Ultramarines Review: Chaplain Cassius
Today we continue our Ultramarines HQ review with Ol’ Grizzly himself, Chaplain Cassius.
Chaplain Cassius is the founder of the Tyrannic War Veterans, and hates all things Tyranid. He is an iconic throwback to both the Ultramarines chapter, and their ancient rivalry with the Tyranids. For more great articles visit the Tactics Corner!
Chaplain Cassius is 130 points, toughness 6 and comes with the standard chaplain wargear. As far as chaplains go he is a bit underwhelming and outshined by his cheaper brethren armed with Hunter’s eyes and riding bikes. He still has a niche though, maybe not in competitive games but in fluff based narrative games where his low points cost and durability can actually prove a challenge to kill.
Wargear:
- Power Armor
- Rozarius (4++)
- Bolt Pistol
- Crozius Arcanum (Power-Maul)
- Frag/Krak Grenades
- Infernus: Master-crafted Bolter with Helfire rounds and a combi Flamer.
Special Rules:
- Independant Character
- Zealot: Fearless and Hatred to he and the unit he joins. This is so good on units that can not fail morale tests, or that need the extra close combat boost.
- Ultramarine Chapter Tactics
- Feel no Pain: Do not forget he has this! Being toughness 6 means he will almost always take FNP tests.
- Warlord Trait: The Angel of Death Chaplain Cassius causes fear (woohoo…) and units that are locked in combat with him must take morale tests on 3d6 instead of 2d6.
- Preferred Enemy (Tyranids): Good for attaching him to a tyrannic war veterans squad to kill them pesky bugs dead.
Tactics
Cassius is not much of a mystery, really. Chaplains are used primarily to buff an assault unit, giving them Hatred (rerolls in the first round of a combat) and Fearless. He himself hits not that hard. A Power Maul is great against certain targets (light infantry and most tanks), but against a lot of the common targets you will be fighting (MEQ and TEQs) it is really only useful for forcing saves. Don’t get me wrong going up to strength 6 and Concussive are good, but with base 2 attacks at initiative 4, it’s nothing to get too excited about. Cassius’ bolter is neat, it is a little counter-intuitive with the normal style of a space marine chaplain because you can not rapid fire and then assault, however the combi-flamer in overwatch is great and I prefer to use Cassius defensively.
Cassius is fearless, and on foot. So naturally you want him either in a drop pod, or in a backline unit. Good candidates for this are Sternguard squads, vanguard veteran squads, and thundefire cannons. As a matter of fact, there is nothing more disheartening then a unit of thunderfire cannons running off the board because some outflanking scout squad looked at them the wrong way with a bolt pistol. He also can ,in a pinch, eat a challenge if the thunderfire cannon unit gets charged, and can give each techmarine rerolls on all their powerfist attacks (They have 3 each!)
That is pretty much it, he doesn’t offer a whole lot more to an army that any other chaplain can not already do so you should pretty much just stick to using him in challenges where he can get beat up by heavier hitting close combat monsters, or narrative games. When you want to make your opponent’s competitive Tyranid army cry with a sub par unit from a better codex.
QOTD: What do you think Chaplain Cassius needs to be brought into 40k relevancy? I personally think making him cheaper, and giving him an extra wound and eternal warrior is the way to go. I mean come on! Tigurius has more wounds than him!
