As the Psychic Awakening series winds down and we all prepare to make the jump to 9th Edition Games Workshop had a neat little surprise for fans of the True Heroes of the 40K setting (Chaos players, in case you were wondering). Definitely not those also in the War of the Spider: Talons of the Emperor. Fabius Bile, famous for his advanced work in genetics and biotechnology, gets an updated model, a new assistant, and a FACTION to call his own. Also, there are relics and stratagems to round things out. Sounds good, right? Well, this one is all gravy, folks, so let’s dive in and see what’s up with Creations of Bile Tactics.
Becoming Fabulous: Creations of Bile Tactics
So before we go into CREATIONS OF BILE, let’s talk about the fabulous Fabius Bile. He has a new datasheet, and it’s very much an upgrade. His stat line is M6” WS2+ BS3+ S4 T4 W8 A4 Ld9 Sv3+, so he’s maybe a bit squishy and will not like snipers one bit. His wargear does help out quite a bit, though. The Chirurgeon, his “this is where The Spider moniker comes from” backpack grants him a 5+++ Feel No Pain and lets Bile regain D3 lost wounds at the start of your turn. It also gives him 3 additional attacks of the S4 AP-2 D1 variety (similar to a Warpsmith’s mechatendrils).
His pistol, Xyclos Needler, is an 18” range Pistol with AP -2 and D2 that wound everything but VEHICLE or TITANIC units on a 2+. Finally, his Rod of Torment pimp cane is S+1 AP-1 Dd3 (unless against VEHICLE or TITANIC targets). All of this is strictly okay, but that’s not what we’re here for. No, we’re here for his Enhanced Warriors ability, which lets Bile enhance a unit of HERETIC ASTARTES INFANTRY (non-CHARACTER) units at the end of your Movement phase. Pick a valid unit wholly within 6” of Bile and roll a D6. On a 1, one model in the unit is destroyed. Then roll a D3 and the unit gains the resulting enhancement for the remainder of the game:
- 1 +1 Strength
- 2 +1 Toughness
- 3 +1 Attacks
Baller. No wasted enhancements, all useful & good stuff.
One more thing: For the low, low cost of a melta bomb you can add the Surgeon Acolyte model to the Fabius Bile “unit”. He’s a W1 servitor with a 6+ save, but he grants you a +1/-1 to the result of the Enhanced Warriors D3 roll. This means +1 Toughness is always on the table and 2/3 of the time you can get whatever enhancement you want. Even with the relative Death of Overwatch, a little extra toughness is useful. The Acolyte is an auto-include – not only does he make Bile even more Fabulous; he can be an ablative wound in dire situations.
How Do I get Creations of Bile Tactics?
Fantastic question, thanks for asking. CREATIONS OF BILE is a new LEGION keyword/faction for HERETIC ASTARTES armies. If Bile is in a detachment and if he is your WARLORD, then you may change the <LEGION> keyword to CREATIONS OF BILE (as opposed to, say, EMPEROR’S CHILDREN or FLAWLESS HOST). If you aren’t interested in having a CREATIONS OF BILE detachment/army you can add him to any HERETIC ASTARTES detachment, as he has the <LEGION> keyword and isn’t locked to any specific Legion, even his own. So you could say, include him in a Death Guard detachment if you wanted to enhance your Plague Marines. That would be all the advantage if you take him in another LEGION detachment. For the rest of this article, we are going to focus only on the CREATIONS OF BILE detachment.
Legion Trait: A CREATIONS OF BILE detachment has the standard “TROOPS units are Objective Secured” ability and all CHARACTER, INFANTRY (except CULTISTS), BIKER and HELBRUTE units gain the Experimental Enhancements Legion trait, which is +1 Movement and +1 Strength.
Warlord Trait: Sadly, this one is easy. Fabius Bile is locked to the Lord of Terror WLT in Codex: Chaos Space Marines and War of the Spider does not change that. C’est la vie.
Stratagems for Creations of Bile Tactics
CREATIONS OF BILE get a total of seven unique stratagems, and with one exception, they apply to INFANTRY but exclude CULTISTS.
Venomous Claws – 1CP – Used when you select a CREATIONS OF BILE unit to fight (sorry, CULTISTS), unmodified Hit rolls of 6+ auto-hit, and auto-wound.
Monstrous Visages – 1CP – Used at the start of any Phase, this makes the target unit -1 to hit for any enemy models within 6″.
Macrotensile Sinews – 1CP – Used at the start of the Movement phase (so it doesn’t help Deep Strikers) the chosen unit can charge after Advancing and are +1 to Advance and Charge rolls.
The Master is Watching – 1CP – Pick a visible unit within 12″ of Bile, grants them re-rolls to hit during the Shooting or Fight phase.
Dermal Chitination – 1CP — +1 Toughness vs Shooting attacks until the end of the phase.
