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I’m thinking about buying a couple of Betrayal at Calth contemptor freadnought and running them as relics with twin lascannon and twin autocannon. Why don’t I ever see the units in the army lists? Is it because they are forgeworld? They seem to be one of the most efficient units available to space marines. Am I missing something?

To take a relic unit, you have to also take a non-relic in the same Force org spot for each relic. For contemptors, this would be an extra elite 'tax' and when you're min-maxing a list, you may not want to pay that tax.

Just a guess.

They are pretty good.

When you say you don't see them, in what context? Your local meta, or tournament scene?

If it's the former, it's probably because it's FW yeah. They are one of the better units Marines can take, so in an environment where people might bring mono-Marine lists they'll certainly pull their weight. But they are expensive money wise, so that will definitely be a factor for casual players. Also, Leviathans are generally considered better and aren't a huge amount more expensive. In for a penny, and all that!

If it's the latter, it's because Marines aren't really good enough to do much. If they're taken, it's usually as part of a mixed list bringing something very specific (such as Blood Angels Captains). As the poster above said, the tax to bring a relic is too high for these sorts of lists.

As said above, additionally a FW Relic Contemptor costs a lot more money than the Plastic contemptors and the designs mean you'll have a hard time swapping the forgeworld weapons onto the Plastic body.

I ran a Contemptor Dreadnought with dual butcher cannons at my last big event. It did very well for me. Then again, as a Chaos player I don't have that same tax. But even if it did, it would be worth it to me.

The plastic Contemptor is also...simply put, a fething lazy and terrible model kit. One of the worst things GW has produced in years. I defy anyone to argue otherwise. I'm 100% convinced this is solely so that they don't cannibalize the resin Forgeworld versions. If the Contemptor had been released anywhere near the value/quality of the normal venerable dreadnought it would be baller.

Because a nice modular kit...with a ton of options like this:


Is absolutely worth the same MSRP as...this?


Oh wait...I'm sorry, the versatile Venerable Dreadnought is actually $46.25, where the single-pose lazy-ass Contemptor is $60.

PS: Can you tell I hate this stupid kit?

 Elbows wrote:
The plastic Contemptor is also...simply put, a fething lazy and terrible model kit. One of the worst things GW has produced in years. I defy anyone to argue otherwise. I'm 100% convinced this is solely so that they don't cannibalize the resin Forgeworld versions. If the Contemptor had been released anywhere near the value/quality of the normal venerable dreadnought it would be baller.

Because a nice modular kit...with a ton of options like this:

Spoiler:

Is absolutely worth the same MSRP as...this?

Spoiler:

Oh wait...I'm sorry, the versatile Venerable Dreadnought is actually $46.25, where the single-pose lazy-ass Contemptor is $60.

PS: Can you tell I hate this stupid kit?

I feel the same. Got one GIVEN to me from a friend but damn is it a very static pose.

But, at least my custodes have a brand new venerable rigor Mortis contemptor dread...

Yeah, the contemptor kit is absolutely horrendous, that's for sure. I have two of them sitting on the 'backlog' pile for over 2 years. I just can't get inspired to put them together and paint them.

The tax is not a big deal to me since I run straight marines so I usually have the ancient and some aggressors. I understand than essentially nothing in the vanilla marines playbook is super competitive. I just want to be more competitive at my local store where there are some knights and other competitive units, Just not super optimized lists. The mono build is a little lame. I think I might try to proxy one and see how it does first. Thanks for the input all.

Ice_can wrote:
As said above, additionally a FW Relic Contemptor costs a lot more money than the Plastic contemptors and the designs mean you'll have a hard time swapping the forgeworld weapons onto the Plastic body.

I've found that Forge World weapons are actually quite easy to transplant on to the betrayal at calth dread. It just requires a bit of cutting

Haha! That pose made me chuckle Coolyo!

As for the relic contemptors/hellforged contemptors I think part of the reason why you don’t see them too much, is because they can feel very expensive points wise when compared to a lot of other marine options. For example, why spend 235 points on 2 twin lascannons on a relic contemptor, when you can spend 175 on a contemptor mortis. (I personally prefer the relic contemptor though, but, it is a valid argument).

Also, I think it is vastly pointed when you run it with 2 melee options. It comes in at 189 points for a basic double fist relic contemptor, that doesn’t even get +1 attack for having 2 fists. Instead it just re-rolls 1s to hit when it is already hitting on 2s anyway (if it makes it into combat).

Points rack up fast when you start adding in more than 1 relic version, simply because of the model cost itself and then the relic tax needed to offset taking them.

Chaos wise though, I did enjoy using 2 hellforged contemptors at the LGT, my only issue with them is that they didn’t really do much with the loadout I chose for what I paid for them.

Ice_can wrote:
As said above, additionally a FW Relic Contemptor costs a lot more money than the Plastic contemptors and the designs mean you'll have a hard time swapping the forgeworld weapons onto the Plastic body.

Actually the plastic is fairly easy to magnetize to work with forgeworld weapon. I'm no pro magnetizer but didn't take me long to figure out where to cut.

Worse issue is that the plastic version is such a horrible model. Takes tons of effort to cut and repose it to anywhere near decent.

Oh and funny pose above. Might just as well copy that for lol's if I ever build 5th one.