The forum search didn’t provide any result, so I’d like to check with you how to best equip a unit of bull centaurs -
- two hand weapons or keep the great weapon w/ hand wpn and shield combo?
- command unit? Worthwile for 5 BCs?
- include the army battle standard with them? I saw quite a few lists by now where the BSB is a bull centaur hero.
Personally I tend towards giving my BC another hand weapon and a musician only, though any advice given out of experience made during play are very welcome! :cheers
I generally don’t put my battle standard with any type of cavalry as a) Its all to easy for him and his unit to get isolated and thats a fair few victory points gone in one go and b) he’s much more usful getting low leadership infantry such as hobgoblins and slaves to hold, especially in combination with your general. The two hand weapons aren’t that great - if your enemy is weak enough that you can forgo the protection of shields/hitting power of great weapons then they’re most likely going to have numbers and ranks against your five centaurs, which are better used in combination with infantry to get in a flank charge or to counter enemy heavy cavalry. I normally advocate command groups but if your only taking five models I’d advise spending the points on more centaurs.
It is however, worth adding a bull centaur hero to the unit, either packing a great weapon or magical nasty to rack up kills and help break those enemy units nice and quickly
It depends on the opponent. If they allow you to use BC as infantry for the rules of whether or not they can use AHW and how they use GW or HW&S. Because, going by the rules, they are cavalry and use weapons as such.
Well the question is important for me because I want to decide this before I start sculpting these boys. The old GW bull centaurs all have great weapon as far as I can see in the online shop, so the additional hand weapon would require a greater deal of sculpting / converting. I like WYSIWYG, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it helps me keep track of what I gave my boys without having to look it up in the army list.
S4 seems pretty decent to me already, so I will probably go with the additional hand weapon.
It’s really 3 str 4 attacks vs 2 str 5 attacks that strike last.
As the Bull Centaurs now count as cavalry, it is generally accepted that they get the +1 armour save for being “mounted”. So a shield & HA will give you +3 save vs missles all the time and in HTH if you only use a hand weapon.
For modeling, I’d model on both. Arm dem to da teef. I will probably mix it up, having some with 2 HWs, some with GW in two hands, some with GWs in in one hand, a shield in the other… As long as you strap another axe to his back or something, you can use WYSIWYG for either case.
The real answer is that unless you can afford a decent sized unit of them then leave them out. Unlike most heavy cavalry they only have a 4+ save, and a unit of 5 only needs to lose 3 models to stop canceling rank bonuses. Either invest in a decent sized unit (8 minimum, but preferably 10+) or they will only be good for nipping down the flanks, for which wolf riders are far better suited and cheaper in points - so you can take two units or simply buy more chaos dwarfs
It's really 3 str 4 attacks vs 2 str 5 attacks that strike last.
As the Bull Centaurs now count as cavalry, it is generally accepted that they get the +1 armour save for being "mounted". So a shield & HA will give you +3 save vs missles all the time and in HTH if you only use a hand weapon.
Father Grumpmas
Um how?
on the attacks if they're counting as cavalry they can't use the extra HW; if they don't then they get S6 from the GW
On the Sv, regardless of wheater they are cavalry or not they don't get the +1sv as they don't consist of a separate rider and steed so specifically do NOT get the bonus.
Yeah but thats in no way official… And by following the letter of the law you end up going round in circles. They’re cav because of x,y,z but infantry because of a,b,c.
I’ve found in ambigous situations its always best to take the lesser of your options so mine run as 21 point 2 S5 attacks which isn’t to bad if you ask me! If you want a hardcore cav unit your looking in the wrong place anyway. BC’s excell at catching enemies your RnF can beat in combat but not run down, cross firing, moving towards enemy shooting menacingly (so your REAL combat troops get to combat unscathed) and taking out annoying units you otherwise would not be able to catch (or beat with Wolf Boyz)…
There are only 2 centaur units in the game, bull centaurs and centigors. The bc don’t have clear rules, the centigors do. Where I usually play everyone agree to use the same rules for centigors and bc, so +2str with GW, +1 as if they use the shield and +1 at if they use the additional HW.
If bc are considered cavalry how do you explain that they can get the additional HW? Not even a single cavalry unit in the game has that option and the rules clearly state that only infantry can get them…
in the same way as a armed to the teef Black orc boss on a boar has useless additional hand weapons… or not the same really because the Blorc has them regardless… the BC must choose to use useless equiptment…
i agree you should follow the centigor rule model… but you are not following the centigor rule model in your exmple up above… a centigor treats only hand weapons as tho a model on foot… so additonal HWs and HW/shield are allowed… other weapons… Centigor spears or the BC GWs… should be treated as cavalry models… as you point out the centigor rules are clear…
Actually I didn’t think about the spear part :0 , but a spear is quite different form a GW by rules, they probably added that to avoid centigors fighting in 2 ranks like infantry.
So I must consider myself lucky with s6 bc!Btw even opponents I play with prefer a unit of those to a couple of earthshakers
both these weapons are reliant on weight to be effective… and (now) have both infantry and cav rules… it is natural that they be considered in a similar manner… and the rule was probably implemented so that centigors would have +1S on the charge… :sick otherwise the trample rule (another rule BCs have escaped) would be pretty pointless…
Arm them with great wepons and shields. Anything other than great weapons means they are way overpriced for what you are using them for. Shields so that they can take a few more low strength hits before entering combat, or for occasions on when the extra strength really isn’t worth it but the extra save is.
