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Strategically, how important are they? I'm looking to model a non-gw guard army using WWII German tanks, and the necessity of side sponsons will have a say in what chassis I choose to base my guard on. As I'm watching some ebay listings, time is a factor so I would appreciate some snapshot responses.

Thanks for reading!

Well I find them invaluable, especially now that they can be fired in conjunction with the turret ordinance. Others think they are a waste of point. So it really is personal preference

I agree with Volkov. Some extra dakka never hurts. I almost always used sponsons on my Guard tanks.

Depends on your intent. If im using more gun-liney tanks (often times vanilla LRBT) I will take plasma sponsons.

On demolishers etc that I have roaming around up front I generally dont take them.

Depends on how mobile you want to be. If the tank needs to move every turn, keeping them off is probably a good idea.
Personally, I might even take some heavy flamers or a multimelta on a Demolisher, because a.) I like side sponsons b.) someone might get too close to the tank

I wouldn't take them.

Thanks for the responses everybody. I picked up a cheap Wirbelwind that I'm probably gonna use as a Hydra. Might have to swap out the guns though. Although I prefer the elegance of the guns on this model, I think they would be poor stand-ins for autocannons.



As far as how I'm going to use the Russes... I haven't quite decided yet. I was thinking of maxing out on armor, mechanizing all of my troops in the true Blitzkrieg fashion. I'll punch up some searches on viable mech IG lists, see if the sponsons are a good idea. Thanks again everybody!

I run LRBT w/ plasma sponsons and LRDemo w/ only a HHF.

If a tank is going to be sitting in cover, laying down fire, then 40pt plasma cannons can more than carry their weight. However, if the tank is going to be moving with your transports, then sponsons are a point sink.

Most of the time I'd leave them at home, to save points and allow my LR to move and shoot to full effect.

I could see them being useful on static Russes if you just want to sit/shoot. For example I might take the HB sponsons for an Executioner. This gives me 3 S7 blasts and 9 S5 shots to thin out infantry and I'm still saving 20 points over the PC sponsons.

They take care of any BS troops that get too close to your take. Great for thwarting incoming assaults.

FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

Plasma Cannon Sponsons are worth it on the Executioner which can sit back at 36 inches and fire 5 Strength 7 ap 2 plasma blasts at marines who fell out of a transport.

Demolishers with Plasma Sponsons aren't really worth it as you have to move too much to get in range or to stay out of melta/assault range.

Multimelta sponsons are not worth it at all because you can only fire one and move and they are BS3 and you really don't want your Leman Russ with in 12 inches of an enemy if you can help it.

Heavy Bolter sponsons aren't really worthwhile because they aren't AP3 so you can get some wound stacking and you don't get much out of them if your moving.

Sponsons are great on the Executioner. 66% more firepower for a 21% cost increase.

On anything else, I'm loathe to take them.

I don´t use them. I run stock Russes with minimum extras. An expensive "Death Star" is a big magnet for all the enemy anti-tank weapons. Presenting him with multiple cheaper "normal" tanks makes it harder to eliminate your armour support.

I take some on my Vanillas and Executioner's, simply because I only have 2 russes total. if I had more, I'd screw the sponsons and lay more tanks on the field.

i'd say the Best option (IMHO), id magnetize them. even magnetize the melta, plasma, flamer and H bolter bits for optimal loadout when needed.

But if you field a maxed out Leman Russ Battle Tank, Plus 2 Armoured Sentinels, A Valkyrie (or 2 Hellhound variants), and a Heavy Weapons Team of Lascannons, you can fluff your army the rest of the way with troops, and even through in a Catachan Devils Squad, and the enemy wouldn't know what to do but ?/*# his (or her) pants! That's all I'm saying.

FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

The only thing I ever take sponsons on are the Eradicators, and I only do so to make them somewhat useful for when I face up again a marine player. Otherwise, I would suggest you leave the sponsons at home. If your fighting against another shooty army, great, but more than often as IG there is crap running at you and being able to keep your tanks somewhat mobile is needed.

I feel like if the side sponsons are forfeit, then you're just paying TOO MUCH for the battle cannon, side sponsons are cheap and give you a decent ranged attack to add ton to the battle cannon... maybe I've just looked at too many GW books

I typically run base leman russes with sponson heavy bolters, hull lascannon and heavy stubber. They seem inefficient at 195 points a pop, but they are so versatile and can sit still and lay down the dakka. It allows me to move and shoot the BC and lascannon against tanks, and switch to heavy bolter/stubber next turn to target infantry. Plus the ability to sit still and let 'em rip is very handy. Relying solely on the turret weapon to do damage is setting yourself up for disappointment. I run a heavy mech list, so I'm not bothered at people shooting my Leman Russes as those are shots not going at my much more vulnerable vehicles. The extra weapons give a little more fear factor. Besides, a LR without sponsons looks.... empty.....

dingholio wrote:I feel like if the side sponsons are forfeit, then you're just paying TOO MUCH for the battle cannon, side sponsons are cheap and give you a decent ranged attack to add ton to the battle cannon... maybe I've just looked at too many GW books

As others have said it's a matter of how you use the tank for example if you use a LRMBT with hvy bolt sponsons and it sits at the back of your army and shoots every turn then 20pts is a steal. However if you move said tank every turn your never going to be in a posistion to use those sponsons and it's just a waste of points. From my experience my tanks are moving far more often than they are sitting still so I don't bother with sponsons YMMV.

I just don't understand why people are moving their leman russes so much. My gaming group tends to make terrain heavy tables, but yet with TLOS there is always something to shoot. Demolisher might be the one exception but I have never been a fan of them other than their psychological effect on the enemy. I would have also talked about the punisher but if you are taking one of those than you aren't really worried about competitive play anyways.

Sponson heavy bolters are only 20 points! Where else are you going to get that firepower for that cheap. A heavy weapons squad pays 50 points for 2 heavy bolters

Multi-Meltas are really effective on a pask tank as they become effectively S9. I Played a game recently where my vanquisher had a weapon destroyed result, and as it was a close quarter battle by that point, the tanks effectiveness was hardly diminished. Try saying that about a battle tank with only a hull heavy bolter.

Plasma cannons at 40 points are still a steal. The only other place you can get plasma cannons are armoured sentinels but two of them are 150 points. A bad scatter and your battle tank or demolisher was useless that turn, but if you then proceed to plop two plasma cannon blasts then you have a chance to redeem yourself

I tend to take the side sponsons, personally. If I stay put It gives me a devastating amount of firepower to pile into one enemy unit I'd really love to see broken and dead. If I move I still get to toss some lead down range in addition to the main gun. And I'm a huge fan of redundancies in an army. Your main gun scatters away from the baddies and into an nearby but non hostile orphanage? Well there's still the sponsons to make sure someone still gets hurt. Take a weapon damaged hit? Kill off a sponson to keep your main gun in the fight. Enemy gets to pick the weapon you lose? At least you've still got the sponson to kill mofos with. Up against a multi-hit monstrous baddie, or some Eternal Warrior who stubbornly refuses to get one hit killed? Chip that scumbum away with a wall of hot lead.

Like a certain Texan once told us, got a problem? Use a gun. Got bigger problems? Use more gun.

I'm personally in the it depends camp. It all depends on the size of the army, availablity of points as well as the tank in question.

Personally I only use sponsons that synergize with the role of the tank. I.E. non on LRBT since its range and gun don't synergize well with anything, plasma on executioner and maybe on demolisher if you have the points and heavy bolters on the exterminator/punisher if you ever decide to take one.