This article will look at most of the vehicles that the Legions Astartes use to get around the battlefield and blow the enemy up. They range from fairly small Rhinos and Drop Pods up to Lords of War like the Fellblade and Mastodon.
Vehicles don’t benefit from Legion Tactica, meaning that they may feel less individual to your Legion than your other stuff. They do have your Legion Trait, however, meaning they might get other rules, equipment options, and can use your Advanced Reaction – in theory at least. In many cases it will call for them to do something a vehicle can’t do, like charge an enemy unit or move equal to their initiative.
This article looks at what all these vehicles are good at and how you can set them up to perform various roles. We know that Heresy players are interested in stuff other than pure “efficiency” but there are some fairly complex interactions here that are worth understanding.
Table of Contents
Vehicle Weaponry
Legion vehicles tend to have lots of guns on and most have options for which you take, particularly for their sponsons and pintle mounts. Some, like the Predator, have a whole array of different main weapon options too. You’ll want to stick guns on a vehicle that work well together, which usually means they are designed to attack the same kind of targets.
Sponson and pintle weapons are always Defensive weapons, regardless of their strength, meaning they can fire as reactions and don’t have to snap fire if you have your tank split its fire between different targets. Any other weapons count as Defensive if they have a Strength of up to 6 or Battle weapons if the strength is 7 or more.
Vehicles are allowed to split their shooting attacks, picking different targets for each gun. If they do this, however, any Battle weapons will have to Snap Fire. Defensive weapons can fire at full BS while splitting fire. Additionally, only Defensive weapons can be fired during reactions.
This means it doesn’t work well to have something like a Predator with Lascannons in the turret (Battle weapon) and Heavy bolter sponsons (Defensive weapon). You could fire the Heavy bolters at some infantry and the Lascannons at an enemy tank but that would cause the turret Lascannons to Snap Fire. Instead, it’s best to go for either all Defensive weapons or for sponson weapons that can happily fire at the same target as the turret.
If you want a tank that can engage different types of target it works fine to have a Defensive turret weapon like the Predator’s Volkite Macro-saker with Lascannon sponsons. The sponson weapons are all Defensive regardless of their Strength. The tank could engage infantry with its turret and heavier stuff with its sponsons and nothing would need to Snap Fire.
You’ll also want to make sure you have your tank equipped with weapons that work well together. For example, if your main weapon is Ordnance and wants to remain stationary, you should probably avoid heavy flamer sponsons that require it to go close to the enemy.
I think you’ll tend to want pintle weapons on tanks equipped to kill infantry and not on tank hunters – which will want Hunter-killer missiles for a bit more of an Alpha strike. Most pintle weapons are anti-personnel weapons like Heavy bolters, Flamers, Havoc launchers and most of the combi-weapons.
Multimeltas are an expensive exception to this, for 25 points, but even they are probably better on anti-personnel tanks. Your other anti-tank weapons like Lascannons generally want to stay still for Heavy bonuses and tend to have long ranges. You could try something like a Predator with flamers in its sponsons and turret and a pintle multimelta. The pintle melta and all the other guns are defensive and short-ranged, meaning it can split fire freely. The Combi-melta is a cheaper alternative to a Multimelta that’s well worth considering, as you’re unlikely to get many shots up close. It also makes sense to run single meltas as they will tend to either one-shot a target or do nothing.
A Heavy flamer on a Rhino or a Havoc launcher on a dakka tank are now very interesting as a way to hand out Tactical statuses. They won’t usually do all that much damage (flamers will, occasionally) but they can stop enemy units from scoring. A Rhino rush army could potentially inflict a lot of disruption this way.
Some of the bigger vehicles ignore all of this. Stable vehicles like the Kratos and all Superheavies can split their fire however they want without any penalties and also count as stationary when firing, even if they move. Stable vehicles lose the Heavy and Ordnance bonuses if they get a Tactical Status but Superheavies rarely get those anyway.
Attacking Vehicles
The way vehicles take damage and get destroyed is quite different in Third edition, compared to Second. Now, you need to cause enough damage for the vehicle to run out of Hull Points, which work pretty much the same way as Wounds do on everything else. For each Hit on a vehicle you roll a D6 and add the weapon’s Strength stat, as before. If your total equals the armour value of the target you get a Glancing hit, while beating it scores a Penetrating hit. Glancing hits cause a random Tactical Status – Suppressed, Stunned or Pinned, while Penetrating hits make the vehicle lose Hull points equal to your weapon’s damage.
Quite a lot of weapons, like Lascannons and Meltas (if they get close) have Armourbane. This causes a Glancing hit to Penetrate instead. Such a weapon is better for killing vehicles but will never never cause them Tactical statuses – unless there are some other rules like Shock in play.
In 3.0 most vehicles don’t explode when destroyed. In the Armour section only the Sicaran Venator does, inflicting 6 (its base Hull Points) S8 AP- D1 hits on all units within 6” if you roll a 5+ when it dies. The Typhon and Cerberus can explode too, which will hurt a lot as they’ve got 12 Hull Points! In previous editions I’ve seen enormous casualties caused to infantry (and Militia armies all but wiped out) by exploding tanks but that’s going to be less of an issue now.
