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Any IG players actually use the Collosus Mortar?

I gave it one try on Vassal putting it in the corner and it did nothing. Scatter off the one shot I got, then 2nd turn pretty much everything was inside 24 inches of it and then it got toasted by outflanking scouts in a land speeder storm on turn 3.

I haven't ever used one myself, and that's because I have a rather low opinion of it, myself.

Yes, it kills clustered space marines in cover (when you score a hit), but only the most foolish of marine commanders is going to cluster their troops in one spot in cover when they know that you have cover-busting artillery around.

When you have such savvy opponents, the colossus has to rely on it's other talents, which, in this case, are few.

If you're facing lots of gunline marines and don't like massed close range firepower or assaulting, then the colossus might well do fine, but at that point, I'd get a deathstrike.

I've used the Colossus I would say about a dozen times, of those it has worked magnificently for the first 2 turns and then after that it kinda fizzles out. The big deal here is the ability to ignore cover and destroy pretty much everything up to a Terminator Equivalent. They are great for rooting out Devestators/Long Fangs, Combat Squads holding objectives, etc. Their minimum range is a pain in the neck; however, if you keep them at extreme distances you can get a lot of usage. The way it sounds with the army you faced, in Turn 2 you probably should have repositioned it so as to get at least one more shot. Don't forget you can still move and fire 1 Ordnance weapon.

I've bee trying to decide between it and the Basilisk or Griffon Siege Mortars myself. The cover busting option is a nice one, but I rather like the anti-vehicle potency of the basilisk in addition to it's infantry killing.

The short range of the Griffon is very prohibitive.

Unholy_Martyr wrote:Don't forget you can still move and fire 1 Ordnance weapon.

But you CAN'T move and fire and ordnance BARRAGE weapon. As you can't fire the colossus directly, this means you can not fire the colossus in any turn in which it moves.

It scared my bikers real good.
Otherwise, it has a pretty narrow application, a good one, but not very flexible to get the most out of it.

Don't forget you can still move and fire 1 Ordnance weapon.

well, actually you can't do it with collosus, as it cannot fire directly. With ordnance barrage you can't shoot after mowing.

I fielded it twice, it didn't made its money back, but got a few "pain in the a$$ removal" shots. So in the end i was glad i used it.

The Collosus is a very limited application weapon, ie taking out static Meq in cover, in a game based around mobility.
I prefer 1-2 Basilisks. They can actually take out vehicles, direct fire, and being able to insta-kill T4 has its uses. Taking 2 will take care of cover saves too.

I've fielded it a few times, but due to more "luck of the draw" always ended up in "Dawn of War" or just against non-Marine players... On paper it has the potential to be useful against the 3+ or 4+ cover save Marines I see a lot locally, but by and large I've found it to be not worth it to deal with the 2 Las Cannons I usually see in the buildings... The standard Basilisk would have been far better in every case I've fielded it I think... :-) But who knows, if I KNOW I'm facing a Marine army that tends toward the "gun line" deployments, I might break it out...

I think the biggest problem for me was the 24 inch min range playing vs a mech marine player the marine player moved everything that could into 24. The Strength 6 makes it near useless against transports as well.

Collosus might be decent vs Wolves and their long fangs but they could just congo line them so you hit 3 if your lucky and guess where they will be shooting their missle launchers.

Just it would be fun converting one but guess I'll pass.

Medusa's might be fun to make though. Could use them for Planetstrike too.

The Basilisk is my artillery of choice, and I find at range its almost as effective against troops in cover as the Medusa, (unless your enemies are in area terrain) and it can fire directly when they get closer. The Medusa is not that great of a niche filler because it is not adaptable. In another army the same kind of weapon might be used more, but in the Guard codex, there are just so many other things that have wider uses.

Its strength 6 really kills it. artillery should be able to double up as anti tank. if it was strength 8 Id field one in every game I played, but it is not to be.

Im going for Pseudo-Arty company, and I see no place for a colossus.

Too niche to spend a HS slot on.

I've fielded one a few times, and I've seen it do some nice things. Some of the points in its favour do not focus on its statline, I think:

I've seen it be quite a fire magnet, even to an experienced player when he has nothing threatened by it. It's potential to wipe out squads on 2+ with no save when they thought they were safe scares people.

Also, since its range is pretty specific, people tend to try to get close enough that it can't fire (or that they can assault it). If positioned correctly, you can end up using this to control their movement.

So, with some finesse, there are three options.
-The opponent spends time firing at it, probably more than is necessary. You've saved your Russ from a melta shot, or a Chimera with Vets from a Lascannon.
-The opponent moves within it's minimum range, making it useless. If you had the opportunity to set up correctly, you just pulled them into a killzone.
-The opponent ignores it completely. You can probably get a couple pretty good shots against infantry. This is the worst case if your scatter rolls suck all game.

I think a practiced hand could make use of all of this. Of course, a savvy opponent could see through any psychological effect. That said, 140 pts might still be too much for a glorified distraction.

I am a huge fan of the colossus. Yes it is not mobile, and it cannot kill vehicles. It has a 24'' min range and cannot fire directly. Many think all artillery must destroy vehicles, however the Colossus is an anti infantry weapon.

Cover saves make the most impressive weapon only 50% effective. The Colossus negates all cover saves. Ork KFF? Eldar pathfinders? Space Marines of any type? Ork bikers? IG Guards in 3+ cover on an objective? Necron warriors hiding in a corner? Ork lootas blasting away? Who cares, you have a colossus. At Str 6 AP3 NO COVER SAVE large blast with a 20 FOOT not inches range, you have a very useful weapon. Park it behind a building and let fly. This weapon will insta kill almost every troop unit in the game. It forces the enemy to change its tactics and draws units into killzones.

True this is a scatterable template, however you can hit almost anywhere on the board. You can use it to smash troops off objectives (they get no cover save), destroy support units at range, even take out light armor: chimeras (remember as ordnance barrage hits side armor), speeders, etc.

Don't forget any unit that gets hit and takes a wound must take a leadership test at -1 or be pinned.

I like taking a Colossus, a Manitcore, and a Demolisher in an 1850 game. That way you have to long range threats and close range threat when the inevitable charge comes in. Put the Colossus and Maiticore at either end of the board and you can almost ignore the min ranges as each can support another.

Something to note about the last two posts, they talk about how awesome it is when the colossus hits something. You've got to remember that it only hits stuff half of the time, at best.

Once you kick it down a notch, you have to realize that your opponent has a great deal to say over the kind of damage you do with blast template weapons. Yeah, large blast is harder to avoid than the pathetically easy small blasts, but still, against an opponent who conga lines his troops, you're looking at 3 hits IF YOU DON'T SCATTER AWAY.

The problem with guard artillery in general is that it has a really broad range of damage (like lightning sorceresses in Diablo 2). It's easy to get caught up looking only at the impressive maximum side of the spectrum (a manticore killing 3 vehicles in a single turn, or a colossus wiping out a 10-man devestator squad in one go), but when you do this, you're just fooling yourself.

On average, a colossus does a healthy amount of missing and is killed about mid-game (or possibly earlier) if your opponent considers it a threat at all. Look for one or two solid hits in any given game. If your opponent plays foot marines with poor spacing, it might do a fair amount of damage actually. If your opponent plays mechanized or horde (like pretty much everybody) and uses proper spacing, get ready for it to underpreform every game.