Chimera vs Taurox

[Spyboy]

As the title implies, what are your opinions? Which one is better?

 

Pros for Taurox:

 -20pts. cheaper

 -a useful rule (advance and disembark)

 -twin autocannon 

 -2" faster

 

Pros for Chimera:

 -+1 toughness and wounds

 -firing deck

 -more dakka

[Sergeant Bastone]

Chimera just has so much more shooting:

 

2 heavy bolters (or heavy flamers, RIP multilaser)

Heavy stubber A3 RF3

Lasgun array A6 RF6

Hunter Killer missile

 

Taurox:

Twin-Linked Autocannon

Storm Bolter

[Cadian Bandstand]

Currently i am preferring the Taurox, i think the speed makes up for the lesser firepower, and they are also cheaper.

 

Ultimately i suppose it depends on what you want from them, the Taurox is obviously a better unit when it comes to rapid deployment, the chimera has more utility beyond a pure troop carrier.

[duz_]

Back in 7th I really valued the Taroux speed. I feel like in 10th this will be its advantage again. Cheap mobile objective grabber. 

 

Once I finish my chimeras I will move on to repainting my Tarouxen

[Minsc]

I like both and feel that neither invalidate the other: Chimera is more resilient and has more firepower (especially with firedecks included) while the Taurox is cheaper and faster. 

One pro for the Taurox that I haven't seen mentioned is that its much smaller and as such easier to hide. 
 

[Emperor Ming]

Neither 85 is too much for me ,id rather have more inf

 

Chimera at a push in this edition of free crap, hunter killer, stubber and two heavy bolters is decent

[Spyboy]

14 hours ago, Minsc said:

One pro for the Taurox that I haven't seen mentioned is that its much smaller and as such easier to hide. 
 

Not owning any tauroxs I didn't know this, that's a good point.

 

Myself I am leaning towards Chimeras, but with 2 heavy flamers instead of heavy bolters.  I was curious what everyone else thought and it sounds like the Chimera is slightly preferred in general.

[jarms48]

Taurox is now great for doing exactly what a transport should do. Being cheap and decent mobility. 

 

Chimera has a lot more things going for it, better firepower, better durability, and more utility with officers/firing decks. 

 

Taurox Prime should get an honourable mention too, it's still fairly cheap for what you get. Better than Chimera firepower, still the decent speed, and a fantastic special rule.

 

Not to mention the 2 former have synergy with Catachan's, both getting a free scout move if you have a Catachan squad inside of it. 

[librisrouge]

You forgot something:

 

Chimera Pros:

* A sweet looking and robust tank

 

Taurox Cons:

* A derpy looking 4x4 truck

[Sergeant Bastone]

25 minutes ago, librisrouge said:

You forgot something:

 

Chimera Pros:

* A sweet looking and robust tank

 

Taurox Cons:

* A derpy looking 4x4 truck

This is very true.  You definitely want to add this to make the taurox look less terrible.

[Harrowmaster]

1 minute ago, Sergeant Bastone said:

This is very true.  You definitely want to add this to make the taurox look less terrible.

Or this one which also comes with a boat load of accessories; including armoured panels for the windows, 

[Santaclauswitz]

10 hours ago, Spyboy said:

Not owning any tauroxs I didn't know this, that's a good point.

 

Myself I am leaning towards Chimeras, but with 2 heavy flamers instead of heavy bolters.  I was curious what everyone else thought and it sounds like the Chimera is slightly preferred in general.

I think one of the leading causes of preference is availability. I have 4 built chimera and 1 nos taurox (I was never able to work out what weapons option I wanted). I had a quick look on Ebay and there were over 160 chimera for sale. For the tauroxen (duz dude you've now created the plural for taurox!!!) There were only just over 80. Virtually all of them built as prime with gatling. Also about half of the listings were for bits with the taurox. There were very few bits listed for the chimera. I reckon it's mainly because the chimera has been around forever. I'm sure the same would apply if this was about rhino vs impulsor.

 

As for the table top.... fundamentally I'm going to repeat what jarms said with more words. 

 

The taurox is a good transport. But that's about the only role you'll give it. That's not a bad thing. I've been thinking about running a catachan squad in a taurox. It'll give amazing movement/weapon threat range. 6" scout, 12" movement,  3" unload and finally 12" flamer range. Why do I want to have a 33" flamer? I mean they're a bit rubbish and unlikely to do much. They auto hit and a couple of our strats need a hit to activate, flamers auto hit! I actually think the special ability is nice but probably highlight situational. 

 

For me the main difference in usage for a chimera stems from a couple of it's abilities. Mainly the ability to let an officer issue orders. It's so much easier to be within 6" of a chimera than it is to be within 6" of an infantry model. Also being able to move further helps to be within 6" next command phase. The officer can't be targeted with precise but also can't use abilities so it's a trade off. Putting creed in one would be a waste in my books. Straken on the other hand seems a great candidate, handy for ordering scout sentinels if you need your master vox elsewhere. The other useful rule is the firing step 2. I quite like plasma grenade launcher but I'm sure most would say plasma melta. Lose a lascannon from a hws? Put the remainder in a chimera, as long as the chimera hasn't moved it'll get heavy on the lascannons.