Tactical Statuses are a major problem for vehicles. They usually only recover from them by rolling a 6 in the end phase, making them much less likely to recover than Infantry. Some have Auto-repair, meaning they pass this roll on a 4 or 5+ instead, but that’s still not reliable and kind of happens too late anyway. A transport that can’t move during your Movement phase will mean you have to deal with a load of angry legionaries demanding refunds for their tickets. An army with a lot of vehicles should probably invest in some Techmarines to fix them during the Movement phase, letting them go off and do their jobs.
Transports
Transports now come in two categories. This section covers the smaller ones that can’t carry terminators or other Bulky stuff, due to having the Light transport rule. There are also transport vehicles in various other slots, like aircraft and super-heavies.
Transports are not “Dedicated” to particular units any more and instead they have their own slots on the force organisation chart. They aren’t assigned to specific units so anyone can get inside if they fit, though still only one unit and attached characters per vehicle. There are four Transport slots in the Crusade Primary Detachment and four in the Armoured Fist auxiliary detachment. There are none in the Allied detachment, which is awkward and means allies may well need an Armoured Fist to get around.
Rhino
These have got a significant price bump up to 60 points, which is very justified because units can make disordered charges out of them now. Their front armour has been improved to 12, they have 5 hull points and carry up to 12 models, so you can send a character or apothecary with a unit, or maybe just have a squad of 12 legionaries. Auto-repair 4+ is good if there are no Techmarines around.
A Rhino can give an assault unit a very long reach so long as you’re prepared to take volley fire and possibly overwatch on the way in. Their best use is probably getting your Tactical legionaries onto objectives early on. It’s a very straightforward way to earn VPs and win games.
Rhinos come with two bolters, one of which can be upgraded to a pintle weapon. It’s worth considering this as a way to do a bit more damage. You can drive 12””, disembark troops and fire a pintle weapon and/or hunter killer missile. If lots of Rhinos do that it’ll cause some real harm.
Drop Pod
Pods have lost a few tricks and gone up to 50 points but also gained some utility. Now you can intercept the pod itself, which will be relatively hard to kill at AV12 with 4 hull points, but not the troops inside. Pods deploy in the reserves sub-phase, which is when interception happens. Infantry get out during the main part of the movement phase. There’s also no scattering for deep strike any more, though that was rarely a major issue for pods.
Pods have a capacity of 10 and are Light transports, so they can’t carry anyone Bulky. When they deploy you have to open the doors, which are then ignored for all purposes. Everyone inside has to get out in the movement phase and nobody is allowed to embark back in the pod. A drop pod full of veterans or even just a tactical squad could be really useful for claiming enemy objectives and causing damage.
Unfortunately pods have lost a lot of special rules and their rite of war. You can only deep strike from turn 2 onwards and only one unit per turn can do it. I’m sorry for anyone with a drop assault army because it simply doesn’t work any more. One pod is pretty useful but there’s not a lot of point having more than that.
Termite
If you can’t decide between a Rhino or Drop pod, take a termite. For 80 points you can have essentially a rhino with deep strike and some quite nasty firepower, though only a 6” move. No Auto-repair and not much chance of a Techmarine reaching it, so it’ll be stuck with any statuses. That’s no big deal – a termite has done its job the turn it arrives and anything else is a bonus.
By default it comes with melta cutters, which are basically a meltagun with only 6” range (and melta 3”) but with a 3” blast. It’s S8, AP2 and D3. You can deep strike right behind an enemy vehicle and have a decent chance of doing it 6 damage. There’s also a risk of scattering and melting the termite itself or the squad who just got out of it.
Termites also have two combo-bolters, firing 8 bolter shots. They can upgrade these to volkite chargers for 10 points, which seems odd as you’d only have 4 shots, albeit at S5. You can fire volley shots with any of these weapons as they are all pintle-mounted, which grants them Assault. The stand out option is to add two heavy flamers for only 5 points. The termite can then pop up and split fire, burning some infantry, who may well run away, and melting a tank. You’ll be snap firing but that doesn’t matter when you fire templates and the blast only scatters D6” so it’s pretty likely to still connect with a tank.
Termites seem great. I hope they bring out a plastic one.
Heavy Transports
This section comprises Land Raider carriers, Spartans and the bigger drop pod type things. You get four Heavy transport slots in the Iron fist detachment, one in a Primarch’s Warlord detachment and one in the Champion’s Veteran Cadre.
Land Raider Carrier
The remains the same AV14 assault transport we all know for 265 points. 10” move and room inside for 12 models in power armour, 6 Terminators or 3 Saturnines. It now has 8 hull points and is considerably tougher than before, thanks to the changes to how vehicles are damaged. Auto-repair 5+ is ok but you really don’t want to spend a turn pinned, so there probably ought to be a Techmarine near your land raider.
