Shooty Centurions

[OSO88]

I'm trying to build a competitive 1500pt list, but cant make up my mind about a few things:

 

- One big 6man squad with multiple SC's for buffs vs 2 3man squads with 1 SC each to buff them?

- They will be footslogging so do i go for levitation to get in range faster or invisibility to survive more?

- Is the 10 points for the rockets worth it in 1500pts?

 

 

[Ming]

Eek! My quandary exactly. Imperator Guides has a good discussion on Centurion load outs elsewhere on the web. I'll probably build a squad to what he recommends and give them a try. His favorite load out is grav cannons / Hurricane bolters and delivered from reserves w a stormraven.

[Ishagu]

Landraider to transport one squad, the other on foot.

 

Grav and Hurricane Bolters LR squad

Las Cannons and Missiles on the other squad, in a ruin.

 

Support the grav squad with a strong IC.

[markham82]

Ally in a space wolf drop pod. send Tiggy with them and try for invincibility.. I means invisibility.

[Axagoras]

id only rate non grav centurions if there imperial fist or have tiggy since tank hunter or massive buffs is amazing

[SyNidus]

Shooty centurions are a no-brainer: big blob of Grav cents with tigurius. Deploy them in a central position with strong counter-assault elements and long range firepower options.

 

Was on the receiving end of this once: not a pleasant experience.

[MisterDutch]

Lascannon/Missile launcher centurions work well for me, especially becuase mine are imperial fists so they get tank hunting. I use it with a librarian, he often rolls shrouding and/or invisibility on the telepathy table. Put them in a ruin, near invincible unless they get charged.

[OSO88]

I found out FW is allowed so I was thinking a full 6 man squad (Grav and Bolter) with Loth and Coteaz, Loth can pick invisibility and shrouding while Coteaz focusses on Divination powers. Still not sure about bolters vs rockets on centurions?Tactical squads get FNP for free if Loth is warlord. Now I either need to take long range support or podding melta unit?

[Azash]

I like the HB's. They minimize the cost of the unit a bit and counter balance the grav. What grav is good against the HB's won't really touch. What grav sucks against the HB'S will take out. No getting swamped with Work boyz, kroot, etc.

[OSO88]

Now if only I could find a way for them to overwatch :)

[Gideon999]

Just ran a 6 cent blob with tiggy, coteaz and an ordo malleus inquisitor in a tournament and it did very well.   Getting invisibility is key, and once that is there levitation or prescience are your best bets.   Levitation is really helpful for keeping your cents out of melee range, and prescience for making sure that the thing as nasty as they are on teh other side of the table dies in one round.

 

I took 5 grav and 1 lascannon with omniscope and all with missiles.    Wasn't sure on the missiles at first, but was very glad I had them later.   Just being able to put out 6 missiles and a lascannon shot outside my grav range and split fire 1 las and 1 missile helped in every game i played.    If you are going to sink this many points into this unit, spend the extra for the missiles.

 

Some poeple like the hurricanes since they are better anti infantry (which grav isn't great at) but 6 frag missiles WILL do some damage and you can't overwatch anyways.

[Toldavf]

Can see the culexus assassin being popular in the near future I wouldn't bother relying on invisibility. 

[OSO88]

The assassin still needs to get within 12" so I'm not to worried. However I have been considering Draigo, het has Gate by default and he can tank so 2 birds one stone?

[knife&fork]

The assassin still needs to get within 12" so I'm not to worried. However I have been considering Draigo, het has Gate by default and he can tank so 2 birds one stone?

 

Drop pod, storm raven, storm wolf or really any transport flier. 

[Gideon999]

Yeah, if you see a lot of those assassins it will cause problems, no doubt.   But at the same time that blob will kill that assassin in one volley without breaking a sweat, even using Grav and him having an invul.   So really it would become about knowing that the assassin is in the list the other guy is toting, and playing to that.

