Chaos review #24 the holy man?

Well look who has evil Chaplains now. The forces of Chaos now have Dark Apostles and they are twisted versions of their loyalist brothers. I am glad to see these guys in the codex as they make for some great modeling and army opportunities.

What they wanted for the look of this model.

    The horrible application. He loves to sing!

The Dark Apostle comes with WS 5, BS 4, strength, toughness and initiative 4, wounds and attacks of 2, leadership 10 and 3+/ 4++ save. They come armed with a bolt pistol, frag/krak grenades, sigil of corruption (4++ save), and a power maul (once an Accursed Crozius). They are independent characters with the champion of chaos, zealot, demagogue and beseech the dark god rules. They may grab upgrades from the ranged, artefacts and rewards lists. They may take any Mark of Chaos and can grab Vets o' Long War for free. They come at a starting cost of $1.05 which is pretty cheap for what you get.

Zealot- gives the Apostle and his unit the Fearless and Hatred rules.

Demagogue- makes every friendly unit within 6" of the Apostle use his leadership instead. No, please don't make me use leadership 10!

Beseech the Dark Gods- allows for a character model, (even the Apostle if he took the upgrade) after deployment, to re-roll their Chaos Boon table result.

This guy makes for a nice utility or theme HQ. Sure he doesn't beat a ton of face, but I can over look that. The ability to make a squad fearless and angry is great. Then throw in a leadership bubble for anyone near him and he gets better. The ability to re-roll the chaos boon result is good, if you use that stuff. I abhor it so this is a useless ability. Although for other players, it could be a big deal. The lack of a Terminator armor upgrade is a bit disappointing, but it must have made him too powerful. Right? I think a Apostle leading a squad of Terminators would be pretty cool. Sure he is also only sporting a power maul so he cannot ignore 3+ armor. That doesn't bother me as I'll take the +2 strength any day.

Speaking of cool, the modeling potential for this guy is great. The model for him however, is not. The Dark Angels and Templar bits can make for a great looking evil priest guy. Especially those crazy brazier looking mace things the Dark Angels have. There is a plethora of bits and bobs to make a much better model than the weird singing waving paper guy that was released.

There are three ways I would run this guy. The first is bare bones for a cheap utility HQ. The second is going with a crazy Khorne preacher guy. A Mark and a Juggernaut runs this guy up to 150 points, but he does gain +1 wound, toughness and attack. Then throw in the +2 charge attacks and counter-attack ability on top of that. Third is the Nurgle Apostle. A Mark and Palanquin to give him +1 toughness, +2 wounds and +1 attack. This does cost 160 points and he will not be fast at all, but it would be cool to make. A crazy Apostle all gooey atop a pile of Nurglings just seems appropriate for some reason.