While I wait for the new software for
my iPhone to download, I suppose I'd better bash out a quick post.
Today moving into the realms of the Special Characters. I'm not going
to do Interrogator-Chaplain Seriphicus or whatever his name is,
because although he's in the FAQ, he's not printed in my Codex, and
his data sheet is over 150 miles away. Thank you GW, for releasing a
£30 book that isn't even complete.
There are 5 Special Characters in this
book, Azrael, Ezekiel, Asmodai, Belial and Sammael. I really feel
like I should start with Azrael, but unfortunately Belial is calling
to me, so let's go through him first.
Belial is middle of the road as far as
the costs of these independent characters go, weighing in at just
under 200pts. He has exactly the same statline as a normal Company
Master but he comes with Terminator armour as standard. So what
exactly are you paying for?
Going through his wargear first, he has
a Teleport Homer, so that Terminators coming in during later turns
can Deep Strike near him much more safely. Tactics wise this probably
isn't such a good idea. If you have multiple hammer units the last
thing that you want is for them to stick together. The whole point of
them is that they are able to smash parts of the opposing force aside
without assistance, and whilst they are stuck together they are just
smashing one part of your opponents force. Doubly hard, granted, but
you can put them to much better use collapsing 2 flanks of your
opponents army rather than 1.
He comes with the Warlord Trait, 'The
Hunt', which means that if Belial and his unit kill the enemy Warlord
in combat you get an additional Victory Point.
He obviously comes with Deathwing
Assault and Inner Circle, but then he gets 3 other special rules on
top of that. First off, he gets vengeful strike like the standard
Deathwing Terminator squads, so his Storm Bolter is twin-linked on
the turn he arrives. Groovy.
Next up, Marked for Retribution, which
allows him to precision shot on a 5+, again, quite nice. The only
problem is that he only has a Storm Bolter, although the precision
shots are still useful, it's not like it's a guaranteed kill with
that thing.
Finally, and this is quite a big one,
he gets Vengeful Strike. When Deep Striking, him and his unit do not
scatter provided that they all have the Inner Circle special rule.
That's extremely useful, especially when coming in with all of those
twin-linked weapons, as you now have a guaranteed angle of fire for
picking off certain models in a unit, and you have some pretty
fearsome shooting capability.
Additionally, and this is the main
reason to take Belial, he makes all Deathwing Terminator squads
Troops choices.
So Belial is pretty good as a Force
Multiplier, but how about his own combat characteristics. His close
combat weapon is called the, 'Sword of Silence', which is a
Master-Crafted Power Sword with Fleshbane. There's only 1 problem
with this, AP3. You might think that this isn't a big deal, after all
it's only Terminators that are immune to it. Well, the problem is
when you do hit Terminators. For example, I have 1 Terminator in each
of my Grey Hunter packs, in my second game at Battlefield Birmingham
my opponent charged my Grey Hunter pack on an objective, he had to
challenge, my Wolf Guard Terminator accepted and slowly beat him up
over the next couple of turns, because the Lord couldn't hurt him.
However, Belial can swap his weapons.
The only problem is that you will have to forgo any shooting ability
on Belial, meaning losing that 5+ precision shot and twin-linked on
arrival, but I would still swap his weapons.
Both of the weapon swap options are
free, and the first is swapping out for dual Lightning Claws. Sure,
you get an additional attack for dual close combat weapons and
re-rolls to hit or wound, but firstly, you were re-rolling 1 die
anyway and wounding on 2s with your previous weapons, and secondly,
this does not solve your problem, as Lightning Claws are AP3 again.
The next option is probably my
favourite, as it does solve your problem. You can swap your Storm
Bolter and Sword for Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield for free. Now,
you do strike at I1, but now you have a 2+ armour save and a 3+
invulnerable. I know I say this a lot but the things that cancel out
your 2+ save generally strike at I1, so you will have your 2+ save to
keep you alive unless your opponent has a horrendous number of
attacks. Even if you do come up against a weapon that is AP2 and
strikes at initiative, then now how have a 3+ invulnerable to keep
yourself kicking until you can hit with your S8 AP2 weapon.
So, in conclusion. I'd say that Belial
is a good buy. Just as a combat beatstick I'd say that he's dubious
for his points, but then you have all of the other Force Multiplier
effects. If you want a Deathwing List, is an autotake, obviously,
because you need him to make your Deathwing Terminators Troops, but
then you're getting into is pure Deathwing the way to go with this
book, I'd probably say not at the minute, but I'll leave that until
the conclusion.
To summarise, when taking into account
his Force Multiplication abilities and the fact that he's decent in
combat, he's definitely worth his points.
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