Horus Heresy: The Care and Feeding of your Knight Castigator
Today we take an in-depth look at the features, loadout options, gameplay tactics, and army composition of the Knight Castigator for The Horus Heresy.
The plastic Cerastus Knight kit, has landed and anyone with a Knight Household should be mounted up and going full tilt to their local GW purveyor to procure one. In this brief series we’ll be talking about the 4 Cerastus variants now available to knight players (with the Lancer in sweet, sweet non-biodegradable plastic).
Built on the nimble, yet towering Cerastus Knight chassis, the Knight Castigator class Imperial Knight is a horde squishing, tank smashing, murder machine with ample weapon configurations to deal horrific casualties at range and then move in close to finish off hard targets. Lore-wise, a Knight Castigator is a favored promotion for veteran Armiger pilots who have proven themselves adept at supporting their more glory-seeking kin amongst the Arbelester Order.
The Cerastus Knight Kit
On the hobby side of things, it is very similar to the standard Standard Questoris Knight kit though not as rigidly posed. The Cerastus Kit, much like many of the new GW walkers, has small tabs that can be removed from the pieces to give a full poseable range of motion for more advanced hobbyists It is plastic glue friendly and captures all of the elements of the original resin version to a ‘t’. I’m usually very much for resin models, but this build was a delight. There was no heating, epoxy, pinning or any of the complications that can go along with building resin kits. If you’ve constructed either a Dominus Knight or a Questoris Knight…or even an Armiger, this should be no problem. Along with the instructions and sprues, you get a niffy sheet of updated Heresy era knight decals which is a nice tough. It is possible to magnetize these components to interchange the weapons however, this is not intended and will require some engineering. I’m confident that we’ll soon start seeing guides online in how to build all 4 variants. Proper removal of nubs left from sprue removal is crucial to ensure a seamless assembly. I’m a fairly experienced builder, and this took about 2 hours.
About the Castigator Weapons
While so far, only the Lancer weapons have been released in plastic, it is only a matter of time until the Castigator and other weapons are released by GW. Tick tock.
The Knight Castigator Wargear
There’s not much here to really discuss as far as loadouts, as you don’t have any weapon options to upgrade or downgrade. Simply put, the Castigator fills the role of horde culler. Its weapon systems are built strictly around the quantity of attacks, and while it can dunk on tanks and other armor it really shines at taking down blobs of infantry. Weighing in at a mere 380pts, I think this will be a go-to for many knight players as they face off against some of the mass infantry armies in HH2.0
Arm Mounted Tempest Warblade – it chops, it dices, it tends, and it cleaves. There are few scarier close combat weapons in Horus Heresy than the insanity that is the Tempest Warblade. This fearsome weapon will obliterate nearly any infantry unit that it touches. Weighing in at a burly Str 10, AP 2 w/ Deflegrate and Tempest, this will blender most infantry squads that it touches. While the Castigator does only have WS 4, Attacks 4, and Initiative 4, the Tempest rule allows 1 auto hit against each model in base contact at Initiative 2. WOW! At Initiative 2, that means you’re likely going to avoid most of the large, powerful weapons that have the ability to impact high AV, it also means you’re avoiding things like Meltabombs while potentially wiping out whatever you’re attacking. Keep in mind that a player has to move up into base contact with models during the pile-in step, which just fuels the carnage. On top of that, I assume this also triggers Deflegrate. So for each failed save, you’re going to get additional attacks that pile on to your target. Correct me if I’m wrong on that. THAT IS INSANITY!
Arm Mounted twin-linked Castigator Bolt Cannon – this neat piece of hardware is an absolute nightmare for our Solar Aux friends who are living their best lives at 4+ armor values. However, its quantity of shots and pinning, shell shock, and twin-linked make this a reliable weapon for doling out pinning checks while causing easy casualties and failed morale against blobs of infantry. The real idea is that you hope to pin the unit and get a reaction-free charge.
Ion Shield – this awesome little feature makes the Castigator and its other Cerastus variants special. Not many vehicles have access to such powerful defensive wargear. But alas, here it is, an invuln save on a knight. Having a 4++ against shooting on your front armor and 5++ on your side armor is excellent; it ensures that with all of the big guns hitting the table (many that we have reviewed for you, the reader) that your knight could have legs well into the late game.
How the Castigator Plays
Real talk, you’re taking this thing because you want a knight that can handle hordes of enemies. Like most knights, you’ll want to be headed down the table. While its main shooting weapon isn’t an amazing game changer, its quantity of fire and effects are impressive. Don’t sleep on it. Utilize it to pin enemy units and potentially prevent reactions. The real magic behind the Knight Castigator is the insane melee potential. Get in combat, kill everything, move on, rinse, and repeat. Look for blobs of terminators, assault squads, tac squads, and other soft infantry. Avoid things like Lascannon support squads, as the return fire and the overwatch can definitely spoil your day.
If you’re taking a Knight Castigator consider these Household Rank upgrades.
Senechal – I like Senechal on the Knight Castigator because of the +1 to WS and BS and the Master of the Household rule, which will help your horde of Armigers in making reactions.
Dolorous – This is another top-notch upgrade to give a Castigator, as the 1+ WS and ability to sweep a unit is amazing in conjunction with the Tempest Warblade
Implacable – Not my top choice, but it definitely makes the Castigator hard to take down. Then again, Knights can be somewhat delicate if your opponent gets lucky with a penetrating hit.
Final Thoughts
I’m incredibly happy to see that GW has moved past the plethora of tanks that they started the Horus Heresy release train and moved on to other armies and units. With a summer jam-packed full of 30k goodness, we should be getting our first glimpses of the new Primarch model. Then maybe announcements on further infantry kits to flesh out those painfully underscaled Mk3 and Mk4 kits as well as sneak peaks at the upcoming HH army release. Which I’m hoping is Sisters of Silence!
