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The Leman Russ is a veritable cornerstone in many an Imperial Guard army. Its large profile, thick armour and (most importantly) large guns make it an impressive, and useful, unit on the table. When assessing the Leman Russ’ potential impact on a game it is first necessary to determine whether or not a Leman Russ would synergize effectively with the units you have already selected to comprise your army.

More often than not, a Leman Russ is well-rounded enough to pose a strong argument for inclusion in many lists; the AV14 provides excellent protection from the vast majority of heavy weapons, whilst the armaments it wields can be devastating enough to swing a battle in a single shooting phase. The sight of a Leman Russ can often ensnare your opponent’s attention to such an extent that he will dedicate more firepower than he initially wanted to against its tough hide, drawing firepower away from other, more valuable and vulnerable units in your army. The large profile of the Leman Russ can BLOS to smaller vehicles entirely, forcing your opponent to engage an AV that he would much rather avoid.

There are times, however, where a Leman Russ would not be the best selection for your particular army. Whilst the turret weapons are, in their own right, very effective against a plethora of targets, the damage output is not as spectacular as other options in the Heavy Support section. If optimized damage output: points spent is a priority, there are superior selections in the Ordnance Battery section that can potentially do much more damage, for cheaper, than a Leman Russ tank.

Sponsons

Many arguments are made as to whether or not to include sponsons on a Leman Russ tank. The only way to discern the correct answer is to decide exactly what role you want your Leman Russ to fulfill on the battlefield. If your Leman Russ is going to be acting as a line-breaker, constantly moving to put pressure on your opponent, then sponsons would not be an ideal expenditure of points; the tank will simply not be stationary enough times throughout the game to use the extra guns. If your Leman Russ is acting as an anchor for your forces, operating alongside a gun line platoon for example, then sponsons suddenly become a much more appealing proposition, as the tank will be able to make use of the extra firepower it has been given more often. Extra care must be taken during deployment when operating this way, as a turn spent maneuvering into position is a turn less that the tank gets to unleash its full damage potential on the enemy.

Lumbering Behemoth

A rule unique to the Leman Russ. This rule essentially allows a Leman Russ to always fire two guns, even if moving at combat speed. A Leman Russ (without sponsons) would therefore be able to fire both its battle cannon and its heavy bolter at the same unit even if the tank moved 6”. The downside to this rule is that should the tank want to move at cruising speed, it does so at a potentially much more reduced rate than other vehicles. To this extent, it is always more preferable to move the Russ 6” and fire two guns, than run the risk of moving 7-12” and firing nothing (Turn 1 of Dawn of War games notwithstanding).

Leman Russ Battle Tank

+ S8 AP3 Ordnance is a MEQ’s nightmare.
+ S8 Ordnance is decent against AV11-12 in a pinch.
+ Cheapest variant, buys a solid vehicle at a good price.
- Not the most potent AT potential.
- Expensive when outfitted with ‘exotic’ sponsons.

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy bolter (heavy bolter sponsons optional)

Many players would argue that the traditional Leman Russ is the jack-of-all-trades variant, able to be outfitted to deal with either armour or infantry and deal effectively with both types of targets. I would argue that S8 Ordnance does not necessarily equate to impressive odds when targeting any AV12+, and that lower armour values can easily be handled by other, more numerous, elements of the Guard army.

I prefer to perceive the Leman Russ as one of the best variants to deal with any light-medium infantry with a save of up to 3+. The battle cannon can obliterate Marine squads and Ork mobs alike, whilst the heavy bolter (which can always fire!) can add to the overall tally. Swapping the heavy bolter for a lascannon to try and improve the AT ability of the Leman Russ is simply trying to shoehorn the tank down a path that it isn’t really optimized for. Likewise, adding plasma sponsons for some AP2 punch will more often than not result in your opponent enacting some wound allocation shenanigans to reduce the overall damage caused by the tank.

Leman Russ Vanquisher

+ 72” range 2D6 armour penetration can really put the hurt on vehicles.
- Not AP1.
- Heavy 1 at BS3 results in a miss 50% of the time.

Optimal loadout: Hull lascannon.

The Vanquisher is the tank-hunting tank of the Leman Russ variants. Being able to snipe vehicles from across the table is exceptionally useful, and pairing this variant up with a standard Leman Russ can see you eradicating a transport and the squad inside per turn. The obvious disadvantage of this variant is that the BS3 of the crew means it will only ever hit half the shots it fires, not great when you pay over 150 points for the privilege. When it does hit it will more than likely make an absolute mess of whatever armour was in the way, but Murphy’s Law means that the one time you really, really wanted it to hit, it’ll miss and you’ll be wondering what you just spent all those points on.

The hull lascannon pairs up rather nicely with the vanquisher cannon as they are both high S, low AP weapons and thus synergize very well together.

Leman Russ Exterminator

+ Heavy 4, twin-linked autocannon on AV14 is pretty cool.
- Hydras exist.

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy bolter.

