Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

===Lords of War===
*Forge World, with its unbridled fetish for treads, guns, and engines, has provided the Guard with the largest selection of Lords of War in the game, bar none. You can't take Titans in here anymore, but you could be forgiven for not noticing. The overwhelming majority of these are tracked vehicles of one variant or another, and most of them have the Steel Behemoth rule, allowing the vehicle in question to shoot and charge normally if it's fallen back that turn, fire heavy weapons with no penalties to hit, fire twin heavy flamers or twin heavy bolters into melee combat as if they were pistols, and fire the larger guns normally even if there are enemies within 1" (but not at those same enemies). Who said the conventional army fighting spooky paranormal activity was being screwed? Here's the hint: That daemon is not going to be riding a tank.
**Since you're probably taking a Detachment just for one of these, remember that it's encouraged to mix {{W40Kkeyword|regiment}}s - it's not like even your Transports will care what they're carrying, and outside of Catachan for Harker, you don't have access to any buffs for them, anyway.  Might as well take the best {{W40Kkeyword|regiment}} you can for the vehicle, without obsessing over it matching your {{W40Kkeyword|infantry}}.  For example, are you taking a Stormlord?  You're a ''lot'' better off with a {{W40Kkeyword|Valhallan}} one than a {{W40Kkeyword|Cadian}} one, even if you want to fill it with Cadian Infantry!
***You won't be able to use Regimental Doctrines for these in a Superheavy Auxiliary Detachment, which means that in order to pull off this level of cheese, you would need to take a Superheavy Detachment or Supreme Command Detachment of the same {{W40Kkeyword|<REGIMENT>}} (no plopping in Guilliman in order to achieve this). In other words, if you want a Lord of War that benefits from a Doctrine you'll need to either take several Lords of War, all with the same {{W40Kkeyword|<REGIMENT>}} keyword, a bunch of extra HQs (you could take Yarrick or some Lord Commissars, though), or make it a Tank Ace with Steadfast Leviathan as its ability. Still, the Imperial Guard is perhaps one of the few armies that can pull this off without too much of a HQ tax since ours tend to be cheap. As of the new Codex, Primaris Psykers as HQ, and Techpriests and regular priests as Elites count towards this HQ quota (and you'll want a techpriest anyway if you are bringing a member of the Baneblade family) without disrupting your regimental doctrine.

'''Baneblade Family:''' The galaxy's premier super-heavy tank has been lucky this edition, with almost-universal reductions in points, retention of fire points, ''amazing'' toughness, and the addition of the Steel Behemoth rule. The Steel Behemoth rule is especially powerful on Baneblades; Versus targets ''in'' melee it may fire its twin heavy flamers and twin heavy bolters like pistols, targeting foes within 1" - this makes a fully-armed Baneblade variant one of the ''meanest models in the game'' in close quarters, dealing out an average of '''31''' hits, at S5 AP-1 - and that's before it uses its adamantium tracks, which swing at s9 ap-2 for d3 damage up to 9 times hitting on 2+ with the Crush Them! strategem. And those flamers hit on overwatch, too. All variants have a twin heavy bolter on the hull, and may take up to 4 sponsons, each with a lascannon and a twin heavy flamer/twin heavy bolter.
*A Baneblade appears to be very survivable but when you factor in the high cost of over 400 points they are actually quite vulnerable for their cost. For the same price you could get 4 Basilisks or almost 3 Leman Russ's which are both more survivable and able to put out more damage(with the Exception of the Shadowsword). This means that you should only consider taking a Baneblade based on their other qualities like their relatively high mobility and strong melee capabilities thanks to the Steel Behemoth rule. The firing deck is also unique to the Baneblade family and can be a great way to transport lots of models at once or to hide your fragile units like Heavy Weapon Teams or Command Squads.
*It might be tempting to use the sponsons but by doing so you would concentrate too many points and firepower on an already way too fragile model. It is much better to spread your heavy weapons over all units in your army so you don't lose everything when your Baneblade is taken out.
*The choice between twin heavy bolters and twin heavy flamers on your sponsons is a tricky one. The bolters deliver a lower average hit count (3 instead of 7) but are ''much'' cheaper and have more than four times the range of the flamers. If you're thinking of getting in close and can spare the points, a giant tank that's more painful to fight in melee than a ''bloodthirster'' versus most targets can be a lot of fun (and it's even more dangerous in conjunction with the Crush Them! Stratagem to give it WS 2+ and a boosted charge range), but if you plan on hanging back (and have a Trojan around), save yourself the points.