 

Naturally YMMV as far as how that actually goes down, but its not as bad as it sounds.    Really it gives the other guy 1 turn to possibly mess up your deathstar, and if he fails (and even without invis, you are still rocking six T5 2+ models and if you are in this situation you would hopefully be able to at least get them a cover save) then next turn you start murdering things.

[OSO88]

My thoughts exactly , my biggest concern is getting tarpitted or assaulted by something big and nasty. That is why Draigo with Gate is looking so good to me.

[Gideon999]

Yep, i used levitate myself as when you are rolling tons of dice to ensure invisibility goes off the risk of perils is quite real (in 3 games at that tournament, I perils'd at least 2-3 times a game, and did actually perils tiggy to death in one of them).   Since gate is daemonology you perils on any double, not just 6's.   Gate is far better (you can use it to escape combat and go anywhere on the table) but is more risky due to both perils and possibility of deep strike mishaps.    Levitate is not as powerful (only 12" move, and doesnt work if you are locked in combat) but has no risk as it works like a jump pack move.

 

Of course Draigo wouldnt have the issue with Daemonology Perils, but you pay a hefty tax for him vs using say, Coteaz and rolling for levitate with tiggy and him after you get invis.

 

Since both are WC1 powers you will need to throw 3 dice to reliably get either one off, its up to you which you think is more valuable.  I found that levitate allowed me more than enough movement to control engagement ranges when mixed with the normal move.   It just lacked the ability to suddenly go to the other table side or escape from close combat.   (6" move with 12" levitate and 24" guns gives you basically a 42" threat range, almost as much as a lascannon!).

[Captain Idaho]

Um, not sure a Culexus assassin is that scared of even 5 Centurions with Grav Cannons. You hit on a 6 and wound on a 6 then he saves on a 4.

 

He infiltrates so can easily enough be within 12" at least in one turn (you'll want to advance the Centurions too) though Servo skulls could stymie infiltrate depending on deployment.

 

If you still want to run Centurions I'd recommend taking a couple units to assault the Culexus. He's still dangerous as ignores saves and has great WS but you still can hit on a 5+ which means you can overwhelm him. Failing that you can keep him tied up and protect your Centurions.

 

Try to run away from him before you lock him up as otherwise you might just get shot to pieces.

 

Overall I'd drop the notion of a Centurion death star. Lots of points for a unit that has to avoid a single character or else be shot to pieces (remember orbital bombardment or drop pods ignoring your tanking characters etc). Take just a modest unit for shooting support and put your faith in units that aren't so easily frustrated and thus ruin the synergy of your list.

[Gideon999]

Ah, but bear in mind that grav amps allow you to reroll those 6's to wound.   Throw 25-30 dice, and you will average about 5 or so sixes.   Reroll the failures and you will get about 10 wounds all told.   Add in hurricane bolters (I'm guessing here) for about 25 more hits and wounding on 5's or krak missiles for another 4 hits wounding on 2's.  

 

End result?   Dead assassin.   Sure he saves on 4's but he is T3 and only 3W.   Heck only 1 krak missile needs to get through to instagib him.   He would get killed by the gravs alone let alone the secondary weapons. 

 

Yes, you do give up a round of shooting to get him (though you will get a shot somewhere else because you DID buy an omniscope, right????) but put in cover you will still live and kill that guy.    

 

Also - if he gets inside 12" to ruin your day it is the same as going second which would have had your forced to weather a round of shooting while still visible anyway.

 

An inquisitor with servo skulls would rectify this problem nicely as said as well, and do it for cheap while adding more dice to you psychic pool and providing a force weapon to help out in close combat as well.

 

Ideal?  Certainly not, but you would have absolutely zero problems killing that assassin unless there are rules they have that I am not aware of (which is possible as I don't own the dataslate, in which case please do educate me LOL!).

