Which Baneblade variant do you guys think is best in 8th?

[Ishagu]

I own an unboxed kit. I'm thinking of putting together either a Hellhamer or Shadowsword?

 

Also, I'm guessing Sgt Harker is a good purchase so he can grant re-rolls of 1 to hit?

[leinglo]

With this beginning to look like the edition for troops to really shine, I would tentatively suggest the Stormlord, both for it's high transport capacity and for the retarded amount of dakka it can throw out with it's vulkan mega-bolter.

 

If you play Space Marines, another thing you could do is head over to Blood and Skulls Industry on Ebay and get some conversion parts to turn your Baneblade into a Fellblade.

[Ishagu]

The Stormlord does look good, unfortunately I doubt I'll ever get a use of it's transport capacity. My AM collection is rather limited.

 

Also I have a Gatling Cannon Knight I can use for the Dakka.

[olsol]

considering the new ignores cover rules I would turn away from the hell hammer and go for the shadow sword. The (hopefully) extremely high strength of the volcano cannon is nothing to be looked over. Plus, as a bonus in my opinion the shadowsword does look better than the hell hammer.

 

P.S: just imagine how much damage a single wound from the VC can do!

[Ishagu]

Yeah I think you're right.

The Shadowsword does look the coolest imo :-)

[Jam Master Flex]

I'm currently in the same boat as you Ishagu.

 

I stuck most of it together yesterday and built the stormlord gun, but I think I'm going to magnetise the magma cannon and the tremor cannon so I can switch between.

 

My meta is marines and Tau but I've got enough Russ' to deal with anything really nasty.

 

What I'm thinking of trying to do is stick 2 squads of vets in my stormlord and sit it on a key objective and murder anything that gets close enough.

 

I'm playing both Tau and Blood Angels on sunday so I'll let you know how it goes!

[Ishagu]

Awesome. Yeah, defo report your findings.

 

Apparently things like Knights are very powerful now, so something like the Volcano Cannon might become a needs must kind of thing :-/

[Jolemai]

There's only ever one answer to this:

[WarriorFish]

Indeed - magnets for the magnet god!

[Gothical]

The best variants thus far appear to be the Stormlord, the Shadowsword and the Hellhammer.

 

The Stormlord is absolutely insane with Heavy Flamer sponsons and will obliterate infantry squads, is one of the few vehicles passengers can shoot from, and reduces your deployment drops if you are trying to get first turn.

 

The Shadowsword obliterates hard targets. It is perhaps the best model in the game at anti-tank/anti-monster/anti-Titanic.

 

The Hellhammer is a great all-round model, though it does suffer a little due to the short range on the turret and hull gun (which with the penalty for moving-and-firing hurts). However, it packs an absolute wallop against pretty much all targets from infantry to tanks and monsters. There may be other ways to ignore cover available to the Guard, but not on a 2D6 shot S10 AP-4 D3 monster gun.

[duz_]

Im not too worried about range.

I find optimizing fire power at <36" is the best.

The only time you benefit from >36" range is on hammer and anvil deployment. Which from what I understand of mission selection now can potentially be player discretion, but I wouldn't plan for it.

 

Couple this with no scatter deep strike and some fast moving units you will see a lot of armies within 36/24" by turn 2 if not turn 1.

[Ishagu]

What about the humble Baneblade itself?

I've just noticed the main gun is a reliable 2D6 shots...

[Chris521]

I think that I'm most likely to field a shadowsword with no sponsons.  At under 450 points its not much more than two russ's with the durability to match.  Even if it doesn't result in a kill, it will likely cripple a large target every turn from long range and that's not even taking into account it's titanic bonus.

 

That's not to say I won't be trying out other variants.  I really like the Storm lord, Hellhammer and Baneblade, but the points cost associated with outfitting them the way I would want to is huge and really takes up a larger part of my army than I would like in a standard 2000 point game. At 444 points,  it's certainly expensive, but not a building my entire army around it kind of expensive.  

 

 

 

What about the humble Baneblade itself?
I've just noticed the main gun is a reliable 2D6 shots...

 

It's appears to be a solid option, but I still like the HellHammer more. It hits a bit harder and ignorescover but it has shorter range.  Since you already have a 24 inch range Demolisher cannon built in,  I would want to be closer to the enemy anyway.

[Otto von Bludd]

The regular Baneblade is one of the best variants in my opinion.

[zero88]

I think the Banehammer is a solid option that's getting overlooked by the sheer "WHAT?!" factor of a S16 gun or a billion twin heavy flamers.

