This beauty comes from the most excellent Mordian7th.blogspot.com :)
Todays post is the beginning of me doing a run down of all of the Cerastus Class Knights that are available for use in the Horus Heresy, though obviously these are also available for use in 40k. I only really intend these reviews to be pertinent to 30k as I have greatly dialled back my 40k participation. Though Deathwatch has piqued my interest I must say with modelling opportunities abound!
Stats
The castigator comes with the following stats line:
WS BS S F S R I A HP
4 4 10 13 12 12 4 4 6
Overview: A very tasty stats line as you get with all of the knights and cerastus frames, the cerastus frames have an extra attack in general I think which with this knight in particular may not make too much of a difference as we will see!
Special Rules
As a super heavy walker the Castigator comes with a chunk of special rules that include:
- Move through Cover
- Fear
- Strikedown
- Relentless
- Invincible Behemoth
- Smash (eh!?)
- Hammer of Wrath
The Cerastus frames also have the special rule Flank Speed, that means they can run 3D6 inches in the shooting phase.
Incidentally the specific wording is the knight may opt to run instead of shooting A weapon in the shooting phase. This seems open to interpretation that a knight with multiple weapons could sacrifice one weapon to run and still shoot the others. Personally I think it would be a dick move to play it that way as it seems super gamey to me, but just to point it out.
Equipment
The Castigator has two fantastic pieces of equipment:
Castigator Pattern Bolt Cannon - 36" S7 AP3, Heavy 8
Error in the code - reboot - it is twinlinked! on average (and without cover) you will be blowing away 6-7 marines a turn with this beauty.
Tempest Warblade - S10, AP2, Melee, Deflagrate, Sunder, Tempest Attack
The Warblade is not a D weapon, which is a good thing in my book! With a re-roll to armour pen you are unlikely to come away empty handed even against a landraider, and with 5 attacks on the charge you have a decent chance of blowing a Spartan or at least seriously crippling it.
The real beauty here is the fact that Deflagrate will allow you to roll an additional number of wounds equal to each unsaved wound taken by the enemy, so basically melee volkite. However when you combine this with the Tempest Attack it gets tasty.
Tempest Attack lets you forgoe all normal attacks and instead opt for an Initiative step 2 attack that AUTOMATICALLY hits every model in base contact with you. Against power fist or thunder hammer terminators you are going to hit all of the one in base contact automatically and wound on a 2+. If they fail their invulnerable and die then you get to roll again with deflagrate! At S10 this will also double out any pesky 2 wound termies (looking at you Firedrakes!)
Ion Shield - 4++ against shooting attacks with the facing declared at the start of the shooting phase as usual
Options
Only two options here:
Blessed Autosimulcra - IWND weak edition, you can regain a hull point on the roll of a 6 at the end of your turn for 10 points. Worth it for the price!
Occular Augmetics - May re-roll vehicle damage results of 1 when shooting from 12" or less and also gain night vision for 10 points, not worth it on this knight at all.
Utilisation
Unfortunately the Castigator suffers from one big flaw, and that is its lack of a secondary weapon. This means you have to charge the unit that you shot at which if it is regular marines will likely already have taken a pounding!
Because of this I think it is advisable with the Castigator to send it after priority targets, don't mess about and get in the enemies face, this might also mean that for the first turn you actually run in the shooting phase. This is particularly advisable if you are playing hammer and anvil and your opponent has deployed far back.
The Castigator has decent ranged attack but it does the business in close combat and you should be sending it after giant squads, tough squads, initiative 1 squads and vehicles to tear them to pieces. I think it could be very easy to have the castigator faff about and do very little. Make sure you pick targets and run them down, indecision will not go well with this knight.
Peace out,
Rob
Love the look of these, but battling with and against I find them a little lacklustre, lack of a D CCW means I would probably always take a normal Knight over this one, they avoid tar pitting by Stomps taking down those it doesn't kill in CC, so the hits-everyone rule here which is nice is a little unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteThis was pretty exactly what I was thinking as I read through this.
DeleteCheers for the write up.
The hits everyone rule fulfills a different role to a stomp, stomps works well against big numbers and hordes but hitting everyone at initiative 2 is what you want to deal with any power fists and thunder hammers that comes at you as they will go at I1 and stomps can't save you from the attack in the first place.
DeleteEmm... "one twin-linked castigator pattern bolt cannon"... yes is twin-linked
ReplyDeleteIts because I was reading the rules from the bottom profile box not the top equipment list, I was a fool!!!!
DeleteThanks for catching it :)
It's definitely a rule-of-cool sort of knight - I absolutely love how it looks, but totally agree that it needs to be supported by other knights. Not the ideal selection if you're just running a single knight ally, but a stone killer in a knight house army.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think you need equivalent threats about that compete for attention that hopefully let the castigator do its thing
DeleteI've really wanted one since they first came out, as much from old Epic nostalgia as anything, but the lack of a secondary gun is a huge drawback. I think the Acheron is the only Cerastus Knight I've seen fielded, due to the fact that it's the only one with a minor weapon to shoot at the Unit you want to Charge.
ReplyDeleteYeah I really like the castigators look but its just lacks the duality to pull its weight effectively :(
Delete