Realistically a Land Raider will be moving a lot, especially in the early game, so its sponson Twin lascannons will usually only do 1 damage.
In the hull you get a twin heavy bolter with 6 shots at S5 AP4 D1, a twin-heavy flamer with the same profile but 1 template shot and Panic 2 (perfect for scaring away screening units) or another twin lascannon for 10 points.
It’s probably best to either give your land raider hull lascannons and a HK to shoot a single vehicle at a time or have a defensive hull weapon and the freedom to split fire. Pintle weapons work for either option.
Spartan
A bigger Land Raider with 10 hull points, an enormous capacity of 26 and Auto-repair 4+. It costs a lot: 400 points. All the same upgrades are available, with the same things to consider with defensive weapons and so on.
The huge space inside allows for options like a full squad of 12 Cataphractii or 6 Saturnines, plus two spaces for characters. Spartans will often be the transport of choice for Primarchs. The downside here is that units are only allowed to charge one target. You can easily spend a thousand points or more on a Spartan and its contents, then just kill a relatively cheap screening unit in melee.
The other major difference with the land raider is the sponson weapons. The lascannon arrays have two shots at S9 and AP2, just like twin lascannons. But they have D3 all the time, making them far more effective on the move. You can swap these for laser destroyers which are shorter range at 36” instead of 48”, S10 but only D2, with Heavy D. While moving the two guns will be pretty much identical against tanks. Lascannon arrays are better into Dreadnoughts and Saturnines but laser destroyers are a bit better when stationary or reacting, especially into AV14. Either way a Spartan has really formidable firepower, including when it returns fire as a Reaction.
You can now replace those laser sponsons with a Gravis heavy bolter battery, wiht 8 shots, S5, AP4, D1 and Suppressive (2). I don’t personally think this is a great option for a Spartan or the super-heavies that can take it, as many of the things a Spartan is worried about are too tough to be concerned by Heavy bolters. But suppressing the enemy is excellent so it wouldn’t be a terrible choice, if you have enough anti-tank elsewhere.
Dreadnought Drop Pod
It’s a Drop Pod you can put a Dreadnought in. 100 points, AV12 and 5 hull points. It takes anything up to a Leviathan – not a Saturnine.
Dropping a Leviathan into the enemy Deployment Zone is pretty awesome. They’ve got all kinds of horrible short-ranged weapons so they’ll do a lot of damage with shooting and then be a major threat in melee in later turns.
Dreadclaw drop pod
This is an armour 12 5-hp flyer for 115 points. It’s not a drop pod really as it can’t deep strike, which is a bit bizarre. Instead it has to do a “drop mission” to deploy its troops, before dusting off.
This means you roll for reserves, which you can do from turn 1 onwards, on a 3+. If your flyer turns up you can put it on the edge of the board in your deployment zone, including up the sides if you want. As of the recent FAQ, flyers that arrive from turn 2 onwards can be placed on any board edge. Your opponent can then intercept if they want, snap firing unless they have Skyfire. It can then move 15”, at which point enemy fighter planes with the Interceptor rule can attempt the Combat air patrol reaction. Then finally it can deploy its troops. Then it could fire its defensive weapons if it had any before returning to reserves.
If a flyer gets shot down before deploying its troops you roll a dice for every model on board. For every roll of a 1 the unit suffers a wound at AP2 D2, which damage mitigation doesn’t work against, though invulnerable saves do. That isn’t all that bad really – a squad might lose one or two models and a Contemptor probably won’t be affected.
There isn’t all that much to do with the unarmed Dreadclaw after that, though in theory it could extract units or collect more troops to deploy on subsequent turns.
Dreadclaws have a capacity of 12, including any kind of bulky units you like. It can carry a walker up to Bulky 6, so a Contemptor but not a Deredeo or leviathan.
The Dreadclaw can get its passengers pretty far up the board before they get out and start running around. It isn’t an assault vehicle but they can still make disordered charges if you want. It’s definitely possible for a unit like a Contemptor to charge into the enemy Deployment zone on Turn 1 from a Dreadclaw.
Kharybdis Assault Claw
A bigger Dreadclaw with 8 hull points, a capacity of 22, and a weapon (kind of) for 235 points. It only has a 14” move, so gets you marginally less far up the board. It can carry walkers up to Leviathans and Deredeos. It can also carry even the biggest Primarchs.
The Kharybdis missile launcher is okay but not great. Only 18” range with 5 S6 shots at AP4, D1. It has pinning 1, which is quite nice, but overall it’s not amazing.
A Kharybdis ought to survive most intercepting fire and then be able to deliver its cargo far onto the board. It isn’t an Assault transport so whoever’s inside will have to make a disordered charge.
I think a Kharybdis is usually a less good choice than taking two Dreadclaws or a Storm Eagle, either of which costs around the same. Its niche might be delivering Angron or Fulgrim Transfigured into combat on turn 1, however. Lotara Sarrin can even make it turn up on a 2+.
