Two-for-One Tycho

Captain Erasmus Tycho - Killed in Action

Well, that's the ending, but what about the beginning?

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Thanks to older players, there is a thread here to go over what they remember.
Tycho is actually quite interesting as he seems to be a Captain that was named and he became a named character. His injury sustained and becoming part of the Death Company all became part of the story. Why can't this happen more?
Tycho's story background is here.
To summarize: Tycho was a captain, commander of the 3rd Company, suffered a wound that disfigured half of his face leading him much later to become part of the Death Company. He died on Armageddon. His weapon is also a combi-melta with special ammunition.

Although I'm combining the Tycho characters, their effectiveness is significantly different.

Captain Tycho has WS 6  BS 5  S 4  T 4  W 3  I 5  A 3 with 2+ 4++ saves. The toughness 4 hurts him quite a bit. His armour sheering Dead Man's Hand makes him intriguing in one way.

Death Company Tycho (with an extra WS and A) is improved under 6th Edition but suffers so much from still not being able to join a unit. However, he has a lot to offer a player looking for a fun game.

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Let's get the community's take on these characters.

Stelek:

Captain Tycho. Still costs too much. Dead Man’s Hand is nice, but you can get roughly the same for less that’s better.


Mr. Black:

First let's speak about Death Company Tycho: He will get hit by a Meltagun and die. End of story....

... ...Ok fine, not so cut and dry. Tycho gained a few benefits, namely from Rage and whatnot, but still suffers the same issue of being a single T: 4 character that cannot join units. Do I continue to hope one day an FAQ will say "HE CAN JOIN THE DEATH COMPANY!!"? Yes, I do. But until then he is just not worth taking.

Now Captain Tycho, on the other hand, just became a go-to choice this edition. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted the standard Blood Angels Captain to be better this edition, he just isn't, especially when I realized I could either ally in an actual Captain, or just take Tycho. Why is Tycho so much better now? Well the main point is that his weapon just straight up ignores Armor Saves- no Power Weapon classification here, just a weapon with a bitchen' name that shreds Terminator Armor. Combine that with the changes to Rapid Fire and his Special Issue Ammunition actually carries some terrifying weight- stick him with some Sternguard and you have a cover-all unit that is both capable in shooting and melee.

Of course we still have the old Rites of Battle, which is just as good now as it was before, and he still sports his 2+ save, which, as hammered into you time and time again in this article, is really important now. What else can I say? Before you really never saw Tycho being taken and now... Well, honestly the idea of allying in a Space Marine Captain if you really wanted to run a Captain is still probably better, given their options, but you at least have a decent option now if you want to keep the blood pure.

Sons of Sanguinius:

Now here's our big winner in all this. I'd say expect to see alot more of Tycho in 6th. Why? Well the combi melta with special issue ammo is great as you can use the special issue ammo to effectively pick out certain troops due to the way wound allocation now works. Big plus as it's much harder/impossible to "eat" wounds using wound allocation. 2+ save, check, Iron halo check. So he's pretty survivable and in challenges he's likely to swing as he's at initiative 5. So all good? And it only gets better. Rites of Battle is even more useful now as it means your squads can resist psychic powers at leadership 10. Now comes the game changer... The Dead Man's Hand. Not only does he have digital weapons giving a reroll to wound the hand isn't a power weapon. It just straight out ignores armour saves. Full stop. Fuck this AP3 bullshit Tycho doesn't give a fuck what you're wearing he's gonna pimp slap you into oblivion. Terminators, Artificer Armour whatever, invulnerables only. Terminators (which I think we'll be seeing more of soon) will be running scared of the awesomeness of Tycho.

3++:


Tycho got a relative boost in that his Dead Man's Hand strikes at initiative while "ignoring armour" instead of being given a fixed AP value.


BA Devastators:

Poor Death Company Tycho is barely mentioned. Hopefully the next round of FAQ's will help him out. If you want to do something different, you can try out using Captain Tycho with some Sternguard with a Chaplain for some re-roll fun and still have combat effectiveness or even bullet shield Corbulo.

How would you run Death Company Tycho? He can't jump pack, so he will need a R-H-1-N-0 or a Razorback unless you want to Deepstrike a Landraider for some extra excitement. Maybe a Drop Pod might work too. I would look to use him as either a distraction (maybe not very good) or as a mop up / counter attack choice like you would Assault Squads. I might even try him out as an assassin as he might work nicely if you can get him to your enemy's Warlord.