Dark Angels Review: HQ: Ezekiel

Hi everyone, Michael here with a review of the Grand Master of the Dark Angels’ Librarians, Ezekiel. For more reviews, analyses and battle reports, check out the Tactics Corner.

Overview:

Ezekiel is the most potent psyker available in the Dark Angels army. At mastery level three, he has a good chance of getting the powers you want (if you roll on the same discipline table) and a fairly good chance of casting them. He will also provide a powerful psychic defence for the army against most other psykers in the game. On top of that, he is actually a decent combat character and provides some nice buffs for any unit he joins and nearby units, making him a great force multiplier. The only things that let him down are a lack of an invulnerable save and limited mobility, as he is an infantry model on foot. For only 145 points, he is quite the bargain and would be suitable for many Dark Angels armies. He has a Space Marine Captain’s stats, but with WS5 instead of WS6. While not as good as Tigurius, he is a potent addition to any force.

Wargear:

• Master-crafted Bolt Pistol
• Master-crafted Force Sword
• Frag and Krak Grenades
• Psychic Hood
• 2+ armour save
• Book of Salvation- All friendly models with the Dark Angels faction within 6″ of Ezekiel at the start of the Fight sub-phase get +1 attack till the end of the phase.

Special Rules:

• Deathwing- Fearless and Hatred (Chaos Space Marines)
• Grim Resolve- Stubborn and fires Overwatch at BS2
• Independent Character
• Psykery (Mastery Level 3)- can use Daemonology, Divination, Interromancy, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy
• Courage of the Lion (Warlord Trait)- Warlord and all friendly Dark Angels units within 12″ are Fearless.

Tactics:

First off, Ezekiel is actually a decent combat character. With 6 attacks on the charge (I am assuming that the Book of Salvation works on Ezekiel as well) at S4 and AP3, with two re-rolls, Ezekiel should be able to put a lot of hurt on MEQ units in combat. He is also pretty durable, with 3 wounds and a 2+ armour save. He is only T4, so is still susceptible to S8 Instant Death, as well as lacking an invulnerable save. This means that he will probably fall quickly to a dedicated combat character or any high strength weaponry. In addition, you can activate his Force Weapon in the psychic phase to take out some multi-wound characters or monstrous creatures (if you get lucky with the wound roll). Against most standard infantry, Ezekiel should cause a lot of damage in combat.

Ezekiel also provides some great buffs for nearby units. If he is your warlord, he generates a 12″ Fearless bubble. This is pretty potent for ensuring that your units do not run away under any circumstances. The downside of this is that you don’t get to go to ground or flee from combat (in case that would be beneficial).

In addition, the Book of Salvation gives all models within 6″ an extra attack. Bear in mind that it applies to each MODEL within 6″, not each UNIT, so no getting extra attacks for the whole unit if only a single model is in range. For most units, this is a great bonus, allowing you to double your attacks and boost your chances of causing damage. For some units in the Dark Angels codex, this is amazing, boosting the units even further. A unit of Black Knights or Deathwing Knights are already potent combat units, giving each an extra attack makes them even better. The only problem with boosting such units is getting Ezekiel into range to utilise the effect. As a model on foot with no Jump Pack, he will have problems keeping up with a unit of Bikers and cannot teleport in with the Deathwing. Your best bet is to put him in a Rhino or Drop Pod and co-ordinate him to arrive with your attack. Ezekiel does not have to be in the combat to get the bonus, so you can always drop him near the combat to gain the maximum benefit and charge him in the following turn. This bonus gets even better if you manage to get the Righteous Repugnance from the Interromancy discipline. Cast this on a unit of Black Knights with Ezekiel nearby and you can potentially get 6 attacks from each Black Knight on the charge. A unit of 5 could get a whopping thirty S5 Rending attacks on the charge, enough to wipe out most units in the game. Add a Chaplain on a Bike to the Bikers for his Zealot re-rolls and you will crush almost anything you can charge.

Ezekiel also provides some potent psychic defence against any powers targeting your unit. At Mastery Level 3, he will be denying powers that target your units on a 4+ against most psykers in the game, with the Psychic Hood allowing him to help out other nearby units that are targeted by psychic powers.

Formations

The Dark Angels get access to their own version of the Librarius Conclave. This consists of Ezekiel and 2-4 Librarians. This formation allows a single Librarian to harness the powers of the other Librarians and manifest psychic power dice on a 3+, rather than a 4+. In additon, you get to double the range of the Mind Worm power from 12″ to 24″.

This is obviously not as powerful a formation as the Codex Space Marine Librarius Conclave, but is still a nice bonus for Dark Angels Librarians. The downside of having Ezekiel in this formation is that you are either limited to moving at his slow pace or you have to leave him behind as your faster moving Librarians (on Bikes or Jump Packs) advance on the enemy. Doubling the range of Mind Worm is also a very nice bonus. This will give you a single S6 AP2 focused Witchfire shot that Ignores Cover. You should be able to wound most targets with this power and when you do, it will reduce their WS, BS, I and Ld by 3 for the rest of the game. This could seriously harm any enemy characters or monstrous creatures that it successfully wounds for the rest of the game.

As he has the Deathwing rule, Ezekiel is able to join either the Deathwing Redemption Force or Deathwing Strike Force. The downside of this is that he does not have the ability to Deep Strike, so will be forced to walk onto the board from reserve if you choose to take him in these formations. Due to this, I would not recommend taking him in such a formation.

Overall

Ezekiel is a solid addition to any Dark Angels army. He provides some very powerful boost for any nearby units, especially if he is your warlord. He is a strong combat character, able to take on MEQ, but will fall to stronger combat characters. He should function well in many strong Dark Angels lists, particularly suiting a static gunline that will force the enemy to come to you.

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