[Archive] The Daemonsmith's Handbook - Infernal Castellan

Nicodemus:



Week 3: Infernal Castellan




Welcome to the third chapter in the Daemonsmith’s Handbook! Please post your Infernal Castellan tips and tactics here.

Some suggested topics for discussion:

- How to equip your Castellan

- Most effective use as a lone character or within a unit

- Which items or banners (if upgraded to a BSB) work best

MLP:

An excelent addition to any unit of infernal Guard as he makes them Stubborn. If he is also the Batle standard bearer then the unit will become extremely reliable especally in range of the General. A good tactic is to have him in a unit of 29 with Blunderbusses two ranks deep. Then all models can fire on a stand and shoot, then hold even if they lose the combat because they’re Stubborn, then reform into Horde or Steadfast as required. He excells in a battle of attrition as all Chaos Dwarfs should!

As a Battle standard bearer he is best off being equipped defensively rather than with a banner, there isn’t really a worthwhile banner to make use of his 75 magic item points anyway and any which are decent could be equipped on a unit banner instead.

Equip him with the Mask of the furnace and a Great weapon giving him a 3+ 4++ and become fear causing or alternatively the Talisman of preservation and the enchanted shield with up to 25 points magic weapon giving him 2+ 4++.

A more offensive build is giving him Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone and the Black Hammer of Hashut so He’ll have a 2+ rerollable and insta-kill anything made flammable by your Sorcerer-Prophet.

Nicodemus:

As MLP pointed out, they’ve got a nice high points allowance for magic items, and there’s no points limit if he’s upgraded to a BSB!

As MLP indicated, giving your Infernal Guard Steadfast (via the Castellan’s Stubborn status) is fantastic. Having two Castellans in a unit of IG can make them very resilient.

For example, Mask of the Furnace provides an AS bonus, 4+ WS (2+ vs Flaming) and Fear, with a few points left to spare for a Luckstone and an Iron Curse Icon, for example. Along with a second Castellan upgraded to a BSB, if the BSB and the IG’s regular standard bearer are both given magical banners, such as the War Banner (+1 combat res) and Razor Standard (AP in close combat), a unit of 20 IG (5x4) will be Steadfast, enemy units will usually be taking a Fear test,they’ll have a 6+ WS vs. Warmachines, +6 combat res (assuming there is 4 ranks of 5 models each, plus the Standard bearer, BSB and War Banner). Even if they do lose combat they’ll only be testing on their unmodified Ld anyway, with a re-roll to boot!. With the Razor Standard the unit will have AP in close combat too, and combined with the base IG/Castellan S4 opponents will be at -2 AS; give them all GWs and foes will be at -4 AS!

In terms of a prespective on getting the re-roll, as a player I like Chaos Dwarfs because they have high Ld and I get to remain in control without having things awry too often.  Here’s some statistics for Ld tests on Chaos Dwarfs I did up quickly: At Ld 9, there’s an 83% chance they’ll pass a Ld test (almost 92% for Ld10, assuming they’re within range of the General or they have a standard which boosts Ld+1) - these work out to be a ~17% (Ld 9) and ~8% (Ld 10) chance of failing. If they get a re-roll, the chances of actually failing for a second time become ~3% for Ld 9 and less than 1% for Ld 10!

Keep in mind the rules for Fear (or Terror, if you give one the Terrifying Mask from the BRB):

BRB p.99: “Combined units: Whilst a character is part of a unit, both he and the unit are treated as a single combined unit for all rules purposes.”

BRB p.100: "Special rules. Unless otherwise noted, special rules applying only to the character don’t apply to the unit and vise versa."


Here’s a summary of some special cases that I picked up to summarize here:

Q. 1.) If I put a character who causes fear in a unit that does not, does the unit have to test for fear when engaging a fear causing enemy? 2.) Does the character ignore the result of the fear test?

A. Yes to both. More on #1.) Models in base contact with the Fear-causing character have to make the fear check. If one of the models from the unit fails then it affects the whole unit.

Q. I have that fear causing character inside a unit that does not cause fear and they are fighting a unit that does not cause fear. Does the enemy unit have to test for fear (and if failed all have WS 1 even if they choose not to attack the character and just the unit?).

A. Yes. If any model in that unit is in base-to-base contact with your Fear-causing model then that unit must make the Leadership test. The unit as a whole is then affected by the outcome, regardless of where their attacks are allocated. The first paragraph on Fear explicitly states that the test is made “before any blows are struck,” so it doesn’t matter how the units decides to allocate their atttacks, they’re at WS 1 regardless!

