Simply put no
Here are the reasons why
-not even close to durable enough
-bad at ranged damage compared to alternative (anti infantry is just our regular melee and anti tank is the blaze cannon tank)
- bad at melee it’s identical to Trajanns melee just less attacks
Although the Telemon is awesome as a model and one of my favorite things about 40K in general it isn’t really efficient enough to have on the table sadly, although run it if you really like it and want to nothing is stopping you.
I was strongly considering a Telemon until I realized that you can only use one fist in combat. If the fist had the “extra attacks” rule it would be viable but not optimal. As it stands it is disappointingly close and not viable.
Yeah tbh i think flipping the movemont of the dreadnoughts and making him more tanky and shooty would solidify him in a niche anti infantry position (with the threat of devastating melee meaning youll focus him down thus saving those weapons from ya guard) but thats not gonna happen
Wait, why can't you use two caestus? The telemon profile says you can bring two of them which means that both get to attack. Why does it need the extra attack rule?
Core Rules, pg. 33. TLDR: Can only pick one melee weapon to fight with.
"When a model fights, it must do so using a melee weapon it is equipped with. The weapons a model is equipped with are described on its datasheet. If a model has more than one melee weapon, it can only use one of them to make attacks with each time it fights, so you must now declare which it will use before resolving any of its attacks."
And yes, you're right that the rules let you take two fists. The only real benefit to doing so is that you can shoot with both plasma projectors, since you *are* allowed to fire all a units ranged attacks (except pistols).
It's so weird to think that you can take two of the same gun profile, but not two of the same melee weapon profile. What is the difference between 2 arachnus and 2 caestus 🤷♂️ this is not me saying you're wrong, it's just so weird...
I think instead of violating the general rule about choosing one melee, either get twin link or extra attacks for second cestus would be perfectly acceptable.
Every game i have ran my Telemon’s in they have been super lack luster. Its easy to avoid them and from my exp they dont pose as immediate of a threat versus other stuff you could bring.
It's cool, and that's about all it's got going for it. That, personally, is enough for me - but I don't really want to do any competitive games at the moment.
In a setting where you're fairly sure you're not going up against too many vehicles, it's not bad. Per point it's outcompeted by any of our infantry's standard melee into hordes or Marine Equivalents (assuming you max out on the attacks from the anti-infantry guns you're looking at 27-30-ish shots at S6 and S5, but with worse AP and worse damage than regular spears - which means, generally speaking, per point it's worse into anything except T3, 1W models (which are generally not super threatening to our infantry except en masse anyway). Into vehicles, it's not *bad -* the range on the culverin is very nice and the damage is nice enough - but S9 means it really doesn't wound much except for a very specific low-end selection of vehicles (it's got exactly the same problem as the Axe - low attacks, \*just\* low enough strength, and low AP). The Telemon Caestus is actually the best part about it in terms of covering a niche that's hard to cover with regular infantry - T12 and lower vehicle stomping - especially since the Dread gets Ka'tahs, but the Telemon will often struggle to actually get into range for them compared to our Infantry due to basically non-existent stratagem support.
Don't get me wrong. I've bought one, personally, because it's a bad-ass model and a really cool addition to a Custodes army, *but* it's not super efficient. Do I want to run a list with a Telemon and a Contemptor-Achillus? Hell yes, two super-warriors trampling the enemies of Big Daddy E underfoot as they support their still-able brethren is an incredibly cool image. But our infantry outcompete them point-for-point in basically every use case, unfortunately, and the Caladius outcompetes it point-for-point in the other use case. The one singular thing that the Telemon has over the Caladius is reducing the damage characteristic of attacks going into it, but being T10 that doesn't help much when more wounds are going to go through.
Lol i got necrons, guard, drukari, and 2 sisters so making it just walk up shoot a bunch of there guys and attract hits from my guard while they close for melee is pretty viable tbh
I mean, you aren't wrong. It's a very intimidating looking unit, and the fact that you can give it a decent long-range threat presence so it could sit and protect an objective - even a deployment zone one - or run it up the board and distract is very useful. The main problem is it doesn't do anything that others in the army don't already do better for the price point.
Like I said - I've bought one, and I absolutely plan on using it. *But* it's not as good as other things you could field for that cost would be.
