# Legion Praetor Build Help



## melsaphim (Jan 1, 2010)

Hi guys, great to see heresy back online i was beginning to miss checking in every day to see what awesomeness had been created but i digress. I have had the Forgeworld Horus Heresy book for a few weeks now and have nearly read it page for page, front to back and i must say its awesome. But now i've come to the dilema well two actually. firstly, which legion do i take? i love the sons of horus fluff wise but hate their green armour if im honest (plus i cant find a good paint guide for them using only gw colours as thats all i have) and secondly what do i make my list out of?

First things first im trying to build a decent command squad based around a nice hard hitting legion praetor. but im unsure what to give him, here is a rough idea of how i might outfit him but as i don't play many games i am here to ask for guidance from those of you who play more and know what will work and what wont work. (i apologise in advance if i break any rules regarding posting stuff i wont put full stats just an overview)

1) i wanted to give my praetor 2 paragon blades in exchange for his ccw and bolt pistol, this would give him +1 str from each weapon and as they are both specialist weapons the +1 A aswell. along with some other cool bits.

2) i thought of giving him digital lasers for another +1 A making him upto 6 hehe ^.^

3) for armor i was going to go artificer for a 2+ and an iron halo on top

To me this seems like a decent CC character with 6, WS 6 str 6 attacks and a decent armour/invul save, and i can buy him a combi weapon or bolter to give him atleast some shooty but a friend at my flgs said he might not be as useful as i hope and started regailing me with the benefits of his nice shooty army :suicide:

and so i ask those with the benefit of knowledge when it comes to the games is this guy good? too much? or is their better things out there now 6th ed has been tried and tested alot?

Cheers in advance
Liam


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

You do not gain +2 strength from the two Paragon blades, only +1. As the spec weapon applies to any other spec weapon, take a fist or Thammer. He needs to survive; so take either Cataphractii or an Iron Halo. 

Praetors are excellent when cheap; using him to mubch through Artificered Sergeants with a Paragon Blade and Digilasers for 140 is excellent usage, Imho.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I'd echo Vaz on this one-- although I'd just give him the Iron Halo. Praetors come with artificer armor, so there's no reason to give him Terminator Armor, really. I wouldn't really worry about taking a second specialist weapon, just for the sake of cost. I've been planning on my praetor having a paragon blade, bolt pistol, combi-plasma, and iron halo. It's inexpensive, relatively speaking.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Make sure you choose carefully; enemy IC raper; Paragon Blade thanks to Murderous Strike and Ap2 being horrendously threatening, or Squad killer; Ap3 and shred with 7 Attacks on the charge makes a mess of squads.


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## melsaphim (Jan 1, 2010)

Vaz said:


> You do not gain +2 strength from the two Paragon blades, only +1. As the spec weapon applies to any other spec weapon, take a fist or Thammer. He needs to survive; so take either Cataphractii or an Iron Halo.
> 
> Praetors are excellent when cheap; using him to mubch through Artificered Sergeants with a Paragon Blade and Digilasers for 140 is excellent usage, Imho.


I didn't realise you only got the 1 stat boost, this is why im glad i come here for help before making silly and most likely obvious mistakes, as i said before im not much of the gamer and haven't really played much 40k and no 6th ed really so things like this help me learn ^.^



The Son of Horus said:


> I'd echo Vaz on this one-- although I'd just give him the Iron Halo. Praetors come with artificer armor, so there's no reason to give him Terminator Armor, really. I wouldn't really worry about taking a second specialist weapon, just for the sake of cost. I've been planning on my praetor having a paragon blade, bolt pistol, combi-plasma, and iron halo. It's inexpensive, relatively speaking.





Vaz said:


> Make sure you choose carefully; enemy IC raper; Paragon Blade thanks to Murderous Strike and Ap2 being horrendously threatening, or Squad killer; Ap3 and shred with 7 Attacks on the charge makes a mess of squads.


I'm aiming this guy towards more of the 'IC raper' build so want him to be able to take on near enough any IC i may face with regards to chaos, sm and eldar which are the main armies i'll be facing, so sticking with a paragon blade build seems like a good plan.

