Musings on Immortals

[Sevatar]

Hi,

I was looking over the rules for the Immortals when something figured to me. Now, the Immortals are much improved with proper Feel No Pain. While I believe they, like Breachers, are still ~40 points overpriced, I would, also, change the Gun Them Down rule. Currently you can choose to Snap Shot instead of pursuing, which is very....meh, and kind of useless.

 

So, what would I do?

 

I would do the Reaction Fire test in Zone Mortalis. This makes the Immortals much more deadly at close range, like they should be. While they need a definite price drop too, with the drop and change to Gun Them Down, I feel they would be a viable choice.

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

[Telhdrat]

I had almost exactly the same thoughts myself, since the gun them down was entirely pointless( ld test anyway, so the choice was between snap shots or a change to wipe the enemy out completely- so no choice at all). Instead of ZM reaction fire I thought about simply letting them overwatch with their full BS, but the reaction fire actually sounds like an even better idea.

[Anvilarium]

If you give a 20-Man Squad of Immortals Volkite Chargers, they become deadly.

 

Two shots on the Charge (Volkite Charger is Assault 2), plus another shot immediately after the Assault thanks to the 'Gun Them Down' special rule - Thats 60 Volkite Shots.

 

When you include the Deflagrate special rule for Volkite weapons thats a hell of a lot of wounds, without even counting any caused by the Assault itself!

[Sanct]

shouldn't the total be closer to 80 volkite shots since they may make 'Snap Shot shooting attacks' not a single snap shot attack?

It is kinda moot since that volkite immortal squad will be 470pts. That's still 100pts more than a 19 man breacher squad + apoth who will sweep and wipe out the unit with a longer range, better fnp and scoring.

[blackoption]

Immortals' FnP has been increased to a 5+ based on what those with the collectors edition Extermination books are saying.  The FAQ should be coming shortly.

 

If the Immortals Gun them Down can be made at reaction shots instead of snap shots.... then I'd go with the shooting over the charge.  I do not have my book infront of me, so I'll defer to someone more capable to make that call.  But it might be worth emailing FW to clarify none the less.

[OwlandMoonGuy]

Just to make the math a bit easier to catch:

 

10 man Immortals with x2 chargers = 260 pts

10 man Breachers with x2 chargers = 235 pts  add the Apoc = 280

 

It's not a perfect comparison for many reasons and you wouldn't necessarily configure either unit this way but the points aren't that far off - given their recent upgrade to 5+ FNP.  The fact that the Immortals aren't scoring is not as essential in 30K games.  The fact that you can spend more points and give them all chargers makes them a much harder hitting unit.  They can even take a Spartan as a dedicated transport freeing up a much coveted Heavy slot.

 

So I agree, it would have been nice to give them a vet skill or something to sweeten up the deal a bit more but they work fine the way they are.  Not to mention being walking death in ZM games.

 

...and I imagine that we'll get all that errata from the gamer editions of the rules along with the modifications to accommodate 7th edition.

[Anvilarium]

Exactly as OwlandMoonGuy says.

 

I can understand why people wouldn't bother with Immortals before, but since their FNP upgrade in the Legion Army List book they are a really decent unit.

 

The ability to take a Spartan as a Transport is the icing in the cake - however if you are using the Head of the Gorgon RoW, any unit of 10+ Marines that can take a Dedicated Transport can take a Spartan.