Black Templar list with Grimaldus and friends



After reading Helsreach I have had an itching to make a Black Templar army, lead by Grimaldus. It is based on him and the other Astartes characters in the Helsreach novel. The problem is the points. I have had a problem finding useful stuff with the few points left over. Now this is the typical list for fun.  It is also loosely based on the Helsreach force, it isn’t exact.  It is mostly a small unit of fast responders.

HQ – Grimaldus and his servitors - Duh he has to be here.

Command Squad- 5 guys, Apothecary, Rhino-  These are to be modeled after the command squad in the novel.

Elite- Techmarine  & servo-harness-  Yup he was here as well

The troops were there, but their number and deployment was varied.  I went with a fast reaction and small unit force. It is very mobile, but also very small in number.

Troop- 6 marines pistol/weapon, melta gun, power weapon, Razorback heavy bolter

Troop- 6 marines pistol/weapon, melta gun, power weapon, Razorback heavy bolter

Troop- 6 marines pistol/weapon, flamer, power weapon, Razorback heavy bolter

Troop- 5 marines pistol/weapon, flamer, power weapon, Razorback heavy bolter

Fast- 2 Multi-Melta bikes

Fast- 2 Multi-Melta bikes- These squads are here for anti-tank or the “heavy” slot in the force.

Now I have near 60 points left and not sure where to dump them. I could just throw storm bolters on everything, add a heavy bolter attack bike in a squad with the melt bikes, add a coulpe power fists (but with only 1 base attack for all Black Templars their powerfists kind of suck), add furious charge to the command squad, a power weapon in there maybe or throw in points worth of extra silliness.

Is this army true to the Helsreach force? Maybe. They fought for a long time and they did have the Templars fight on foot, on bike and with jump packs. They also fought in combat squads or in pairs along with the Imperial Guard. So, a mobile Templar force running through the city, or up the Hels Highway is possible.

Grimaldus and his Command squad are there for the close combat duties and such. His Holy Relic can be a nice once per game assault boost.  The squads all being close combat focused can benefit from that little attack bonus, if they need it.

The Techmarine rides with the 5 man squad to add some punch to that squad. They get; 2 power fists a flamer, a twin plasma pistol and an extra wound to soak all from the Techmarine.

With no heavy support the melta bikes are the heavy lifters for ranged armor penetration. This force also will need to pick it’s fights wisely due to the low number of models. At least this is how I see it being used. Now to add this to the Book of Impossible Dreams, a coffee table book that details all the 40K stuff I’d do. That is if I had infinite time and money.