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It's fairly straightforward to make a Stompa which can regenerate half it's hull points every turn by loading it with mekboys. It takes the equivalent of 27 lascannon or 12 melta hits to take it down in a single turn (assuming you took a Kustom Force Field on one of the passengers). It has a pretty good chance of surviving a destroyer hit or two per turn indefinitely. Almost nothing except a massive suicide strike with dedicated vehicle killing units really threatens it.

Meanwhile, a single shot of it's main gun will threaten pretty much anything except a super-heavy, it moves 12" per turn and has a Destroyer close combat weapon and stomp attacks, meaning that almost everything it assaults will die horribly. The only thing it really struggles against is other super-heavy walkers with Destroyer close combat weapons and even then, you need multiple Knights or something like a Reaver to overpower it. In a super-heavy match-up it probably isn't going to win against Knights or Titans of equal points, but against a 'normal' army it's probably more of a threat than other super-heavies because it can't be whittled down turn by turn.

So, it seems like it should be something that people complain about, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone even talk about it as something to worry about in competitive play. Why not?

People don't like to complain about Orks for some reason.

Because when 90% of your army is that combo

then what else is left to deal with?

Melta

SGTPozy wrote:
People don't like to complain about Orks for some reason.

I know, right?

Edit: At first I though OP was talking about the model. It is indeed hideous.

We can compare it to Eldar right now. A Stompa is... 750pts? Add it up to 800 with Grots which I think do something. Meks are 15/model, adds up quick. The Stompa does how much damage? Let's be generous and say 25 shots and we can make them all S8 because why not. For 850pts, Eldar have over 160 S6 shots from Jetbikes now. 850pts of Tyranids is three Flyrants and a Malanthrope for Shrouding. 850pts of Imperial Knights is two. 850pts of Guard is a hell of a lot of Leman Russ tanks. Six squads of Blood Angel ASM with Drop Pods and three Melta per squad. Six Sicaran tanks.

The equivalent of the points you sink into that Stompa equals WAY more cheesy, powerful or just outright better units than that ugly chunk of scrap metal and pig iron. Remember that Superheavies are typically not worth the points spent on them and most armies, not sure about Orks, would do much better spending the points on squadrons of smaller vehicles, MCs or so on. The Stompa doesn't fill a niche role like an Imperial Knight or a Harridan. Just not worth bringing to the table for any reason but 'it's fun' and 'I like the model'.

Because to buff it up to that powerful is 1000+ points, and all the hull point fixing in the world wont do squat if a 350 point knight d strenght kills it outright, or a d strength wraithknight, or a d strength bloodthirster, or meltaguns in a sternguard squad not even half the points.

The Stompa is a thing of beauty. Love that model!

It's a very "win big/lose big" deal

Against some armies, that Stompa is simply going to dominate the game and an opponent won't be able to do squat about it and it won't be much of a game.

However, there are a lot of high end tournament builds that will destroy it very quickly.

But yes, it can be absolutely dirty for many armies to face and for many players that is in fact super hideous.

Desubot wrote:Because when 90% of your army is that combo

then what else is left to deal with?

SharkoutofWata wrote:We can compare it to Eldar right now. A Stompa is... 750pts? Add it up to 800 with Grots which I think do something. Meks are 15/model, adds up quick.

Typical build:

Stompa: 770
Big Mek with KFF, Grot Oiler, Da Fixa Uppas. 105 points.
Big Mek, Grot Oiler. 40 points.
Mek, Grot Oiler. 20 points. x2
2 Lootas, 3 Meks. 70 points. x2
2 Burna Boyz, 3 meks. 80 points.

TOTAL: 1,175 points.

Leaves about 700 points of other stuff. Probably mostly spent on small grot mobs for home side base camping, outflanking kommandos and bikers. Plenty to run interference.

SharkoutofWata wrote:The Stompa does how much damage? Let's be generous and say 25 shots and we can make them all S8 because why not.