*Codex changes, several members of the Baneblade family have seen a reduction in points cost of up to 40 to their hulls, their main weapons have all been buffed to do an extra D6 shots (e.g. if it fired D6 it now fired 2d6, if it fired 2d6 it now fires 3d6) with the exception that the Stormlord is still a flat 20 and Shadowsword went from 1d6 to 3d3. This has resulted in some changes to power cost though; Baneblade -2, Banehammer 0, Banesword +1, Stormlord -1, Stormsword +1, Shadowsword -1, Doomhammer +1.  See the Catachan Doctrine discussion above for seeing how that improves relevant rates of fire.
**'''Baneblade:''' First of the turreted variants (though with the removal of facing that's not as relevant anymore), the original Baneblade packs the mighty Baneblade Cannon which has the stats as a lascannon but it does 3D6 shots for an average of 10.5. The high shot count compared to many other variants gives the Baneblade a little more flexibility by being able to effectively shoot at infantry after you destroyed all vehicles. In case you needed any more firepower it also has a dual-linked heavy bolter, an autocannon, and a hull Demolisher Cannon. Oldies but goldies.
**'''Hellhammer:''' Preferred by Catachans, the Hellhammer's main cannon ignores cover bonuses and hits harder than the Baneblade's at the expense of range. As the other turreted variant it includes a hull Demolisher Cannon. The smaller turret also incorporates a crew defence lasgun. Most recommended for the quad flamer 'brawler tank' build; the demolisher and main cannons working in tandem are a threat to anything and everything. Don't keep it sitting in the back of the board - it's the shortest ranged tank in the Baneblade family, and on certain deployments this will give you trouble.
***Entertainingly, as mentioned above, this comes with an autocannon, demolisher cannon, and plinky little lasgun (in case you run into ''real'' trouble), but the Hellhammer Cannon is 36" Heavy 3d6 S10 AP-4 D3, Ignores Cover Saves. The extra strength over a Baneblade Cannon isn't all that relevant; you can wound T5 models on 2s and T9 models on 3s; they ''do'' exist, but it's basically Titans and the like. The extra AP, however is much handier; anything with a 3+ and better will be affected. ''And'' it ignores cover. The downside is that it costs 20 more points than a Baneblade so the choice is yours. In a post-Space Marine 2.0 Codex meta, ignore cover is a much bigger ability with all the stealthy successors running around. Between that and the extra point of AP, it means power armor will never get a save. Plus, S10 matters against the new Gravis armored primaris and 3 damage makes it the perfect profile to kill them, while also being decent (although not quite as good) vs centurions. 
***'''Traitor's Bane:''' Much like the Fortress of Arrogance above, this is no longer supported by the ruleset. However, if you're adamant on including this fucker, there's nothing stopping you from playing it as a normal Hellhammer and including an allied Inquisition detachment with a Jakaero.
**'''Banesword:''' With its Quake Cannon swatting enemies from more than 11 feet away, the Banesword is a premier fire support vehicle.  On the other hand, it's 50 points cheaper...
***Not necessarily...the Quake Cannon is 140" Heavy 2d6 S14 AP-4 D1d6, but it treats damage rolls of 1 or 2 as a 3, so its full average statline is 140" Heavy 7 S14 AP-4 D4. It is still capable of destroying one transport every turn and can be an alternative if you are very short on points. On the other hand: why are you taking a superheavy if you don't have the points to pay for one?
**'''Stormsword:''' Just as cheap as the Banesword the Stormsword carries the Stormsword Siege Cannon which is 36" Heavy 2d6 S10 AP-4 D1d6r1, Ignores Cover, or on average, 36" Heavy 7 S10 AP-4 D3.92. Compared to the Banesword the Stormswords gun is worse in almost any situation. You should avoid this and take one of the better alternatives.
***'''Arkurian Pattern Stormsword (Forge World):''' Exactly the same as the regular Stormsword. The mind boggles as to why it got its own entry in the FW index. 
**** The OOP FW model has a single heavy bolter instead of a twin and heavy flamers instead of lascannon, but apparently whoever was writing the Imperial Armour Index forgot the "edit" part of "copy, paste and edit the Index Imperium entry."
