The Rise of the Lascannon

[Tamwulf]

The humble Lascannon. Awesome, long range weapon of the Astartes. One of our most powerful long range weapons with good AP, and with the changes to the vehicle penetration chart, a great anti-vehicle weapon as well. This edition of the game has seen a shift away from assaults and into the shooting phase. It's not that assault has been nerfed. Far from it! Assault is just as vicious and deadly as ever. Getting there and then having to deal with Overwatch has become the main problem for all those assault based armies. Combined with the fact that just about any heavy weapon can now be moved and shot with, and you can really see how shooting has risen to outshine the assault phase.

The threats in the game are evolving. The prediction here, and is borne out by the recent releases of big kits from GW, is Monstrous Creatures like Greater Deamons, Deamon Princes, Riptides, Dreadknights, Bugs, and now, the new Eldar Wraithknight. These are all large creatures with a lot of toughness, lots of wounds, and usually an invulnerable save. They can usually survive long enough to get into close combat, at which point they become a large problem. Keeping with the GW design philosphy of bigger is better, these models also have attractive rules/options that makes players want to field them.

To combat this problem will require a new kind of strategy, with a few assumptions. Of course, every meta is different, and what is proposed here may not work for all play groups. The assumptions are thus: You are playing a PA army with access to a Devastator squad and Lascannons. This strategy is advocating a very large chunk of your points to a static, defensible position that has a large amount of offensive firepower.

The Castle: The Devastator Squad with four Lascannons behind a Aegis Defense Line with a Quad Autocannon will clock in at over 400 points. Look at what you get though- four Lascannons, one with a BS 5 shot. An awesome cover save, and 4 TL Autocannon shots with Skyfire+Interceptor. You have five extra models for "ablative wounds" and defensive firepower. For an extra 75-ish points, you can get a Razorback with a TL Lascannon. Your "castle" is now about 500 points. Place an objective marker within your "Castle" and sit on it. If properly placed, you should have good coverage of most of the board, and can use the castle to cover the rest of your army as it moves out to take objectives.

 

Try Missile Launchers for a cheaper, and more flexible alternative. Krak and Frag missiles give options when dealing with various armies. You sacrifice a little anti infantry and vehicle effectiveness, but against a non-PA army, it would be the way to go. This option is about 400 points (with the TLLC on a RB...). It's also a nice option for Space Wolves and their split fire ability. This is a very viable option during tournament play, as you will face a variety of threats.

 

Taking the RB allows the Devastators to Combat Squad and gives you some mobility to use during the game. Keep it safe and watch out for that First Blood objective! If points are tight, dropping a few of the Devs and the RB shouldn't dramatically effect the efficiency of the four Lascannons or ML's.

 

If you have access to a Librarian and Psychic Divination, then a cheap Libby with Prescience joined to the squad and manning the Quadgun is a viable option that guarantees hits on whatever you shoot at.

 

Why four Lascannons or four Missile Launchers? If something won't die from four Lascannons, then ML's won't do it either. Against a horde army, you'll want as many templates as you can get. Splitting two LC's/2 ML's dilute the overall effectiveness, or more accurately, the efficiency of the squad.

 

The Castle gives you some very strong, static firepower and the ability to deal with large critters that will be seeing increased play time on the table. It's both defensive and offensive in nature. Defensive in that you can place an objective in it and camp it for the entire game. It also provides a great cover save to the unit. Offensive because you have four Lascannons and a Quadgun for shooting out to 48", and possibly rerolls and another Lascannon shot depending on the configuration. It's expensive, but it will free up the rest of your army from having to deal with such large threats.

 

There are other ways of dealing with MC's and Flyers of course. This strategy was proposed to offer a different way in dealing with such things instead of, say a suicide squad of Vet's with Plasma or Melta depending on a lucky deepstrike roll with a drop pod.

 

As a side note, this strategy can also work for Xenos armies. Watch for it!

 

Good luck! Have fun!

[Squirrelloid]

If you're spending that many points already, why not just pony up the extra points for another 5 bodies and combat squad.  That way you get 2 units with 2 lascannons, and can "split fire" basically.

 

The other issue you need to deal with is helldrake spam, because you can't rely on autocannon shots to down one routinely during intercept.  Boxing your devastators into an aegis is going to make them a prime target for pulling the template shot.  (Slaanesh chaos armies also have blastmasters, which are AP3 blasts and ignore cover.)

 

Finally, you're talking about 1/3 to 1/4 of your points, and if there is reasonable cover on the board, those are going to be static points with large blindspots.  (virtually empty tables are an anathema, and people should feel bad for playing that way).  That's a lot of points to give your opponent permission to decide whether or not they do anything.  (Another advantage to combat squadding - you can stick half of them in the aegis, and the other half somewhere else).

[arizonajirt]

very nicely written and thought out. thank you for writing this.