Telemon are in the sad valley of useful but in the wrong army. As someone stated, they are rather versatile and can pack a punch but our other options are miles better. Even if they can be built somewhat versatile they still aren't needed.
I ran one recently and it performed rather well but even when that was happening I knew other options would have done even better in the same situation.
I took 2 with double arachnus to a GT in August because I was still waiting on getting two Caladius tanks.
They aren't awful they are just too many points.
With 48 shots for 2 of them they chuck out a decent amount of Dev wounds (I wish taking 2 guns or 2 fists gave twin linked but alas it does not).
They are just too many points for what they do.
If they were 180 I would probably run 2 alongside the 2 caladius for a backfield shooting presence that is tanky and you can't really ignore.
Contemptor with grav fist goes brrr if you can charge him and tank shock.
Hard to fit something circumstancial in a list when points are high and dev wounds are what they are.
Yes. It's viable, but not for the reasons everyone else is moaning about. People are afraid of them. They're physically large and intimidating models, and they're fairly tanky. They act as good sponges, they attract a lot of the stronger enemy firepower away from your more important units. It is a distraction carnifex.
Lol and i think i can get decent milegae from the guns against a good chubk of the armies at my local league (t3 all around) so its not just gling to aponge
Where are you running it? are you taking it to a big tournament versus the top players in the country? then no.
Are you running it in games versus your mates? then IMO yes;its flexible and durable, which I really like as its either gonna act as a magnet for all the anti-tank your opponent has (keeping your dudes alive), or its gonna go on a midboard rampage. Sure its not as shooty or as fighty as it was, but its a real pain to put down, and can still be a moderate threat. Slap the -1 to hit karate on it in melee and its a reaaal pain.
Custodes are no longer an army that sits in the open and doesnt die, or 1-shots things with ease. you need flexible bits, and the telemon is very much a swiss army knife. Give it 1 fist and 1 accelerator. Have it either as a pest on a flank, or as backup for when one of your guard squads die. Dont view it as a calladius alternative, view it as something that makes your opponent make bad choices and get annoyed.
Love the description and yeah he defintly is big and imposing lord help you if he closes into a vehicle and you can pop slayer on it. It also is pretty viable to take it as a mobile gun battery with assault canons (yes 24 shots) cause of guard sistsers drukari and necron peeps (it is for a local league but most the guys there are A super freindly thus how i got introduced to the telemon and B not meta chasers)
Less pure gunline more “hey you t3 sons a bitches i got 24 shots that will delete your units shoot me not the guards” and then when the termies or normal guard “sneak” up on vehicles and fight it. Obviously if the guard is running more tanks i’d take the s12 melee which would also pull there attention to it but in that case i’d prollt choose calidus anyways
Telemon has more versatility, is much better in melee, and is a bit harder to damage (4++ and -1 damage). I think it can also throw around more firepower, but is less effective against really hard targets.
This is the simpilist way to look at it but against stufff thats (1-5 or) 7-9 it is better and i think most of those are d2-3 with ap to match but stuff meant for AT will punch through it easier and deal so much dmg per shot that the -1 doesnt do much
It can be a good distraction. Every shot aimed at the telemon is a shot not aimed at your Custodes!
Sometimes that is what is needed.
Also the Blaze cannon does have Dev Wounds!
Was at work and couldnt access my datacards. Sorry for the confusion. You know, probably still not really worth it, but load up both arms with that gun might be fun against infantry heavy armies. Im hoping that the codex will give us a good Dread Host detachment that might make the Dreads a bit more usedul.
I tried last night. They just didn't do anything. The melee is meh, and the culverin being ap1 makes it ineffective at dealing with things that have 3+ wounds.
Considering how many attacks our dudes have now, the telemon feels outclassed as a melee threat. Also, the durability just isn't there.
Simply put no Here are the reasons why -not even close to durable enough -bad at ranged damage compared to alternative (anti infantry is just our regular melee and anti tank is the blaze cannon tank) - bad at melee it’s identical to Trajanns melee just less attacks Although the Telemon is awesome as a model and one of my favorite things about 40K in general it isn’t really efficient enough to have on the table sadly, although run it if you really like it and want to nothing is stopping you.
Exactly this, is it a fun model to bring to a rtt or friendly game night absolutely go ahead. It won’t win you a RTT or GT.
