For fans of Titans, no battle was more grand or pivotal than the Beta-Garmon campaign, also known as the Titandeath. However, no battle saw as much armor take to the field as the battles for Tallarn, which is where the new Devastation of Tallarn Legions Imperialis supplement takes us. We'll be taking a look at the supplement in a later article, but today we're taking a look at the new tanks releasing alongside it in Epic Scale.
Shadowsword Chassis
This box lets you build the Shadowsword and two of its classic variants. Undeniably the premier Titan-killer of the Imperial Army and later Astra Militarum, the Shadowsword throws a heavy laser down designed to absolutely destroy the heaviest foes an opponent can throw at you. By contrast, Stormblades and Stormswords give up punch but gain versatility in what they can take down and still deal heavy damage to all but the toughest of foes.
"Oh Omnissiah be praised, these tanks are Awesome! The Shadowswords, Stormblades, and Stormswords box is a great addition to the Solar Auxilia. These dedicated superheavy hunters were always my favorite of the big Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum/Solar Auxilia tanks for their sheer audacity to toss the flexibility of the Baneblades and Stormhammers right out the window and mount one honking enormous Titan killing gun.
Let’s get the similarities out of the way. Other than the main gun, these are all the same. And despite sharing side panels with the “Bane” tanks, these do not have sponson weapon options. They come locked in with side-mounted lascannon turrets, sponson heavy bolters, and a front mounted heavy bolter. I originally went to magnetize my sponsons like I did for the Baneblade, then pulled the magnet out when I realized there was no point (and I still had easy access to the magnet). Maybe some future rule set will permit variation there so you could magnetize to “future proof,” but that would all be pure speculation. The second forward mounted weapon that you get on the Baneblade, Banehammer, and Stormhammer is absent here, no demolisher cannon or lascannon in sight. These weapons are fine, but none are anything to write home about and they are not why you take these tanks.
The Stormsword is the first of these tanks I was aware of back in the early days of Forgeworld when I would gawk at them in the display case at the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker (RIP). This siege based superheavy kind of conflicts with my general feeling that demolisher show up enough as hull mounted SA weapons (the Banes, Malcadors) that you do not really need to take dedicated Demolisher special ability platforms in SA armies. But wow is this ever a dedicated Demolisher platform. The Stormhammer siege cannon hits at 30” with a 3+ to hit and, as usual, pairs Demolisher with Ignores Cover. When most Demolisher weapons are close range platforms, sitting around 12”, this has the range to reach a good way across the board to collapse buildings. Do you need it? Probably not. But I think it at least distinguishes itself.
The Stormblade strikes me as the easiest of these tanks to skip. A hull mounted plasma blastgun sure looks cool (maybe the coolest?), but in LI plasma blastguns were already middling choices on Titans and they have the same stats here. I think 20” range on a front arc only gun is too short when it is your principle weapon on a low-speed platform that is kind of pricey. The Stormblade suffers from being a bit of a generalist in a game that rewards specialization.
The Shadowsword is the clear winner to me. This tank is obviously a true, dedicated titan-hunter. Its volcano cannon is on par with a Dire Wolf’s (hits a bit less hard than a Reaver’s, but with 10” more range). And the tank is well under half the price of that titan. Honestly, as a titan owner and someone who likes titans a lot in LI, this thing is terrifying. Two of them in a squadron is a major threat to titans,knights, and any kind of vehicle due to Engine Killer. And a fairly cheap threat too. Against infantry this leaves something to be desired, but really only because of cost and number of shots (it is not anti-tank, so they lose saves against it), and you have other things to kill them. I guess this is also not your top pick for aircraft. But so much in LI is a ground pounding vehicle of some sort, and this just devours them. Is it better than a squadron of Leman Russ Vanquishers? No, not really, but it is cheaper and it shoots farther. Is it better than Basilisks? Also point for point no, but they are so overtuned that I would guess either your club is already placing house limits on them or they will get some kind of FAQ someday anyway.
