Soul Glaive

[L30n1d4s]

Not much has been said about this Relic (or the other GK Relic Weapons, for that matter), but I think this might be a bit of a "sleeper" option for competitive players.

 

 

Consider the following:

 

 

GK Grandmaster in Terminator Armor (Rapiers Brotherhood)

-Halberd (replaced by Soul Glaive)

-WL Trait 1: Daemon-Slayer

-WL Trait 2: Hammer of Righteousness

-Dominus Power: Empyric Amplification

-Brotherhood Power: Symphonic Strike

 

 

So, the Soul Glaive gives him S6 AP-3 Dmg2 naturally, with +1 to Wound (Hammer of Righteousness) and full re-rolls to Hit and to Wound (Soul Glaive)

 

Additionally, he has 6A base, +1A from Daemon-Slayer, +1A from Symphonic Strike, and likely another +1-2A from the "Deadly Efficiency" Strat unique to Rapiers. That leads to an average of about 9 hits against any target without a negative to Hit modifier.

 

 

If Empyric Amplification is cast on the target, then all his Soul Glaive attacks are bumped up to Dmg3. With Tide of Converge on, then every unmodified 6 to Wound also does a Mortal Wound. 

 

 

 

So, what does all this add up to? Let's take a tough target, say a unit of 3 Deathshroud Terminators.

 

Agains them, he should get 9 hits, about 9 Wounds (plus 2-3 MWs) thanks to +1 to Wound and full re-rolls to Wound... with 4++ Invuls, that makes about 4-5 Unsaved Wounds at Dmg2 each (reduced from Dmg3, thanks to Disgustingly Resilient)... between the regular Dmg and the MWs, he should be able to kill all of them himself, without any outside support or chance for them to swing back.

 

 

All this from a just over 130 point model that can be hid by Look Out Sir, pass through terrain without restriction, and sneak into (or teleport into) tight spots that cannot hold a Dreadknight's giant base.

 

 

While not as obviously powerful as Draigo, or a GMNDK, this little guy may be a "secret superhero" for a GK army that can reliably take and hold an entire Objective by himself, even without outside support (if you do want to enhance him, a Chaplain casting "Words of Power" on him makes him even more dangerous in close combat, especially with doubling the number of MWs he is producing.

 

 

 

[Cleon]

My question would be is there really a return on investment spending a command point to get +1 to wound on someone who is already st5 6 with re-rolls? Are you foreseeing  enough surviving due to the 2's coming up that it's worth not having that point available elsewhere?

[Skywrath]

Soul glaive has always been a good relic - just ask Icosiel. But if you were to entertain the idea of relics - I'd turn your attention to the Blade of the forsworn. Flat 3 damage in a terminator meta with 3W, ensures at least 2 terminators die per fight phase compared to 1 and a half.

[The Woodsman]

Yeah but you'd be losing out on the re-rolls with the Blade, which could really make a difference, especially since now you're only wound T5 on 4s. To be honest though you're pretty much always going to be using the exploding hits Strat on a unit, it feels a waste on a single model... On six attacks you're a averaging 1 extra versus say a full unit of 30 (or 40 with Falchions) you're averaging 5. That also means you're not taking a GMDK (or you're running multiple Brotherhoods which I think is messy but that's my personal opinion), so at that point is it really worth it? Might as well take Draigo for the 50pts extra, he can give re-rolls to himself and has more attacks at S8, -4, D3... And two casts/three powers and a 3++ to boot.

 

That being said, in a narrative/casual setting that GM loadout is super cool. But I don't think it's competitive, because you're also either forgoing stuff like ANF or the Sigil or you're paying CP for more relics, and you're already paying for Warlord Traits (at least Exemplar) if you want either Psychic Epitome or Unyielding Anvil in the force (and you probably want both in a competitive list). So you're already down a minimum of 2 CP for a 5" move character that you'll probably deep strike or use Gate on and with which you'll probably have to re-roll the Charge for another CP - and that doesn't even guarantee it.

 

Again, super cool in a narrative or casual setting and would be awesome to see go up against some big baddies.

[Mr4Minutes]

I like the relic. And GKs do have a lot of options to boost damage potential. However, it’s big drawback to me is it’s really hard to get him in there. I ran this relic on a brother captain and he ended up just standing around behind cover and didn’t really do much. Part of this was me not being aggressive with him. But the other part is the low movement value. Yes, he can DS in, but now you’re hoping for a 9” charge.

 

I did like the idea of using him as a counter charge unit. He basically had the center objective on lock in case I needed him.

 

(Played against guard if anyone wanted to know)