**'''Doomhammer:''' The Magma Cannon on this baby is 60" Heavy 2d6 S10 AP-5 D1d6, Ignores Cover Saves, Melta Damage which averages to Heavy 7 S10 AP-5 D4.47 at 30". The Ignores Cover is unlikely to come up on an AP-5 weapon, but prepare to cackle madly the few times you get to shoot a Land Raider in cover with this thing. Additionally you get transport capacity of 25 models and a firing deck for 10 of them to shoot out. Six Ogryns and a Priest is a nice package to dump upon an unsuspecting enemy, and you still have room for one more model. The Magma Cannon is just as good if not better than the Quake Cannon of the Banesword or the Siege Cannon of the Stormsword which means that you should always take the Doomhammer if you have anything for it to transport.
**'''Banehammer:''' When it comes to stopping the enemy advance, the Banehammer delivers. Its Tremor Cannon can turn entire sections of the field into flying clouds of dirt and debris, halving the Move of enemy units and preventing them from advancing. Hold the line! Received a troop bay and transport capacity in this edition; 25 models can hitch a ride, of whom 10 can shoot out of the firing deck.
***The Tremor Cannon is 60" Heavy 3d6 S8 AP-2 D3, but the primary weapon on this thing is the Firing Deck, provided you fill it with melta and/or plasma (or just load it up with cheap mortar squads).
***The Banehammer is one of the three cheapest variant, effective against a wide variety of targets and slowing down enemy units which helps your whole army. In general its a pretty safe bet to take one of these.
**'''Shadowsword:''' Arguably the most famous aside from the Baneblade itself and with a +1 to hit against any unit with the TITANIC keyword, the 'Titan-Killer' mounts the incredibly powerful Volcano cannon, still capable of one-shotting Land Raiders even in an edition rife with tough vehicles and monsters. The Volcano Cannon is 120" Heavy 3d3 S16 AP-5 D2d6, re-rolling wounds against {{W40Kkeyword|Titanic}}, which gives it an average damage of 17,5 - the highest damage*rate of fire gun this line can field or probably any other unit for that matter, oh and if you take a Trojan support vehicle you can [[Rape|reroll all hits]]. You will do enough damage to overkill almost every target you shoot so its potential can be a little wasted if you don't have the right targets. 
***On average, one shot from this gun will kill a fellow Baneblade variant with 1.22 wounds to spare, or a Land Raider with 1.5 wounds to spare.  However, it won't kill a Knight in one shot, on average dealing 18.15 wounds - enough to cripple all the way, usually, but you'll want the lascannon sponsons to finish the job.
***Alternatively, give shadowsword-senpai some minions! A Salamander Command Vehicle and a Trojan Support Vehicle can beef up the Volcano Cannon's firepower considerably, taking its average hit count from 3 to 5.33 - which makes for ''23.5'' wounds after damage rolls and the knight's invulnerable save. This means you can finish the job with the hull bolters, and sponsons with lascannons will make the kill a virtual certainty. Take the detachment as Catachan for EXTRA pain; with rerolls to one of the shot dice the Shadowsword the average shot count is 6.67, which gives you 26.14 wounds... enough to kill a Knight in one blast, no sponsons or bolters required. You will need to take it in a Supreme Command Detachment or Super-Heavy Detachment for your Shadowsword to benefit from a Regimental Doctrine, which means 3 HQs,  but you were going to take those Primaris Psykers and Lord Commissars already, right?
***If you prefer efficiency, take as Cadian. Rerolling 1's is powerful on a gun that can 1-shot tesseract vaults. But that is just the beginning of the hilarity. With Pask's almost-guaranteed ability to make at least one unsaved wound on any unit you can spend 2 CP and watch as your shadowsword gains 98% accuracy against titans (BS 4+, +2 to hit, reroll 1's). With 6 shots average (3d3 is weird, but the distribution of dice outperforms 2d6 almost always) you are unlikely to miss. Combine that with S16 and AP -5 the only thing that might possibly keep the opponents lord of war on the field are invuln saves. Afterward enjoy annihilating all of the enemies armor with 98% accuracy (as long as you don't move your tank... but with 120" range on the volcano cannon you're probably just fine staying put).
***Funny little update in the FAQ; if you so desire, you can now nix the Lascannons off of your weapons sponsons and just take the Twin Heavy Bolters to represent the Forge World Shadowsword model. A bit weird, but it is a cost saving measure if you're really trying to fine tune your points.
