In Defense of the Centurion!

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Ladies and Gentlemen of the court!  I object!

Greetings fellow wargamers! Caleb with White Metal Games here.

So I was chatting with my buddy the other day . . . well, truth be told I was losing to my buddy the other day . . when he brought up the centurion, spec. the devastators.  You know, the model everyone loves to hate?

Anyway, we got to chatting about these guys, and I feel like centurion gets a bad rap for no real reason.  Let’s break em’ down, shall we?

At 60 points a model they come in about 30% higher than a terminator without the invul. save.  However they are rocking S and T 5 with 2 wounds.  Okay, not bad.  They can shoot both guns per turn with Decimator Protocols and they have Slow and Purposeful so they can walk and fire.

The devastator squad of three then is 190 points (Serg included of course).  For that 190 points they come with hurricane bolters (three twin-linked bolters) and a TL heavy bolter.

So each centurion is rocking basically three Strength 5 shots and three Strength 4 shots.  All twin linked.
That’s a lot of firepower!

As a unit, this means they have 9 Strength 5 shots and 9 Strength 4 shots.  At Rapid fire range of course this goes up considerably to 18 Strength 4 shots!  ALL TWIN LINKED!  So basically of every 9 shots they take, 8 hit!  (Nine Shots, hit 2/3 of the time, then the misses, approx 3/9 hit 2/3 of the time again, so 2 of the 3 misses hit for a total of 8 hits!!!)

So that means that most of the time the unit will score 8 Strength 5 hits and 8 Strength 4 hits a turn.  In rapid fire range it goes up to 8 and 16 respectively so 24 hits!

What’s that you say?  Go go gadget grav cannon?  Centurions can take grav cannons AND grav amps for 20 points a model.  Grav cannons are salvo 3/5, so the centurion always gets 15 shots (thanks to relentless) at max range, and the amps let them reroll failed wounds/vehicle pens!  Of those 15 shots 10 should hit.  Against MEQ targets, you would wound on 3’s, rerolling fails, which means that’s an average of eight AP 2’s wounds!

Against something like say, a Riptide, they wound on 2’s!  That’s 8 or so AP 2  wounds and Hasta La Vista Riptide! 


Grav weapons also immobilize vehicles on a 6 and cause a hull point. Multiple immobilized results cause extra hulll point loss.  So against a lanrdaider, you are going to roll around 2-4 sixes. Even if you only get three you are going to likely strip 3 hull points and immobilize it each time as well. So that’s a total of 6 hull points lost and it’s destroyed. 
What’s that you say?  You’re a truist who prefers their devastators with a side of lascannons?  How about six twin linked lascannons?  Take that anything other than a flyer on the table!  
So, in short, Centurions are highly durable.  They can be built to kill vehicles, elite infantry, or light infantry.  They are not necessarily universal with any build, nor are they are autopick, but I feel like they can put out plenty of firepower no matter the load out.

For 10 points the Serg. can take an Omniscope, granting the USRs Night Vision and Split Fire to the unit. Pretty good, right?

In addition to all the above, these boxes for bits alone are amazing!

In just one box of Centurions you get 6 lascannons, 6 melta guns, 6 flamers, and 6 grav cannons/grav amps!  This is a converters dream.   And those bodies make PERFECT Ork Meganobs.  Just swap the heads, and a few grubbins and you’re good to go.

So there you have it . . the case for the centurion, as it were.

What do YOU guys think.  Any public defenders want to go co-counsel on this one?

PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!

Caleb, White Metal Games