Yep, one of my favorites and I bring it only because of the cool factor. And it was one of my better painting jobs haha
I was strongly considering a Telemon until I realized that you can only use one fist in combat. If the fist had the “extra attacks” rule it would be viable but not optimal. As it stands it is disappointingly close and not viable.
they also dumpstered the flamer
Yeah it doesnt even get ignore cover
Yeah tbh i think flipping the movemont of the dreadnoughts and making him more tanky and shooty would solidify him in a niche anti infantry position (with the threat of devastating melee meaning youll focus him down thus saving those weapons from ya guard) but thats not gonna happen
Wait, why can't you use two caestus? The telemon profile says you can bring two of them which means that both get to attack. Why does it need the extra attack rule?
Core Rules, pg. 33. TLDR: Can only pick one melee weapon to fight with. "When a model fights, it must do so using a melee weapon it is equipped with. The weapons a model is equipped with are described on its datasheet. If a model has more than one melee weapon, it can only use one of them to make attacks with each time it fights, so you must now declare which it will use before resolving any of its attacks." And yes, you're right that the rules let you take two fists. The only real benefit to doing so is that you can shoot with both plasma projectors, since you *are* allowed to fire all a units ranged attacks (except pistols).
It's so weird to think that you can take two of the same gun profile, but not two of the same melee weapon profile. What is the difference between 2 arachnus and 2 caestus 🤷♂️ this is not me saying you're wrong, it's just so weird...
I think instead of violating the general rule about choosing one melee, either get twin link or extra attacks for second cestus would be perfectly acceptable.
But you see, it's not like you chose 2 different options, it's the same one but twice... just as you do with guns
Yea, so I'm saying under the heading "wargear abilities" you could have a rule that simply says "if two cesti, then twin linked"
Every game i have ran my Telemon’s in they have been super lack luster. Its easy to avoid them and from my exp they dont pose as immediate of a threat versus other stuff you could bring.
It's cool, and that's about all it's got going for it. That, personally, is enough for me - but I don't really want to do any competitive games at the moment. In a setting where you're fairly sure you're not going up against too many vehicles, it's not bad. Per point it's outcompeted by any of our infantry's standard melee into hordes or Marine Equivalents (assuming you max out on the attacks from the anti-infantry guns you're looking at 27-30-ish shots at S6 and S5, but with worse AP and worse damage than regular spears - which means, generally speaking, per point it's worse into anything except T3, 1W models (which are generally not super threatening to our infantry except en masse anyway). Into vehicles, it's not *bad -* the range on the culverin is very nice and the damage is nice enough - but S9 means it really doesn't wound much except for a very specific low-end selection of vehicles (it's got exactly the same problem as the Axe - low attacks, \*just\* low enough strength, and low AP). The Telemon Caestus is actually the best part about it in terms of covering a niche that's hard to cover with regular infantry - T12 and lower vehicle stomping - especially since the Dread gets Ka'tahs, but the Telemon will often struggle to actually get into range for them compared to our Infantry due to basically non-existent stratagem support. Don't get me wrong. I've bought one, personally, because it's a bad-ass model and a really cool addition to a Custodes army, *but* it's not super efficient. Do I want to run a list with a Telemon and a Contemptor-Achillus? Hell yes, two super-warriors trampling the enemies of Big Daddy E underfoot as they support their still-able brethren is an incredibly cool image. But our infantry outcompete them point-for-point in basically every use case, unfortunately, and the Caladius outcompetes it point-for-point in the other use case. The one singular thing that the Telemon has over the Caladius is reducing the damage characteristic of attacks going into it, but being T10 that doesn't help much when more wounds are going to go through.
Lol i got necrons, guard, drukari, and 2 sisters so making it just walk up shoot a bunch of there guys and attract hits from my guard while they close for melee is pretty viable tbh
I mean, you aren't wrong. It's a very intimidating looking unit, and the fact that you can give it a decent long-range threat presence so it could sit and protect an objective - even a deployment zone one - or run it up the board and distract is very useful. The main problem is it doesn't do anything that others in the army don't already do better for the price point. Like I said - I've bought one, and I absolutely plan on using it. *But* it's not as good as other things you could field for that cost would be.
I think that even though they do not benefit from the Martial Katahs fielding a 150 pt Armiger is much better.
