Inquisitor Karamazov and Nemesis Warding Stave Trick

[Dialogus]

I noticed an interesting way of playing Karamazov's "By Any Means Necessary" and the FAQ's ruling on Warding Stave saves together that was probably not intended.

The FAQ says that the Warding Stave grants a 2++ save for all wounds inflicted while the model is locked in combat, and not just saves inflicted as a result of the assault. This means that you could lodge a Paladin, Interceptor, etc. with a warding stave into an enemy unit, and use Karamazov to call down Orbital Strikes directly on to the Warding Stave model, and the targeted model would still get his 2++ save against the strike, while everyone in combat with him would have to deal with a S10 AP1 or three S6 AP4 hits, each guaranteed not to scatter.

This is probably not much of a game changer, but it would be a mean trick to pull off a couple times! I would probably do it by sending a lone Paladin via Stormraven to tie up a unit and then blast away the next turn.

[Missinglink]

Sorry. The wording in the codex description says "...against wounds caused in close combat." so shooting attacks are unaffected by the staff itself.

[DarkLink]

Nope, he's right. "Wounds caused in close combat" does not indicate wounds caused by close combat, it refers to whether or not the bearer is in close combat or not when the wound is caused. As the OP states, the GK FAQ specifically clarifies this.

Specifically:


Q: Can the save granted by a Nemesis warding stave
be taken against all Wounds suffered whilst the wielder
is engaged in close combat and not only against
Wounds caused by close combat attacks? (p54)
A: Yes

As another example, if you suffer Perils from a Hammerhand psychic test, and your Justicar has a Stave, you get the 2+. So put the Stave on your Terminator Justicar.

[AbusePuppy]

It's a cute trick, but it requires a several-step combo to do and it also necessitates your singular, expensive model not dying in CC to whatever he was fighting (or failing his 2++ save.) Amusing, though.

[plawolf]

Interesting trick. But the only practical way I can see this working is with solodins with warding staves. But unless you also buy Draigo, solodins loose their main purpose as a low cost objective grabber, so you are spending 75pts on a suicide unit to guide down an orbital strike.

If you are lucky, you will pull this trick off once, and then your stave wielding solodin gets blasted next turn. Better to just use servo skulls instead.

If you really want to do this, better of just taking a couple of crusaders with a melta acolyte or space monkey.

That can actually serve as a suicide unit far better as it can cost as little as 44pts, and it is far less obvious than a solodin with a stave in a list without Draigo.

If you have a few more points to spare, load up on a few more melta acolytes, give them a chimera and they can go do IG style drive bys, which would actually make this a very useful unit instead of a gimmicky one trick pony.

Ps, remember that if you were to use the stave save against perils, you need to re-roll successful saves, so it's not quite as good as it seems at first glance, and probably not worth the 20pts in all honesty.

[DarkLink]

I wouldn't design a list with this in mind, but if you have the units required and the right situation comes up go for it.