Sometimes you just want to mix it up a little. This last week I was thinking about how to run some Black Templar. I think the last time I played them was the first day of 6th edition. Despite the fact that I've turned all the pods into Black Dragons I still have a pretty good BT force. So I started to muck around with it and thought about using High Marshall Helbrect.
I've had this model for a long time but had never had a need or real desire to paint it. After all the Black Dragons I thought this would be a fun small project to knock out in a few days.
Overall I'm pretty happy with him. Given most of my Templar were painted several years ago I think my painting has come along way. I certainly would like to do a few things better of course but overall I think he looks good. He has the classic gold armor but I was happy that it was not crazy overpowering.
Once I got into the model I appreciated the sculpt a lot more. I finally got around to pinning the sword because it has broken numerous times. Hopefully it is on there for good now.
Unfortunately I still am not really happy with any list I can think of running. I was toying with trying them out at 1500 Celesticon. I ended up trying two 1850 games this last weekend. Tau Tripple Riptide just murdered me in two turns. I managed a lucky draw against bugs because the game ended on 5, otherwise I was likely tabled.
The problem is if you try to take advantage of the BT strengths you are really neglecting most of what makes regular Marine TAC lists very good.
1) Tactical squads are flexible, Crusader squads have to either be large or small.
2) Spamming LRC in the troop slot sounds cool but since they always die having them obsec is not often going to matter.
3) The named characters while being nice army multipliers are pushovers to building a super Chapter Master.
4) Most list styles can be better with any other chapter tactics. Playing bikes, play White Scars. Playing drop pods/rhinos play Salamanders or UM. Playing heavy tank list play Iron Hands?
So how do you make a good Templar list that feels like a Templar list and can be taking advantage of the BT Chapter Tactics.
I've yet to figure out that riddle...
