Quick-fingered Warlord Moderatus
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The following article is based almost purely on Theory-hammer and a touch of math-hammer. This is my first time going in-depth into unit analysis, so any Constructive criticism would be most welcome.
In light of the big uglies – that is, the Centurions – and their abilities, I began to wonder if they’re really any good on the tabletop. Having never played against them as of now, I haven't an accurate idea of how they work. Then I remembered there were many people on the forums who said that Assault Cents and Devastator Cents are somewhat comparable to Mutilators and Obliterators. With this in mind, perhaps a good way of judging this unit is through good ol’ fashion compare and contrast.
For now, I will be comparing the Devastator Centurion and its Chaos-cousin the Obliterator. More comparisons may follow soon after.
Now then, let’s look at basic stats, wargear, special rules, and options for each unit:
Devastator Centurion (rank and file)
WS4 BS4 S5 T5 W2 I4 A1 Ld8 Sv2+
(Sergeant)
WS4 BS4 S5 T5 W2 I4 A2 Ld9 Sv2+
TL Heavy-bolter, Hurricane bolter
ATSKNF
Chapter Tactics
Slow and Purposeful
Very Bulky
Decimator Protocols
Obliterator
WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W2 I4 A2 Ld8 Sv2+
Fleshmetal, Powerfist
Daemon
Bulky
Deep Strike
Slow and Purposeful
Obliterator Weapons
BASIC STATS
Overall, it’s a little iffy to say, really. Against ranged shooting, the Centurions have more survivability due to their T5, meaning only S10 weapons can insta-gib them. In the meantime, a S8 or higher weapon can do the same to an Oblit. Cents in this regard have a higher chance of soaking up hits before dishing them out in return. However, both units (again, using just this basic stat line) will undoubtedly suffer against plasma and melta weapons. Given enough time and shots, they will wear down both units. Without the 5+ invul. save, Centurions will die. Obliterators, with their Daemon USR, have a somewhat higher survival rate. This makes the Centurions akin to not-Terminators, while the Obliterators retain the true TEQ title.
The Centurions have one less attack than the Obliterator, which is a disadvantage should these guys get the misfortune of being assaulted (Why would you charge them?). Both units would suffer against AP2 or lower melee weapons, but would otherwise see a slow, slow death by tarpit. However, Oblits do better in this regard due to their Daemon USR, which gives them a 5+ invulnerable save. Remember: Obliterators = Terminators; Centurions = not-Terminators, and that makes them more vulnerable if the opponent really makes a concentrated effort to wipe them out in melee. Normally, I would say S5 would give them more of an advantage, were it not for their…
STARTING WARGEAR
The Centurion sports as its starting wargear a TL HB and a Hurricane Bolter – 3 twin-linked shots 25-36”, 6 TL shots 13-24”, and 9 TL shots 0-12”. This really makes them shine against horde armies, such as Orks or Imperial guard blobs. Both the bolters and heavy bolters have the added bonus against most xenos armies (with the exception against Necrons). Against power-armored folk, well… It’s not plasma. Make no mistake, three of these guys with the basic loadout will cause many armor save rolls, but will only drop so many marines, Loyalist or Otherwise. Most competent players will make the most of cover when facing up against these guys, especially if they mean to charge them. Against a dedicated-assault unit, Cents will either die quickly or become bogged down. Their S5 stat doesn’t help either because there’s no AP to aid them in their predicament. Because of this, it is important to make sure that the Centurions are in cover, in a building, or behind another unit acting as CC support.
The only vehicles you could shoot at are anything with 11AV at the most, and fliers pose their own problems against this unit. Because of this, Devastators with basic wargear are delegated as a support unit against hordes, though a rather expensive one compared to other units in C:SM. But I’m getting ahead of myself here…
Obliterators are a swiss army knife unit in the CSM. They have 8 different ranged weapons to choose from:
Assault Cannon, Lascannon, Multi-Melta, Plasma Cannon, Heavy Flamer, TL Flamer, TL Plasma Gun, TL Melta Gun
Five of these weapons can easily drop MEQ and TEQ units given enough time and shots. The same weapons are great threats against any non-flier vehicles if they’ve Deep-Striked close enough. In the meantime, the remainder three (AC, HF, and TL Flamer) are good against lighter-armoured infantry. Even against fliers, there is some chance with the twin-linked weapons they will hit their mark. All this sounds great, with one exception: they cannot shoot the same weapon consecutively. In layman’s terms, an Obliterator unit cannot constantly spam Lascannon shots every turn. They need to switch to a different weapon before swapping back to LC. This can get somewhat frustrating, especially if you have one unit, and you rolled badly on your vehicle penetration with Lascannons against a Land Raider, and you’re not within range of any other weapon. On the flip-side, they have at their disposal 2 attacks with a powerfist. Though it means they will always strike at Initiative 1, Oblits still have the (slight) chance to break a tarpit and continue in the role they are meant for (murdering at any enemy unit with the appropriate gun), though they still suffer against dedicated-assault units.
