Baron Sathonyx

Why does he come equipped with a splinter pistol? Is there any real use for it?

i would say its so if you gave him a agoniser or something you'd get the extra attack-but the hellglaive already gives him that so im not sure,as far as shooting,the skyboards splinter pods are better

well, what if they have only two models in the unit and you dont want to take the chance of killing both with the splinter pods

Its probably just a typo, or its just something that they give out standard. I highly doubt it was put into his point cost at any point.

You can't give him any extra wargear, he's a unique character and comes as he is written. Apparently in 6th ed you will be able to use a pistol in combat for an extra attack with the strength of the pistol. I'd say that's as good a guess as any.

youre right,sorry i was thinking of the hellairch.

the pistol wont help him in 6th ed. its poisoned so has no strength

Unless of course it then follows the rules for Poisoned CC weapons, which could create some interesting choices...

But at the moment I can't see why the Baron has his pistol, other than for looking cool.

Except that it won't apply, because codex trumps rulebook.

"Note that this rule does not apply to the model's close combat attacks, not even if it is armed with a poisoned pistol" - C:DE p25, "Poisoned Shooting Weapons"

That's a good point. We will have to wait a year to find out if it gets changed, another year with a useless splinter pistol...

Thanks for the responses.. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing some fantastic tactical edge this gives him on top of his numerous other benefits.

Nope - he'll still basically fail at close combat all by himself.