Taken Alive – 1CP – The only one that can be used on Cultists, this strat is used after a CREATIONS OF BILE unit destroys an enemy unit in melee. Until the end of the battle, each model destroyed counts as 2 for Morale test purposes.
Supreme Creation – 1CP – Before the battle, choose a CHARACTER (that isn’t Bile, he doesn’t experiment on himself!) and choose one of the following:
- Prime Test Subject: +1 Strength and Toughness
- The Master’s Hound: +1 Advance and Charge; +1 Attacks if charging, is charged, or performs Heroic Intervention
- Ravenous Biology: 6+++ FNP and regains D3 lost wounds at the end of the Fight phase if any enemy models were destroyed within 1” of this model.
Relics of Bile
CREATIONS OF BILE Characters can be given relics from Codex: Chaos Space Marines or they can choose one of the specific ones from War of the Spider:
- Helm of All-Seeing – Regain a Command Point on a 5+
- Living Carapace – Model with this relic regains a lost Wound at the start of your turn and is +1 Save (unfortunately doesn’t affect Invulnerable saves)
- Hyper-Growth Bolts – a variant on the “special” single-shot bolter round that wounds non-VEHICLE units on 2+and does D4
Bringing Creations of Bile Tactics Together
Okay! CREATIONS OF BILE have some solid abilities and can buff up units into high gear. Let’s put them all together in a list and see what hijinks we can pull off.
NOTE: Look, 9th Edition is less than a month out and considering we’re all stuck in lockdown until Papa Nurgle is done with his pet pandemic, I’m not going to try and make an 8th Edition list. While my Magic 8-ball isn’t giving me any more news than we’ve gotten from Games Workshop so far, one can make some reasonable allowances. I’m going to build a list using 8th Edition points but limit the list to 1750 points. That should give us a good start with a buffer for the point increases GW has promised us.
+++ Creations of Bile (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) [108 PL, 1,749pts] +++
++ Battalion Detachment (Chaos – Chaos Space Marines) ++
+ Configuration +Legion: Creations of Bile
+ HQ +
Fabius Bile: Warlord. Surgeon Acolyte
Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with Wings: Malefic talon, The Rapacious Talons, Wings
Sorcerer with Jump Pack: Bolt pistol, Force sword, Mark of Slaanesh
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists: Mark of Slaanesh. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun: 9x Autogun. Cultist Champion: Autogun
Chaos Cultists: Mark of Slaanesh. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun: 9x Autogun. Cultist Champion: Autogun
Chaos Space Marines: Mark of Slaanesh. Aspiring Champion: Boltgun, Power sword. 9x Marine w/ Chainsword: 9x Bolt pistol, 9x Chainsword, 9x Frag & Krak grenades
+ Elites +
Chaos Terminators: Mark of Slaanesh. Chaos Terminator Champion: Combi-bolter, Power fist. 9x Terminator: Chainaxe, Combi-bolter
Greater Possessed. Greater Possessed: Mark of Slaanesh
Possessed: Mark of Slaanesh. 20x Possessed: 20x Horrifying Mutations
+ Fast Attack +
Bikers: Mark of Slaanesh. Biker Champion: Combi-bolter, Power fist. 6x Biker: Chainsword, Combi-bolter, Plasma gun
+ Heavy Support +
Obliterators: Mark of Slaanesh. 3x Obliterator: 3x Crushing fists, 3x Fleshmetal guns
Make this work w/ Creations of Bile Tactics
- Pregame, use Supreme Creation/Prime Test Subject on the Daemon Prince. He has the relic daemon weapon claws, +1Strenght and Toughness buff him up.
- You’ll have to decide at game time if you want to hold the gaggle of Possessed back or keep Bile with them until the end of the Movement phase to use Enhanced Warriors on them. If you think they can survive a turn of shooting before they bowling-ball into something, fine. Not sure? Then use Enhanced Warriors on the CSM.
- If the opportunity arises you can land the Terminators or Obliterators close enough to Bile to Enhance them.
- This is a fist to the face list, and you don’t want to be shy. Use the Sorcerer and the Prince to Diabolic Strength and Warptime the Possessed into combat as quickly as possible, and use the Bikers to back them up, soak Overwatch (or try to fish out Overwatch since it’s a stratagem in 9th) or harass other units. The Terminators drop in and deliver a good shock of shooting and then charge in. Obliterators…well, they do what Obliterators do. Drop-in, have a massive Endless Cacophony pumped shooting phase and hope to survive and do it at least one more time.
- What about the Cultists? They…do…Cultist things. Be a screen, maybe hop on an objective, and eventually give up Kill Points.
Conclusion
Creations of Bile have some good tools to buff up some already good units and with the proper application of Enhanced Warriors, Strats, and Psychic buffs they can push some units into the death star realm (I’m looking at you, Possessed). It might be worth it to soup in some Emperor’s Children and shuffle the Obliterators into that detachment, but you’re probably going to be better off keeping soup off your menu.
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