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I go with a Hellhound/Multimelta. The Hellhound, I feel, is the best option, though i think that I will switch out the Multimelta soon, it isn't really pulling its weight.

Will wrote:

If you want melta, take melta gun vets in a chimera.

There's a significant range difference.

Melta vets move 12", disembark about 3" for a total 27" range on the melta shot (21" for the 2d6)

Devil dog moves 12" and shoots 24" for a 36" range shot (24" for the 2d6)

Against anything up to AR11 (and borderline for AR12) the str8 shot is good enough. Against things that move faster than you particularly (fast BA rhinos, DE skimmers, Eldar skimmers), stopping them while they're still 36" away means you don't have to wait until they're nice enough to drive into range (and into a range where popping the vehicle might not help you much because the transport has already done its job of bringing the assaulty nasties close to your line).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

headrattle wrote:If you are using the Banewolf to attack THSS termies, you are using them wrong and deserve to lose it. But against a platoon of MEQs, they will do wonders.

You use the hellhound/banewolf/devil dog to interdict the movement of the TH/SS terminators. It's quite a viable tactic.

Just drive the tank up to 1" away from the terminators and park--preferably in a terrain chokepoint if available--with the tank moving more than 6". Now they either have to stop for a turn and assault it (hitting on 6s, but there's a decent chance they'll get it anyway) or try to walk around. I do it all the time against ork warbikes, thunderwolves, nything that's moving on the ground and is a huge threat. It buys you an extra turn to deal with them.

The important thing is that you want to get the vehicle 1" away from the unit you're interdicting (or as close as possible, but definitely within 6") so they have no choice but to go around or deal with the tank. You don't want to give the unit you're interdicting extra movement by letting them leapfrog off an assault.

It's quite a viable tactic.

It is a viable tactic, and I have used it, namely with empty Chimeras. I tend to dump the squad and interdict the Termies (or similar) with the Chimera. If they kill it, fine. I will be shooting at them a lot with my squad. If they don't they are moving around him and I still get to shoot at them with my squad (usually.) Allowing me to buy time. Yes. Perfectly valid. But I will be rarely using my Banewolf to do this.

But my point is the classic argument that was going something like this.

Against: (Unit A) is useless. You should never have it in your army.
For: I like to use (unit A) against (unit X) and I have had a lot of success with it.
Against: But that won't work against (unit Y.)
For: I won't be using it against (unit Y.)
Against: That isn't always your decision.
Ect ect ect...

All units have something that it is weak against. Part of the game is not exposing them to that weakness. The Banewolf has a weakness in that it has to get close to the enemy. But essentially it is used the same as a Flamestorm Baal Predator. It is not a bad tank and adds killing power in return for higher risk. I have had a lot of success with it, but I understand that it is not for everyone. Many units are this way.

headrattle wrote:All units have something that it is weak against. Part of the game is not exposing them to that weakness. The Banewolf has a weakness in that it has to get close to the enemy. But essentially it is used the same as a Flamestorm Baal Predator. It is not a bad tank and adds killing power in return for higher risk. I have had a lot of success with it, but I understand that it is not for everyone. Many units are this way.

Pretty spot on. I would definetly agree these threads typicallly devolve into "it has this weakness so its completely useless".

I think the army list section is much more productive for these kinds of dicussions because no unit works alone, it all needs to be taken in the context of the rest of the army and how the player uses the unit.

But in the lists I run the most threatening things I face are:
1) Units in base with my chimeras. I can't shoot blasts that will hit my own guys and the chimera gives the unit cover from most things I can bring against it.
2)MEQs running on foot. I have no problem blowing up their transports, but with soo much cover around these days I typically have a hard time finishing 10 marines before they can run and be in my face.
3)MEQs hiding in cover. Again the problem is I don't want to get close with infantry to shoot demos and melta guns, only 3-4 marines need to live to kill the transport and the guys inside. But the Banewolf happily swoops in and clears 5/6 of the unit before anything else even looks at it.

The top things the rest of my army struggles with the BW handles mightily.

Its about winning the game at multiple ranges to me. Guard should easily win the long range game. But your opponent will close, and the Banewolf has for me won the close range game often enough to keep it around.