Monday, September 4, 2017

Horus Heresy Review: Secutarii Axiarch


Background.
Axiarchs are the leaders of the Secutarii cult within the Mechanicus. Rather than being selected on merit, they are chosen for having defended a downed titan, or having recovered one from the field -- one of the most "sacred" of tasks that the sect are called on to perform. Subject to further testing and evaluation, they are then rebuilt in armour forged from a dead titan and upgraded with protocols to replace parts of their brain. The outcome is something beyond a space marine.

Strengths.
First of all, the stat line of an Axiarch is splendid. Strictly better than a space marine baseline with three wounds and attacks, this is a character to be reckoned with. Moreover, it is also a cheap character for the baseline price.

The Axiarch comes with a small artillery of special rules and equipment. Firstly the Titanshard armour is basically power armour with added bonuses. The It Will Not Die rule chief amongst them means that this HQ will not go down without a prolonged fight. This is magnificent in the 30k environment for a HQ to have outside of a Primarch, and at such cheap points levels too.

One of the main reasons for having the Axiarch though is the ability to select fro the Binaric Stratagems. There are four of these and each of them applies to Secutarii in the detachment that have the Hazard Protocols. The first gives a bonus to feel no pain, the second move through cover, the third a bonus on the vehicle damage table roll, and the fourth preferred enemy against infantry. This can be a tough choice as I like many of these. Move through cover is somewhat situational, so I would probably opt for one of the others. Given that the titan should be working against enemy vehicles, the extra pip in vehicle damage is not too important. Hence I'd prefer either the preferred enemy for better aggression, or the feel no pain bonus for better defensiveness. I would err on the side of the feel no pain probably.

Weaknesses.
The chief weakness is the 3+ armour save. It is probably wise to invest in some invulnerable saves for this character via a mag-inverter shield as part of the build perhaps, but a cheap Axiarch can still be had at the baseline entry to take advantage of the precision shots. Just make sure to join him up with a unit to gain some additional benefit from the Kyropatris Field.

Builds.
A pair of builds to consider below.

Axiarch with power fist (65 points).
Cheap. Cheerful. Yet still powerful and a character to contend with.

Axiarch with arc lance and mag-inverter shield, omnispex and augury scanner (90 points).
Take shatter spheres to taste if wanted. This build combines offence with defence and can be very good in various situations that require him to take on enemy infantry.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Facebook

Sequestered Industries