It has a Massive Blast (7") gun with S 10 and AP 1. Even on a scatter, it will usually hit because the blast is so big. It also has a secondary gun which gets 2d6 shots three times (but jams if you roll a double), so that's about twenty shots a turn for a couple of turns. Then it's got three one-shot battlecannon equivalent supa-rokkits (and it can buy more at a reasonable price), four big shootas (one of them twin-linked) and four deffguns from the lootas inside it. The main gun alone is comparable to an entire battery of earthshakers (nearly twice the surface area of a large blast and better S and AP).

SharkoutofWata wrote:For 850pts, Eldar have over 160 S6 shots from Jetbikes now. 850pts of Tyranids is three Flyrants and a Malanthrope for Shrouding. 850pts of Imperial Knights is two. 850pts of Guard is a hell of a lot of Leman Russ tanks. Six squads of Blood Angel ASM with Drop Pods and three Melta per squad. Six Sicaran tanks.

How many of those can threaten the Stompa?

The jetbikes can only hurt it's rear and even then need all 160 shots to take it down reliably (incidentally, 160 scatter laser shots from Jetbikes is 1,080 points). If the Stompa just puts it's back to a table edge or intact building, they can't hurt it. Meanwhile, the Stompa can throw it's S 10 Massive Blast down every turn and force a unit of jetbikes to jink or die as well as picking them off with it's back-up weapons.

Two Imperial Knights is a threat, if they can both manage to charge it at once.

Eight Leman Russ Vanquishers with Lascannons isn't nearly enough to kill the Stompa. They do about five hull points per turn, which is about what the Stompa recovers every turn. Meanwhile, the Stompa can easily hit a couple of Russ with it's main gun every turn, probably killing one. Then it closes on them at 12" per turn and uses it's destroyer weapon and stomp attacks to wreck them easily.

18 melta shots from BS 4 at close range would do the trick, but how are you planning to get six squads within 6" of their target on the same turn? Remember that it regenerates, so knocking half it's hull points off is little better than nothing. And anyone waiting within charge range of a stompa is dead.

Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

Is that for Wraightguard in general or just D-Scythes?

 Vaktathi wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

Is that for Wraightguard in general or just D-Scythes?

The -1 is for D-scythes only. Rest of the Distort weapons are pure strength D.

According to the Eldar public service announcement thread which apparently got it from pictures of a guy with the book. So it should be accurate.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

It's only the Scythes (the flames template ones) that have the -1 I believe. The other guns are just straight strD.

 ImAGeek wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

It's only the Scythes (the flames template ones) that have the -1 I believe. The other guns are just straight strD.

I just checked again (see above ) and yeah, you're right.

Still, even without the 6 result Strength D flamers coming out of a very manoeuvrable and resilient transport? Don't have to roll to hit so it's straight to rolling for those 3+ results on the D table. Brilliant game design

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

Not much worse than Melta.

Melta has 28% chance of doing nothing, 14% chance of stripping a single HP with a glancing hit, 39% chance of a penetrating hit doing 1 HP and 19% of doing 1+1D3. Average: 1.11 HP.

Destroyer has 33% chance of doing nothing, 67% chance of D3 HP. Average 1.33 HP.

EDIT: New information posted while I was working out the numbers. Pure D is much, much nastier. 2.83 HP on average, I think?

Because it hasn't come out recently so they can't use it as an excuse to start claiming "It's only good so GW can sell more stompa" also they are too busy bitching about Eldar rather then just moving on and enjoying the hobby

 cheapbuster wrote:
Because it hasn't come out recently so they can't use it as an excuse to start claiming "It's only good so GW can sell more stompa" also they are too busy bitching about Eldar rather then just moving on and enjoying the hobby

I'll have you know I derive much enjoyment from laughing at (and bitching about) GWs idiotic lack of any sense of balance when it comes to rules writing.

Don't you judge how I enjoy my hobby, sir, or I shall have to call you out in front of all of these fine gentlemen and ladies!

