Quick Tip: Using Your Captain in Gravis Armour





Just a quick one, as I've been swamped at school. I've been effectively at work for the past 2 days straight, and have only just had a relatively quiet afternoon to get any of my teaching work done!


I spent some time looking at this guy:


In all honesty I wasn't hugely impressed on first sight. He looks rather portly, and after someone pointed out the bone between his legs I just couldn't take him very seriously.


He's grown on me though, as he does look fairly chunky and robust. The big cape and fist are actually quite intimidating, and he does look fairly agile for such a big thumper. But then his rules... oh his rules!


The standard captain bubble is nearly pivotal to how Space Marines run these days, with plasma weapons cropping up in nearly every unit. It's not overtly stated, but this chap does have the extra attack and wound associated with Primaris Space Marines, and that little bit of fluff may be important to some looking to build 'pure' armies.


Those bits are good, as is the standard issue Iron Halo. What's not so good are his weapons.


Individually the master crafted power sword and boltstorm gauntlet are great! The issue is getting both at the same time. Here's a quick table to show you why:




There is no reason to use the power sword, except in the edge case of Toughness 2 models. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one unit which has toughness, and no one uses them. It would be different if the power sword were better at chopping up Toughness 3/4 models as well, in which case the pairing makes sense. As it is though, you'll always be better off using the Gauntlet.


You may think that the -1 To Hit on the gauntlet might be more of a liability if the enemy can get further modifiers on you. Whilst somewhat true, you'll still be better off with the Gauntlet thanks to the better wound roll.


To put the redundancy of the power sword in context, there is nothing in the Dark Imperium starter kit worth hitting with the power sword. Even if you rolled 1s for damage throughout the whole game, you'd still be better off hitting with the gauntlet.


And I'm almost certain the only reason he has the power sword at all is for symmetry with this guy:


What's even worse than that, is that for around the same number of points you can get a faster Old Marine Captain on a bike, with a Storm shield and better shooting. You only lose one attack, which is more than made up for with 3 damage on the Hammer hits.


So, I'm looking forward for when that master crafted power sword can be swapped out for something else. Right now, it's dead points.


Tip of the day: Punch, don't stab.


Until next time!





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