Cataphract Cetrati

The cetrati embody perfect skorne discipline and fearless tenacity. A wall of these warriors charging across the field with their shields locked and their wicked polearms aimed forward will crush through lines of lesser infantry and bring down warbeasts. They steadfastly occupy strategic ground and then lock into formation, cutting down any enemy unfortunate enough to engage them. The very epitome of cataphract stoicism, strength, and martial prowess, Tyrant Vorkesh is veritable juggernaut of armored destruction. As Vorkesh cleaves through enemy after enemy, his deadly accuracy with his weapon, the Arm of Rahal, inspires the cataphracts around him to strike with the utmost skill and precision, while his sheer force of will shields them from enemy magic.

The very epitome of cataphract stoicism, strength and martial prowess, Tyrant Vorkesh is veritable juggernaut of armored destruction. As Vorkesh cleaves through enemy after enemy, his deadly accuracy with his weapon, the Arm of Rahaal, inspires the cataphracts around him to strike with the utmost skill and precision, while his sheer force of will shields them from enemy magic.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Entire unit
  • Template:CMA
  • Template:Tough
  • Template:Shield Wall

• Leader & Grunts only
  • Template:Set Defense

• Vorkesh only
  • Vorkesh has a better statline
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Cleave
  • Template:Defensive Formation
  • Template:Granted (Template:Sacred Ward-alt)
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Steady-alt)

Weapons

Leader & Grunts	War Spear File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  2 4 11 Template:Weapon Master
Vorkesh	Arm of Rahaal File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  2 6 13 Template:Blessed Template:Magical Weapon Template:Weapon Master

Theme Forces

• Template:Masters of War. They gain "Optional Take Down" in this theme.

Thoughts on Cataphract Cetrati

File:Tyrant Vorkesh.png

Command Attachment

Cataphract Cetrati in a nutshell

The Cataphract Cetrati are the toughest infantry the Skorne have access to, and are an excellent choice if you want to brick up. However, they are specialist enough that taking half measures for bricking up is almost always a very bad idea. There is a lot of POW 12 infantry in the game - and two of them charging on average will kill a Cetratus - but it's all about position on the bell curve. Two more points of ARM and POW 12 starts bouncing off. Four more and heavy warjacks start fuming. Or in short the Cetrati are the anvil of the Skorne when you use them.

Thoughts on adding the CA

Adding both hitting power and survivability to the Cetrati, Vorkesh is really an "All in" choice for them, making them immune to knockdown and almost immune to enemy spells and giving them defensive formation. He's as expensive as a pair of Cetrati - but making all your Cetrati no-knockdown tough and immune to debuffs like Parasite is really useful. Vorkesh can also be added to a minimum unit for the same cost as making the unit max. He provides two less boxes, but a more powerful attack, cleave, steady and defensive formation. Few people take Cataphracts without him (although he's normally a requisition point).

Combos & Synergies

There are three common caster-independent choices that help the Cetrati.

• Agonizer - The Skorne melee ARM buff allows the Cetrati to bounce most charging infantry. As such it is almost essential that any Skorne Cetrati brick has a nearby Agonizer to provide the STR debuff. (In return the Cetrati are good at blocking LoS to the Agonizer). However, beware support bloat. An agonizer takes your cetrati brick from 24pts to 30pts.
• Basilisk Krea does for shooting what the Agonizer does for melee. Generally, you want to choose the Agonizer over the Basilisk Krea.
• Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - Press Forward helps them move faster in shield wall. This is not as high a priority as Vorkesh.

There are also several warlocks that buff them still further.

• Tyrant Xerxis has Defender's Ward, which combined with the Agonizer and his feat makes the unit effectively ARM 26. Also, tactician allows the rest of your troops to attack and fire through them.
• Supreme Archdomina Makeda Stay Death on Cetrati with an Agonizer is a truly frustrating amount of durability.
• Archdomina Makeda only plays like the Supreme Archdomina on feat turn, but it's still very frustrating. She also offers a speed boost in the form of Quicken. If the Makeda player has won initiative, the cetrati can run 14" on turn 1. On turn 2, Quicken is upkept and the Tyrant Commander applies press forward. The cetrati can then perform a 9" advance in shield wall, threatening a total of 14+9+2 = 25" off deployment by turn 2. Makeda is then free to feat to provide them cover and cycle quicken if needed. Makeda1 also provides MAT fixing turn to turn in a way no other skorne caster truly does.
• Dominar Rasheth offers ARM 24 on Feat Turn.
• Supreme Aptimus Zaal has one of the few ARM buffs in faction. However, Zaal1 really does not prefer to have such elite infantry due to the fact they reduce his feat counter and are anti synergistic with Last Stand.
• Lord Tyrant Zaadesh offers another ARM buff in faction, along with push immunity. Also, the feat makes their weapon masters shine.
• Void Seer Mordikaar gains value turn to turn through revive. However, to make revive most effective, models need to survive long enough to attack later. Cetrati can be revived into shield wall, and during his feat they are defense 16 against charges with poltergeist. A terrifying prospect to break.

On Theme Forces

• While Cetrati can only be taken in Masters of War, it offers them the ability to take Vorkesh for free. This turns quite an expensive unit into a fairly cost effective one. 18pts for 7 steady tough 5 box weaponmasters with sacred ward and arm 20 in shield wall is a steal
• Masters of War also allows Tyrant Commanders to be taken for free, a key support piece for Cetrati

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Unless you're going all in on the brick, they simply are not worth it. On average, two charging Nihilators are likely to kill an unbuffed Cetratus in shield wall, and that really isn't a job Nihilators are supposed to be good at.
• If you're going big on Cetrati in a friendly game, your opponents are going to find it tooth-grindingly annoying.
• Relatively low damage even with weaponmaster, as they seldom charge.
• Anything with Chain Weapons can break their shield wall.
• Models with Parry can get behind them. At which point their ARM becomes not that scary.
• Vorkesh appears to not have Set Defense, so he needs to stand behind the other Cetrati. However, this is good policy in general as Sacred Ward is removed upon Vorkesh's death. Spell slinging enemies wish to debuff the Cetrati need Vorkesh to die as soon as possible.
• Pushing them out of shield wall works wonders at killing them.
• Unless you need their frontage, a full unit plus Vorkesh costs more than a Titan Sentry plus a Cyclops Brute. Which is often a better choice.

Tricks & Tips

• Walk forward and let the enemy break on your line.
• Use them to block line of sight to key models in your list. Due to their medium bases, inability to be targeted by spells, high arm, and ability to potentially tough multiple times; they can provide immense protection to warlocks and solos hidden behind them.

Other

Trivia

• Cataphract comes the Greek word Cataphractus, which means "fully enclosed." Pretty appropriate if you ask me! Historically, the Cataphracts were mounted, armored knights, but skorne merely borrowed the literal meaning, not the historical. The word Cetratus is latin for a soldier with a short shield. So these guys are "Fully enclosed knights with shields". Yes.
• Unit released in Primal Mk1 (2006)
• CA released in Forces of Hordes: Skorne (2010)