Catachan Regimental Focus

[G8Keeper]

Boop

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/09/25/regimental-focus-catachan-sep25gw-homepage-post-2/

[Charlo]

For those who can't access the site...

 

 

 

Forgive me mods if I have sinned but with the "Pre-Orders" thread being more focused on DG I thought it prudent to make a thread to focus on the Regimental rules as they are released:

 

Today is CATACHAN JUNGLE FIGHTERS.

 

They are all RAMBO.

 

TLDR: S4 Guardsmen that re-roll the number of hits on random weapons (Flamers/ Battlecannons etc).

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/09/25/regimental-focus-catachan-sep25gw-homepage-post-2/

 

Regimental Focus: Catachan

There’s a new Astra Militarum codex on the way, and with it, distinct rules for 8 regiments! Regimental Doctrines work similarly to Chapter Tactics,Legion Traits and forge world dogmas. Each Regimental Doctrine is designed to reflect the varied ways the Astra Militarum fight, and have been specially designed to reward a wide variety of army builds. Every Regimental Doctrine applies to both your infantry and vehicles, meaning whether you’re marching with the Mordians or claiming victory for the Valhallans you’ll be able to do so with the army you want to build. We’ll be previewing some of our favourite Regimental Doctrines all week, starting with the legendary Catachans.

Catachan armies have a two-part Regimental Doctrine designed to reflect the impressive strength of the jungle fighters:

The first part of Brutal Strength is fairly handy, and can allow your infantry to press the advantage in melee against weaker foes like Fire Warriors. Where this ability really comes into its own is with the second part; Catachan tanks are going to be among the deadliest in the game thanks to their reliability. Using a Wyvern and want to make the most of the quad stormshard mortar’s 4D6 shots? Love the Leman Russ but wish the battle cannon was more reliable? Want to ensure the Shadowsword’s volcano cannon puts down a pesky Renegade Knight? Pick the Catachans for your regiment.

Best Units

There are all sorts of uses for Brutal Strength, and nearly all of them are more sensible than using the Deathstrike – but none are quite so fun, or quite so Catachan. After all, what is the deathstrike missile but the tank-based equivalent of an enormous bicep? With each hit causing a mortal wound, every single shot counts – Brutal Strength makes sure the deathstrike missile lives up to its name.When you really, truly want an enemy dead, the Vortex Missile Stratagem should all but guarantee that your target is obliterated:

Of course, if you like infantry-based Catachan armies, they’re still a solid choice, with Catachan Command Squads being a particularly powerful option. Equip yours with a heavy flamer and four flamers, and you’ll have a devastating close assault unit, bolstered considerably by the unique Catachan order, Burn Them Out!

If anyone charges you, they’ll have to walk through a wall of flame, and then, if you’ve got a command point to spare, suffer some deadly mortal wounds from Vicious Traps.

Whether you’re looking to create a particularly devastating armoured column, or just really, really like flamers, there’s a lot to love about the Catachans. Tomorrow, we’ll be going from the shirtless to the suited-and-booted with the Mordian Iron Guard, a regiment designed to excel at defensive order – and equipped with a unique order that’ll spell doom for any enemy looking to exploit the seeming safety of characters.

 

[Vel'Cona]

Update:  Thanks much, Charlo!

 

The S4 makes Power Axes DEADLY on Catachan Sergeants/Characters in general.  Not to mention Power Fists . . .

 

As for the random re-rolls, Catachans are also now the best armoured regiment.  Not sure that makes much sense in-universe, though 

Edited September 25, 2017 by Vel'Cona

[Ranwulf]

We haven't see what the other regiments do for the vechiles, so calling them the best armoured regiment a bit too soon. 

 

Ran

[sebs_evo7]

I am interested to see what steel legion get for chimeras

[Jolemai]

Great start and I do love that vortex strategem. Following all these wth interest.

[Vel'Cona]

We haven't see what the other regiments do for the vechiles, so calling them the best armoured regiment a bit too soon. 

 

Ran

 

"Best" based on current intel.  Good call, though.  :)

[Beams]

Deathsrikes seem awesome. Especially Catachans deathsrikes...