**'''Stormlord:''' Gork and Mork (or was it Mork and Gork?) cry tears of pure joy when this arrives on the field. With a troop bay that holds ''40'' models (of which 20 may fire out) and the Vulcan Mega Bolter, this monster can put out more dice than any non-titan model. Put entire squads of Bullgryns inside it for a pseudo-Land Raider or entire ''Detachments'' of Heavy Weapon Squads (probably with Mortars, though to fill it completely you'll be fine with a mix) for unprecedented firepower and durability.
***On top of a pair of heavy stubbers, the Vulcan Mega Bolter this thing ships with is ''still'' one of the best Baneblade guns you can take, at 60" Heavy 20 S6 AP-2 D2, on top of its aforementioned best-in-show Extended Firing Deck.
**'''Arkurian Pattern Stormblade (Forge World):''' One of the few variants without a twin heavy bolter stock, this one comes with a plain heavy bolter instead, as well as a plasma blastgun.  The Plasma Blastgun's 2d6 MEQ-vaporizing blasts will wipe out any infantry near it. Supercharging it boosts its range from 72" to 96" and boosts the shots' strength and damage by 1, but as always you'll want something nearby to ensure that it doesn't risk damaging itself in the process. Or just take him in a Cadian Supreme Command Detachment.
***The Plasma Blastgun is 72" Heavy 2D6 S8 AP-3 D2 or 96" Heavy 2D6 S9 AP-3 D3, 1 mortal wound per 1 rolled to hit, which averages to 72" Heavy 7 S8 AP-3 D2 or 96" Heavy 7 S9 AP-3 D3 and take 1.17 mortal wounds, which would still be underwhelming even if it didn't inflict the mortal wounds, largely because this is a Forge World gun that didn't get up-gunned, so the Codex variants are deeply superior.
**'''Arkurian Pattern Stormhammer (Forge World):''' Easily the strangest variant, this is the only one that can't take the standard sponsons, and it hasn't got a hull-mounted heavy bolter at all, twin or not - it ships with its own, mandatory custom sponsons, so it has a Stormhammer Cannon with Co-Axial Multilaser, a Twin Battle cannon, a lascannon, and 6 sponsons, each of which can carry 1 lascannon, multilaser, heavy bolter, or heavy flamer, although only the last two can fire in melee like Pistols, per Steel Behemoth. One of the most flexible variants, the co-axial multilaser acts more like a target marker than a weapon in its own right - if its Stormhammer Cannon shoots the same target as the multilaser, it can reroll any failed to-hit rolls with the Stormhammer Cannon. The cannon itself is 60" Heavy 2d6h1 (roll twice, pick the highest), S9 AP-3 d6 D (re-rolling a result of 1 for damage), making it a slightly shorter ranged but otherwise much better Battle Cannon that works well with the other two Battle Cannons it has. It comes with [[C.S. Goto|six more multilasers]], which can and probably should be switched out for heavy flamers, heavy bolters, or lascannons as needed. Pr the 16.04.2018 FAQ update, now finally recieved the propper "Steel Behemoth" rule, so no more -1 modifier for moving and firing heavy weapons. Very nice indeed!
***The Stormhammer Cannon is 60" Heavy 2h1d6 S9 AP-3 D1d6r1, or, on average, 60" Heavy 4.47 S9 AP-3 D3.92, which isn't enough, even with the multi-laser, to scratch the paint on anything you can be bothered shooting with one of these, since the gun did not receive the Codex upgrades the other variants did to rate of fire. Good thing there are tons of other guns on this thing, but here's hoping the upcoming FW rewrite makes this the beast it should be.
*'''Macharius Family (Forge World:''' the middle child of the super heavy tanks, the Macharius series starts to wield titan-sized guns, while the non-tank variants of the chassis bring to the field some of the largest transport capacities in the game. The Codex has indirectly nerfed these by buffing the Leman Russ. Now that a Russ can double tap its main gun, it can put out a similar amount of fire to its Macharius equivalent, but for less than half the points cost. While the Vulcan and Omega do make up for this by having improved Strength, and AP/Damage, the regular and Vanquisher are essentially just larger, tougher, and significantly more expensive Russes that can move and shoot slightly faster.
**'''Macharius Heavy Tank:''' Suffers from a lot of the problems that the Leman Russ suffers from. It has the potential to deal a lot of damage, but like the Leman Russ battle cannon, the likelihood of it actually doing anything isn't that high. If you really have your heart set on this tank, consider the Macharius Vanquisher as an alternative.