In comparing with the Centurions, however, it is clear to say that only three of their weapons are twin-linked, while both bolter weapons the uglies sport are. Despite this advantage, Oblit weapons actually have the capacity to drop more marines than their Loyalist counterparts.
SPECIAL RULES
The Centurions and the Obliterators are alike in their special rules in that they can both fire any of their weapons at full ballistic skill even if they moved. This is especially useful for the Cents’ upgrade to Grav-cannons, but more on that later. What’s more, they can charge after firing Heavy, rapid-fire, salvo, or ordinance weapons (again, why would you charge with either one?). This also means they are not allowed to Run, Sweep, or fire Overwatch. I tend to think of S&P to be the watered down version of Relentless. It’s a shame both units don’t have the latter special rule, but such is the nature of the game. From there, special rules will deviate wildly.
Centurions possess a few rather nifty special rules. Along with ATSKNF and the versatile Chapter Tactics, they are counted as Very Bulky and have Decimator Protocols. As shown before, Decimator Protocols allows them to fire two different weapons in the same shooting phase, which can be quite nifty with the appropriate mix of different weapons. A huge downside? The Very Bulky rule. As they count for three models for Transport purposes, you can only stuff three of them into a vanilla Land Raider. Now, you can put four Cents into a Redeemer and five into a Crusader, however you must look at the glaring problem with this: points cost.
A squad of three naked Cents costs 190 points. Purchasing a Vanilla Raider skyrockets the cost to a whopping 440 points! So, if you’re going to take them, you have two options, really: 1) make them run on foot so they slowly get to their objective, risking Plasma and Melta shots in-between cover and buildings, or 2) eat even more points to buy an effective, yet terribly expensive, transport.
The second option would be reserved only for the Assault Centurions (I will not discuss this at the current time), so it’s not that bad of a choice, really. Still, the Very Bulky and S&P rules (not to mention their physical model size and base) make the Cents cumbersome.
The Oblits, on the other hand? They don’t need a transport, they can Deep Strike! This makes them a very interesting unit, as they can get as far away or as close as they need to be in order to wreak havoc with the enemy. Drop them behind cover in the enemy’s rear, sit back, and watch the fireworks. Bulky means that theoretically, you could put five of them into a Chaos Raider, though for the same reason of points cost you shouldn’t, and you can’t go beyond three anyways.
To aid them against the enemy, Oblits have Fear. This allows for the same survivability as Terminators (Remember what I said? Oblits = Termis), and allows for a chance to cause an enemy units in assault to flee in terror, thus allowing them to mow down the cowards. This, along with having a powerfist, greatly enhances their chances of survival in melee, however small that may actually be.
OPTIONS AND POINTS COST
One basic unit of 2 Cents led by a Sergeant costs 190 points. For 60 each, you can take three more. This will get wicked expensive very quickly, especially if you decide to purchase upgrades as well. In addition, when you start adding more Cents to the squad, you will have to worry about Deployment and Transportation. For now, let’s just stick with three Centurions. Now, for ten points per model, you can replace the storm-bolters for a missile launcher. This is where things get interesting: If one of the Cents gets this, it bolsters their anti-horde and anti-light-vehicle capabilities. What’s more, due to its Decimator Protocols, it can fire both of its weapons at the same time. For now, I would say to just take one missile launcher per unit.
For 20 points, Centurions can replace their heavy-bolters with TL Lascannons or a Grav Cannon and Grav Amp. With the Lascannons, Cents turn into a solid anti-armor unit. Because the Lascannons are twin-linked, it represents a greater opportunity to puncture and destroy tanks (Land Raiders, however, might pose more of a problem, surprisingly enough).
Now, it’s time to look at the Grav Cannon.
