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The other day Inoticed something cool about the new Necron obelisk/tesseract ark kit.If you make the obelisk you can also build the unbound C'tan, but you will also be left with parts for the canoptek thing that hovers over it in ark model.While I haven't got the kit it seems like it would be pretty easy to turn into a model in its own right. As I've always thought an all canoptek list would be cool, this is my attempt to utilise that model for that end. Oh and apparently thing is called a canoptek sentinel, even though that's almost identicle to the name of the canoptek-like tomb sentinel.

Canoptek Sentinels are ancient and arcane automotons constructed with a single dark purpose: to capture and contain gods. The first Sentinels were deployed at the end of the War in Heaven, to capture and destroy the champions of the Old Ones, but that was not thier key role. When the necrons turned against the C'tan it was t
e sentinels that were used to contain their shattered forms, trapping them in prisons of eldritch energy, compressing their splintered forms and locking them away in dimensional tesseracts, from which there could be no escape. Most still remain at this thankless task but others stalk the shadows, released by tomb worlds only in the most dire situations, ready to capture any beings of power that threaten necron rule.

WS--BS--S--T--W--I--A--Ld--Sv-----Pts 130-- Elite
-4---4---4--6---3--2--2--10--3+
Type: Jump Infantry

Wargear:
Void Blades
Whip Coils
Gloom Prism

Tesseract Failsafe:
If the Canoptek Sentinel loses its last wound select an enemy character in base contact.
The victim must immediately roll equal to or under its remaining wounds on a D6. If the test is failed
remove the victim with no saves of any kind allowed.

Temporal Cage
The Canoptek Sentinel may accept and issue challenges.
The Canoptek Sentinel's 3+ save is Invulnerable against any model it is in a challenge with.
Any successful hits that are saved by the Canoptek Sentinel's Invulnerable save are resolved against the model it is in a challenge with.
The Canoptek Sentinel my forgo its attacks to force the model in the challenge to pass a strength test or be removed as a casualty with no saves of any kind allowed.

So what do you think?
Feedback, particularly on points, would be greatly appreciated. Obviously, as a homebrew, your opponent would have to read this and give the OK, and seeing as how the Sentinel is a character-killer that kind of robs it of some value, but please give your oppinions
First Edit done, made some changes. Price hike and the CC exile ray is now replaces attacks.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:CanoptekSentinel.jpg#.Ufl666O3OTk

110pts seems fair, though playtesting will be the true test of it.

have you condidered mindshackle scarabs instead of the 3+ hits are turned against you? or scarabs that only work in a challenge?

Can a force weapon be activated by the sentinel if it redirects an attack? if so, it's a bit powerful (1 sentinel could destroy most special characters, eg typhus, easily)

the strength test at the end of combat is a bit much, to be honest, I'd change it to either a boost on sweeping advances, or a test if the enemy character loses the challenge - having a challenge at a stanstill because neither side did anything, then whoops sorry ghazkull's gone is a bit much. by all means count reflected hits for combat res (make sure you specify that they count!) so it's easy to win a challenge, but a guaranteed strength test or die is worth a 160pt+ model at least.

instant gibbing characters seems to be a little to OP, even if it dies. Even for a 110pts. It can destroy any Character in combat, insured practically. Justifying the point cost wont help.

I would have to say, instead of instant gibbing characters it imprisons them or something. If you want it how it is, it should be worth 200pts easily.

What about if it can 'steal' a character - if it's against an IC in a challenge, the character rolls a 3d6 test, like the mindshackle scarabs, and if he fails it has a chance to then perform a 'hit and run' jump from combat with the character, and keeps hold of the character 'till it's killed or engaged in combat. it would need to be sent in with another unit, and timed to perfection, and the character would have to accept the challenge, so it would be balanced enough as, excepting lone IC's, the opponent can just say 'no.', plus the sentinel would be assaulted the next turn if it was left unsupported - so a unit that needs to be played well to work, as opposed to 'lets charge that unit with an IC in it!' to win

No, I like the instagibbing, but I think a point raise to 150 would not go amiss, given that this is probably the end-all to challenges.

At T6 and 3W and Jump Infantry, I can't see them getting taken down at range before they reach whoever they want in your army and instantly kill them, and unless they are against guard they will be making their points back almost instantly, before you factor in how much shooting you had to direct to try and stop them etc.

And their having void blades challenges your assertion that they are just for characters. They'll kill regular marines and below just as well.

Thanks for the feedback
The instagibbing thing was something I wasn't sure about tbh. The rule is taken directly from the exile ray, and was meant to represent it trying to crush the enemy into a more controlable form. How about choosing between making attacks using the whips and blades or using the CC exile ray? I think that might be more fair.

I considered using MSS, as they did almost the same thing that I wanted the cage to do, but decided against it. I wanted the rule to represent the attack being used against them by bouncing off the shield or going through a dimensional loop rather than by mind control. Particularly as that wouldn't work against C'tan, but reflecting the power would.

