Vindicators and hsve you used them?

[Subsided]

I own two. Now at 125 ppm. T8 W11.

The 24" cannon and no way to ignore movement penalties.

Has anyone used one? Two? Three in a game? Are they good distractions for 125 point lasbait?

I've used one index and it blasted through 2 DA shrouds and a unit of Devs because it was ignored. This was prior to a 40 point price drop.

Someone should get some test games in with multiples.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Subsided

[Crimson Ghost IX]

I am liking Vindicators more at the new point level.

Should flatten some of these multi-wound Primaris marines nicely hehhehheh.

 

No templates make them a better close support option than previous editions.

As does being able to leave combat to toss in the canister.

 

T8 is great and the unit draws fire for certain.

The gun goes boom and things will die.

 

Major draw back being it can be charged and shut down.

GW should have perhaps given it a steel behemoth like rule or made it decent in combat or something with that big ol dozer blade.

 

So the seige assault tank is oddly a kinda hidey and sneaking defender support type unit now.

We could perhaps screen it with scouts (troops) I suppose.

 

Oh and the move and fire penalty there is that downside as well.

Bumper car 40k is the worst strike against it tho in my opinion.

 

Might run one with the mech force I am loosely planning perhaps but will likely prefer a DCDN we shall see.

The fire power and get into the opponents head factor is still pretty good for 125 points if played smart probably.

[Panzer]

I love Vindicators aesthetically wise....but rules-wise I find them pretty underwhelming to be honest. They should have 2d6 shots at minimum imo.

[MeltaRange]

2d6 shots at Str 10 ap-3 D6D?  What lol?  That's what the Typhon does and it costs 500pts...

 

Now, I absolutely love them, but only because of Linebreaker Bombardment (LBB), so I would either take 3 or 0.  LBB unreal good IMO.  I've talked about it a lot and most people think it's meh, but in the meta of "having all my guys within 6" of Bobby G" it's probably straight up the best counter to those kinds of setups because 1) you can murder a lot of stuff, including hidden characters w/ Invulnerable saves or 2) force the opponent to deploy differently and not optimize his auras OR force him to target the Vindicators.  Keep in mind that the LBB doesn't say anything about needing to be able to shoot, so you can advance (and perhaps use Lucifer Engines) to get your tanks into the 24" range.  Extra points if you go second and you get all 3 tanks out of LOS and advance them all within 6" of each other with the 10" move + advance.

 

For 375 points.  It also allows you to bring more fragile vehicles such as Death Co Dreadnoughts, Repulsors, etc. which can do serious damage but are often the first targets for the big guns.  Now your opponent has a choice.

Edited December 14, 2017 by MeltaRange

[Spagunk]

The issue is that the linebreaker stratagem only hits units within 3" of a spot with a 24" range. Good placement completely negates effectiveness of such a thing and so it becomes so situational that spending nearly 400 points becomes not a good deal.

 

Realistically, you're getting one shot attempt on that. I say this because if you don't, your opponent is going to pour so much into taking down one of those vindies that you won't get another chance. and if they place their units far enough apart from one another, then you won't even get that opportunity.

 

Granted, it's a good stratagem but using it as a tactic just isn't real good. If you are lucky enough to have that shot, then it's pretty devastating.

[MeltaRange]

3" suffices though because most auras are 6".  So if you want to have your unit in say a Captain's reroll aura, then the Captain and that unit are both within 3" of a point that I choose for LBB to hit.

 

I actually think it's better for BA than Vanilla marines because BA have better tools to get assault troops into position to tie up threats to the Vindicators. 

 

Also worth noting is that say I have first turn and my opponent knows I might use LBB, maybe he deploys his units outside 6" of a character to discourage me from shooting there, giving my jump troops a potential lane to charge the character with DoA, (or at least I can charge the unit and they won't re-roll 1s to hit) or maybe Mephiston can use the Wings power to jump over a screen that is deployed too far away and charge the Warlord of something.  Hard to theoryhammer exactly the scenarios but it is a pretty good psychological tool

[Panzer]

2d6 shots at Str 10 ap-3 D6D?  What lol?  That's what the Typhon does and it costs 500pts...

 

Now, I absolutely love them, but only because of Linebreaker Bombardment (LBB), so I would either take 3 or 0.  LBB unreal good IMO.  I've talked about it a lot and most people think it's meh, but in the meta of "having all my guys within 6" of Bobby G" it's probably straight up the best counter to those kinds of setups because 1) you can murder a lot of stuff, including hidden characters w/ Invulnerable saves or 2) force the opponent to deploy differently and not optimize his auras OR force him to target the Vindicators.  Keep in mind that the LBB doesn't say anything about needing to be able to shoot, so you can advance (and perhaps use Lucifer Engines) to get your tanks into the 24" range.  Extra points if you go second and you get all 3 tanks out of LOS and advance them all within 6" of each other with the 10" move + advance.

 

For 375 points.  It also allows you to bring more fragile vehicles such as Death Co Dreadnoughts, Repulsors, etc. which can do serious damage but are often the first targets for the big guns.  Now your opponent has a choice.

Well 1d6 shots is basically just 3 Lascannon shots on average which we get plenty elsewhere already. Just take Preds, Devastators or Tacticals for that. They are more reliable, cheaper etc.

 

The Stratagem is neat tho, I agree.

[MeltaRange]

For the points, I think it's pretty balanced against things like Quad Las Preds or 4x Lascannon 10 man Dev squads.  Both of those cost a fair bit more to account for the increased damage output, but the Vindicator also is a bit tougher against Str 4, Str 7, and Str 8 which does actually encompass a fair amount of weapons.  I've used Predators a lot and frankly, I'm not impressed.  If I was to take Predators now it would be with the Pred Autocannon.