Since Crusade launched with the 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. We’re a month behind as we were busy searching for Beanith’s hidden napping nest in the Goonhammer Office. Now found and suitably motivated with pointy sticks, we can now cover February’s issue which is the followup of the Nachmund Flashpoint – Righteous Warfare, and introduces us to the missing half of the Crusade of Faith mechanics within the Vigilus Alone releases.
In case you missed our write-up of the Nachmund Flashpoints in issue 472, you can find that here.
Beanith: Polite fiction aside, Downunder we’re still waiting on issue 473 to be released here thanks largely to Floods, Fires, Supply Chains troubles and Drop Bears. Plus I was distracted by shiny things and Rob has a life? Let’s just agree to blame Greg.
TheChirurgeon: Having a life never stopped me from neglecting the important things in order to write about Crusade before and I’ll be damned if it’s going to stop me now.
Absolution of Faith
As covered in White Dwarf 472: Flashpoint Nachmund – Righteous Warfare, White Dwarf
released rules to take your Crusade army onto the Path of the Righteous and fuel their Righteous Inspirations in spreading their Holy Mandate and Divine Aid on the Righteous battlefield in a manner that is most Righteous…
In White Dwarf 473, we are introduced to eight new Stratagems, four Requisitions and a new Psychic Discipline that “you can use in combination or in isolation” of issue 472 because some people could be weird like that?
The Righteous Inspiration tally is back alive and well. It has the cap increased from 4 to 8 points per unit and now actually has a reason to exist as you will see in the Stratagems. We speculated that we’d have a use for that tally in part one and we’re glad to have been right.
Righteous Stratagems
Strength of Proven Faith is a 2CP stratagem that you can use in the Fight phase when an enemy unit is destroyed by a unit from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less. Until the end of that battle, add 1 to the Attack and Strength characteristics to the models of that unit and increase their Righteous tally by 1. Can only be used once per unit.
Sign of the Divine is a 1CP stratagem that you can use in your Shooting phase when an unit from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less is selected to shoot. For the rest of the phase, enemy units targeted by that unit do not receive the benefits of cover against those attacks. Increase their Righteous tally by 1.
A Holy Presence is a 1CP stratagem that you can use in the Fight phase when an unit from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less is selected to fight. If they are within range of any objective markers, until the end of the phase you can reroll all hit rolls. Increase their Righteous tally by 1.
Righteous Rage is a 3CP stratagem that can be used in your Shooting phase or the Fight phase when an Infantry unit from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less is selected to shoot or fight. Until the end of that phase, add 1 to hit rolls and wound rolls. Increase their Righteous tally by a whopping 4. This Stratagem is once per game.
They are Risen! Is a 2CP stratagem that can be used when a Character model from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less is (excluding Vehicles) is destroyed. At the end of that phase, roll a D6 and on a 2+, set that model back up on the table with 3 wounds remaining as close as possible to where it was slain but also remaining outside engagement range of enemy units. Increase their Righteous tally by 3. This Stratagem is once per game.
Holy Mission is a 1CP stratagem that you can use in the Psychic phase when a Psyker from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less is selected to do space wizard stuff. Until the end of the phase you can reroll Psychic tests as well as attempt to cast one additional power. Increase their Righteous tally by 1.
Divine Shield is a 2CP stratagem that can be used in any phase when an attack is allocated to a model whose unit from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less. That attack has a Damage value of 0. Increase their Righteous tally by 2. This Stratagem is once per game.
The Last Righteous Act is a 2cp stratagem that you can use in the Fight phase when an unit from your army that has a Righteous tally of 7 or less is selected as the target of an attack, until the end of the phase, each time a model in that unit is slain, do not remove it from play as it can fight once the attacking unit has finished making its attacks. Slain models are then removed from play. Increase their Righteous tally by 1.
TheChirurgeon: I love the idea that you can be too righteous to do these Stratagems. Like at some point, you’re so holier-than-thou that you no longer accept orders from your superiors, even if the order is “murder those assholes, but do it better.” No, now you only take orders from the Emperor/Khorne/Mork/Hive Mind/Whatever.
Beanith: I like that they’ve included actual Keyword restrictions this time around. I too also like the fact that you can become too Righteous. It’s a nice safety mechanic on Righteous Rage that you can’t hammer that particular button every game on your big bad scary unit and your Warlord wont constantly jump up claiming to not be dead.
Righteous Requisitions
This Flashpoint gives us four Requisitions for armies on holy crusades. Unexpected Gift (1 RP) lets you move a Righteous Relic from one of your models to another, so long as the recipient doesn’t have the RIGHTEOUS keyword.
TheChirurgeon: This is a cool way to spread the wealth and something that Crusade relics generally need (or a kill team Spec Ops mechanic for building a stash).
