infernal castellan useless in battle?

[F.O.A.M]

so i have played an astrogoth campaign to round 90 and am now playing drazhoath currently on turn 16. and i just wonder if anyone has gotten a use of these blokes in battle. they got a pretty long reload and uses a gun so you gotta position to use it at all, they got a good amount of range but the dmg is just not that good. 1 unit of hobgoblins with shields always out damages them.

are these guys just used for blocking and damaging walls? i see no reason to use them in battle but i might be using them wrong

[Sins]

They're pretty good against single targets. Pretty much anything you have as a Chaos Dwarf with better ability to hit a lord has dramatically less range. Won't melt a lord before they can do anything, but if you want to hurt a lord or hero from an obscene range away there's not really a better option.

With their shotgun upgrade they do pretty good against armored infantry too, though I haven't used that as much.

[Honyakusha]

They're combined well with blunderbuss units, usually those maniacs with shotguns mow down your frontline too but they're surprisingly good with Castellans. Big boiz also got flash bomb which reduces speed-60% and their digging ability gives them extra missile resistance, on top of that they got expert charge defence and charge reflection. To be fair they're not like Dwarven Thanes who're perfect for making gunline and killzones but better than nothing for sure.

[Central]

yes and no, they provide some decent bonus to ranged units with the extra powder ability, it is a passive effect with a range of 35m which buffs armor piercing and explosive dmg.

i also got some use out of their restock ability, with some liberal use you can get units back to above 80% ammo again which really helps with the dmg output if you give them the extra powder upgrade in the manufactory.

combine it with a daemonsmith sorcerer which boosts reload reduction to maximize the dmg output.

[Cyiel]

Like every other engineer they are support characters that can buff missile units with aura/ammo replenishement.

[Mr.Hmm]

You got 2 paths with Infernal Castellan, Explosive Bullets or Single Target damage.

If you want him to focus on single entity then pick the Single target damage tree, if you want him to focus on aoe dmg then pick the explosive damage tree.

As long as they got Line of Sight they can pretty much delete the enemy hero/lord easily since majority of enemy lords do not have shields and thus no missile block plus they do AP damage so they can negate armor.

I mostly use the Single Target damage tree and move him near the artillery and since the "Dig In" passive increases the range massively its a good idea.

[Professor H. Farnsworth]

Their shotgun upgrade is fairly.. meh. It usually just ends up killing 1 unit.
Their range improvement line is quite good and being able to start sniping lords from 360 range is not to be underestimated and can severely wound a lord before it gets to ya. They also get to keep their piercing attack, so it'll actually deal damage to more than just 1 unit and they get a missile bound spell that can tear through a unit formation.

Overall, if you want the most out of your Castellan you go for the range. That's where he really shines. The shotgun sounds great on paper but the explosion radius is so tiny and the range nerf sort of ruins the entire purpose of him. Don't need the slow grenade when nothing reaches you lines in the first place :).

It's not unusual for my Castellan to kill 50-70 units in a battle from shooting alone - the bound missile spell ups it to 100-150 depending on how much I feel like positioning him.

[DaBa]

Of course they are useful? I found that speccing them into the lower range explosive attack yields better results overall.

- You get a ranged attack that is pretty strong against single targets and can also do some good damage to infantry blobs when flanking.

- You get a useful ability that slows and debuffs melee defence, so you can use it on either approaching enemies so you can more easily shoot them, or debuff melee defence right before you charge with something else.

- Dig in becomes actually usable for the entire fight, since it only needs 5 seconds to activate so the loss of range is not a big deal.

- And also, whatever you choose, you get the buff that makes your artillery even stronger. So you can squeeze some extra damage out of them when the enemy is approaching.

Combine that with the campaign mobility buff and you want to have at least one in every single army.

[F.O.A.M]

Originally posted by Cyiel:

Like every other engineer they are support characters that can buff missile units with aura/ammo replenishement.

thats the thing, these ones dont. all they do is buff the tier 3 infantry with immune to fear and terror

[Mr.Hmm]

Originally posted by Moffatt:

Originally posted by Cyiel:

Like every other engineer they are support characters that can buff missile units with aura/ammo replenishement.

thats the thing, these ones dont. all they do is buff the tier 3 infantry with immune to fear and terror

They got the "Extra Powder" passive that can help buff the Artillery plus with the "Stabilized Bipod" passive you can put them near your artillery and have them buff the Artillery while they snipe the enemy hero/lord.

They also got Sundering and Magical Attack passive and Stalk and the very strong "Cinderblast Shell"

I do not understand why people think they are bad.

[Enelith]

Originally posted by Mr.Hmm:

I do not understand why people think they are bad.

Most people with that kind of mindset is all about "if it doesn't kill enough, it sucks".

[DaBa]

Originally posted by Moffatt:

Originally posted by Cyiel:

Like every other engineer they are support characters that can buff missile units with aura/ammo replenishement.

thats the thing, these ones dont. all they do is buff the tier 3 infantry with immune to fear and terror

You sound like you never actually looked at their skill tree...

[Mr.Hmm]

Originally posted by Enelith:

Originally posted by Mr.Hmm:

I do not understand why people think they are bad.

Most people with that kind of mindset is all about "if it doesn't kill enough, it sucks".

Makes Sense tbh.

The Chaos Dwarfs got some super strong Artillery so one Infernal Castellian in every army with Artillery will buff their dmg by a alot.

[cernodan]

I usually keep 2 castellans in my main army with Draz, and I go the shotgun skill line to make them more tanky and for the slow bomb.
I usually set them in front of my gun units to act as a bumper for the enemy lines to surround and in the process make them easier targets for blunderbusses and fireglaives.
I also use the slow bomb + ash storm (hassut lore) against enemy lords and it practically stops them in place.
Don't think of them as fighting goons, but rather utilitarian.
If you want a goon squad with Draz, pick 3 Deamonsmiths and go to town. Taurruk I never add to my main army, but in secondary ones, they are great anti-large units.

[DaBa]

Originally posted by Enelith:

Originally posted by Mr.Hmm:

I do not understand why people think they are bad.

Most people with that kind of mindset is all about "if it doesn't kill enough, it sucks".

Which is weird, because in almost every single fight my Infernal Castellans score more than 50 kills, and then on top of that they give my artillery extra damage, toss debuffs around that help other units, and do some damage to approaching single entities. Seems like some people just don't know how to use them properly.

[Mr.Hmm]

Originally posted by cernodan:

I usually keep 2 castellans in my main army with Draz, and I go the shotgun skill line to make them more tanky and for the slow bomb.
I usually set them in front of my gun units to act as a bumper for the enemy lines to surround and in the process make them easier targets for blunderbusses and fireglaives.
I also use the slow bomb + ash storm (hassut lore) against enemy lords and it practically stops them in place.
Don't think of them as fighting goons, but rather utilitarian.
If you want a goon squad with Draz, pick 3 Deamonsmiths and go to town. Taurruk I never add to my main army, but in secondary ones, they are great anti-large units.

Put Taurruk hero in the army with the Legendary Hoboglin hero and mix it with Hoboglins + Bull Centaur Renders(Great Weapon).

Honestly I think the Taurruk Heroes are perfect fit with the Hoboglins and the Legendary Hero in one army. Plus if you check the left military tree you go Hoboglins + labourers buffs -> Bull Centaur Renders buffs.