[Huginn]

4 las devs and a divination libby are very useful. You can can get a cover save using cover. Put the 5 man combat squad on the quad gun. They are going to die. I don't think trying to take out flyers with las snap shots is really worth it. Shoot at stuff you can reliably hit. Make those points worth it.

[Ishagu]

I agree. Hence my army is packing multiple las cannons including dreadnought and now a storm raven.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I love 'em.  I've got two on Razorbacks and two twin-linked sets on my Storm Talons.

[Jeff Newton]

I've been running 2 5 man sternguard squads with 2 lascannons each instead. It is the same points as the devastator squad and has the special ammo.

[Disruptor_fe404]

I've been running 2 5 man sternguard squads with 2 lascannons each instead. It is the same points as the devastator squad and has the special ammo.

Also my pick.

 

At least until C:SM gets the points costs of C:DA.

[knife&fork]

Lascannons are good this ed but C:SM pay too much. One of the SW players in my group have switched over one of his LF squads from MLs to LCs. Very dangerous thanks to the divination RP he usually keep nearby.

Cover ignoring lascannons

[Gentlemanloser]

 

 It's not that assault has been nerfed. Far from it! Assault is just as vicious and deadly as ever.

 

Assault has been very much nerfed in 6th. As you mention, Overwatch is one of the big ones, as is getting there.  This is highlighted by random charge lengths, overwatch potentially stopping charges and the inability to assault from reserves / first turn Scout/Infiltrate.  On top we have Challenges, the return of Kill Zones and the Power Weapon Nerf.

 

And I'm sure I've missed things.

 

 

To combat this problem will require a new kind of strategy

 

If you're looking to down a MC, the best way is as it's always been.  High RoF.  Preferably with Poisoned/Sniper/Rending Weapons.  Most Marine armies have access to Sniper/Rending weapons, which just grows if you take into account Allies.  The best army to take out a WraithKnight is probably the Eldar themselves, spamming masses of new Shuriken Weapon shooting at it.

 

Obviously, FRFSRF isn't going to work versus the WraithKnight, as it just bounces Lasguns.  So bust out your Sniper Rifles! ;)

[Deus de Mortalis]

Four lascannons with a divination libby isn't too bad versus flyers. There is an 80% chance that at least one lascannon will hit the flyer.<br /><br />Still, even pricing it out with the DA codex where these are all cheaper, it is quite a lot of points to be throwing at this problem. And don't forget that you need a unit of troops to hold your castled objective. Even 5 scouts with sniper rifles are going to be an additional 60 points.

[W0lfie]

Lascannon are too expensive (on every platform in non-fw rules) to be expecially useful.  Your 500 points castle (which is oddly sitting on an objective it cannot score) can be wiped in one shot by a leman russ, helldrake, Riptide etc., has only eight shots per turn and is shrinking the other bits of your army with it's sheer expensiveness.

 

High strength has just never been an advisable way to go about anti tank (barring old tau railguns) when things like haywire, melta and chainfists are available.

[minigun762]

Lascannons, for the right price, are awesome. IG, Chaos and DA can all bring them to the table in a cost effective manner.

[Ming]

I agree on the premise (increasing large monsters/robots/walkers of unusual size) will be the new norm.  But the solution being devs plus aegis is not that great. 

 

If I had IG as my list, a Company command squad in a Chimera with 4 plasma guns can take down an Armor3+ MC, just dismount, give the order to bring it down, and Bzzzziiip!!! Down it (probably) goes...works on flyers too that get in range (especially the 12-inch Rapid Fire range).  Cheaper than a full sized generic marine dev/quad LC squad.

 

For generic marines, 30 points to put a single lascannon in a dev squad is a high tax to pay (compared to 10 pints for a ML).  Makes tri-las predators look almost worth it for the same FOC.  Those points (30) are not the same for all marines (a tool to help the developers create chapters with different optimal play styles). 

 

A marine command squad with plasma spam (or sternguard with combi-weapons) and a prescience libby (again, not available for generic marines) is also optimal for dropping the new big un's. 

 

For generic marines, sternguard in a suicide pod is probably the best solution.  Bring 10 with combi's (plasma and melta) and combat squad if desire-able to bring it down.  If the problem is invulnerable saves, that generic libby with null-zone can fit the bill and be 24 inches away in hiding.  You can drop behind the big un' for some better shots and tactical efficts. 

 

For chaos marines, the helldrake is its own solution.  The fly-by strikes and the gun (not torrent flamer) is probably better for this to take the opponent's big un's down.  

 

For SOB's it's those D6 AP-1 Melta tanks they get...2 or three of those as a reaction force is pretty nasty. 

[Puhnupetteri]

I Think 3x Predator With Las sponsons and autocannon turret is Total 6 Las and 6autocannon shots per turn and if u position then correctly You have spent only 360 pts and With more durable way. Which leaves u point for flamer troops.....