Side Sponsors for LRBT's

[Rommel44]

Hey mates. When it comes to the good old Leman Russ Tank, do you guys prefer to put Side Sponsors on all of them or only select variations? Such as I like Hvy. Bolter SS Weapons on a Punisher and the standard LRBT, but believe it to be not worth it on Vanquisher's. Just curious on you run yours and if you do anything different for every or a few LRBT variants.

[HallofStovokor]

I actually run sponsons on everything. Heavy bolters or plasma cannons. The reason why it's not worth it on a vanquisher, is that the vanquisher itself isn't worth taking. My battle cannon and punisher variant take heavy bolter sponsons, while my demolisher and executioner take plasma sponsons. Essentially, I like to make my tanks either anti-personnel or anti-tank. The battle cannon is my solid jack of all trades.

[Colonel Cross]

My Punisher either rocks heavy bolters or heavy flamers.  My executioners rock las cannon and plasma cannons.  I like the classic russ build with battle cannon, las cannon, and heavy bolters.  I think with the drop in points for plasma cannons though I'll start taking more of them since I run Catachan and the D3 shots that reroll often does a surprising amount of damage.  My Conqueror doesn't run sponsons though, and that decision is for a few reasons.  I want to keep them cheap since most people recognize the danger of a battle cannon that rerolls all hits, I usually keep it pretty mobile so the sponsons would be hitting on 5s, and lastly, since it moves a lot I need it to be able to fit between things and the sponsons make the Russ too damn wide!

[MARK0SIAN]

I generally just go with heavy bolters on all my sponsons, although now plasma has come down I’ll be using that a lot more.

 

The only sponsons I’ve used that have never been worthwhile are the flamers. They’re a pain to get in range and they don’t really deter charges as most of the stuff that seems to charge my tanks just laughs off the flamers.

[Toxichobbit]

The only sponsons I’ve used that have never been worthwhile are the flamers. They’re a pain to get in range and they don’t really deter charges as most of the stuff that seems to charge my tanks just laughs off the flamers.

 

Until you get one of those players who likes to charge in throw away infantry units to stop your tank firing. Nothing worse than a couple of Termagants or Cultists clogging up your battle cannon.

[MARK0SIAN]

 

 

The only sponsons I’ve used that have never been worthwhile are the flamers. They’re a pain to get in range and they don’t really deter charges as most of the stuff that seems to charge my tanks just laughs off the flamers.

Until you get one of those players who likes to charge in throw away infantry units to stop your tank firing. Nothing worse than a couple of Termagants or Cultists clogging up your battle cannon.

I can normally screen against that though and the few times it’s happened it’s been so many that 5 or 6 flamers wouldn’t have done it! The main thing though is I just think they’re hugely overcosted for what they do, could be just me though, others may have been able to make them shine :)

[Rommel44]

Personally this is how I have run or would run mine if I fielded all variants:

 

* LRBT: HM Lascannon, SS Hvy. Bolters.

* Punisher: HM and SS Hvy. Bolters

* Demolisher: HM Lascannon, SS Hvy. Bolters

* Exterminator: HM Lascannon, SS Hvy. Bolters

* Executioner: HM Hvy. Bolter, SS Plasma Cannons

* Vanquisher: HM Lascannon

* Eradicator: HM Lascannon, SS Hvy. Bolters

* Annihilator: HM Lascannon

* Conqueror: HM Lascannon, SS Hvy. Bolters

 

Just how I would do it atm, as I am still not sold if Plasma Cannons are worth considering as SS weapons.

[sairence]

Until CA I was only a proponent of nothing or Heavy Bolters. But now that Plasma Sponsons are only 2p cheaper a piece they should be good to use as well. You can see them as heavier Heavy Bolters, no need to overcharge.

[HallofStovokor]

Until CA I was only a proponent of nothing or Heavy Bolters. But now that Plasma Sponsons are only 2p cheaper a piece they should be good to use as well. You can see them as heavier Heavy Bolters, no need to overcharge.

I think that overcharged plasma weapons are the best weapon against necrons. 2-3 damage is the sweet spot for damaging anything with quantum shielding. I load my tanks out like this.

