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I will be getting a Baneblade tomorrow.

I will be magnetising the main gun and maybe magnetising the sponsons (with heavy bolters). This may proove too much hassle though. The good news is that I have a spare pair of sideplates left over from a conversion of one of the store Baneblades I built. So I can have Av14 sides if I like.

What should i do?

a. Keep the Av14 sides and magnetise the main gun. I can swap over the primary armament, which is what really matters and the lack of sponsons means that the tank will be acceptable with either turret configuration.

b. Keep the sponsons and build a standard Baneblade knowing full well that in most games I would prefer the long gun.

My main sticking issue is the Av14 vs Sponsons. Personally I think sponsons is a better deal four decent guns that can target independantly. However is immunity to autocannon/missile pods worth while tradeoff? How much difference is Av14 side armour?

> How much difference is Av14 side armour?

Good but not worth 100 points on a 500 point tank. You're losing a lot of firepower, too.

I'm in the same boat.  Before responding, the way I read it is, the Baneblade base points gives you the main weapon, demolisher cannon, hull-heavy bolter, co-axial autocannon, two sponsons, each with a lascannon and heavy bolter.  The 100 point upgrade gives you two additional sponsons with lascannon and heavy bolter.  The other option was to have no sponsons at all and increase the side armor with plates at no additional cost to the base points.  So either The Bluedragon is wrong or I need reading glasses.

My opinion on your tank, if you have the ability/desire to magnetize, it would be well worth the effort to do so, as the tank costs so much, you should have the flexibility to change the set-up whenever you want, even if it is not the most optimal arrangement just to break the monotony of permanance.

If you are not going to magnetize, I feel the additional firepower will be invaluable if you plan on having that tank within 24-36" of your enemy and it would be 100 points well spent.  If you plan on leaving it at long range to maximise the range of the main weapon or protect it with several other units additonal firepower, go with the armor plates, it's free!

I plan on running mine with the additional armor plates because of the role it is going to play in my Apoc games.  I have a full company of marines as my base list including 3 Land Raiders, 3 pred annihilators, some r'backs w/ lascannons, termies.  So basically I have lot's of lascannons and anti-tank.  My Baneblade will be accompanied by 10 Leman Russes led by a Vanquisher and utilizing the long range of the entire column.  I am also playing against 10,000-15,000 points of Tau in a campaign every game, so I need the protection from the warfishes and railguns.  I feel the AV 14 is a big difference for the role I want to use the tank.  However, the extra sponsons are worth every additional point when used in a target rich environment, especially coming on from reserve in range of the demolisher cannon. 

• demolisher cannon
• 5 heavy bolters
• 4 lascannons
• main gun
• autocannon
• BS 4
• ability to all fire at seperate targets while moving
• coming on from reserve

AMAZING!!

The advantage of no sponsons is that its an easy swapout for main armament leading to a valid vehicle.

The Hellhammer has heavy flamers, which arent worth much, so I would only really be losing two lascannon for Av14.
With the Baneblade I find the heavy bolters and lascannon mean too much. Its not the firepower, its the warmachine ability to fire everything - and at seperate targets.

I will try to magnetise the sponsons, though the choice will be between none and a single pair. It would cost too much or be too much trouble to get the +100pt extra sponsons.

From a modelling point of view the tank looks great without sponsons, and ok with a single pair. Two pairs doesnt look so good, though if you model the sonsons to point outyward from each 'corner' it looks ok.

Well let's see ... huge tank with 11 barrels ... multiple targets and templates. How much fun is that? and you want to REMOVE guns? Heresy, I say, Heresy.

"Its not the firepower, its the warmachine ability to fire everything - and at seperate targets."

I couldn't agree with you more, brother! 

"From a modelling point of view the tank looks great without sponsons, "

Perhaps it won't be as much trouble to get the extra pair from someone who feels as strongly, especially a painter that doesn't play the game but loves to paint these bad boys.

The Baneblade reigns supreme over the other Super Heavies in the game as it does not suffer from 'big gun syndrome' almost as much as the others.

Stormblade - One big gun.
Shadowsword - One big gun.
Macharius - One big gun.
Stormsword - One big gun.

Once this gun is nutralised, the tank is a wasted.

The Baneblade has a big gun, but it has a huge selection of very useful secondary weapons. You could even say it has two big guns, one being the Mega-Battelcannon and the other the Demolisher. AV14 isn't worth reducing that capability.

By the same token, 2 BS3 Lascannons and 2 BS3 TL-HB's with limited fire arcs isn't worth 100 points.

BYE

I think H.B.M.C. nailed it with that one. The Baneblade's edge over other IG superheavies is its sheer amount of weapons, diluting that isn't wise. I have serious doubts about the value of the Command Tank and Commissariat Crew upgrades as well, as from what I've seen, infantry in Apocalypse games is worth next to nothing. That being said, I still plan to take the latter, as the modeling and painting possibilities are quite nice, and it's the only way I can justify taking a Baneblade in my army.

I plan to take the Command upgrade on one of my Baneblades purley for fluff reasons (I have a Super-Heavy Company of 2 Baneblades, 1 Stormblade and 1 Hellhammer), but I have no illusions of it being any use to me.

Maybe when we use a Baneblade in a smaller game, but that's it.

BYE

Well GW studio has decreed that Apocalypse datasheets overrule forgeworld books stats for 40K games. So if you want a Banebladein 40K it uses Apocalypse stats and the 500pt price. as a 'legendary unit' it is not tourney compatible, but it is valid for normal games.

This is causing me to rethink my Baneblade, that and some suprising good news twice this week.

I will be magnetising the sponsons, but only so I can take a Hellhammer (magentised gun) and Av14. I dont expect to use this loadout much. I have swappable main armament for my Hammerhead and am yet to use the Ion cannon. but I feel better for making the effort.
Frankly I feel I will have wasted the tank model if I dont have my tank Hellhammer compatible, but I am in no hurry to use heavy flamer sponsons.

The more I look at it sponson removal should have been compensated by Av14 sides, 'extra armour' (because it is!) and a price drop of about 50pts. That would have been a tempting balance.

Posted By Orlanth on 10/17/2007 12:46 AM
Well GW studio has decreed that Apocalypse datasheets overrule forgeworld books stats for 40K games. So if you want a Banebladein 40K it uses Apocalypse stats and the 500pt price. as a 'legendary unit' it is not tourney compatible, but it is valid for normal games.

Like I give a damn what GW says.

And they haven't said that at all. The book specifically states that neither overrule one another, and that players should decide what to use.

BYE

i think you need to look at that again

GW says you can use either the apocolypse rules for certain FW units or you can use the standard FW rules.

 

they also note that the FW rules are intended to be used with smaller normal games of 40K not the apocolypse rules.

 

one has but to look at a warhound titan to see how much they improved it in apocolypse VS normal games (FW) rules.