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Are they as good as they seem from the rules? They seem incredible with the mass air in sixth

Dual TLACs and Kheres AssCans taken with a Cyclone can be a pretty expensive but effective Flyer deterrant, so long as you remain stationary to gain Skyfire and Interceptor.

Think of him as a shotgun.

The best mainguns are by far the Khereas Assault cannons.

So you get 12 BS5 attacks, so 10 hits (on average)

against av11 that ususally means 3.33 glances/pens. av12 thatsss 1.6 pens (no way to glance, since you need a 6, and that will rend which garuntees a pen)

good stuff, and has a decent shot at wrecking a flyer just from the cannons.

He gets even nastier against infantry though, because that would be what, 8-9 wounds (since that will typically be wound on a 2)? with 1.6 or so rending?

Finally, think of all that against anything DSing near you. Drop pod sternguard? gonna lose a lot of punch after that, or how bout a dropped furisio? decent shot of shaking him at least, which renders him useless.


Thus he is a super super good deterennt against DS, great at shooting down flyers (even better at FMCs, oof man mine one shotted a flyrant out of the sky), and will tear up most infantry. And is av13 with 5++ save.

The downside: just the Kheres puts you at 180, with typhoon that's even more, so it aint cheap. The build im running right now is kheres on him and an extra hyperios platform elsewhere. I lose punch and accuracy but gain in resilience, but it's a tough tough tradeoff and could go either way. If you do put him with kheres and typhoon keep him behind cover or in reinforced ruins, since av13 isnt all that tough to get though, so dont let anything get close!

is he worth the points? yes, but just barely, but yes. Mostly because of his anti DS abilities, nothing else in the game can shut down a pod as effectivly as he can, and that's the surprise a lot of various armies rely on to keep gunline armis on their toes.

The Mortis is actually fairly decent, based on all the times I've faced it. It makes a good firebase AND solves some flyer issues.

The only issue with it is that it's a huge target, it's hard to hide, and if a unit gets into melee with it will die. Which is true of most vehicles, but most vehicles dont cost as much.

That being said, I find that as a firing platform it generally is worth it, due to the versatility it brings. Shame that the melee contemptor tends to be cannon fodder in my expirience.

It's a good unit, but the point cost is very high. If you try to take more than one of them you'll run into the "all your eggs in one basket" problem, especially in a smaller game. Granted, it's a nice AV 13 basket, but a Contemptor-based list is still vulnerable to an opponent getting lucky on their lascannon dice.

The only issue with it is that it's a huge target, it's hard to hide

It also has a 5+ invulnerable save, so most cover doesn't give it any benefit anyway. And you're not going to hide it entirely out of LOS because you want it to see stuff and shoot at it.

and if a unit gets into melee with it will die

Not really. AV 13 means that krak grenades can't even roll dice against it, and even power fist sergeants aren't all that effective. It will go down quickly against units with mass anti-tank weapons (like TH/SS terminators, IG veterans with demolitions and 10x melta bombs, etc), but most units aren't very good at killing it in melee, if they can even attempt to at all. Without a DCCW the Contemptor Mortis is vulnerable to being tarpitted, but it's unlikely to lose combat.

Largo39 wrote:
Think of him as a shotgun.

The best mainguns are by far the Khereas Assault cannons.

So you get 12 BS5 attacks, so 10 hits (on average)

against av11 that ususally means 3.33 glances/pens. av12 thatsss 1.6 pens (no way to glance, since you need a 6, and that will rend which garuntees a pen)

good stuff, and has a decent shot at wrecking a flyer just from the cannons.

He gets even nastier against infantry though, because that would be what, 8-9 wounds (since that will typically be wound on a 2)? with 1.6 or so rending?

Finally, think of all that against anything DSing near you. Drop pod sternguard? gonna lose a lot of punch after that, or how bout a dropped furisio? decent shot of shaking him at least, which renders him useless.

