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====Forge World==== *'''Whirlwind Hyperios:''' While it's still best used against aircraft because of its +1 to hit against flyers (and -1 against everything else), Heavy 2d3 S8 AP-2 D1d3 isn't something to take lightly. *'''[[Rapier Armoured Carrier]]:''' A dirt-cheap source of heavy bolter fire, which can also be used as a cheap counter to "light" superheavies like Knights if taken with Laser Destroyers or act as artillery if you use the Quad Launchers (added in the FAQ). Now coming stock with a 12-shot quad bolter at 3/4 of what you pay for a devastator squad armed with same, on a fairly sturdy chassis. Fills out the heavy support requirements of a Spearhead detachment really nice, but keep the gunners safe or it gets auto-removed just like the Thunderfire Cannon. **Quad Heavy Bolters are terrible, costing more than 2 twin heavy bolters for the same guns...or... you can ask yourself what kind of platforms let you take twin heavy bolters and ask yourself if the cost is worth it. **The average damage from a laser destroyer is less than its weight in lascannons - 183.33% of the damage for 240% of the price; the difference in strength will never matter against practical targets, while the improvement to AP will come up and won't make up the difference. If you're using the Salamanders chapter tactics and like to focus on single enemy units before moving to another enemy unit the laser destroyer can do a good job while letting your characters help other units. **As a result, hands down your best bet is always going to be the Quad Launcher. ***In thunderfire mode this will, for 45 points, outdo two lascannons for 50 points, as losing a point each in strength and AP is more than made up for in doubling its attacks, and the difference in damage is not only slight, it also deals predictable damage, making it invaluable in many contexts, such as shooting Quantum Shielding... witt the new space marines combat doctrine you regain 1AP during the devastator Turn, yeah take this. **In shatter mode, this will shoot randomly from 1.3 to 4 of heavy bolter shots, for an average total of 8 shots, losing a point of AP in exchange for indirect targeting and improved range. This is inferior to the Quad Heavy Bolter option, so you should regard it as a bonus to the high strengh mode, rather than a good gun in its own right, and take this gun for the purpose of killing off enemy heavies, not massacring enemy lights. **They have half of the survivability perk of the Thunderfire, as the Rapier is a vehicle and SM Gunners are functionally Characters without a keyword (can't be targeted unless the closest model). If you take a full battery of Rapiers, strongly consider also taking a Techmarine to repair them or putting a Thunderfire Cannon in the gunline. *'''[[Mortis Dreadnought]]:''' Your go-to dakka dread. It costs 5 points more than a standard dreadnought, with the exact same profile, but it brings the option to double up on weapons the regular dread can't. You can take a pair of twin bolters, autocannons, or lascannons, or a pair of regular missile launchers, assault cannons, multi-meltas, or heavy plasma cannons. All good choices for laying down firepower, with the best guns depending on what you plan to shoot and how many points you can spare. **As of CA2019, their base cost matches that of the regular old Dreadnought chassis at 60pts. Their autocannons are also 3 points cheaper, so enjoy your 8 S7/AP-1/D2 shots at 120 points. *'''Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought:''' Better than the standard Mortis in every way, from the BS 2+ to the 5++. Apart from that, it can do everything the regular Mortis can, only better. **Since the v1.1 FAQ/Update, Contemptor Mortis' can once again take Cyclone Missile Launchers. The downside is, like their Terminator counterparts, they're still 50 fucking points for either Heavy 2D3 S4 AP0 D1 OR Heavy 2 S8 AP-2 D6D. With this in mind, however, it could be decent now that EVERYTHING has Split-Fire, and you're no longer hitting Flyers on 6s, but only 3+(!!) with at least 6W or more. Churn out some dakka with your two Kheres Assault Cannons (which, keep in mind, can ALSO fire at two different targets, as they are considered 'two identical weapons', and then slam a couple of Krak missiles at a Flyer that screams overhead. Or a tank, I guess, if that's your thing. *'''Siege Dreadnought:''' This Dread specializes in short-range firepower, coming stock with an Inferno Cannon that acts like a souped-up heavy flamer (but costs more than a twin heavy flamer, for reasons) and a seismic hammer with built-in meltagun that suffers from a -1 to hit but will wreck anything that gets hit. With the ability to re-roll all to wound rolls of 1 in the Fight phase when targeting a BUILDING or a unit with a movement stat of 0", its niche as a building killer should be obvious. *'''Relic Leviathan Dreadnought:''' '''I AM THE DESTROYER