Legion Castellax Battle -Automata Tactics

[furstyferret]

Hi guys/gals,

 

I have a bunch of questions regarding Castellax Battle-Automata in Legion armies...

 

1. Do you run Castellax with a Praevian? How do you load him out?

 

2. What set-up of weapons and upgrades do you use for your robots?

 

3. How do you use your robots? In a gunline or move them in close?

 

4. Do you even bother keeping them within range of Cortex Controller or just let them do their thing independently?

 

They seem very flexible and I wondered how other people use theirs.

[Ironwithout]

I have yet to actually use mine. But I run 3 with Dark fire cannons. Plonk them behind an Aegis Line with an ammo dump and give them the BS upgrade.

 

Middle of the battlefield you have 3 4 wound T7 monsters with a 3+4++ BS5 re rolling 1's ( which helps with the gets hot) range 60" S7 Lance weapons which people will not try and charge lightly.

 

 

I run armour heavy Imperial Fists so it's really good for target saturation aswell. Hope that helps

[Flint13]

Hi Ferret!

 

1.) I do run mine with a Praevian, and I typically only give him a bolter and refractor field (and he comes with a chain axe since he's XII legion). Castellax already get Rage, but the Hatred and Furious Charge is typically pretty cool ^_^

 

2.) I have two with Darkfire lances, three with multimeltas and six with Mauler cannons. Regardless of top gun, each has one flamer and one bolter. I've had good results with all three, but I've always taken them with the same armament. Mix and match seems to leave some ineffective if the squad doesn't get split fire.

 

3.) They're World Eater bots... so the guns are only there to keep them entertained until they can charge :D

 

4.) Well with the Praevian, so yes. I think a controller is important though. Even if they do get to fire all three weapons, a savvy opponent will abuse them and railroad them off into useless territory away from the action. 

[Brofist]

I use Castellax a lot in my Iron Hands army. They are, for me, a tough counter charge unit that I use to protect my flanks and more vulnerable areas. They are more defensive than offensive, but I am always moving mine forward putting pressure on my opponent.

 

1- I typically ally in Admech instead of using a Praevian so my robots can score. I run x2 castellax typically with a magos nearby along with a single paragon of metal.

 

2- I give them all the +1 BS -1 cover save upgrade and use either Mauler cannons or Dark Fire lances. I prefer the latter, because of the Blind rule (brutal against low initiative armies like Tau, Orks, or IG), but if I am short on points or against marines I just take maulers. I find Dark Fires to be mediocre against tanks, but good at chipping high value infantry targets. For the Paragon I give dual flamers and either the power blades or a siege wrecker (depending on what I expect to go against).

 

3- In my opinion they should never be in a gunline. They are slow, but tough, and can move and shoot. I always move them up alongside my blobs and put them between dangerous melee deathstars or areas I expect deep strikers. My Paragon goes solo and hunts something I expect him to take down easily, while the x2 castellax and magos march up supporting one of my flanks with the goal of denying/getting onto a midfield/enemy objective. They pair really well with my T5 Iron Hand blobs.

 

4- I tend to keep them in range of my magos, but this might only be in the early game. He tends to repair things and fire off his own pot shots trying to blind enemies. So in practice they are in cortex range for ~2 turns and after than usually locked into melee or about to get into melee anyway.

[Sircyn]

1) I run mine with a Raven Guard praevian. He gets a combi bolter, cameleoline and power fist. The combi bolter is to get the best out of his targeting rules and its range matches maulers.

 

His power fist just makes his swings worthwhile in combat and is a luxury. In an ideal world I'd want him armed with a breacher shield!

 

I'll often give him an infravisor too, this combined with the targeting array means my first turn fire is not diminished by cover saves.

 

 

2) my bots get mauler bolters, targeting array and a single flamer. Their mission is to wreck power armour and generally bully the mid table by being a threat to pretty much everything.

 

3) With infiltrate, fleet and stealth I can place them aggressively against a target of my choosing. With good odds of having the first turn they usually gut a tactical or heavy support squad before they have a chance to react. They then go about supporting the rest of my forces or rampage around drawing attention to themselves.

 

4) With a praevian, they're always going to be under control and get the benefits of his special rules and being a HQ slot rather than heavy support!!

[furstyferret]

Thanks for responses guys, it's given me a bit to think about.

 

I never realised they were run in so many different combinations, all of which have different benefits.

[Hesh Kadesh]

As Alpha legion, taking mutable tactics;

 

Darkfire Cannons and dual Flamers, Bolter (sorry, no Combi Bolter option without Terminator Armour) armed Praevian with Boarding Shield to get Preferred Enemy for the rerolls to hit and wound.

 

Blind is near useless unless hitting something like a GUO which doesn't really care, but Tank Hunting S7 AP1 (effectively, with Dynat) Lances (I take 5 in larger games) can kill a spartan in a single turn.

[Terminus]

Don't they have to be in the opponent's deployment zone before it counts as AP1? That's a long-ass walk.

[v6v77]

Don't they have to be in the opponent's deployment zone before it counts as AP1? That's a long-ass walk.

Not all Alpha legion. Infiltrate or scout all the way.

[Terminus]

 

Don't they have to be in the opponent's deployment zone before it counts as AP1? That's a long-ass walk.

Not all Alpha legion. Infiltrate or scout all the way.

 

We're still talking several turns before they cross that line, even if they have a straight shot to it.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Don't they have to be in the opponent's deployment zone before it counts as AP1? That's a long-ass walk.

Infiltrate is 2 moves, and the AP1 rarely counts for much either, which means It's the 10 BS4 Reroll to hit S7 Tank Hunting shots which do it better.

[Caillum]

Or BS5 with Enhanced Targeting Arrays. Deadly!

[Flint13]

^ I fell like its best to just treat the Castellax as a 100pt base model with the Enhanced Targeting Array already included :D

 

I have yet to meet a single one on the tabletop without it. 

[Hesh Kadesh]

With the Praevian, I feel it's often okay to ignore it it. It soon mounts up. The ignore is nice when taking out FMC's, though.