 

Executioner: hull lascannon, plasma sponsons

Punisher: hull HB, HB sponsons

Battle cannon: hull lascannon, HB sponsons

Demolisher: hull lascannon, plasma sponsons

 

This gives me 2 dedicated anti-tank vehicles, 1 anti-infantry, and 1 jack of all trades. I wouldn't mention the other ordinary variants as the eradicator, and vanquisher all suck. The exterminator is a very situational weapon platform. As such, it really won't be in any tournament lists.

[Shamansky]

Since we do not need splitfire special rule anymore to shoot all weapons at different targets, sometimes i like making my tanks less focused on one type of enemy, e.g. i put lascannon and plasma cannons on Punisher, or 3 heavy bolters on Annihilator. The result is the enemy can't make easy decisions what to shoot first. 

[sairence]

See, I don't like overcharged plasma sponsons, because unless you play your tanks as Tallarn it encourages keeping your tanks static.

[Shamansky]

We use lots of terrain here and on last two tournaments ground floor of ruins was considered as LOS-blocker no matter what it really was. So a static gun that needs LOS to shoot could be avoided easily. That's why Tallarn is almost the only playable doctrine. And of course famous Catachan artillery.

 

[Trickstick]

We use lots of terrain here and on last two tournaments ground floor of ruins was considered as LOS-blocker no matter what it really was. So a static gun that needs LOS to shoot could be avoided easily. That's why Tallarn is almost the only playable doctrine. And of course famous Catachan artillery.

 

Tallarn really shine with that sort of terrain. They can use their tank order to pop out, shoot and then hide.

[HallofStovokor]

That's why I would use tank commanders on all plasma vehicles. It can give itself gunners kill on sight. The exception is the demolisher (if given plasma sponsons) . It needs to get close, so you're going to lose it relatively quickly. If you bring it, the demolisher has 2 missions before it dies. Destroy something critical and then absorb the fire from enemies to give other vehicles a chance to get into position.

[Phubar]

Since we do not need splitfire special rule anymore to shoot all weapons at different targets, sometimes i like making my tanks less focused on one type of enemy, e.g. i put lascannon and plasma cannons on Punisher, or 3 heavy bolters on Annihilator. The result is the enemy can't make easy decisions what to shoot first.

Totally agree!

[Gothical]

My basic Russes are given Hull HB and a Stubber, no more. Keeps them cheap and allows them to mosey about getting juicy targets in LOS of the Battlecannon. I would prefer using a Lascannon under the current rule set to improve tank-busting power but I am using the old FW Mars Alpha hull with a built-in HB that would be ruined if I tried to convert it.

 

My Tank Commander rides in an Executioner with Plasma Cannon sponsons and probably a Lascannon. The CA points drop really helped this shine, and although it is a prime target for the opponent it can obliterate squads and even opposing tanks.

 

My Punisher gets full HBs and a Stubber to maximize its infantry and light-vehicle killing power, occasionally boosted by being Pask to help draw fire from my Tank Commander and ensure all that dakka is actually getting to the target.

 

I don't currently use any of the other variants, but I figure a Demolisher would be handy with triple-Heavy Flamers to deter people from bogging it down as it closes (alternatively a Lascannon and HF sponsons to improve damage against single-model units) and the Eradicator looks like it could get good use out of the cheaper Plasma Cannon sponsons and a Heavy Bolter to maximize infantry-killing potential.

 

The Vanquisher and Exterminator have some issues in the current rule set. When I build a Vanquisher (I like having the variants) I'm going to try Lascannon hull, Hunter-Killer Missile and Augur Array. I don't think the sponsons are worth it here. The Exterminator I reckon should take Lascannon and Plasma Cannons to take on light vehicles and multi-wound infantry if Overcharging, but this role can be equally filled by the Executioner, therefore might be a candidate for the Multi-Melta sponsons to give it a surprising amount of anti-tank punch.

 

Now, with Split Fire you can totally mix up what wargear the tanks take to your visual preferences, but I still prefer being a little more specialized so it is easier to keep track of what I need to add in to the army list.

[noigrim]

Ki tend to put zero sponsons, the -1 to hit tends to affect my mordian and cadian batalliond