Conclave of the Burning One

A big thing that you'll see many armies nowadays have are "Deathstar" units. A Deathstar unit is a big, expensive, powerful unit that is designed to scare the pants off anything that comes within its threat range, or to bring some other sort of utility that is worth a large price point. That threat range changes depending on what it is: a Shooting Deathstar has the effective range of its guns, while an Assault Deathstar has the threat range of Movement + effective charge distance. You'll see lots of different Deathstars, from the tough and killy Wolfstar, to the Psychicially powered Screamerstar and Jetbike Council, to the shooting ball of Centurionstar.

Well, the Conclave is a Deathstar - albeit one with only 3 models in the unit. Let's take a closer look at it after the break.



The Conclave of the Burning One is a Formation, so it lacks some of the customization of a true Deathstar. You can't add new ICs, but there are plenty of upgrades to be taken. The choice starts with which type of C'Tan you want to take.

• The Nightbringer is extremely killy. WS6 and Fleshbane means he ends pretty much anything on the board, even GMCs aren't safe from him. Gaze of Death is a great supplement to shooting power, being one of the best things in the entire book. It can even be used in Assault, until a FAQ comes out saying otherwise.
• The Deceiver is less straightforward killing than his coutnerpart, but brings other tricks. Redeployment means that you can counter-react to your opponents deployment if you deploy first, and if you deploy second, it means you can react to Scout moves. Hit and Run is also fantastic, as he's less of an Assault focus than the Nightbringer, it lets him pop out and get ready to shoot again if he wants.

Both are good choices, though I think the Nightbringer is better overall. Grand Illusion can be useful in certain situations, but it is rather situational, as is Hit and Run. Fleshbane is mostly situational as you're S8, but WS6 and Gaze of Death are always good. 

Next, you have to kit out your Crypteks. Starting with weapons:

• Staff of Light is the basic option, and is perfectly fine. S5 AP3 Assault 3 is a good gun, giving you a lot of damage with two of them.
• Tachyon Arrow can be nice. As you are fairly slow on foot, it can let you try to pick off some things at a long range before you get there. Expensive, though.
• Gauntlet of Fire is a pass. Staff is just so much better for a Cryptek. You're not dropping out of a Night Scythe, and you don't particularly need that much Overwatch. 
• The Solar Staff is a direct upgrade to your Staff of Light, giving you Blind (pretty good) and for one turn, you gain pseudo-Invisibility. Pseudo, in that it only works against shooting, so if they charge you you're still getting hit normally.
• Gauntlet of the Conflagrator is an interesting item. One use S7 AP2 Flamer is a great item, but really wants to be taken on a faster moving model, or one dropped out of a Night Scythe.

Arguably just sticking with the Staff of Light on both is probably the best option, unless you want to upgrade one to the Solar Staff, which is good. The others aren't worth much in my opinion.

Which brings us to Wargear:

• The God Shackle is nearly mandatory. If you're not bringing it in another Mephrit Dynasty detachment, it needs to be here. T8 makes you immune to most small arms fire and relatively hard to kill against anything not S9 or S10. Put it on one of your Crypteks, 10 points is pocket change for this.
• Chronometron grants you a 5++ save against all shooting. Not bad, but you can do better:
• Phase Shifter grants a 4++ to the Cryptek. Taking two is double the points of the Chronometron, but it's also a hike in survivability and they work in Assault as well. 
• Solar Thermasite is an option from the Exterminatus book that boosts the Strength of your weapon by +1 and allows you to reroll saves of 1. A nice upgrade, but 25 cents is pretty steep asking price.
• Mindshackle Scarabs are garbage for the most part
• A Phylactery can be quite nice. If you're tanking shots on the Cryptek, you can regain some of those wounds back. Increases your durability, but with only 2 wounds a lot of times that Cryptek will be dead in one turn rather than getting the chance to try for the roll.
• Nightmare Shroud grants the holder a 2+ Armor save. Pretty nice, makes your front Cryptek even more tanky.
• The Veil of Darkness is really nice on this formation. Since it's just 3 models, we're looking at a very small footprint, so mishapping is fairly unlikely. The unit itself only has a 6" move, so any boost to mobility is a boon. 

In my opinion, the Veil should be taken in nearly every situation. Getting them out there and in the enemy's face is tantamount to success. In the situation that you don't want to teleport across the board (like if there's 3 Knights waiting there or they're coming to you), then you can always use it to escape from a tarpit or jump towards a last minute objective. Adding that much mobility to an otherwise immobile unit is worth the price and minor risk.

Next I recommend adding some durability. Pick either one Chronometron or a Phase Shifter for one or both Crypteks. That step is all but mandatory in my opinion. Next, you have a choice of either the Solar Staff or the Nightmare Shroud + Solar Thermasite. The Staff is much cheaper, and more effective against heavy weapons. Against lots of small arms fire, 2+ armor rerolling 1s is fantastic, and doesn't only last one turn. However, once they start breaking out the AP2 guns, having one turn of Invisibility will seem really nice. 

Whichever you take is up to you, my general setup is as follows:

Conclave of the Burning One 
Shard of the Nightbringer - 240
"Shadow" Cryptek (Veil of Darkness, Phase Shifter, God Shackle) - 125
"Solar" Cryptek (Solar Staff, Phase Shifter) - 105

470 points 

Keeping the God Shackle alive is important, so putting it on the Veil Cryptek is the normal move. That insures that it'll always be on the "inside" of the unit after Deep Striking. Putting the Nightbringer or Solar Cryptek out front depends on what's coming in. The Cryptek has a better save (4++/4+++ > 4++/5+++), but less wounds and can be Instant Death'd by S8 or higher shots. Additionally, the Nightbringer might have to be positioned to get the most out of Gaze of Death.

A fun part of this formation is that, since it's made up of 2 Independent Characters and one Character, you can Look Out, Sir! wounds around to mitigate losses for a while. This can be the difference between losing a Cryptek and taking a wound on the Nightbringer that he just gains back with Gaze of Death. 

So overall, customization of your Conclave comes down to how expensive you want it to be. A kitted out tank Cryptek with Phase Shifter, Nightmare Shroud, and Solar Thermasite is pretty difficult to kill, but will also cost you a pretty penny. A super cheap Conclave with just flat Crypteks, a God Shackle, and a Chronometron will save you some points, but will also be much less variable and will be easier to kill. However, a cheap version with the Deceiver just as a support and backline defense unit doesn't need to be as expensive as a linchpin Nightbringer unit kitted out to kill things.

Decide what works best for you and your list. I think there are plenty of ways to run this, and all of them have their uses.