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This guy has a brilliant stat line but his sword makes him so easy to kill giving the enemy FC and re rolls to wound is he worth having in your army?


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Help me!

Personally yes ive used crowe non competitively and he makes purifers troops which is insane as they have 2A cleansing flame,fearless and cheaper weapons.,
his weakness is hes not a independant character which means hes an easy target however best way to use him is as a missile towards a horde of 4+ saves or worse or to rapier strike characters (i got lucky and wiped vect before he even struck I 10) or by self sacrificing him.
either way if you build your army around him hes great!

I use Crowe, because I want to have purifiers as troops.

In my opinion, he is poor choice otherwise because he is not IC and doesn't have Force weapon. 4+ Rend is often better than S4 power weapon, so that's not an issue

As far as being easy to kill in CC, that is only if you allow enemy to charge him. And the bonus he gives is FC + re-roll failed to hit rolls, not to wound rolls.

Even though he only has 6" + 6" move + assault, as lone individual it should be pretty easy to protect him from charge, unless your enemies have lots of jump troops or beasts/cavalry.

Also remember that you can always choose to use blade shield + cleansing flame. This (or even leaving sometimes leaving the cleansing flame off) is often good tactic when you charge a unit and want them to stay alive and unbroken so that enemy cannot just shoot Crowe.

Crowe is cool just have to figure out what your plan for him is. In kp I'd suggest hiding him but in objectives you can use him and his heroic sacrifice to try to remove a troublesome character, etc.

If you could get him into CC he could conceivably use parry and cast CF each turn, giving him a rerollable 2+4++ and a 50% chance to wound every model in the opposing unit before they can strike

Nothing to sneeze at even against MEQs, granted because of that he should be shot down quickly

Perhaps at best an interesting distraction or if your opponent ignores him he could be a real headache

I have had a lot of success with reserving him. Most armies I play against are marines in rhinos that know small units of GK in transports fall quickly to a charge by BA assault squads and grey hunters. He works as a great counter attack that can hit a weak spot and turn a table quarter.

If going against IG or a gunline he can hide behind a tank easily and then slaughter guardsmen.

He isn't an easy button, and he does have several weaknesses, but at only 150 his possibility for removing anything off the table, making purifiers troops, and being excellent vs IC he has a few uses and tactics that can be exploited with experience (and lucky dice rolls)

he makes purifiers troops, which is awesome. Otherwise he sucks. In a large enough game you are going to take enough purifiers to make it worth it. Otherwise dance him around and try not to make his life a waste.

I can see Crowe's purpose in life. He has a good effective set of skills and he does make purifiers troops.

That alone is enough to take him.

Not being an IC CAN be a problem, but he usually isn't hard to get into combat. A lot of people try to hide him, this isn't correct: He is a throw-away. Throw him into combat so that your marines can live. `

Remember that although he cannot join a squad, he can still hide 'in it' [make the soldiers surround him]. This has the negative effect of allowing your opponent to charge your squad and get furious.

Also, he is good against squads with furious charge. HE absolutely owns tactical marines as well (he gets at least 2 kills a turn, most times.) Plus he purifying flames your opponent when he gets into combat!

It's worth taking Crowe if you want a Purifier list other wise no, Crowe is rubbish.

Read the battlereps jy2 puts out, crowe can hold his own played correctly

Can I complain that Crowe is too close to Purifiers?
I think I just mean you take him to kill orks.

Zid wrote:Read the battlereps jy2 puts out, crowe can hold his own played correctly

As a quick over view, what exactly does he do what's so different?

mercer wrote:As a quick over view, what exactly does he do what's so different?

He uses Crowe pretty aggressively, mostly to slaughter backfield units or contest objectives.
Grabbing a Purifier's rhino on Turn 1 helps with getting Crowe where he wants him.
His is also the first batrep I read about skipping cleansing flame on the turn you assault, use the re-roll saves ability, then go for all out slaughter on your opponents turn - to save him from shooting.

