In Defence Of

Sometimes bad units aren’t so bad. Sometime, they need defending. Let me know you can think of any others.

In Defence of: The Other Heldrake

Posted by johnnya10 on 10/01/2014
Posted in: In Defence Of. Tagged: , . Leave a comment
Death Guard Heldrake

Death Guard Heldrake with Hades Autocannon

I feel sorry for those Warpsmiths, toiling away in the Empyrean aboard hulks and battle cruisers, making mechanical monsters for the fallen legions. Hey, it’s what they love, but the reason that I feel sorry for them is because half of their creations are immediately discarded by the lords and generals that rely on their skills. For all those Heldrakes fitted with Baleflamers, there are as many with Hades Autocannons, and none of them seem to get any time away from the warp.

In the age of flyers, it’s a fair argument that the roost is appropriately ruled by the ‘Hell Turkey’ but the variant that you see on the table top tends to be the one with the Baleflamer. However, I would like to raise the profile of the ‘drakes equipped with Hades Autocannons. Because I use one, and I think it’s awesome.

I suppose it’s fair to say that the Hades Autocannon Heldrake is not actually a bad choice. It’s still got AV12 on all but its tail and it still has a 360º arc of fire. It’s just that, if you want the most bang for your buck, you take the flamer. That’s because, if you want to waste opposition troops, a template weapon with torrent and soul blaze is pretty hard to turn down. The Baleflamer is so Emperor-darn good at the job it does that it’s hard to see past it. But I use my Heldrake as a hunter that targets special characters and especially armour. And it does a great job.

I’m of the opinion that you can never have enough S8 shots, especially when they’re strapped to a very fast-moving unit that can also perform an S7 Vector Strike. Run it over a tank and see the damage it does. Here are a couple of games where it has done me proud.

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1. Death Guard vs Imperial Guard (2000pts)

Imperial Guard artillery is a real pain. Those big guns that never tire can get very tiresome when you keep seeing blast markers covering your troops. What’s more, in many games you have to wade through what feels like a thousand grunts to even get close to them. Well, I was playing a game against a classic Guard army full of big bangs and big blobs.

My drake appears in the 2nd turn thanks to a good reserves roll and sets off for the heavy stuff in the backfield at a race. Before it reaches the two Basilisks that are already proving a nuisance, it pops a Chimera and that in turn wastes a fair few of the troops inside. Its jink save keeps it in flight over the next turn before it cuts across the field and hammers one of those tanks to pieces. Yes, my rolling was particularly good but it was brilliant to see it. Two tanks in two turns reduced to smouldering wrecks.

The Heldrake continued to smash and blast his way through the game and dodged every shot that targeted it. I happily romped to victory and smiled all the way home.

~

2.Death Guard & Daemons vs Tau (2000pts)

I didn’t fair so well in this game. In fact, I lost pretty badly, but my tactics were at fault for that. I used my small numbers of daemon allies pretty badly and I spent far too much time shooting at the big stuff while almost ignoring some large lumps of fire warriors that ultimately wiped out nearly all of my infantry (so many shots!).

However, I did smash a Riptide into pieces in a couple of turns which was impressive enough. Ok, so a Landraider and a Defiler had to contribute quite heavily, and yes, some good dice-rolling came into it again, but it was the ‘drake that got the kill. And he survived the game too (though he was pretty much the only thing of mine that did).

-=-=-=-

Now, for the sake of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I’ve taken the Baleflamer several times and, yes, it’s pretty amazing. It’s eaten Eldar Guardians and Ork Boyz alike and been a lot of fun. But that should not discount the Hades Autocannon. If you need a good anti-tank unit, it really is a viable option that can mess up your enemy. And when your opponents see a drake, they expect the flamer so it can be a good shock tactic to spring the cannon on them.

It’s all in how you use it. The Baleflamer’s huge range, high strength and template mean that you don’t really need any actual tactics to use it. As long as you can see your opponent, you can nail them with it. Job done. With the Hades, you need a very clear game plan. Identify the targets you want to focus on straight away. Use it to deal with big things, especially those that fire large blasts (because those can’t target the drake at all). Know it’s role, even before your reserves roll.

I don’t know if this unit needs a defence, or if that load of drivel was an adequate one, but I will continue to take my ‘cannondrake’ because it fits my tactics and it hasn’t really let me down. Until it does, it makes the cut.

 

In Defence Of: The Callidus Assassin

Posted by johnnya10 on 20/12/2013
Posted in: In Defence Of. Tagged: , . 1 Comment
Calidus Assassin

Callidus Assassin

=][= In a new type of article, I shall offer some defence of units that often get overlooked. They may not be the best when you apply mathhammer into the mix, but for a fluffhead like me, sometimes the underdogs are more fun. Let me know what you think of it below! =][=

Ah, the slender, stealthy Callidus Assassin. It’s a shame that she’s maligned in the way that she is. Often seen as useless and a waste of points, I’ve come to rely on this lady (or amorphous shapeshifter, or whatever ‘she’ is) to provide real game changing moments for my Grey Knights. It wasn’t what I wanted, but this is how it turned out.

