Saturday 9 April 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Emperor's Children - Lord Commander Eidolon

How do!


Today, we leave the loyal souls of Saul Tarvitz and Rylanor the Unyielding and descend into the worship of madness and pleasure. Lord Commander Eidolon (just for you Nick :P), always so condescending of the more reserved Captain Tarvitz, readily accepted his Primarchs descent to chaos and worship of their new patron - Slannesh. 

Stats

                                                           WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD  Sv
Lord Commander Eidolon            6     5    4   4   3  5  4   10    2+


Equipment

Lord Commander Eidolon has artificer armour as you would expect, and iron halo for a 4++. Eidolon also has an Archeotech pistol (which is better than nothing certainly), a master crafted Thunder Hammer, frag and krak grenades and a sonic shrieker (-1 WS to your opponent).  Eidolon also has the option of a jump pack for an additional +20 points.


Special Rules

Ediolon obviously has independent character as well as Legiones Astartes (EC). In addition to this he also has Master of the Legion as you might expect as the exemplar of the EC. In terms of unique special rules he has three. Warlords Pride, Thunderous Charge and Death Scream.

Warlords Pride - Eidolon is always your armies warlord unless Fulgrim is present. He then also has a set Warlord Trait:Coordinated Assault - Eidolon and all friendly units within 12" add +1 to their charge distance.

Thunderous Charge - Any turn that Eidolon charges he strikes at initiative (6 on the charge! 7 in a challenge on the charge!) despite wielding a thunder hammer!

Death Scream - Eidolon's Sonic shrieker has an in built attack that is an assault 1 template S2 but also rending, pinning and one use only. Its ok as an additional attack that might pin your opponent before you charge but at strength 2 without poisoned or fleshbane don't expect too much.


Overview

Eidolon has some fantastic rules that buff his wargear tremendously and also fit in perfectly with the fluff of the EC. His price point with his jump pack puts him at 205 points which makes him expensive but good value when used correctly. I would personally go for the jump pack option as this allows you a lot more flexibility in positioning Eidolon for the charge.

This is the key aspect of playing with Eidolon, you NEED to get the charge off to take advantage of his I6/7 thunder hammer (and therefore S8) attacks. These will ID any toughness 4 models, factoring in his 5 attacks on the charge and the -1WS from your sonic shrieker, you should expect to be doing 2/3 wounds on the charge to a character. With a 4++ as the most prevalent invulnerable you might face you SHOULD kill a low-mid level multi-wound character in a challenge on the charge.

His warlord traits also plays into getting those charges off. I would go big with Eidolon and stick him in a Palantine Blade Squad with jump packs for some serious close combat power, though I would be tempted to add a primus medicae for FNP or another independent character to tank wounds on their invulnerable.

That's all for Eidolon today, next up in this Emperor's Children review is the Primarch himself Fulgrim.

After this series of reviews I will be attempting to do the entirety of the Taghmata Omnissiah codex, though I will intersperse that with Legiones Astartes reviews as well as a new Legion review. Stick in the comments which legion you would like to see next and I'll pick the one that gets most mentions :)


Peace out,

Rob

10 comments:

  1. Where did you read the rules of th esonic shrieker, because until I know it gives you +1 initiative on the charge, but I don't have the last book about the legions and I don't know if this was changed

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    1. The latest red crusade book updated the rules for it (I also did not know this till it was pointed out to me!). But as far as I am concerned if you are using the older book then you can still use the +1 initiative rule :)

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  2. What a great character and model. Thanks for the review, I am learning a lot about 30k.

    Did you ever do the Sons of Horus? I may have missed it.

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    1. No worries Rory! You got in with a suggestion first so I will be doing Sons of Horus Next after a splurge of mechanicum reviews :)

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  3. As with Fulgrim, my first reaction to the model was "If you're supposed to be obsessed with perfection and aesthetics, why that hairstyle?" ;)

    The cool thing about the Deathscream is that against most targets, it's effectively just AP2, since nearly everything is getting Wounded on 6s, so they're always Rends.

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    1. Agreed! I'm OK with the Fulgrim model, but Eidolon looks terribly stupid and clunky to me, not the air of grace and finesse I would expect!

      That's a very good point, hadn't really considered that :)

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    2. On the bright side, the model comes with a helmet, which is a much better look I think.

      Lord Commander!

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  4. Can't believe I missed this! Or maybe I was just too busy to comment.

    This guy is definitely my kind of awesome, striking at Initiative thunder hammer? Don't mind if I do thank you kind sir, let me introduce you to the concept I like to call the face pancake.

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    1. I think Eidolon is one of the best sub commanders that the legions have. Not as good as Sigismund but definitely near the top of the pile.

      Shame I'm not a fan of the model!

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    2. I wasn't either, till I saw it comes with a helmeted option!

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