Do not forget he can sac himself bascially to kill a big character or main HQ.....its overlooked but he can do this, so for 150 points has the potential to easily make them up. Yea hes easy to kill but many run him with purifier spam and he can easily just hide behind a ton of advancing rhinos. He is small enough that you cannot see him so he cant be targeted.

Castellan Crowe is my torpedo of choice. He has meant a great deal to my army.

I often load him into a Rhino and blast him forward. Unfortunately, the enmy can ill afford to ignore him. also unfortunately (for them) he is very unlikely to be wounded when popped out of his transport. and if you fail to stop his rhino, it's gonna' be an excellent day for Crowe.

In my last tourney, here were the hilites:

Game 1: Imperial Guard. I reserved crowe and when Al raheim came in to try and get himself some objective action, Crowe showed up and blasted his unit with Fire While parrying. Then he did it again to the next unit. Then he hopped in a rhino. Then he did it again. Then he died. 3 KP's. Awesome.

Game 2: Dawn of War against Grey Knights: Crowe snuck around the right flank and hid behind a building and because of where objectives were, the enemy couldn't pull away to go deal with him immediately as my other firepower was pressing down on him. He was doing what he could to keep his troops alive until the end so he could take theobjective he was on. Crowe snuck out at games end and pulled the enemy unit off its objective because he just couldn't get far enough away from the building and still hold the objective. I win! Like a shadow in the mind he creeps and yet you fear to face him...

Game 3: Space Wolves: again Crowe went into a Rhino in Spearhead deployment (obejectives set i nthe unoccupied quadrants). Crowe managed to kill an outflanking scout squad, then late in the game killed a Lonewolf and his cronies and very nearly allowed me to win the game. I lost, but 2 KP's for Crowe before he died. Both were meaninful and important to the game. It was my other objective that was the prbolem. had it tied with 7 minutes left and we decided to try for one more round and he managed to kill a Rhino with a Krak Grenade. Bummer.

So Yeah. Big Crowe fan. Against mobs, he's just silly.

Crowe is a throwaway unit. He is dirt cheap for an HQ and makes the most awsome unit in the codex troops.

Anything he accomplishes during the game is just a bonus.


If he dies to shooting, my opponent wasted his shooting on him and not my other units.

If he makes it into combat he can be a real pain. He tarpits better then anything else while Cleansing Flame can do some real damage to hordes.


I use him as either a tarpit/crowd control OR I send him into the biggest baddest enemy nasty so he can use Heroic Sacrific. If he does this he will always make his points back and often remove a pivotal part of the enemies battleplan.

Basically, have fun with him. I make a big deal about him, about how he's going to troll your entire army and just be annoying. Psycological Warfare basically.

It causes the most irrational reactions in people. They devote tones of attention to him.



I would gladly pay another 50 points for what he does. He's just that awsome.

no, Purifiers are the WORST troop in the game.

Smitty0305 wrote:no, Purifiers are the WORST troop in the game.

If you really want to be that dirty, dirty hobo, you can RAW Crowe's CF to rend on a 4+... It all comes down to the argument of what consitutes a 'to-wound' roll.

But, if you do pull that, don't expect to have too many friends left afterwards!

Experiment 626 wrote:If you really want to be that dirty, dirty hobo, you can RAW Crowe's CF to rend on a 4+... It all comes down to the argument of what consitutes a 'to-wound' roll.

But, if you do pull that, don't expect to have too many friends left afterwards!

No, you can't. That argument has zero basis in the rules. There was a thread in YMDC recently with the same idea.

Cleansing Flame wounds on a 4+, Crowes CC attacks rend on a 4+ to wound, Cleansing Flame is a CC attack.

Whats the argument against it?

Grey Templar wrote:Cleansing Flame wounds on a 4+, Crowes CC attacks rend on a 4+ to wound, Cleansing Flame is a CC attack.

Whats the argument against it?

Cleansing flame does NOT wound on 4+. Cleansing flame causes one wound on 4+. Completely different things.

