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I have a question regarding the repulsor is it worth it for points and can it transport regular marines as well? does it have its place in a Deathwatch list at all?

It depends on what you are going to be using.

If you are going light on primaris they you would be better with a blackstar as they can transport marines whilst the repulsor can not.

If you are going full primaris I think that they would make a good choice with their AT and transport capabilities.

For me I am going to get one as I enjoy their aesthetic and mobile kill platform game style.

Thanks, I find it funny it can transport Primaris but not regular marines. or maybe its just me being picky. I'm running a pure primaris force so it might work.

Nah you aren't being picky at all. It is a very annoying marketing ploy by GW but gotta live with it.

Do you want to run Primaris? Yes

Do you want a tank to get them from A to B in one piece? Yes

Do you want a tank that has so much dakka attached to it that it would give a Big Mek a raging stiffy (technically an 'Ard Boy)? Yes

Then you sir want a Repulsor.

If you answered 'No' to any of the above then no you don't.

I think the Repulsor is overpriced and does not synergize well with primaris. It is so expensive that it will eat all the enemy anti tank and not get to move very far at all. You can't reliably field two of them for their insanely high point cost and still have enough points to do other stuff with. I think they're a terrible choice competitively which makes me very sad.

They oddly don't synergize particularly well with Deathwatch Primaris anyway. Inceptors are pretty awesome with Intercessor wounds shoring up their miserable durability and let the unit really focus on midfield shooting, but can't travel via Repulsors. Repulsors are also one of the few things that don't get to reroll wounds via Mission Tactics. It's far from the worst choice, but on the whole I think Primaris either want Aggressor mobility or to come in on a CP deepstrike in the Deathwatch.

I agree Lunarsol. The one thing going for them in DW is the relic shield which means that, for the first turn at least, they get a 5++. That's a big deal for the unit, but it's not enough I suppose. I've had a lot of fun with them but I agree they're not really competitive. Against the right opponent, they do dominate though!

I don't like the Repulsor much given that even with 16 wounds it tends to go down too quickly in a game where peoples' anti-tank weapons are calibrated to fight things with a 2+, an Invulnerable save, FNP, reduced-damage abilities, to-hit penalties, and combinations of the above.

I have, however, been finding that my Primaris-based Deathwatch lists struggle to come up with sufficient anti-tank weapons, and a Blackstar kitted for anti-armour duties (twin lascannons, stormstrike missiles) is still pretty expensive (~240pts to the Repulsor's 330pts). The Blackstar is certainly better at going places but without PotMS and with Supersonic it's going to be hitting on a 4+ when undamaged most of the time and will be hard to keep inside a reroll aura, and the extra -1 to hit is situationally better and situationally worse than the Repulsor's T8. The Repulsor is also packing a lot of extra S4/S5 shooting (potentially 5d6+9 (avg. 26-27) shots, from five fragstorm launchers, an extra Onslaught gatling cannon, and an extra Ironhail heavy stubber, as opposed to 12 out of the Blackstar's hurricane bolter), and I've found that one of the other weaknesses of Primaris-Deathwatch is that they have a hard time laying down enough bullets to deal with chaff-heavy forces.

Play it like a tank (it's there to lay down fire in support of your infantry, use Fly and PotMS to find shots on good targets while hugging cover/avoiding LoS from enemy anti-tank if you can) as opposed to an assault transport (rush forward taking shots of opportunity, you must get your cargo into the field as fast as possible and you don't really mind if it dies so long as its cargo gets out) and it might be more effective.

I still haven't rushed out and bought myself a Repulsor, but considering my experience thus far with the Deathwatch book I think there is a set of things it does well enough that it could be worth considering in a pure-Deathwatch army.

