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Could someone help me understand the role of the thunderfire


Titan87

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The thunderfire is used for anti-infantry duty. You decide which ammunition type to used based on the save and Toughness of the target. Shooting at Marines and similar means it's usually best to fire the S6 rounds, whereas shooting at, say, Orks in cover begs for the use of the S5 cover ignoring round.

As pointed out recently, the Tremor round is very handy against bikes (& jetbikes, all those pesky Necron units etc), as if you get a hit, not only do they have to take dangerous terrain tests to move at all, but also they cannot turbo-boost!

No 3+ coversave for you, pesky bugs!

 

Don't get too attached to your TF; with only 10/10/10 it pops easily, and is quite a fire magnet. Mine has had 4 outings; only once have I got to go first, and the other 3 it was off the table before I got to use it once! The one time I got to go first, it took out a whole squad of Dark Eldar in one go, but never saw round 2.

 

A great fun unit, but don't build your hopes around it!

Also it sounds like it is good at drawing enemy fire from what Commander Sasha says. That in itself is worth the 100points to me

 

Very, yes. Generally it'll only get one, two shots off at the most before your enemy gets annoyed enough to commit enough resources to deal with it. Deploying it inside a ruin reinforced by the Techmarine helps it survive slightly longer.

The Thunder Fire Cannon is one of the best toys in the current Codex. I always make sure I have the points to take it any list I make. With its range it makes one of the best heavy support anchors around. Also the utility of the different shells it can fire allow so much flexibility to be both active and reactive in your tactics. I think most people only see it as an anti-infantry choice but I have used it on just about everything just to get a handle on what can be accomplished. One of my favorite battles so far is when I managed to wreck and destroy two Rhinos in the same round of shooting due to luck scatter rolls and even better penetration roles. Strength 6 is nothing to sneeze at can ruin Eldar, Guard, and Ork formations in a heart beat. The Tremor round has also slowly become one of my favorite tactical options to shut down an opponent's movement. I had noteworthy success in a recent game where I completely stalled an oncoming Ork rush buy firing into the mass with tremor shells. My opponent never rolled higher than a 4 the entire game preventing him from covering as fast as he needed to.

 

The range has kept my TFC out of direct fire and using the Techmarine's ability to bolster cover means you can squeeze out that much more survivability when it really needs it. The Techmarine himself shouldn't be ignored as he still has a full servo harness and can get right back into the fight if his Cannon gets destroyed. It is a bargain package in points really and if the actual model wasn't such a pain I would consider fielding two of them rather than one.

The TFC is fragile but if it is in range of the enemies weapons then I have to ask what you are doing. Mine has had several outings and averages 2-3 turns in survival because I target things that are a threat to it (lascannons and such aren't targetted because if a salvo of las has to redirect to it then thats one less for my tanks to take!).

 

The Str5 AP6 cover ignore shell is by far the biggest ork killer, all those conga lines and field generators go bye bye and those rule bending gits get hammered fast by the strength and furiousness of a heavy bolter on too much caffine (IE 4 blasts). This bad boy is the ultimate in anti-infantry and supression weaponry, as noted the tremor stops bikes and tanks turboing, airburst bursts the orks cover shield of rule bending and the full pelt just levels marines (even you plague marines!).

 

best place to put it is in area terrain up high behind a balcony, this covers the cannon and with a 3+ cover (bolstering the building it's in is needed) will give it some protection and good view of the battle field (last time I check, no limit on where an artillery unit can go!). Make sure though your opponent is hard pressed to target it, if he can spare even one unit to take it down then something is wrong, bear down with ether firepower or assault units up field fast (drop pods help). Remember, it isn't a single fire weapon, try and make it survive for another 4 shots next turn. Heck I may one day field 3 of them just to really be a :cuss . 12 blasts coming up! (and for 300pts thats a bargain!!!!)

best place to put it is in area terrain up high behind a balcony, this covers the cannon and with a 3+ cover (bolstering the building it's in is needed) will give it some protection and good view of the battle field (last time I check, no limit on where an artillery unit can go!)

Am hoping to be proved wrong, but...

BRB p83 ruins describes units that can move to higher levels, and artillery is not among them. My reading is that you could poke the TFC out the door on the ground, and put the TM one floor up, maintaining coherency and maximising LOS view, but not put the cannon upstairs.

I may be wrong but, you dont move it upstairs, you DEPLOY it upstairs...

On topic, it is the many uses it has what makes it awsome

 

The same loop hole as bikes if I remember, oh that was funny when my marines did a 3 floor jump on bikes (must of had 'bat out of hell' playing ;) ! It's also fun when dreadnoughts do king kong up tall buildings too somehow! (some good floor boards!). Ahem anyway TFC is just meant to be the BFG that says :) you with such vengance that orks turn blue.

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