Knight Commander Pask is my new Commissar

[olcottr]

My old Cadian Battalion was a CC, LC, 2 Infantry Squads and Conscripts, plus support units (which usually includes at least one Leman Russ, natch).  With the liability of Commissars now, I have chosen to replace LC with Pask plus Officio Prefectus Command Tank.

 

At first blush seems quite a lot to pay? Well let's see.

Let's compare to a LC and a standard LR, costs 50 + 122 = 172 plus the turret cost.  Whereas Pask is 177 plus the turret cost.  So is the 5 pts plus 2 Command Points worth a BS 2+ and Tank Orders?  I think so, do you?

[Feral_80]

Yeah great, as if Pask wasn't already a fire magnet on his own.

Any decent opponent will just kill it on turn 1 - just like before actually, but with the difference that you are also wasting 2 CPs.

If you really want to use that (poor) stratagem, use it on your worst performing LR, not on the best one.

[Captain_Krash]

Not saying it's impossible but destroying a leman russ on turn one is no easy feat. Leman russ are considerably tougher now and require lots of fire power to take out completely. That and if your opponent is concentrating that much firepower on this tank then that's great! I have 3-4 more behind him.

 

Pask generally has his uses and as the OP stated is an effective one with use of CP and depending what tank he is in considerable amount of output damage for only 177 plus turret.

 

Krash

[Feral_80]

The much-abused motto 'if they are shooting it - good! They are not shooting something else' is actually quite pointless, and does not work in this case for sure. There are units that simply you ideally *do not want* the opponent to shoot, period. And Pask is one of these. I don't find LRs that hard to destroy sadly, and in any case, you do not need to give the opponent yet another reason to concentrate on it - you are making him a big favour.

 

You have 3-4 more LRs behind him? Great, I repeat it: if you really want to use a poor stratagem like the Commissariat Tank, use it on one of these, preferably the one that looks less dangerous. It's a basic threat-distribution notion, never put your eggs into one basket.

[Halfpint100]

I miss the commissar tank from imperial armour 1. It was an elite choice with bs 4. so hitting on 3s. was a lovely and fluffy tank

[DrLoveMonkey]

Agree that putting it on a budget Russ so that your opponent has to think for a second before pouring every last bit of AT onto Pask, disagree that it’s a bad stratagem.

 

Giving leadership 9 to your conscript screen and infantry squad escorts makes them considerably less vulnerable to morale. It’s can be the difference between having a squad wiped off the board and having the las Cannon team and plasma gunner left.

 

I would say it’s an auto include but if you’re buffing 3+ squads at once why not?

[Feral_80]

Because it's a buff that can be targeted and taken out with limited efforts from your opponent. If it costed 1 CP maybe I'd rate it as decent, but as it stands it is an expensive way to offer a juicy and obvious target to your opponent. If you want to give Ld 9 to your troops there are cheaper, better, and safer ways to do it.

[DrLoveMonkey]

I dunno, putting it on a barebones budget Russ when you’ve also got Pask and a manticore in play might not make it such a juicy target. If it is though, good, because then it really IS being a good distraction and drawing fire away from the units. I mean, what are you going to do, try and completely take out the thing that’s giving a leadership bubble, so that afterwards you can then more easily kill the infantry surrounding it, or cripple the dude putting 50 shots down range at BS2+ rerolling?

 

Unless they’ve actually got so much AT that they can easily pop two or three Leman Russ and a manticore in one turn, but at that point they deserve to wipe out your Armor. Also why are you bringing tanks to this fight?

 

 

There might be better options to get leadership 9 but most of them are a bit of a hassle and doesn’t actually make the commissar tank bad, just not the best option, and it has some advantages. Like the aforementioned drawing fire from actually dangerous targets, having a wider aura radius because of its hull, actually being durable. Also it doesn’t cost points, it DOES cost CP, which are hard to come by and useful, but you only feel that cost once you run out of them, whereas this buff starts helping from turn one.

 

It’s not like it’s that fun but absolutely god awful Fire On My Position strat.

[narcolepticltd]

It may be a fire magnet, but it can be screened due to it being a character at least...

 

oh no wait russes have too many wounds to blend in right? 

Edited October 27, 2017 by narcolepticltd

[Galron]

Agreed. Use it on a bog standard Russ. The all the eggs in one basket thing comes to mind. Killing an LR a turn for concentrated fire is really not too hard for most armies even moderately equipped for TAC and at the least he will be badly degraded. Remember now that LRs got improved, the all infantry armies are disappearing and people are bringing AT weapons in numbers again. I never stopped since they were painted models before but I was always frustrated when they had no suitable targets.

[olcottr]

So you're saying I shouldn't also make him my Warlord? Haha.

 

As an aside, the Master of Command Warlord trait would allow a Tank Commander to issue 2 orders, but Pask would have to take the inferior Cadian order where you would have to roll a 4+ to issue that additional order. Not sure they thought that one through.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah putting everything on one model is inimical to my method, but if it works for you. One of my mates is a typical Iron Warrior and comes tooled up to slaughter armour, so Pask wouldn't survive turn one.

[DrLoveMonkey]

It...can depend on the level of competitiveness but no, unless you’re playing a SUPER narrative casual game that is generally speaking a bad idea, haha. On the other hand if you’re doing like Pask vs Longstrike and both players are doing it, and intentionally taking small amounts of AT or something, then go for it!

[Guardsman Bob]

If anything I like the thread title more than any other. Gotta give a like for that!

[HenricusTyranicus]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you make the decision to spend the CP after you've seen your opponent's army? If you look across the field and see no long range anti tank, but tons of anti infantry, you can spend it. If you show up and the enemy has 10 lascannons in their army, you know your Russes are dead and don't spend the CP. 

[CoffeeGrunt]

True, though conversely, if you take a Pask and Friends list against an Anti-Infantry force, you've probably already won.