 

So in this world of horses for courses it'll be up to you to decide what you want from a transport.  If it's to zip around the table doing transport stuff you're probably better off with the taurox. If most of the time it will be near your main battle line because you're using it as a mobile command post/weapon bunker then chimera. Neither better just different. 

[sairence]

On 8/7/2023 at 4:52 PM, Emperor Ming said:

Neither 85 is too much for me ,id rather have more inf

 

Chimera at a push in this edition of free crap, hunter killer, stubber and two heavy bolters is decent

 

I genuinely curious here...what would you consider a fair price for them, taking into account the increased durability and mobility compared to a infantry squad that'll likely get shredded by the same firepower 

[Spyboy]

On 8/8/2023 at 10:48 AM, Sergeant Bastone said:

This is very true.  You definitely want to add this to make the taurox look less terrible.

That definitely looks good, although personally I like the 6 wheel kits better.

[Emperor Ming]

On 8/9/2023 at 7:43 AM, sairence said:

 

I genuinely curious here...what would you consider a fair price for them,

Free god darn it!

 

I don't like paying more for transports than what they transport

 

Also now that scrubs don't run away, and 20 guardsmen is cheaper than 10 with a transport, and is oc 40

 

add in a command squad and its oc is 60+

 

also with the turret rule and order splash gone, bs4 is unreliable for things like heavy bolters, so its back to heavy flamers. 

 

So 70ish, but even then I would still be favouring inf and guardsmen atm could really use a pts decrease, not deathkorps ofc

 

Then there is the problem that a unit cant be ordered while in a transport, which really decreases the entire value of the entire idea for me

 

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Emperor Ming

[Minsc]

My go-to probably wouldn't be putting 10 "regular" (battleline) infantry in a Chimera or Taurox, but it would be to put 10 Kasrkin in a Chimera/Taurox and/or 10 Scions in a Taurox Prime. If I run out of Kasrkin/Scions though, I'd probably put 10 DKOK/Catachans in Chimeras.

It can also be nice with variation. I've tried running multiple 20 man blobs for a few games now and I feel like trying out something new.
In my next game with IG I'll probably run some form of mechanized list, at which point "should I just ditch these transports and add more infantry" isn't really an option as that would just be giving my would-be opponent a target for all their anti-infantry firepower. Better to simply bring less infantry and put them in metal bawkses instead - and in that scenario I do think that both the Chimera and the Tauroxes are "fine".

[march10k]

100% chimera for me.  It seems like every time out, I have a chimmy or two sitting on a wound or two at game's end.  Not only does that mean that the alternative taurox would be dead, but it also means that the chimera is still shooting all game long.  To me, the Taurox is a speed tax that's not expected to see turn 2.  The Chimera is a worthwhile combatant in its own right.  I wouldn't hesitate to field them empty if that were an option.  

 

I wish I could get some autocannon turrets.  Too bad there's no datasheet for twin heavy bolter turrets, which I do have a few of.  But, as it is, I'm stuck with multilasers.  They're pretty horrible all-comers choices, but I mostly face orks, so they work for me.  

 

 

[Sergeant Bastone]

Ogryns in a double heavy flamer chimera works great.  Up close you get both heavy flamers and rapid fire on the heavy stubber, lasgun array, AND ripper guns.  

[Spyboy]

On 8/9/2023 at 2:43 AM, sairence said:

 

I genuinely curious here...what would you consider a fair price for them, taking into account the increased durability and mobility compared to a infantry squad that'll likely get shredded by the same firepower 

I do think they need a bit of a points decrease considering what other factions have.  Maybe a 10-15 point decrease each. 

[march10k]

I mean, I'd not turn down a points cut, but I'm running 4+ chimeras every time out.  Ten Cadians in a Chimmy for 150 seems pretty reasonable to me.

[tychobi]

Taurox is flat better in the role of APC in my opinon.  Mobility is king.  APC firepower is not worth much in my experience.  The difference between being on an objective or not is game changing.  In terms of durability per point it looks to me that Taurox wins as well. 40 wounds of Taurox at t8 seems better than 33 at t9.  Speedy action monkeys that happen to have long range d3 guns?  Ill take Taurox all day over Chimera.

 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

On 8/7/2023 at 7:08 AM, Cadian Bandstand said:

Currently i am preferring the Taurox, i think the speed makes up for the lesser firepower, and they are also cheaper.

 

Ultimately i suppose it depends on what you want from them, the Taurox is obviously a better unit when it comes to rapid deployment, the chimera has more utility beyond a pure troop carrier.

I think I made this same topic roughly a year ago with a similar conclusion, but autocannons being S9 now and the wider variety of T imho makes a huge difference in the calculations.

 

wounding Norma marines on 2s

wounding heavy marines on 3s

wounding scouting type light vehicles on 3s

wounding transports and light armor on 4s

and 3 damage

plus rerolling wounds

 

thats not bad at all, and getting 4 shots with the stats it has is pretty nice.

 

chimera has a significant advantage against light infantry, but I think the standard taurox might edge out against MEQ and light armor.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

What I’m thinking for myself moving forward for this edition at least is leaning into tauroxes.

 

they may not have the weight of dice behind them a chimera does, but the extra speed does what a transport is supposed to do, and 4 S9 AP-1 D3 shots rerolling wounds hitting on 4+ is not a bad bit of fire power for the guard.

 

i will keep a chimera for officer use.