The rest of the Court of the Archon have been bad, but strap in, because we’re looking at the worst of the worst here. Click to read on if you dare, or check out the Tactics Corner for discussion of units and strategies that aren’t terrible.
Overview
The Ur-Ghoul can at least claim to have a slightly more unique statline than most Drukhari units (or Court units), although honestly this doesn’t count for a lot. 8″ movement is common to the other members of the Court, as is weapon skill 3+, but lacking a ballistic skill entirely is something of a novelty, albeit not in a good way. Strength four is something of a rarity as well for an Aeldari model, though the standard toughness of three is still there. Three wounds is more than most typical infantry models but is not enough to sustain the unit on its own, especially not with no armor save whatsoever. Four attacks (and leadership four, for some reason) round out the profile. Should you dare to take one despite all of this, an Ur-Ghoul is fifteen points and can only be taken as solo models.
Special Abilities and Wargear
You might think that the Ur-Ghoul would come with the standard abilities of a Drukhari, but you would be wrong! Because they are aliens, you see, so they don’t get Power From Pain like all of the other models in the army. They do get their own rule (Insensible to Pain) for a 5+ ability to shrug wounds off, which is at least fairly useful. Like other members of the Court, they have a rule which grants them rerolls to hit while in range of an Archon and they do not take up slots when taken alongside one.
Ur-Ghouls also come with Ferocious Charge, which grants them +2 attacks on the turn that they charge. Normally we might consider this a pretty big bonus on a melee unit, but the Ur-Ghoul has an incredibly helpful feature that renders it all but worthless: it doesn’t have any melee weapons. I mean, technically it does have one (its Claws and Teeth), but they are identical to the free close combat weapon that every model gets, so it is functionally worthless.
Uses
Normally I would say something useful or interesting about how to include the unit in an army. Alternatively, it would be where I critiqued the design of a subpar unit and explained where it failed in its aims and what would need to be improved to make it worthwhile.
However, with the Ur-Ghoul there just… isn’t a lot to say in either respect. It’s bad, no doubt about it- bad damage output, bad survivability, bad costing, bad everything. But it’s not bad in an interesting way or one that we can say anything useful about, because it’s really just a pile of stats and little more. The most I could say would be that stats alone do not a melee unit make, but even that isn’t really very insightful because the Ur-Ghoul doesn’t have particularly good stats- it sits well below a Primaris Marine in overall numbers and will virtually always lose a fight to one despite costing more and coming with fewer rules.
Countering
Ahahahahahahahahahahaha.
No.
Final Thoughts
We are nearly out of this hellhole of Court of the Archon models, so just bear with me a touch longer. Soon we’ll be able to talk about interesting models that can theoretically be used on the table again.
As always, remember that you can buy your wargaming supplies at great discounts every day from the Frontline Gaming store, whether you’re looking to start a new army or expand an existing one.
OK. That’s not an Ur-ghoul.
… And while it’s a relatively bad warlock, it’s also nowhere near as bad as the Ur Ghoul is in W40K :p
I know, man, that’s what I’m saying! I ain’t got a lot of pictures of actual Ur-Ghouls to use for this thing.
They make interesting “speed-bumps” in Blackstone Fortress … never faced one in W40K.
So soon there’ll be articles about models that can actually be used on the table top?
Didn’t know you’re planning a series on Space Marines!
You have my promise that I will never write about Space Marines.
you could have done a single article about the whole court of Archon, since all have the same issues: being single weak and overpriced models
@Victor Yanguas : but that mean less abusepuppy sass. I read the review just for the sass.
Well, he could have done a single article about the whole Aeldari super-faction, since all have the same issue: being weak and overpriced.
The only ones’ remotely playable are those that by some copy & paste error miraculously got a Space Marine rule or two from the Salamanders and Imperial Fists chapter tactic section.
*a webway portal opens, Archon Skari rears his head*
On the charge, 3 urgluls (45 points) put out a whopping 18 str 4 attacks.
They re roll misses within 3″ of an archon.
A unit of barebones wyches is 40 points. +1 srt combat drug for comparison.
16 attacks all the time.
9 wounds for the urghuls.
5 for the wyches.
4++ in combat for the wyches, 6+/6++ against shooting
5++ all the time for urghuls.
So, they are not the be all end all, and the wyches of course are troops and benefit from cult obsessions. However 3 urghuls in a pack are not to be ignored, especially against non – space marine units they can rip up a guard unit, or even scouts quite nicely wile being easy to hide and the re rolls are quite good as well.
Im not saying you should all go get some now, im just saying that they have some play, maybe as a poor man wych unit if you want to do pure kabal.
*portal closes*
That’s true, but it is also assuming the presence of an Archon within 3″ of the unit- a short enough range that I think you have to count in their value (another 60+ pts) as well or else we’re being unfair to the Wyches. And just as importantly, the Ur-Ghouls will potentially trigger overwatch three times, whereas the Wyches will do so only once- given how fragile both units are, I think that’s extremely relevant, because it won’t be that rare for your opponent to do the 3-4 wounds needed to kill off the unit on the charge.
Also, Wyches are generally not taken for their raw combat prowess, which is actually not _that_ great, but rather for their ability to trap things in combat and harass enemy infantry units with impunity.
Three Ur-Ghouls will certainly kill off a unit of Guardsmen if they get the charge and have a buff character in range, but that’s a pretty lackluster endorsement all things considered. The real question these days is what do they do to a unit of Primaris Marines, and the answer there is “feed them three easy kill points.”
They are arguably one of the better Kabal melee units, it’s true, but that is an incredibly low bar to meet and unless a player is intentionally going for some kind of weird theme list, including Cults, Covens, Harlies, or Craftworlds as allies is a far, far better way to bring melee units to the table.