Oh, magnetizing to swap between these variants is fairly easy - you can drill a spot for a magnet in the bracket for the gun, then place some kind of large magnet right behind the vertical weapon traverse as you assemble it. All the variants look good too. Actually, the Stormsword kind of looks dinky compared to the ridiculousness of its brothers, but it is not strictly a bad look.
If you play Solar Auxilia, I would pick up these tanks."
The venerable Leman Russ tank, named for the Primarch of the Vylka Fenryka himself. Eight of these mighty stalwarts can be built from the kit, providing you with punishing plasma blasts or hard-hitting cannons. Typically these will only be a threat to the likes of Warhound Titans but don't let that fool you, these will still cause grief.
"The Leman Russ base model for Legion Imperialis is a great little kit and has been since the first release. They are pleasingly chonky and not too difficult to build. The only criticism I have of the original kit is that you cannot build all turret variants at once - you have to pick four per sprue when you get eight guns (four of each). But the sprue is only so big, and on balance it is better to have four tanks instead of three and more turrets. And for the original Leman Russ kit it hardly matters, because the Leman Russ Vanquisher is so much more effective as a game piece that the only reason to build the vanilla Russ with battle cannon is because you like the aesthetic.The best and worst bits of that all basically transfer to the new variants, both the Exterminator and Annihilator Squadron and the Executioner and Demolisher Squadron. These remain great little tanks. The bodies are the same as far as I can tell (if there are little tweaks to details, they were not obvious to me). The turrets are pretty much the same too, with the notable and important exception of the weapon barrels that define each variant. And these look good! Not better than the originals, but not worse. They just add flavor and I am here for it. Again, four turrets and eight weapons, so you have to pick and choose. I actually have always loved the twin-barreled Leman Russ Annihilator and consistently have a soft spot for any plasma variants of anything.
The real question, unfortunately, is why should you use these over a Leman Russ Vanquisher? And sadly, I think the case for that is not especially strong in most cases. The first use case is obvious and you need no justification if it is your plan - these have a role in narrative play when representing force orgs that would rely on the Russ chassis for dedicated purposes. So if that is your aim, have at it!
Some of these are marginally better at fighting off groups of infantry and light vehicles, but usually only at shorter ranges than the vanquisher which means that even when they are better, they are fighting for fewer turns. And generally speaking you are only getting really modest bonuses against other kinds of targets for that decrease in threat radius and time-to-fight. The Leman Russ Annihilator, as cool as it looks, is another anti-tank tank like the vanquisher that trades Armourbane and 13” of range for… Accurate. And that is it. And none of these are cheaper than the original Russ variants. They all clock in at the same point value. Oh, and each of the new ones is its own detachment. Which feels like a way to pad the Devastation of Tallarn to me. None of these detachments has any native unique rules or different stats (beyond primary weapon) or even variety in hull mounted weaponry. I guess I should mention that Demolishers bring building-targeting to the Leman Russ chassis for the first time, but I feel like Solar Auxilia has a lot of options for damaging buildings so I am not sure you really need a Russ dedicated to that.
The best case for taking them is part of the new Formations of Legend, in the Tallarn Reborn Carmine Ambush Tercio, which mandates three Leman Russ Squadrons at four tanks a piece - Strike (mercifully with Vanquishers), Annihilator, and Executioner - and for taking those you get Forward Deployment and Scout on all of them (and can add two Aethon Sentinels Patrols with four sentinels a piece to that, if you choose). Those pre-game positioning advantages seem to be pretty powerful in LI, so that might be good enough to justify taking some sub-optimal Russ variants. Assuming you are playing Tallarn, though I doubt anyone would really hold you to a particular paint scheme or anything if you claimed you had a Tallarn force (advantage of Solar Aux).
As miniatures these tanks are great, and in a display or diorama of Legion Imperialis minis they will absolutely add character and interest to your SA tanks. "
Whoops! It seems we had some corrupted data here. Our deepest apologies; however, these are build off of the same chasis as the existing Sicaran tanks within Legions Imperialis but instead give you the options for the infantry-killing gatling cannon or the missile spewing Arcus. These will occasionally give your Knights pause for concern and on a fast-moving chassis, you have reason to fear flanking maneuvers.
No comments:
Post a Comment