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
For 850pts, Eldar have over 160 S6 shots from Jetbikes now.

(17 per model + 10 per weapons) * 40 jet bikes =... 850?
and what is the significance with 160 shots? It was one number someone posted in one post and now all the sheep are plastering it everywhere


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 cheapbuster wrote:
Because it hasn't come out recently so they can't use it as an excuse to start claiming "It's only good so GW can sell more stompa" also they are too busy bitching about Eldar rather then just moving on and enjoying the hobby

Don't you judge how I enjoy my hobby

Oh no, I am actually talking about the miniature wargamming hobby and not the bitching and whining hobby that you claim to be part of

 cheapbuster wrote:

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
For 850pts, Eldar have over 160 S6 shots from Jetbikes now.

(17 per model + 10 per weapons) * 40 jet bikes =... 850?
and what is the significance with 160 shots? It was one number someone posted in one post and now all the sheep are plastering it everywhere


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 cheapbuster wrote:
Because it hasn't come out recently so they can't use it as an excuse to start claiming "It's only good so GW can sell more stompa" also they are too busy bitching about Eldar rather then just moving on and enjoying the hobby

Don't you judge how I enjoy my hobby

Oh no, I am actually talking about the miniature wargamming hobby and not the bitching and whining hobby that you claim to be part of

Because it is a completely ridiculous amount of mid-strength shooting at high range on a very mobile platform. And it is available in a troops slot.

I did the maths in a different thread but these scatter bikes are 6" more manoeuvrable in the movement phase than Crisis suits, put out the same number of shots (admittedly at lower strength and AP but we'll get to that in a bit) at the same range as a crisis a crisis suit with dual missile pods, can also do 2D6" thrust moves in the assault phase, has equal toughness and armour save, one less wound but can also get a cover save on demand. And it is half the points of a dual missile pod crisis suit.

So a full unit of crisis suits, the Tau's elite soldiers, can put out 12 BS3 S7 AP4 shots at an effective range of 42". An equal point value of Scatterbikes puts out 24 BS4 S6 AP6 shots at an effective range of 48". This results in the scatter bikes getting an extra 0.6 hull points off an AV12 vehicle per shooting phase, causing 3.8 more wounds to T3 5+, 1.6 more wounds to T3 4+, 2.7 more wounds to MEQs and, finally, 1.4 more wounds to TEQs.

So the Eldar Jetbikes are better against everything but AV13 (due to the fact that they cannot hurt it) but they don't take up a valuable Elite slot.

 cheapbuster wrote:

and what is the significance with 160 shots?

There are 160 of them.

For only £8 a jetbike which is £350 (or about $520) for the 14 boxes to make the magic 40 bikes everyone is raving about.

Also whatever happened to the options of not playing that guy who brings these lists?

 cheapbuster wrote:
For only £8 a jetbike which is £350 (or about $520) for the 14 boxes to make the magic 40 bikes everyone is raving about.

There are people who make such lists, pretty regularly unfortunately

Also whatever happened to the options of not playing that guy who brings these lists?

if you're showing up for a pickup game? Sure. If you're showing up for some sort of organized event, or just don't get that many games in, well you have two crappy options either way :(

 Perfect Organism wrote:
It's fairly straightforward to make a Stompa which can regenerate half it's hull points every turn by loading it with mekboys. It takes the equivalent of 27 lascannon or 12 melta hits to take it down in a single turn (assuming you took a Kustom Force Field on one of the passengers). It has a pretty good chance of surviving a destroyer hit or two per turn indefinitely. Almost nothing except a massive suicide strike with dedicated vehicle killing units really threatens it.

Meanwhile, a single shot of it's main gun will threaten pretty much anything except a super-heavy, it moves 12" per turn and has a Destroyer close combat weapon and stomp attacks, meaning that almost everything it assaults will die horribly. The only thing it really struggles against is other super-heavy walkers with Destroyer close combat weapons and even then, you need multiple Knights or something like a Reaver to overpower it. In a super-heavy match-up it probably isn't going to win against Knights or Titans of equal points, but against a 'normal' army it's probably more of a threat than other super-heavies because it can't be whittled down turn by turn.

