Carab Culln
Lord High Commander Crab Curry Carab Culln is the former Chapter Master of the Red Scorpions Chapter. Across the series of Imperial Armour books, he worked his way through every possible rank from Scout upwards. He served as a Vanguard sergeant during the Siege of Vraks and then as a Terminator squad sergeant before being promoted to command the Red Scorpions' 1st Company by the time of the Beta-Anphelion campaign. When his total scrub of a commander died while naively meeting with Lufgt Huron, Culln became the Chapter Master and led the Scorpions in kicking Huron's ass in the Badab War at the head of the loyalist forces, taking advantage of the diverse chapters under his command. One quote which sums him up perfectly is as follows:
"Camouflage is the colour of fear... I have no need to hide from my foes... I have no fear of death. My colours I wear openly, they proclaim louder than any words, "I am proud to live - I am proud to die."
In short, he is a total badass of a Space Marine and an unsung Hero of the Imperium.
Oh and apparently he's a Leviathan Dreadnought now, because of reasons, probably related to his quote above. He got mortally wounded fighting the Great Beast of Sarum back when the Great Rift first opened up. His barely living remains were returned to the Chapter and he got interred into a Relic Leviathan Dreadnought they happened to have lying around. We would've heard more about it than this mere description, but between Alan Bligh's passing, FW's massive reshuffling and the rules revamps from 8E onwards, we never got an Imperial Armour book to cover this - to our perpetual frustration.
On the Tabletop[edit]
Being the Chapter Master of the Red Scorpions, the super-special OC chapter of Forge World, Carab has four different models to represent his progression to Chapter Master: Veteran Sergeant Carab Culln (IA 5-7, when he helped hold the line at Vraks), Commander Carab Culln (IA 4, where he was captain of the First Company during Inquisitor Lok's failed stand at Beta Anphelion II), Lord High Commander Carab Culln (IA 9-10, as Chapter Master during his battle with Huron), and Culln as a Leviathan Dreadnought with a twin assault cannon. The only other characters that even gets an alternate persona are Erasmus Tycho (Embodying his time before and after joining the Death Company) and good ole Ortan Cassius, who has a younger version from his time with the Deathwatch and his older, post-bugs version to choose from. (There's also IA 12's Bran Redmaw, who turns into a savage monster, but that's an in-game transformation).
Carab Culln comes at a total of 215 points and obviously takes Chapter Tactics: Red Scorpions, as well as Eternal Warrior, Orbital Bombardment, Master of Battle and Warlord. His warlord trait, Proud to Live, Proud to Die, Hard to Kill, means that basically all Red Scorpion units within 12" get a bonus to their combat score when working out who won, an even higher bonus if Culln was in a challenge. However, this rule also means that he cannot be protected by the 'Look Out, Sir' special rule. Master of Battle allows all your Red Scorpions units to use his leadership of 10 for all morale and pinning tests. He has a special melee weapon called the Blade of the Scorpion, as well as a master-crafted storm bolter, terminator armour, and iron halo and a teleport homer. His blade can either act like a regular master-crafted power sword at AP 3 or halve his attacks for a smash attack, which doubles his strength, makes him AP 2 and allows him to re-roll armour penetration tests.
Then there’s his Dreadnought form. A S8 T8 15 wound monster of a Dreadnought. It’s a Leviathan with some weapons that mow through infantry and make vehicles worried. A twin assault cannon, two heavy flamers, THREE hunter killer missiles, and a heavy bolter for range. Then his melee weapon is a relic called the Tarsus Scorpii which is a Sx2, ap-4, damage 4, which puts it somewhere in between the two regular Leviathan weapons, until you consider its special ability ‘Death Hold’ which, on a 6 to hit, you can choose to point blank fire his heavy bolter to do D6 mortal wounds. This disables the heavy bolter for the rest of the game presumably to the explosions tearing the barrel to pieces but lord can it be effective. Couple all this with a 6+ Feel No Pain for him and any Red Scorpions models within 6” and he becomes an excellent way to secure a gun line or drop in with any other assault blobs. Combine this with any chapter tactics you desire and you have a VERY tidy package for 360 points. Put this guy on your squad for Zone Mortalis and watch opponents quit to go play Hordes instead.
As of 10th Edition, all other versions of Culln got ingloriously squatted while his current state as a Leviathan dread is stuck in Legends, the only Epic Hero not confined to any major chapter keyword, meaning you can take him in a detachment of any chapter.
Gallery[edit]
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Culln during the Siege of Vraks.
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His fucking gorgeously painted new model.