Well Sunday is game day again, and this time someone at club mentioned they wanted to face an army with a Baneblade in it. As I own one (an Armorcast kit, but it'll do ) I decided to step up, and my tanks need a good dusting down, so ....

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2000 Pts - Armoured Company Roster

Doctrines: Vanquisher, Exterminator, Ace Sponson Gunners

Command Tank (1#, 280 Pts)
Leman Russ Vanquisher @ [290] Pts
Coaxial Storm Bolter; Vanquisher Battle Cannon; Heavy Bolter; Improved Comms

Tank Ace (1#, 210 Pts)
Leman Russ Exterminator @ [210] Pts
Skills - Ace Sponson Gunner; Twin Linked Autocannon; Heavy Bolter; Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair)

Tank Ace (1#, 210 Pts)
Leman Russ Exterminator @ [210] Pts
Skills - Ace Sponson Gunner; Twin Linked Autocannon; Heavy Bolter; Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair)

Tank Unit (1#, 145 Pts)
Leman Russ Battle Tank @ [145] Pts
Battlecannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Tank Unit (1#, 135 Pts)
Leman Russ Exterminator @ [135] Pts
Twin Linked Autocannon; Heavy Bolter; Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair)

Recce Section (1#, 115 Pts)
Hellhound @ [115] Pts
Inferno Cannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Recce Section (1#, 115 Pts)
Hellhound @ [115] Pts
Inferno Cannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Support Tank (1#, 155 Pts)
Leman Russ Demolisher @ [155] Pts
Demolisher Cannon; Hull Heavy Bolter, Sponson Heavy Bolters

Baneblade @ 634 Pts
Mega Battle Cannon; Coaxial Autocannon; Demolisher Cannon; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter Sponsons (x2); Twin Linked Hull Heavy Bolter; Lascannon (x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1999


I only took 3 doctrines because that's all I needed. The Ace Sponson Gunners is there to deal with being assaulted (I'm expecting that, so it seemed like a good idea), and due to the Aces High rule every Command and Ace tank has to have at least as many points spent on doctrines as any other tank has and there weren't enough points left to get it onto the Troops Exterminator - I'd have to also put it on the Command tank, which doesn't even have sponsons

The Hellhounds are there because I like them for clearing hordes - nids and orks mainly. I've only used one in an army in the past, so I thought I've got two a go - the one tends to do OK for a couple of turns and then gets weapon destroyed or blown up. The Troops choices are cheap and cheerful - I wanted to take a Battle cannon in there and to keep the cost down have no sponsons, and the Exterminator is there to add more firepower and worry the enemy.

The Demolisher is there to dump S10 pieplates on anything nasty. And then there's the Baneblade - I expect this to be serious fire magnet, and hopefully my luck will hold out (my Chaos Warhound Titan survived admirably in it's last game, losing it shields but nothing else).

Right. My comments:

Solid enough. However, drop the vanquisher, and replace it with a standard russ. Give it the antitank rounds doctrine. This would mean it would weigh in at 265 points. This then allows you to spend the 10 points on giving ace sponson gunners to the troops choice exterminator.

This leaves you with 6 points to play about with. I would possibly drop the sponsons on the demolisher, and add in a pintle heavy stubber to one of the tank aces, and throw on some random things (smoke launchers maybe) somewhere in the list.

Socaddict wrote:Right. My comments:

Solid enough. However, drop the vanquisher, and replace it with a standard russ. Give it the antitank rounds doctrine. This would mean it would weigh in at 265 points. This then allows you to spend the 10 points on giving ace sponson gunners to the troops choice exterminator.

Nice idea.

Socaddict wrote:This leaves you with 6 points to play about with. I would possibly drop the sponsons on the demolisher, and add in a pintle heavy stubber to one of the tank aces, and throw on some random things (smoke launchers maybe) somewhere in the list.

My demolisher rarely fires it's sponsons, so dropping it in favour of more guns on the other tanks is probably a good idea.

Ta for the reply

I posted some piccies:

Armoured column pretty much ready (just need to rip some sponsons off a chassis ...)

Exterminator conversion #2 using a couple of cut down barrels from Predator turret leftovers.