This is one of the Russ variants that is simply too expensive to justify bringing along. The twin-linked, heavy 4 autocannon would be quite useful if the Hydra didn’t perform exactly the same role, better, for cheaper. When you can purchase two Hydras for the price of a single Exterminator (thus doubling your firepower) there is simply no real reason to choose this variant. At all.

Leman Russ Eradicator

+ Ignoring cover is great in an edition where cover is king.
+ Decent strength and AP coupled with long range will destroy horde units.
- Effectively a heavy flamer on an AV14 chassis.
- Expensive

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy bolter (heavy bolter sponsons optional)

Another Russ variant whose niche is better suited elsewhere in the codex. The Eradicator looks like a fairly cool tank; AP4 and ignoring cover strips most horde armies of the majority of their long-range fire protection. Unfortunately, a Hellhound can do pretty much exactly the same thing, has roughly the same effective range, and is cheaper. The Eradicator would be best suited as an anchor point for a gunline army, using the heavy bolter sponsons coupled with the nova cannon to dent the tide of infantry swarming towards your lines. If you regularly face Green Tide or Tyranid swarm armies then you may find a use for this tank, otherwise the AP4 and middle-of-the-road strength don’t really cut it when fighting MEQ.

Leman Russ Demolisher

+ One of the best ordnance guns in the game.
+ S10 annihilates infantry and vehicles alike.
+ Tougher rear armour than other variants.
- Short range
- Relatively expensive when considering other options in the codex.

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy flamer.

One of the top 3 Leman Russ variants you can get. The Demolisher can smash anything on the table with contemptuous ease, and then laugh as the return fire ricochets off of its tough armour plating. You’ll never be short of targets for the Demolisher to shoot at; and due to its large threat radius, it can often be placed quite highly on your opponent’s priority list, leaving other units such as Vendettas and Chimera facing less firepower than they otherwise would have.

The Demolisher’s key flaw is in the short range of its cannon. It has to be perilously close to your opponent’s lines in order to shoot, putting it at the risk of return fire from any melta weapons arrayed against you.

The hull heavy flamer is the best option here as the tank is already in close proximity to the enemy. Therefore should it lose its main gun, it isn’t too far away from roasting an infantry squad or two.

Leman Russ Punisher

+ Heavy 20 is cool.
- No AP.
- Short range.
- BS3.
- Expensive.

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy bolter.

The much maligned Punisher possibly holds the position, along with the Exterminator, as the worst variant available. The heavy 20 gun looks nice on paper, and the S5 means a lot of those hits will transfer into wounds, but the lack of an AP coupled with a criminally short range really hampers the overall performance of the tank. Designed to be anti-infantry it needs at the very least an AP value and/or rending to be halfway decent at its job. It can be used to throw a bunch of wounds on monstrous creatures in the hope that one or two will stick, but then you realize your paying 180 points for the privilege and you go and buy a pair of Hydras instead.

Leman Russ Executioner

+ Heavy 3 plasma cannon!
- Most expensive variant available.

Optimal loadout: Hull lascannon w/ plasma cannon sponsons

The Executioner can throw down entire star systems worth of pain onto an enemy unit. Being able to churn out a potential 5 plasma cannon blasts can reduce squads of Terminators to molten puddles in seconds. As the Guard have only one other way to field plasma cannons, the Executioner truly stands alone as a variant with no competition anywhere else in the codex. Its ability to dish out the hurt is well documented pretty much everywhere, so expect it to come under a lot of firepower as your opponent desperately tries to shut down those blast templates.

All this destruction comes at a price, and the Executioner is the most expensive tank you can purchase, even more so when it is decked out with plasma sponsons and a hull lascannon. You pay the points for all that AP2 death, but when you wipe 2-300 points of Terminators/Sanguinary Guard/Death Company off the table, you’ll be happy you broke the bank to bring along a tank such as this.

Well, there you have it; a rundown of the different Leman Russ variants, the pros and cons of each tank, and how I feel each one could be used to maximize its effectiveness on the table. I’ll hopefully be turning my musing into a small mini-series, each focusing upon a different aspect of the Guard army. I hope that you enjoyed reading this, and of course I’d be interested to hear about other loadouts and variations that have worked for you in past games.

Regards,

L. Wrex

Great analysis of the variants. I used to run 9 Russes before I was convinced to run 6 with hellhounds. I now use 2 vanilla Russes with H/HB, 2 Demolishers also with H/HB (might go HF) and two executioners with H/HB. I'm a believer in no sponsons cause I move every turn to reduce the chances of combat hits (I play against a lot of foot slogging armies). Though there are a number of variants, only three are worth bringing in any normal game. Good post!

Understand that the following is my opinion as an IG officer in training. Alot of this comes from the perspective of a Chaos Marine player though.

Leman Russ Battle Tank

+ S8 AP3 Ordnance is a MEQ’s nightmare.
+ S8 Ordnance is decent against AV11-12 in a pinch.
+ Cheapest variant, buys a solid vehicle at a good price.
- Not the most potent AT potential.
- Expensive when outfitted with ‘exotic’ sponsons.

