Up for review: Servitors! The under-appreciated, lobotomized servants of the Space Marines! As always, check out the Tactics Corner for more in-depth reviews.
Servitors are serfs and slaves of the Imperium, their minds wiped of all but the most rudimentary intelligence, tasked with menial and dangerous labor. They also accompany Techmarines into battle to assist in combat repairs and provide protection and fire support to their masters.
Overview:
Servitors are pretty simple fellows. They can be taken as a unit for each Techmarine or Master of the Forge in your army and do not take up an FoC slot. They have middling stats, only slightly better than an Imperial Guardsman, wtih options for rather powerful weapons. However, they’re far from a competitive choice and will usually only be seen in a fluff list or for highly specialized roles in a list. That said, they can be useful when played creatively. They are also dirt cheap costing 4pts less than a Tactical Marine and pack a wallop in HtH….if they survive to swing!
Wargear:
- Servo-arm…pow!
- Options for 2 Servitors (unit size of 1 to 4) to take either a Heavy Bolter, Multi Melta or Plasma Cannon
Special Rules:
- Mindlock: if not accompanied by a Techmarine or Master of the Forge, on a 1,2 or 3, the unit does nothing.
Tactics:
Servitors are cool models, characterful, but really not that great. They do hit REALLY hard in combat for their points with a strength 8, ap1 attack each, but at toughness 3 with a 4+ they in all likelihood won’t survive to swing against the vast majority of enemy units in the game. Even Tau and IG stand good odds of taking these out before they swing with their unwieldy weapons. At their low cost though, you can stick them with a MotF or Techmarine to either serve as ablative wounds or he can tank the wounds for them, allowing them to punch something in the face. They will also take a vehicle apart like nobody’s business if they can get their greasy little paws on it!
The shooting versions suffer from BS3, although they are extremely cheap. The Plasma Cannon version isn’t a bad idea as blast weapons are impacted by crummy BS less than direct fire weapons, and if the unit overheats and dies, you really didn’t lose much. Pair them with a Master of the Forge with a Conversion Beamer and you have a decent shooting unit although the Conversion Beamer wants to be further away. They could give you some cheap firepower to protect a Techmarine or MotF who is dedicated to repairing vehicles in the backfield as well.
In a themed list, you could take 2 MotF and Techmarines and 4 units of 2 Plasma Cannon Servitors for not a bad addition of firepower for a low points investment. Just bare in mind they have to be babysat or potentially do nothing at all. In the right list, it could work but I wouldn’t take it to a tournament, personally.
That is about all there is to say on this unit. It is straightforward as all get out and while there is room for some shenanigans, not much.
I think two rules changes would make Servitors infinitely more useful if either of these were made real:
1) Make them more like wargear so you could have a techmarine join a unit with his servitors. This was you could do things like have a MotF and a servitor or two JOIN a unit of marines.
2) If not that, at least be able to take a transport for them. As a unit they basically have to walk around. If you could at least put them in a rhino or drop pod I could see more tactical uses for them.
But as far as a stand around and shoot unit consider this.
Techmarine + 2 Plasma Servitors (can only have two Heavy Weapons) is 110.
Dev squad (5 dudes) + 4 Plasma is 120.
It isn’t hard to see why we never see these guys on the tabletop.
Too bad iron hands can’t make them scoring…
The main problem for me is their lower toughness compared to a MOTF or techpriest. Majority toughness means you are weakening your tech-priest if he is in their unit.
That’s another good point I didn’t even touch on, thanks for pointing that out.
An interesting aside is in my Digital SM codex, servitors are listed as “Infantry (character)” . My print codex says Infantry. But as a Character they could be sacrificed to a challenge or better yet, in my Salamander army…. All get Master Crafting … Twin Linked multi meltas at 20pts each… yes please!
Also… Aren’t they S3…. so swing a Powerfist attack at S6?
I agree they should be allowed to join units with their ‘master’. I want to put a couple with a techmarine and attach them to a unit in a Landraider.. getting a 3+ repair roll while riding along inside…