**'''Macharius Omega:''' Its plasma blastgun is pretty amazing, especially if you can keep it still. Only 1 mortal wound per to-hit roll of 1 on the supercharged firing mode, and even if you play it safe, each shot is still doing as much damage as a normal supercharged plasma gun shot, but with much better range. Consider this if facing big squads of MEQ... now, if only FW still made the model for it.
**'''Macharius Vanquisher:''' Two Vanquisher shots are better than one, and if all else fails, you can fire this as a slightly less potent version of the twin battle cannon that the Macharius Heavy Tank has, making this a more versatile choice. It's still nothing to write home about in the grand scheme of things, but at least you get two shots for the Vanquisher cannon instead of 1. Of note is that the AP rounds have one strength over the normal vanquisher cannon so you will be wounding just about everything non-titanic on at least a 3 instead of a 4.
**'''Macharius Vulcan:''' The Vulcan Mega Bolter retains the ability to spin up to maximum speed if the tank hasn't moved, doubling its rate of fire to 30. On a S6 AP-2 gun, that's some SERIOUS pain. With 15 hits on average, you'll be mowing down entire GEQ squads with an average of 12.5 wounds per shooting phase. This is a nice tank to have up your sleeve when that Ork player floods the board with Boyz. As long as it sits still, it can dish out some pain against enemy armor as well - an average of 6.67 wounds per round of shooting. The Macharius Battlecannon only averages 4.08 damage/shooting phase. If you're Cadian and don't move, the Vulcan deals an average of 7.73 damage and if you can somehow get a full reroll (from, say, a Trojan Support Vehicle) this goes up to 10 damage on average - enough to kill a Wraithlord in one go. ''Don't forget the Gun also does 2 damage so it will mulch multi wound targets and double the number of FNP saves Deathguard has to make.''

*'''CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT (Forge World):''' Still a good capacity armored transport, effectively the guard Land Raider. If you're strapped for points and don't want the massive fire magnet that is a Stormlord, this rolling bunker is half the price. You can replace the heavy bolters with lascannons, and with Overdrive and Steel Behemoth you can advance and fire them at BS4+. If you don't feel like shelling out for a Gorgon and have some Bullgryns/Ogryns you need to get into position, this is a great way to do it. It's viable if you have it, but increases significantly in usefulness if you're trying to claim objectives: drop your payload of 30 Conscripts plus Commander, Priest, and Commissar onto an objective, or deliver your full Ogryn/Bullgryn squad right where it's going to hurt the enemy the most.
**Stick with the heavy bolters or heavy flamers. Lascannons will make this thing a gigantic target without much payoff, and the whole point of it is to keep your massive units safe, so the less fire it draws, the better. The heavy bolters will help it defend itself in close combat, as it can shoot them at anything it's locked in combat with. The Crassus's saving grace is that it isn't intended to be a weapons platform; probably the only FW Lord of War the Guard has that's stayed just about as useful as it was when the Codex dropped. Just make sure you use it for its intended purpose.
**Also, if you're bringing a Baneblade variant or two and are looking to fill up a Superheavy Detachment to get those sweet, sweet Regimental Doctrines on your Shadowsword, consider using this as your second or third Lord of War choice. It's the cheapest LoW choice the Guard have, in face it was the cheapest LoW in the game prior to the introduction of Knight Armigers, the absolute most this thing will cost you is 290 points, and it will almost always cost less since that's its cost with 4 lascannons, a stubber, and an HK missile. This thing costs less points than a Land Raider and offers you a big solid mass transport in addition to its guns.
*'''Dominus Armored Siege Bombard (Forge World):''' STILL doesn't have a model. The price reduction of the basilisk and its derivatives has removed this tanks' selling point of being more cost effective; instead it's now a potential partner for the Trojan, since squadrons can't share buffs.
*'''Gorgon Heavy Transporter (Forge World):''' Want to haul an entire platoon of conscripts? Here's how. With an unmatched-anywhere transport capacity of '''50''' models, the Gorgon can move more men safely than anything else. The Gorgon Mortar is no longer one-shot, too, letting this vehicle function as a pseudo-Land Raider...until you realize you're transporting 4 point models in a Lord of War, and they can't shoot out of it. 
**Don't view the Gorgon as a mobile dakka vehicle like the Stormlord. View the Gorgon as a mass transporter to move your infantry into rapid fire range, or to dump a Bullgryn deathstar in front of your opponent.
