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| A Bloodthirster, by Games Workshop |
This week, I encountered a Bloodthrister for the first time
in 6th Edition. I was lucky enough to avoid one during my brief
stint with 5th so I have no comparison between the new 6th
Ed version and the old codex. What I do know is the current version is
terrifying!
One friend had recently bought the Daemons codex and another
the Dark Angels codex, both are very new to 6th and last played in 4th
Ed. I invited them round to play a couple proxy games while they worked out
what units to buy. The first game saw 1500 points of dark angels, square off
against 1000 points daemons and 500 allied Chaos Marines (I was the marines, so
I had something to do while they played, but so as I wasn’t in the way of them
learning 6th.)
Anyway, over the ensuing six turns I watched the Bloodthrister
take down 5 Termies, 20 Marines, 5 Scouts and a Dreadnought without really
breaking a sweat, all the while my Khorne Berzerkers just drove about the
battlefield in a Rhino, arriving at combats only in time to gather up the body
parts of Dark Angels. The carnage this one Bloodthirster caused was enough to
make the Dark Angels player immediately revise his list, and while I wasn’t on
the receiving end, I was secretly worrying what on Earth (or should that be
Terra) my usual army of Traitor Guard could do to stop it?
Much pondering this weekend has led me to a tank that I have
overlooked several times while making guard lists, one which I’ve never played
against or even seen anyone use. Also, after a brief scouring of the internet, it
seems this tank merely draw snorts of derision when it does show up anyway.
The tank in question is the Leman Russ Punisher, but not any
old Punisher, this one costs 250 points (incidentally the same as a Bloodthirster)
and comes with Knight Commander Pask sitting in the turret and 3 heavy bolters
adorning it’s hull. I think this is a totally worthwhile investment in points
and over the following couple of paragraphs I’m going to attempt to lay out
why. Then, when I can get a game in with one I’ll let you know just how right I
was!
Key Stats:
Pask
For me Pask is the key to moving this tank from my least
favourite of the Russ variants, to almost compulsory in 1500+ point games. He
gives the tank BS4, rather than it’s usual 3, and I believe his ‘crack shot’
special rule is most useful in this tank. For those who don’t know, ‘crack
shot’ allows the tank to add 1 to it’s roll to penetrate a vehicle or to
re-roll failed wounds against monstrous creatures.
Survivability
It’s no good investing 250 points if you’re going to lose it
first turn. But with armour of 14, 13, 11 the Punisher is a highly survivable
tank. On side armour even the mighty Lascannon needs a 5 to penetrate so
excusing some particularly lucky rolling (or a lot of dedicated anti-tank
firepower) the Punisher should be around for a few turns at least.
Damage
The Punisher Gatling Cannon spews out 20 (yup, twenty)
Strength 5, AP- shots. With three heavy bolters as well, that’s 29 Str 5 shots.
Light infantry really don’t want to come near this thing, and even a combat
squad of marines is going to be in trouble despite the poor AP, just due to
volume of fire. I think 250 points for 29 strength 5 shots is a fair trade.
Versatility
It’s no good spending 250 points on something that only
serves one purpose. If that one purpose doesn’t show up for a game, then that’s
250 points down the drain. Fortunately, I see the Punisher as a very versatile
tank too. Obviously, poorly armoured or low toughness infantry are mincemeat,
there’s no argument there. However, with Pask those 29 shots should bring down
most monstrous creatures in one turn of firepower (re-rolling wounds).
Additionally, thanks to Pask, the Punisher can glance armour 12 (+1 str when
rolling to pen), and with 29 shots should be able to down any transport or
light vehicle in one round. Thanks to the volume of fire, vehicle squadrons
such as sentinels or war-walkers could lose the whole squadron to glancing
hits, let alone a couple of good penetrates. Finally, those 29 shots could be
pointed skywards, and even without skyfire I’d hope to down a flyer due to most
having AV11, and once again, thanks to Pasks ‘crack-shot’ rule.
The Science Bit
Far be it from me to just rely on verbatim, however, so if
my flowery rhetoric above hasn’t persuaded you, lets break down the numbers.
