Baneblade-variants and you: Over 300 tons of the Emperors Justice!

[Minsc]

So a few hours ago I impulse bought a Baneblade for no apparent reason other than "I need some paints. Oh look my go-to webstore has 1(!) Baneblade lying around. If I buy it, then I get free shipping, woho!"

This decision of mine becomes even more pecuilar after the fact that I very recently beat the snot out of the other IG-player in my gaminggroup 2 games in a row with my Thousand Sons, when he decided to bring 2 BB-variants in the first game (a Baneblade and a Shadowsword) and then 3 BB-variants in the second game (a Baneblade, a Shadowsword and a Stormlord).
If at first you don't succeed right?

Apparently, seeing him lose when fielding Baneblades made me want to... field them myself? ....ehhh? Ah well, anyway, here we are...

So for the last hour I've been thinking hard on how to assemble my incoming reinforcements.
I'd also love some feedback and ideas from my fellow threadheads: If you where to recieve a Baneblade right now, what variant would you assemble it as, and why?

For my own part, I've downed the choices from 7 to 3 8 to 4.
- Stormlord is out, it's the one variant I already own.
- Hellhammer is out, I really don't see the point of it.

- Banehammer and Doomhammer are both "sort-of-out", largely because I already have a BB-transport in the Stormlord.

This leaves the regular Baneblade, the Banesword and the Shadowsword.
Edit: And the Stormsword which I completely forgot. 

The Baneblade:
+ A truly iconic model.

+ Main gun is a decent allrounder.

+ Hull-mounted Demolisher.
+ It's Rolling Fortress-rule feels pretty useable and fun. 

 

- The most expensive variant - by quite a large margin compared to some other variants.

 

The Banesword:
+ Main gun is great, probably the best allrounder after the Stormsword.
+ It's Armour Obliteration-rule is hilarious, and potentially devastating. Feels made for trolling opponents. 

+ Gun barrel = Big Emperor Energy.

+ Can easily be fielded as a Shadowsword: just magnetize the thing on the muzzle.

- Not as expensive as the Baneblade, but still one of the most expensive variants.

The Shadowsword:

+ Cheapest BB-variant by a fair margin (100 pts less than the regular Baneblade!)

+ Can easily be fielded as a Banesword, just magnetize the thing on the muzzle.

+ Gun Barrel = Biggest Emperor Energy.

+ "Oh you have monsters/vehicles? Remove that one please." - That gun is scary...

- ... but also not very scary against non-vehicles/monsters. In the wrong matchup it's 440 pts that risk not doing very much for the cost. Specialization has it's drawbacks. 

 

The Stormsword:

+ Main Gun is amazing, essentially a Banesword with shorter range but with damage D6+2 instead of flat 4. Best take on anything-gun?

+ Concussive Wave is situational and can potentially do plenty damage, but might also do nothing at all. 

 

- Second most expensive Baneblade-variant. 
 

Well that's all I have for today, time to go sleep on it. Thanks for reading. 

 

Edit: Wow, I completely forgot about the Stormsword. Added it in the discussion.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Minsc

[Orion]

Stormsword. Cuz it looks cool.

Edited August 29, 2023 by JayJapanB

[Minsc]

11 hours ago, JayJapanB said:

Stormsword. Cuz it looks cool.

Haha, I must've been out of it last night because at first when I read this I was like "Stormsword? What's he talking about, Was it a typo, does he mean the Stormlord or the Shadowsword?" and just now I realized that I completely forgot about the Stormsword actually being a thing. Cheers for waking me up from my stupor. 

Yeah the Stormsword looks solid. Probably has the best wellrounded main gun out of all the BB-variants. 

For my part it's currently looking like I'll go with a Banesword/Shadowsword hybrid. I'm useless at magnetizing but magnetizing that extra muzzle-part that separates the two tanks cant be all that hard. Banesword is just hilarious with its "causing things to explode on 3+"-rule and having an option to field the much cheaper Shadowsword once in a while is nice.

[duz_]

Magnets... Pretty easy to do and you get them all

 

Link to the tutorial should be in the resources pinned thread

[sairence]

Even without magnets, the kit is stupid easy the multi-build. The two different hulls don't have to be glued in, you can just make both and slot in as needed. At worst you glue some sprue bits on the inside for them to sit on, and then you can just slide it in.

 

That basically leaves you with 3 variants, which are all just easy barrel swaps. You don't want the transports, which makes it even easier, as you can glue in the engine section at the back. 

 

I've done 3. One Octo, one semi-changeable and one fixed Baneblade. They all took about the same amount of work 

Edited August 30, 2023 by sairence

[march10k]

Shadowsword all the way.  With all four sponsons.  Because "have that removed!"  Seriously, I think people are going to bank on how tough tanks are this edition.  I certainly am, I'm parking my dakka-Dorn 18" from two objectives with an enginseer crouched behind it and just daring my opponent to approach. 29 anti-infantry shots behind an unkillable hull kind of dictates the flow of the game.  At the same time, I struggle to cope with anything over T10, at least until I get a heavy lascannon battery or two painted.

[Maritn]

If I'd buy a super heavy, it would be the Shadowsword/Banesword just because of the design. It's one of the few casemate tanks. 

[TheNewMann]

Simple, the Baneblade will be what I will assemble. For the bullet hell the Stormlord will bring to hordes of enemies. If I ever get a Baneblade box, I'll simply assemble the oh so honorable and mighty Baneblade. The first in line to unleash 11 barrels of hell.