~N

propervillanz:

Brilliant on all accounts.

The only thing i can think to add is that these guys are pretty good shooters as well. I always attempt to equip mine with a pistol if i have the points. BS4 and quick to fire makes these guys fairly accurate and able to take wound off of a lone character some what reliably.

A wacky build i have tried with some success:

Infernal Castellan

Araybian Carpet

Charmed Shield

Opal Armulet

Pistol

Great Weapon

I find he is pretty good at getting behind enemy lines to threaten war machines and lone characters. A wacky build to say the least, but effective if played correctly.

However as the distinguished gentlemen above have already stated he is best in a unit of infernal guard.

nilbog:

Q. I have that fear causing character inside a unit that does not cause fear and they are fighting a unit that does not cause fear. Does the enemy unit have to test for fear (and if failed all have WS 1 even if they choose not to attack the character and just the unit?).
A. Yes. If any model in that unit is in base-to-base contact with your Fear-causing model then that unit must make the Leadership test. The unit as a whole is then affected by the outcome, regardless of where their attacks are allocated. The first paragraph on Fear explicitly states that the test is made "before any blows are struck," so it doesn't matter how the units decides to allocate their atttacks, they're at WS 1 regardless!

~N

Nicodemus
I think this is excellent and something I'd never considered - it certainly makes the castellan (wearing mask of the furnacwe) and his unit even more resiliant.

Grimbold Blackhammer:

These situations are one of the few times it is actually worth casting the spell Transmutation of Lead from the Lore of Metal on the unit. A unit that fails its Fear test drops to Weapon Skill ‘1’ and the spell then drops it to ‘0’ (as it is your turn you decide the order the effects take place). It is very rare that it happens but it sure is nice when it does!

Grimbold Blackhammer

Staff:

Just to clarify here - and please help me out those of you who are familiar with how thing kind of thing should work - I have two questions about the Infernal Castellan as a BSB:

In the Tamurkhan book, on p.189 there’s a boxed section for the BSB upgrade for the Infernal Castellan. It states “The Battle Standard Bearer can have a magic banner (no points limit), but in this case may not carry other magical items”.

Q1. Am I correct in reading that if the Infernal Castellan is upgraded to a BSB, but doesn’t take a magical banner, that he can still take up to 75pts of magic items?

Q2. The Infernal Castellan doesn’t currently have access to any magical banners more expensive than 55pts, but if he did have access to a 100pt banner, for example (campaign items or in 9th ED maybe!), could he take it and ignore his 75pt limit for magic items?

MLP:

Yes to both questions :slight_smile:

Hashup:

To answer your questions Staff, yes you are correct about the BSB being able to take 75 points worth of item as long as he does not carry a magical standard. As for the second question, the  boxed section on pg 189 detailing chaos dwarf BSB’s in the Tamurkhan book states that there is no points limit if given a magical standard, but like you said that is kind of a moot point as he just can’t access any magic standard above 55 pts.

Now on to the application of the Infernal Castellan!  I very much enjoy using him in a large unit of blunderbuss toting infernal guard, usually 26 of them.  In order to make the most out of the blunderbuss unit, as MLP stated right at the start of this topic, they have to be in ranks of 10 (or 11 with a character in the unit as they are not able to pack blunderbusses) in order to activate the re-roll to wound part of their rules.  Toss in the Infernal Castellan and all of a sudden you have a horde of blunderbusses, and don’t need to worry about steadfast due to the Castellan coming with stubborn.

To help him stick around, I equip him in the exact same way as many people do, with the mask of the furnace and a great weapon and make him the BSB.  This is the most balanced load out he can take in my opinion, as he’ll have the 3+/4++ and will be able to make good use of his high WS due to high strength attacks.  I had him fight a black orc warboss this past week (who was equipped with the Battleaxe of the Last WAAAAAAGHHH) and he came out on top, cutting the boss down in a challenge (not the hardest thing to do due to the lack of a ward save on the boss, but it was still awesome!).  I totally forgot that he causes fear too!  Thanks for pointing that out MLP and Nicodemus :smiley:

Has anyone tried equipping him with a magical banner?  If so which ones? I find his 75 pts of gear allowance to be too good most of the time to trade in for a magical banner.

In summary, he’s a hero that can fight against lords, gives a great rule to a unit (stubborn) and acts as the BSB, what more could any general want?  Our Infernal Castellan is a superstar!

MLP:

Has anyone tried equipping him with a magical banner?  If so which ones? I find his 75 pts of gear allowance to be too good most of the time to trade in for a magical banner.

