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In terms of running up and hitting gak which is better?
Gal Vorbak have 20 T:5 wounds for 350 and the Castellax have 12 T:7 wounds for 255.
Gal Vorbak do have 41 attacks on the charge compared to the Castellax's 12.

Seriously?


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They're both some of if not the best elites in the game.


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The is impalpable.
99 views and nothing.
I just wanna know what's better for hitting stuff.

If I could have them in my 40k CSM army, I would say Gal Vorbak are the best. Sadly...

It's hard to judge units like this on statlines. I would say it's the Castellax that are better as beatsticks, but I know someone who uses Gal Vorbak and has had great success.

But you're right, they are both great.

Which FW book are these units from?

 jy2 wrote:
Which FW book are these units from?

Horus Heresy books, the Gal Vorbak are Unique units for Word Bearer armies. (Aka, good possessed)

Ok, thanks.

Sorry, can't help much here. Not familiar with their rules.

Come on.
Anything else?
All I have is that due to the Castellax Maniple's better staying power it's a better beat stick.
Which I already figured.

 ThePrimordial wrote:
Come on.
Anything else?
All I have is that due to the Castellax Maniple's better staying power it's a better beat stick.
Which I already figured.

This question has multiple facets, and that's probably why you are getting almost zero replies.

1. Few people have the expensive HH books.
2. Almost no one plays 30k compared to 40k, hence you will take less than a hundredth the replies.
3. You are talking about a World Bearers only unit, so you are talking about 1 legion out of 21+ armies. I doubt there are 3 HH world bearer players on these boards.
4. You are talking about competitive ability, which is almost anti-thesis to the whole HH play style, which is basically "play fluffy stuff non-seriously". Meaning of those 3 players, you might have ONE that knows about this level of play.
5. Both units are pretty expensive money wise.

That said....my analysis;

-Why compare a maxed out 10 man Gal Vorbak unit to a minimal sized Castellax mantiple? 255 vs 350 points here. 4 Castellax would be a better comparison IMO, but you have to fork out for a Forge Lord as well...so maybe it is a fair-ish comparison.
-The Castellax will need a forge lord....which frankly suck and are a waste of an HQ slot. So that's a strike against them IMO. He will also have to babysit the Castellax with his cortex controller.
-Heavy support vs Elite slot openings, depending on the rest of your list. Personally, I feel the elite slot is very valuable for Legion lists, with quad cannons, terminators and apothecaries being all awesome. That said, the heavy support is where you will get your big guns for punching out the heavy stuff. So, depends on your build which is a more valuable slot lost.

Toughness;

21 T5 wounds, 3+ save with a 5+ invul for Gal Vorbak
12 T7 wounds, 3+ save with a 5+ invul to shooting, and a 6+ in melee for the Castellax

Gal Vorbak can ride in a Spartan if you can spare the points, but the Castellax are walking it.
Gal Vorbak are going to die 1 of 2 ways, either buried via mass small to medium arms, or plastered by a S10 or destroyer weapon blast. Castellax will either eat reduced effectiveness poison weapons, or anti-tank fire. Try to take the unit that will contribute to saturating one specific weapon type more. Eg, if you play an infantry heavy list, take Gal Vorbak, if you play vehicle/high toughness heavy take castellax.

In melee they are actually pretty similar. Castellex toughness will negate twice as many wounds against S4, but they have half as many. Even against S10, the better invul on the Gal Vorbak balance off against the fewer wounds they have to suffer to be wiped out (10 vs 12, and 5++ vs 6++). Call it a draw here.

