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What is your thoughts on using Ezikiel as HQ??

Alright, so let's look at Ezekiel, and compare him to other HQs in the Codex, particularly generic Librarians.

He's got better stats than regular librarians, equal to a captain's with the Book (As long as the book affects him). That's good, you get someone who can work in combat, although SM characters generally aren't going to be taken for their combat ability. His save is better, but no invuln, so that's a minus.

Now to the two things that make him different than a normal Lib, his Psychic ability, and his Relics. As the only Lvl3 Psyker in DA, he's got quite reasonable psychic power (Divination rolls), alongside a not too bad unique power. Mind Worm isn't amazing, but can come in handy if you can pull it off. So basically you have Prescience, Mind Worm, and one other power of your choice, pretty nice if you got something to buff.

Now to the Relics -- he buffs the WS of guys around him, and he's got a MC force sword. The WS buff is the big one -- hitting on 3s in CC and rerolling due to prescience basically means you're always hitting.

So, it seems like the role Ezekiel wants to be playing is that of a buffer to a nasty hammer unit. Think DW Knights or normal DW Terminators, You can't DS them then, but I'd say putting them in a LRC would work. Head them up the field, buff them with prescience/etc, use mind worm on an enemy character, send them into combat with that character's unit, see all those hits stack up.

Now here's the thing -- if you're not using him in this way, you're generally losing efficiency over a generic librarian. You can get a Prescience bot and add an invuln save for stupid cheap, as DA librarians are wonderfully costed. So basically, my criterion would be, is there a unit that I have that isn't Deep Striking, that could use +1 WS (DW Knights maybe not actually, as they're already WS5). All units are good with prescience, so it's the CC power and the extra Psyker Lvls that you're going for.

Carrying on the thought of boosting another unit, throwing Zeke and Azzie in a single unit (say 10 vets in a Crusader or Redeemer) is ridiculous. You have the squad and Zeke at WS5 (my reading of the book) and Azzie at a whopping WS7.

I like Zeke when I know what I'll be playing against, Mind Worm is great against some armies (anything with big multi-wound units or characters) and rubbish against others.

The lack of an invul save is what usually gives me pause, nothing worse than losing your HQ to a faster sargent with an AP2 weapon.

Having The Hunt as your Warlord trait (if Zeke's in charge) is 50/50 to me. Yeah it's an extra VP, but that VP is more difficult than I care for.

I've only run Ezekiel in 1 game, and it was against CSM player.

I had Ezekiel in a Command Squad with a Champion, Apothecary, and 3 Veterans with Plasma Rifles. (total cost is 320 points so it's not cheap).

His book makes both him and the champion a decent force in CC (albeit at a low init since the BoC is apparently just not as good as a standard Relic Blade).

This combination works best in a defensive setup, since you cannot fire the plasma guns and charge in the same turn, so if you plan on initiating a charge, I would swap those out for power swords.

In either circumstance, you're getting your points worth. The Mind Worm ability is limited only by it's low range, which makes is plenty useful on a charge. It's AP2 and S4 s it's typically getting at least 1 wound, even on tougher creatures, which makes them much more vulnerable in CC when you close in... typically this means you attack first, and just dice whatever you charged. (In my last game it was a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch that really got it).

In defensive games, the plasma rifles are firing off plenty of S7 AP2 rounds with Ezekiel and the Champ finishing off anything that closes in.

In either case, I have found it very effective, though I would hypothesize that it could be even further enhanced by keeping another melee squad nearby to benefit from the BoS.

Cheers for the input guys, I was going to use Ezekiel walking up the table behind a DW command sq with banner of devistation and have a ten man tactical in range of the banner with a CM in front with digi weapons and the monster slayer of caliban, storm bolter and melta bombs siting back with a Devi sq with 3x plasma cannons and a missile launcher taking out anything big ( also got a nephelim and a scout sq eith sniper rifles in there)

This means I would get the full effect of both Ezekiel buffing the units and getting full use of the banner!

So in essence Ezekiel will be a support character


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Cheers for the input guys, I was going to use Ezekiel walking up the table behind a DW command sq with banner of devistation and have a ten man tactical in range of the banner with a CM in front with digi weapons and the monster slayer of caliban, storm bolter and melta bombs siting back with a Devi sq with 3x plasma cannons and a missile launcher taking out anything big ( also got a nephelim and a scout sq eith sniper rifles in there)

This means I would get the full effect of both Ezekiel buffing the units and getting full use of the banner!

So in essence Ezekiel will be a support character