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To a Dark Eldar, no resource is unusable, no process beyond their daring, and no Dark Eldar as dastardly as Vect himself. Over the years Vect has accumulated vast quantities of Wraithbone and even the captured souls of Eldar from various sorces, for many small isolated craftworlds ply the depths of space and to the Dark Eldar these weakling kin are nothing but resources to be used. The Castigors are one of Vects most powerful weapons, legions of Wraithbone Crafted bodies not dissimilar to Wraithguard march under his word, each shell animated by an Eldar Soul locked within a Soulstone and each Soul experiencing each battle as if it was their last in life, each Eldar believing they battle their most hated foe as they act out Vect's commands. These are his Castagors, slighter in frame but more lithe and clad in the spiked armour the Dark Eldar favour, carrying short ranged Distort Whips or a Pair of Vibro Claws they rib apart Vect's enemies. These are some of his most potent weapons against his own kind, for Dark Eldar weaponry rely on pain to incapacitate the bodies of their prey while closing in for the kill, the Castigors feel not pain and their bodies are not their own. Commaragh trembles when the Castigors march to Vect's Warhorn.

Ws 4 Bs 4 S 5 T 5 W 1 I 5 A 2 Ld 10 Sv 4+ 40pts each.

Wargear: Distort Whip ( Rang 8'' Str 10 Ap 2 Assault 1, Distort OR Rng Melee Str User Ap 2)
Spiked carapace (Close Combat hit's of a 1 directed at the Castigors result in a Str 3 Ap - hit against the attacking model.

Special Rules: Ancient Doom, Bulky, Fearless.

Any model may replace it's Distort Whip for a pair of Vibro Claws for free. (Rng Melee, Str User, Ap 4 Armourbane, Shred)

These where included in the novel Path of the Archon and wanted to make some rules for them, what do you think?

Haven't gotten through that novel yet, but my first observation is that Wraithguard have to pick and choose between having S10/AP2 shooting and AP2 close combat and are still stuck with Unwieldy in melee, I'd advise lowering the Strength of the ranged attack and giving them Unwieldy or dropping back to AP3 in melee for balance reasons.

So...a unit of guys with an S10 AP2 assault weapon AND 2-3 S5 AP2 at I5 melee attacks?

These guys are at about a 25 on a scale of 10.

 curran12 wrote:
So...a unit of guys with an S10 AP2 assault weapon AND 2-3 S5 AP2 at I5 melee attacks?

These guys are at about a 25 on a scale of 10.

Eight inch range and T5/1W/4+/no Inv does mitigate it a tad but stick them in the Dais and you've got a nightmarishly scary unit.

I wanted the Distort Whip to keep the same stat line as other distort weapons for consistency reasons, but i think now i should make them strength User. What if i made the Vibro Claws the base weapon and the Distort Whips where 10pt upgrade per guy while dropping the base price to 35. Remember these are based off of Wraithguard, who swap 1 Toughness and 1 Save for +1 Initiative and +1 Attack in true Dark Eldar style. Would they be a bit fairer then?

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
I wanted the Distort Whip to keep the same stat line as other distort weapons for consistency reasons, but i think now i should make them strength User. What if i made the Vibro Claws the base weapon and the Distort Whips where 10pt upgrade per guy while dropping the base price to 35. Remember these are based off of Wraithguard, who swap 1 Toughness and 1 Save for +1 Initiative and +1 Attack in true Dark Eldar style. Would they be a bit fairer then?

Consistency?

There's a little flaw in that line as neither wraith weapon can be both an amazing shooting weapon AND an amazing melee weapon at the same time. Likewise, simply copying over from one codex to another does not really work because of the differences between Eldar and Dark Eldar playstyles. After all, with this, I can load up fast, open topped transports and have insane firepower right in my opponent's face or assault range. Quite frankly, as they are, there is absolutely no point to NOT take the whips, as they are demonstrably superior in any way to any other weapon.

I didn't intend it to be a copy and paste, I was simply trying to translate the creatures portrayed in the book into rule form. They where described as having Distort Weapons, so i took the most common D-Weapon Stats, they where described as Lither and Less Armoured but more Spikey (of course...) then Wraithguard, so i tried to show that. But i do realize now where my math went wrong, 1 12'' Wraith Cannon shot does not equal 1 8'' Wraith Cannon shot + 2 Attacks in close combat. So how does this work out? Tried to make it so the Vibro-Claws are now an option, and rewards having bigger units to give you incentive not to put them in a Raider.

Ws 4 Bs 4 S 5 T 5 W 1 I 5 A 2 Ld 10 Sv 4+ 40pts each.

Wargear: Distort Whip

Spiked carapace (Close Combat hit's of a 1 directed at the Castigors result in a Str 3 Ap - hit against the attacking model.
Special Rules: Ancient Doom, Bulky, Fearless.

Any model may replace it's Distort Whip for a pair of Vibro Claws for free

Vibro Claws: Melee Str User, Ap 5 Vibro-Synchronization*

Distort Whip: Rng 6'' Str 5 Ap 2 Assault 1, Distort

OR Melee Str User Ap 2, Lash**

*In a combat containing any model with this rule then all successful to hit rolls made by them should be put to one side and counted before rolling to wound, then apply the following bonuses based on how many hits.

6+ Successful hits: All to wound rolls benifit from Shred
12+ Successful hits: All wounds are counted as AP 3
18+ Successful hits: All hits benefit from the USR Armourbane

**A model with the Lash Special rule may only ever make a single attack, regardless of multipliers.

Does that look better? You would take Claws for a viable Brawler unit, but the problem is in a unit of 5 (the amount to fit in a Raider) at most you are getting 20 attacks on the charge, so the higher levels are unlikely, which promotes bigger foot slogging units. While the Whips are short range and only have a single shot + attack, I would say that 1 6 inch shot + 1 half Str attack = 1 shot at 12'' in my eyes.

Does that loo more agreeable?