Damage output;

Castellax have mauler bolt cannons, so 9 shots, S6, AP3 at BS4 at 24" WITH PINNING means 5 dead marines per shooting phase in the open...which is pretty solid. Throw in 2 bolt guns each and you've got some firepower cooking. Pin and unit and they are really paying for themselves early.
Gal Vorbak have boltguns and pistols.....<cough>

Melee wise, Gal Vorbak are rocking 51 (2 base, 1 for extra weapon, +2 for charging with rage, +1 for the sergeant) S5 attacks, with rending at WS5. This will wreck any rear AV10 vehicles on the charge three times over, and average 11.3 dead marines on the charge, and pretty much guaranteed a broke or dead Legion unit on the charge short of very large terminator squads and some of the legion specific stuff or a primarch. Just watch out for S10 units with 2+ saves and/or 3++ invuls. Primarchs and monstrous creatures namely.

The Castellax are 2 base attacks, 2 for charging, and 1 for hammer of wrath, all with the concussive rule at AP2, because they are monstrous creatures. This will average 5.83 dead marines (7.08 if you go with dual power blades), or around half of what the Gal Vorbak would do. Gotta watch for high initiative rending and poison in melee though.

Conclusion;

Gal Vorbak are sweet if you are running a heavy infantry army, or can spring for a transport and are the obvious choice if you want to rip faces off in melee only.
Castellax need to waste an HQ slot on a Forge Lord and be babysat and are slow as dirt. That said, they can really reach out and apply their damage 1-2 turns sooner, and their firepower will overcome their melee short coming against MeQ targets. They are a much more balanced unit overall in my opinion.

Iron Warriors and Mechanicum player here.

Gal Vorbak would be the better choice if you're wanting to assault big units of chaff purely for the greater number of attacks.

Are you looking to run an allied detachment of Mechanicum or just thinking of throwing a unit of Castellax in the mix with your Wordbearers army?

If you take Castellax from Legio Cybernetica you can have one Castellax cohort as an elite or heavy support slot. If you're running Taghmata Omnissiah then you only get the option of taking a cohort as a heavy support choice. Either way, you have to pay the tax of taking a Forgelord and a cortex controller. Neither of which is worth the points in my opinion.

If Castellax are making the assault then 4 attacks each at Str 6, AP2 with concussive is pretty, pretty nice. I wouldn't give them powerblades as you're already attacking at AP2 and you lose the benefit of concussive which can make all the difference. I like to run my Castellax maniples as three automata with dual flamers. I mostly play my 30k Iron Warriors / Mechanicum against 40k opponents and use the combined arms detachment to have juicy objective secured Castellax maniples.

All round the Castellax are the better option. They make for great objective campers and put out some good damage in the shooting phase with dual flamers and the Mauler Bolt Cannons.

Do you have an army list you would like to share so we can better understand what you're wanting to run and how you intend to use it?

The Castellax will need a forge lord....which frankly suck and are a waste of an HQ slot. So that's a strike against them IMO. He will also have to babysit the Castellax with his cortex controller.

The Castellax only need a Forgelord if he doesn't intend on taking Mechanicum as an allied detachment. OP hasn't stated whether or not this is the case. If you're not taking an allied detachment then you may as well use your Forgelord to babysit the Castellax with the cortex controller but they certainly don't need it. I never take a cortex controller if I run Taghmata Omnissiah primary or Legio Cybernetica as an allied detachment. I've never found Programmed Behaviour to be a disadvantage. I like being able to fire all three of my weapons at the enemy. I agree the Forgelord sucks and is a waste of a HQ slot. It does however fill the compulsory requirement of a second HQ choice due to the Charismatic Leadership rule.

Heavy support vs Elite slot openings, depending on the rest of your list. Personally, I feel the elite slot is very valuable for Legion lists, with quad cannons, terminators and apothecaries being all awesome. That said, the heavy support is where you will get your big guns for punching out the heavy stuff. So, depends on your build which is a more valuable slot lost.

Taking a cohort of Castellax from the Legio Cybernetica list would be better here because you get the option to either use up an elite or heavy support choice compared to Taghmata Omnissiah's heavy support slot requirement.

Gotta watch for high initiative rending and poison in melee though.

Rending, yes. Any successful wounds from poison and fleshbane attacks must be re-rolled due to Cybernetic Resilience so it isn't quite as scary.