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1. He has the ability to make your warriors weapons 3+ poisoned. Does this power only help the splinter rifle istelf or all of the splinter rifle weapons?
2. Is he worth taking as he has contraband which allows a roll of 2d6 for combat drugs and he has a poison weapon 2+ to wound 5+ PW. In addition, he has combat drugs.
3. Which units can he join. Does it have to be a unit of warriors (dont have the codex in front of me atm and just checking on this one.)

1) Any ranged weapon with the poison rule
2) If you build a list around everything having drugs, he can definitely give you a much greater chance of extra strength or starting with a pain token
3) He is forced to join warriors or trueborns, however if you have neither on the table he can join anyone (see the FAQ)

nosferatu1001 wrote:1) Any ranged weapon with the poison rule

His rule says any splinter weapons, which would include a shardcarbine, but would not include a necrotoxin missile or a stinger pistol.

Fair enough, thought it was anything poison. Didnt think infantry could take necrotoxins, however?

nosferatu1001 wrote:Fair enough, thought it was anything poison. Didnt think infantry could take necrotoxins, however?

True enough, at least not until Sliscus joins the air corps or the razorwing becomes a transport!

Even if the razorwing became a transport there would be no way for the Duke to upgrade the necrotoxin, no IC can join vehicles(without a special rule, and he has none).

If you stick the duke with trueborn and give that unit a Venom, it's cannons do not get the 3+ poison.

Tomb King wrote:2. Is he worth taking as he has contraband which allows a roll of 2d6 for combat drugs and he has a poison weapon 2+ to wound 5+ PW. In addition, he has combat drugs.

He is worth taking for this, plus you start him with some trueborn with 2 cannons and 7 carbines for some actually CC punch to that unit and ablative wounds, or you detach him and add him to a CC unit to get stuck in and cause some pain.

the 2d6 for the drugs is awesome for your units that use it, as it gives you a better chance of what you want to get, and not getting stuck with what you think is a bad drug.

And don't forget that if you want to, he can make all of your Raiders and Ravagers deepstrike! Even though you will probably come in piecemeal, the ability to load up a bunch of Raiders with warriors or trueborn and have them drop inside rapidfire range and waste some infantry is a serious psychout tactic to some people!!! That and if you get lucky and can deepstrike your ravagers BEHIND your enemies aromr, it is a good chance for an easy kill shot!!!!

Galador wrote:

Tomb King wrote:2. Is he worth taking as he has contraband which allows a roll of 2d6 for combat drugs and he has a poison weapon 2+ to wound 5+ PW. In addition, he has combat drugs.

He is worth taking for this, plus you start him with some trueborn with 2 cannons and 7 carbines for some actually CC punch to that unit and ablative wounds, or you detach him and add him to a CC unit to get stuck in and cause some pain.

I wouldn't bother with the cannons, its an extra 5pts on an expensive unit for what'll probably be an extra shot. No, IMO, worth the cost. Though I guess if you have the points YMMV

And don't forget that if you want to, he can make all of your Raiders and Ravagers deepstrike! Even though you will probably come in piecemeal, the ability to load up a bunch of Raiders with warriors or trueborn and have them drop inside rapidfire range and waste some infantry is a serious psychout tactic to some people!!! That and if you get lucky and can deepstrike your ravagers BEHIND your enemies aromr, it is a good chance for an easy kill shot!!!!

Brilliant idea, don't forget that because of the aerial assault rule ravagers can fire all three weapons when they arive!

Thats awesome. I was playing it that only the splinter rifles and pistol themselves got the upgrade as some can see it that way. For example the First Rank fire second rank fire for IG is only the lasgun itself.

That is because they stated "lasgun", which is only a single weapon, rather than a type of weapon.

Another reason why you might have been confused is because Splinter Racks (an upgrade for the Raiders) only works with those weapons.

I know that before the updated FAQ came out in January, we were playing that if something came in from deep strike in a transport that you could assault out of it if it was open topped or an assault vehicle, and I tell ya, the Duke was very useful at that point!!! He was a much better decision than buying the upgrade to make the Raiders deepstrike, and it kept my opponents guessing where I would come in at and who I would hit first(and of course how late in the game my big bad CC units would show up, seeing as my reserve rolls are horrid!!!!!)

The Duke is a lot better than Retrofire Jets, because of the ability to disembark. The turn you deepstrike, your vehicles are moving at cruising speed, and your passengers are not able to shoot when their vehicle moves at cruising speed.

The only use I can see for Retrofire Jets is to throw them on your Ravagers when you're not taking the Duke, as there's no downside (and considerably cheaper). This would happen if you're like me and want to use the Baron and Haemies.

The Duke is better than retrofire jets, but there's still little reason to deepstrike the vehicles that he let's deepstrike, aside from maybe Ravagers or Venoms. His real benefits come from the drug rolls and to a lesser extend the poisoned (3+) buff to one unit of warriors or trueborn.