So, it seems like it should be something that people complain about, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone even talk about it as something to worry about in competitive play. Why not?

The Stompa seems over-costed for what it does.

Especially when you can build a Kustom Stompa that can do the Codex Stompa's job much cheaper.

 Perfect Organism wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

Not much worse than Melta.

Melta has 28% chance of doing nothing, 14% chance of stripping a single HP with a glancing hit, 39% chance of a penetrating hit doing 1 HP and 19% of doing 1+1D3. Average: 1.11 HP.

Destroyer has 33% chance of doing nothing, 67% chance of D3 HP. Average 1.33 HP.

EDIT: New information posted while I was working out the numbers. Pure D is much, much nastier. 2.83 HP on average, I think?

Its way worse than melta. Melta has to still roll against AV, St D auto glances on a 1, d3 penetrating hits 2-5, d6+6 penetrating hits on 6. Explosions remove d3 hull points on superheavies. So a single Str D hit could cause up to 9 hull points in damage.

Actually, with good rolls a single D hit could strip 36 HPs.

You'll need a lot of 6s for that though...

Also consider that when the stompa came out, it was an apocalypse unit that had no place in a 'normal' game of 40k. So the outcry wasn't really there because neither was the stompa.

 ClassicCarraway wrote:

 Perfect Organism wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Well, the Eldar just got access to ranged Strength D on their elite infantry. Admittedly they can't get the 6 result (-1 to the roll) but they'll still be doing D3 hull points on 2/3 of the results... from each model that hits... so...

Not much worse than Melta.

Melta has 28% chance of doing nothing, 14% chance of stripping a single HP with a glancing hit, 39% chance of a penetrating hit doing 1 HP and 19% of doing 1+1D3. Average: 1.11 HP.

Destroyer has 33% chance of doing nothing, 67% chance of D3 HP. Average 1.33 HP.

EDIT: New information posted while I was working out the numbers. Pure D is much, much nastier. 2.83 HP on average, I think?

Its way worse than melta. Melta has to still roll against AV, St D auto glances on a 1, d3 penetrating hits 2-5, d6+6 penetrating hits on 6.

 Ashiraya wrote:
Actually, with good rolls a single D hit could strip 36 HPs.

Before you start blowing this out of proportion, str D deals only a single penetrating hit on a 2-6 which then strip hull points depending on is it was a 2-5 or a 6. It does NOT deal d6+6 penetrating hits. Also I like how you have both ignored the what was stated that Eldar will have a -1 to this roll, doubling it's chance to fail and removing it's chance to instant kill the stompa. Now I don't know if this is true yet but to just outright ignore it?

ClassicCarraway wrote:St D auto glances on a 1, d3 penetrating hits 2-5, d6+6 penetrating hits on 6. Explosions remove d3 hull points on superheavies. So a single Str D hit could cause up to 9 hull points in damage.

Check the rules. A roll of 1 does not cause a glancing hit, and the other rolls cause one penetrating hit which removes more hull points than normal. Absolute maximum is 6+D6 from a Devastating Hit plus D3 from an Explodes! result. You don't get to roll on the damage table for every hull point lost.

 cheapbuster wrote:


Before you start blowing this out of proportion, str D deals only a single penetrating hit on a 2-6 which then strip hull points depending on is it was a 2-5 or a 6. It does NOT deal d6+6 penetrating hits. Also I like how you have both ignored the what was stated that Eldar will have a -1 to this roll, doubling it's chance to fail and removing it's chance to instant kill the stompa. Now I don't know if this is true yet but to just outright ignore it?

Only the D-scythe (a template weapon) has the -1 to the D-roll. The rest of the Eldar distort weapons are pure Strength D.