[Captain Idaho]

I think your maths is off. I threw the dice earlier and got not a single wound. You're also assuming you can hit the Assassin at range but have forgotten that we can always have a tank blocking line of sight. But let's assume you get a turn of shooting before getting within 12". I'll bow to math hammer but I'm no expert (sorry):

 

25 shots equal roughly 4 hits.

 

Rerolled the 21 misses from Prescience equal roughly 3.36(?) Hits.

 

Round up because I'm generous and you got around 8 hits in total.

 

Now roll to wound needing 6s. Now roll again the failures. Now take 4+ invulnerable.

 

As you can see, a 3 wound Assassin is not likely to die at all.

Oh and he's T4 ;)

 

*edit* actually I'm assuming you aren't aware shooting at a Culexus is always BS1.

[knife&fork]

Ah, but bear in mind that grav amps allow you to reroll those 6's to wound.   Throw 25-30 dice, and you will average about 5 or so sixes.   Reroll the failures and you will get about 10 wounds all told.   Add in hurricane bolters (I'm guessing here) for about 25 more hits and wounding on 5's or krak missiles for another 4 hits wounding on 2's.  

 

 

Why do you assume that you'll get to shoot at him with all 5 cents? Or even shoot him at all? The whole point of bringing him into range (and probably not by infiltrate) is to get a full round of shooting (plus a charge, maybe) at them with 0 blessings active. 

 

When you can return fire the unit is already gutted. 

 

When people are saying that the culexus is death to all forms of psystars they aren't kidding around. 

 

wargear

Animus Speculum (18", s5 ap1 assault x. X = combined mastery level within 12" + you can add dice from your own pool that you generate from models outside of 12" or the d6 free ones)

Etherium (ALL shots and combat attacks are made at BS and WS 1 against a culexus) -

Psyk-out grenades (as codex GK)

Special Rules

Fear

Fearless

independant Operative (can not join a unit or be joined under any circumstance)

Infiltrate

Life Drain (6 to wound cause instant death)

LIghtning Reflexes (4+ invun)

Move through Cover

No Escape (-2 to look out sir)

Preferred Enemy (Psykers)

psychic abomination (Psykers suffer -3 ld, do not generate any warp charge dice and only channel on a 6+ not a 4+ when 'casting' with 12" of the Culexus)

all blessings and maledictions within 12" are shut down.

[Gideon999]

I think I am missing something here by not having the assassin rules, LOL!   How are we shooting 25 shots and only hitting 4 times?   Do they have some other rule that makes them hard to hit?   At BS4 they should be hitting with 66% of those shots which would be more like 17-18 shots, no?

 

Oh, and I totally assumed all hits in my previous post as far as the gravs, which is of course totally stupid of me.   But even so, with 15 hits and rerolls to wound I should still get 3-5 wounds off the grav alone, combined with the secondary weapons should be more than enough.

 

Also - as far as having a tank in the way, if you know the assassin is there and spent 900pts on a deathstar deploying to ensure you have LOS to him should be possible (again hard to say with anything other than speculation really since who knows how we all set up our tables of course).

[Gideon999]

And there is what I was missing.   

 

Etherium (ALL shots and combat attacks are made at BS and WS 1 against a culexus) -

 

In that case, yes, I agree.   That changes the field quite a bit from my first impressions.   

 

In this case, inquisitor with servo skulls is the answer and deploy as though going second (IE - in cover) to help weather the shooting.

[knife&fork]

And there is what I was missing.   

 

Etherium (ALL shots and combat attacks are made at BS and WS 1 against a culexus) -

 

In that case, yes, I agree.   That changes the field quite a bit from my first impressions.   

 

In this case, inquisitor with servo skulls is the answer and deploy as though going second (IE - in cover) to help weather the shooting.

 

You'll likely see him in a transport flyer, or part of a pod / bike assault. So no hiding unless you play hammer and anvil deployment. 

[knife&fork]

Centurions can still be valid, but not as a part of a death star relying on psychic powers. Several smaller units are much better if you're going to spend that many points.