AoS What does Celestant-Prime bring to our army that makes it so good?

[Jason839]

Was looking at the first place list from Us open chicago and it was a Kotl's claw list with allied Celestant-Prime. I am confused though on why bring a Celestant-Prime. What does the Prime give you that makes it so worth it?

 

[ChameleonGnom]

Can you share the List?

 

[Just A Skink]

Basically he fulfills one of three roles depending on the matchup. What makes him amazing is you can adapt those roles on the fly, and never have to pick in advance.

Turn 1: If after your hero phase comet/realmshaper/etc they have multiple support heroes on 1-2 wounds left, bring him down and shoot them. Then he just is a mobile artillery piece that can fight for the rest of the game. (Lumineth, Nighthaunt, Grots, Seraphon)

Turn 2: When I usually bring him down, great counter punch, auto-12 inch charge, 5 attacks, and still plenty of time for shooting.

Turn 3: If you REALLY need him to punch hard in combat, you lose most of the benefit of the shooting, but 7 attacks hits like a truck. This is when I bring him down against armies like Archaeon and friends, some stormcast builds, maybe nurgle. Basically armies that the shooting wont hit more than 2 units, and dont have a huge alpha strike you need to try and pre-empt

Hi @Jason839, this was from another forum post with a similar question. You were a part of that discussion, so this may not exactly answer your question, but I hope it helps.

EDIT: Just making some guesses, based on the warscroll, our army, and the KC subfaction.
•Celestant Prime does hit pretty hard, with -3 rend and 3 damage. Seraphon lacks big rend attacks in general. If you keep Prime off the field, he gets more attacks.
•3+ save (possibly All Out Def to 2+) with a 4+ ward means he can shake off most hits from standard units. I think one of Seraphon's big issues is middling saves. Prime only has 8 wounds, so you still have to be careful.
•He doesn't need to be set on the battlefield and can teleport down, forcing armies to consider their backfield. Chameleons can do this, but may not be a versatile or sturdy.
•His mortal wound ranged attack is possibly even more useful for KC. If you have a Slann or Kroak dropping mortals plus this guy dropping mortals, it can be rough.
•He can guarantee a dice roll each turn, making his charge roll for example.

He's expensive, but he has useful mechanics that seem to help round out some Seraphon armies.

 

[cyberhawk94]

Hi @Jason839, this was from another forum post with a similar question. You were a part of that discussion, so this may not exactly answer your question, but I hope it helps.

Just wanted to comment on this, as that post was from a year ago and the meta and some mechanics have changed. The Heroic Recovery change in particular really hurt him. I still like him in Koatl's Claw lists as they lack ranged output and he is better/more flexible than a Bastilidon. Thunder Lizard point increases mean they cant really squeeze him in, and Starborne in general doesn't need mobility or mortal wounds

 

[Just A Skink]

Just wanted to comment on this, as that post was from a year ago and the meta and some mechanics have changed. The Heroic Recovery change in particular really hurt him. I still like him in Koatl's Claw lists as they lack ranged output and he is better/more flexible than a Bastilidon. Thunder Lizard point increases mean they cant really squeeze him in, and Starborne in general doesn't need mobility or mortal wounds

Thanks. I was hoping some more knowledgeable lizards would come along