Praevin. Or however you spell it.

[Frostmourne]

Can anyone give me some info on this guy? Seems to have slipped past my nets.

[Fire Golem]

He's a support officer and you take a unit of Battle Automata with him (so Vorax or Castellax) and they get the Legiones Astartes rule of his legion applied to them too. I mean that's very very simplified but that's what I remember off the top of my head.

[1ncarnadine]

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/N/Narik.pdf

 

Rules are up on FW's site there. The rules include a new Consul Support Officer (can't be compulsory HQ) and an IW special character version of that consul. Can also check out the Delegatus consul on FW's downloads page, it's a similar deal. Probably see updated official rules for these guys along with maybe some more new Consul types in FW Book 6 yet to be released.

[Fire Golem]

I completely forgot that's where the rules were -.-

[Frostmourne]

Does anyone have any experience using this lad?

[MindOfMetal]

Used 2 Iron Hand Praevians with two Castellax each in a recent game against an Emperors Children army. 

They drew a lot of fire because of how frightened the opponent was of them, wrecked a good few units and died to a lot of heavy weapons fire.  I was playing a small, tough, foot slogging army though.  It really depends on the rest of the army you're using as to whether or not you should take them, as they can rack up points really easily.  

 

Fun unit though.

[infyrana]

Used 2 Iron Hand Praevians with two Castellax each in a recent game against an Emperors Children army. 

They drew a lot of fire because of how frightened the opponent was of them, wrecked a good few units and died to a lot of heavy weapons fire.  I was playing a small, tough, foot slogging army though.  It really depends on the rest of the army you're using as to whether or not you should take them, as they can rack up points really easily.  

 

Fun unit though.

 

Inquiring minds would like to hear more about this please ... if the OP doesn't object of course?

[Frostmourne]

Agreed would love to hear how they performed.

[MindOfMetal]

My list was a pride of the legion; Autek Mor, 2 Terminator Squads, 2 close combat contemptors, 1 mortis contemptor and 2 praevians with 2 castellax each (one pair with darkfire cannons, the other with multi meltas).

 

His list was a more well rounded Emperors children; a Sicaran, 2x15 man tactical squads, a mortis contemptor, 2 rapier laser destroyers, a fire raptor and a spartan with an apothecary, palatine blade squad, Eidolon and a legion champion in it. He had the EC rite of war which meant his Spartan was in reserve at the start of the game.

 

We were playing the relic mission.

 

My darkfire Castellax took out the Sicaran on turn 1, getting me first blood.  They also helped hold up a flank as one of his tactical squads tried to keep their distance from them. They ended up in combat with the tactical squad in turn 2. The castellax work well in combat as a tarpit against large squads, but don't expect marvels without support. Thankfully, the only way he had of hurting me was krak grenade attacks. The Castellax and Praevian where taking down a couple each combat phase, but it was the charge of a supporting unit of terminators that broke the squad.

 

My multi melta Castellax where a bit busier.  They traded fired with the EC contemptor and got shot a couple of times by the rapiers (which did the most shooting damage against them of anything in his army). They eventually got into combat with the Mortis, ripping an arm off before getting tarpitted by the other tactical squad.  After a few combat phases, they destroyed the contemptor and the tactical squad broke and ran away.  They eventually went after the rapier battery and wiped it out.

 

After dealing with the tactical squad, the Darkfire castellax and terminator survivors went to go and help Autek Mor and his terminator squad against Eidolon, the legion champion, apothecary and palatine blade squad.  The castellax where a real help in this as they started wiping out the Palatine blades pretty easily, allowing Mor to take out the characters (eventually dying to Eidolons thunder hammer at the same time as he instant killed him with his Servo arm).

 

Things I learnt in that game about the Praevian and his Castellax bodyguard:

1. They need to be supported by other squads. Whilst they are tough, they don't have the attacks to wipe out units easily unless you make them far too expensive a squad.
2. Pick your targets carefully. They are slow, so make sure you have a goal in mind for them as they won't exactly be able to do lots in a game otherwise. I was lucky with this mission because most of the game ended up with things in the centre of the board.
3. They will get shot, a lot. They are a scary looking unit, so expect your opponent to react to them.  Keep the praevian hidden behind them.

[infyrana]

Cheers, sounds like they performed and defintely not an easy target like the unlucky Sicaran!

 

What's your thoughts on gearing the Praevian? Bolter for max range, fist, sword, volkite, shield etc?

[MindOfMetal]

I equipped both of mine the same-power weapon, boarding shield, cyber familiar.  The AP3 at initiative 5 attacks are handy for the Castellax as well as the boarding shield giving the unit defensive grenades.

 

My opponent did get a lot bored of me firing bolt pistol shots at vehicles in order to get preferred enemy for the Castellax though.

[Lysere]

Sounds like my test. I ran two with the enhanced targeters and the blades against some marines. Praevian had a combi-flamer.

 

Im curious what you think about the choice of bonuses. I ran tank hunters because the rest seemed useless, but at what times do you think scout or legion bonuses might be better?

[Frostmourne]

I would think it depends on what you intend them to do.

 

Mine will definitely be Tank Hunting.

[ChainMachete]

I'd have thought scout would be quite useful since they are so slow moving. Tank Hunter would be great if you've got darkfire cannons though. I will be running mine as Word Bearers with the Burning Lore upgrade, so I've got a 33% chance of +1S, so if I rolled that, then Furious Charge could be interesting to make them S8 on the charge! In my case, the standard Word Bearers special rules aren't that much use with Castellax.

 

I'm building them up now. So I'm planning on giving my Praevian a power fist, boarding shield, volkite charge and AA. I've bought three Castellax, two with bolt cannons and one with a multi-melta. All three will be upgraded to enhanced targetting array and will have a single flamer. The one with the multi-melta will have a siege wrecker. Expensive, but hopefully worth it.