OF ALL THAT EXISTS, THE ANATHEMA OF LIFE, HATRED, AND WRATH GIVEN PHYSICAL FORM, I AM THE FUCKING LEVIATHAN DREADNOUGHT. POINT ME AT ANYTHING, AND IT WILL DIE, FROM THE LOWEST OF GUARDSMEN TO THE BIGGEST OF TITANS.''' ''Ahem'', enough of that nonsense! But Mr. Leviathan does have a few good points. The Leviathan Dreadnought is easily one of the deadliest single models in the entire game, barring actual ''Titans'', packing a series of quite frighteningly powerful weapons that can make short work of virtually anything. It packs a Strength and Toughness of 8, with a 2+/4++ saves line, and a whopping 14 wounds. In addition, it actually received a fairly decent points decrease in 8th edition, having dropped in cost by 50 whole points even after all wargear is accounted for. A few things were lost though, as the Leviathan no longer has his frag-launchers (but it did get its hunter-killer missiles back in the FAQ) but in exchange, his whole loadout has gotten huge buffs. **It has two Heavy Flamers which can't be swapped out for anything, and two Leviathan Siege Claws (Sx2 AP-3 D3 Re-roll failed wounds against Infantry) with in-built meltaguns stock. ***The Claws can be swapped out (without losing the meltaguns) for Drills, which up the AP and D to -4 and 4, but you stop re-rolling failed wounds against Infantry. ***The Claws can also be swapped out along with their meltaguns (at the cost of -1A for each one you swap out) for: ****'''Cyclonic Melta Lance:''' Capable of destroying a Land Raider in a single volley, while being able to shave off 15 wounds from a Knight (leaving it sufficiently weakened that it will no doubt then die to be slammed with 15 additional wounds in melee). *****Note that this actually has worse AP than the Bombard (although it will usually only matter against Land Raiders and the like, as against any Invuln save at all or a 3+ save or worse they'll tend to equal out), with better rate of fire against 4 or fewer model units and worse damage against Monster/Vehicle/Titanic models but better damage otherwise. A Leviathan with 2x Bombards costs 339, while with 2x Lances it costs 359 (including Heavy Flamers), which means that against a Land Raider, the Lances are only better inside melta range. The Lance will do better against vehicles where the difference in AP doesn't matter, regardless of range (such as any 3+ vehicle, or a 2+ vehicle with an invuln), provided the target unit has 4 or fewer models. It will also do better against infantry units of 4 or fewer models, but as soon as the target unit has 5 or more models in it, the Bombard will simply take over. ******A Salamanders Leviathan paired with Vulkan is sufficiently better that, ignoring Vulkan's cost, the Lance will be better against a Land Raider outside of melta range, but don't forget that the Bombard Salamanders Leviathan still gets Salamander Chapter Tactics, so if you only examine Vulkan+Leviathan in isolation, the Bombard will easily win. Against infantry spam, he usually will not improve the Lance enough to do much, but remember, the Lance is already better against very small units. ****'''Storm Cannon Array:''' Has a whopping 10 shots, which do 2 damage each. While not quite as horrifyingly deadly against vehicles as the Cyclone Melta, it exchanges sheer output for more reliability. This can be useful since 2-wound weapons occupy a fair niche in the current meta, for their ability to 1-shot the numerous amount of multi-wound models, without suffering from overkill. This makes it the perfect weapon for dealing with models like Terminators. ***** This is basically a seriously up-gunned heavy plasma cannon, with ''quintuple'' the usual shot volume and one worse AP in exchange for one better D, and an inability to Overcharge. Costs 5/6 the amount two of the cannons would cost you, though. It is far and away from the most efficient gun you can take against most targets of 4 models or less - it will actually out damage both the Bombard and the Lance against anything T6 or less and T7 Sv 4+ or worse, and that's assuming the target has enough wounds left that no damage gets wasted. ******It's much simpler to look at this weapon as 5 autocannons with an extra point of AP and half the range. *****For serious, take this gun seriously. It is far and away from the most generally useful of the lot; a pair of them will murder most anything foolish enough to get in your way. *****A leviathan with two of these will be horrifyingly efficient at shooting down enemy flyers, stick 1 or 2 +1 to hit modifiers on this guy and you can quite reliably shoot down 2 Alaitoc flyers a turn. ****'''Grav-Flux Bombard:''' Now your dedicated horde killer. It deals 1d3 shots and gains an additional 1d3 shots for every 5 models present in the target unit, which means the Leviathan can get a whopping 11d3 shots when targeting a mob of Conscripts, or [[Rape|22d3]] if equipped with two of these. This essentially means that the grav bombard is your