For the same price as TL Lascannons, you get a 3/5 Salvo Weapon that wounds based on the target’s armor value. This is a really interesting mechanic, as it will almost guarantee wiping out entire swathes of MEQs and outright killing TEQs. What’s more, Slow and Purposeful lets you fire all 5 shots even while you move into position. The downside? It’s ONLY good at killing MEQs and TEQs. Now this can be good or bad, depending on your local meta. Myself, I don’t run into Marine armies all that often, so I wouldn’t equip them with grav weapons. The other part? 24” Range. So, with the Grav-cannon and Amp, this puts your Cents at mid-range firefights against heavy-armored infantry. With this in mind, your opponent will try to keep his marines well away from a grav-cannon unit while chipping away wounds at a distance. With this load-out, you could either put them at the forefront of a lance attack straight into the enemy lines, backed up by support units and anti-cc units, or something akin to a Distraction Carnifex. Now, with the right transport capabilities, this unit could be a fearsome foe, indeed. We’ll get more into that later.
Oh, and the Grav-cannons have a 1/6th chance of immobilizing a vehicle and taking off a hull point, buuuuuuuuuuut that’s not very effective.
The last option is to give the Sergeant an Omniscope for 10 points, which grants the unit Night Vision and Split-Fire. The Split-Fire ability is very potent, indeed. This would allow a mixed-loadout unit to be viable, as you could do two different jobs at the same time! So, give one Cent Lascannons and the other two bolters; or one Grav-cannon and two Lascannons; or one Grav-cannon and two bolters. It really depends on what two jobs you want your Cents to do.
However, one must exercise caution with different loadouts for Centurions, as this can get very expensive very fast. You need to decide if you have the points to spend on these guys and whether or not they can work well with the rest of your army.
Now, since Obliterators already have a mess of weapons to choose from, the only things left to them are Marks and VotLW. For now, let’s just not worry about VotLW, since you don’t want these guys in close combat, anyways.
For 70 points each, you can up your Obliterators to three-man units. From what I’ve heard from the forums (Dakka, mostly), Oblits are best taken in pairs, and multiples of that if you can spare the points.
Mark of Khorne: …honestly, I don’t see why you would take it. I mean, having Counter-attack will definitely be useful should the unit be charged, but there are better Marks to give these guys.
Mark of Nurgle: Toughness 5? Yes, please! This will make your Oblits invulnerable to Insta-Death except to Strength 10 weapons. Also, good for surviving CC.
Mark of Tzeentch: a 4+ invulnerable save is nothing to sneeze at, especially if you’re worried about your opponent fielding a plethora of AP2 weapons. Another good mark to take to boost your unit.
Mark of Slaanesh: +1 attack and initiative would be great for a close-combat unit, but definitely not for power fists. Don’t bother.
Transportation (Cents only):
As stated before, moving these guys around will be a problem for you: either you spend points for a transport, or you let these guys foot-slog it. For the purposes of survivability, and for expediency, it might be better to take a transport. But which one?
Rhinos and Razorbacks are immediately out, as they cannot transport Bulky or Very Bulky. Which leaves us with a few options:
Land Raider (either one): If you want a solid unit to get to a destination without any problems, the Land Raider is the way to go. However, to transport Centurions? Pretty stupid expensive, if you ask me. Again, unless you have the points to spend/waste, or there is a very specific reason you are taking a Land Raider, you might want to consider something else.
Stormraven: On top of being a flying transport, the Stormraven has some pretty nifty options for itself. Just watch out for plasma and lascannons. As for cost, it’s 30 points less than the cheapest Land Raider, but it’s still a hefty cost to look at. As with above, you must have a very good reason to take one to transport Cents, though it’s a very good flier in its own right. If you don’t have any other fliers in your army, and you want to transport Cents in a relatively safe way, you might as well.
Drop-Pod: This is an option I haven’t heard much of on the forums. There doesn’t seem to be any restrictions on taking Cents in one, and you can definitely fit three of them into one. Not only that, but it makes transportation VERY cheap, indeed, especially if you can compare them to other transport options. With a Drop-Pod, you can give your Cents the Deep-Strike Capability they so desperately need. From here, you can get the drop on a squad of Terminators, or a Riptide, or any other scary unit that has heavy armor. Which is nice, indeed! It has come to my attention that this cannot work, as Drop-Pods are not a dedicated transport for Cents. Guess they're stuck with Stormraven or Land Raider.
CONCLUSION
Comparing Obliterators to Centurions is a bit like comparing apples to oranges in a world where everyone likes apples, and everyone is iffy on the taste and texture. It’s very easy to say that Obliterators are very useful because of their overall versatility. Centurions, while potentially useful, are very job-specific. Fortunately, there are plenty of other units in Space Marines which can do a good job in one field. Each unit is purposed to do one job, and one job only. For Centurions, it can be crowd control against hordes, MEQ and TEQ killers, or vehicles, but not all three at once. The question now is can they perform these jobs better than other Space Marine units, especially in the Heavy Support Slot? Only time (and perhaps another comparison thread) will tell.
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