Talos...swing and miss

The Talos was a unit I thought was really cool in concept, but never finished the models. Why? It didn’t work well with the old codex. Now we have a new codex and the new Talos, which doesn’t look to work any better. Why? Well, let us explore the heavy support options.

First the Talos has a descent profile; WS5 BS3 S & T 7 W3 SV3+ A d6, and stop. This is our first check minus. Random anything is not good, just ask Chaos Possessed. Sure you can upgrade to chain flails to basically get a re-roll on the number of attacks; and/ or buy an extra close combat weapon to ensure at least two attacks. So do you dump the extra points into this unit to increase the close combat use? You probably should. I know there are stats out there and mathletes to say otherwise, but you know without these added close combat upgrades you stand just as good of a chance rolling 1 attack as you do 6.

Then there is the option to swap out guns on this guy. Sure a heat lance is pretty awesome as are the other choices; liquefier gun, stinger pod blast thing and splinter cannon. Grab whichever you feel is necessary for your intended use. They are mostly twin linked, which makes up for the BS3. Let us just guess heat lance to potentially melt vehicles to get to the gooey insides. This ups the cost of the Talos again, and causes me to say another check minus.

Last is the movement of this beast. It is just a boring old monstrous creature. It won’t get anywhere fast, unlike other units of your army. So you’ll need a webway portal to get it to where it is needed or try and deploy as far forward as possible. One choice gives you some survivability early, but relies on reserve rolls. The other option gets you to mid field, but opens you up to shooting from the get start. Neither option seems better than the other to me, so a push there.

Is this thing survivable? Well yes and no, just like everything else. It is monstrous, so it won’t get much in terms of a cover save. It will fall apart to plasma and melta, the last which seems to everywhere now. Most small arms fire will plink off the armor it has, but shots will get through and saves will still need to be taken. This thing can go down from massed bolter fire before it gets to wreck face.

Then there is close combat. Well, most close combat will bounce off this beast, but fists, hammers and the occasional power weapon will get through. Hell, even regular attacks, save S3 or less, will occasionally get through to wound.
It can also get pain tokens, but it has to wipe a unit to get one, sounds cool but not as easy as it sounds.

So is the Talos good for the points needed to make it good? I say no. Why? Well just quickly glance over what it is up against.

The Ravager is a nice cheap option. It has a great weapon options. It comes stock with three dark lances and can, for free, swap them for disintegrators. Both of these weapons are 36” range and can be fired even if moving at cruising speed. This gives the Ravager a 48” threat range. Nice stuff there. It also comes cheaper than the Talos and really doesn’t need upgrades, in my opinion, but people like 5+ saves on them for some reason. So without looking to deeply, the Ravager is anti tank or troop a lower cost than the Talos. It can keep pace with the fast parts of a Dark Eldar force. It can run the backfield and 3x dark lance vehicles or 3x disintegrate troops. It will be wrecked by the same long range shooting as a Talos, and should never be midfield to get the melta or plasma that is found there. So why use the Talos over a lower costed Ravager?

The Razorwing Fighter is also a better than Talos choice. Sure it costs more to start, but is fast like the Ravager. It comes with a good weapon load out. It carries some good large blast missiles, which can be upgraded. It is mostly anti-troop, but it can hurt armor with its dual dark lances. It also is able to move with the faster units and is closed topped giving it some added, small, survivability. So, it is fast and fragile as the Ravager, but has long range weapons that hurt at a distance, can move 12”+ and still fire everything. So yes even though more expensive game-wise the range of weapons and the large templates it can drop make it seem better than the Talos.

The Voidraven Bomber is next, and also looks to be more useful than the Talos. It has the advantages of the Razorwing in armor and speed. It comes with dual void lances, S9 and same range as dark lance, a void mine, S9 blast lance thing, and a choice of four other large blast bombs. The price of this model can get high, depending on how you arm it. However, the bombs it has a choice of are all worth their price. This non-flyer flyer can be set for anti troop with necrotoxin bombs or implosion bombs. It can hurt some armor with shatter S7 re-roll bombs or the standard monoscythe S6 bombs. These can also be anti-troop bombs as well. Then there is the S9 small blast mine, a nice little thing to drop once a game. So all this can make for a pricey, fast and frail vehicle; but the weapons and speed make up for the cost.

So we have three other vehicles that are competing with the Talos. So far the only real reason to take a Talos is for a close combat role, albeit a slow one.

Last comes the Chronos Parasite Engine another slow mover like the Talos. It has a very similar statistics to the Talos the biggest difference being the strength and weapon skill. So why is this a better choice than the Talos? It comes with the ability to throw pain tokens around and has some descent template weapons.
The Chronos can dispense a pain token to a unit within 12” when it causes an unsaved wound with its close combat weapon/ siphon, flamer template gun or large blast upgrade gun. Yes, it generates a pain token to be given when a non vehicle model dies, not a whole unit like per the Power Through Pain rule. WOW! That is huge. It isn’t hard to fail a save and get a pain token. It comes cheaper than the stock Talos and throwing a large blast, 24”, and AP 3 gun on this guy is still cost effective. This guy can make your army get those much need pain tokens easier and maybe even sooner.
It is a nice support unit and what a wonderful amount of support it can give, pain tokens. The cost of upgrading this to get the super cool large blast is still cheaper than Talos and the needed upgrades. It reminds me of the Tyranid Tervigon, but instead of pooping bugs it poops pain. It does come with all the pros and cons of the Talos, but is still better for what it does. A must have unit? Well no, but very helpful if you want those happy little pain tokens in your army.

So after that why take a Talos? I still don’t see why when compared to the other heavy support choices. The themed list can use them, but that Is the only real use I see with them. How could they have made this unit better?

Well first get rid of the random attacks. Things like that give me the brain pains and a case of the gout. Seriously, only Orks need and like random rolls for weapons, attack, explosions and what have you. NOBODY! I MEAN NOBODY ELSE! should have to suffer random rolls for anything.

Then let this guy float again. Only the simple minded didn’t understand the pervious rule that this unit ignored terrain like a skimmer. Let it ignore terrain for movement purposes and it would be better. The damn model is floating why not give it a similar rule?

Give it fleet. Maybe? It is made to assault. So why not let it assault after running?

Let this thing run in a pack. Now that would interest me. The humble Carnifex (and my beloved Tomb Spiders but nobody plays necrons or runs these but me) is the only monstrous creature unit. Why? Why did G.W. miss the chance to make a poor choice into a descent looking choice? Why not let the Talos be a 1-3 strong unit? Is it that good to let it run in pairs or triples? Would it be that broken? If they were 1-3 in a squad, and not stupid costed like the Carnifex, people might use more of them.

So did G.W. miss the mark with the Talos? Has anyone ever or are they going to use this unit?