I dunno. I feel like T9 would have made it worth it. But I know that would screw over a lot of armies. But at the same time I do not care anymore. Marines could use something broken


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But overall it's a decent unit but with the anti tank heavy meta I play T8 is worthless

Just a 5++ would do the trick. It's worth pointing out that if you're playing DW then you should be getting 1st turn a lot too, which is a big boost to the Repulsor's chances. Finally, no-one's mentioned its biggest bonus imo, which is its -2 to charge and ability to disengage from CC and shoot. This, no matter how much you dislike it, makes the Repulsor strictly better than the Landraider variants, imo.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

I have, however, been finding that my Primaris-based Deathwatch lists struggle to come up with sufficient anti-tank weapons, and a Blackstar kitted for anti-armour duties (twin lascannons, stormstrike missiles) is still pretty expensive (~240pts to the Repulsor's 330pts). The Blackstar is certainly better at going places but without PotMS and with Supersonic it's going to be hitting on a 4+ when undamaged most of the time and will be hard to keep inside a reroll aura, and the extra -1 to hit is situationally better and situationally worse than the Repulsor's T8. The Repulsor is also packing a lot of extra S4/S5 shooting (potentially 5d6+9 (avg. 26-27) shots, from five fragstorm launchers, an extra Onslaught gatling cannon, and an extra Ironhail heavy stubber, as opposed to 12 out of the Blackstar's hurricane bolter), and I've found that one of the other weaknesses of Primaris-Deathwatch is that they have a hard time laying down enough bullets to deal with chaff-heavy forces.

The Blackstar doesn't have nearly the output for its cost to be remotely anti-tank. Lascannons at BS4+ really don't get the job done but the base chassis is too expensive for the output anyway. I regretfully have to say its probably not worth taking unless you're using it to deliver Frag Cannons, which honestly probably aren't worth it either but that hasn't stopped me from flying my Blackstar in with Frag Cannons in style.

Rapid Fire Hellblasters are the most cost effective anti-tank we've got access to in terms of raw damage output but need a delivery mechanism that limits how much you can rely on that to do the job and they rapidly lose output as they come under fire. Dreadnoughts are probably the best answer given they benefit from Mission Tactics. They pretty much have to come from Forge World to really be worth it, though on that note I haven't looked into the effectiveness of the Forge World flyers lately.

What about regular las dreds? Maybe 2-3 I don't like that deathwatch don't have reliable anti-tank

The problem with a Replusor is that it can't transport a full Fortis (primaris) team if that team contains inceptors/agressors. Your only real option are intercessors/hellblasters (neither of which are favorable in being up the board) or reivers (who can just DS in for 20ish points)

You could transport a bog-standard agressors squad in one, but I don't think the points would be worth it.

Not mentioned, but the Razorback is sort of my baseline efficiency option. It's passable on the whole and easy to fit in pretty cheap, but ideally I'd like something more efficient. If you're LESS efficient I just don't find it worth taking, because honestly? Razorbacks are pretty good.

Of the non-FW option, the Las/Missile Launcher combo isn't bad as a static fire platform. Mortis just ends up being more efficient since you can have more Las without paying for more body. Contemptors are basically just acting as the Venerable Mortis option.

The Dreadnoughts with power fists feel like they're in an odd place. The Las versions just never really make it to enemy tanks to make use of its double cost thunder hammer, so they kind of just end up being an expensive Razorback. Deep Striking in the power fist isn't awful, but puts you in a weird place where you kind of want to be Venerable and none of the guns are super exciting purchases at deep strike range. It's not an awful way to go though; its just hard to make use of all the things you have to pay for before it goes down.

 LunarSol wrote:
Not mentioned, but the Razorback is sort of my baseline efficiency option. It's passable on the whole and easy to fit in pretty cheap, but ideally I'd like something more efficient. If you're LESS efficient I just don't find it worth taking, because honestly? Razorbacks are pretty good.

Of the non-FW option, the Las/Missile Launcher combo isn't bad as a static fire platform. Mortis just ends up being more efficient since you can have more Las without paying for more body. Contemptors are basically just acting as the Venerable Mortis option.

The Dreadnoughts with power fists feel like they're in an odd place. The Las versions just never really make it to enemy tanks to make use of its double cost thunder hammer, so they kind of just end up being an expensive Razorback. Deep Striking in the power fist isn't awful, but puts you in a weird place where you kind of want to be Venerable and none of the guns are super exciting purchases at deep strike range. It's not an awful way to go though; its just hard to make use of all the things you have to pay for before it goes down.

One of the reasons I like the Relic Contemptor profile over most of the Castaferrums is that it can choose to specialize; you mentioned the Venerable-Mortis loadouts, but the oft-overlooked option is to spend eight points on an extra fist/extra storm bolter so you can run around thwacking people without spending 20+ points on a gun you can't really use the way melee Castaferrums are forced to.

Neat. Hadn't considered that. How does it compare to a Chaplain Venerable Castaferrum?