Saturday, November 4, 2023

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Knight Castigator

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3.5/5 stars. Rounded up. The rules are solid.

Background.
The Castigator is typically piloted by those venerable scions of a Household who can be relied upon to hold the line and to conserve ammunition when required. The machine spirits of these machines are stoic but no less able than the more impetuous ones in other knights. These knights are favoured by households who face multiple and lesser foes.  

Strengths.
The high movement rate and flank speed are your friends here. The bolt cannon spews out an impressive 18 shots per turn which anyone will find daunting. At S=6, they will certainly do damage, but the AP is not enough to counter space marines - you are literally relying on the rate of fire here to do the work for you. 

Let's do a small amount of mathhammer at this juncture against space marines. At BS=4, 12 out of those 18 shots will hit their targets. 10 out of those 12 will wound. And (rounded down) 3 will kill. Its not enough really, but when followed up by a charge and the tempest warblade whirling around, it could certainly cause a rout. And therein is the key. Get into position. Expend your ammo, and charge right in. The tempest's S=10 and AP2 will certainly add to your tally and cause a Ld test (or wipe) against a smaller space marine squad. But against Imperial Guard or Mechanicum equivalents, this combination is simply golden. 

Weaknesses.
This knight has its place in the roster and it very effective. It might not win every time against a blob of 20 marines in one round, but you might as well try it! I've seen blobs tied up for several rounds against the might of this knight and it is highly effective.

Builds.
There are no builds to speak of. Instead I will note here that the base points cost is reasonable for what you are getting.

2 comments:

  1. Just another thing to take note of - the Castigator bolt cannon is twin-linked, so you will probably score another 4 hits - about 16 on average. That means you'll have about 14 wounds on average. Rounding down, 4 will kill.

    Also, you probably want the Dolorous Household rank upgrade for your Knight Castigator because Knights apparently can't do sweeping advances (the Dolorous upgrade at 35 points increases your WS and allows your Knight to perform Sweeping Advances as per normal), so you normally wouldn't be able to force the Marine squad to take a Leadership test in combat (and they can't be locked in combat with vehicles or a Knight anyhow).

    Don't forget your Stomp attacks! 4+D3 Strength 9 AP2 stomp attacks at Initiative 0 are nothing to scoff at!

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