I'm enthralled with the Bloodthirster but I was at a loss on how to deck him out. I keep looking back at the previous codex with a forlorn look and a hopeless attitude. No S8 titan slapping plebs in face anymore. But then I got thinking, you're getting Deathstrike, you're getting Greater rewards and potentially awesome Exalted rewards. I'm also looking at Lesser Rewards with a small smile and it makes me think that there's hope for the Bloodthirster still.
But how to equip him? That's what I'll be looking into today.
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| You're Fucked. |
Eternal Blade
Axe of Khorne
Blade of Blood
Greater Etherblade
Etherblade (possible but why?)
You auto-magically get a whip now. Your BS is stupid so you have a 97% chance of hitting and with a 5/6 chance of wounding your pretty assured of blowing up 1 dude. Wish it was Assault 2 or freakin' 2d6 like the ballin' Lash of Despair. The whip doesn't get in the way of having an additional CC weapon and lets you fire Overwatch (even though you'll only kill a guy ~15% of the time).
Rewards
I'm only going to list ones that will possibly benefit you in most games. Adamantine Will may be nice but I'm not too worried about constant Psyker barrages.
Exalted
Doubly Blessed
Unholy Frenzy
Riftbringer and Souleater are maybes.
(I'll make a separate section for artifacts)
It'd be nice to blow away a squad and have Bloodletters appear.
Souleater not so much because you'll only gain 1 wound back per turn. If you could bring back wounds equal to the wounds you caused it be a definite but it's just not that good for 30 points.
Greater
All except Unbreakable Hide. You already have it.
The rest give your giant MC a great amount of survivability. Honestly they're all great and with the nearly auto-hit lance gun you have a great chance of blowing up vehicles while airborne.
Lesser
Cleaving Strike
Corrosive Breath
Most of the lesser rewards are pretty crappy. Adamantine Will and Warp Strider are both okay but don't hold your Thirster in reserve and who cares much about the Psyker resistance. Burning blood is meh because you aren't hurting MEQ and taking a second Axe is a better option in my opinion as it's 1 S7 AP 2 attack versus D3 S4 AP5 attacks. If you get 3 on the D3 you still do .05 less wounds than the 1 extra attack.
Artifacts
Grimoire of True Names
Eternal Blade
Portalglyph and Doomstone are not as good in my opinion due to the low incidence of getting extra troops and low incidence of failing leadership on MEQ. When they work they work but when they don't it's a huge waste of points. Grimoire is nice for obvious reasons and your Bloodthirster has a bit of survivability so he'll be able to carry it for most of the game. Eternal Blade gives you no stats but extra attacks and +1S. It's not great but we'll see how useful it is.
Maths
So let's compare the weapons options to see what they give you and how to get the most bang for your buck. I'll compare average number of wounds to points cost. I'll also do it as if he got the charge. Because he will foo'.
Eternal Blade: 5.5 wounds, 30 points
Axe of Khorne: 4.4 wounds, 10 points
Blade of Blood: 5.5 wounds, 20 points
Greater Etherblade: 4.6 wounds, (+1S) 20 points
Etherblade: 4.6 wounds, 10 points
So, the vaunted Eternal Blade is going to get you 1 more wound than an Etherblade but for 3 times the points. It's a waste when you consider that it gives you the same thing as Blade of Blood (albeit without the +1S). Blade of Blood is nice and it's definitely better than Greater Etherblade but it's 20 points for 1 extra wound. With Greater Etherblade you're pay an extra 20 points for +1S but really why bother? You're still gonna do a Smash attack so you auto-glance/kill Rhinos and the like and you're still too far away to inst-kill MEQ units.
Now you look at the Axe of Khorne. Again why take it? You already have one. You'll be paying 10 points for an extra attack. Instead take Etherblade. You're now able to get 1 miss re-roll and the bonus attack for the same number of points. If you need instant-death use the Axe of Khorne and pray.
So weapons:
Etherblade, hands down.
Eternal Blade is just a huge waste.
Too bad you can't take normal power weapons or a Daemon Weapon or an Artifact weapon. Because they couldn't be bother to write any of those things up. Eternal Blade is not an Artifact weapon, look at CSM codex for real Artifact weapons (specifically Typhus, Abaddon and Axe of Blinding Fury)
Gifts
If you're getting the Grimoire you must get a Greater gift so you can become more survivable. You'll need to use this Grimoire all the time and you want a guy who won't go down easily with this Artifact. I personally would put it on some other flying monster who I just keep airborne and vector striking the whole game.
So, no Artifacts for this guy.
Exalted has 3 pretty swag things you can get. Unholy Frenzy gives you the two rules you should have. Is it worth 30 points? Nah. It's the same number of wounds as Eternal Blade. There goes that one. Doubly Blessed is nice but now you're rolling on the two crappy tables for 10 points cheaper. Whoopee. But! In this case Unholy Frenzy would be nice because you also get Etherblade free so now you're doing 6.11 wounds in CC on the charge. There's also Riftbringer. With the Bloodthirster getting 4 wounds on average you're gonna be getting 8 on the die average which means you have only a 30% chance to generate a unit of (average) 10 troops. This is nice, especially against tarpits as you can generate more people to help you chop up the unit as you chop up the unit. Wind of Chaos is Randumb so really with Exalted you're just hoping for Riftbringer or Doubly Blessed.
So Exalted is iffy. Unless I have spare points I wouldn't buy.
Greater gifts, I'd take one of these always as almost any is great. Feel No Pain 4+ isn't that good but you get it over your invuln which is nice when AP 2 fusillades attempt to bring you down. What you reeeeally want is 1,3 or 5. Those are all awesome on Bloodthirster and 4 isn't that bad. If you get 6 I feel bad for you but you'll just have to take a Blade of Blood. Sorry bud.
So Greater Gifts: Take 1 or 2.
Lesser gifts are all pretty poor. (Side note: Why is Warp Breath not Torrent? How do you breath on just one guy from a distance? Should be called Warp Loogie) Burning Blood is double the price of the same upgrade in CSM and if you're taking wounds a lot you're not doing your job. Warp Strider is nice if you're in reserve but you don't have to be so no thanks. Adamantive Will again, 5+ versus Psychic is not 10 points worth (hence why in the previous codex it was 5 points for 2+, holy shit! It also counted against force weapons! Holy shit!). Cleaving strike might be good but! you can just do a smash attack and get 1/2 of your attacks double strength instead of 1/6. Corrosive breath is the nice one. Template let's you get behind and abuse car parks of both IG and DE variety. You can also just as easily use it on FX troops. And you can get the Etherblade which is pretty useful.
So Lesser Gifts: Take 1, if you don't get Corrosive Breath go for Etherblade
Gifts total:
1-2 Greater, 1 Lesser
Conclusions
Adjusted Cost: 280-300 points
TL;DR: You want an Etherblade, any of the Greaters that isn't 6 and forego Exalted unless you have the points. Even then hope for Riftbringer or Doubly Blessed, if you get neither take a Grimoire so you can pretend you didn't just waste 30 points. Blade of Blood isn't bad but it's 20 points for ~1 extra wound. Meh.
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