Since Crusade launched with 9th edition, White Dwarf has published supplemental content for Crusade each month in a series called Flashpoints. Each month, we take a look at the newest Flashpoints article, talk about what it adds to the game, and whether you should consider picking it up. This month is the first of the Nachmund Flashpoints, and introduces us to the Crusade of Faith mechanics, following the “Wars of Faith” theme that Nachmund is running with in the Vigilus Alone releases.
Path of the Righteous
Beanith: Welcome to the Nacho Flashpoint. Are you ready to take the first steps along the Path of the Righteous? On this path, the manifestation of miraculous and extraordinary happenings will inspire the resolve of those that behold them. When injured soldiers dig deep within themselves to find the will to fight on and Monsters shrug off damage that would have felled a mightier foe, such things will reinforce their belief that they are Righteous and are walking the correct path.
This is essentially a new set of Agendas, Battle Honours, Relics, and Psychic Fortitudes that you can opt to get access to when you decide to send your Crusade force on a Crusade of Faith, along with a new system for tracking your units’ faith, Righteous Inspiration.
Righteous Inspiration
Right off the bat we are introduced to the Righteous Inspiration tally. Units and characters will gain these and the Righteous keyword by completing Righteous Agendas or taking Righteous Battle Honours
During the initial stage of your Crusade forces’s journey on the Path of the Righteous, none of your units will be able to gain more than 4 points on their tally.
Beanith: Keeping careful track of your Righteous Inspiration tally is incredibly important because… well we have absolutely no idea yet. Either they missed this section to include more cool artwork of Space Marines, or what is far more likely, will be included in issue White Dwarf 473: Flashpoint Nachos Pico De Gallo. My best guess is you will be able to spend your tally points on various rerolls, Feel no Pain, Morale, etc for that unit during a game. What this also means right now is that Rob gets to pitch his idea again for a Warhammer+ Crusade supplement and I get to talk about it first and claim it as my idea.
TheChirurgeon: Yeah at this point I can only guess that, like with Torchbearers, we’ll see a second part in White Dwarf 473 that gives us something ot do with that tally.
Righteous Agendas
Beanith: I hope you love keeping track of Talies because this section is crammed full of the damn things.
The Indomitable Zeal agenda is an objective based action for any Infantry or Character unit to perform at the end of their movement phase within range of any objective. Once successfully completed at the end of your turn, add one to your Indomitable Zeal tally and that unit can add 1 to their armour saving rolls whilst they remain in range of the objective. At the end of the battle, gain XP equal to your Indomitable Zeal tally and then add half of that tally (rounding up) to your Righteous Inspiration tally.
Instrument of Vengeance instructs you to keep an Instrument of Vengeance tally for every unit that destroys an enemy Character or unit holding a Relic. The enemy Warlord is worth an additional 1 tally. At the end of the battle, gain XP equal to your Instrument of Vengeance tally and then add half of that tally (rounding up) to your Righteous Inspiration tally.
Beanith: This would pair very well with the Assassins Agenda going up against a character heavy Crusade Force.
Love setting up camp in the centre of the board and telling your opponent to “Come Get Some”? The Wrath of Martyrs agenda and the accompanying Wrath of Martyrs tally is made for you. One unit from your army can start to perform the Wrath of Martyrs action at the end of your movement phase if they are within 6” of the centre of the battlefield. The action succeeds at the end of your turn and whilst you remain within 6” of the centre of the battlefield, that unit adds 1 to their Attack characteristic. You may repeat this action multiple times with the same unit but the bonus does not stack. At the end of the battle, gain XP equal to your Wrath of Martyrs tally and then add half of that tally (rounding up) to your Righteous Inspiration tally.
Rounding out the Agendas is a particularly powerful Psychic agenda/tally/action for your Psyker called Soul Fire. Once again with keeping a Soul Fire tally for each Psyker unit in your army, the Soul Fire Psychic Action (Warp Charge 6) targets a visible enemy unit within 12” and causes 3 mortal wounds. At the end of the battle, gain XP equal to your Soul Fire tally and then add half of that tally (rounding up) to your Righteous Inspiration tally.
