Codex: MALAL

[DuskRaider]

Hey everyone,
Well with the advent of my painting competition entry, I decided that the 5th and Fallen Chaos God needs some rules to use. I haven't tried these... at all. I have been thinking about them while painting my piece, however. That being said, let's start this off.

I'm sure some of you know the story of Malal. He was originally a 5th Chaos God for WHFB, had a Champion (Kaleb Daark), and so on. He was a Fallen God, cast out of the Chaos Realm by the 4 other gods. Malal is the pure epitomy and embodiment of Chaos... Chaos opposing Chaos. For this reason, the others rose up against him, throwing him down into the realm of mortals. As a result of this, in the comics and novelizations, he is corpreal and interacts directly with his followers.

Some time in the late 80s, the writers who invented Malal and wrote the stories/ comics left GW for good, taking their "rights" for Malal with them, although it has been disputed they actually do own the rights of the character.

Some of you may remember the Dread Axe and Sons of Malice in the Chaos 40K 3rd Edition Codex. These are hints at Malal, as Dread Axe was Kaleb Daark's weapon of choice, and had particularly devastating results against other Chaos factions. Also, if you look at Sons of Malice, they are represented in the colors of Malal, black and white, divided in half.

Unfortunately, there has been nothing official of the actual stats of any Malal worshippers.

Malal is a Fallen God in the 40k universe as well, that being said he no longer has his own Daemon followers, and is no longer omnipotent, although to fell even a fallen God would be quite an undertaking. To represent the destruction of his God-like abilities, a Malal themed Chaos force cannot use Daemons or Possessed.

Also, since Malal is fairly secretive, his followers do not have much access to the more rare equipment of the Imperium. To represent this, a Malal army can only take one (1) squad of Terminators.

To make up for this, a Malal army is permitted to take an extra Fast Attack slot. A Malal army would rely on quick and terrorizing raids, guerilla warfare and terror tactics the name of the game.

All Malal followers have the choice of taking Mark of Malal. They cannot, repeating! CANNOT take any other Mark, exluding Undivided (Chaos Glory).

The Mark of Malal grants the bearer and squad +1 Strength, to represent the power of the Fallen God's hatred and fury toward all others.

Any special legion troops are also forbidden. This means no Berzerkers, Plague Marines, Noise Marines, or Thousand Sons. Malal and his followers want nothing more then the absolute destruction of all other Chaos Gods and their worshippers.

Special Weapons and Abilities:

All troops in a Malal themed army MUST take the Icon of Malal or Chaos Glory. Mark/ Icon of Malal grants the squad +1 Strength. 20 pts.

Dreadaxe: Lords/ Sorcerers of Malal may take the Dreadaxe. Please see Chaos 3rd Ed. Codex, as I've misplaced mine. If anyone can post the abilities, please do so!

Rejection: A sorcerer of Malal may take the spell Rejection. This is cast when an opposing Chaos sorcerer attempts to use a spell on a Malal unit. When this is done, the opposing sorcerer must make a Ld test of -1.

Talisman of Hatred: A Lord or Sorcerer may take a Talisman of Hatred. This embues the bearer with the Aura or Malal, negating all attacks by enemy Chaos opponents with a Daemon Weapon. Only one Talisman of Hatred is allowed. 50 pts.

Jetbike: An HQ may take a Jetbike as Optional Wargear. Also, all Malal bikers pilot Jetbikes instead of the usual Chaos bike. The Jetbike is considered a Skimmer, and follows the other rules of the regular Chaos Bike. Also, the Jetbike has Turbo Boosters. +40 pts

Vengeance: An HQ may take Vengeance as an option. The bearer uses Vengeance when an enemy Chaos player attempts to summon daemons. On a 5+, all daemons on the board are banished. Only one HQ may have Vengeance. 50 pts.

HQ:

Lord of Malal
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
6 5 5 4 3 5 3 10 3+
Optional Malal Wargear:
May take Dreadaxe or Daemon Weapon (No Mark) as an optional weapon. The +1 Strength bonus from Daemon Weapon does stack with the Mark of Malal, which has already been added into stats.
May take Talisman of Malal, as described above.
May take Jetbike, as described above.
A Lord of Malal may take all other options given to Chaos Lords (excluding Marks of the 4 Gods).

