Using Castellan Crowe

Hello Brothers!

I'm fairly new to the game (about 3 months) but I wanted to share my strategy with Castellan Crowe to hear your thoughts because so far, it's been very effective (has not died even once, since I started using it)

Since he cannot join another unit, and he is a magnet for the enemy, I tried deploying him in all sorts of manners and kept getting killed. Starting on the field, and trying to move through cover? Dead by the second or third round, at latest. Hugging the side of a Rhino? That works as long as the Rhino is not destroyed, and it normally is destroyed rather quickly, with Crowe following shortly. I don't have a Land Raider, so I haven't tried putting him in one.

But the one tactic that has worked wonders is putting him in a Stormraven, moving the maximum cruising range, and the next round turning to hover to deploy Crowe.

People tend to shy away from these tactics because you're making your Stormraven vulnerable while in hover mode, and additionally making it lose the Skyfire rule. But here's my lofic: You enter in round 2, and the Stormraven can move up to 36" and still use all its weapons. That means you'll be right at your enemy's field. My loadout normally includes the hurricane bolters and psi-ammo, so after unloading all the mighty power of the Stormraven, at least one unit will be pretty beaten up (if not outright dead) and maybe a second one will have a few wounds in. The rest of your army is already moving forward, so they should at least have moved 10 or so inches closer, too. More if in vehicles.

The next round (Round 3) I turn the Stormraven into hover mode, move up to 12", and deploy Crowe. I can still shoot everything with the Stormraven (which means the enemy has already received two rounds of Stormraven love) and by the third round, the rest of the army should be in position to get a few shots in. Then Crowe does his dance, shooting, charging, and maiming.

By this moment the enemy has so many things to contend with (Stormraven, Crowe, other incoming enemies) that he has to pick their poison: do they go all out against the Stornraven? Well, hitting 12 armor is still pretty hard regardless of being hovering, and you have the jink rule in play meaning you have a 5++ save. So She normally manages to survive, maybe getting one or two wounds at most. And then the enemy has to contend with the other shooting enemies, which are still closing in. And Crowe can go around happily killing anything and anyone in his path.

The only problem I've faced is when Crowe is TOO effective. If on the first assault he kills all the units he's fighting against (and there's a good chance it happens with the Purifying flame) you can move 1D6, but depending on what you roll, you can be a sitting duck. Of course, it's still a sitting duck with 2+/4++ save, so he can survive, but it complicates matters. But it works wonders when Crowe kills half the enemy's unit in his first assault, then in the enemy's fight phase he kills the other half, meaning he's free to go pick another target, and that's 80% how it turns out in all the games I've played. And he has not died even once since I started using him this way.

So, what do you think?

Firstly, I don't believe you can disembark from a SR that moves 12'', even in hover mode. I seem to recall a rule that prevents disembarking from transports that move more than 6'' in the movement phase.

You don't have to cast Purifying Flames if you don't want to route the enemy in one combat. Rather, just attack normally that first turn if it's a smallish unit, and cast the power during your opponent's Assault Phase to help kill them off so he'll be free to move around.

On the whole, putting a bird in a bird, so to speak, has been my plan for whenever I get around to trying out an MSU style Purifier list. As you mentioned, it seems like a great way to deliver him safely.

let me get this right........you're spending 205 points on a 150 point model on the offchance he might actually survive the game....

So that's 355 points for a single model who more often than not WILL die to weight of fire and weight of hits.

Best use of Crowe i've found so far is manning a quad gun behind ADL or camping on an objective to deny opponents

I use him almost the same my Purifiers and dreadnought usually shoot a good chuck out of the army by turn 2 then when My SR comes in it goes after flyers then heavies I don't drop Crowe unless its near the enemies HQ he's done many heroic sacrifices for me and earned his points back or I drop him in a corner at the end of the game. To make sure he doesn't die or fly off board and yes there's times he will be shot to death but its War....(hammer) plus you gotta have fun with it as well my buddies get so pissed whe he gets that heroic sacrifice off lol and they lose a 200+model to Crowe

On the movement, yes, you are correct. I meant to say that the Stormraven moves 6", deploys Crowe, and he then moves 6" for a total of 12". I guess I had a bit of a brain fart.

As for "spending" 355 points for a single model (and actually, it would be 405 because the SR has the hurricane bolters and the psi-ammo), I don't really see it as "spending" it just to be able to see Crowe survive a couple rounds. The Stormraven by itself can really put the hurt on the other army so she's more than worth the points. And by deploying Crowe this way, he's almost guaranteed to survive the whole game because he's almost never not engaged in a combat during the opponent's round. More often than not he kills the other unit on the enemy's round. Has his free D6 move, and then on his round he moves 6" an then charges, managing to reach some other unit. And well, it might not be the best of samples but in about 8 games since I started using him this way, he has not died once while being the Warlord, meaning the other guy is actively trying to kill him!

meh. My biggest problem with him is as he's a Brotherhood Champion without even a power sword he can at best inflict one hit on each model in combat. Now a 4+ to rend is a 50/50 chance, so it's not that good either. and since he doesn't have a Nemesis Force Sword he doesn't even get a 3+ inv save in CC. Which means that he's either spending time rerolling failed invs and hoping another unit is coming to save him or (as happened twice in games with him) a Thunder Hammer smashed him.