[Tirak]

Unless something drastic happens, the Catachans are set to have the most devastating artillery...

[our_baz]

I wouldn't call them the best armoured reg just yet. They generate more shots (possibly dice gods willing), not necessarily more hits. The +1S is particularly fluffy I like it, I would of gone further and only given them a t-shirt save with -1 to hit in cover.

[Thoridon]

+1 Strength was exactly what I wanted for Catachans, so I would've been happy just with that, but the other bits are an added bonus :)

 

My Catachan detachment is already built for close quarters fighting with mass flamers, upgraded combat weapons and officers built to stay close to the front line. Everything here has synergy with that, which is awesome. Having power weapons hit as hard as a space marine is going to be a big help, and makes me certain to take them on Catachan units.

 

I'm happy with the Dx tank shot reroll too, as I have a battle tank and Demolisher in Catachan colours which will both benefit.

 

Not exactly sure what the Burn Them Out order is but my Catachan flamer teams are looking forward to it.

 

I'm a very happy Catachan general today.

[CoffeeGrunt]

These Traits don't seem to incorporate negatives, just positives. 

 

Statistically Catachan are going to be getting a lot more out of their artillery than the baseline. It also saves them a lot of Command Points much like Salamanders, as you won't need to spend one to re-roll a 1 for shots on a crucial Basilisk attack.

[Zectz]

Well for Basilisk you already roll 2 and pick the highest but yes your point still stands.

 

This trait solves the problem that people have with Leman Russes. We are all expecting Russes to get changed/buffed somehow. Wether it's a change in points cost, or main weapon profile changes. Curious to see how that happens and then put that in combination with this Catachan trait they could turn out pretty strong.

 

Point to also note is the trait is a single reroll. So not that much of an impact for Wyverns for example compared to Battle Cannons etc.

 

Edit: Oh and if Straken's profile remains unchanged then he's going to be S7(!) in combat... Compared to S6 it actually makes a huge difference as he would now be wounding T6 (which is nearly all monsterous creatures & transports) on a 3+ instead of a 4+.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Zectz

[Galron]

Wow, my generic guard forces I was going to ally with my IW(Silver Skulls) just got flipping nasty with this trait. 2 Colossus, 2 Wyverns, 2 Medusas as the vehicles in the spearhead. Its hard to justify using chaos for my main list now with their artillery support so good all of a sudden. If Catachans are this good, I look forward to seeing what everyone else gets.

 

Its a very odd pairing if you think about it though. I could understand mortars and emplaced artillery. But why vehicles? Something aside from sentinels and Valkyries that Catachans are not known to use heavily, especially coming from a world where roads are overgrown within a day or two. And their mortars and field artillery do not get it, you know, the indirect weapons they are known for using.

 

I think we are going to be seeing a lot of Catachan armored companies. I don't know about anyone else but with the plan I had for my artillery park, this is a massive bonus. Looks like my Elysian ground forces just got a new reason to be painted lol.

[Brother Captain Ed]

Anyone saying that rerolling an artillery die isnt a big deal is absolutely nuts. That's an amazing ability that will greatly up the powwe of artillery.

 

Basilisks: reroll a *single* die, fam. Unless one of them is a 6, you always re roll the lowest at zero risk.

 

Manticores: again, *single* die. You'll basically always re roll a 1 or 2. It's free command points.

 

And, while things may change (Heck, are probably likely to), it bears remembering that this is in the regiment that contains the only good master of ordinance: Harker.

 

I'm honestly a little baffled at Catachans getting a trait that does so much for artillery. I expected their trait to be more in line with their mortal wounds stratagem.

 

There's a ton more to see and the sky isn't falling or anything but, unless there are some serious changes or amazing new rules, right now my Cadian are going to the gym...because the Catachans play like I already do: lots of artillery, good close order weapons, and "fix bayonets because we're getting charged." Adding the extra S so as not to be completely allergic to melee is a welcome bonus.

