Black Templar Vows Part 2

The vow we are looking at today tends to be the red-headed step child of the Templar Vows. In many other blogs the most mention it gets is a single comment like, "Sucks."

As you may have guessed, today I am going to rap a little about the vow:

Uphold the Honour of the Emperor

This vow is the cheapest, at 10 points, and makes it so that no unit may benefit from a cover save. In exchange for this, all units gain a 6+ Invulnerable save and are immune to the effects of Pinning. Vehicles are unaffected by this vow.

Ok simmer down. I can hear the shouts of, "No cover save! Why would you do that?" You are not wrong, the prevalence of the 4+ cover save in this edition is very helpful. It has become something that people have come to count on. So much so, in fact that most people I know who play against marines just build their lists assuming that they have a 3+/4+.

I have seen quite a few lists recently that are designed to kill marines by making them make too many armor saves and leaving AP by the way side. When playing this type of lists, this vow is not that detrimental. If they are flooding the 3+ dice pool, they are certainly flooding the 4+ one as well.

The main thing this vow has going for it, is it makes your mandatory HQ choice cheap, points wise. But because a major aspect of the new edition is no longer available to you, you have to build a list that isn't going to count on cover. Mechanized assault based lists can do well with this vow. Since Black Templar have the "old" smoke, and the vow doesn't pertain to vehicles, your vehicles will still benefit from obscurement, or only get glanced for a turn, letting you run them out there for a turn to set up your assaults. Hopefully you can drop your guys off into close combat so they can't be shot at with AP weapons anyway. Also, when you are in assault, everyone has the outside chance of surviving the power wep/power fist attacks. I am not saying you can bank on it, just that it is possible. Lastly, because you are immune to pinning, even though your transports are being opened, your guys probably aren't stuck for a turn.

Of all the vows, I think that this one completely dictates your army build. That being said, if you enjoy a mobile assault play style this vow can be very helpful. Is it as helpful as having Preferred Enemy (We'll get to that)? Probably not. But with BT's paying more for transports anyway, the cheaper vow can allow you to have more stuff down.

One thing to keep in mind is that bikes are less than ideal under this vow. The save granted from Turboboost is a cover save.

I like this vow against quite a few Tyranid lists. They abundance of MC's makes it so I can get the occasional "6" to live, and most of their shooting doesn't AP so I am not missing my cover save. A 1,500 point list that I might run under this vow would look like this: Note this is one of the few lists where I do not have a Marshal because I am relying on being in close combat as much as possible, where I am Fearless.

1500 Pts - Black Templars Roster



: Emperor's Champion (1#, 100 pts)

   1 Emperor's Champion @ 100 pts (Bolt Pistol; Crusader Seals; Frag Grenades; The Black Sword; Uphold The Honour Of The Emperor)

      1 Armor of Faith

      1 The Black Sword



HQ: Black Templars Chaplain (1#, 167 pts)

   1 Black Templars Chaplain @ 167 pts (Master of Sanctity)

      1 Master of Sanctity (Crozius Arcanum; Crusader Seals; Rosarius; Frag Grenades; Bolt Pistol x1; Uphold The Honour Of The Emperor)

         1 Rosarius

         1 Adamantine Mantle

         1 Artificer Armor



Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 145 pts)

   1 Dreadnought @ 145 pts (Unit Type: Vehicle (Walker); Assault Cannon; Dreadnought CCW; Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

      1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Power of the Machine Spirit; Storm Bolter; Immobile)



Troops: Crusader Squad (11#, 459 pts)

   10 Crusader Squad @ 459 pts (Bolt Pistol x9; Close Combat Weapon x8; Frag Grenades; Flamer; Power Weapon; Uphold The Honour Of The Emperor)

      1 Land Raider Crusader (Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 15 models; Access Points: 3; Extra Armor; Frag Assault Launchers; Multi-Melta; Dozer Blade; Smoke Launchers; Twin Linked Assault Cannon; 2x Hurricane Bolters; Assault Vehicle; Power of the Machine Spirit)



Troops: Crusader Squad (11#, 248 pts)

   10 Crusader Squad @ 248 pts (Bolt Pistol x9; Close Combat Weapon x8; Frag Grenades; Meltagun; Power Fist; Uphold The Honour Of The Emperor)

      1 Rhino (Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Access Points: 3; Fire Points: 1; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter; Repair)



Troops: Crusader Squad (10#, 231 pts)

   9 Crusader Squad @ 231 pts (Bolt Pistol x8; Close Combat Weapon x7; Frag Grenades; Meltagun; Power Fist; Uphold The Honour Of The Emperor)

      1 Rhino (Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Access Points: 3; Fire Points: 1; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter; Repair)



Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 75 pts)

   1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 75 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)



Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 75 pts)

   1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 75 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)




Total Roster Cost: 1500


Thanks for reading,
T