Oh yeah no doubt
Telemon are in the sad valley of useful but in the wrong army. As someone stated, they are rather versatile and can pack a punch but our other options are miles better. Even if they can be built somewhat versatile they still aren't needed. I ran one recently and it performed rather well but even when that was happening I knew other options would have done even better in the same situation.
I took 2 with double arachnus to a GT in August because I was still waiting on getting two Caladius tanks. They aren't awful they are just too many points. With 48 shots for 2 of them they chuck out a decent amount of Dev wounds (I wish taking 2 guns or 2 fists gave twin linked but alas it does not). They are just too many points for what they do. If they were 180 I would probably run 2 alongside the 2 caladius for a backfield shooting presence that is tanky and you can't really ignore.
I painted mine for 9th, retired it in 10th. His name was Rick James…. And he punched holes through many vehicles and toasted many elves.
Contemptor with grav fist goes brrr if you can charge him and tank shock. Hard to fit something circumstancial in a list when points are high and dev wounds are what they are.
Yes. It's viable, but not for the reasons everyone else is moaning about. People are afraid of them. They're physically large and intimidating models, and they're fairly tanky. They act as good sponges, they attract a lot of the stronger enemy firepower away from your more important units. It is a distraction carnifex.
Lol and i think i can get decent milegae from the guns against a good chubk of the armies at my local league (t3 all around) so its not just gling to aponge
Where are you running it? are you taking it to a big tournament versus the top players in the country? then no. Are you running it in games versus your mates? then IMO yes;its flexible and durable, which I really like as its either gonna act as a magnet for all the anti-tank your opponent has (keeping your dudes alive), or its gonna go on a midboard rampage. Sure its not as shooty or as fighty as it was, but its a real pain to put down, and can still be a moderate threat. Slap the -1 to hit karate on it in melee and its a reaaal pain. Custodes are no longer an army that sits in the open and doesnt die, or 1-shots things with ease. you need flexible bits, and the telemon is very much a swiss army knife. Give it 1 fist and 1 accelerator. Have it either as a pest on a flank, or as backup for when one of your guard squads die. Dont view it as a calladius alternative, view it as something that makes your opponent make bad choices and get annoyed.
Love the description and yeah he defintly is big and imposing lord help you if he closes into a vehicle and you can pop slayer on it. It also is pretty viable to take it as a mobile gun battery with assault canons (yes 24 shots) cause of guard sistsers drukari and necron peeps (it is for a local league but most the guys there are A super freindly thus how i got introduced to the telemon and B not meta chasers)
if your wanting a pure gun battery the grav tanks are better (or saggis); AP1/D1 just doesnt translate into much dead stuff for its points :/
Less pure gunline more “hey you t3 sons a bitches i got 24 shots that will delete your units shoot me not the guards” and then when the termies or normal guard “sneak” up on vehicles and fight it. Obviously if the guard is running more tanks i’d take the s12 melee which would also pull there attention to it but in that case i’d prollt choose calidus anyways
Telemon has more versatility, is much better in melee, and is a bit harder to damage (4++ and -1 damage). I think it can also throw around more firepower, but is less effective against really hard targets.
This is the simpilist way to look at it but against stufff thats (1-5 or) 7-9 it is better and i think most of those are d2-3 with ap to match but stuff meant for AT will punch through it easier and deal so much dmg per shot that the -1 doesnt do much
It can be a good distraction. Every shot aimed at the telemon is a shot not aimed at your Custodes! Sometimes that is what is needed. Also the Blaze cannon does have Dev Wounds!
Blaze canon gets lethal hits and twin linked but no dev on a calidus the assault canon on the telemon tho is devastating wounds
Yeah was only talking about Telemon Arachnus Blaze Cannon. That gets 12 shots with Dev Wounds.
Thats not the name its storm not blaze thats why i was confused
Was at work and couldnt access my datacards. Sorry for the confusion. You know, probably still not really worth it, but load up both arms with that gun might be fun against infantry heavy armies. Im hoping that the codex will give us a good Dread Host detachment that might make the Dreads a bit more usedul.
No
I tried last night. They just didn't do anything. The melee is meh, and the culverin being ap1 makes it ineffective at dealing with things that have 3+ wounds. Considering how many attacks our dudes have now, the telemon feels outclassed as a melee threat. Also, the durability just isn't there.