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Hey guys, wondering what everyones opinions on these guys are if they are armed with Kastellan Fists. Every list I see has them with Phosphur Blasters, but do people think they are decent in combat armed with fists given that AM severely lack combat units?

Two bots with the Incindine Combustor and fists cost a hefty 242pts. Are they worth it? If not, what would you include instead to fulfill a close combat roll given how quickly some armies are getting into combat these days?

I'd take a look at Arco Flagellant with 2+ priests in a transport to keep them safe: the priests give the arcos extra attacks and the arcos make d3 attacks for every attack they have. A unit of 5 arcos with 2 priests gets 20d3 attacks at S5, those things are scary good as counter charges to my Zerker hordes.

They're fine in that role, a little expensive but in the situation where you get charged by something before you get a turn, you can overwatch with the flamers, tank the hits on the defensive protocol's improved save, then do the Binaric Override right when it's time for you to do your counter-attack and get two swings. That's really quite solid.

The problem is when you come up against a non-alpha strike melee list and you've got 400+ points invested in a decent robot-line. They're just going to plotz towards the enemy lines for 3 turns, not threatening them enough to bother shooting them during the critical 2-3 turns while your armies trade fire. When they get where they're going, youve either already won or already lost and they won't make much difference.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 mrhappyface wrote:
I'd take a look at Arco Flagellant with 2+ priests in a transport to keep them safe: the priests give the arcos extra attacks and the arcos make d3 attacks for every attack they have. A unit of 5 arcos with 2 priests gets 20d3 attacks at S5, those things are scary good as counter charges to my Zerker hordes.

Priests don't stack. Arcos with 1 priest is fine though. But if you're looking into allies...you might as well just bring a guard screen. It's more effective in general than any unit that actually wants to try and kill something in melee, which realistically you're never actually going to do in an alpha strike situation. Better to have an ultra-cheap unit that screens and keeps the alpha striker models back, then dies in a snap and lets you shoot the unit that alphad in.

That's actually guard's superpower: Disappearing in a puff of smoke completely and just allowing you to dakka the unit that charged them to death. Its actually why I still run conscripts even post-nerf...they die more reliably than infantry squads.

They aren't bad, but i think it is generally accepted dragoons do a better job in the same role given their mobility and durability.

I wish they were good. That loadout looks so much better.

Too expensive for what they do compared to their shooty versions in my opinion.
Like others have said the Dragoons do a similar job with more flexibility. i love the idea of them in principle but the hitting on 4+ in melee with little ability to improve this is crippling and makes them just a bit meh when compared to other options

the_scotsman wrote:
...they die more reliably than infantry squads.

LOL! That's the Imperial guard in a nutshell.

I've only gotten one game in with them, so take that in consideration - but in that game, they worked really well as a distraction. I only had 2, but they flamered a chaos cultist squad and killed the majority of them - and killed the rest in close combat.

My opponent spent the rest of the game trying to blast them and ignored my dunecrawler. Eventually though, they got smashed by a squad of chaos terminators with multi-meltas. They did manage to get into close combat with them though and killed several of them.

I mainly chose the fisty versions because I dont like the look of the blaster ones. The gun arms are ugly. In addition, their million-shots combo seems kind of bullcrap and there's already a guy in the game shop playing admech who always brings his shooty-bots for their combo.

They probably didn't get their points worth in kills - but they soaked up quite a few shots which let my other units get more than their share of value.

what if you put the Kastelans with a psyker (or IG HQ) with the dagger of talharn (sp?) so they can just DS 9" away from the enemy?

SirWeeble wrote:
I've only gotten one game in with them, so take that in consideration - but in that game, they worked really well as a distraction. I only had 2, but they flamered a chaos cultist squad and killed the majority of them - and killed the rest in close combat.

My opponent spent the rest of the game trying to blast them and ignored my dunecrawler. Eventually though, they got smashed by a squad of chaos terminators with multi-meltas. They did manage to get into close combat with them though and killed several of them.

I mainly chose the fisty versions because I dont like the look of the blaster ones. The gun arms are ugly. In addition, their million-shots combo seems kind of bullcrap and there's already a guy in the game shop playing admech who always brings his shooty-bots for their combo.

They probably didn't get their points worth in kills - but they soaked up quite a few shots which let my other units get more than their share of value.

No offence to your opponent, but if he lost a unit of cultists and that caused him to panic and put everything he had into those bots then he may not have been the best player: cultists are second only to grots in the category of easiest models to kill.

Generally I prefer to fists as i like keeping them in aegis and moving them up the table. The way the game is played right now giving them three phosphor blasters, going protector and blasting down the table is ultimately. As said before there 4+ Ws is a big blow but when they do hit they cut through almost everything at strength 10 AP-3 and a straight 3 damage. A small group can, and has for me, ripped bigger and better enemies apart. If you want to save a few points you could give them the phosphor blaster on the shoulder as i find this combo to work really well.

As far as I can see the Clandestine Infiltration stratagem works with Kastelan Robots.
Just plop two units 12.0000000000000.....000001" away from the enemy and have either -1 to hit from styges or -1 for heavy weapons for moving if you don't get the first turn.

Your 6d6 hit overwatch is hopefully enough to deter too eager stealers etc. or small units with the intent to bind you in melee.

 mrhappyface wrote:

SirWeeble wrote:
I've only gotten one game in with them, so take that in consideration - but in that game, they worked really well as a distraction. I only had 2, but they flamered a chaos cultist squad and killed the majority of them - and killed the rest in close combat.

My opponent spent the rest of the game trying to blast them and ignored my dunecrawler. Eventually though, they got smashed by a squad of chaos terminators with multi-meltas. They did manage to get into close combat with them though and killed several of them.

I mainly chose the fisty versions because I dont like the look of the blaster ones. The gun arms are ugly. In addition, their million-shots combo seems kind of bullcrap and there's already a guy in the game shop playing admech who always brings his shooty-bots for their combo.

They probably didn't get their points worth in kills - but they soaked up quite a few shots which let my other units get more than their share of value.

No offence to your opponent, but if he lost a unit of cultists and that caused him to panic and put everything he had into those bots then he may not have been the best player: cultists are second only to grots in the category of easiest models to kill.

If the cultists went down to kastellans he was probably not running the Right and Proper 40 man blob, either; a cultist blob would have just tar pitted two kastellans for the entire game.

Yeah I am planning to have 4 in the list, with hopefully enough fire power going the other way to be the bigger threat, so they should be quite decent against even a bigger sized unit, especially if I am the one getting charged with the flamers.