(Note: I’m not big on mathhammer, which is why I’m keen to try this tank out in
a few games and report back, but at the moment it’s all we’ve got to go on.)
Infantry
Marine equivalent troops are highly prevalent in 40k, and
are the standard basis for most math-hammer. So let us see how we do against marines
first.
29 shots at BS4 gives us an average of = 19.1 hits
19.1 shots at Str 5 vs. Toughness 4 gives us = 12.6 wounds
12.6 wounds after 3+ armour saves totals = 4.2 dead marines
While this isn’t that amazing, from experience I average
about 3-4 dead marines with a standard battlecannon armed Russ, assuming it
doesn’t scatter off target. So without knowing how to math-hammer templates, I
would argue it was more reliable than a standard Russ against marines, due to
the possibility of scatter and 2-inch coherency, anti-pie plate formations.
Monstrous Creatures
This all started, due to my being scared of a Bloodthirster,
so it seems only fair to use T6, and 3+ save as out monstrous creature test. Math-hammer
is in shorter form from now on.
29 shots = 19.1 hits
19.1 vs. T6 = 10.5 wounds (after re-rolling failed wounds)
10.5 vs. 3+ save = 3.5 wounds after saves
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| He's sure glad he carries that wall around! |
Hmmm…The mathhammer doesn’t look good here. After all those
shots the Bloodthirster suffers only 3 wounds. This is disappointing, as you
only really get one chance to stop this thing before he eats the tank. However,
it’s definitely a start, hopefully something else in my army will be shooting
it too, and we might bring it down. This is one of those where real world examples
are needed, because the Bloodthirster and Punisher don’t exist in a vacuum. As
far as math-hammer goes though, I accept it won’t kill it in one round. But
three wounds are better than 1500 points of Dark Angels managed!
Vs. T5 monstrous creature (out of interest)
29 shots = 19.1 hits
19.1 vs T5 = 14.4 wounds
14.4 vs 3+ save = 4.8 wounds after saves
This would down my Tzeentchian DP, so should deal with most T5 monstrous creatures.
Land-Based Armour
While I accept the Punisher will do about as well as a
lasgun against a Landraider, there’s other purposeful anti-tank stuff I’d be
shooting at it (probably melta’s wielded by Rough Riders). However, for all the
lighter vehicles up to Armour 12, the Punisher poses a serious threat.
Vs. Armour 11
19.1 hits Vs A11 = 6.3 glance or better
Vs. Armour 12
19.1 hits Vs. A12 = 3.2 glance or better
Looking at these results any light vehicle should be toast
in one round from the punisher. Even Armour 12 isn’t proof thanks to Pask.
Squadrons of armour 10 or 11 vehicles could really be in trouble too, due to
the amount of glances.
Flyers
Being the poster boy of 6th Ed 40k, it’s unusual
to come into a game and not face at least one flyer. I’ve struggled with the
balance between adding something into my armour to take them out (usually an
Aegis with Quad) or taking no anti-air and hoping to ignore them. I feel the
Punisher fits this gap nicely. While it doesn’t have sky-fire it has a lot of
shots, some of which have to get 6’s to hit. After that, it’s all up to Pask’s ‘crack-shot’
rule.
Vs. Armour 11 Flyers
4.8 hits vs A11 = 1.6 glances
Vs. Armour 12 Flyers
4.8 hits vs A12 = 0.8 glances
The results against flyers are underwhelming. Hitting on a 6
really does reduce the effectiveness of the Punisher. However, if there’s
nothing better to shoot at, at least you should be getting one glance or better
against any flyer.
So there you have it, a list of numbers and some words to
twist them to my own ends. Seriously though, if I head down to my local store
for a pick-up game, and don’t know who I’ll be facing, I’ll definitely be
adding one of these to my list, as a real jack-of-all-trades. In fact, I’m
currently assembling one for my Traitor Guard to put my money where my mouth is.
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| I'm putting a Chaos Marine in the turret (when i find suitable arms and head) to represent the Traitors, and the BS4. |
As always, Let me know what you think, does the Punisher
have what it takes to make the grade against all the other Russ variants, or
have I got this tank totally wrong?
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