The Conundrum of Sevatar

[Hesh Kadesh]

He's lethal. He's about the hardest, vilest, most disgustingly powerful combat character short of a Primarch that the Traitor Legions can offer, better even than Abaddon; and only Sigismund can best him (due to Eternal Warrior, dirty little cheater that he is).

 

Being fair, looking at Sevatar, he's not really that impressive as a Praetor with a Paragon Blade for killing infantry; after all, they hit the same, but the Praetor brings AP2 to the table, as well as ID outside of a challenge to take down MC's in a pinch; 5 S5 AP2 Murderous Strike attacks, or 5 S5 AP3 Rending Attacks; what is better?

 

Obviously the Praetor. 

 

But this is what the standard route of play went for a Sevatar, after reviewing him.

 

In Psychic Phase, throw dice at Precognition.

Declare Assault, roll distance, put Sevatar in assault with enemy target IC only, and leave all other potential challenge acceptors unengaged with Sevtar if possible.

At start of fight phase, issue a challenge with Sevatar. As only the target IC is engaged, your opponent must accept, or force opponent to retreat. If enemy character accepts, happy days, and use the enemies reduced Ld to try and fail the fear test. If accepted, they get full Ld test, but they're up against an Instant Death Sevatar. Because pile in happens at each Initiative step, and Sev is I6, there is no potential counter from unengaged pile ins.

 

Sevatar Attacks first (unless facing Loken, Primarch, Emperor's Children Characters or a charging Sigismund), and hits on 3's because WS7, and rerolls miss(es) because Master-crafted and/or Precognition. Because you're attacking an enemy elite unit bodyguarding a beatstick Praetor, you're mobbing him with Sevatar, Veterans, Apothecary, and maybe Rad Grenade Forge Lord just because you're evil.

 

Because of a combination of S5, Talent for Murder and/or Rad Grenades, you're wounding on 2's in an assault with a reroll. 5 attacks is looking like at least 4-5 hits, and 4-5 wounds, maybe even a couple of AP2 rends if you're very lucky. Enemy IC now has to pass all of their saves, or die. In the event of my last game, against a Praevian, the enemy Praevian didn't have Artificer Armour, and it got blended with 5 Instant Death attacks. Because of the way that challenge wound allocation worked, I killed the 3 Castellax supporting him as well.

 

Either way, an enemy IC is having to pass 4-5 saves or die; pretty much instantly. Salamanders, Praetors, and Sigismund of course is excluded from this Instant Death, but then again, we already knew this anyway.

 

However; that's all well and good; but what about the rest of him?

 

What else are you paying for?

 

Master of Ambush, and Master of the Atramentar, along with Master of the Legion. He's a Master of Masters, apparently. 

 

Assuming that Master of Ambush still holds true as written rather than the 7th edition update; this means that all friendly Outflankers have the Acute Senses rule.

 

So; that includes; 

Terror Squads

Vigilators in Recon Armour

Veterans with Outflank

Reconnaissance Squad (but these already have Acute Senses)

Javelin Attack Speeders

Death Guard allies with Infiltrate/Outflank; i.e Crysos Morturg (but he's loyal)

 

While Master of the Atramentar allows Terminator Armoured Command Squads and Legion Terminator Squads with Teleportation Transponders to Deep Strike very accurately within a short range. The problem with that is that the Command Squads must take the same type of Armour as the character they are purchased for, so requires a secondary Praetor (because a Delegatus means that you lose out on Master of Ambush). We all know how bad it is to group a lot of models near to one another, don't we.

 

But how do you build a list around that? It seems appropriate that a Terror Squad based list can Infiltrate themselves under the "Cover of Darkness" and "From the Shadows" for a 5+ Cover on the first turn; but at the same time, if you're outflanking them, they lose much of their abilities. Lone Vigilators are terrible. However, because of GW's terrible writing skills, Infiltrators cannot join non Infiltrators before the battle; so guess what rule Sevatar doesn't have as well. So he cannot benefit.

 

Veterans; you have a choice between Fearless objective holders with a 5+ Cover Save first turn, Sniper for shooting, or furious charge for assaulting, or Tank Hunters with Meltabombs and Missile Launchers. And you're expecting that to be wasted by simply having a few bolter marines spend some time off the board?

 

Javelin Speeders; actually are alright. I just don't like the aesthetic, or the concept of an open topped AV11 2 HP vehicle when there are Sicarans around, and they cost 75-85ppm. 

 

So; this leaves you with what route to take?

 

I like using the idea of Morturg with Sevatar; not only does he bring Rad Grenades and a Shred Flamer, but he also brings Endurance for a 4++ FNP and Eternal Warrior. He can also join with Terror Squads, and Infiltrate them until Sevatar joins them; perhaps by jumping out of his Transport and joining with the squad; manifest Eternal Warrior, and Precognition then eat face in an assault.

 

He's a powerful, killy character. But he brings very, very little to a force. Which I suppose is right, but... I don't know, despite his eat faceyness, he's still fragile (4++ Iron Halo and no Eternal Warrior without Morturg/lucky Librarians), I'm a little underwhelmed by his force manipulation. 

[depthcharge12]

I guess his rules kinda reflect his method of warfare: hit hard, hit first, then retreat to the shadows.

 

If he goes first and challenges, then he can glass hammer that unit to death.

 

If he gets caught up, he'll likely die. A squad of Templar brethren, firedrakes, or maybe even a

squad of night furies on the charge will kill him dead with that 3+/4++.

 

I like the fluffy idea of him drop podding in with a volkite kitted terror squad, then using him to beacon in terminators for a precision kill (get a big squad with plasma blasters and combi plas) on any big nasty deathstar units.

 

Really, NLs are very good infantry killers, but will need some dedicated AT to get at the mushy bits inside.

[ThatOneMarshal]

Nice write up. I'm just wondering however why is the master of ambush worse? It gives infiltrate now so now say have a 20 man tactical squad or night raptors infiltrate so that you are in the enemy face turn one. Combine this with infiltrating terror squads and some terminator squads deeptsriking on him looks kinda fun hell that's the list I've been thinking of using now. Though it looks like you want to outflank all the terror squads. In that case it is worse. Other than that sevater is a mean guy.

[depthcharge12]

Infiltrate terminators or a mortis kheresnaught or even a praevian/Castellax squad maybe? ;)

[ThatOneMarshal]

Actually now that I think of it sevater is pretty good as a force multiplier with master of the ambush. In 40k Huron who has a similar warlord trait is sometimes taken solely for his his ability to infiltrate. Wait Huron is kinda like sevater OH MY GOD. I need that suspenseful music right now. Besides master of ambush he also has master of the legion which in my opinion is pretty big. Grab pride of the legion and have the terminators deeptsrike on you. Don't forget prescience till it gets faqed eventually. He's much more well rounded that say sigismund who is basically just a combat beast.

[TemujinZero]

The conundrum of Sigismund: Which of my opponent's prized models do I want to effortlessly stomp in close combat?