Chaos Artifacts and Heroes

So an interesting question came up this evening when playing in our most recent BTB campaign:

The Broadsword of Damnation was ripped from the corpse of Belandysh and is now in the possession of a Dwarf Slayer warband, but the player wasn't sure exactly how it was supposed to be handled. Very obviously as per the normal rules a Hero has to hold on to it, but does he have to use it? Can only a hero that can use 2-handed swords use it? Does he have to take Weapon Master to use it? Same question when it comes to the Chaos Dragon Armor. Can only heroes normally able to use armor equip it? Heavy or Light armor?

We're not sure how they are handled cause Artifacts seem to have their own rules for such. Any insights would be helpful!

You must equip one of your Heroes with the Broadsword. This also represents the warband ensuring that the artefact doesn't get lost with one capable Hero keeping an eye (and two hands) on it.

There are no restrictions for being able to use these items. Their magical nature (read, Chaotic pull) makes them useable for anyone - if you want it or not. However, in Dwarf Slayer warband there should be a model capable of ignoring all the (psychological) downsides of the Chaos artefacts and putting them to good use.

Thanks for the input! Any particular place in the rules this is stated? Regardless of where or if it's in the books we'll be using this ruling for our campaign as it seems the most likely answer.

One other question, the Broadsword states that a critical hit turns the OOA model into a Chaos Spawn "In the control of the Chaos Player". Does this mean if there's a Chaos player on the board they get control? Or was it meant to insinuate that the wielding player gains control of the Spawn? It seems more likely rules-wise that the Spawn would be in control of the wielder of the sword but we're not sure.

Charybdis0 wrote:

Thanks for the input! Any particular place in the rules this is stated? Regardless of where or if it's in the books we'll be using this ruling for our campaign as it seems the most likely answer.

You're right, it's not in the rules. But you can consider the above an "official" erratum then.

Charybdis0 wrote:

One other question, the Broadsword states that a critical hit turns the OOA model into a Chaos Spawn "In the control of the Chaos Player". Does this mean if there's a Chaos player on the board they get control? Or was it meant to insinuate that the wielding player gains control of the Spawn? It seems more likely rules-wise that the Spawn would be in control of the wielder of the sword but we're not sure.

Again, you're right. This is worded imperfectly and should read something like "in the control of the wielder's player" instead.

cianty wrote:

There are no restrictions for being able to use these items. Their magical nature (read, Chaotic pull) makes them useable for anyone - if you want it or not. However, in Dwarf Slayer warband there should be a model capable of ignoring all the (psychological) downsides of the Chaos artefacts and putting them to good use.

Interesting. We always played that non-chaotic warbands had to carry but could not use the chaos artefacts. Therefore it really hurt the good warbands who had the chaos artefacts because they got Stupidity and 'A Thousand Voices' spell without any of the benefits.

I would argue that the Broadsword of Damnation can only be used by warriors capable of wielding a 'double handed weapon' since it counts as a double handed weapon. It can be used by the Noble and Slayers but not the Engineer. Saying that though... it makes sense if it counts as a 'double handed weapon' in terms of rules (e.g. 'Strike Last') but the pull of chaos allows any hero to wield it.

The Broadsword does follow most of the rules for double-handed weapons, why else would Belandysh have the Strongman skill? For reference I am playing the experimental Athel Loren campaign setting rules for the Slayer Dwarves list where the only double-handed weapons available for purchase are double-handed hammers and axes. We wanted to get some of this out of the way in case I got myself the suit of Chaos Dragon Scale Armor. Against pretty much all my fluff to equip the armor but the same issues arise from having to carry it but not able to equip it. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it I guess.