Background.
Blasphemous creations, these Castellax are fitted with psi-controller matrices rather than the standard cortex. They fill in gaps in the Thousand Sons legion's strengths given their low numbers and unwillingness to risk their own in otherwise nasty battles.
Strengths.
They have all the positives that Castellax do: brutally large monstrous creatures with 4 wounds, T=7 and so forth. The mauler bolt cannon comes fitted with Asphyx shells for bonus effects.
As if this were not enough, psykers from the Thousand Sons can use the Castellax as the point of origin for their psychic powers within 12 inches which is very nice indeed.
Weaknesses.
There is a big drawback here. If a psyker suffers a perils of the warp within 12 inches (note -- not taking a wound, but just suffers a perils unlike the legion rules), then take an Ld test or suffer d6 unsavable wounds. And if it dies, it goes boom with the bigger radius possible.
Builds.
Whilst I like the Castellax, I don't see any need to upgrade them with aether-fire cannons. Hence I prefer to keep them "naked". In terms of numbers, a single one is fine, but several are probably worth the investment.
3 Castellax-Achea (405 points).
Expensive, but when in range will do very well indeed. Keep them accompanied by a level 1 psyker (or brotherhood) for some psychic actions. Or how about a level 3 psyker if you feel like a riskier play? It could be very rewarding if you don't perils. Buy a litany.
Blasphemous creations, these Castellax are fitted with psi-controller matrices rather than the standard cortex. They fill in gaps in the Thousand Sons legion's strengths given their low numbers and unwillingness to risk their own in otherwise nasty battles.
Strengths.
They have all the positives that Castellax do: brutally large monstrous creatures with 4 wounds, T=7 and so forth. The mauler bolt cannon comes fitted with Asphyx shells for bonus effects.
As if this were not enough, psykers from the Thousand Sons can use the Castellax as the point of origin for their psychic powers within 12 inches which is very nice indeed.
Weaknesses.
There is a big drawback here. If a psyker suffers a perils of the warp within 12 inches (note -- not taking a wound, but just suffers a perils unlike the legion rules), then take an Ld test or suffer d6 unsavable wounds. And if it dies, it goes boom with the bigger radius possible.
Builds.
Whilst I like the Castellax, I don't see any need to upgrade them with aether-fire cannons. Hence I prefer to keep them "naked". In terms of numbers, a single one is fine, but several are probably worth the investment.
3 Castellax-Achea (405 points).
Expensive, but when in range will do very well indeed. Keep them accompanied by a level 1 psyker (or brotherhood) for some psychic actions. Or how about a level 3 psyker if you feel like a riskier play? It could be very rewarding if you don't perils. Buy a litany.
Very much looking forward to getting my hands on these 'bots - Not 100% convinced that they're particularly better or worse than 'vanilla' Castellax, and to be honest I'd almost prefer to take a Praevian and give the normal Castellax the Legiones Astartes rules for the Thousand Sons... Will absolutely be buying the models though, they're friggin' GORGEOUS!
ReplyDeleteI reckon they're worth fielding just for the models alone! I'm biased though. ;)
ReplyDeleteI think all told they're on par with normal castellax, they gain some rules but also lose some (like being more susceptible to poison). Castellax with a Praevian are probably better, but you are paying for the IC. I can certainly see myself running a unit of 3-5. Also you can use them as bombs against things like 50-strong militia hordes, just launch them into cc and deliberately try to perils and kill them! Boom baby.
ReplyDelete