Armour
A big section, containing most of the Legions’ tanks and artillery. They are mostly available through the Armoured support Auxiliary detachment, which has four slots. In practice this means you can have loads of tanks if you want, though not quite as a whole army as we don’t have a Command tank – unless you count the Damocles Rhino.
Predator
The Predator is probably the iconic Legion tank. This 12” move Armour 13/12/10 tank comes with a Predator cannon and Heavy bolter sponsons for 100 points. It can be equipped with weapons for pretty much any purpose, from a dedicated tank hunter to inflicting a variety of different gruesome deaths to infantry. It will lose a lot of effectiveness from its Heavy weapons if it moves, especially against other vehicles.
The default Predator cannon is reasonably good. 48” range, 3 shots or 4 if stationary, AP4, D2 and Breaching 6+ is a stat line that you can fire at most targets with some chance of success. I think you probably want to pair it with lascannons as it’s not a defensive weapon, so you want something that works against heavy targets.
The Flamestorm cannon is a free upgrade firing a S6 AP4 D2 template, causing Panic (2). It’s obviously going to need to move around so lascannon sponsons won’t be a good investment but a pintle multimelta might be, as it’ll tend to go close to the enemy.
The only other main that’s a Defensive turret option is the 5 point Volkite macro-saker. It has a great profile with 45” range, 8 shots, S6, AP5, D2 and Volkite 6. It’ll be effective against any kind of infantry and allows you to freely split fire with any other Predator weapons, except a HK missile. I like the idea of a Predator with a Volkite turret and lascannon sponsons, which I can use to pick off things like individual Tarantulas or vehicles that are already damaged.
The Executioner plasma destroyer costs 25 points for a 36” S8, AP4, D1, 5” Blast with Breaching 5+, or in maximal mode D2, Breaching 4+ and Overload 1. This could be good if there are lots of terminators around. You can also kill Auxilia infantry very easily with it.
The Heavy conversion beam cannon is 30 points for a gun that maxes out at S8, AP2, D3 5” blast at 30-45”. From 15-30” it’s still very effective vs infantry, with S7, AP3, D2. Inside 15” you only get S6, AP4, D1 – so you should probably use your 12” move to get further away. Heavy RS at all times. I think this simply outclasses the plasma option against all targets, except 2+ saves within 30”.
The Magna-melta was probably the best option in 2nd but is significantly worse now. 20 points, 1 36” shot with S9, AP2, D4, Heavy S and Melta at 12”. In theory if it gets within 12” it has an Armourbane shot doing 8 damage to vehicles. In reality, even in the incredibly unlikely event that a melta weapon rolled a 3+ to hit in that situation, it still needs a 5+ to penetrate Armour 14. And of course it weakens your sponson weapons to make them move.
A Graviton cannon is quite interesting for 20 points. It’s the same gun a Rapier can take: 36”, S8, AP3, D1 with Heavy D, 3” Blast, Breaching 6”, Shock (pinned) and Pinning 2. The result is a decent generalist gun, which will often inflict pinning on infantry or tanks.
The Neutron blaster is 15 points and not great in my opinion. It has 24” range, 1 shot, S9, Shock (suppressed) and Overload 1. It’s good to get S9 armourbane on the move but the sponson lascannons you should always take with it then only do D1. It’s quite nasty combined with a multimelta and HK missile though. It’s better on a Sabre, which is cheaper and faster.
A Twin lascannon is just 10 points and a pretty good option. 135 points buys you a Predator with four lascannon shots and a HK, which is an efficient gun turret and a little cheaper than the four Heavy support Legionaries with Lascannon. Shame it loses quite so much firepower if it moves, meaning your Predator Annihilator is effectively just a turret a lot of the time.
Sicaran
The base Sicaran is 160 points, so doesn’t feel as economical as the Predator. It’s got a 14” move, 13/12/12 armour and 6HP. Having rear armour 12 makes it far less vulnerable to Legionaries with krak grenades than vehicles with rear armour 10. It comes as standard with Twin accelerator autocannon, which can be upgraded to make an Arcus, Punisher or Omega (the Venator is its own entry), plus sponson Heavy bolters and a third bolter on the hull.
All versions can have pintle weapons, so perhaps there are new kits for the Arcus and Omega on the way. However, only Sicarans with Twin autocannons or the Punisher can have a Decurion, so I’m not sure.
The default Twin accelerator autocannon have 48” range, 6 shots, S7, AP4, D2, Breaching 6+, Rapid tracking and Skyfire. They’re reasonably good for firing at anything with a toughness characteristic but S7 isn’t really enough to engage most vehicles. I’d probably keep this version cheap with Heavy bolter sponsons, or possibly flamers.
The Arcus is the most expensive upgrade, at +40 points. It offers excellent flexibility thanks to having four different types of missile. All have 36” range and none are Heavy, so you lose no firepower by moving.
- Arcus warheads are FP5, S8, AP2, D2, making them perfect for killing Terminators and Walkers.
