Signatures5

The Sanguinary Discipline is the blood-and-wings witchery of Baal — the way a Blood Angels Librarian pours the Chapter's noble rage and its winged grace into psychic form rather than commanding the warp coldly. Its six workings run the whole span of the host's nature: a hurled spear of blood, the caster's own quickening, ghost-wings that carry him over the field, a shield of the Great Angel's light, a terror that breaks a foe's nerve, and the Red Thirst sharpened onto a brother's blade. Each is a Wyrd power, and each courts the warp's price for the one who calls it. At creation the Librarian picks or rolls one of the six from the table that follows, and adds to it the universal witch-blast of Smite.

Black Rage. The lost of the Death Company fight beyond fear and beyond command. A Death Company Marine is Unwavering — it can never be Pinned or Broken and auto-passes every Nerve test — and gains +1 Attack while within 6" of any enemy, the curse turning grief into killing strength.

That strength cannot be leashed. At the start of its activation, if an enemy is in sight, the fighter must pass a Cool check or charge the nearest foe; the controlling player does not fully command it, and a well-placed enemy can bait the whole rush.

The curse is also how the host grows. When any friendly fighter who is not already Death Company is taken Out of Action, the controlling player makes a Damnation roll: on a result, a nearby Seriously-Injured Marine rises as Death Company, adding to the doomed company. Across a campaign the force's own losses swell the ranks of the lost — the company that grows from the graves of its brothers.

The Red Thirst. The curse in every Son of Sanguinius rides the Chapter's Combat Doctrines and bends them one way. At the start of each round the controlling player declares a Doctrine and may shift it one step as normal — but only ever toward Assault, along Devastator to Tactical to Assault, and never back the way it came. A stance surrendered to the Thirst is gone for the battle.

The hunger also feeds on loss. Each round a friendly fighter is taken Out of Action or goes Seriously Injured, the Thirst rises one further step immediately, free and in addition to the round's shift — so a bloodied host is dragged toward the charge faster than its commander would choose.

Once the gang is locked in the Assault doctrine, its Marines re-roll failed charge distances across the whole force. This is a meter that only ever climbs: never a pool to accumulate and spend, only a fury that mounts until nothing remains but the killing.

Combat Doctrines. The disciplined heart of the Astartes way of war, and the mechanic that sets a Chapter apart from any warhost that merely brings guns to a fight. At the start of each round the controlling player declares the strike force's stance, which may shift one step along the ladder from Devastator to Tactical to Assault. Under the Devastator stance the gang fires with lethal precision, adding to its ranged Hit rolls or re-rolling misses. Under the Tactical stance the brethren move with purpose, gaining ground and seizing objectives. Under the Assault stance they close for the kill, striking harder on the charge and running down a fleeing foe. A Chapter cannot hold every advantage at once; it flows through the phases of battle as its commanders read the field, and each brotherhood leans toward the end of the ladder that suits its character.

Finest Hour. Once in a battle, a commander seizes the moment the whole war seems to turn upon and drives his brethren to their greatest effort. Once per battle a Captain or Lieutenant may call upon it. Until the start of the next round the commander himself gains an additional Attack, and every friendly fighter within 6" re-rolls failed Wound rolls, the strike force striking as one at the instant it matters most. It is a single, decisive surge rather than a lasting boon — spent in the crisis of the fight, it does not come again. A wise commander holds it for the stroke that breaks the enemy rather than the one that merely bloodies him.