"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
Rasmus,
ReplyDeleteDo you run Nork Deddog alongside Straken? I would love to use him, he is after all meant to be with a Catachan Colonel but the entire internet seems to think he's over-priced at 110 points (almost three times that of a Terminator).
@Cooper The plan was to run him in my 1500 point list, however i am having second doubts about it. I have the model already so i will paint him up and run him in my army at one point for fun.
ReplyDeleteThe thing i am in doubt with at the moment is that i might be pouring to many points in a unit that is basically a support and counterattack units in my list.
Since one unit can only be one place at at time i am afraid the additional points is not worth it. It might be smarter to get either another counter attack unit or more firepower. My CCS with Straken is already doing its job great so i have a hard time convincing me to pour more points into the unit;)
what type of marines cause the current (emo spave vamps, space puppies, and vanilla marines have 3++ storm sheilds? i killed strken with somr genestealers, him charging me.
ReplyDeleteHe looks really good!
ReplyDelete@Zachary oh did not realize that, the guy i been playing against who wielded generic terminators with storm shields said they gave 4+ invulnerable save. Ill confirm this and then fix it, thanks for the update mate.
ReplyDeleteOhh and as far as i am aware genestealers are initiative 10? which means they attack first and if they put enough wounds on Strakens CCS and Straken fails his own +3 saves then its very possible that they can kill him of.
Never played Tyranids, but from what i heard there are very Very good close-combat specialists, so why is that surprising;)?
@Stillfrosty Thanks mate, i was surprised i could paint him up to that standard after being away for almost 3 weeks from painting.
genestealers are i6 but had poisin so they reroded wounds and that means rends, alot, maybe he was using templar or DA codexs, i relly like straken though, he is like rambo on steriods and pissed cause he doesnt have a big gun or left(?) arm
ReplyDeletesteelers most likely would win because they get so many hits (with reroll) and straken probably does not have many guys with him.
ReplyDeleteas for Nork I would run him if my club ever goes up in points (we play at 1000 currently) because he attaches to take those wounds on straken and is +3 wounds for that squad but I also agree with Ras on the points. His utility is high but you need to see the points paid back which means you need that squad to do a lot or have your other guys pick up his slack
@Brothermars I tried running Nork with Straken last week and i am going back to bodyguards! For the HUGE amount of points i was severely disappointed and i cant really see how he will ever earn in his points.
ReplyDeleteMight try him for fun a few time now that i bought the model but i would never take him to a competitive game for sure.