** Re-release of this kit on Friday 13 December 2019. New mold, New tech, Same sculpt.
*'''Minotaur Artillery Tank (Forge World):''' One of the two variants of the Malcador chassis that retains the Lord of War title...though you could be forgiven for not noticing, since it's had two Earthshaker cannons mounted on it. ''Backwards.'' Simultaneously the coolest thing on treads and an ungodly abortion only Hereteks could love. Has two heavy bolters mounted on it...somewhere. As a side effect of mashing two Basilisks together it gains Steel Behemoth and a 5+ Invulnerable save against shooting attacks (which is copy-pasted from the Gorgon's entry, because the two are such similar machines...bravo, Forge World). The durability comes at a cost: for the firepower of slightly more than two Basilisks ('roll 4d6 discard two lowest' for shot count vs 2 lots of 'roll 2d6 discard lower'), it's almost as expensive as three.
**As odd as it sounds to have backwards facing guns, a few combat vehicles IRL did exactly that(notably the Archer Tank Destroyer from WW2).
*'''Praetor Armored Assault Launcher (Forge World):''' Very versatile now. You don't have to pick the ammo type at the start of the battle; instead, you can choose on the go. Foehammer missiles are great for big, multi-wound targets like vehicles and monsters; Firestorm missiles are great for GEQ hordes and ignore cover saves; finally, Pilum missiles get a +1 to hit anything with the '''Fly''' keyword. The fact that you can choose between them for each shooting attack makes this a great all-arounder... and a priority target, so keep it well-protected.
**Stupidly, the Pilum Missiles are only useful if the Praetor is reduced to BS 6+, a +1 to hit FLY doesn't outweigh twice as many shots.
*** The damage output from the Praetor leaves a lot to be desired considering its cost. While not bad per se, it is easy enough to get overwhelmingly more firepower from a group of Manticores instead at around or less the same cost.
*'''Valdor Tank Hunter (Forge World):''' The other Malcador variant that's still a Lord of War, the Valdor is to vehicles what the Infernus is to infantry. It packs a Neutron Laser Projector, a cannon that hits plenty hard, fires more than one shot and gets damage rerolls vs vehicles (who also take a -1 shooting penalty if the shot damages them). Be wary: the reactor powering this thing is closer to a bomb than an engine. When killed, the Valdor explodes on a '''2+''', inflicting D6 mortal wounds on everything within 2d6". Sadly, it's too pricey to be taken just for the spectacular not-a-deathstrike suicide attack.

====Aeronautica Imperialis====

*'''[[Marauder Bomber]] (Forge World):''' 40k's version of the B17 'Flying Fortress' and probably one of the largest flyers in the game (and one of the largest you can actually afford!). Comes with a twin lascannon on the nose and two ball turrets holding twin heavy bolters; it may fire these at full BS regardless of movement thanks to its ''Sky Fortress'' rule. The real kicker, of course, is the bombs - three times a game the Marauder can bomb a unit on the field. Roll dice to stack mortal wounds on the target: 3d6 per vehicle/monster or d6 for every other model - every 4+ causes a mortal wound. For softer targets Hellstorm bombs can be used: they roll for 3s but only get 2d6 vs monsters/vehicles. Against large enough units it's basically a Deathstrike, but you can already see that it's probably unique among the Guard Lords of War in its utter inability to kill anything in one hit: by definition it will never roll enough dice to kill non-vehicle/monster units, and nothing with those keywords has less than three wounds, which you won't roll unless you are very, ''very'' lucky. Not worth the money unless you're a fan of display pieces.
*'''Marauder Destroyer (Forge World):''' While the B17 was never converted to serve as a ground attack gunship, the Marauder ''was,'' and serves the role pretty well in 8th (think a B-25 Mitchell). It keeps the Sky Fortress rule, swaps the twin lascannon for '''six''' Autocannons, swaps one of the heavy bolter ball turrets for a twin assault cannon turret, and most of its bombs for a rack of up to eight Hellstrike missiles, ''which aren't consumed upon firing.'' Rules oversight? Who knows. But the fact remains that this thing can spew out 12 S7 AP-1 D2 shots, 12 S6 AP-1 D1 shots, 6 S5 AP-1 D1 shots, and up to 8 S8 AP-2 Dd6 shots that roll 2d6-take-the-highest for damage...''every turn.'' at 549 points fully loaded, It's a flying blender, no mistake! Oh, and it also gets a bombing run! Tough as a flying fortress should be, at T7 with 20 wounds and a 3+ save, on top of being a flyer. A proud king of the skies.
**Price dropped and costs a jaw droppingly low 405 points fully loaded as of January 2020.