Topic of the Week: Special Characters

[Cadaver Junkie]

Are they really special? Or not worth it?

Do you ever use Gaunt, or Yarrick?

Or do you feel they would be instead be a waste of points?

How about Schaeffer, and his last chancers? (Although this tidbit has already been the focus of a former topic of the week, don't feel like you should hold back if you have anything to say).

Or even Ol' Solar Macharius himself, if he is even legal anymore.

And if you do use these guys, how do you field them? Do you use their stats and rules to represent other officers in your army? Is it still worthwhile running Gaunt with a 50 man conscript squad in 5th edition? Tactics, guys, tactics.

Discuss!

[General Walker]

Hmm well I would say in terms of Fluff then they are definatly worth it, although it would be kind of anyoing if every Guard army used the same one like some marine players do. I personally have Yarrick because he looks cool, but is he worth his points compaired for 40 points for a normal Commisar ? well I say it depends. I generally play 1000 points as I am starting out at IG ( still have a 76.4% win ratio ) but there have been a few games when I have played 2000 and Yarrick has been worth the points, I mean its great esp in cities of death when your command squad can actually do some damage CC ( even if its only against normal troops ) I mean I was playn SM and I had a avg CS with Yarrick and I took on a sull squad of 10 marines, killed 5 in shooting and finished them off in CC. Anyway just my thoughts

Regards,

Michael

[Dakka,Dakka,Dakka]

nice job general walker XD

but honestly yarrick is worth it in high point games

he lasted 3 turns against 30 ork boyz and a nob, back in 4th edition(btw he killed the nob because he is an independant character along with 10 boyz, you tell me if you think thats worth it XD(i love his force shield XD)

[General Walker]

Thanks Dakka,Dakka,Dakka.

Due to Yarricks ability im sure we could have a entire thread dedicated to his heroic actions, and like I said I agree with daka that he is worth it in high point games I mean he sure knows how to get out a sticky situation

[MadLarkin]

I use Gaunt in almost all my guard lists. Seeing him charge with a powerfist wielding Senior officer and a command squad of 3 flamers and a medic with laspistol/ccw gives you 6 S4 power weapon attacks, 14 S3 attacks and 5 S6 attacks in that order. Then if you combine it with a normal line squad with a veteran sgt and that's an additional 32 S3 attacks! Men of Tanith do you wanna live forever? I had Gaunt wipe out a small chaos chosen squad once when I got lucky rolls. In fact his heroics are so ingrained into my friends minds that they avoid close combat with him like he was abbadon (unless of course they have abbadon)

I also love his command squad. With so many wounds and a super medic and a move and fire heavy bolter, a demo charge and best of all, Mad Larkin and his crazy cover.armor-saving ignoring rules which no one is safe.

[Beardy_Wierdy]

I have yet to use a special character, if only because on paper they dont seem worth it in anything under 2000pts. Most of the time I play 1000pt games anyway (small table alas) and thus cant use them even if I wanted to, but even in larger games I wouldnt.

Just a personal thing, even if they were the best thing since the inventor of the lasgun said "I am going to invent a lasgun now" I wouldnt use them, I dont want my regiment led by heroes, I want them to carry the day through their own endeavours - if they need to be inspired by someone else then they are not doing their duty.

[stayscrunchyinmilk]

Well, the second command slot is a valuable and vital commodity.
I don't like Yarrick nowerdays (Although I have a old "craw claw" model somewhere, who heroically did his thing for years and years) IMHO he's too expensive, and with 5th ed wound allocation the field doesn't work as well.

Gaunt - I've never done Ghosts. he looks okay

Shaeffer and kage - I like. (well, i like the acces to the last chancers. They're a bit overprices, and not too impresive, but the men they come with are great, and i love the fluff of fielding commando's.

Kreed and Kell - Awsome rules. Very power gamer. Pick going first? Oh, alright then. and a LD10 standard (so you can have 2 in a army) and a power fist with WS 5. worth every penny, but rarely used by me.

[Sorrowsky]

I'm going to be fielding Creed and Kell in my Cadian 8th army, just cause i'm in love with the color scheme, the fluff and the whole storyline of using just human infantry in a universe torn in war, just reminds me of all the heroic war movies. Anyway i believe in the codex (i don't have the codex with me right now, typing this in one of my university lectures) it says that both Creed and Kell can start off independently from each other, so i was going to place them both in two different storm trooper grenadier squads and rush for objectives on their chimeras or rush for areas of where need be, such as tank busting. I was going to place one of the vetern sergeant with the HI upgrade as a way to get enough powersword attacks on the charge.

As fluff wise and just a bunch of cooliness, my plan would be on the table to use the two Chimeras filled both with 10 man squads of Storm Troopers and both Kell and Creed in their respective squads, rushing for objectives followed by a Leman Russ.

[MadLarkin]

Just wondering how does Creed's master strategist rule work now?

[kevin vanrooyen]

I use Gaunt in almost all my guard lists. Seeing him charge with a powerfist wielding Senior officer and a command squad of 3 flamers and a medic with laspistol/ccw gives you 6 S4 power weapon attacks, 14 S3 attacks and 5 S6 attacks in that order. Then if you combine it with a normal line squad with a veteran sgt and that's an additional 32 S3 attacks! Men of Tanith do you wanna live forever? I had Gaunt wipe out a small chaos chosen squad once when I got lucky rolls. In fact his heroics are so ingrained into my friends minds that they avoid close combat with him like he was abbadon (unless of course they have abbadon)

I also love his command squad. With so many wounds and a super medic and a move and fire heavy bolter, a demo charge and best of all, Mad Larkin and his crazy cover.armor-saving ignoring rules which no one is safe.

I played a game against a tanith player (using normal guard rules) and gaunt didn't really impress me. Him Hark (HSO plas pistol pwr weap) brin milo from the tanith rules and 4 other guardsmen with lasguns and flamers were charged by my scouts(5 bolt pistols ccw's no sarg old marine codex). They fought for a few turns before my one remaining scout was killed by Hark who was on his last wound. At this time hark was the last Tanith and didn't last long. I'm still a fan of the 50 constript mob tactic though as now you can hold objectives no mater how many guys are left in the squad, plus 51 fearless men for under 300pts, gotta love guard.

Creed and Kell though are a bargain for all they can do as they are both great leaders. Also Creed has some useful special rules as it is important for guard to go first now as the extra shooting time in very important. Ohand Kell is just about as good as guard get in combat, second to only Yarrak IMO.

Yarrak is arguablly the guard's bets chance at taking out enemy special characters and big monsters in combat. The force field is great as it makes him all but imune to small arms fire and decreases his chances of suffering instant death which is a problem with all too many guard players. Due to his high point cost he wouldn't be good in smal point games- on a related note isn't it odd that he costs 146 points, wouldn't it be easier to make it 145?

Colnel Schaffler has some good fluff but the rules just don't impress me, sure you can take demo charges and loads of special and heavy weapons all of them scorng but the points will mount up. If you go and split them into the maximum five squads youare giving away too many kill points, but if you put too many points in one squad they are too easy to kill. Vets are cheaper, can infiltrate, don't have to pay extra for special and heavy weapons, and aren't forced to take overpriced characters.

Just my long winded opinion, hope it helps.