With the Keltarii what I would honestly want to see out of them is not AD like everyone else suggests, just because AD doesn't automatically make it great. In the Scenario game if they crumple to a stiff breeze they wouldn't make a good tarpit unit. I'd rather have AD Nihilators so they can be nearly as good as Doom Reavers. Then they can move farther, quickly position/hold zones, and with Reach are able to threaten and hold zones easily. This is not about the beauty of Nihilators and their latent potential, this is about the hypothetical stats of Keltarii.
These are still Praetorians so they'll probably have Weapon Stats and are probably not getting weapon master. By the screams of all of Rasheth's Agonizers there will never be a day when Praetorian grunts will get Weapon Master. And now I'm going to be disproven at some point and this will be both wrong and outdated.
Let's see how PP described them:
The keltarii wield their double-bladed glaives with unsurpassed speed and precision, able to deflect incoming projectiles as easily as they slice through flesh and steel.
Every other Reach SPD 6 Small Based unit seems to have CMA. So let's just assume they have that due to the established precedent. Speed and Precision and ranged deflecting gives us Blade Shield for DEF 15 vs. Shooting. The big question would be a hypothetical third rule. Set Defense is obvious, but does greatly invalidate Karax more than they already are. What I'd hope for more than anything is Reversal or Beat Back. Beat Back to just be able to push, given that pHexeris has Beat Back on his Skorne like weapon, but Reversal makes them a very good unit at just defensively holding a line. Combine this with either Mordikaar or eHexeris and the unit becomes deadly and mean.
It'll probably be Set Defense though if they play to the defensive angle. If it's to the aggressive angle, maybe they'll have AD.
Personally though, I'm going to be hesitant as I'd rather see some UAs over a new unit. Unless this unit is particularly good and is at the very least surprising, I'll reserve my judgment.
Something I'm keeping in mind looking at these Keltarii though is the interaction with the Warbeast Pack Skorne is destined to have. The tools introduced in the new book are just as important in what the Keltarii will have as the models themselves. As a whole though, I don't want to be too excited as I anticipate that either PP will surpass themselves and give us something great, or just another anti-infantry unit we don't need. Though we have heard nothing on what the Bug Men do so far, which may be what we really need. Though part of me still prays for 4/6 reach Weapon Masters
Something I'm keeping in mind looking at these Keltarii though is the interaction with the Warbeast Pack Skorne is destined to have. The tools introduced in the new book are just as important in what the Keltarii will have as the models themselves. As a whole though, I don't want to be too excited as I anticipate that either PP will surpass themselves and give us something great, or just another anti-infantry unit we don't need. Though we have heard nothing on what the Bug Men do so far, which may be what we really need. Though part of me still prays for 4/6 reach Weapon Masters
eXerxis is kind of dull on first glance. Huge Base = Easy to shoot and Hard to position. His Stat line is decent, and his DEF/ARM is nice against shooting. The Krea was recommended with Xerxis for a long time and is absolutely mandatory now. His spells are pretty decent and just like old Xerxis is born for running a lot of infantry. He suffers slightly from the issues of Huge Base casters of a lack of defensive abilities, and he lost a bit of character that he had when he could walk. He no longer has the orders to give like he used to, and the lack of ballet Cataphracts makes him less able to do movement shenanigans.
His feat works very well for infantry spam and Ignite will be a fun spell to toss on a lot of units. His feat and Ignite allows for a lot of Crit Fire. However, if your big plan is to light everything on fire you really aren't using his feat right. The infinite control area is absolutely AMAZING, allowing for a hard alpha strike and allows for all of our movement shenanigans to work amazingly well for us. Him with Molik Karn will be nice and silly. This also gives us something interesting: We no longer have to worry about bringing Gladiators in every list for our beasts to have Pathfinder. This gives us a lot more list design space, and combine this with a Ty-Comm and we can get Pathfinder Infantry, and Pathfinder Beasts making our threat ranges all the better.
His Bond is pretty interesting, as it allows us to save on Fury and get more work out of our beasts. What would be interesting is a Mammoth and Raider and Cannoneer with him and some good Melee infantry to let his feat do some crazy stuff with to Hit rolls with some Incindiarii, Cannoneers, and a Mammoth.
All in all, eXerxis has potential, and I like him, but by no means does he match the hype. He can tank pretty well given the buffs/debuffs Skorne has, but there is an intense risk to having him join the melee. When you can take that risk though, it will be amazing. There will be a lot of experimenting we can do with him, which is always fun.
If you have any thoughts/theories, toss them in the comments!
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