The problem with using him for anti flyer is that he cant move and has short range. A flyer will enter the board more than 24" away from his guns(take your intercept, you are out of range) then blast him with 24"+ weapons. Next turn, he is still out of range, and cannot move closer or will lose skyfire. Next enemy turn the flyer moves 18" forward and is still in range to fire at your mortis again. Thats 6 twinlinked lascannon shots or 4 Voidlance shots to kill the morty without the morty every getting a chance to fire back. The mortis might survive,. but he might get chumped on the first straffing run. In either case he is far too vunerable to be considered an anti flyer.

He is very good at taking out DSers though.

Ah yes, you are correct in that his range is relativly short. However... what does that mean

First if he is centrally located within an ADL then for the flyer to avoid him they're also moving only 18 inches which means only a 5+ jink if they have to dodge, a plus.

Second: the flyer being out o fthat 24 inch bubble also puts them out of range of their most deadly weaponry as well.

For example:

Asscannon on a stormtalon
MM on stormravens (and all their psy-bolters)
Baleflamer on a hell-drake
The deathray on a doomscythe (and I believe the gun on the nightscythe as well is only 24).

Thus he may not get a shot, but he's still a damn good deterrent at that which wrecks him best (melta) and that which wrecks all our marines (flamer/deathray/etc). So he's still doing his job

Seconly.. if he's in an ADL he still gets that 4+ cover AND gets to man an icarus lascannon, which gives him infinite range. Yes I go with the icarus in this case instead of the quad gun because its 15 points cheaper and far more deadly in his BS 5 hands (although the quadgun in the end still has like a 3% better chance of one shotting a flyer or dealing HPs, it's not worth the 15 points and he can take out anything on the ground with it too a LOT better).

Remember kids, any MODEL in BTB can use the gun (instead of one of their own shots), so if they are out of range? use the icarus. If they are i nrange? have a marine in BTB with it as well and have the mortis use his kheres and the marine shoot off the icarus.


so yeah, he's still good.

If you're gonna get the Mortis Contemptor you know you're gonna sink points in it. Might as well get the CML, that way you can keep the Kheres ACs (which absolutely shred anything in their path) and still have the range to threaten fliers just about anywhere on the board. It's on my Xmas list for sure.

Great Thread guys, thanks for the tips!

The main question for me is, if i use Interceptor to fire the Missile Launcher, can I still fire the Kheres Assault cannons on my next turn?

Since the model gains Skyfire/interceptor, if I'm reading the FAQ right.

Contemptor Mortis is a fairly effective defensive firebase unit; avoid it if you're planning on moving around a lot, since it can't really deter Flyers if they're going to be able to pounce on units outside its coverage.

I think I'm sold on the Kheres/CML Mortis, but think I'll keep him working in conjunction with Teleion/Quadgun for short and long range protection

 Instinctual wrote:
I think I'm sold on the Kheres/CML Mortis, but think I'll keep him working in conjunction with Teleion/Quadgun for short and long range protection

Telion should take an Icarus.

Sniper Lascannon!

Crazyterran: I've tried both, but I find I tend to preffer the the 4 TL S7 shots vs the 1S9 shot. The Icarus is awesome when it hits, but my dice hate me :( Thus TL is a godsend for my guys.

Crazyterran wrote:
The main question for me is, if i use Interceptor to fire the Missile Launcher, can I still fire the Kheres Assault cannons on my next turn?

Since the model gains Skyfire/interceptor, if I'm reading the FAQ right.

That is how I read the rule, whatever intercepted can't be used in the following Shooting phase.

My personal favorite loadout for the Contemptor Mortis is the Dual TL Autocannons with Cyclone. I tend to use them in a long range anti-air/Heavy support role. The 48" Range allows them to cover the board and challenge any flyers.

I run 2 of them like this in my DA list with an aegis line with quadgun (usually manned by sammael on jetbike). 12 AC shots and 4 Missiles all with interceptor, skyfire, and BS5 will wreck anybodies reserve game.