Hellhound conversion - Chimera with spare track parts on the turret sides, Land Speeder heavy flamer used as the barrel, and a couple of munitions/equipment pods from the GW scenery pack used as fuel tanks (I also used 2 barrels from the same pack for the exhausts on the Baneblade chassis )

Baneblade - a continuation of my long time WIP chassis for the Armorcast Baneblade hull, so I can use the Shadowsword parts complete as my 2nd super heavy if I ever need to field them together. It's still pretty rough - needs armour plating, headlights, greeblies, etc. The Chimera turrets are just placeholders for the lascannons for now, I'm still undecided on whether to stick with them, change the barrels for lascannon barrels (got a few spare from the Russ chassis hull weapon changes), or replace the turrets completely with something smaller.

Right, here's the revised list. The Vanquisher has been replaced by a Russ with Anti-tank rounds, one Ace Exterminator has a pintle mounted stubber for extra firepower, the other Ace Exterminator has a searchlight (in case Dawn and Dusk comes into play, and I only had 1pt left to spend!), smoke added to a Hellhound so it can be used to race up one flank and survive, and the sponsons dropped on the Demolisher (which will now be magnetised to be able to swap weapons in the future)

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2000 Pts - Armoured Company Roster

Doctrines: Exterminator, Ace Sponson Gunners, Anti-Tank Rounds

Command Tank (1#, 265 Pts)
Leman Russ Battle Tank @ [265] Pts
Skills - Anti-tank Rounds; Improved Comms; Battlecannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Tank Ace (1#, 211 Pts)
Leman Russ Exterminator @ [211] Pts
Skills - Ace Sponson Gunner; Twin Linked Autocannon; Heavy Bolter; Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair)
Searchlight @ [1] Pts

Tank Ace (1#, 222 Pts)
Leman Russ Exterminator @ [222] Pts
Skills - Ace Sponson Gunner; Pintle Heavy Stubber; Twin Linked Autocannon; Heavy Bolter; Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair)
Pintle Heavy Stubber @ [12] Pts

Tank Unit (1#, 145 Pts)
Leman Russ Battle Tank @ [145] Pts
Battlecannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Tank Unit (1#, 145 Pts)
Leman Russ Exterminator @ [145] Pts
Skills - Ace Sponson Gunner; Twin Linked Autocannon; Heavy Bolter; Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair)

Recce Section (1#, 115 Pts)
Hellhound @ [115] Pts
Inferno Cannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Recce Section (1#, 118 Pts)
Hellhound @ [118] Pts
Inferno Cannon; Hull Heavy Bolter
Smoke Launchers @ [3] Pts

Support Tank (1#, 145 Pts)
Leman Russ Demolisher @ [145] Pts
Demolisher Cannon; Hull Heavy Bolter

Super Heavy Tank (1#, 634 Pts)
   1 Baneblade @ 634 Pts
      Mega Battle Cannon; Coaxial Autocannon; Demolisher Cannon; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Pair); Twin Linked Hull Heavy Bolter; Lascannon (x2)

Total Roster Cost: 2000


I can't remember exactly how but I managed to get 4 normal russes or something like that in an AC list. Personally I would be tempted to go conventional but thats just me.

Any reason the baneblade is in there?

because they agreed to include a baneblade.

EDIT: let us know how they perform, willya Spack?

It was a massacre. I turned up to find I was facing Sisters of Battle, and then when the game started found that every squad was maxed out with melta (apparently my opponent modified his list while I popped to the shop for drink and food to survive the afternoon). Terrain was a nightmare, there was very little LOS (again, down to my opponent). Turn 1 and 2 went OK, although cover saves protected over half the sisters I hit. Turn 3 was a nightmare - the Baneblade died to 2 penetrating hits, and I found Seraphim around the backs of my line hitting the rear armour of tanks using inferno pistols and meltabombs. Turn 4 my command tank managed to shoot itself causing a penetrating hit that took it out. By the end of turn 4 I had only a single hellhound left, immobilised and without the inferno cannon. My opponent had 2 squads of sisters, a dominion squad, 2 seraphim squad, and an exorcist left.

I've learnt a bit more with this list - foot troops are needed to help keep assault units at bay. Next time I'll take a least one armoured fist squad, and maybe a sentinel squadron. The doctrines ended up being a bit of waste - I got to use Ace Sponson Gunners only once, but the AT rounds would have been ok if not for the terrain. Next time I might give Crush and Grind a go - at least it doesn't rely on fire arcs to be useful. A Griffon might also prove useful, especially when LOS is nerfed.

And next time I'll ask to see my opponents list before the game starts, tailoring specifically for my list when he saw me turn up with 2 cases of tanks was a beardy thing to pull.