Beanith: A flat 3 mortal wounds from a short ranged Smite is very tasty.
TheChirurgeon: These are some interesting agendas but they’re all pretty complicated, and they interact with the Righteous Inspiration tally in a way that makes me wonder if it’s really worthwhile to play with these rules before we have whatever second part is on its way.
Righteous Battle Honours
Whilst you’re on your Righteous journey with your Crusade Roster, every time a unit is able to gain a Battle Trait, they may select one from the Righteous Battle Honours or the Psychic Fortitudes list if they are an eligible space wizard. Doing so increases the Crusade points of that unit as per usual along with increasing that unit’s Righteous Inspiration tally by 1.
Just Killers will increase the Strength characteristic of an attack by 1 every time they target an enemy unit that contains fewer models than themselves. Vehicles and Monsters count as 5 models. Terrible choice for characters but an excellent choice for large units of angry bitey/stabby things.
Pendulin: Ring ring, who’s that? Oh, it’s just Strength 9 assault Plasma on my blob of Skitarii Vanguard. Hold on, I’m getting another call. What’s that you say? “For the purpose of this ability, Vehicle and Monster models each count as 5 models.” Huh, interesting that you didn’t say enemy models. Let me just put this on a 6-man blob of Ironstrider Ballistarii, who now have strength 10 assault lascannons when they shoot units with less than 30 models.
Hell, even three of them has S10 against units smaller than 15 models
Stoic Fervour gives the unit a 6+ Feel No Pain on normal wounds and a 4+ Feel No Pain on Mortal Wounds.
Beanith: My inner-munchkin squeals with delight. My inner-campaign manager recoils in horror and is reaching for the ban stick.
Holy Purpose blesses the models in this unit with a 5+ Invulnerable save.
Beanith: Is anyone else seeing an issue with a 20 model unit of anything Stoic Fervoured Just Killers with Holy Purpose?
Divine Guidance will implore you to Trust in yourself; believe in yourself and to use the Force Luke. Straight up improves the AP characteristic of a unit’s melee attack by 1.
Have you ever looked at how a unit of Necron Wraiths move and wish that your units could also do that too? Fervid Focus is Wraith Form without the 4+ Invulnerable save. Each time this unit makes a Normal Move, Advances, Falls Back or it makes a charge move, until that move is finished, models in this unit can move horizontally through models and terrain features (they cannot finish a move on top of another model, or its base).
Beanith: To be fair, the 20 model unit of anything Stoic Fervoured Just Killers that have a Fervid Focus with Holy Purpose would require the unit to be Legendary with 51+ XP… but I’m not sure we could still be friends afterwards?
And lastly we end this horrorshow with Detestation which means that the unit cannot be selected as the target of psychic powers manifested by enemy models.
Beanith: These Battle Honours are straight up fantastic… and that’s 99% of the problem right there… they’re too good. There’s no restrictions in place for these Honours. So there’s nothing to stop you from slapping Fervid Focus on tanks, bikes or Knights or as exemplified earlier, stacking multiple honours on a unit. The inner-campaign manager in me suggests only allowing them on units with the INFANTRY keyword, only allowing a single Righteous Battle Honours upgrade per unit, and making it increase the unit’s Crusade Points by 2 instead of just one. I’d even be tempted to say you need to spend Righteous Inspiration to also obtain these skills.
TheChirurgeon: That’s a pretty solid idea, actually-gating the Battle Honours you can get based on your unit’s Righteous Inspiration tally.
Psychic Fortitudes
Just like the Righteous Battle Honours we have some very nice upgrades available to your Psyker units. First off the bat is Spiritual Focus which is once per phase, allows you to re-roll one Psychic test taken for this unit.
Beanith: I’m beginning to think an intern at White Dwarf snuck in their home brew Crusade rules because this isn’t the first instance where they haven’t specified a phase that the ability takes place in (see Just Killers). It’s a decent ability that doesn’t see any use outside your own Psychic phase… unless this is an early hint at the return of previous edition’s Ynnari shenanigans.
