4/5 stars. The Night Haunter returns to second edition with style.
Background.
Cursed with psychic premonitions. Alone as a child on a gang controlled criminal world. And with a keen sense of bringing judgement to those the Emperor would see sanctioned, Konrad was almost a breed set apart from his kin. With a bit more humanity in him, he could have been very similar to Corax, but as it turned out, darkness, fear and terror were his boots, gloves and coat.
Strengths.
As Sire of the Night Lords, he spreads Night Vision to his sons for reasons inadequately explored, and also bloody murder which is nice. In addition they also gain Fear, presumably because he inspires them. The reaction bonus to movement is solid.
Konrad has a small slew of special rules including Hit and Run, and Fear (3). The King of Terrors is notable here for forcing a pinning test to anyone who sees him win a combat. Presumably because it is always gruesome even by the grim dark setting's standards.
He has a very minor psychic power based on him knowing of his death against Ld=7 to activate. On success, he can gain rules like feel no pain and A+1 hence its worth considering, especially if you can ride out a perils of the warp.
The stat line is good with WS=8 which is fantastic. His armour is solid like his brothers, and grants him a +12 to move when running instead of the usual initiative bonus while also ignoring dangerous terrain and any movement modifiers. His weapons provide shred and murderous strike at AP=2 while his side arm is excellent with rending assault=3 shooting at very short range.
Weaknesses.
He brings a combination of army boosts and personal capability to the battlefield. Against his brothers he is middle of the rankings in terms of how good he might be against them. As a primarch, he is, naturally, crazy deadly and can take on every kind of infantry imaginable and probably win. You might want a different solution for land raiders though as he lacks melta. He will also struggle to keep up with jump infantry.
Overall.
I like what I see!
Difference to First Edition.
Improved to my mind. Now, we might argue that he has lost his jump pack and jump ability. But his movement here is swift enough to remain deadly and problematic to opponents on foot otherwise. With 8 base attacks he is incredible in close combat against most infantry. But his shooting got a bit worse here.
I think that Curze is not only massively improved compared to first edition, he's one of the best Primarch in the game!! Starting from his amazing statline with I7 and A7 (that even Sanguinius lacks), useful rules like Hit&Run and a massive Fear (3) and his Sire of NL that grants a discount bloody murder to everyone, not only Indipendent Characters he's already great. King of terrors can swing entire turns on its own and thanks to his armour he can easily be in melee from the second turn...then the icing on the cake are his talons coupled with his psychic power: his damage output is huge (amazing even against Dreadnoughts thanks to Shred and Murderous Strike) and against other Primarchs that lacks instant death his 4++ coupled with the 4+ FnP can tank an impressive amount of damage...I honestly fear him way more than previous edition and in my opinion he is way stronger than what he should be according to the lore
ReplyDeleteI agree that he is stronger than the lore would otherwise suggest for him. I really need to undertake sibling battles for the Primarchs at some stage and get the math-hammer done! :)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see that!!! To me Horus Heresy is mostly about clashes between major characters so I'm totally in, even if you need some help!!
Deleteas an expert butcher, I would have hoped for the brutal rule, because of this rule I have often lost against other primarchs such as the wolf...
ReplyDelete