Tech-Marines: Yay or Nay?

[Valerian]

So I was thinking the warding stave works like a NFS but it appears I was wrong. It comes with a hefty price tag but I could definitely see it being a good investment.

 

G

 

But really only if you are tooling him for close combat. If you hide in the back to shoot a CB or the OSR, then there might not be much reason to give him expensive protection capability that only works in close combat.

 

I really would like to like him, but 90 points prior to any upgrades is quite expensive for a 1 wound model. Give him WS5 and 2W, like the Apothecary, making him another "minor hero" of the Chapter, then sure.

 

Valerian

[Gentlemanloser]

And Move BCs to Elite as well, to compete on the slot with the 2W Techy.

[CrimsonFury]

So I was thinking the warding stave works like a NFS but it appears I was wrong. It comes with a hefty price tag but I could definitely see it being a good investment.

 

G

 

It *does* work as a force weapon. The full title of the weapon is "Nemesis Warding Stave". GK codex PG 54 "all Nemesis weapons are force weapons" It then goes on to detail the abilities of Nemesis force weapons and includes the Nemesis Wading Stave in the list of variants.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I meant in terms of the INV save for melee - I thought a model had to already have an INV save for the stave to boost it to 2++ in melee.

 

G

[Wildfire]

I really would like to like him, but 90 points prior to any upgrades is quite expensive for a 1 wound model. Give him WS5 and 2W, like the Apothecary, making him another "minor hero" of the Chapter, then sure.

 

I think that would make him too good for 90 points. Don't get me wrong, I'd be a lot happier if he got an extra wound for a small price increase, but I think 90 points for an MEq with a 2+, power weapon, and 2 power fist attacks is reasonable. Especially when you consider the rest of his equipment.

[Valerian]

I really would like to like him, but 90 points prior to any upgrades is quite expensive for a 1 wound model. Give him WS5 and 2W, like the Apothecary, making him another "minor hero" of the Chapter, then sure.

 

I think that would make him too good for 90 points. Don't get me wrong, I'd be a lot happier if he got an extra wound for a small price increase, but I think 90 points for an MEq with a 2+, power weapon, and 2 power fist attacks is reasonable. Especially when you consider the rest of his equipment.

 

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that his points had to stay at 90 if he got the extra stat boost, just that without it 90 is too much. 2+ is better than 3+, but you'll still roll 1's every now and then. You can load as much gear on him as you want, but ultimately he just becomes a more expensive T4/1W model.

 

He's just too expensive for my tastes, without having a little more durability than he's got. I honestly think Techmarines and Iron Priests are one of the units across all codices that GW designers struggle the most with to get right. I don't think after 24 years that theyve figured it out yet. He is equipped for doing 3 different and competing missions, that drive his cost up, but don't really add to his benefit to your army.

 

V

[Freman Bloodglaive]

At least an Iron Priest can ride a wolf.

[Cmdr Shepard]

Today I played a "test game" with a friend of mine. It was a 1500 pts Draigo/Paladins vs a Khorne based Chaos Space Marine army and I fielded a Tech-Marine with beamer.

I must say I'm not very satisfied. He payed back his cost only because I rolled a hit against two Obliterators and my opponent's cover save was a double 1.

I was very unlucky with scattering but conversion beamer is very unpredictable, especially when enemy moves towards you. This is a very appreciated event for a GK but there are better tactical assets to use.

 

We played seven turns and a the end every Chaos Space Marine was dead but the beamer Tech-Marine did nothing more than destryoing the two obliterators, apart from killing a single berserker.

Since my opponent's list was not one of the most effective I suppose a beamer is not a priority. Maybe against statitical long range units (Tau/IG) the S10 AP1 blast may be a little useful but there are other ways to allocate 110 pts.

The Tech-Marine removed a serious threat to my paladins but I wonder if other units would have performed the very task with more efficiency. Just my experience with a single match...

 

Next time I'll try a Tech-Marine in the typical role of "vehicles' keeper"