Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Champions of the Game: Space Marine Variant Characters

Poll Related Post

See the first results here: Ultramarine Characters.

Sorry it took me a while to update again. Busy Busy Busy. I am going to try and be more regular now. Now here are the Non-Ultra SM Codex Characters.

If you don't know, voting criteria is as follows- Whatever you think to be the most important criteria to be the best. Could be individual rule or what he does for the army or even how the model looks. Have at it.

Pedro Kantor- Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists: He has what is often regarded as one of the best Chapter Tactics. To use it, you loose the combat tactics that comes standard with most SM characters (allowing you to choose when to fall back). In its place any squad that had combat tactics gains stubborn and Sternguards become scoring units. Kantor gives all friendly units within 12” +1 A, but not to himself and does not stack with chapter banners, so can be redundant if you take an honour guard, as a chapter banner has added bonuses as well. He is equipped with a sweet Storm Bolter named Dorn’s Arrow. 24” S4 AP4 Assault 4 at BS 5. Nice. He fits in well attached to Sternguard units, lending some good shooting and giving them more ability to take and defend objectives by increasing their attacks. A powerfist at WS6 A3 W3 with a 3+/4+Sv makes him good in combat, boosted with both frag and krak grenades. He also gives an orbital bombardment, and is the only Non-Ultra Character with that. All this for 175 pts. NOTE I accidently spelled it with a C in the poll, rather than a K. My bad.

Darnath Lysander- Imperial Fists 1st Co. Captain- A *BA in terminator armour. The model even looks like Bruce Willis.
He is an eternal warrior (USR) making him immune to all forms of instant death (like Calgar) and has bolster defences (check out techmarine rules for that, basically improves one piece of terrain’s cover save by +1). Bolter Drill allows any bolter type weapon (all of them) in the squad he is attached to to re-roll to hit. His Chapter Tactics make all units stubborn at the loss of Combat Tactics once again. He carries the Fist of Dorn, which is a Master Crafter Thunder Hammer at S10 and adds +1 to rolls on vehicle damage tables. A combat beast at WS6 S4 (10) I5(1) A3 2+/3+ Sv. 4 wounds to top it off makes him hard to bring down. This comes in at 200 pts.
*Not to be confused with Blood Angels

Kayvaan Shrike- Raven Guard 3rd Co. Shadow Captain- He is the Jump Pack character of the codex. Shrike and his Squad gain infiltrators. Infiltrating jump packs are nice. I guess that’s what a Shadow Captain is. His Chapter Tactics makes your army fast, giving units with combat tactics the Fleet USR. Armed with the Raven’s Talons, he gets Master Crafted Lightning Claw attacks (re-roll to-hit and to-wound) with Rending on his Base 3 (4 since he has 2 CCW) attacks at WS6 I5 S4. 3+/4+ Sv. In addition he has a bolt pistol, frag, and krak grenades. 195 pts for him.

Vulkan He’stan- Chapter Master/Forgefather of the Salamanders- Vulkan’s Chapter Tactics gives all Thunder Hammers in the Army master crafting and twin-links all flamers, heavy flamers, meltaguns and multimeltas. He carries himself a sweet set of weapons in the form of a heavy flamer in his gauntlet and a Master Crafted Relic Blade named the Spear of Vulkan. This gives him rerolls in both shooting and combat, and at WS6 and BS5, that is nice, and in combat even better at S6 because of his Relic blade with I5 A3 and 2+/3+ saves. His digi-weapons then further allow him to re-roll one failed to-wound in combat. The only drawback is he isn’t in terminator armour so he can’t move and shoot his heavy flamer. 190 pts for what may be the most heavily armed of the characters in the Codex.

Kor’sarro Khan- White Scars 3rd Co. Captain, Master of the Hunt- First off he rides a bike called Moondrakkan. This means he is modified with +1T for a 4(5) characteristic. This bike also allows him to run in the shooting phase and gives him the fleet special rule, so you don’t always have to turbo boost to get that extra movement. Furthermore, if on a bike, he makes Bike Squads of at least 5 models troops. Note that that is not a Chapter Tactic ability, so you can use that and use another character’s chapter tactics. His Chapter Tactics gives all units with combat tactics and their dedicated transports the ability to outflank. Keep in mind it is dedicated though, so Land Raiders must be bought by a squad to get this. He personally carries a pseudo-force sword, Moonfang, which causes Instant Death on a to-wound roll of a 6, regardless of Toughness. A bolt pistol and frag/krak grenades compliment that. Top it off with the standard Character stat-line with WS6 BS5 I5 A3(+1 for 2 CCW) 3+/4+Sv. Comes in at 160pts, making him the cheapest, but to be good you have to pay an extra 45 for the bike, bringing It up to a healthy 205 pts.

Now hit the poll over there -->

There we go. That is the Gotee look.

POLL RESULTS
Which Non-Ultramarine SM Codex Character is the Best?
Cantor: Crimson Fists Chapter Master 10 (27%)
Lysander: Imperial Fists Terminator Captain 11 (29%)
Shrike: Raven Guard Shadow Captain 5 (13%)
Vulkan: Salamanders Forgefather 10 (27%)
Khan: White Scars Master of the Hunt 1 (2%)