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Sorcerer Lord 390: Talisman of Preservation, TZ Disk, MK of TZ, Infernal Puppet

Throgg 175:

Exalted Hero - BSB: 180 Talisman of Endurance, shield

49 Marauders 257: Great Weapon, Musician & Standard

10 Marauders 64: Flails, Musician, Mark of SL

18 Warriors 326: Halberd, Mark of KH, Musician & Standard

18 Warriors 326: Halberd, Mark of KH, Musician & Standard

6 Trolls 270:

Hell Cannon 205

Hell Cannon 205

Total: 2398 points & 106 figures

Friends are practicing for an upcoming 2400pt tournament. Thought I'd help provide that tournament feel by playing a pair of Hell Cannons

Sorcerer Lord is well protected by both armor and a 3+ ward save. Mostly there for Gate Way, although Pandemonium is freaking out a number of players also.

Throgg takes care of the Trolls (of course).

BSB is assigned at deployment - either to bolster the Marauders or close to the Trolls to provide a re-roll on the Stupidity checks.

I've never played Hell Cannons before - I imagine they will be deployed like book ends on either end of the line with the 4 combat units shoulder to shoulder in the middle. The little marauder unit is a bit of a left over from 7th, but I've found it useful for chasing out small shooting units & watching the flanks. If nothing else, they can keep broken units on the run towards the end of the game.

Hell Cannons were such a head ache to use - much better to pay a few more points for a giant or Shaggoth than to put up with the random results of a Hell Cannon.

what happened when you tried them out? I'm trying to plan out my next big-hitter purchase and keep waffling between hellcannons and other choices...

Played against Lizardmen with 2 stegadons, Lord on Carnosaur, and assorted infantry.

Hell cannons deployed on right and left flanks with infantry in between.

Cannon #1
rd1 - passes leadership check - targets stegadon & hits for a few wounds.
rd2&3 - passes leadership check - targets stegadon & Lord. Scatters off target for no wounds.
rd4 passes leadership check - marches towards melee.
rd5 fails leadership check - surges an incredible 16 inches to get into combat with stegadon.
rd6 combat with stegadon drags on - S5 just not enough to finish off T6 stegadon.

Cannon #2
rd1 - fails leadership check - advances towards unit of skinks.
rd2 - charged in flank by unit of formed skinks with 2 Krox. Luckily only 2 skinks (and 1 Krox) make contact. On second round on combat - skinks run and get cut down. Thunderstomp* is a winner! Hell cannon is down several wounds and has only 1 Dwarf left.
rd3 - pass LD check. march back towards the action.
rd4 - Get shot up by skinks. Lose last Dwarf. Fail LD check. Check on Monster Reaction chart - go Stupid. Fail stupidity check - stumble forward 2 inches & fail to charge skinks.
rd5 - Skinks thumb their noses at stupid hell cannon. Back up 2 inches and finish off the cannon with more shooting.

Lessons learned:
Shooting with the hell cannon is not likely to return 200+ points. Shooting at big infantry units might help - but chaos does not need help killing infantry.

Hell Cannon not equiped to fight other big monsters.

Thunderstomp rocks against infantry. Cannon #2 did a number on the skinks & my opponent smashed my infantry with his 3 stompers.

Thunderstomp needs to be in my next WoC list - however, it needs to be a unit which has better movement control to prevent accidental charges which helped finish off cannon #2.

wow that is not a pretty picture. how much of getting charged do you think had to do with your initial placement? I've been chatting with a couple friends who use them and they do seem to be pretty wishy washy a lot of the time unfortunately...

If Hellcannons are going to make their points back in shooting, they need to target huge blocks. If you had hit Saurus, you would have had a better chance to make your points. I rarely purposely march my hellcannons. I have them target their big blocks, and when "war machine hunters" come calling, they laugh at them.

I like the army list otherwise. Instead of 10 marauders, I'd look into some hounds or marauder horsemen. You really need something to hit their war machines, which will do bad things to your 3 big blocks.

The flank charge on cannon #2 was all about the random movement. Granted - the cannon was exposed on the flank - but this sort of creature should excel at holding the flank against all comers.

What I wanted in the Hell Cannons was a way to reach out and kill high profile targets - Steam tanks, Stegadons w/ Engine of the Gods - big nasties that the warriors can't handle. Warmachines need time to accomplish such a goal, and the Hell Cannons seem as though they will run off before finishing.

I would in no way count on hellcannons to take out those targets. If that is what you want, you probably would be better with a shaggoth.

would it make sense to place both hellcannons at the center of the rear of your deployment? that way even if you're blocked to some units due to terrain, you still have LoS to many units and have the ability to screen your cannons with your other units from flankers/ units coming straight at you

Killjoy00 wrote:If Hellcannons are going to make their points back in shooting, they need to target huge blocks. If you had hit Saurus, you would have had a better chance to make your points. I rarely purposely march my hellcannons. I have them target their big blocks, and when "war machine hunters" come calling, they laugh at them.

I like the army list otherwise. Instead of 10 marauders, I'd look into some hounds or marauder horsemen. You really need something to hit their war machines, which will do bad things to your 3 big blocks.

I think he already has a good warmachine hunter if he uses his sorcerer on disc properly.

I used to use him as a warmachine hunter (sorc on disk), but he honestly isn't that great at it. Plus it gets him a bit out of position for spells, depending on what you are casting with him.

Would not dream of using the Sorcerer to hunt war machines - aside from the possibility of losing the nearly 400 points in a catastrophic loss in combat, the Sorcerer needs to stay mobile for spell casting.

For putting the Hell Cannons behind the battle line, I'm not sure how that would work for LOS - the army takes up almost 3 foot of table space in deployment. Would not leave very many avenues for sighting targets.

At this point - the random movement of the Hell Cannons is really putting me off. Stay tuned for an updated list.

You can see through/over your own troops now, though? So you have LOS through them. The rulebook specifically mentions intervening models as providing hard cover from shooting (-2 to hit) but of course that doesn't matter with a "guess" weapon like the hellcannon.

I agree that they'll have trouble making back their points, but it does give you some ranged power, which otherwise you lack (besides magic)...

&%^$%^ 8th....

That's what happens when you add shooting to a non-shooting army.

Lol . Having plenty of moments like that myself! As is just about everyone I know

But it does help solve the problem of the hellcannon shooting! Although, I'm not sure what happens now if it rampages while behind another unit (just stops when it hits them?)

That sounds about right. As far as I know the only time you can move a unit through another unit is when it's fleeing.