Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

====Baneblade family====

Thoroughly awesome, but very pricey, at least in terms of points.  Ironically, they cost less ''money'' than the smaller super-heavies because you get them from GW instead of Forge World.

*'''[[Baneblade]]:''' The Baneblade is one of the most feared tanks the Imperium (and Chaos posers) have to offer. Sporting a Baneblade cannon (which shits out 10"wide lascannon pie plates at six feet), co-axial Autocannon, Demolisher Cannon, two Lascannons, three twin-linked heavy bolters, optional pintle mounts, AND optional Hunter-killer missile, its a rolling fortress of death. Comes standard with nine hull points, AV14 front, AV13 side, and AV12 rear armor. Can be commandeered by a Commissar to REALLY motivate your troops. With 7th edition, IG players can take one Baneblade or one of its variants.
**'''Fortress of Arrogance:''' This special Baneblade gets to cart Yarrick's ass along for a hefty 940 pts (even counting the old man's cost), which he can embark and disembark like an open-topped vehicle without any of the damage penalties.  It's armed with lascannon sponsons, a Hunter-Killer, heavy bolters on the sponsons and hull, and a storm bolter (For Yarrick to shoot out the single firing point).  In addition, this is made for Ork stomping by halving Ork charge ranges while giving all Guard units within 12" of him Ld10.
**'''Baneblade 212 "Arethusa":''' A special Baneblade from IA1, this is a BS4 Baneblade with a co-axial autocannon with the main cannon, TL Heavy Bolters with the Demolisher cannon, two sponsons with Lascannons and TL Heavy Bolters, and a pintle heavy bolter (yes, ''heavy'' bolter; herr Weissman doesn't believe in anything less than AP4).  While the ability to ignore Shaken and Stunned on a 4+ is nice (though the new 7th ed 'Invincible Behemoth' rule makes it redundant), the main gift is the ability to make one weapon TL every turn, which with BS4 makes it irresistible (this stacks with the Co-Axial rule on the autocannon, which ''Arethusa,'' having its own statline, retains).  Seriously, the only caveat is that you can't use it on stuff that's ''already'' twin-linked, so that means a twin-linked Demolisher ''and'' A TWIN-LINKED BANEBLADE CANNON. It's 75 points more than a plain one, but DAMN if it doesn't make you moist. Play it using the shorter Mars-Pattern FW model for more easily-acquired cover saves for extra fun.

*'''Hellhammer:''' Baneblade without the Baneblade cannon. The Hellhammer cannon is shorter ranged and has a smaller template, but better strength and AP, ''and'' it ignores cover. But why take this when the Stormsword right down the corner is so much better?  Well, unlike all of the other Baneblade variants, the Hellhammer has a turret.  The extra flexibility offered by being able to engage any target while keeping the thicker armor pointed towards the main threat could swing your decision.
**'''Traitor's Bane:''' the king of Hellhammers, found in Warzone: Pandorax, this is a [[Catachan]] superheavy. On top of all the usual Hellhammer kit it comes with two extra sponson guns with lascannons as a matter of course and all heavy flamers are "Synched", which are still twin-linked, but are also S6 AP3, so when this tank gets close to things short of TEQ they are all dead. As an added bonus, it is a [[Derp|Stealth Tank]]!!! Which gives it a 6+ cover save when not in cover, and when against aircraft or flying creatures it gets Shrouded instead!

*'''Banehammer:''' Holds great potential for fun in trolling Mech armies with it's Tremor cannon. With a 60" range and S8 AP3, the Tremor cannon may not seem like much - but that's when it's special rule "Earthshock" comes in. All surviving models under its 7" blast gets caught within a shockwave zone which forces them to immediately take a dangerous terrain test after the normal damage from the blast is doled out. Not the best super heavy to take, but is fun. Shoot it at hordes or any large clusters of enemy models. It can also cart around 25 models, 10 of which can fire from the troop bay.

*'''Banesword:''' Designed especially to reach out and ruin someone's day. With a range of 180" on it's main cannon (called the Quake Cannon) as well as S9 AP3, and 10" Blast, someone is going to have a really bad day. And for shits and giggles, you can kill that annoying Tau player's army 2 tables over, instead of wasting the shots of your Deathstrike Missiles. In previous versions, the Quake Cannon was a Barrage weapon, making this variant the largest artillery piece a Guard player could field without resorting to titans. Sadly it's lost that magic, but kept the minimum range, so it's not the best choice for a super-heavy; you're probably better off bringing an entire ''battery'' of Basilisks (which ends up being ''cheaper...'').