The problem with crowe I have is that he's meant to be a duellist on a par with the best duellists in other codexes (Skulltaker and Lucius the Eternal and Lilith Hesperax and Emperor's Champion step forward). But he isn't. He can't generate enough attacks to overcome the limitations of NOT HAVING A POWER WEAPON and his Inv Save isn't good enough to protect him against mass power weapons in return.

I'm glad you find that he's awesome, cause he's been lacklustre in combat for me for too long

I think we're losing the point... Crowe isn't a duel character, nor very good against IC... he is an Anti-troops character, who can beat a 10 man squad alone in a couple of turns... if you want a duelist character, take the brotherhood champion, losing the ability to make purifier as troops...

IMHO the best thing that will ever happened to Crowe is in our 6th edition update is he gets Independent Character.

That's the only way I see him going from the Tax/Gun operator he is now. To the character/squad killing machine he suppose to be. With a squad he has protection from shooting attacks and back up to help him a melee.

Unfortunately I don't think that will happen as the fluff has it that he keeps himself apart even from the other Purifiers to prevent them from being corrupted by the sword....

Indeed. So we'll have to wait and see.

"“Purifiers recruit only from those amongst their battle-brothers whose souls are considered to be utterly incorruptible and resistant to the temptations ”"
Excerpt From: Workshop, Games. “Codex: Grey Knights.” v2. Games Workshop, 2011. iBooks.
Make him able to join Purifers ... Maybe prob not gonna happen but still

More likely he'll either be an upgrade character or he'll pull a Mordrak and can buy a little retinue.

Well, I actually like that he needs to be alone, it works very well with his fluff and makes it a very interesting character to use, from an strategic point of view.

And yes, as pointed out by Amion, Crowe is not a duelist, and if you try to use him as such, it would be a waste of his potential. He might survive, but he'd just be stuck there not dying instead of making much damage.

Take today's game that I just arrived from. Using this strategy, I deployed Crowe in round 3 and he immediately charged a unit of 10 Chaos Space Marines that were in combat with a lone Paladin of mine whose unit had managed to kill 5 terminators and a warlord, but at the cost of 4 other Paladins. Crowe used his purifying flame successfully, and that was it, the whole Chaos Marine Squad was dead because they don't have an inv. save. Next round he was shot at by a unit of Chaos Cultists that was nearby, survived the attack, then in my round did the same: Charged, purifying flame, all the unit dead because they don't have an inv. save. In the fifth round he was too far from any nearby unit so he was just chillin with the remaining Paladin while the rest of my army was taking care of business.

And people think he's only good against basic troops, but even termies and more powerful units fall like flies against him. The purifying flame is just too powerful because it hits all units he's fighting on a 4 regardless of the toughness of the other unit, and even if they have inv. save, how good can it be? Unless they have something absurdly powerful like a 3++, he's guaranteed to kill a few, and if in defensive mode it's pretty damn hard to hit him so he's almost always guaranteed to win the combat. And he has initiative 6 so he has a good chance to do a sweeping attack and kill the rest of the unit anyway. What's not to love?

the only reason because i prefer the champion is that i cam embark him with a squad of purifiers... a SR for a single model is a shame....

On a somewhat (un)related topic, I picked up a box of GKSS to fill out my 1500pt list (need 4 swordsmen).

My plan was to use the 5th to make a Crowe and/or Bro Champ conversion. However I am also mulling the idea of building a backup incinerator-toting guy to sub into my list (currently have 2 psycannon a, 2 hammers, and 8 halberds) as needed.

Not as cool of a conversion, but likely more useful in the short-term...

Either way this thread has given me something to think about.

Alladin the Paladin wrote:On a somewhat (un)related topic, I picked up a box of GKSS to fill out my 1500pt list (need 4 swordsmen).

My plan was to use the 5th to make a Crowe and/or Bro Champ conversion. However I am also mulling the idea of building a backup incinerator-toting guy to sub into my list (currently have 2 psycannon a, 2 hammers, and 8 halberds) as needed.

Not as cool of a conversion, but likely more useful in the short-term...

Either way this thread has given me something to think about.

If you want a good Brotherhood Champ conversion try to get a robed PA dark angel body(there's a plain one if you don't want to try and remove a DA symbol) and the hooded knight style helm. Throw on a sword from the PA box and you have a great stand out model..

Not a bad idea... And I did want to expand my DA stuff from the Dark Vengeance Box, so the other models would get used also.

Used Crowe today he popped outta SR for me on last turn an killed my buddies HQ in a kill point game him adn that storm raven did work today played in three time 1 game he just sat in the SR other two he cleaned up some units for me