Homebrew Cenobium Feedback

[Yodhrin]

So GW have opened the door to the idea of "custom" Cenobiums, unfortunately they've done it with a single arguably under-costed unit entry rather than by opening up the loadout options on the generic unit a bit(it's always seemed a bit daft to me that all Cenobites use exactly the same gear regardless of their ostensible specialism). My own Order of the Shattered Pentacle being anti-psyker/-sorcery/-warpy dark jujumagumbo in nature I considered just using a unit of Nullificators as they are in place of a Cenobium, but they're kinda crummy and also it feels like the 1st Legion "version" would be a bit more polished than the general "scrawl whatever weird symbols you can find in madmen's journals on your armour and hope for the best", so: vaguely Nullificator-flavoured Cenobium homebrew it is.

For the gauntlet weapon a full-fat Disintegrator seems a bit much, so a disintegrator pistol instead. For the melee weapon, I propose as a better equivalent of the greatsword: Sinistrum pattern Aether-shock Maul; Range-, STR+1, AP3, Type: Melee, Deflagrate, Breaching(5+). Compared to the greatsword it has less strength, trades out murderous strike for deflagrate, and downgrades to  breaching rather than rending, with the tradeoff that it's not two-handed so can gain the extra attack paired with the pistol gauntlet weapon. Bit better against numerous enemies, bit worse against multiwound elites/dreads. The unit would be locked to the Breakers of Witches Hekatonystika. They would otherwise use the standard Cenobium unit entry options and costs.

One thing I'm eager to avoid is the free lunch given to the Broken Claw; if stuff is better, it should be paid for. Standard Cataphractii are 175pts base and a Cenobium is 275, so a Cenobite is 20pts more than a standard terminator; 50ppm. For that he gets the plasma caster, terranic greatsword, bumps to WS and LD, adamantium will, upgrades inexorable to stubborn, and the chosen exemplar rule. Which tbh seems like quite a lot of extras for that little, but it is what it is. GW seem hesitant to go above 50ppm for elite terminators, the only examples I can find being Tyrants & Fulmentarus at 55ppm and Deathshroud at 70ppm(who get further profile upgrades and chosen warriors). Given they're locked in to one of the less optimal Exemplar rules my initial instinct was to set them at 60ppm, but I'm cognizant of the fact that 5 distingegrator shots can *potentially* be seriously nasty, so perhaps 65 or 70ppm would be justified?

I'd welcome other people's perspectives(unless they're some variation on "homebrew bad RAW 4 lyfe").

[ShadowCore67]

I agree that while the current cenobium are very strong, in terms of representing what they are in the fluff is a hit and a miss. The very limited wargear options and even all the Order options are very melee based when we see in the fluff that's not always the case. The unit should have been more of a build-a-terminator-squad with crazy melee and shooting options, as well has having orders that buff more than just melee.

Perfect example is I believe it's in the Lion primarch novel there's a squad of cenobites that are all armed with essentially nerve induction shredders (the ranged weapon the excindio can take). A unit like that would be badass. Granted their version of the induction shredders would have to be toned down for balance. 

Just kind of annoys me that our special exemplary unit is an extremely slight variation of an existing unit that could have just been a few more wargear upgrades instead.

And mathhammer-wise, regular cenobium with hunters of beasts are better at killing dreadnoughts than broken claw are, and broken claw are supposed to be the specialists?

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by ShadowCore67