought the rule was in the end balanced.


"Easily Distracted" is a variant of our old Intractable rule, and I thought it would be excellent as I needed to balance my Character out with some disadvantage, and once again, using my sad humour as the source of this disadvantage was the key. As everyone knows, I can be rather 'weird' in B&C I can get very distracted, particularly when my Slaaneshi nature takes over (which I did not use as a reference for rules, not Bardiel anyway). So, with that in mind, I decided that I would make myself easily distracted in battle as I am in B&C, with my pointless thoughts getting the better of me. The Old Intractable rule served me well proving to be an excellent template, and I recall everyone found it more of a burden than asset. The inability to move is due to the fact that I am pretty much in my own world, and to my detriment, causing my own men to wonder off to La-La land. By doing so, they forget why they are in the middle of a warzone as we discuss pointless and irrelevant topics, which would only be discussed in the Redemption Room. I allowed myself to still be allowed to shoot, as even I, like some time to think through my madness and find that annoying enemies shooting me while I am deep in thought is quite annoying. The final disadvantage I thought up was to, change the Stubborn ruling and negate it with this rule, as my focus is clearly not on the battle and this would obviously be reflected in any possible assaults etc as we are clearly off our game.

Other than those rules, I didn't make any changes to stats like WS or BS, as I didn't think it would be very fluffy, as my skills would affect ones morale, this morale and leadership modifiers were where my rules would be directed at, as opposed to making some weird monster character.

The Lazarus/Bardiel team up I thought was a nice touch, as it shows that we often do things hand in hand from training to fighting together in battles, and still making the crude comment here and there.

The various Armours is something I really like, as I think it works well with our fluff, allowing characters to choose between what armour they wear into battle, with each giving some advantages and disadvantages here and there.

"The Final Sanctuary" is basically my version of the Sword of Secrets, with more information about it coming up in the Heroes and Villains article, which I hope to make worth the way *Evil Laughter*.







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This Page was last updated on the 19th of June, 2003