 

*Firepower: It's main gun has ample range, a reliable amount of shots, and enough oompfh to put the pain on most targets especially considering the locked in Damage of 3 that it does. But the halved movement characteristic f9r anything HIT by it is huge and underrated, especially considering how fast some units are going to be (Hive Tyrants). Sponson weapons don't need to be compared since all the variants have the same options.

 

*Cost: With one set of sponsons the price tag is just under or over 500, well within reason for a 2k list.

 

*Transport: This is almost a bonus. With room for 25, you can pack 10 shooters in safety on the top deck (I like to think a pair of Scion command squads with 4 HSVGs), while still having plenty of room below for Bullgryns to rush out and mop up.

[Closet Skeleton]

Stormlord full of lascannon squads and Ogryns.

[Withershadow]

Ignoring cover is not that huge anymore. The base baneblade puts out a lot more hate overall than the Hellhammer.

[Gothical]

I think the Banehammer is a solid option that's getting overlooked by the sheer "WHAT?!" factor of a S16 gun or a billion twin heavy flamers.

 

*Firepower: It's main gun has ample range, a reliable amount of shots, and enough oompfh to put the pain on most targets especially considering the locked in Damage of 3 that it does. But the halved movement characteristic f9r anything HIT by it is huge and underrated, especially considering how fast some units are going to be (Hive Tyrants). Sponson weapons don't need to be compared since all the variants have the same options.

 

*Cost: With one set of sponsons the price tag is just under or over 500, well within reason for a 2k list.

 

*Transport: This is almost a bonus. With room for 25, you can pack 10 shooters in safety on the top deck (I like to think a pair of Scion command squads with 4 HSVGs), while still having plenty of room below for Bullgryns to rush out and mop up.

 

Very good points there - I had written it off due to the S8 gun being kinda rubbish against heavy armour, but it is more of an infantry killer. The question is, does it do enough? Halving speed could be amazing, S8 is brilliant for wounding MEQ on 2+, and D3 means it kills stuff like Primaris easily; it does have some downsides though - it will only wound Biker models on 3s (typically T5 and rarely T6) and only has AP-2 which means most Bikers/MEQ infantry are saving on 5s.

 

The slowing down effect does at least give it a unique role, the Banesword, Doomhammer and Stormsword suffer from being worse versions of other tanks for not that much cheaper.

 

Ignoring cover is not that huge anymore. The base baneblade puts out a lot more hate overall than the Hellhammer.

 

How come? They have exactly the same weaponry apart from that main cannon - and there is contest there as well, the Baneblade gets a much longer range but the Hellhammer gets +1Str and AP over the Baneblade. With shorter engagement ranges and having secondary weaponry that is only effective in the 48"/36" bands, the range difference doesn't seem to be as critical (which was my initial worry with the Hellhammer).

[Jam Master Flex]

I used my newly built Stormlord tonight, with 2 squads of vets onboard.

 

I was playing against a joint space marine/tau list including Guilliman, no riptides though thankfully.

 

The entire game it only lost 4 wounds - it really cleaned up against the Tau but was relatively ineffective due to bad dice rolls against Marines.

 

The twin heavy flamers are VERY nice and really put the hurt on crisis suits and the extended firing deck was really useful.

[Karinon]

Space marines and Tau? I guess it wasn't matched play then.

[Jam Master Flex]

Space marines and Tau? I guess it wasn't matched play then.

2 people using one army each, we just did 2 vs 1 so they allied together for the game

[bozo69pd]

My traitor guard employ a shadowsword.

[Zeller]

I feel weapons that were previously large blast or apoc blast (demolisher, battle cannon, and super heavy cannons) are less effective given how few shots they have now. What makes me more...confused is that most of the super heavy tank cannons aside from the Stormlord, Baneblade, and Shadowsword are all D6 shots that are roughly the same str, AP, and damage. There isn't much differentiation which leads me to wonder why anyone would use them. The guns have too few shots to actually murder infantry squads and all that damage they do is wasted on infantry since they're not mortal wounds. Against hard targets like buildings, armor, and carnifexes I could seem them being effective; however, for the point cost I'd think it would just be smarter and more effective to take a few heavy weapon teams and/or dedicated anti-tank platforms such as sentinels or leman russ tanks. Am I crazy?

[Ishagu]

Upon lots of consideration, The Shadowsword is the winner for me :-)

[iceman2160]

I was thinking of a Stormlord with heavy flamer sponsons. Load 3 squads of mortars and 3 squads of lascannons. Crush, grind, shoot and mortar the enemy out of existence.