I genuinely don't know whether I feel sorry for Lorgar Aurelian. All he wanted was the truth, and in the worship of the Emperor, he had attained that (as well as a holy war - also known as the Great Crusade). I think his character could have been handled better by the Sigillite and by the Emperor. His censure was needlessly over the top and ultimately the key factor that drove him on his Pilgrimage to find the dark powers. This could, presumably, have been predicted for someone of his temperament. Equally, I don't feel all that much empathy or sorrow for the Night Haunter - he's just a monster through and through from the start. But on the other hand, Angron I do feel sorry for due to the Emperor's repeated betrayal of him. For me, Lorgar is somewhere in between. He made a few mistakes perhaps, and could have been handled (nay: managed) whole lot better. Due to management error therefore, Lorgar started down a dark road to purge his legion long before Isstvan III, and to corrupt certain other legions in a long game.
In the game, Lorgar is one of the weakest and cheapest primarchs. This to my mind is in direct keeping with his temperament - he's more of a preacher than a warrior, all told.
But he does provide a number of good bonuses to his legion. The first of which is as the Sire of the Word Bearers, he allows all of his sons to use his Ld whilst on the tabletop. This is an excellent force multiplier that cannot be overlooked.
Better than that, he's also a Living Icon to his legion. This is an amazing force multiplier rule that provides bonuses to any Word Bearer unit that can draw line of sight to him. These include charge distance rolls, fear immunity (which is so valuable!), and a bonus to assault determination outcomes. These are an amazing set of bonuses. It begs for Lorgar to be inside a large unit and be visible to all around him (i.e. in the open and leading his sons).
His Dark Fortune gives him a deny the witch bonus, along with forcing an enemy model or unit (once per game) to re-roll all 5's and 6's rolled against Lorgar.
His armour is fairly standard (but does incorporate a bonus save against witch fire and force weapons), and his weapon (from Ferrus Manus no less) is a wonderful AP2 S+2 crozius like device. This makes Lorgar excellent in combat against almost everything other than another primarch. Seriously, his brothers will dent his skull if he goes toe to toe with them -- he's just not as good as them overall by a small fraction (but that fraction is all that matters really).
What is interesting is that there are two versions of Lorgar available. The base one (with the low cost) is one that has erratic psychic powers - as a level 2 psyker with a penalty to activating powers (6th ed), or harnessing warp points (7th ed). In his transfigured form (which comes at a price), he becomes a lot more masterful of the sorcerous arts, becoming a level 3 psyker with a bonus to activate powers (6th ed) or harness warp points (7th ed). Personally, I much prefer the way that 6th ed psychics dealt with Lorgar. I feel 7th ed is a little weaker perhaps for the erratic version of Lorgar, and perhaps more powerful for the transfigured version.
Overall, I'd therefore play Lorgar as a central on-field figure for his sons to look to. Using his psychic powers to augment nearby or joined units, he can be a force to be reckoned with. But he really needs combined arts warfare around him: he's not sufficient on his own to tackle other primarchs (although in his transfigured form, his psychics might give him the edge overall). On the plus side, he is a huge force multiplier potentially (unlike other beat stick primarchs). Hence he needs to be used as such - a visible living icon of golden radiance for his sons to be inspired by!
In the game, Lorgar is one of the weakest and cheapest primarchs. This to my mind is in direct keeping with his temperament - he's more of a preacher than a warrior, all told.
But he does provide a number of good bonuses to his legion. The first of which is as the Sire of the Word Bearers, he allows all of his sons to use his Ld whilst on the tabletop. This is an excellent force multiplier that cannot be overlooked.
Better than that, he's also a Living Icon to his legion. This is an amazing force multiplier rule that provides bonuses to any Word Bearer unit that can draw line of sight to him. These include charge distance rolls, fear immunity (which is so valuable!), and a bonus to assault determination outcomes. These are an amazing set of bonuses. It begs for Lorgar to be inside a large unit and be visible to all around him (i.e. in the open and leading his sons).
His Dark Fortune gives him a deny the witch bonus, along with forcing an enemy model or unit (once per game) to re-roll all 5's and 6's rolled against Lorgar.
His armour is fairly standard (but does incorporate a bonus save against witch fire and force weapons), and his weapon (from Ferrus Manus no less) is a wonderful AP2 S+2 crozius like device. This makes Lorgar excellent in combat against almost everything other than another primarch. Seriously, his brothers will dent his skull if he goes toe to toe with them -- he's just not as good as them overall by a small fraction (but that fraction is all that matters really).
What is interesting is that there are two versions of Lorgar available. The base one (with the low cost) is one that has erratic psychic powers - as a level 2 psyker with a penalty to activating powers (6th ed), or harnessing warp points (7th ed). In his transfigured form (which comes at a price), he becomes a lot more masterful of the sorcerous arts, becoming a level 3 psyker with a bonus to activate powers (6th ed) or harness warp points (7th ed). Personally, I much prefer the way that 6th ed psychics dealt with Lorgar. I feel 7th ed is a little weaker perhaps for the erratic version of Lorgar, and perhaps more powerful for the transfigured version.
Overall, I'd therefore play Lorgar as a central on-field figure for his sons to look to. Using his psychic powers to augment nearby or joined units, he can be a force to be reckoned with. But he really needs combined arts warfare around him: he's not sufficient on his own to tackle other primarchs (although in his transfigured form, his psychics might give him the edge overall). On the plus side, he is a huge force multiplier potentially (unlike other beat stick primarchs). Hence he needs to be used as such - a visible living icon of golden radiance for his sons to be inspired by!
3 comments:
No way is he the weakest! Lorgar is perhaps the STRONGEST primarch when transfigured.
He gets to pick his psychic powers.....yeah for automatic invisibility! This creates quite the problem as this requires 6's to hit in hand to hand. Combined with his sweet forced reroll rule Lorgar is quite hard to hit. He will dominate almost all the Primarchs no problem (although this is extremely cheap tactics).
Great blog by the way, I love reading your reviews as I have almost all the heresy models.
My comment about being one of the weakest was in reference to the `ordinary' (or erratic) state, rather than the transfigured one. I certainly agree that the transfigured state can be humongously powerful (as well as a force multiplier)!
Thanks for the compliment too! Its appreciated.
Lot far can't take Invisibility, as he can only pick from Divination and Telekinesis
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