- Skyspear warheads are the same but only FP3. They have Skyfire, Armourbane and Rapid tracking, meaning you can use them with reactions like intercept things or return fire. They may do more damage to a vehicle than Arcus missiles, thanks to Armourbane.
- Pyrax warheads have 1 S5 AP4 D1 5” blast, causing Panic 1. They are your anti-personnel weapon and especially good for getting solar auxilia off objectives. As these are S5 they count as a defensive weapon, so you can have your sponsons fire at anything else you like.
- Neutron-flux warheads are FP3, S7, AP4, D1 with Shock (Suppressed). Fire these at a Kratos or Super-heavy, to mess up its shooting even if you can’t kill it.
I think it makes sense to equip an Arcus with lascannon sponsons and a HK missile, to kill light vehicles and heavy infantry. It can engage lighter infantry with Pyrax missiles and still lascannon a tank or some terminators if you need it to. This is an all-round very flexible and powerful vehicle, though it’ll probably cost you 220 points or more.
The Punisher is only a 10 point upgrade. It has 36” range, 8 shots doubling to 16 if it stays still thanks to Ordnance FP, S6, AP4, D1 and Suppressive 2. It’s defensive, so you can have whatever sponsons and pintle weapon you want, but it’s unfortunate how static it makes your tank. Suppressive 2 is very nice for shooting up infantry, though it won’t actually kick in till after they return fire.
The Omega is +25 points and has two very different firing modes, both at 36”. Sustained fire is 6 shots at S7, AP4, D2 Breaching 5+ and Maximal is a single 5” Blast at S8 AP4, D2, Breaching 4+ and Overload 1. Overload isn’t quite so dangerous on a Sicaran hull, thanks to rear armour 12. However, I think the Arcus clearly outclasses the Omega with 5 S8 AP2 shots instead of 6 S7 AP4s that are fishing for 5+ Breaching rolls.
Sicaran Venator
At 170 points, the Venator is just 10 points more than a standard Sicaran and quite a bit cheaper than the Arcus. It is the dedicated tank hunter variant, with a Centreline mounted Neutron beam laser, turret mounted Heavy bolter and sponsons that should always be upgraded to lascannons to shoot tanks and other hard targets. Anything else would be wasted against tanks or force the main gun to Snap Fire. Unfortunately this means the Heavy bolter on the roof is largely decorative.
The Neutron beam laser has 36” range, FP2, S10, AP2 and D2, with Ordnance D, Armourbane and Shock (Suppressed). It’s a little surprising that it only does 2 damage, doubling to 4 if the Venator stays still, though note that pivoting on the spot doesn’t count as moving. A Vindicator’s Magna laser destroyer is similar, lacking Shock but doing 3 damage, doubling to 6. That’s a lot better against medium tanks as you only need one “success” to inflict 6 damage and destroy most things.
The advantage of the Venator comes if you meet a Super-heavy, as making it snap fire is great news. You do get two sponson lascannon shots as well, meaning the Venator ought to do almost as much damage as the Vindicator but is more flexible, as it can put four AP2 shots into a Terminator squad.
Kratos Assault Tank
At 280 points before upgrades the Kratos is very expensive, and with good reason.
It stands apart from all other Legion Armour with AV14 all round and 10 Hull points. Most importantly it’s Stable, meaning it can fire all its guns at different targets without snap firing and they always count as stationary, benefiting from the Heavy bonuses. It’s one of the slowest Astartes vehicles though, with only 8” of movement.
A Kratos comes with four Heavy bolters – two in the hull and two on sponsons and a Kratos battlecannon with a co-axial autocannon. You can replace the sponsons with the usual stuff. Hull options include volkite Calivers for 5 extra points, though these seem worse than the Heavy bolters you start with. Autocannons for 10 and lascannons for 25 seem better, especially as they’ll both usually benefit from Heavy.
The Kratos battlecannon has three firing modes:
- HE shells are 36”, S8, AP4, D1 with 5” Blast, Ordnance D and Stun 1. Not a great profile against Legionary infantry but ok.
- AP shells are 36”, 1 shot, S8, AP2, D2, Ordnance D and Armourbane, which isn’t that effective unfortunately.
- Flashburn shells are a 10 point upgrade. 24”, 1 shot, S9, AP2, D3, also with Ordnance D, Armourbane and Overload 1. An overload will do 6 damage to your Kratos if you roll a 5+ to penetrate its rear armour 14. It usually won’t happen but you’ll feel the risk.
The Volkite Cardanelle is a free upgrade for the turret with 45” range, 12 shots, S7, AP5, D2, Deflagrate 7 and Suppressive 1. Combined with the co-ax and hull Autocannons you can fire an enormous number of S7, D2 shots. This isn’t an especially great profile against Legion armies though as it’s not strong enough to damage Armour 13 and it won’t kill all that many 3+ or 2+ save models. That said, a Dakka Kratos will do a lot of damage over time and can sit back where it ought to be relatively safe. Over the course of a game it ought to get a lot of kills. It’s almost a shame that it’s S7 instead of 6, however, as this means it isn’t a Defensive weapon.