designated weapon loadout if you expect to go up against Infantry Blobs, as it can fry an entire 50 man squad each and every turn. It also does more damage (5, rather than 2) against Vehicles, Buildings, and Titanics, making it more useful than the Lance in many cases. *****A pair of these is the way to go for horde scrubbing - 2d3 shots every 5 models in the target means you average 4 shots for every 5 targets. The gun is only 18" and you'll take a BS penalty (typically down to 3+ unless you use the Big Guns Never Tire stratagem, which you should) for moving and shooting with it, taking you to 3 1/3 and 2 2/3 hits for every 5 targets, respectively. At S9 AP-5 D2, ''usually'' one wound per target is all it will take; assuming you're up against T4 or less without an invuln save, you're looking at 2 7/9 or 2 2/9 (after moving) dead ''for every 5 models in the target'', or around 50% casualties. Hopefully, Morale will do the rest of the work for you, or you can just bring two of these things. ******New Chapter Tactics addendum: With the new [[Imperial Fists]] Chapter tactics, Grav-flux bombards are boosted to 6 damage against vehicles. This lets 2 grav flux bombards take out light vehicles reliably at only 2 shots needed to take down a predator and landraiders, repulsors and their equivalents with 3 shots. Also makes the [[Necron]] vehicle immune to this loadout. *'''Deimos Vindicator Laser Destroyer:''' This thing brings to the battlefield the unique Laser Volley Cannon, which is a 2 shots Lascannon with a few twists: they only have a range of 36" instead of 48, they do a fixed 3 damage (so a little less than the average you do with 1D6) and can be overcharged to go to S10 AP-5 with a fixed 6 damage. The trade-off is that if they shoot that way, they take 3 mortal wounds on each roll of 1. If it does not move, however, it can shoot twice, but not in overcharged mode. Also, note that it gets +1T and +1 wound compared to a predator but moves 2" less. All in one, this tank is kind of odd. It costs roughly the same as a classic predator with a full lascannon setup and can pump 4 shoots if it stands still, for an average amount of wounds slightly lower. Its overcharged mode might give you an edge on T5/T9-10 opponents or target with extremely high armour saves, so what you lose in range you get it back in versatility, at price: 2 shots against 4 and the risk of wounding yourself. Between increased durability, shorter range and movement, and varying fire modes, it is hard to draw a clear line between the Predator Annihilator and the Vindicator Laser destroyer in terms of battlefield role, but the latter being clearly less efficient while on the move, you might want to invest your money in other Forge World models. *'''Relic [[Land Raider Proteus]]:''' The Proteus has two twin Lascannons like the vanilla LR, but it can choose to take a multi-melta or twin heavy flamer instead of a twin heavy bolter. (There's also an option for a single heavy bolter, but why would you even use that?) But its main draw is the Explorator Augury Web; taking it reduces the Proteus' transport Capacity to 6, but it prevents anyone from deep striking within 12" of the Proteus. Conveniently enough, that happens to be melta range for the multi-melta so suicide melta squads won't be able to get near it. For a more aggressively inclined Proteus, you can take the Heavy Armour instead to give it a 5+ invulnerable save, though it too reduces the Proteus' transport capacity. *'''[[Land Raider Helios]]:''' Also has twin lascannons, but it brings along a Helios Launcher- a Heavy weapon that fires 2d6 autocannon-equivalent shots (albeit only 1 damage) that can fire without LoS. A decent combo of the Whirlwind's different missile types, and it can transport 6 models too. *'''Land Raider Prometheus:''' A fun toy for your Warlord - if he's embarked within it, one of the Stratagems played on your turn costs 1 less CP to use. It doesn't reduce the cost below 1, but it helps. As an added bonus, its attacks all ignore cover saves, which make its 24 heavy bolter shots absolutely terrifying to light infantry. Carries 10 models. *'''Land Raider Achilles:''' The rage-inducing and expensive Achilles is back in a big way in 8th ed. T8 with 19 wounds, a 2+ save, and a 4++ Invuln save for good measure makes this raider insanely tough. The Achilles is armed with a hull-mounted Quad Launcher and 2 sponson-mounted TWIN Multi-Meltas (Heavy 2). The Quad Launcher can fire Shatter shells at Heavy 4 S8 AP-2 3 Damage, or Thunderfire shells at Heavy 4D3 S5 AP0 1 Damage (and can target units not visible to the Achilles). It can also grab a hunter-killer missile and a Storm Bolter for a little extra dakka. This weirdness is compounded by a transport capacity of 6, including terminators and jump pack models. Seriously, go look up a picture of this thing. At 355 points there is no reason not to take three of these!!!!
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