Following on from the previous posts, here are the rules and points for the new units.
We'll start with the main man, Commissar Yarrick. Now we've seen the rules before and I did run through them but I've had a little think and I have watched a few videos about the rules and while I still think that the Counter strategist ability is going to be difficult to pull off properly, players with the skills and ability to use it properly will find this very powerful. I think that Decisive command will still be my go to ability.
I also think that at 150 points, your going to need to make the most of this unit, either sings the orders trick or counter strategist every turn and probably having him sit near a super heavy to give out the order to you Baneblade. I still would like this model but I really don't think he will find his way to the table very often, only when my Hellhammer get fielded as well.
Commissar Graves is another matter entirely. On foot she is 65 points and 110 points mounted. On foot i don't think she is very good. I don't think she really has anything over the regular commissar at half the price. Yes she can give fall back and shoot or charge but so do other characters, mainly the Cadians Castellan, and out of the units that she can join, only a few of them will benefit from falling back and shooting. I would just bring a regular commissar rather than Graves on foot.
In her vehicle she is a different prospect. The extra range on the Brutal Discipline is useful, and means you can cover a large area of the board. Being able to issue orders to units disembarking is also very useful. You'll have to keep her close to transports, but that shouldn't be an issue with a 12 inch move and T8 and 12 wounds with a 4 plus invulnerable save. Granted she isn't invincible but she will be very resilient.
She also has some punch with the Gatling cannon and stubber. You won't be taking down whole squads of marines but you can pick of a few stragglers. I think we will see Graves in transport more than on foot, as she offers more for not many more points.
Next we have the two new guard vehicles and here things get a bit strange for me. The Hippogryph is a fast light vehicle with a similar profile to the Taurox Prime except less wounds. It still strikes me as basically a Prime without transport but it's role will be very different. It's going to fall more inline with the Armoured Sentinel, as a mobile gun platform and given that all the guns have assault, it's going to be getting around the place, even more so with the Convoy Escort Vehicle rule.
This thing is going to be moving between 14 and 24 inches a turn (19 on average), significantly further than the Armoured Sentinel or Prime. At 70 points, it's also on par with the Armoured Sentinel but cheaper than the Prime, although without the transport, so it's pretty comparable. As I mentioned in previously, I can see this being used mostly with the Vigilator cannon or Gatling cannon rather than the lascannon or melta. This is because the lascannon is only a single shot and the melta is short ranged and single shots are unreliable and short range just invites a counter charge, which it is unlikely to survive. Move fast, strike and retreat is going to be the way to use this I think. Standing and fighting is Leman Russ territory.
The Centaur RSV is also a little odd but I do see it's use. I thought that this would be a cheap and fast transport, a throw away vehicle but it's not. It's 85 points, the same as a chimera and 10 more than the Taurox (standard, not prime). There are some differences between the vehicles, with a cascading toughness (Chimera - 9, Taurox - 8, RSV - 7) but they are all similar wounds wise (Chimera - 11, Taurox and RSV - 10).
The main difference between them though is the role they will play. None will be cheap disposable units but each has a distinct role. The Chimera being the slow but powerful transport, able to take some punishment and dish it out as well. The Taurox is the fast one, being able to advance and disembark, meaning you can get your troops up the field and in place quickly. The Centaur RSV is the mobile fire base with it's firing deck 12. Maybe load up with Kasrkin and their special weapons, or some heavy weapons squads for 6 lascannon or missile shots. I would suggest Krieg heavy weapons squads and their flamers but you can only get one unit in due to the fire coordinator. If you could get rid of a couple of fire coordinators, 6 krieg heavy flamers in the back of one of these things would be very nasty indeed!
The Centaur RSV is about loading up and parking on an objective or fire position and dominating it with whatever is in the back. This is about creating a mobile fire base rather than as a pure transport like the Chimera or Taurox, both of which are about getting guys where they need to go and dumping them out. This is about getting them where they need to go and keeping them save inside. It's not what I would have liked, I would have liked something along the lines of the old Centaur light carrier, small, fast, 6 man transport for running small teams of Krieg Engineers, Scions or Command Squads, but I will take the new version nonetheless.
