Bray'arth Ashmantle

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Bray'arth Ashmantle is a venerable Dreadnought and former captain of the Salamanders fourth company. He is unforgiving and a merciless warrior, full of zeal and unflagging in purpose. He often bashed heads with Tu'Shan's predacessor over tactics and doctrine.

History

Originally known as Sokhar Bray'arth, he fell during the cleansing of Ymgarl's moons from Genestealer taint, and was interred to a unique ironclad dreadnought called the Iron Dragon, believed to be a relic made by Vulkan himself. Bray'arth survived the interment process, as the its Machine Spirit often either overcame or overloaded those interred into it, with the shoulder armor of the machine being decorated with detailed bas-reliefs of his death battle against genestealers. (which incidentally makes him a bitch to proxy)

He earned his new name of Ashmantle from his actions during the Casvsarae Insurrection, his first campaign after interment. He pursued Abhuman rebels and Black Legionnaires supporting them in a sub-city network for nine days, before smashing his way out through the duct workings, completely covered in soot and ash. He was later awakened by second company captain Pellas Mir'san to participate in the Badab War.

On the Tabletop

Notoriously difficult to kill in previous editions, 8th Edition has seen Bray'arth Ashmantle become nigh unstoppable. Featuring a terrifying stat line (6" M, 2+ BS/WS, S8, T9, A4, W8), Ashmantle is already positioned to take on the heaviest hitters in the game. To help with that task, Ashmantle features some of the most terrifying weapons in all of 40k.

•Dreadfire Claws: Ashmantle's close combat weapons are juiced up Dreadnought claws. With a Strength x2 multiplier and -4 to the AP, they should be wounding even the toughest targets on at least 3s. The damage, however, is a blessing and a curse at D6 per wound. If you're rolling hot, even Warlord Titans find themselves in trouble.

•Dreadfire Heavy Flamers: These are the real stars. A D6 heavy flamer that will make anything melt, these babies hit at S6, -2AP, with a flat 3 damage per wound.

What makes him truly terrifying, however, is that he has the character keyworld AND is under 10 wounds. That's right folks, unless he's your closest enemy model, you can't target him. While snipers have become more and more present in 8th edition as time goes on, they're all still going to struggle to take on this T9 monster, and that's before we get to his special rule:

• Wrought by Vulkan: Our big boy has a 5+ invulnerable save. In addition, you can roll a D6 each time this model loses a wound; on a 4+ the damage is ignored and that wound is not lost. That's right, even if you manage to punch through the obscene armor plating on this monster, he's still looking at negating wounds 50% of the time. Eat your heart out, Death Guard.

Now, Bray'arth also features the Ancient Beyond Measure special rule, which only allows him to be your Warlord if no other HQ choices are present in a Battle-Forged list. This used to exclude Ashmantle from getting any extra toys, but with the new Space Marine codex, we now have a stratagem that can extend additional warlord traits to other characters. Re-roll charges? Additional attacks? Extra strength for some reason? 1 CP and you're off.

Even worse (or better, if you're evil) is that Ashmantle benefits greatly from a couple of synergies. Keep a Librarian handy and cast Might of Heroes and you've got yourself a T10 monster. Even if he manages to be targeted by Lascannons, they wound on 4s. Keep Vulkan He'stan nearby and those Dreadfire Heavy Flamers are re-rolling all failed wounds.

So how can you get the most out of your dead killy but relatively slow monster? You've got two choices.

•Screen him. Surround your big slab with a bunch of scrubsSince Bray'arth is a character, that means he's unable to be targeted except by snipers or other shenanigans. Considering how beefy he is, snipers will likely struggle to wound him. If they do pin a mortal wound on him here or there, remember he ignores them on a 5+. 50% of the time it works every time!

•Dreadnought Drop Pod: Only use if you're okay with being That Guy. With Version 2 of the Space Marine Codex, Drop Pods can now bypass the Reserves rules and enter play Turn One. That includes the Lucius-Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod. Yup, now you see where I'm going with this. Burn the extra Warlord Trait stratagem, give Ashmantle the ability to re-roll charges and then BOOM, turn one you have the DESTROYER OF FUCKING WORLDS nine inches away from your enemy's front line.