1750 Purifiers List and Crowe Tactics

Remember Atreides Purifiers? How cool?

Ahh…a fresh, blank page appears before me on the laptop and I feel good about writing something.

It’s not going to be revolutionary, but it will be an effective army that we reach by the end of the piece.
Actually, it’ll be a very short piece, because most of you know that this army is strong and works well.
Me?
I’ve just recently twigged onto using them en masse, despite Bully and I texting about this some time ago.
Purifiers.
Like, ‘pure’ purifiers man…
This list, which is what I think Bully and I were talking about, is strong and I’ve gotten 3 test games in already, I know he’s played it against Atreides at least once, but I’m not sure if he’s still planning on using it..

NEWSFLASH…I am. It’s almost finished already.

We, of course, start with Crowe. I am currently seeing him still as ‘the tax’ that must be paid. If he could only join a unit!! If he could join a unit, then his Brotherhood Champion buffs would make him so very worthwhile. But alas..he does re-roll hits when he charges, rending on a 4+ and having access to Hammerhand, Cleansing Flame and the Dead Man thing.. So, how can he be used?

- Vs MSU Marines (offensively): He can hit these reasonably hard. Adopting Mega-Spinny-Sword Stance provides a hit on everyone is base contact, that’s going to be 4 models max. In this mode he hits on 3’s (re-rolled) and wounds on 3’s (hammerhand), he is I6, so even vs GK Halberd douches it’s not a bad shout.

- Vs MSU Marines (defensively): As above, but we want him as a road block, so he adopts Super-Mega-Smoke-and-Mirrors-Stance so he can re-roll his 4+ invuln and he can reroll his 2+ armour save. This should keep him holding the unit up for at least a turn, but of course has the disadvantage of failing, giving them a possible ‘shunt’ from the consolidation move in your turn. He is not an Eternal Warrior and only has W2/T4. Not a bad shout though after a Cleansing Flame for offense, followed by the defensive stance, although on a 5 man marine unit, CF will only kill 0.825 of a marine…still that’s one more than 0.

- Vs Hordes: AFTER firing off ‘Cleansing Flame’ all by yourself and rip fire through a horde of Orks, Nid Gaunts etc…then adopt the defensive stance, keeping youself away from hidden power klaws, and reroll your 2+ save. IF you survive, CF again in their turn and then Super-Mega-Spinny-Sword the bastards too. You will die, but you’ll take anywhere up to 25 Orks with you…depending on their ability to roll a 6 for armour..

- Vs Independent Characters: Get him into base with a Librarian/Sang Priest or any actually…big characters…the more expensive the better. Here Crowe focuses Rapier Strike and gets D3 (+1 if charging) attacks. At I10. He hits most of them on a 3, with reroll, then wounds on a 4+ typically..NO Hammerhand here folks… If he wounds, then it an Invuln Save as he’s Rended. The above is OK for little IC’s (Libbies/Priests) but for killy IC’s…should the IC or its unit kill Crowe, then we have saved our Psychic Power for a ‘Lukas the Trickster’ moment..Crowe can use Heroic Sacrifice to take out even the biggest, baddest IC’s…he passes a test, on a 10, then just has to land a ‘hit’ – on a 3. If he does this, the IC goes. Just removed from play…

- Mobility: All of the above require him to get into CC with something. Well, he can be used as a counter attack threat, hiding out behind a vehicle chassis or behind a LOS-blocking piece of terrain, or he can hitch a ride in an empty Purifier Razorback…let’s face it, these are going to be empty A LOT of the time as your Purifiers have too much firepower to hide in a transport! So that solves that…sort of.

I really do prefer a Brotherhood Champ though for a third less cost and for IC status..if only Crowe had IC…but then this is what we’ve all been saying since the book arrived. Lets also remember how many of us have actually ever run a Bro Champ in our Gk armies…doesn’t that tell you how full of fail Crowe is when his non-special equivalent is directly better than him?

On to the squads. These are simples really. I am looking for a good number of scoring units, as always for me, 1+1 concept from the army too. I’m going to use all Purifiers and I’m going to have 6 squads, each will have:
- 5 Purifiers (120)
- 2 Psycannons (20)
- 2 Halberds (4)
- 1 Hammer (5)
- Razorback – TLHB, Psybolts (50)
So 199 points per troop unit, 6 of them, takes us to 1194. Add Crowe for 150 and we are at 1344.

Where would we be without the now obligatory 3 Psyflemen Dreadnaughts? At 405 points for 3 this would bring us to 1749 too, so a perfect size.
They provide excellent psychic defense from their Enhanced Aegis, they provide more vehicles hulls, GK ones…with that lovely Psychic Pilot and Fortitude and of course they spew out 4 S8 shots that are TL each at an effective range of 54”. The range is great because we now have 3 primary range overlaps from Psycannons and Storm Bolters, PsyHBolters, PsyAuto’s, meaning well, we can shoot stuff.

They can also be used to tar pit units that can’t hurt them…something people forget, but a last ditch use to be honest.

The list:

Crowe

5 Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, 1 Hammer, Psyback

5 Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, 1 Hammer, Psyback

5 Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, 1 Hammer, Psyback

5 Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, 1 Hammer, Psyback

5 Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, 1 Hammer, Psyback

5 Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, 1 Hammer, Psyback

2 x TL Autocannon, Psybolt Dreadnaught

2 x TL Autocannon, Psybolt Dreadnaught

2 x TL Autocannon, Psybolt Dreadnaught

The shooting from this is prodigious.

I was worried about how it might handle things like Deathwing due to the low AP and the limited bodies/powerweapons/invulnerables factors, so 2 of the test games were vs Bully’s Deathwing army that I am sure loyal readers are familiar with (if not, search the site and find it…explore…), just minus Bully as he lives in London, me in Cambridge. Both times the DW went first and were able to do a limited amount of damage, but then the weapons opened up and FUCK, the DW ended up being tabled both times.

I tried it versus a nasty AV12 spam Imperial Guard list too. Squeezed in 14 Av12 hulls, included some Melta/Demo Vets, Platoon, Hydras, Vendetta’s, loads of melta, some plasma etc..all the good stuff except PBS as I don’t rate them (I know, fuck off).

The Purifiers beat that too, with just a single Hydra and an immobilised Chimera left. The GK’s took a huge beating though, I just had 3 x 2 man squads left, the dreads and half the razors. But the real kicker is that the offensive output is so great that it really minimises the return fire. Now, I know this is obvious, but it realy works so well in keeping stuff alive! I ballsed up in this game too, exposing myself to Demo Charges that I really didn’t need to..

Anyway, I’m going to learn this army a bit more and keep toying with it…it is not as fun as Coteaz lists filled with Death Cults in Storm Ravens, Dreadknights etc, but it works sooooo well..