Justicar Thawn

[Marshall666]

There has been a lot of talk about other special characters but i feel poor Thawn has been overlooked,

 

I played a game last weekend with Thawn and he was great, Allowed me to take 4+ invulnerables (Halo) 5+ against some railgun shots at my terminators, and when he went down he got up a turn or two later.. In all he died three times but was alive at the end. He also took 2 raliguns to the face, and killed 2 crisis suits allowing causing the third to flee..

 

I find that when he goes down he has a 12" threat bubble, that means either the enemy has to keep 12" away, or suffer 3 NFW attacks on a charge from him. Keeps shooting units/ MC away from him.

 

All u have to do is pass a Iron halo save get back up from a heavy weapon and uve made the points of a terminator back ... or get him back up.

 

Wonder if anyone else has played him. and what your experiences are?

 

Just my 2 Cents

 

Marshall

 

Edited out my stupidity (at least some of it)

[RedemptionNL]

Not sure I understand you correctly, but Thawn doesn't have an Iron Halo.

 

Or are you just comparing his abilty to get back up to an Iron Halo?

[krewl]

maybe confusing a swords +1 to theinvulnerable save in close combat only with a 4+ invulnerable allround?

[Marshall666]

Neither ... i just must have read something totally wrong in that game... >.<

 

Wonder how i even managed to do that ...

 

But i guess still getting back up again proved to be a game winner for me, has anyone else tried him out yet?

[gil galed]

If he had an iron halo i'd be sorely tempted to take him every game. I do agree however that he certainly has his uses. Being able to create that 12" bubble is really fantastic. Especially if he is on an objective or something similar.

 

~Gil :P

[iamnothere]

Say I was going to take a GKT squad anyway, what would be the best build?

 

Thawn

Psycannon & Sword

Halberd

Hammer

Banner

 

Comes to 320 pts iirc. Is it worth it? Or should you just use those 75pts to take 5 paladins?

[Marshall666]

It might just be me, but i am not a huge fan of paladins,

 

My terminators tend to die mostly from heavy weapons fire (Railguns, Plasma rifle, Lascannon, Krak Missiles, Dark Lances.. ) and as such 2 wounds and FNP counts for squat... But of course other people have used them to great success, If i built a terminator only army, i would probably take them then. But in a varied all comers list, they just work out as more expensive standard terminators for me, and die just as easily.

 

Given my recent experience i would definately try Thawn out for a few games, see what he does for you ?

 

And in a varied list i'd use the extra points for increased bodies of normal scoring terminators.

 

Just my 2 cents

 

Marshall

[lordsloth]

Theres alot of things to like about him.

Upgrade in mastery level for your squad is great. (Though perils go on him so .. yeah)

Ressurection ability is cool and has some funky uses. (If he dies on an objective it becomes really annoying for the other guy, threat bubble around his body as explained above).

 

However. He costs alot for a one wound model in normal terminator armour. I know he can come back, but still. Having him with your squad of terminators or having him solo is just not the same thing. I feel like he's maybe a touch too costly in points (or lacking an extra wound) to be competitive, but still a unique character with cool rules.

 

I feel his best use would be in a lower points list where you maybe dont have enough points to have 2 HQs but would like two squads that can hammerhand+forcetest. (Or want 3 if you already have 2 HQs)

[Slind]

His ability is cool, but until Hammerhand is FAQ'ed to stack, I am hard pressed to see how he is worth giving up a justicar and 2 terminators. Given the right circumstances he may earn his 115 points back (justicar + 75 pts. upgrade).

[Marshall666]

@Slind

 

Even if hammerhand doesnt stack, it allows him to cast it on his unit (and himself) and then the unit to activate their Forceweapons.

[Gentlemanloser]

Or should you just use those 75pts to take 5 paladins?

 

The Paladins.

 

You would have to ressurect thrawn 4 times to get the same use out of him that you would have with 5 additional wounds on the Paladin (ID attacks aside).

 

Not only that, but you get double the special Ranged Wepaons, and cheaper.

 

Thrawn is too expensive for what he does, and has the added drawback of becoming an extra kill point if he's killed, ressurects and is killed again (and remain dead) when the game ends.