I think most people will go for the Melta blast-gun, even though it’s a pricey 30 point upgrade. 36” range, 2 shots, S9, AP2, D4 with Heavy RS and Melta 24(!) makes this gun an enormous threat. Within 24” it fires S10 Armourbane shots doing 8 damage to vehicles, which is enough to one-shot a Land Raider. If you back that up with some sponson and/or hull lascannons, a HK missile and maybe a pintle melta, the Kratos will be able to smash vehicle-based armies.
Adding a Decurion Locus to a Kratos costs 40 points but might be worth it. It turns the turret gun into a defensive weapon for the purposes of return fire, though not Intercept or other shooting reactions. You get an Augury scanner too, preventing anyone making Shrouded damage mitigation rolls against the Kratos’ shooting. Very few things that can threaten a Kratos will be happy to be shot by a melta blastgun, let alone all the other stuff a Kratos might have.
Vindicator Siege Tank
Vindicators are Move 10, Armour 13/13/10 and have 6 HP. They have a Centreline-mounted demolisher cannon and a front mounted combi-bolter. You can replace the demolisher with a magna laser destroyer for 20 points and there are the usual options for HKs, pintle weapons etc.
The demolisher fires a single 3” blast 24”. It has Strength 12, meaning it wounds pretty much everything on a 2+ and very easily penetrates vehicles. AP is 3 with Breaching 5+ so it’s a threat to pretty much anything, especially if it doesn’t move as its D3 gets doubled by Ordnance D.
I think the Magna laser destroyer is scarier though. 36”, 2 shots, S10, AP2 and D3, with Ordnance D and Armourbane is a horrible stat line for enemy vehicles to face. The extra 12” of range means it can reach into the enemy deployment zone without moving so it can be deployed behind a bit of a screen and start killing a tank or dreadnought per turn from the start of the game.
Scorpius Missile Tank
Previous versions of the Scorpius have been annoyingly good but this one is probably a bit weak and boring. 120 points for a 12/11/10 5HP hull with two bolters and a Scorpius missile launcher.
The missiles have 48” range, FP1, S8, AP4, D1, Heavy FP (so two shots if stationary), Blast 3”, Barrage 2 and Breaching 5+.
I don’t like the barrage rules. Rolling 2D6 will mean you tend to scatter around 7” from your target and hitting it is unlikely. This is a waste of time, especially with 3” blasts. That means the Scorpius has to fire directly in order to do fairly underwhelming amounts of damage to enemy infantry. I think there are loads of better ways to do that, including using your own infantry.
The niche case for a Scorpius is probably shooting enemy laser destroyer Rapiers, hopefully from outside their 36” range or from out of sight with a Siege Breaker spotting for you. You ought to get a few hits, you wound them on a 2+ and may breach. Throw in a HK if you have one.
Arquitor Bombard
I can’t actually remember ever seeing one of these in the wild but in 3rd edition they’re kind of interesting. 150 points gets you a slightly bigger Sicaran, backwards. It has 8” move, 13/12/10 armour and 6HP. Comes with a Centreline mounted Morbus bombard and sponson Heavy bolters, which can be replaced with Autocannons as well as the other usual options. These have a profile that matches the Arquitor’s main guns quite well, and are well worth considering. You can have a pintle weapon and/or HK missile too if you want.
The Morbus Bombard fires its HE shell 36” doing a S9, AP4, D1 5” Blast. It has Ordnance D, Barrage 2 (yuk), Breaching 6+ and Pinning 1, which isn’t bad at all. Things get really interesting if you have a Siege Breaker, 20 points for Phosphex shells and no conscience. Phosphex has a 24” S5 AP3 D1 5” Blast with Barrage 1 (ok), Poisoned 3+, Panic 3 and Breaching 5+. That’s going to make a mess of a unit of Legionaries and probably make the survivors run away. It’s also a defensive weapon, letting you fire your sponsons and pintle weapon at whatever you want. Autocannons are actually a nice fit for it as they do decent damage on the move.
Alternatively you can spend 15 points on a Graviton-charge cannon, which looks really cool and might actually be better than Phosphex. Only 24” range but a S9 AP3 D2 5” Blast. Barrage 1, Breaching 6+, Shock (Pinned) and Pinning 3 means it’ll tend to do more damage and is fairly scary to vehicles, especially if it pins a transport. Note that Shock only applies to the unit you actually fire at, not others caught in the blast.
Finally the Spicula rocket system is also a 15 point upgrade. It fires a 7” blast 72” with S7, AP4 and D1. It has Barrage 2 (boo) and Suppressive 1. It’s kind of the nearest thing to proper long-range artillery that the Legions have but it isn’t especially effective. It’s nice to get a 7” blast but it means you have to buy the template for just this one vehicle, as hardly anything else in the game uses it.
