Advanced Design Week 9 - Temple Guard

This week I was sick during the class period, but I decided to pick up the Temple Guard task. I found this one to be a very fun task as their lore and concept is very interesting. The temple guard were the devoted protectors of the Slann in the Lizardmen race. They were ferocious warriors that would not leave their Slann's side even if the Slann told them to stay away.

To model this ferocity, the obvious route was to design them as tough close combat warriors.


These are the initial stats that I gave the temple guard (except the armor save was 3+, I took this picture after it had been changed). They are an elite unit so that should be kept in mind.

Reasonings are below!

• WS, BS and S: Following the idea of tough melee warriors, I gave the temple guard a significantly strong weapon skill as it would allow them to hit more consistently throughout melee combat. Their BS of 3 is pretty standard for troops that aren't well versed in ranged weapons, which is how we wanted them. The strength is a respectable 4, and combined with their Wraithbone Halberds, their modified strength of 5 is very healthy and will allow them very nice rolls against mediocre to good toughness. This will also allow them to gain glancing hits on a 5 and penetrating hits on a 6 against armor value 10 (standard for a lot of vehicles).
• T, W, and Sv: Once again, a tough warrior was what we were after. So respectable toughness of 4 will give the temple guard a good reliability in taking damage, and combined with their 2 wounds and 4+ armor save I believe this makes them a very durable unit (while not being entirely indestructible).
• I and A: Initiative is another section where the temple guard shine. They are initiative 5 which allows them to attack before most other units. However, their default weapon is the Wraithbone Halberd which is unwieldy, making the Temple Guard automatically attack in initiative step 1 (last, basically). I kept the attacks at 1, due to their having a higher strength and initiative, and also some special rules they have giving them more attacks in different situations.

• Skittering allows the temple guard to move a little bit extra during their movement phase, which gives them a little more versatility on the battlefield.
• Tough Hide gives the temple guard the ability to re-roll one failed armor save per combat, giving it a little bit of extra durability.
• Fanatic was an extra ability I came up with to represent the relationship between the temple guard and the Slann. It gives a model with this special rule 1 extra attack in close combat when the model is within 6" of that players Warlord/Slann.