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What do people think is the best/most flexible composition for a unit of three IG Russ tanks not geared to any specific role (anti-tank, anti-infantry, etc.)?

I plan to put Pask in the lead tank.

main weapons?

Sponsons? Yes? No?

It's hard to imagine dropping 600 or so points on somehting with no really defined role in your army, but the basic LRBT offers a good mix of anti-infantry and anti-tank, esp when paired with hull lascannons. I'm not wild about them for the price, however.

The executioners, while very pricy, do everything but handle heavy armor. Hordes, terminators, even light vehicles all wither under so many shots.

If you're running Pask, though, he's best shooting at tanks or Monstrous Creatures, so I'd imagine you'd want to lean towards at least one tank that excels there, often a Vanquiser or sometimes an Exterminator.

Three exterminators with Hull LCs is a fun unit: 12 twinlinked S7 shots, 3 S9 all on the move make the unit a great anti-transport and a decent anti-infantry unit. the only problem is the sinking sensation that Hydras are almost as good for half the price.

a lot of IG players really love Demolishers. I'm not sold on them, but I think they might be the best for you. They're good against tanks, great against elite infantry, and pair well with nearly any hull or sponson weapons.

Well not so much "undefined" as trying to make them flexible in their loadouts...

I was leaning towards Pask in vanquisher and then two standard Leman Russ.

These are for my son's Ig army, and we already have the three Russ kits, so it is a matter of what to do with them. The vanquisher is easy to model/convert.

Im really stuck on if we should leave off sponsons to keep price down, or not, and should the hull weapon be lascannons to double up on anti-tank/high strength weaponry, etc.

He already has a punisher that has worked well for anti-infantry...

Best kit for Leman Russ Squad: Cheap.

Pask is only good in a Vanquisher, as already stated, and mostly only good when he sits still. The Panquisher would be much better suited in my opinion to be independent so it survives any immobilize rolls. Plus, what it fires at is generally not what you're going to want to have your battle cannons or what have you firing at. Vanquishers or Demolishers could be given lascannons, but I wouldn't put them on anything else. I'd be reluctant to even give them lascannons unless they're the ones with Pask. I'm one of those IG players Polonius was talking about; I love my Demolishers. They did very very well at 'ard Boyz, but expect them to be a major target. As far as the sponsons go, I'll actually occasionally run a multimelta sponsoon set on a Demolisher for fun. If you can afford to sit still for a turn and manage to force someone into range, there's nothing like firing two multimeltas, a lascannon, and the demolisher cannon all at a target, and at the 12" sweet spot, you can't seriously harm yourself in return. I strongly advise against sponsons of any type for vanilla LRBTs. The range doesn't match well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
To build my vanquisher, I just cut up a battlecannon, put a marker lid which happened to be the exact diameter in place between the two pieces, and then glued back together the night before a tournament. After about 30 seconds of touch up painting, it looked perfect, and not a single person questioned it the next morning.

daedalus wrote:Pask is only good in a Vanquisherl.

I totally disagree with that.

Take a basic leman russ with Battlecannon, Heavy Bolters and a lascannon hull. This unit is good against monstrous creatures, Heavy infantry, light infantry, light tanks, and heavy tanks.

Battlecannon at this point can even threaten Land Raiders, something it doesnt do normally, and the lascannon is effectively str 10.

Vanquishers suck compared to this "meet all threats" loadout.

...theres a good reason Pask prefers this tank in the fluff....its a GREAT unit.

Deadshane1 wrote:

daedalus wrote:Pask is only good in a Vanquisherl.

I totally disagree with that.

As well you might. Looking back on it, it would be more accurate to say that the Vanquisher is only good with Pask in it.

Deadshane1 wrote:
Take a basic leman russ with Battlecannon, Heavy Bolters and a lascannon hull. This unit is good against monstrous creatures, Heavy infantry, light infantry, light tanks, and heavy tanks.

I totally disagree with this however, and I'm going to take a page from Aileros' book and state that the IG have enough cheap awesome stuff to where they don't need to be all purpose. The tank you quoted is about 1.5 time more expensive than a default LRBT, and none of the weapons have a consistent target/range. There's not really much synergy. Some of those weapons, like the heavy bolters, could well be worse to fire at SM because of wound-allocation nonsense. Against horde/GEQ, you fire those heavy bolters, and that 15 point lascannon you bought just went to waste because it's more firepower than needed. If you fire at armor, those two sponsons are bouncing off harmlessly. Really, MCs would fall best against it, since everything would have a chance of hitting/wounding, but even then, this isn't going to take down a wraithlord.

EDIT: Okay, I'm slowed and missed the "flexible" portion of the OPs post. To which I say, clever modeling and magnetizing the model will allow the most flexibility overall, if you're looking to buy one chassis and have it support as many loadouts as possible. If you mean staying flexible in game by loading it to the brim with guns, then I think it's going to turn into a point sink and completely underperform.

My only advice, as a beginning Guard player myself, is MAGNETIZE, MAGNETIZE, MAGNETIZE. The box sets already gave you all the bits you need, just have your son try out a new setup every time he plays, and see which one ends up the most effective/fun in actual practice.

Wait, he just said unit of three tanks. Why would you mix dedicated units like a pask vanq with vanilla russes?

If you target infantry, vanq won't do any good.
If you target tanks, vanilla's won't do much better.

Id say lascannon russes is the best if you only have one heavy slot.