# Colonel Straken, Sgt. Harker, Nork Deddog, worth taking?



## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Hey all, 

I am tossing around the idea of starting a guard army and I am really taken by the Catachan troopers. My question is simply are the special characters worth taking? I could see Sgt. Harker being useful and his points cost is not awful. But is Straken worth 95 points? Is Nork Deddog worth 110? 

My second question is what is the best way to tool out a CCS? Do you guys put Medi-paks with the squad? is it worth the points if you plan on putting the commander in a chimera? Could you also rate for me the usefulness of the regimental advisors. The astropath and the master of ordnance obviously have their usefulness, but what about the master of the fleet and body guards?

Sorry for all the questions but I want to make sure that I am getting the most bang for my buck and not spending useless points (and dollars) on models that aren't worth taking.


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## Scathainn (Feb 21, 2010)

For special characters, it really depends on what list you are doing.

Straken is a force in close combat, to be sure, but he's really effective when used in an infantry-heavy list. Plop him and his squad in a Chimera to drive behind a massive squad of infantry to give them all Furious Charge and Counter-Attack and you have a force to be reckoned with.

I don't use Harker usually but I've played against other IG players who do. He seems mediocre in my experience, not terrible but there are better points choices methinks.

Never played or seen someone play Nork, so no opinion there.

As for CCS, my preferences may be biased based on my list, but I just run a blank commander with four meltagunners. Stick them in a Chimera for instant death to anything tank-y that comes near. When it comes to Advisors I actually don't like the MoO as it forces your squad to be very static. Master of the Fleet and Astropath are good all-around, though the Master of the Fleet is obviously better if you know your enemy will be using a lot of reserves (Nids, BA, drop-pod SMs, etc). I've never used bodyguards but I've heard they go with Straken like peanut butter and jelly.


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Straken is a monster.
He's the smallest Monstrous Creature in the game, and he makes all your dudes damned powerful.
Furious Charge on my dime-a-dozen guys? YES PLEASE~!


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

The use of the MOO depends on how your army works. I run mine in two sections. A static infantry and hw team heavy firebase and a mobile section. The ccs castles up with my inf meatshields, hw teams and any arty. The moo acts as an extra basilisk. In which he is quite effective. You only need to kill two marines and he has paid his dues.


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## the-ad-man (Jan 22, 2010)

straken: needs a chimera and a couple of cheap squads next to him to swamp some combats
nork: maybe throw him in with straken in 2000+pts

ccs: moo, missile launcher, 2 grenade launchers. incredibly good at both horde controll and more elite troops, and only totals 105pts. very nasty when sat behind everything else, high up and just dropping blast, after blast.


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## lordbeefy (Oct 30, 2010)

Straken and Nork are an awesome combo....cheap squads are indeed a must. Straken really fills a hole in the IG resume.

Harker is great, good fluffy fun, and well worth the points cost. He wont win you a game, but he can really mess with an opponents plans....he is more of a spoiler than a game winner.


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## jaws900 (May 26, 2010)

Being a Catachan player my self i have thoguth about all of the catachan heros and wondered weatiher to take them or not.

Straken - Great in >1000pts game and is a beast and possibly the best fighter in the Imperial guard codex(with Yarick up there as well). Almsot anyone will be somewhat weary of Straken, even soem heros such as Mehpiston and the Swarmlord. Anyway Straken is possibly the most taken named hero in the guard codex for competative lists i have seen.

Nork - He's ok i find. I haven't used him (thop be be fair i haven't used any of them yet) but he does seem very good with Straken...but the points sink will be enormous and onl;y for 2000pts+ games.

Hawker - I'm using him in my 1000pts force so you can tell what i think of him. He's bad ass and i mainly take him with a group of melta Vets with Demolitions upgrade. Ta it's costly but it destroy anything. Having haker mean that they can work without the need for a Chimera so really i find that if you have a Mech Guard army, you can leave it at home. But if you have a foot guard army liek me then you need that fexible deployment.

Marbo (Rambo) - You left him out and for good reason. He's not that good and the modal of him not great eaither. If you can use him right then he's awsuem but he's very har dto use right and it also depends on what your oppoent does and how they roll which can ultimatly spell weiathe rhes good or bad. Personly i think he's not that great.


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Just to clarify, Nork DOES NOT work particularly well with Straken.
He is a melee powerhouse, and a fantastic bodyguard; but that's it.
He has no synergy with Straken, he already has Furious Charge.

He can take several low Strength wounds and shrug them off, he can also take S6-9 hits away from your Officer and not die right out.
He supplements a Command Squad's lacking melee power, or enhances that of a dedicated unit (probably a poor use of a non-Straken CCS); and also offers a substantial increase in toughness to the unit.


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

I think the best thing you could do, would be to proxy the models and play-test them over a number of games. Whilst people might have a consensus that some of the characters you name are good/bad, it might be that 1, or more, just 'clicks' with your playstyle and gives you a boost where, for others, they don't perform well at all.

GFP


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