Space Marines - Kayvaan Shrike

10th Edition Space Marine Codex

So I rolled Space Marines again, funnily enough, this is only the second time on this Wheel that I rolled vanilla Space Marines which is funny because they are a faction with a lot of datasheets to review and are generally the poster-boys of the franchise of Warhammer 40,000.

Kayvaan Shrike is NOT however vanilla or a poster boy! He is the Shadow Captain of the Raven Guard 2nd Company. A master of covert strikes… from the shadows… while using a jetpack strapped to his back.

I actually have not checked if he and the squads he leads who always have jump packs as well have some way to muffle the things… or perhaps they creep towards the enemy and THEN put the jump packs on when they are near the enemy. I do not know!

So let me review what makes this guy good. Of course, he is a named Character and thus an Epic Hero – only 1 per Army.

Statline

Kayvaan has a 12” Movement, which is standard for a jump pack Space Marine. T4, 3+/4++ (When you see a save that says ++ this is an invulnerable save), and W5. This makes him the same toughness level as a Space Marine Captain… which he is!

Weapons

Blackout – A pistol with the Precision rule! Meaning you can try use it to assassinate someone! 18” Range is far for a pistol, 2 attacks, hitting on 2+, S5 Ap-1 and 2 Damage a pop! Awesome!

Then comes the signature twin lighting claws! On a Jump Pack Character!

The Raven’s Talons – 7 Attacks! Hitting on 2+, S5, Ap-2, 2 Damage each! With Precision and Twin-Linked!

This means that if he wants to Assassinate a Terminator Chaos Lord or something like that. It is 7 Attacks, Hitting on 2+, so 6-7 Hits. Wounding on 4+ as the Lord is T5. So 3-4 Wounds, then re-roll the fails. So 1-2 Additional wounds. This means in practice there should be at lead 4-6 Wounds dealt to the Lord.

The Lord would have a 4+ save which is 50%. 2-3 unsaves wounds. Each unsaves wound would cause 2 Wounds of Damage each. If 3 goes through a Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor, which is a tough cookie, would die instantly. If he took a shot from the Blackout pistol and one went through, the only 2x unsaves wounds are needed to kills him.

Of course, the Chaos Lord and roll saves for all the strikes, but the potential is there! And that is on a TOUGH Character to assassinate. There are many easier targets where characters have less toughness and 3-4 Wounds each. Shrike would eviscerate them!

Abilities

Now comes the fun bit.

Universal rules: Deep Strike, Lone Operative, Leader, Stealth
This mean he can: Drop in on the battlefield within 9” of the enemy as a Deep Strike. He can lead units but when his squad dies he becomes a Lone Operative, then he can only be shot at when he is within 12” of the enemy.
Stealth means the enemy shooting at him, shots are at -1 to Hit.

-Trifold Path of Shadow: While leading a unit, he gives the unit the same ability as Lone Operative! They cannot be shot at unless they are 12” away from the enemy! Amazing!
-Echo of the Ravenspire: If Kayvaan and his unit are not within Engagement range at the end of the opponent’s turn, they can be put into Strategic Reserves.

This rule is also amazing. It means that either they can be redeployed either where they can do more damage or score more points… or be taken out of a situation where they would be destroyed.

This guy comes with a classic Firstborn and Primaris model. I would not mind having and playing this model in an army, those rules are solid!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope that you enjoyed it!