Sorcerers of Malal are exceedingly rare, as Malal does not associate with the Sorcerous arts much, even when he was a full fledged Chaos God.

Sorcerer of Malal
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
5 5 5 4 3 5 3 10 3+
Optional Malal Wargear:
Same as Chaos Lord
A Sorcerer of Malal must take one of the following Powers:
Doombolt
Warptime
Wind of Chaos
Gift of Chaos
Rejection (Malal)
Sorcerers may take all other Wargear allowed by other Chaos Sorcerers, excluding Marks/ Powers of the 4 Ruinous Powers.

Elite:
Chosen of Malal
Same as Codex, may take Icon of Malal (+1 Strength), or Icon of Chaos Glory.

Terminators of Malal
Same as Codex, may take Icon of Malal or Icon of Chaos Glory.

Possessed- RESTRICTED.

Dreadnaught of Malal
May not take Daemonic Possession. Instead, it is replaced with "Enduring Rage", giving the Dreadnaught +1 Strength and +1 Front Armor. +20 pts

Troops:
Chaos Space Marines
Same as Codex, may take Icon of Malal or Icon of Chaos Glory

Sons of Malal- 22 pts
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
5 4 5 4 1 4 1 9 3+
Champion of the Fallen One: +15 pts
5 4 5 4 1 4 2 10 3+
Wargear:
Power Armor
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
Krak Grenades
Close Combat Weapon
Special Rules:
Mark of Malal
Fearless
Fleet
Preferred Enemy: Chaos
Character:
Same as Codex

Fast Attack:
Dread Wings of Malal: 44 pts
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
4 4 5 4(5) 1 4 1 9 3+
Scourge: +15 pts
4 4 5 4(5) 1 4 2 10 3+
Wargear:
Power Armor
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
Krak Grenades
Close Combat Weapon
Chaos Bike w/ Twin-Linked Bolter
Special Rules:
Fearless
Jetbikes
Character & Options: Same as Codex.

The rest is pretty much the same as the 'Dex. I'm also thinking of making stats for using Malal, using the Nightbringer's stats and modifying them. If someone wants to send me it's stats, thatd be great. The point of this is I don't want to make anything over powered, and I want to use the blueprints of the 4th Ed. Codex.
If anyone has anything to add, please feel free! I was going to go through the rest of the Codex, but everything is pretty much the same, all Icons of Malal or Chaos Glory only, blah blah blah.

[Dan296]

hmmm....now i like malal and the concept behind him but he is pretty much as dead as the squats. the new deamon codex is written so that the other four chaos powers fight themselves as much as, or more so, then malal ever could.

otherwise, i would say that a malal codex would have to use the parameters of Codex: CSM. that way a chaos glory icon could really be an icon of malal, or something like that.

[Brother Warchild]

Pretty cool bud,Kaleb Daark was the reason i got into Warhammer back in the days.I still have the Citadel Journels with his stories.

[DuskRaider]

Truthfully, I can think of some great things to give a Malal army, but I don't want to go overboard. Auto wounds against daemons, +1 Attack against chaos, blah blah blah. And hey! Squats still exist! And are perfectly fieldable. Malal lives, if only in the hearts of a few.

[hairyyahoo]

i'd say that unless they're fighting other chaos troops they should suffer from kharns betrayer rule, hitting thenselves on a roll of 1 in cc, to represent their eagerness to destroy all things chaos, even themselves. i'd also allow daemons but refer to them as doomed ones, followers of malal who've been trapped in servitude long after their physical forms have ceased to exist.

[Ravel Advice]

Well, I've read through your post, and some of it seems okay. I don't really know a lot about Malal, but I still think I can have a bit of constructive input.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Rejection: A sorcerer of Malal may take the spell Rejection. This is cast when an opposing Chaos sorcerer attempts to use a spell on a Malal unit. When this is done, the opposing sorcerer must make a Ld test of -1.

This seems a little bit rubbish, to put it simply. It's only useful against one model in one army, and takes up a psychic power use for the turn. Even if it does work, then the sorceror still isn't going to be running most of the time.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Talisman of Hatred: A Lord or Sorcerer may take a Talisman of Hatred. This embues the bearer with the Aura or Malal, negating all attacks by enemy Chaos opponents with a Daemon Weapon. Only one Talisman of Hatred is allowed. 50 pts.

