The Barracuda - yay or nay?

[Aeri]

I REALLY love the model, but it was simply bad and overcosted in 8th.

 

Now that it can move and keep its 3+ BS and getting the blast rule, it might deal some serious damage.

Also, with ML support it can hit on 2s.

4 seekers is not too bad as well.

 

Keep it in tactical reserves to guarantee you can unload at least once.

 

What sept do you think it would shine the most? Can it be considered at least decent/usable in 9th ed?

Edited September 3, 2020 by Aeri

[The_Chaplain]

I mean, I don't think tenets matter as much for aircraft as they do for infantry and battlesuits-- so depending on the rest of your army's loadout, they can slot into anything. That said, these might be contenders:

 

Borkan adds range to heavy and rapid fire weapons-- not amazing on the ion cannon which already has long range, but it would bump the swiftstrike rail cannon to over 40" range, which pretty much ensures full table firing arcs every turn. Actually it would extend the range of the side arm heavy burst cannons and missiles too.

 

Custom septs: hybridized weaponry would add a couple inches to the range of your cyclic ion blaser side arms (if you upgraded them from the long range burst cannons). Situational, but potentially useful. Hardened warheads gives a static -1 ap to all the missiles, so considering barracudas and tiger sharks can't take signature systems- its potentially useful.

Edited September 3, 2020 by The_Chaplain

[Aeri]

The burst canons never appealed to me on such an expensive plane.

I always took the CIBs in the past.

Is the Rail Gun really better than the Ion Canon? Against tanks I only see minor improvements whereas the Ion Canon has far greater flexibility.

 

The 5++ seems nice on paper, but considering it was a 3++ in 7th (I think) it feels kinda lackluster.

[Happy-inquisitor]

The Barracuda is functionally a flying Hammerhead tank.

 

It costs rather more but with a 5+ invulnerable save and Hard to Hit I think it is worth the additional points. Vehicles without invulnerable saves are very hard to justify right now. Also about half the difference in cost comes from the added missile pods which are far from useless.

 

As for Sept I think you have a couple of favourites:

 

A Hardened Warheads/Sophisticated Command Net custom sept suits it very well as it has a fair amount of missiles especially with the Seeker missiles and re-rolling 1's to wound is always good.

 

Farsight Enclaves is also a good pick, it can easily benefit from the additional markerlight and the re-roll 1's to wound and the Firestorm stratagem is neat if you really need mortal wound output.

 

Like all vehicles it will have a hard time against Primaris Eradicators, especially with Salamanders chapter tactics. I would say it is about as decent/usable as any expensive vehicle can be in the current state of 9th.