Every time a unit with Divine Reward successfully manifests Smite or a Witchfire psychic power, for every mortal wound suffered by an enemy unit when resolving that psychic power, one model in this unit regains 1 lost wound (to a maximum of 3 wounds).
Beanith: Normally I wouldn’t type out word for word how a power works but I feel that I should point out they forgot to add the tiny little caveat (to a maximum of 3 wounds PER PHASE). So for example my Kill Rig with Divine Reward and Psychic Might (from the main rule book which lets you cast an additional time) could conceivably hand out Smite, Squiggly Curse and Frazzle dealing 9 wounds and then healing back up 9 wounds in my Psychic phase.
Rounding out the selection is Unwavering Conviction which will add an additional 6” to the range of your psychic powers. If the psychic power has multiple ranges, add 6” to the first specified range only.
Beanith: This seems fine so I must be missing something… I wonder what fresh horror people will unearth with this one?
Righteous Relics
Beanith: Helping you out on your Path of the Righteous are these four Artificer Relics. Lets see if the White Dwarf team managed to capture power and flavour of a low level relic or did they mix up Artificer with Legendary.
The Sliver of Epiphany takes the form of a cheap silver necklace that you can hand out to a Psyker Character. Everytime they successfully manifest a psychic power with a result of 9 or more, you will gain 1 Command Point with the usual restrictions of gaining 1 CP per round still applying. Do this three times in a battle and you may add one to the bearer’s Righteous Inspiration tally.
The Paladin’s Fist is a slightly problematic name for a gauntlet of an ancient holy champion that fills the wielder of this relic with the vengeful fury and might of the long dead champion. If the bearer has made a charge move this turn, add 1 to their Attack characteristics and each time they make an attack, an unmodified roll of 6 scores one additional hit. If the bearer has managed to slay an enemy model with 8 wounds or more, you may add one to the bearer’s Righteous Inspiration tally.
The Memento Dolorus is a hallowed triptych (fancy word for picture book). Each time a melee attack is made against the bearer, an unmodified hit roll of 1 will cause 1 mortal wound to the attacking unit after the attacking units have finished making their attacks. This Relic cannot cause more than 3 mortal wounds per turn. At the end of the game, if the bearer is in range of an objective they control and is outside their deployment zone, you may add one to the bearer’s Righteous Inspiration tally.
The bearer of the Blade of the Flagellant, whenever they are selected to fight, can use this Relic, if they do, select one friendly unit (excluding Vehicles) within 3” of the bearer. That unit suffers D3 mortal wounds and the bearer can now re-roll all of their hit and wound rolls for the rest of that fight phase. If they slay 6 or more enemy models whilst using the relic, you may add one to the bearer’s Righteous Inspiration tally.
Beanith: I can’t help but feel someone else wrote this section as these Relics are cool but not overly powerful. Plus they remembered to include “This Relic cannot cause more than 3 mortal wounds per turn” with the Memento Dolorus.
Final Thoughts
Beanith: Unfinished, half baked and the Battle Honours read like a Mary Sue’s collection of powers and abilities. Hopefully next month we can find out why we need to keep track of Righteous Inspiration and what we can spend them on? Plus everytime I had to type Righteous I was waiting for Bill & Ted to pop up out of the woodwork.
Hopefully in White Dwarf 473: Flashpoint Nachos & Sangria they do address the missing pieces because it does show some promise despite needing a ton of polish.
TheChirurgeon: This is a neat concept, and I like what they’re doing from a faith angle, particularly since the Crusade force in Vigilus Alone is Imperium-only. Again I think I’d rather see faith armies that are more specific and less generic, though. The abilities here are strong but to Beanith’s point, probably too strong, and I’ll likely have ideas about how to improve these for a campaign after I see White Dwarf 473’s continuation of this. The real reason to get this issue is to get the War Zone: Nachmund Secondary Objective cards for matched play, but this is a fine bonus add-on.
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