Overly excited about Apocolypse, I've been prepping my armies for large point games. Between bargain bins, trades, and foolish purchases, I've ammassed all four of the
IG special characters, yet I've never used any of them. I ran through the codex, and I came up with a few thoughts. If anybody has any experience or wisdom they can share, I'd love to hear it.
Creed/Kell:
These guys seem to be the class of the bunch. For about the cost of a hellhound, you get two independent characters, a regimental standard, and the master strategist rule. While both models have the Iron Discipline rule, and Kell is mentioned as having "all the priviliges of being an officer, including the Command rule," there is no command rule. There is the leadership rule that Officers have, and while I assumed that these guys have it,
RAW, they do not.
Pros:
- Second standard, including the regimental (+1 combat res within 6"
- Kell can die for no points loss
- Kell is WS5, with 3 base attacks, a power weapon and a power fist. Coupled with carapace armor and a medallion crimson, he can dish some damage and survive a round of punching from anything not too scary.
- Creed lets you take the better table edge, or have a 75% chance of winning first turn, both essential to IG
- Creed puts out a LD 10 bubble (maybe)
- The two can seperate, putting kell where it is dangerous and Creed where it is safe.
- Cadian doctrines are decent (ID and sharpshooters are two of the big four, grenadiers, conscripts and stormtroopers aren't awful)
Cons:
- coupled with a bare bones command HQ, that's 200pts tied into units that can't shoot.
- without the leadership rule, the duo become far less good.
- kell is little more than a powerful speedbump
- Creed is worthless in a fight.
- You must use the Cadian doctrines to take him
Bottomline: For any
SAFH, the cadian doctrines and Creed offer enhanced leadership support and a disposable countercharge
IC for a reasonable price. The larger the point size of the game, and the table it's played on, the better these guys get.
Commissar Yarrick:
the oldest special character yet in the codex, Yarrick doesn't seem to have a point. he can't join any squad with an
IC, so he can't make a command
HQ fearless. He doesn't provide any strategic advantage like Creed, and while he's punchy in
HtH, he's as expensive as a Grey knigh grandmaster, and not nearly as powerful. The force field is potent, abale to keep him alive from a flurry of small blows, and even powerfists get weakened by it. It's still only a stall, and while his powerclaw can clear some room, he's going to get dragged down by any dedicated assault squad.
Bottomline: Just not worth it.
Gaunt:
the cheapest of the special characters, Gaunt provides his greatest benefit to a Tanith army, granting +1 attack to all tanith models when he charges into
HtH. Even in a standard army, he gets 6 attacks on the charge at WS5 and S4, he can make any squad he joins fearless, and He gets the leadership rule, sharing
LD 10 in a 12" bubble. There are some nasty combos you can use with this guy, from attaching him to an anti-tank squad to keep them from breaking, to using him solo to provide
LD and countercharge to a flank, to simply keeping him around to keep the command
HQ fearless.
Bottomline: While limited by the nature of
IG statlines, he's cheap enough to provide plenty of utility, even to a non-tanith army. While not as punchy as
RRs, he's far safer from shooting.
Last Chancers:
This box set was the first
IG models I painted, and I've still never used them. The current rules seem cool, but far too complicated for a review.
Feel free to agree, disagree, point out things I missed, etc.