[Marshall666]

Or should you just use those 75pts to take 5 paladins?

 

The Paladins.

 

You would have to ressurect thrawn 4 times to get the same use out of him that you would have with 5 additional wounds on the Paladin (ID attacks aside).

 

Not only that, but you get double the special Ranged Wepaons, and cheaper.

 

Thrawn is too expensive for what he does, and has the added drawback of becoming an extra kill point if he's killed, ressurects and is killed again (and remain dead) when the game ends.

 

ID attacks aside?

 

I wonder what all the people who advocate paladins are doing that means they only come up against small arms fire, and no ID weapons... Sounds like they just go after basic troops or weak targets.

 

Might just be me, but id expect my opponents to realise that 2w paladins need dealing with effieciently with ID. For which i find more terminator bodies instead of 2w ID magnets more useful. With the amount of strength 8+ weapons in this game i find it strange that people aren't suffering at least 1 turn of heavy weapons fire into their paladins, In my meta i come up against Tau (Railguns) Dark Eldar (Dark Lances) and IG (Every heavy weapon u can think of). And with paladins being so expensive and non scoring units, i find that unless i am fielding a terminator heavy army to use basic terminators as screens then the basic guys start to win out.

 

Totally depends on who you play OFC.

 

- Marshall

[lordsloth]

Or should you just use those 75pts to take 5 paladins?

 

The Paladins.

 

You would have to ressurect thrawn 4 times to get the same use out of him that you would have with 5 additional wounds on the Paladin (ID attacks aside).

 

Not only that, but you get double the special Ranged Wepaons, and cheaper.

 

Thrawn is too expensive for what he does, and has the added drawback of becoming an extra kill point if he's killed, ressurects and is killed again (and remain dead) when the game ends.

 

While I dont disagree that he is too expensive, I dont think you can compare it to paladins. You can say 'ID attacks aside' as much as you want, the reality is that your paladins are gonna be a magnet for every melta/lascannon/fist on the board. Furthermore, they are not scoring while Thrawn is (a ressurecting scoring character is just neat).

 

So yeah, I dont think Thrawn is a competitive choice at his current cost, but paladins arent either imho.

[Gentlemanloser]

If all your Pallies are killed by ID attacks, then they've just given you a second Psycannon, with both being Cheaper. (And you curse the dice gods for not making any Invulnerable or Cover saves! :)).

 

If any of your Pallies are killed normally, it only takes 1 to die to be equal to Thrawn ressurecting once.

 

You might be lucky, and ressurect him every turn, and get him killed every turn, and get an extra 7 wounds out of him. On average, if he's killed every round he's alive, you'll get three wounds from him.

 

As for scoring, sure, it's a trade off for the potentail extra kill point. But you can always either take Draigo, or use TGS to make your Pallies scoring. But that's getting into army design more.

 

It's not hard to kill a single 1W mini in TDA. Most opponents won't break a sweat knocking Thrawn back down every time he gets up.

 

ID attacks aside?

 

I wonder what all the people who advocate paladins are doing that means they only come up against small arms fire, and no ID weapons... Sounds like they just go after basic troops or weak targets.

 

Target Saturation. Dreads, Vehicles, DreadKnights. All choices as to what to focus your S8+ AP1/2 weapons on. Sure, your Palies might be foucsed, but that leaves your NDKs free to romp around.

[Marshall666]

True hes not that hard to kill, but :-

 

1) If he gets up last turn he can contest an objective .. and there is nothing your opponent can do to stop it.

2) Hes a seperate unit, so most heavy weapon squads would be overkilling one model. (Thus saving other terminators from harm).

 

Im by no means saying he is the most competative, but i think he could be a serious thorn in the side of most lists.

 

Of course different people will find their own playstyles.

 

 

Marshall

[iamnothere]

I like his rules but not his cost - Your minimum size GKT squad + Thawn is the same as 5 Palies. You can now mix weapons for wound allocation buffs and get 2 psy cannons for the price of 1. Yes the squad is expensive but so what? Smash them into combat and everything gets good as your opponent can't shoot you.

 

Oh and another thing, Thawn is an upgrade character that replaces the Justicar - his hammerhand IS the squads Hamerhand.