Part 2 of my Fall of Cadia review will take a look at the second character of the Triumvirate, Belisarius Cawl.
Belisarius Cawl
Cawl is the Archmagos Dominus of the Mechanicus. As such, he can be taken in any existing Cult Mechanicus formation, replacing the Techpriest Dominus. Alternatively, he can be taken as an HQ choice in any Army of the Imperium.
Cawl is a character that seems designed for vehicles- boosting the vehicles in your own army and damaging enemy vehicles. He is also a quite a durable character and has some useful wargear for taking on larger horde units in combat.
In terms of durability, Cawl has toughness 6 and 5 wounds. In addition, he has Feel no Pain and gets to re-roll failed Feel No Pain rolls, giving him roughly a 50% chance of passing the roll. On top of that, he gets to recover D3 wounds at the start of each of your turns. This combines to make him pretty tough to kill against a range of weapons. Grav will still give him problems with is 2+ save and he only has a 5+ invulerable save. Another downside is that he does not have Eternal Warrior. Thanks to his toughness of 6, only Instant Death or a 6 on the D table are going to cause him issues with this though.
Belisarius Cawl is fairly decent in combat. He has WS5, S5 and 3 attacks on his profile. Pretty good, but not amazing. He is armed with a couple of Melee weapons that are of some use, particularly against vehicles.
His Arc Scourge is a Master-Crafted weapon that has +1S and Haywire, and also allows him to re-roll the result for Haywire if he wishes. This makes him pretty good for potentially taking out an enemy vehicle. On top of that, he as a piece of wargear called the Mechadendrite Hive. This grants him 2D6 S4 attacks that hit at initiative 10. While it has no AP value, it may struggle to harm Marines and the like, but will the volume of attacks it could cause a fair amount of damage. It also gives him an additional Haywire attack.
In combat, Cawl gets 4 attacks (3 base plus 1 for 2 Melee weapons) with Haywire (and a single re-roll to hit and re-rolls on his Haywire results). Based on this, he has a good chance of taking out an enemy vehicle with 3 hull points and no save in a single round of combat. He also has the potential to get a number of S4 attacks, making him useful for taking on horde units such as Guard or Orks.
His ability to take on vehicles is also boosted in the shooting phase. He has an Assault D3 master-crafted Meltagun, which should be potent against a range of vehicular targets (or for killing Marines). Hitting on 2's, he should be pretty lethal to a number of enemy units.
Belisarius Cawl also adds a lot of buffs to your army and the vehicles in it. He has Canticles of the Omnissiah from the Mechanicus codex. Anyone who has played against them knows that these provide a number of great bonuses to the Mechanicus army.
In addition to that, he gets some special Canticles of the Archmagos. These work in the same way as Canticles, giving greater bonuses the more units with the Canticles of the Omnissiah special rule. The wording of the Canticles of the Archmagos says it works in the same way as Canticles of the Omnissiah, meaning that the effects increase for each unit with Canticles of the Omnissiah in the army.
These effects range from giving all vehicle units and Canticles units within 12" It Will Not Die, allowing you to roll with 2 or 3 dice for having more units, increasing the Ballistic Skill of nearby units (up to +3) and giving vehicles an Invulnerable Save (up to 4+).
Cawl obviously gives a big boost to vehicles in the army, but the best bonuses are only available if you have 8 or more Canticles units on the board. Cawl also has the Scryerskull wargear, allowing you to choose the result of Mysterious Objectives. A nice bonus if you suddenly need access to Skyfire.
Overall, Cawl is a pretty decent addition to an army of the Imperium. He is probably better suited to a Mechanicus army or one with a large number of vehicles to benefit fully from his special rules. I don't think I would be including him in my armies, it simply doesn't suite the armies that I have, but I can see a lot of use for him in a variety of forces.
I hope you have enjoyed the review, the next part will take a look at the third character, Inquisitor Greyfax.
Fall of Cadia Review
Part 1- Saint Celestine
Part 2- Belisarius Cawl
Part 3- Inquisitor Greyfax
Part 4- Arcana Mechanicum Relics and Ecclesiarchy Relics
Part 5- Detachments and Empyric Storms
Part 1- Saint Celestine
Part 2- Belisarius Cawl
Part 3- Inquisitor Greyfax
Part 4- Arcana Mechanicum Relics and Ecclesiarchy Relics
Part 5- Detachments and Empyric Storms
How well do you think he works in a War Convocation?
ReplyDeleteI think he will be good, but I'm not too familiar with the war convocation to be honest. The new canticles seem pretty potent. Giving all units within 12" a 4+ invulerable save is going to boost their durability, but War con are already pretty durable with the Stealth and Shrouded canticle.
DeletePart of me wants to see how he'd do alongside an imperial knight force like a baronial court
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, his D3 shot Meltagun is also Master-Crafted and, more importantly, S10 AP2, meaning he can ID anything T5 and below with some good shooting before he even gets into combat (i.e. things like Biker characters, Thunderwolf Lords, Necron Overlords, Daemon Princes, etc.).
ReplyDeleteCawl carries a fancy Meltagun, so it is AP1, even better for taking on vehicles. Instant Death-ing some models is going to be useful for him, but is there not a lot more in a Mechanicum army better at taking out those things, such as Heavy Grav Cannons?
DeleteHeavy Grav Cannon are awful when the TWC have enough FenWolves with them to take their Majority Save to 6+, or the Daemon Prince doesn't have Armour. And they don't have Grav Amps like SM Grav Cannon do, so they're not as impressive even against the Bikers or Crons.
DeleteNice write up Mike, it is interesting to see how the new characters are changing the game and adding their own flavor.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think Cawl will be an interesting model to add to a force. Not as good as Celestine (at least from my gameplay perspective), but still good.
DeleteHe can also (or so I hear) act as an HQ for any imperial force....Which means Skitarii now have an HQ!!
ReplyDeleteVery true, I hadn't thought of that! CAD Skitarrii could be interesting.
DeleteWould be interesting to see if we have any CAD Mechanicum lists at the birthday bash, being lead by Cawl.
DeleteI think Mechanicus could take a CAD anyway. Wasn't the Tech Priest Dominus an HQ choice.
DeleteAlso, all three of the characters can be taken as an HQ choice in an Imperial Army. You could have the Saint or the Inquisitor leading the force too.
Hi, thanks for writing a review. Just wanted to ask if you can use the canticles of the arch mangos at the same time as the canticles of the omnissiah?
ReplyDeleteThe rule says "Below are three Canticles of the Archmagos that can only be used if Belisarius Cawl is on the battlefield. These work in exactaly the same way Canticles of the Omnissiah except they also affect friendly vehicle units from armies of the imperium within 12' of him, even if they don't have Canticles of the Omnissiah special rule"
So if it works in the same way as canticles of the omnissiah then does that mean it is a separate rule that works in the same way i.e. Both at the same time
Or it works in the same way and there are 3 new canticles that can be used instead of the originals?
Would appreciate any feedback
This one is a bit unclear. I think that they should be used in addition to Canticles of the Omnissiah and that's the way I have been allowing opponents to play it.
DeleteHowever, based strictly on the wording, I think they function as three new Canticles that can only be used when Cawl is on the battlefield. The rule says they work exactly as canticles and the canticles rule says that only one can be enacted per turn. I would be inclined to go with the second ruling, in that they are three additional Canticles available to Cawl that can be used in place of one of the Canticles of the Omnissiah.
Hopefully, GW can clear this up quickly.