"If the Psychic test is passed, all enemy models that are part of the same assault suffer one wound on a roll of 4+." C:GK, pg 31

Grey Templar wrote:Cleansing Flame wounds on a 4+, Crowes CC attacks rend on a 4+ to wound, Cleansing Flame is a CC attack.

Whats the argument against it?

The proper definition of what constitutes a proper 'to-wound' roll.

Like I said, you can argue it and abuse clensing flame with crowe, but you're a dirty, filthy hobo if you do because it is a total grey area and likely wasn't intended to work that way. At the very least it needs to be asked & clarified in the FAQ because it could easily make Crowe into an absolutely under-costed beast!
Now, if in the next FAQ update GW decides to let it work like that?!

Experiment 626 wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:Cleansing Flame wounds on a 4+, Crowes CC attacks rend on a 4+ to wound, Cleansing Flame is a CC attack.

Whats the argument against it?

The proper definition of what constitutes a proper 'to-wound' roll.

Like I said, you can argue it and abuse clensing flame with crowe, but you're a dirty, filthy hobo if you do because it is a total grey area and likely wasn't intended to work that way. At the very least it needs to be asked & clarified in the FAQ because it could easily make Crowe into an absolutely under-costed beast!
Now, if in the next FAQ update GW decides to let it work like that?!

*sigh*.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/436657.page#4033768

rigeld2 wrote:

Redemption wrote:Hmm, a member of another forum mentioned Sniper weapons. They also have the wording 'wound on a roll of 4+' instead of a 'to Wound roll', and are also Rending. Same with poisoned weapons.

Sniper weapons roll to hit, then roll to wound - they successfully wound on a to wound roll of a 4+, rending on a 6.
Same with Poison weapons.

Cleansing Flame rolls a bunch of dice, and causes a wound if the dice come up a 4+. That's not a To Wound roll, it's a Cleansing Flame roll that causes wounds.

You can't argue it - well, you can but you'd be wrong. It's not a grey area.

wait....i read this a couple times and i am a little confused. Is someone trying to say that cleansing flame is rending? Lol.

Note to self: bring ridiculometer to next tourney in case judges dont bring theirs.

RAW, Crowe's Cleansing Flame is rending.

Its a Close Combat attack that rolls to wound, always wounding on 4+

All of Crowe's CC attacks have the Rending Special rule and rend on a 4+

Therefore, putting 2 and 2 together results in Crowe's Cleansing Flame attacks wounding on 4+ and also Rending on a 4+, which basically means on a 4+ he causes a wound with no Armor saves allowed.

Lol. No. And more no.

Luide wrote: 4+ Rend is often better than S4 power weapon

And when you say "often", you mean "half-the-time". 4+, you know....

Grey Templar wrote:RAW, Crowe's Cleansing Flame is rending.

Its a Close Combat attack that rolls to wound, always wounding on 4+

All of Crowe's CC attacks have the Rending Special rule and rend on a 4+

Therefore, putting 2 and 2 together results in Crowe's Cleansing Flame attacks wounding on 4+ and also Rending on a 4+, which basically means on a 4+ he causes a wound with no Armor saves allowed.

Yep, per the codex his close combat attacks Rend of 4+, and per the FAQ Cleansing Flame is a close combat attack

Well, I for one am NOT going to be doing that to MY opponents. I've used Crowe a lot and he is a great little 2-wounder. But he's not going to be played that way when i am controlling him; and my opponent is most definitely going to be rolling off if he wants to try that with me.

Winning isn't THAT important. That something COULD be plausible isn't carte blanche permission to "go with it". Yikes.

Grey Templar wrote:RAW, Crowe's Cleansing Flame is rending.

Its a Close Combat attack that rolls to wound, always wounding on 4+

False.
Cleansing Flame causes a wound on a 4+ and is a close combat attack.

All of Crowe's CC attacks have the Rending Special rule and rend on a 4+

And Rending happens on to-wound rolls. Guess what Cleansing Flame doesn't do? (hint - causing a wound and a to-wound roll are different things)

Feel free to bring it up in YMDC again. Or search for the last thread about it. Either way, you're wrong.