Hyperios Missile Tank
This is essentially a Scorpius with the Hyperios missile launcher from a Tarantula. This has 48″ range, FP3, S7, AP2 and D2 with Skyfire and Rapid Tracking. For me, that’s a gun that makes sense on a 37.5 point Tarantula but not on this 120 point tank, unfortunately. The point of a Tarantula is really its trick to fire as a Reaction without using a Reaction Point. The tank version doesn’t have that rule so you’d have to use a precious Reaction to do fairly small amounts of damage to planes. 5 more points would get you an Araknae, which is much scarier for aircraft.
Against other stuff the Hyperios isn’t amazing for its price. S7 and AP3 are good against Veterans but The good news is that no permanent conversion work is required to make one of these. If you have a missile tarantula and a Scorpius you can just swap it from game to game. I just haven’t yet come up with a reason to bother doing so, when Tarantulas exist for the Hyperios missile launcher and there are so many better AA options.
Lords of War
Finally we get to the really big units. Lords of War are selected differently to your other units, with their own detachment, with slots for two units, which doesn’t need to be unlocked by a character. You can spend up to 25% of your points on Lords of War and/or Primarchs, which means in practice that you’ll only ever have one of these in any but the largest of games.
Lords of War are not locked to the same faction as your Primary Detachment. You can have a Knight, a Titan or perhaps a Solar Auxilia tank to go with an allied detachment of Auxilia. All that stuff will be covered in articles about those factions. We’re only going to look at the Legion Super-heavies here.
Super-heavy vehicles benefit from ignoring Difficult and Dangerous terrain, always counting as stationary and never having to take Snap Shots when they split fire. When they take glancing hits they lose a single hull point rather than getting a Tactical Status, though rules like Shock rule can still affect them, so you might want to keep a Techmarine nearby. They can only make reactions to enemies that are themselves Super-heavies, Knights, Titans or Paragons (i.e. Primarchs), meaning they aren’t allowed to pop smoke when shot at by Rapiers or normal tanks.
Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer
The 400 point Cerberus is available in games of 1600 points and above. It has a 10” move, 14/14/13 armour and 12 Hull Points. It comes with a Centreline Mounted neutron laser battery and sponson Heavy bolters, which can be upgraded with the usual options. It can have a pintle weapon and/or HK missile and should probably have both, since all its weapons count as stationary and can split fire freely.
The Neutron laser battery is extremely dangerous, including for the Cerberus itself. 72” range, 3 shots, S10, AP2, D3 with pretty much always active Ordnance D, Armourbane, Shock (Suppressed) and, unfortunately, Overload 1.
The Cerberus has a great chance of destroying or seriously damaging any vehicle it targets, with those 3 shots doing 6 damage each, even on the move. The problem is that it’s going to get 1s to hit quite often, then probably do itself 6 damage. This may still be worth it if you really need to take out a bigger super-heavy or a Titan, but it’s a big risk to take.
The Cerberus also explodes on a 4+, which is pretty bad news for anyone nearby as it’ll inflict 12 S8 hits on them.
Typhon Heavy Siege Tank
The same 400 point price tag, 10” move, 14/14/13, 12 HP chassis as the Cerberus, but with a Dreadhammer siege cannon. Oh and it only explodes on a 5+.
The Dreadhammer is fantastic on a super-heavy platform because its Ordnance D always works. It’s a 24” range S12 AP3 D3 (but really D6) gun with a 5” blast, Breaching 5+ and Stun 1.
This is an extremely reliable way to destroy an armour 13 vehicle. You’re very likely to hit, thanks to a 5” blast scattering 1D6” at worst. Then you only have to roll a 2+ to do 6 Hp of damage to an armour 13 tank, or a 3+ for armour 14. It’ll do lots of damage to infantry too, though it’s better against Automata like the Castellax than against Terminators or other units with 2+ saves.
Give your Typhon a couple of sponson Lascannons, a pintle Multimelta and have fun.
Glaive Super-Heavy Special Weapons Tank
The Glaive, Fellblade and Falchion all cost 650 points, have 10” move, 14/13/12 Armour and 18 HP. Their sponsons can have a Spartan’s 48” S9 AP2 D3 armourbane Lascannon Array or a Laser destroyer, which is the same but 36” range, S10 and D2 with Heavy D. in effect you’re choosing between S10 and 36” or S9 and 48” range. You can also have a Gravis Heavy bolter battery with 8 S5 AP4 D1 shot and Suppressive 2, but personally I’d always go with one of the lasers. You can also give them pintle weapons, searchlights and HK missiles.
As well as all that, the Glaive has a twin Heavy bolter that can be exchanged for Heavy flamers and, rather more importantly, a Turret Mounted Volkite Carronade. Previous versions of this gun have involved drawing lines across the board, hitting everything in the way, but now this is a pretty conventional great big gun. It has 45” range, 12 shots, S8, AP3 and D2 with Deflagrate 8. It’ll do loads of damage to Legionaries and Automata but is maybe a bit inflexible. It’ll struggle against vehicles and 2+ saves.