*'''Stormsword:''' Best at street fighting and siege warfare, what this bad boy lacks in range (a sort of pathetic (for Apocalypse) range of 36") is made up for in firepower. Its cannon launches a shell that packs roughly the same destructive power as a Deathstrike Missile's plasma warhead; an enormously painful S10 AP1 10" blast primary weapon shot which denies cover saves and instagibs vehicles on a 5+ (which goes to ''3+'' vs those annoying drop pods). It will also turn anything with less than T6 or Eternal Warrior inside out. So, in other words, it's a great way to say "Screw you!" to that annoying Vindicare Assassin, who is camping in the ruins. The blast template is in fact so huge that it is actually physically incapable of missing it's original target with its main cannon - which is '''awesome'''. Firing this thing once can wipe it's cost in units off of the gameboard, which is even '''more awesome'''. Pretty much everything you love about the Leman Russ Demolisher is taken up to eleven on this baby. If you can get these guys in range, they will never fail to impress with the incredible amounts of destruction they will unleash upon the enemy.

*'''Doomhammer:''' This super heavy isn't sure if it's supposed to be a scary ass tank or dedicated transport... so it does a decent job as both. With a transport capacity of 25 models, it certainly isn't too shabby, especially with it's fire points (well, fire point, really) allowing 10 models to blast away from it. Its primary cannon (named the Magma Cannon - yeah, it's the Volcano Cannon's baby brother) has a range of 60" and is S10 AP1 5" blast. So yeah... Something caught between a Stormsword, Stormlord and a Shadowsword. For a jack of all trades, this is a decent choice (the Baneblade is probably better at it, but it can't transport people).

*'''Shadowsword:''' Much alike the Baneblade, but instead of a turret and hull weapon, mounts a huge Volcano Cannon (yes, it is as powerful as it sounds). The Volcano Cannon stats are simple: 120" S:D AP2 5" blast. Yup. It is the Titan Killer and is possibly one of the most useful Baneblade-based vehicles, due to the combination of power and it's massive ''ten-foot'' range. Only Vortex Deathstrike missiles and titans can send the D farther afield than this baby. Can trade a pair of lascannons for targeters to boost its BS by one (not so useful, since you're shooting a blast weapon, and most of the time you'll be aiming at such a large target that you'll only miss on an 11-12" scatter anyway). This is a very useful unit, especially when combined with lots of tanks in a non-apocalypse game, because it becomes the king of distraction carnifexes in this configuration : 120" range D weapon, 9 HP, rather cheap by Baneblade variant standards, and needs heavy firepower to bring down; even in melee, krak grenades will only barely damage it. For just over 1000 points, you can get yourself 3 Demolisher russes and this baby : Either your opponent focuses the russes and gets blown off the table ( If you bought the targeters, it has over 50% chance to hit its initial target, almost certainly bringing it down with Strength D), or he/she tries to get the Shadowsword and gets in range of the Demolisher cannons, and that deepstriking unit not being that useful as they will strike against AV12 backed by 9 HP and most likely suffer a nasty retaliation.

*'''Stormblade (FW):''' Taking the Shadowsword chassis and sticking the Plasma Cannon from a Titan on it. They call it a Plasma Blastgun, but that sounds pathetic; what it ''does,'' however, is not. The gun allows for two firing modes: Rapid and Full (power, presumably). Rapid gives you 2 shots at 72", S8 AP2 with a 7" Blast, and Full drops it down to 1 shot with 96" range S10 AP2 Apocalyptic Blast; either way, anything without an invuln save will melt. All attacks are Primary Weapon, so enemy vehicles will feel the pain, too. Also one of the few sources of plasma these days that won't Get Hot; Mars builds shit right.

*'''Stormlord:''' It's a Doomhammer chassis with more transport capacity and a Vulcan Mega bolter instead of a Magma cannon (Yes, the Mega Bolter is as insane as it sounds: Imagine a Vulcan Minigun with Heavy Bolters for each barrel), the Mega Bolter is: 60" S6 AP3 Heavy 15, AND if the Stormlord doesn't move, it can fire at two different targets or twice at the same target! However, the most lulzy thing about this beast is that it can transport FORTY models. Don't get too worried about this, as the rules say it only counts as open topped '''ONLY''' for embark/disembark purposes, so you can not ally with some nasty melee units like assault terminators and get an awesomely massive charge out of it, sadly. However, up to twenty models can fire from the top-bay on the top, so you can also count this as a mobile firebase for your shooty infantry, though moving the tank still counts as movement for your units ''(though pivoting doesn't, when you want to point that Vulcan cannon at stuff).''