Primarch Deathmatch - Obituary - Corvus Corax

Ok so who thought a german neo-medieval music band could defeat the Lion eh? What...sorry wrong Corvus Corax (but seriously, look them up if you like medieval music played on historical instruments!)

Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to celebrate the passing of one of the Emperor's greatest sons..... I am still reeling from this one, Corax is one of my favourites and seeing him laid low is choking me up. I think the Lion pulled the same trick he used on Russ ... pretend the fight is over, everybody is friends again, then punk your brother out cold...typical El'Jonson move.

No-one really knows if he was named after the neo-medieval band of the 21st century or the latin for raven but thats just part of the enigma that was this great warrior. A demigod know by many names: the Deliverer, the Liberator, the Raven Lord, Chooser of the Slain, the Shadowed Lord.

So Corax was discovered after bringing together an enslaved population and overthrowing their oppressors. He joined the Emperor at the head of his Legion and its safe to say he had a teensy thing about individuals who had been slavers, so much so that the Terran borne within his Legion who were from such a background (nice match-making Big E) were considered outcasts by Corax and even thrown into suicide missions (see Battle of Gate Forty Two) - "Dad's complicated" they would say.

During the Heresy he saves a good sized chunk of the Legion from Istvaan V by recognising the trap for what it was and throwing he legionaries into a hit and run style conflict early-on. Unlike a cer

tain brother of his who went and got himself killed. Corax escapes Istvaan and returns to Deliverance to try and rebuild his legion with some of the Emperors bio-engineering magic squiggly stuff you make Astartes from which would have been a great idea but for the pesky Alpha Legion who made most of them into mutated beasts (we are still waiting to hear what happens to them next).

Corax's part in the Heresy was limited to highly effective hit and run style attacks and his legion

honed its guerrilla tactics during this phase. After the Heresy Corax gives the Emperor's Mercy to the monsters he 'created' and so wracked with guilt begged for the same for himself from the recently ascended Emperor. A year after he is seen leaving for the Eye of Terror, we don't know why...perhaps he was staying with family...we'll find out in about another 100 or so novels I guess.

What are his rules like?

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Corvus Corax:	450	7	6	6	6	6	7	6	10	2+/5

Well Corax gives some useful army-wide boosts that are not to be sniffed at. Firstly, all units get to run the full distance and gain acute senses. Not bad, and this will help a footslogger army.

The Raven Lord is trixy too and he can do that fluffy 'melting into the shadows' thing which means that units can only snap shot at him if he is not the closest foe (daemons and psykers excluded). Another very cool thing is that he can jump in and out of combat by dropping into reserve.

Corax has three fighting styles he can whip out for various opponents:

Death Strike - need to take out a tank? this is the one for you w 8 str 10 hits on rear armour!
Scourge - 9-12 str 6 hits that are AP2/AP3 in combat - not bad eh?!
Shadow-walk - this essentially makes it only possible to hit him on 6's - nice

His armour is 2+/5+ (this is a bit of a weakness), although it does disrupt any deep strikes within 12".

I think his rules are very fluffy and make him an awesome character. His one weakness is that low invul save but eh you can't have it all.

There you go, he's a great character in terms of fluff and rules...we shall miss him and his great Dad jokes...sniff...sniff....