As you’ll come to realise as you use this blog, I tend to build armies far more based on fluffy principles than ‘must win’ ideals. If I like the model, and the stories around them, I’m more likely to pick it based on those principles than whether it’s going to do well. So it was with the Callidus assassin. I remember a few stories that were really well written and I love the model so when I was building out my Grey Knights army, I went for the Calidus.

Now, part of the Callidus’ problem is the Vindicare. As assassins go, he’s indisputably the better pick. The fact that his pistol packs the same punch as his rifle, and the rifle is pretty much one of the best personal arms in the game means that there isn’t really much of a choice to make if you want the best assassin. It can take out HQs, armour and everything in between. I’ll concede right here, right now, that the Vindicare rules the assassins’ roost.

As for the others, they’re not so much of a problem. The Culexus, I find, is highly situational – very useful if you’re up against heavy psychic armies, but next to useless otherwise (slight over exaggeration perhaps but undeniably in the right ball-park), and despite the fluff indicating that the Eversor is a raging-psychopath of a super-human, the rules make him far less formidable. But the Calidus has some pretty good tricks up her sleeve. Let me tell you of the first couple of games she played in…

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1. Grey Knights vs Death Guard (2000pts)

Being a sometimes Death Guard player myself, I thought I could handle this one. I ended up getting tabled due to seriously horrendous dice-rolls and some school-boy tactical errors. My opponent had a big chunk of Nurgle Termies escorting Typhus across the board and they were looking unstoppable. As mentioned, my rolling had been woeful and these guys were hammering their way through the field causing all sorts of problems.

I get to bring in my Callidus on turn four. She pops up just a couple of inches away from the terminators, gets plenty of attacks (the one good roll I had that game) and kills two of them. The Neural shredder does nothing though.

Rather insultingly, Typhus et al decide to ignore her and trundle off after my Librarian and Termies in what promised to be a big showdown in the middle of the table (but ended up with my lousy rolling turning it into a bit of a one-sided waste of time).

A Flying Daemon Prince touched down that turn too, so when it came to my next go, I ran her straight into it. She died pretty much instantly.

As mentioned, I was a bit stupid with that one but I saw a spark. She took out two terminators where all others had failed.

2. Grey Knights vs Eldar (1850pts)

Just before the last Eldar Dex release, I took on another of the armies that I was relatively familiar with – the Eldar. I actually won this game (by the skin of my teeth) and one of the all star performances again was my Callidus.

I learned a good little trick this time and when she popped up in the third turn again, her task was to deal with a group of Fire Dragons that was about to run from cover and melt a Razorback. Another high roll for attacks, she appeared two inches off the squad with the Exarch in front. He, and three others fell to the blade while the neural shredder did for the remaining two. Good dice helped of course but I was actually giddy with happiness after that.

And then a wave serpent shot her with a missile and that was the end of that.

-=-=-=-

This happened through several games. Against Orks, Tau and more CSM lists, she’d pop up, cause a nice chunk of damage, and proceed to get munched almost immediately. Yes, it’s annoying that she kept dying, but she never failed to alter the game. Whether it meant an opposing squad had to spend a whole turn dealing with her when they could have been doing something else, or her actually taking down a whole squad, she’s always done me proud.

The real winner is that chunk of attacks she does as soon as she enters, out of sequence with the rest of the game. Get a good roll for that and you can dish out a pasting with her high initiative and weapon skill. Deal with any squad’s commander in that and the rest lost his leadership value when you hit them with the neat little template weapon she sports. It’s a one-trick pony sort of attack, and once she’s out in the open she’s a bit of a paper tiger, but the shock value and initial impact makes for a great moment in any game.

So, it’s not the strongest defence in the world. As mentioned, the Vindicare will almost certainly do better through a whole game, but I wouldn’t swap my Callidus for anything. If nothing else, she’s been highly entertaining, and for me, that’s almost better than her being a good unit.

However, I don’t think it’s a bad use of points if you know how to use her. Taking out a couple of Terminators, or a full squad of Fire Dragons makes quite a lot of points back and can swing a game. If you’re scared of a certain unit, dump a Callidus on them. Worst comes to worst they’ll have to spend a turn or two killing her and they’re unlikely to survive unscathed. Not many opponents relish dealing with her.

For pure fun, high entertainment game-changing moments (*whispers* that may cost you a kill point), accept no substitutes. Or get a Vindicare and kill everyone.