Imperial Guard in Depth -- Special Characters

Posted by Ranillon on 31. May 2009 22:57

It’s finally time to take a look at the special characters that come with the new IG codex.  Just one note – although specific characters have specific backgrounds there is no reason you can’t use them as “count as” in any army.  So, Lord Castellan Creed could end up in the same army as Commander Chenkov; you’d just want to alter the names to fit a common theme.

Lord Castellan Creed

Here is a good choice if you are interested more in the tactical possibilities of a special character than his ability to directly do damage.  His ability to give any single unit the Scout ability can potentially be quite handy, especially if combined with an astropath (or two).  Likewise, his power to give four orders a turn is nice.  His special order – “For the Honor of Cadia” – strikes me as being of moderate usefulness.  You don’t usually want to be charging into combat with infantry squads, but if you are facing a situation where there is no viable alternative you might as well get some bonuses out of it.

Colour Sergeant Kell

While usually seen as being the eternal sidekick of Creed with the new rules Kell is actually worth taking on his own for one reason – his ability to let a commander use his leadership at range when using orders (e.g. the target unit uses the commander’s leadership to see if they obey).   However, overall you’ll still want to keep these first two choices together if at all possible (even if it is a pricey combo).  You get the most out of Kell’s leadership power while also giving Creed a powerful bodyguard – important since the latter isn’t any tougher than your usual commander.

Knight Commander Pask

I see Pask as a niche special character only useful in certain situations.  His most obvious use is as the commander of a Vanquisher – add in a secondary lascannon and have him go to town on the enemy’s vehicles.  If you are otherwise light on the anti-tank weaponry here is a way to get a lot out of relatively little.  One temptation may be to stick him in an anti-infantry Leman Russ to give his BS4 to as many weapons as possible, but doing that loses you the benefit of his crack shot ability (although, this could make something like an Executioner into a credible light vehicle threat admittedly).  Nevertheless, I expect “Pask” to become synonymous with “Vanquisher”.

Sergeant Bastone

If you want to add as many orders as possible to your army then Bastone is a good choice.  He costs almost as much as the veteran squad he must lead, but he’s sure going to give that unit a lot of backbone.  He can give it any of four orders each turn while allowing it to regroup regardless of casualties.  He also sports a power weapon and hot-shot laspistol.  Bastone is basically a super vet sarge.  The question is whether you want two vet squads or one with a great unit leader.

Colonel “Iron Hand” Straken

Now here is your choice of commander if you are looking for someone able to wade into combat and take heads.  Essentially the “bionic commander” he boasts a 6 strength, 4 toughness, 3 wounds, refractor field, and the equivalent of power armor.  Add in the fact that all of his attacks ignore armor and you end up with a guy as powerful as most Space Marine commanders!  He only gets to give two orders a round, but that is more than balanced by his ability to give everyone with 12” Counter-attack and Furious Charge while he and his command squad are Fearless.  Even at 95 points Straken is my pick for best overall special character.

Guardsman Marbo

I’m not sure what to think of this Rambo clone.  On the one hand he has some impressive abilities, but on the other they operate in a vacuum outside the usual needs of your army.  He acts as his own unit doing things solo.  For an individual model he is pretty nasty, but not so nasty as to be able to carve his way through most units.  Obviously, you have to use him carefully, going for high reward targets that can fall to his attacks.  I just don’t believe he is powerful enough for you to feel confident he’ll be worth the points – not when he costs 65 of them.  As such I see him as more of a curiosity than anything else.

Gunnery Sergeant Harker

Another super vet serge Harker strikes me as being about as useful as Bastone.  He doesn’t get a power weapon, but he does have a heavy bolter than he can use on the move.  He also gives his unit the Infiltrate, Stealth, and Move Through Cover special abilities.  Likewise, as he personally Feels No Pain he’ll stay up in a fight for a while, but he is not going to be quite as nice in close-combat as Bastone.  Still, for 55 points he makes a good pick for a veteran squad.

Commissar Yarrick

An oldie, but a goodie Yarrick is pretty much what he has always been – one tough hombre with a thing against greenskins.  Perhaps his best ability is that he makes everyone with 12” Stubborn, making him a good choice to stick in the middle of your battle line.  He and his group also get to reroll misses when charging into combat.  Beyond this he has what he has always had – a power claw, special force field (which now forces wounds against him to be rerolled), evil eye, and the iron will to keep on going even after losing all his wounds.  One interesting aspect to Yarrick is that he is his own pick – unlike most other special characters he does not replace your commander.  Thus, you can employ him wherever needed instead of him being chained to a special command squad.  He is an astonishing 185 points, however, so I suspect he’ll be used relatively rarely.

Captain Al’Rahem

A replacement for a platoon commander Al’Rahem is another possibility for best character.  He gives his platoon the Flank March ability, something they must use (that’s not a liability since you’ll be planning for it).  That’s potentially as many as 14 units (one platoon) coming in to one side of the board!  He also gets a special order he can give called “Like the Wind”.  If successful a unit can shoot and then move d6 in any direction.  This gives you a limited ability to hit and run – you shoot at the incoming target and then hopefully scamper out of charge range or at least into cover.  Finally, Al’Rahem gets a power weapon that causes instant death (which isn’t as nasty as it used to be).  He doesn’t get any special protections, but does have a plasma pistol.

Commander Chenkov

Another platoon commander replacement, by far Chenkov’s most important ability is that he makes anyone within 12” Stubborn – like Yarrick, but for far less points.  He does get fewer orders as typical commanders, in this case only “Get Back in the Fight” and “Move, Move, Move” which at least are two of the better ones.  He also can let you spend 75 points to make one group of conscripts eternal – they can return after being destroyed – but that seems a bit pricey for what you get.  Otherwise, Chenkov is a typical platoon commander with carapace armor and a power sword.

Mogul Kamir

An add-on to a Rough Rider squad I frankly don’t like him.  He does make his unit Fearless while being able to Furiously Charge, but only at the cost of suffering from Rage.  As I argued in previous postings a Rough Rider squad depends on being used carefully to be effective, namely by waiting patiently for the best time to strike.  However, when subject to Rage they have to gallop toward the nearest enemy as fast as possible.  In effect, a unit that must be tightly controlled to work best is in this case mostly out of your control.  I see Mogul and his men being too easily shot down while in the midst of a temper tantrum to be useful.

Nork Deaddog

Perhaps the closest thing to “loveable” you are likely to find in the 40K universe Nork is what he has always been – the best bodyguard around. He’s big, Feels No Pain, and is Stubborn with a strength and toughness of 5 and 3 wounds.  He can automatically take wounds for a commander while being potentially tough enough to survive them unscathed.  His attacks don’t ignore armor, sadly, but at least he gets four of them.  He also receives one last death bashing where he does d6 strength 6 attacks to the unit that killed him.  At 110 points he's expensive, but he will make any commander squad far tougher.