"Damn it, follow me. Ill show you how its done." Colonel Straken at battle of Modens Ridge.
That is basically how Straken have performed 5 outta 6 games. Straken have been the hammer i can count on and my trusted Catachans have been the anvil. Straken embodies the true spirit of a catachan soldier, Tough, reliable and hard hitting! Many a times have my opponents underestimated him(he is after all just a Imperial guard right?) Wrong! So far in my short amount of games Straken and his revenue have been responsible for killing(not run down, but actual killing) the following in close combat:
"Squad of guardians, a Wraithlord, full squad of assault terminators, full squad of assault marines with chaplain, several combat squads of marines, full squad of plague marines with chaos sorcerer and twice a landraider"
Why is this? You may ask. Sometimes the dice favors you, but more times his stats favors you. Lets have a look.
Colonel Straken: WS 5 BS 4 S 6 T 4 W 3 I 3 A 3 Ld 9 Sv 3+
Wargear: Flak armor, plasma pistol, shotgun, close-combat weapon, frag grenades and refractor field.
Not normal stats for a IG for sure, but that's not it, lets have a look at his special rules.
Gung-hoColonel Straken and his command squad is fearless.
Senior Officer
Straken can issue up to two orders each turn. He have a command radius of 12 incs. Straken can use "Bring it down!", "Fire on my target!", "Get back into to the fight!" as well as "First rank fire!, second rank fire!", "Incoming!", and "Move! Move! Move!"
Cold steel and courage
Friendly units within 12 incs of Straken gains the furious charge and counter attack, this includes Straken and his command squad. Man of Adamantium
Strakens close-combat attacks ignores armor saves and roll an additional d6 for armor penetration.
Fearless means Straken and his command squad will stick in there even if you get his by bad luck on the first turn of close-combat. His aura of "Cold steel and courage" means that even ordinary IG grunts can actually put a bit of hurt in close-combat. Just a added bonus mind you, it wont be something you should play after believing your IG now will rival other units in close-combat, but very handy to push your close-combat specialists.
But the real killer lies in the "Man of Adamantium". WS 5, str 6(7 if he charges) and no armor save alloved.
Against marines: you need a 3 to hit, then a 2 to wound and then the marine die. Straken have 4 attacks(5 on the charge)! Terminators are the same and demoted to a puny +5 invulnerable save(+3(Thank you Zachary for correcting me) if they got storm shields).
Straken have a few weaknesses that you need to be aware of tho. Al tho Straken hits damn hard, he still only have initiative 3(4 on the charge). This means that alot of the times you hit after your opponent but before power-fists. Even tho Straken is more resilient both in armor save and toughness than a normal IG officer, he still only have toughness 4. This means that power-fists(or anything at strength 8 or above) will instant kill him if he fails his save. Luckily he cant be targeted out unless hes whole retinue is dead or you chose to do so yourself.
Ras signing out