Thanks for the help so far guys its always good to learn from those who know better than me with regards to the game, keeps me from looking the fool :grin:

Cheers
Liam


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I'm doing something similiar atm, I'm in the progress of getting the bits for my commander, he's going to have a giant axe which will be a paragon blade, but I'm not sure what else to give him so I'm not getting the parts for his other arm yet, any suggestions?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

If you don't have a particularly specific in-character build in mind (for example, my Sevatar is just a Praetor with PBlade and Bolter to match his description), then a Boarding Shield can be fairly decent; it is cheap access to a 5++ in a challenge with no loss to your ability to attack.

What legion are you going for? Space Wolf Shields can be as simple as a Chaos Marauder shield, while Night Lords could be a Grave guard or black knight shield.

Alternatively, there are some awesome power armour pieces like the Red Scorpion Psyker from ForgeWorld.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I think I've settled on Ultramarines, atm it's not focused on any particular character, unless I find one wields an axe then I'll base it on him.


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## melsaphim (Jan 1, 2010)

I've finally settled on Imperial Fists for my legion and have begun building the guy, so far he is the torso from one of sevrin loth's retinue, mk2 legs i believe and the head from commander culn in termie armour. i have also kit bashed him an arm drawing his paragon blade from a sheath on his back (a process which involved destorying about 9 different pieces ^.^)

My only trouble now is his second arm, do i go fist or a pistol/bolter of some form? bearing in mind im wanting him to destroy enemy IC's.

He is also having artificer armour and an iron halo as i have the bits handy for this without buying pieces like i would have to for termie armour, i know i know im cheap :grin:

Cheers
Liam


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Good luck with the painting, I love fists but I can't standing painting yellow.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

The Bolter/Bolt Pistol is a moot point; he gains no CC benefit from the standard BP, and the Bolter is extra. I love the look of a great big weapon (spears, especially; the Iron snakes, and Moloc of the Minotaurs are pretty awesome for that reason), and running forwards with a Bolter, spear behind looks sound.

As for the IF, they are fairly static - unless you are Sigismund at least after the order to go to Phall (I think his first Heresy combat is Mars, I believe?) at which point he seeks to atone for not following orders. Weaponry; well Helbrecht has a combi-melta. Would be quite nice if you could link that in. The other IF characters I can remember (strangely) both use Hammers; the twin Hammer of the Master, and TH/SS Lysander. Pollux has a fist. I'm guessing the Hammer of Dorn founder, whoever he is uses a Hammer; so I think Sigimund; possibly with a combi-melta is the way to go.

For UM; we have Gage, and Ventanus, and I think theres a Triarch(?) or something in KNF mentioned, but so far there is only a Captain mentioned, who would later become the CM of the Iron Snakes due to his use of the "spear". The others I cannot remember. Oddly, the Artwork shows guilleman with a pair of fists like Calgars, but IIRC they were taken by MC from a Chaos Champion?


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## melsaphim (Jan 1, 2010)

Words_of_Truth said:


> Good luck with the painting, I love fists but I can't standing painting yellow.


Thanks i've started the painting and atm it's more of a dark yellow/mustard colour but i think it looks quite good personally and is imo better than a super bright garish yellow army.



Vaz said:


> The Bolter/Bolt Pistol is a moot point; he gains no CC benefit from the standard BP, and the Bolter is extra. I love the look of a great big weapon (spears, especially; the Iron snakes, and Moloc of the Minotaurs are pretty awesome for that reason), and running forwards with a Bolter, spear behind looks sound.
> 
> As for the IF, they are fairly static - unless you are Sigismund at least after the order to go to Phall (I think his first Heresy combat is Mars, I believe?) at which point he seeks to atone for not following orders. Weaponry; well Helbrecht has a combi-melta. Would be quite nice if you could link that in. The other IF characters I can remember (strangely) both use Hammers; the twin Hammer of the Master, and TH/SS Lysander. Pollux has a fist. I'm guessing the Hammer of Dorn founder, whoever he is uses a Hammer; so I think Sigimund; possibly with a combi-melta is the way to go.


thanks again for the input, i'm gonna dig out the combi melta's i have laying around and pop one on my praetor see how it goes, i'm also gonna work on a few guys with hammers me thinks

Cheers
Liam


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

On the topic, what do you think a Word Bearers praetor would be armed with? not a chaplain but a command figure, pre heresy wise.