This also seems a bit rubbish, 50 points to ignore one weapon that's only available to one model in one army? Perhaps change it to something more like the fantasy hatred rules, allowing you to re-roll rolls to hit during the first round of combat, and possibly in all rounds against chaos troops.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Jetbike

I don't know a lot about Malal backstory, so I have no idea if it's okay for them to have jetbikes.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Vengeance: An HQ may take Vengeance as an option. The bearer uses Vengeance when an enemy Chaos player attempts to summon daemons. On a 5+, all daemons on the board are banished. Only one HQ may have Vengeance. 50 pts.

The wording on this is a little bit confusing. Is this one use only? Do you roll every time a daemon unit is summoned? If so, this is quite harsh (even more so against actual daemon armies). I would either have:
Something similar, perhaps making daemon units re-roll their reserves roll.
OR
Something like this; at the end of each movement phase, any daemon model within 12" takes a S3 hit, with no invulnerable saves.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

HQ

Seems okay, you may want to put invulnerable saves on those characters though.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Elite

Seems fine, no problem with these.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Troops:
Chaos Space Marines
Same as Codex, may take Icon of Malal or Icon of Chaos Glory

Sons of Malal- 22 pts
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
5 4 5 4 1 4 1 9 3+
Champion of the Fallen One: +15 pts
5 4 5 4 1 4 2 10 3+
Wargear:
Power Armor
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
Krak Grenades
Close Combat Weapon
Special Rules:
Mark of Malal
Fearless
Fleet
Preferred Enemy: Chaos
Character:
Same as Codex

These are a bit powerful, especially due to fleet of foot. I understand that this is supposed to be a raiding army, but the extra fast attack accounts for that. Also, perhaps these should be made into Elites.

Originally Posted by DuskRaider

Fast Attack:
Dread Wings of Malal: 44 pts
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
4 4 5 4(5) 1 4 1 9 3+
Scourge: +15 pts
4 4 5 4(5) 1 4 2 10 3+
Wargear:
Power Armor
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
Krak Grenades
Close Combat Weapon
Chaos Bike w/ Twin-Linked Bolter
Special Rules:
Fearless
Jetbikes
Character & Options: Same as Codex.

These seem alright, perhaps a little bit underpriced. Only by a few points, if that. Still not so sure about the jetbikes, seeing as the army has less acess to terminators, but still has plenty of jetbikes that are unique in the imperium?

Well that's it, sorry if I come off as a little bit harsh, but I'm just saying what I think could do with changing.

[DuskRaider]

I like the idea for the Talisman, having to re-roll attacks upon the models. I was thinking Rejection would be a base psychic power, not counting towards the Sorcerer's limit.
With Vengeance, the idea is everytime a daemon attempts to enter the board, the Malal player rolls a die. Perhaps on a 6+ the daemon may not enter. Yes, it's harsh against daemons armies... that's the point. Daemon armies are pretty powerful as it is... this wouldn't go against the first turn anyhow, when half of the daemon army enters. The Sons of Malal are pretty much Khorne Berserker stats, with Fleet added.
Jetbikes were once used extensively by the Imperium... for some reason they became less common after this. The way I see it is, A: some Malal followers come from other Legions, being forsaken by their old God, and B: There's got to be warehouses full of these things just collecting dust. Terminator armor is, especially in the background, increasingly rare. If these guys come from newly founded chapters or even Traitor Legions, Termy armor is harder and harder to obtain. God knows that most of the Founding Chapters will not give up their armor.
These were just guidelines and I was hoping people would add to them.

[kenshin620]

hmmmm, interesting idea that could use some touching up though. I remember Mala somewhere but it escapes me. Is there a color scheme?

[DuskRaider]

They actually show a Malal worshipper in 3rd Ed. Chaos Codex. Color scheme is Black and white halved, the symbol is a skull of the same manner.

[knight-of-nurgle]

MALAL sounds awesome hopefully they do make a new chaos god soon because it would make chaos space marines more fun

[Brother Warchild]

I will get with you here soon Dusk, i have some info that might help with your project here that i dug up.

[DuskRaider]

That would be great, man... anything to help this little thing along!

[LordWaffles]

I like the synergy with fabius bile, I'd always give the basic marines his enhancement to make them all s6 fearless troops. Very nice.

The power that nulls daemon weapons is way too specific though.