Captain Sicarius and Tactical Squads

[Meatcaber]

Hi guys,

 

Lately I've been thinking of ways to include a good Battalion detachment in my army lists as I always try and include at least one. Troops, for us, aren't terrible but they serve as basic Troops decently enough, they have ObSec and can provide us with CP's if we're forming a Battalion detachment.  

 

If we are taking Tacs then how can we get the most out of them?

 

Captain Sicarius seems decently costed for a 2+/4++ character with a sword that inflicts d3 mortal wounds when wounding on 6's and a nice aura ability for Tacs as well as the usual Rites of Battle. Okay, so Tacs aren't great in CC but always striking first can be a nice little boost against a few things that will want to charge us - would work well with our CT of disengaging from CC and shooting. If we take 2 or even 3 squads both aura abilities will get more use. He would probably be best in a full squad to get the most out his aura abilities but that means they can't be easily transported unless you take a Stormraven or Land Raider, both of which are better transporting 'better' units. 

 

If camping an objective in your deployment zone sniper scouts are probably better. I kinda feel that Tacs are wasted just sitting in the backfield and if you wanted heavy weapons Devastators would do it better. So I would be looking at ways to get objectives in other areas of the board. 

 

For 600 points, depending on weapons etc, you can take 3x5 Tac Squads, Capt Siccy, plus a Rhino and Razorback to transport them all around, could be a nice mobile ObSec addition to a larger army. Or similar variation might be 3x5 Tacs in Razorbacks, Siccy and a Libby which is both HQ's and 3 mobile units for grabbing objectives. Maybe just 2 Tac units and a cheap unit of scouts would be just as good.

 

Brain is kinda frazzled so apologies if I was rambling.

 

Basically, has anyone ever tried Sicarius and is he worth the points?

 

 

[jonjacob]

I have used him with tactical before on a few different ways.

 

I have found drop pods and stormraven was effective enough at getting them all in same place.

I would used tactical flexibility up until turn 3 for reserves then drop pod in to an area where sicarius was deployed via the raven. Chapter master upgrade does help a lot with lieutenant support too.

 

My tactical all tend to have heavy bolter. Plasma and combi plasma simply for versatility sake and more bodies the better.

 

Worth of points is a subjective topic and not all will agree. I simple use him because I love the hate he gets and it feeds my soul.

[Tamiel]

A captain with a relic blade and a plasma pistol is around 30pts cheaper (if I remember correctly. Don't have the points with me now).

 

So we have to ask ourselves, is 30pts worth:
A 2+ armor save

That "tacticals melee first" aura which rarely makes a big diffirence

And a sword that wounds less often (remember, relic blade gives you a +2 to S if I remember right), but can do mortal wounds if you roll 6 

The biggest difference is the sword.

The relic blade wounds more often thanks to being +2 STR, but doesn't have the mortal damage if you roll a 6. It also gives you a cheaper captain.

The sicarius blade wounds less since it gives no bonus to STR, but if you get a 6 you do mortal damage.

Both blades do D3 for their damage results (including cato's mortal damage).

Honestly, I don't see a reason to pick up Cato's blade unless you're facing low T models with invuln saves (daemons?).

 

The +2 armor that Cato has isn't that important since he will usually be hiding behind friendly troops (and snipers are too rare to care about).
The Tac squad bonus is pretty meh. Remember, if your opponent charges you, they still get to swing first because it is your opponent's turn.

I love Sicarius but I don't see as much of a point to take him these days.

Also, forgot to mention something big:
If you pick a regular captain, you can give him a relic (such as the sanctic halo).
However, if you pick Cato, you can't give him a relic. This is unfortunate but at least you still have a relic that you can give to someone else (such as a leuitenant or a standard bearer).

Edited October 13, 2017 by Tamiel

[Meatcaber]

Not being able to take a(nother) Relic on him is a big drawback, I almost always give my usual Warlord the Sanctic Halo as it's just too good not to have. A 3++ and a 'free' deny the witch roll that doesn't actually cost you anything is pretty awesome! 

 

A Relic Blade doesn't deal any mortal wounds but does make it consistently easier to deal normal wounds and -3 AP is also really good. Sicarius' blade does d3 mortal wounds on a 6, you could get lucky and roll 2 or 3 even 3 sixes, won't happen often but when it does... The best thing about mortal wounds is they are not restricted to 'just' the models Sicarius is attacking, they will carry on and affect the whole unit, so that's a potential of 3 dead enemies (assuming 1 wound) with a single attack. Pretty sure that's how mortal wounds work, anyways.

 

The ASF buff to the Tacticals always works, even in the enemy assault phase and they have assaulted you, your Tacticals will strike first. The only time they won't is if the enemy has the same special rule and it's their turn, in that precedent then the Tacs will strike last. It would be feasible to buff 2 Tac squads with this, sure they're not amazing in combat but it's still a nice thing to have and I feel it could work quite well with our chapter tactics of disengaging and still getting to shoot.