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## melsaphim (Jan 1, 2010)

Words_of_Truth said:


> On the topic, what do you think a Word Bearers praetor would be armed with? not a chaplain but a command figure, pre heresy wise.


Now i will be the first to admit im not an expert on all things pre heresy so take this with a pinch of salt but seeing as how the word bearers were an over zealous bunch of fanatics with a habit of burning any religious text/artwork/official that wasnt devoted to the emperor i personally see them weilding a combi flamer, as for melee weapons i wouldnt know, i think anything may go as only the chaplains would have a crozius (and lorgar himself obviously), but like i said this is me going on what ive read here and there and on the few bits ive read online

Artwork i have seen online of Kor Phaeron the 1st captain of the word bearers whows him weilding a large two handed sword, so perhaps a paragon blade would work well here too.

According to what i've read the word bearers legion was divided into chapters pre-heresy with certain chapters having specific roles. The chapter of the void were used to text new technology for the legion so their captain would have more high tech weapons and more experimental pieces. The quillborn were ship to ship combat trops so boarding shields and equipment such as that would be good, perhaps volkite weaponry.
Also the burning hand chapter captain had hands that were wreathed in flame from gas jets in his vambraces but how you would represent that i dont know lol

Hope this helps abit
Liam


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

That burning hand captain could be a Moritat with two volkite serpentas with a bodyguard of destroyers


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## melsaphim (Jan 1, 2010)

Words_of_Truth said:


> That burning hand captain could be a Moritat with two volkite serpentas with a bodyguard of destroyers


yeah thatd work, and there's a cool possiblity for conversion there in my mind.

I also like the sound of the quillborn with a boarding shield/thunder hammer guy leading a squad of breacher marines.

I see the chapter of the void guy being a forge lord as he then has access to techmarine gear such as the graviton gun representing his testing the legions newest weapons


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

I will read TFH tonight to see what the Gal Vorbak lord used. However, a big spiky mace is essentially the word bearers typical weapon; their captains were required to know the lords book and extol its creed. Copying his mace (lightbringer?) seems like the way to go.

At Words of Truth, if you are unsure what army you wish to collect; I can't recommend enough making lots of time and effort into making a few squads of veterans and/or captains and having them fight as a single army. That way, you have a bit of every legion, an archetypal unit (i,e White Scars bikers, EC Jetbikes/palatines, Night Lord Seekers, Blood Angel JP assault squads, Death Guard destroyers/desthshroud, IW artillery, world eaters infantry assault squads/rampagers, imperial fist breacher squads, raven guard recon squads, sons of horus justaerin terms/catulan reaver veterans, salamander flamer/melta tac support, iron hand devastators, ultramarine tacticals...

Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, Alpha Legion, and word bearers are quite hard to archetype within the current rules. Terminators are currently quite lacking, but aside from being 1st company, the DA deathwing were not really unique; neither were they white then. Space Wolves terminators are not archetypal, but fit within the lore. Thousand Sons; Devastators with some of the less well recognised weapons could represent their psyker covens, but currently lack their nature. AL terminatorss are not unheard of (Sheed Ranko, I believe? and artwork of one was seen in the IA), but aren't that typical, or archetypal afaik. However a lot of their warfare seems to be typically done prior to the conflict; winning the battle before it is even fought; choosing battle ground, cutting of reinforcements/supplies, etc. Hard to get that into battle scenario unless you count scouting/infiltrating/outflanking infantry. Word Bearers were typified as being less martial than their brothers. Perhaps oddly sized tactical squads (numerology here?) with ceremonial kit and well equipped sergeants is all I can come up with so far. May can't come soon enough until the new book is released.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I just read KNF again, it seems all their chapters where named after suns in some shape or form, I think it's Kor Phaeron who recalls it just before he orders the attack on the Veridian Sun.


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