On the topic of sharing, there’s Sharing Tidings Most Great, which allows you to designate a mentor unit among your Righteous and a trainee unit and then roll a D6 for each point of their Righteous Inspiration Tally (adding 1 if the mentor is a character); for each 6+, your trainee gains a tally of their own, plus 1 XP. Glorious Ceremony lets you conduct big religious ceremonies, nominating a character from your order of battle to lead the others in worship, choosing a participant unit as well. Then you roll a D6, adding 1 for each point in the leader’s Righteous Inspiration Tally. Score a 1-6 and you get a battle scar. Score a 7+ however and you get one of the Righteous Battle Honours from White Dwarf 472.
For Psykers, there’s Wondrous Teachings (1 RP), which gets you a psychic power from the new Righteous Discipline.
TheChirurgeon: The Ceremony is the coolest of these, just because it’s got a really cool vibe for how it works. I’d have preferred to see something a bit more like a mass affecting multiple units but the implementation is neat and it really rewards getting a character to the higher levels of worship.
Beanith: Again plus one for The Ceremony being the coolest thematic requisition I’ve read in a while. The Chaplain handing out tambourines to the neophytes to lead them along in a chorus of Space Kumbaya before gifting them a Righteous Battle Honour… and that’s where it falls down for me because those Battle Honours are crazy good for the most part and will sadly never see an official FAQ to add in the missing keywords restrictions to prevent fresh horrors like Land Raiders with Fervid Focus phasing through terrain and units.
Righteous Discipline
Finally there’s the Righteous Discipline. You get powers from this discipline by using the Wondrous Teachings Requisition. As usual, there are six of these, and if your Psyker has a Righteous Inspiration tally of 8+, they get +1 to cast these, and when a unit is blessed by one of these powers, they get +1 to their tally.
- Living Blessing (WC 8) gives a friendly unit within 12” +1 to their strength and Toughness characteristics for a turn, which is amazing on Terminators and other tough mid-table holding units that you need to get up to the T5 or T6 thresholds, and it’s great on models with lightning claws.
- Aether Winds (WC 7) lets you pick a nearby objective marker and do mortal wounds to every enemy unit nearby, doing D3 mortals on a 2-4 or 3 on a 5+ (you subtract 1 if it’s a character). This is actually a pretty bonkers total, given that it can hit multiple enemy units at once.
- Soul Leech (WC 6) curses an enemy unit, preventing them from re-rolling hits and wounds against a RIGHTEOUS unit.
- Guidance of the Divine (WC 6) buffs your psyker, giving them one re-roll to hit, wound, and damage each time they fight. This is nifty in part because a lot of psykers still have D3 damage weapons, but could be particularly money on something like a Daemon Prince.
- Vortex of Holy Wrath (WC 7) lets you pick an enemy unit within 18” and roll for it and every unit within 3” of it, doing 1 mortal wound on a 2-4 and D3 on a 5+. Solid, but not nearly as nasty as the Aether Winds.
- Gift of Holy Fury (WC 6) lets you pick a nearby friendly unit to get the ability to charge after making an advance or fall back move. This is huge for quite a few armies, most of them chaos.
TheChirurgeon: Holy shit this is an amazing psychic discipline and I want it for my Death Guard immediately. Blightlords who can advance and charge? A set of re-rolls on my Daemon Prince? Sign me up for all that shit. Soul Leech is also great, and Aether WInds can be an absolute nightmare for an army trying to stack multiple units on an objective. These are straight fire.
Beanith: My current Crusade force is an Army of Faith with Black Templars and Sisters and they have VIEWS on pskyers… which is sad because I too love these and would quite happily have my Ork psykers blasting away with these.
Final Thoughts
TheChirurgeon: It took us a bit to get to it but I think the payoff here for the setup in White Dwarf 472 is largely worth it. The Righteous army rules are powerful – probably a bit too much so – but have a lot of flavor and there are some cool things you can do with them. This is something I’d strongly consider for my Death Guard or Thousand Sons Crusade force as there are just so many cool things you can get and the addition of a new psychic discipline – something we rarely see in Crusade – gives the rule set a lot of extra value. Plus pretty much every faction has religious fanatics in 40k.
Beanith: I love the system of trade offs with the Righteous Tally, you have some pretty powerful Stratagems but you’ll want to save them for key moments before your unit becomes too Righteous. As I mentioned earlier, they’ve remembered to include Keyword restrictions this time which is great. Sadly they didn’t include an edit on the Righteous Battle Honours from 472 so you can still do some truly obnoxious things with those still before a killjoy Campaign Manager steps in and tells you to knock it off.
Bonus Content White Dwarf 474 Flashpoint Nachmund Review.
Beanith: No fun Crusade content but lots of paint schemes for the Imperial Guard.
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