Thursday, December 1, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Arlatax Class Battle-Automata Maniple

Background.
Stockpiled by Xana, and with select Loyalist Forge Worlds having limited supplies, dark rumours swirl around these automata. Of course, where there's a bit of smoke there's sometimes a fire, and with these automata the chances of Malifica seem rather high.

Physically, these are Domitars. But they're domitars with jump packs in a nut shell.

Strengths.
As a jump pack monstrous creature, the Arlatax are a huge piece of kit. The toughness alone rules out the chances of instant death from vindicator shells and the stat line features an impressive 4 wounds. Moreover, the initiative is significant as being at I=4 bringing it on par with the average space marine. Of course, Anacharis Scoria can boost this further (as can choices of mechanicum sub-faction!) which can help increase it further.

The equipment is very good. The combination of plasma blasters with inbuilt cannons on the power claws is really nice and can be very powerful on the charge in to close combat. Indeed, I find plasma blasters to be highly valuable for taking out power armour.

The only real option is to swap out the power claws for arc scourges. This provides the rampage rule, armour bane and concussion and is really worth it in concert with the jump pack. One should be getting the charge in here and therefore the scourges can be very powerful against both troops and vehicles when required.

Weaknesses.
The Arlatax are categorically not Domitars. They lack the sheer resilience of the Domitars and are therefore a bit more vulnerable. In particular their armour saves are nothing particular special at 3+.

Fundamentally, the major concern I have with this unit is how to keep in range of a character with a cortex controller. There are very few that I can think of that would fit this bill.

Builds.
There isn't too much to talk about in terms of options. However, here are two build.

Arlatax with Arc Scourge and Paragon of Metal (220 points).
With the paragon of metal special rule we are less worried about the cortex controller and it can function omits own very nicely.

Three Arlatax with Arc Scourge (555 points).
Only for very large games here. This maniple is very powerful and will clear out space marine squads with regularity if used and positioned well. Yet, they would still be vulnerable to focussed fire from even small arms like bolters and fury of the legion.

1 comment:

Rob-not-steve said...

The paragon of metal build is my absolute favourite for the Arlatax. I think it makes a unit that will take a good deal of firepower to deal with which protects other units, or your opponent ignores it at their peril!!

I have just finished converting and undercoating one from a Domitar chassis :)

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