Decurion or CAD?

The new codices all have new detachments that give a bit of flavor. Dark Eldar have one that gives them cover saves, Grey Knights have a Deep Strike turn 1 thing going on, etc. Our Decurion is an interesting beast, a detachment of formations rather than Force Org Chart.

It's quite powerful, I'll say that from the get-go. 4+ RP army wide, Vehicles ignoring Crew Stunned, and nearly all formations giving Move Through Cover (and some Relentless) is fantastic. It increases our already high durability by quite a bit and army-wide Move Through Cover means that we're going to have a surprising amount of mobility compared to other foot armies.



However, it's quite restrictive. 1 Overlord, 2 Warrior units, 1 Immortal unit, and 1 Tomb Blade unit before you can buy anything else. And those are just base, so you'll probably want to put in more points into the Immortals and Tomb Blades to make them more useful. So you're already spending a bunch of points before you even take the things you want to take.

The only units you can flat take without other prerequisites are Flayed Ones, C'Tan/Tesseract Vault, an Obelisk, or Deathmarks. To an extent, Monoliths and Lychguard as part of the Reclamation Legion have no prerequisites other than an Auxiliary Force, so you can probably count those too. But, if you want to bring Heavy Destroyers? You have to field a whole Cult. You want Wraiths? An entire Harvest is necessary. Praetorians? Need 2 units and a Stalker. Can't just bring 1 Doom Scythe, and you can't bring non-Dedicated Ghost Arks or Night Scythes.

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad," you say. And you're not wrong. We don't really have a bad formation in the bunch, and most of the "required" units are good on their own rights. And for the most part, the points aren't that restrictive. Taking Wraiths only has a 110 point buffer on it for the rest of the Formation. But, when it comes to building a list specifically with the combination of units and models that you want, 110 points suddenly becomes a stopper that's hard to work around. If you just want 6 Wraiths with Whip Coils and can't afford to bring the rest, you're kinda out of luck if you want to run a Decurion.

So, what does the CAD bring? First and foremost, Objective Secured. It's good. It can win games. And if you're spamming Warriors and Immortals, it's something that your opponent very much has to worry about if he doesn't have as much to match it. To me, ObSec is what makes our Troop choices. I don't really think that Immortals or Warriors on their own are special enough to perk my interest, other than the overall cheap cost and large squad sizes. The fact that you have to bring 3 Troops in the Decurion without the bonus that makes the Troops worthwhile in the first place is troubling to me.

Secondly, the CAD lets you mix and match your favored units without worrying about prereqs. An army of Wraiths and Heavy Destroyers that don't include regular Destroyers or Scarabs? You can do that, just as you did before. Oh sure, you lose out on the fantastic bonuses of the Formation, but the thing is you have the choice.

The place you'll see this be a big deal is when you deal with HQs. Specifically, if you want to take a Lord or Cryptek (or Special Character versions of either) as your HQ. In a Decurion, you need to bring an Overlord plus a full Royal Court (including another Overlord) if you want Orikan, Obyron, or Szeras in your army at all. That can be very problematic.

Also take into account that with the way Detachments and Formations work now, a CAD doesn't mean that you're missing out on the Formations anyway. If you want to take a CAD and a Destroyer Cult, you can! The Destroyers miss out on the 4+ Reanimate from the Decurion, but otherwise they're just as good and don't have as big of an overhead cost to take.

I am of the opinion that, unless you specifically go into list building wanting an Overlord, 2 Warrior units, an Immortal unit, and a squad of Tomb Blades, the Decurion is a poor option compared to the CAD. However, if you want those specific units in your army, and want specifically to take the Formations, then the Decurion might be worthwhile.

I think that if the option was just between Ever Living and Objective Secured, the choice might be more difficult to make. That's a fairly even trade in my opinion. But with the restriction of the Reclamation Legion tacked on, taking the Decurion is a very specific choice that you have to think about and weigh your army by.