Do you want an army of flame toting artillery lobbing Rambos at your back as you slay the enemies of the Emperor? Who doesn’t! Let’s dive into a list build using the awesomeness that is the Catachan rules! Check the Tactics Corner for more great articles!
Hey guys and girls, BigVik back today with the next in my series of list build articles for the new Astra Militarum codex! Today We dive into the Catachan regiment, guardsmen from a world covered in preditorial fauna, and Rambos!
If you need to bone up on the catachans’ base rules, take a look at Reece’s posts PART 1, and POST 2
Now let’s go onto the list!
Spearhead detachment (Catachan, +1 CP, leman russes ObSec)
- HQ- Tank Commander w/ battle cannon, 2 plasma cannons, lascannon
- HEAVY SUPPORT- 2* Basilisk battery
- HEAVY SUPPORT- 2* Basilisk battery
- HEAVY SUPPORT- 2* Basilisk battery
Battalion Detachment (Catachan, +3 CP, Troops ObSec)
- HQ- Commissar Yarrick
- HQ- Colonel ‘Ironhand’ Straken
- TROOPS- 22 Conscripts
- TROOPS- 22 Conscripts
- TROOPS- 21 Conscripts
- FAST ATTACK- 3 scout sentinels w/heavy flamers
- FAST ATTACK- 2* hellhound w/ inferno cannon, heavy flamer
- FAST ATTACK- 2* hellhound w/ inferno cannon, heavy flamer
- ELITE- 10 ratlings
- ELITE- Sergeant Harker
- ELITE- minitorum priest
Supreme Command Detachment (Catachan, +1 CP)
- HQ- Primaris Psyker
- HQ- Primaris Psyker
- HQ- Primaris Psyker
Who doesn’t love the smell of Napalm and artillery in the morning, I know I do! With the basilisk batteries and the tank commander, this list has quite a bit of anti-tank especially with the catachan basilisks, which roll two ice, and re-roll the lowest for an average of around 5 shots per battery, which is straight nasty!
The 3 primaris psykers are a reliable source of either support powers or mortal wounds as needed, with the ratlings and scout sentinels giving an extra turn or two of shooting while the opponent closes.
What the List does: This list is a layered… like an onion. The first layer is the Ratlings and Sentinels to keep you back for the first couple turns. The second is the conscripts supported by Yarrick, Straken, a Ministorum Priest, and Primaris Psykers to give some support to them initially. This support will mean that the conscripts are hitting at str4 (Catachan) hitting on 5’s, rerolling 1’s to hit (Yarrick), with 3 attacks each (Straken and Priest). On the approach one unit will be +1 to save, and another will be -1 to hit, whichever is more annoying based on placement of your opponent’s models. The third layer is 4 hellhounds to take down infantry and a Tank Commander for finishing off the leftovers. The final layer is a death blossom of 6 basilisk batteries supported by Sergeant Harker. These guys will roll 2d6 take the highest for number of attacks, furthermore they will re-roll the lowest in an attempt to get extra shots. The average number is around 5, line of sight is not needed, so if something MUST die, it probably will unless its a -2 to hit Primarch or something along those lines.
What Relics to take: Kurov’s Aquila is always a good option, especially if you go with Grand Strategist go refund your command points on a 5+, you’ll definitely want to get some from your opponent as well!
What the Stengths are: This list is 6 Basilisk batteries with a list attached, it can generally remove any one target which isn’t a super heavy, and it doesn’t need line of sight. The rest of the list is to keep things off the batteries, and to clear up targets the batteries are not adept at clearing, or taking out leftovers that the batteries my leave after they’re done shooting
What the Weaknesses are: This list can either be grabbing objectives, OR be really well bubble wrapped, OR be clearing all your infantry off the table. Keep in mind it will be removing a tank or two a turn, but it only gets to do ONE of those other things. Your job as this list’s opponent is to make the player NEED to do 2 of those things, and trick them into doing both badly, rather than 1 well. If you can do that, then either those batteries can be trivially removed at which point they can no longer trade with you, or you win the objective game in which case you may have very few models left, but you should be on the objectives with no contestors at the end.
From a list tech perspective, if you can get a fair amount of your list in cover, and have your otherwise juicy targets at -1, to -2 to hit, that artillery is going to do jack squat to you thorughout the game, Ravenguard, Alpha Legion, and Altaitoc LOVE artillery lines, keep in mind the rest of the list either hits on 3’s or is a flamer so that’s somewhat mitigated, but those batteries are a B***h if they can trivially kill your answer to the flamer tanks and walkers.
Honestly the biggest weakness of this list outside of itself is the new ITC mission packet, with the progressive missions, and myriad secondaries, though this list will be scoring high on the kill objectives, it WANTS to stay layered, forcing it to play the objective game will mitigate that to some point, and keep it an honest and fair game.
All in all I like the Catachan regiment for its ability to simultaneously have very effective long range and short range shooting, making this regiment a very high threat opponent to face.
Well that’s all I’ve got for today, tune back in next time when we continue looking at the Regiments of Renown of Astra Militarum!
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