 

Edit: oh and Hellhounds! Thus far it's basically Tactics: Ed's Regiment.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Brother Captain Ed

[our_baz]

Im probably slightly nuts then Ed! Agreed its useful for artillery/tanks, but you are still left with the luck of actually hitting the target. Were this really will shine is for auto hit flamer weapons. For me if I was playing a catachan army break out the hellhounds, and heavyflamer sentinels and the Malcador Infernious. Time to roast the enemy.

Edit: I think u partly ninja'd me.

Edited September 25, 2017 by our_baz

[Altasmurf]

As a catachan player who's army is based around infantry squads, artillery, and flamer sentinels this is perfect. I'm surprised they would give humans str 4, I had expected ws 3+ but I'll take str 4.

 

Even the leadership bonus means I don't need commissars hanging about. I use lots of officers, so lots of +1 Ld all around.

 

The bonus for vehicles actually helps buff a few other things like sentinels with Plasma cannons, or missile launchers. Banewolves, and even the devil dog a bit.

 

I am disappointed in the traps stratagem. 4+ for it to happen is kind of bleah. Depending on other stratagem present I probably would rather spend my command points on a sure thing.

[gunnyogrady]

It definitely gives a buff to artillery and blast weapons, especially the synergy with Harker's re-roll 1s (assuming that stays, which is not a sure thing at all). But, as y'all said above, I think it buffs flamer weapons that much more, only because you don't have to roll to hit. To me, that seems very fluffy.

 

This flamer buff along with increased strength, Straken, maybe even a Priest, and I could see Catachan Regiments playing very aggressively up the board instead of the wait-and-shoot gunline approach of a lot of guard. And mobility/aggressiveness like that is what wins you objective games.

 

Overall, very good, and I think we're going to see multiple viable builds out of this 'dex. There's already multiple viable builds out of this Regiment alone! Exciting times to be a guard player.

[Mitchverr]

I am disappointed in the traps stratagem. 4+ for it to happen is kind of bleah. Depending on other stratagem present I probably would rather spend my command points on a sure thing.

 

I wouldnt so much play it myself, i would kind of drop the hint and obviously suggest that its a thing to my opponent for mind games, they will always consider if its a good idea to charge you with their more elite troops if you could just go "i activate my trap card" and possibly kill half of the dudes before they even reach combat.

 

I see the psychological effect being more useful then the actual stratagem against a few armies.

[gunnyogrady]

Good point Mitchverr. Just another nudge that could incentivize your opponent to change his battle plan.

 

For example, instead of charging the HWS in cover, he'll set up to charge the units which are not. Seems small, but at this point you're influencing your opponent's choices, and that's a good start.

[Guardsman Bob]

Thank you G8Keeper and Charlo.

 

This is seriously blowing my mind. During the dark heretical days of Ward I was finally convinced the Guard were just going to be the vanilla whipping boy of 40k. Now suddenly there is game development and serious effort? This just feels too good to be true. No one pinch me, if this is a dream I don’t want to wake from it.

[Chris521]

TBH, I'm not crazy bout how they are going about the Regiments.  I've never liked the idea of putting too much behind the regiment home world and this is an extremely powerful rule to just put behind the catachan keyword.  It would have been much better for catachans to get just the infantry buff trait, a unique order, and a couple of stratagems (such as a lighter version of the new vehicle rule), with other home worlds following the same pattern.

 

Then give each detachment a regiment type like infantry, armored, mechanized, or artillery.  That would be a much better place to put a rule giving a re roll to the number of shots.  The regiment types would also get additional stratagems.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Chris521

[Captain_Krash]

Wait so who cares about conscripts now??? FREAKING CATACHANS have there own "relevant" rules now!!!! Think I just scared everyone in my official as I jumped up from my desk swinging my hands in the air yelling "For the emperor". Then making a Aquila over my chest quietly sat back down.

 

Krash

[zero88]

Do Catachans even possess heavy vehicles, let alone use them en masse?? :/ ..the rest of it looks cool and fluffy!

[Mitchverr]

Do Catachans even possess heavy vehicles, let alone use them en masse?? :/ ..the rest of it looks cool and fluffy!

 

Yep, back in the olden days before plastic cadians you had all sorts, including catachan tank rider models being a thing if memory serves. Along with the codex having catachan armies with lots of russes.