Hashup
I really do think it's not worth wasting his 75 point limit, I can't think of any other hero in the game has that so it should be made the most of!

The Rampager's Standard is the most expensive in the book and the only one a normal standard couldn't take; but that's is generally not going to be used with dwarfs as you tend to play defensively to get your stand and shoot, or you'll just get charged first anyway.

The only exception is what Nicodemus said when you want to combine two magical banners on the same unit. Apart from that situation you're 100% better off puting a magc banner on the unit standard instead. Remember the BSB can die fairly easily with a banner(no protective items) whereas your unit standard will be there until the last man or you flee.

Hashup:

That’s my thinking as well, the castellan seems far to squishy if he carries a magical banner. He really is a cornerstone of the army, fulfilling three roles (offensive, damage soaking and BSB duties) all for around 200 points. I honestly don’t think any other races BSB is as impressive as the castellan, especially after comparing points, stat-line and abilities. The best thing about it too is that he is relatively stealthy.

Given the amount of impressive weaponry and units the chaos dwarfs have access to (especially visually!) our humble BSB can fly under an opponents radar with ease. My BSB Castellan and accompanying blunderbuss infernal guard form a crucial part of my battle line yet very few opponents have ever attempted to wipe it out before my warmachines or K’daii destroyer (though the latter is quite understandable) nor do I see talk about it on other forums of people complaining about it. I can’t really figure out why not though…:smiley:

Vogon:

At what points level games is it worth using the Infernal Castellan?

Are they worth it in a lower points value game (say 1000) over a Daemonsmith?

MLP:

At what points level games is it worth using the Infernal Castellan?

Are they worth it in a lower points value game (say 1000) over a Daemonsmith?

Vogon
Definitely. Mainly for Stubborn as it's great in lower point games. But also because of the afformentioned 75 point magic item limit combined with his very good statline he will not often be bested by another hero(Exalted Hero & Ogre Bruiser will though).

Vogon:

Thanks MLP.

I’ve always used a Daemonsmith up to now but i may give the Castellan a whirl tonight.

Cheers

Vogon

MLP:

Thanks MLP.

I've always used a Daemonsmith up to now but i may give the Castellan a whirl tonight.

Cheers

Vogon

Vogon
Go for it mate! I love 1000 point battles, I fnd the Chaos Dwarfs Excel at this level. Here's some min/maxed 1000 point lists I've used before if you're interested.

On the Castellan topic again I have often thought of using small units of Infenal Guard 11+1 Castellan to either take a charge or charge an enemy to the front then get your faster Bull Centaurs/K'daai/Hobgoblins in the flanks and rear to break them. Just make sure they're within BSB range and can take the enemy attacks for a round and watch your opponents surprise as they hold!

Just looking through the BRB for Magic Items available to the Catellan that heroes (peasants) with a 50 point limit can't take. He could have either the Giant Blade for +3S or the Sword of Bloodshed for +3A. Either of these could be taken with the Other Trickser's shard making the enemy reroll wards or the Opal Amulet for a little extra defence. He is now a half decent Character assassin!

nilbog:

Just looking through the BRB for Magic Items available to the Catellan that heroes (peasants) with a 50 point limit can't take. He could have either the Giant Blade for +3S or the Sword of Bloodshed for +3A. Either of these could be taken with the Other Trickser's shard making the enemy reroll wards or the Opal Amulet for a little extra defence. He is now a half decent Character assassin!

MLP
Don't forget the mundane shield, otherwise he's got a good chance of dying before getting a chance to swing - low initiative is a bummer. How much is the potion of speed?

Giant blade is excellent just for the look on your opponent's face when you say "strength 7".

Blackspine:

in the same vein, the “sword of anti heroes” is a great assassin blade if your meta has ‘death stars’ and units with at least 2 chars in it.

and most do.



If you can afford a helm, (dragon, discord etc) then the basic armor save can easily reach 2+, and for a hero, that’s not bad at all. Esp an ‘assassin’.

however, for a BSB, I’m liking the Mask of the Furnace + extra build.

Far2Casual:

I honestly don't think any other races BSB is as impressive as the castellan, especially after comparing points, stat-line and abilities.  The best thing about it too is that he is relatively stealthy.

Hashup
Ogre's BSB, Crown of Command, Dragonhelm, Luckstone, HA, Ironfist. Best BSB of the game imo for various reasons, his synergy is even greater with his army than the Castellan.

That said, CD's BSB is very close behind, he only suffers from lack of mobility, 2 wounds and low damage mitigation on his unit. Otherwise he's tough, strong and has a huge synergy to his unit with Stubborn and Ld rerolls.