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So was looking over the new Codex, and got to thinking.
Would it be a good idea to take a court of four Harbingers of the Storm (for the Voltaic Staves), one with Lightning Field in case they get charged, a Resurrection Orb-equipped Lord to babysit them, and a Harbinger of Despair with a Veil of Darkness to play taxi (or even Vargard Obyron so I can pull them out of combat)?
Teleport them around, unleash Haywirey death all over whatever target I need to.

Too many points? Too fragile? Need to teleport too close to targets to be mishap-safe? Just not worth it?

What do you think?

Don't forget, you don't have any reliable way of getting to exactly where you want to. So if you teleport around that much, you will inevitably scatter sooner or later.

If you scatter away from him such that you are more than 12 inches away, then the voltiac staffs become useless. If you suffer a scatter mishap... then a whole load of points is in danger.

And if you solo teleport somewhere with juicy armor, its likely his whole army is there as well. If you have no other backup support, you will get shot at and assaulted by his whole army after you teleport in.

If its a throwaway unit just to get at one big juicy armor. You need to keep it cheap. But it is literally an entire royal court, so its not going to be that cheap ...

I will give you a cheap example. Chas space marines can field a 3 man terminator squad all with combi meltas. It costs only 105 points. They deep strike in, fire 3 melta shots at one armor target, and will have a high likelihood of killing it, then they most likely die. But its just 105 points.

Your squad is going to be at least 200 points if its a normal lord, and 300 points if its an overlord or more if it has an SC. Which means it can't really be used as a throwaway sqaud.

Ghost arks make the most sense for transporting royal courts, followed by suicide drops from night scythes. The VoD is a good escape hatch to keep a lance/harp court out of assault range, but it's too risky for 12" weapons, IMO.

Voltaic staffs are not that great, IMO. They function as haywire grenades, which will most likely result in a glance. So, you will likely get a few glances on one single vehicle, after all that effort. You can do the same damage in other better, less fragile, and cheaper ways.

Overall, not worth it, IMO.

voltaic staffs are unique wargear to the cryptek. you can not take more than one per court

mezorgon1234 wrote:voltaic staffs are unique wargear to the cryptek. you can not take more than one per court

No, they come standard with the Harbinger of the Storm upgrade. The Lightning Field and the crystal that screws with deep striking at the actual unique wargear.

As for only getting a couple glances, each staff does get 4 shots.

I do think the short range is an issue, though.

Oh well, worth the thought.