Fellblade Super-Heavy Battle Tank
The great thing about a Fellblade is that it’s got a Demolisher cannon on the front as well as its Fellblade Accelerator cannon. The Demolisher will always do 6 damage so the Fellblade can engage multiple vehicles at once, or pour hurt onto a single target. You might have to go closer to the enemy than you’d want to though, with only a 24” range.
The Fellblade accelerator cannon has two powerful options. A HE shell fires a 100” range S8, AP3, D2, 5” Blast with Stun 2, while the AE shell fires a S12, AP2, D3, 3” blast with Ordnance D (so really 6 damage).
Combined with your sponson Laser destroyers and probably a pintle Multimelta, the Fellblade can smash up whole squadrons of tanks. It’s not amazing against infantry for its price, but you can take other stuff to do that.
A plastic Fellblade has been announced so you’d be well-advised to have a plan to deal with one. They’re likely to be quite common.
Falchion Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer
The Falchion is armed only with sponsons and a Centreline mounted Neutron-wave cannon. This 120” range gun has 2 shots with S12, AP2, D4, Ordnance D (so really D8), Armourbane and Shock (Stunned (kind of unnecessarily)). You point your Falchion at an enemy tank and then your opponent puts it back in its case. Repeat until they have no more tanks.
If your opponent somehow doesn’t bring you any Spartans, Saturnine dreadnoughts and Super-heavies for you to shoot your Falchion at, you may feel that the Neutron-wave cannon is a bit over-killy. Don’t worry about this – shooting Tactical Legionaries with a titan-killer is awesome.
Thunderhawk Gunship
Now we’re getting into the territory of huge models that are only semi-practical to use and which cost more of your local currency than you’d ever want to admit to spending on toy tanks and planes. The Thunderhawk won’t even spend very much time on the board, thanks to the way flyers work, but it’ll look awesome when it’s there.
In terms of actual rules, the Thunderhawk costs 685 points, moves 18”, has 13 armour and 18 hull points, so you can virtually ignore attempts to intercept it. It can carry up to 32 models, including a couple of Contemptors using up 6 spots each, and it’s an assault transport. So far as I can tell, if it does a Drop mission it can only fire its Defensive weapons, which is annoying as it’s got loads of weapons that won’t shoot when it drops off troops.
Speaking of guns, on the roof of a Thunderhawk you’ll find a Centreline Mounted turbo-laser destroyer with 96” range, S12, AP2, D6, 3” Blast and Armourbane. It’s also got a couple of forward-firing Lascannons and six Hellstrike missiles (with the “Guided missile” trait for Strike missions, which you’ll never do as they muck up your shooting). There are also two sponsons with twin Heavy bolters and two more in turrets.
Sokar Stormbird
The Sokar costs 850 points so you’ll need to be playing 3400 points or more to field one. It can carry 52 models, including a couple of Contemptors and a Rhino, using 12 spots but potentially full of 12 models itself. This lets you do some hilarious Russian Doll moves, where the Rhino disembarks and moves, then its passengers disembark and move. It has armour 14, 22 Hull Points and a couple of Void Shields. Nobody should waste reactions trying to shoot it down because they won’t succeed.
The Sokar has got a couple of Twin lascannon on either side, two Twin Heavy bolter turrets and a third pointing out the back. It carries six Centreline-mounted Hellstrike missiles too, which are its only weapons able to fire forwards. You can swap the twin lascannon for Gravis heavy bolter batteries, which might be a good idea. They are defensive weapons so they can fire when the Sokar does a drop mission.
The Sokar is interesting after dropping its troops off. If it turns up in the enemy Deployment zone, as it now can from Turn 2 onwards, it can fire broadsides left and right.
Mastodon Super-Heavy Assault Transport
The 600 point Mastodon could possibly be pretty good. 10” move, 14 armour all round, 20 Hull Points and 2 Void shields mean it’s a very reliable way of delivering passengers. It has a capacity of 42 including up to four Contemptors. It could easily be possible to do turn 1 charges with these dreadnoughts, since they can move 8” after getting out. That still leaves 18 spots for other passengers. At “only” 200 points more than a Spartan this might actually work.
You have to buy the Mastodon two sets of Sponsons, with no restriction on what it can have. It has a devastating but short-ranged Centreline Mounted Siege melta array: 12”, S10, AP2, D3, Heavy RS, 5” Blast and Melta 6. On the roof is the Skyreaper battery, with 48”, S shots, S7, AP4, D2, Rapid Tracking and Skyfire. Bit of a waste of time as the Mastodon isn’t allowed to react to flyers other than Super-heavies, which won’t be scared of this gun. You can shoot it at stuff on the ground though.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve read this far, hopefully now you know all there is to know about Astartes vehicles. If not, you’ll just have to read it all again I’m afraid.
It looks like vehicles will be more important for games of Horus Heresy than ever before. They are more difficult to kill now, with many of their biggest threats nerfed or more expensive. Transports also let you get your forces around the board a lot faster than before, which is even more important now Deep Strike and Outflank are less useful.
You may have noticed that this isn’t a complete list of all vehicles. There are a few in the Recon and Fast Attack slots, which we’ll cover soon.
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