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I'd be interested what other 40k players think of spearhead.

Spearhead - tank battle.
Its a nice add-on for those who have access to a lot of tanks.

I played a game yesterday at a high points level, it was pretty cool with all those tanks. I found out that the mechenised spearhead is deadly with anti-tank units when 20 fire dragons (two players using the spearhead you see) came on both flank of our deployment zone, they took out 7 tanks and imoblised another with their 3 wave serpants.

It was on a bigger table than normal and there was a bridge over the middle but I think everyone was so scared of being caught in a crossfire of anti-tank weapons they stayed back so most of the leman russes didn't move. Instead, they tried to remove the eldar seer council on jetbikes with their 2+ re-rollible invunerible saves.

The night spinner was also tested in the game, it took out about 5 marines of mine and did who knows what else when I wasn't looking. Those marines preceded to flee but then were assulted by a warp spider and his exarch, I then preceded towin the combat.

My experience with Spearhead has been the opposite, Wizard. Infact, my group has tried to make the most of the new mobility that it gives Predators and Chimeras. Blood Angel Rhinos have been particularly frightening though, ramming 12-15" with Crusher Spearhead for those S10 hits. Right now I have very few tanks avaliable for my CSM, so I've been running 2 Rhinos with Havoc Launchers in an Outrider Spearhead with my all Lascannon Predator. The other list I've tried is a Mechanized Assault Spearhead, backed up by Seek and Destroy Bikers and various Deepstrikers. It seems to lack the hitting power to get through all the tanks, although it is almost an I.W.I.N. list in Break-through.

Our Ninja 'Nids player has been having the least fun with it though. His entire army arrives from reserves, so the Monsterous Spearhead is largely uselss, and with his army as Warrior and Gene-stealer heavy as it is Mass Attack isn't cost effective enough; his infantry can already tear appart tanks.

It's fine. It's optional rules that make things more interesting.

It looks. Fun. Havent tried it yet, though I worked out the A Valdor super heavy and 2 Lasannon Archeotech Sentinels comes to 500 points. nasty army that.

I don't think a new set of optional rules is ever a bad thing, it gives you a few new options and a new style of play to liven things up a bit.

I especially like it as I've got a lot of tanks in both my Imperial Guard and Eldar armies.

I'm really excited to play a game with the rules...if my WD ever arrives, that is! For some reason, it seems to be taking extra long this month.

I have a IG army, and I'm looking forward to getting my Baneblade on the table for the first time with the Superheavy spearhead.

From what little I have read about it. Really all Spearhead seems to do is adjust the Force Org Chart. By adding Spearhead formations, you can now add alot more Heavy Support to your army in most cases.

Spearhead is a great addition to the game, especially if you're running a campaign.

I don't own many tanks, but I have some super-heavies waiting to be played for a long time!

Moreover I can't wait to see how a 2000 pts deffkoptas army is going to work

I haven't tried it yet, but am building more battlewagons in preparation! I think it's a great expansion and can't wait to field my Dread Mob!

Planning on building a magnitized Battlewagon Trio that should cover allot of the Spearhead formations for the Orks. Hoping to get some games in soon.

It's a blatant marketing gimmick attempting to force players to buy more tanks. If you have the models, fine, but there's no freakin' WAY I'm paying £30 a pop plus a price rise just to play an optional expansion.

It IS partially free so you can't complain tooooo much. I guess I'm still stinging a little bit from the June price increase.../grumble

L. Wrex

Lycaeus - I assume you griped at Apocalypse because it FORCED you to buy superheavies?

Sorry, Spearhead does NOT force you to do a damn thing, as you dont have to play it! However for those people who have, for example, far too many basilisks and leman russ for a normal FOC they can now play them, without having the larger investment of an Apocalypse game.

You haven't read my post properly. It's an ATTEMPT to make people buy more tanks. The same tanks, I might add, that come with less accessories and yet cost more. No-ones being forced to do anything, but the fact is that gamers may well purchase lots of vehicles to play the shiny new game mode, only for it to go the way of Planetstrike/Cities of Death.

I also said that Spearhead is fine 'if you have the models'. I'm a returning player to the game and have had to start my collection from scratch, so I don't have far too many Russes or anything like that to play Spearhead with.

Finally I don't really see the neccessity behind Spearhead's release. YES it is a WD 'free' expansion, but I'd much rather they put their resources to better use crafting well-written and nicely-balanced codicies.

At the end of the day, people will do what they want, but I personally don't rate this expansion at all.

L. Wrex

I get the feeling you wouldn't rate any expansion. The problem with new codicies is that they giveth, but they also taketh away. Look at the current CSM codex compared to the last one. You get to take everything, but there is a whole lot less to take. Expansions add a new dimension to the game without taking away from armies.

"...only for it to go the way of Planetstrike/Cities of Death." I don't know what you mean by that, but if it means they aren't played in tournies I don't think anyone is expecting that. My area still plays Planetstrike, and my gaming group has a couple Cities of Death fanatics (myself included).

It's a nice little idea. Sucks that I don't have enough real proper tanks for it though (Being a Sisters player with only one true tank, the Exorcist, and my Guard and Ork armies aren't yet large enough for Spearhead).

No, I did read it - I had issue with you using the word "force"; if it were a change to the core rules of the game - sure, that would be an attempt at forcing players to buy tanks. (Hell, most people argue 5th did that anyway...)

What it is is a way, like apocalypse, to get people to buy more stuff *period*. It also gives you a venue to use big stuff outside of the quite large amounts of tiem needed to organise a decent apocalypse game - it still has restrictions (no allies, etc) so the amount of "pre work" is less - it is fairly well pick up and play. THAT is the "necessity" behind the expansion - it allows people to use that Baneblade they bought on Apoc release for more than a one a month game (if that).

SO it fulfills two needs: the companies and the people who play the game [of 40k]. Whats the problem with that?

Thanks for you're answers, I've played a game of it and it's just great! Kina like Apocalypse but faster and more organized, a 3500 Point battle took only about two hours.