Can a psyker choose not to use their force weapon? If they can then I think the rule is ok, but probably deserves a small price hike. If not, well a necron lord would call that irony, and their own fault for using warp power rather than science. Also it would create a situation where enemy wargear (the gloom prism) could save you. If they can't then a bigger price jump is definately in order. The reflected attacks would only be what the character used. And does Typhus not have an Inv. Save?

It was designed specificly as a character-killer, but left fairly easy to kill because of that. Yes, if it reaches a character that character is almost certainly dead, but the word is if. Also anyone who goes around with a squad can have the squad leader take the challenge. I thought that a very specialised unit, exceedingly likely to die in its task or immidiately afterwards, would not need to be too expensive, as it's basicly a 1 shot glass cannon. It would likely be taken by any retinue (barring guard) so it would charge at a deathstar unit, kill the HQ, then be instantly murdered. Or more likely shot up trying to reach the HQ to begin with. Pretty much the only other thing it can do apart from kill HQs is tarpit all character units like nobs or wolfguard. Yes they could attack marines but they have all of three attacks on the charge.

A points hike is definately in order, and I think I'll make the CC exile ray a "choose between your attacks and this"
Any more?

RE: my earlier post I misread it and thought this was a unit of three. No earthly idea why that is what came into my head. That's why I was arguing that they were hard to kill. I get it now though, and like it much, much more.

Probably because it looks like a wraith (the unit I based the stats on) and they usually come in 3s.

that seems fair now, the failsafe is a nice touch, makes it much more balanced.

when will the strength test instead of attacks be done?

i'd also suggest it randomly grabbing a model in base contact, like mindshackle scarabs do, so if you're in a combat but there's no challenge, you could suck a guardsman in when you die, it's a failsafe, it won't be picky.

These were some pretty crap gods.
Joking aside, if the character the sentinel is attacking can just deny the challenge so it can do anything, doesnt that make this the easiest to counter unit in the game to counter
As in, say no.
Perhaps if they deny the challenge they have to pass an initiative test or something to represent the scarab going in anyway and them dodging it?

I believe the things on the sides of the Tesseract Ark are called Canoptek Leeches. The Canoptek Sentinel is the wraith-like thing arching over the top of it. The Leeches drain the power from the C'tan while the Sentinel controls the Ark (just looked it up in white dwarf ^^.

Personally I'm not sure about the idea of Canoptek units being that discriminatory. They've never been shown to be especially complex AIs. Seems more likely to me that they'd just plow through whatever unit until they found a model with enough life energy to be worth capturing.

How about, instead of the Challenge/Exile rules, something like this;

Temporal Cage: The Canoptek Sentinel (or Leech) hunts down powerful enemies and captures them for its Masters. Any model that takes a wound from the Sentinel's close-combat or Hammer of Wrath attacks must immediately pass a Strength test or be removed from play with no saves of any kind allowed.

Because you have to take an unsaved wound, this means that the Cage has no effect on one-wound models - the Sentinel only bothers capturing more powerful enemies, as it presumably has limited storage space.

Tesseract Failsafe: If the Sentinel loses its last wound, immediately roll 2d6. A number of wounds worth of models within 3" of the Sentinel are immediately removed from play with no saves of any kind allowed. Only whole models may be removed in this manner - if two wounds are to be removed, but the only model within 3" has three wounds remaining, it is unharmed.

I'd only have d6 on that roll, most big models only have 3 wounds anyway, so 2d6 pretty much guarantees a vortex hit on everyone nearby - suicide units like this aren't a good idea - just charge the big terminator unit, let 'em kill you and boom, they're gone.

i'd just go for a random model in base contact is sucked out of existence - chances are, if the opponent knows what he's facing, it won't be a character. perhaps 'one model in base contact is randomly selected, and must roll on a d6 equal to or lower than their remaining wounds to survive', like the tesseract labyrinth combined with mindshackle scarabs. it has a chance of destroying monsters, as long as they're hurt, and an almost guarantee of sucking a basic infantryman to their doom.

I don't have that WD, but this was meant to represent the wraith-y thing hovering over the C'tan. I thought the Leeches constantly repaired the Ark due to the C'tan wearing it down with power. Also the leeches are a continuous part of the sides of the ark (on the sprue) so you'd either have to cut them off or make a mould, rather than just using the spare bits from an Obelisk.

I made it discriminate because it's designed to hunt down the bad and the powerful, and has been given some sort of threat evaluation matrix to do this. "Can anything here rip open a monolith with their hands? No? Forget it, move on" but I agree it needs to have some non-character based tools as well. Particularly so you can't just defeat it/make it useless by saying "nope". Not just removing a random model in base contact though.

The tesseract failsafe I think I will restrict to the model in the challenge. If it's strong enough to kill the Sentinel while in an energy cage that sends all blocked hits back at it then it should probably be captured. If it's some guy running up behind it and sticking a melta bomb on the Sentinel then that's just bad luck and a crappy AI.