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy bolter (heavy bolter sponsons optional)

I see the logic here and can't fault it too much other then to say that one of the big advantages to the Battle Cannon is the 72" range. Heavy Bolters will only every reach half that so if you're goal is to provide long range firepower, I'd rather take the Lascannon and gain those extra 12".

Plus with the current meta-game being heavy on mechanized units, I think a single Lascannon will usually outshine those Bolters at opening up the transports. Sure its nice if other units can do that for you, but we all know that sometimes you're limited by what you can shoot.

Leman Russ Vanquisher

+ 72” range 2D6 armour penetration can really put the hurt on vehicles.
- Not AP1.
- Heavy 1 at BS3 results in a miss 50% of the time.

Optimal loadout: Hull lascannon.

Ditto. I think its the only real valid option for a loadout. Oddly enough I see the Vanquisher and LRBT as being very similar and its really only the ideal target that changes.

Leman Russ Exterminator

+ Heavy 4, twin-linked autocannon on AV14 is pretty cool.
- Hydras exist.

Optimal loadout: Hull heavy bolter.

This is one of the Russ variants that is simply too expensive to justify bringing along. The twin-linked, heavy 4 autocannon would be quite useful if the Hydra didn’t perform exactly the same role, better, for cheaper. When you can purchase two Hydras for the price of a single Exterminator (thus doubling your firepower) there is simply no real reason to choose this variant. At all.

I wouldn't agree that there is no reason to select this option. The big difference is AV14/12 vs 2x AV12/10. I think it really comes down to what else you have in your army. If you are heavy on AV12, it might be ok to take the Hydra but if you have alot of AV14, the Hydras are going to be a huge sponge for all those S6/S7/S8 long range weapons.

A concise overview of what has been bantered about over these past many months. For what it's worth...

Leman Russ: I don't actually consider it a "Jack of all trades". It does exactly two things well, blowing up flimsey vehicles that you hate and pounding medium infantry. Of course, even though it's scope is somewhat narrow, It does these things rather well, and, as stated it's really cheap. IMHO, other than perhaps the demolisher depending on the circumstances, the plane jane russ is the best of them available.

That and it's sometimes appropriate to take the hull lascannon, as it actually helps with those flimsey vehicles and tau suits, etc.

Vanquisher: it's total crap. When you do the math for damage, it comes out pretty craptastic for its points. Still being only S8 and not ignoring cover really hurt this vehicle's firepower when you really need it, and that's before considering BS3. If you're playing apocalypse, maybe but otherwise...

Exterminator/Eradicator/Punisher: These tanks make me cry. With the exterminator, you're spending HOW much for a couple of autocannons? With the eradicator, you're spending HOW much for a single heavy flamer? As for the punisher, well, that vehicle is to horrible to even begin to explain its horribleness

Demolisher: I really like this tank as the way to use it really jives with how I see GW intending for all russes to be used. Being a bully with AV14, lumbering forward and splatting stuff. Good times. Plus, unupgraded, it's still pretty cheap. The only problem, as you mention, is that they're a little tricky to keep alive.

Executioner: Yes, this is the best way to take plasma cannons. The problem, though, is that plasma cannons are... meh. For a really expensive tank, you'd expect it to do more than be limited to nailing densely packed terminator squadrons and taking down light vehicles.

Honestly, most of the stuff the executioner can do is done better for cheaper by the hydra. The only benefit is against really densely packed 2+ and 3+ stuff out of cover, which doesn't likely happen enough to justify its considerable expense.

As for stuff in general.

You're right in saying that russes give a poorer damage return for the points than artillery. Perhaps you could then go on to say why you should ever bring russes instead of artillery.

Also, with the sponsons, you've got to remember that the only time you're ever shooting both is not only when you sit still, but also when your opponents are far away. Sponsons have a HUGE blind spot on them, and, depending on what your opponent does, it can be really hard to get both of them with LOS on the same target.

Finally, with lumbering behemoth, don't forget that it also allows you to fire your turret weapon when moving at cruising speed.

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try and respond to some of your suggestions here.

Ailaros wrote:You're right in saying that russes give a poorer damage return for the points than artillery. Perhaps you could then go on to say why you should ever bring russes instead of artillery.

I do cover this is in the first few introductory paragraphs. Basically, you'd be better off taking Russes if your after an AV14 juggernaught that can dish out some pretty good damage whlst remaining immune to the majority of return fire. It truly depends upon the specific list as to whether you opt for the out-and-out damage of artillery, or opt for the less destructive but infinetely more survivable Russ.

Ailaros wrote:Finally, with lumbering behemoth, don't forget that it also allows you to fire your turret weapon when moving at cruising speed.

I don't think this is true. If you read the rules it specifically states that the Leman Russ has to have '...moved at combat speed or remained stationary' to be able to fire both turret and any additional weapons. I think the limitations for moving at cruising speed (i.e. not firing any guns) still applies, as otherwise it'd be a pretty speedy behemoth rather than a lumbering one.

minigun762 wrote:The big difference is AV14/12 vs 2x AV12/10. I think it really comes down to what else you have in your army. If you are heavy on AV12, it might be ok to take the Hydra but if you have alot of AV14, the Hydras are going to be a huge sponge for all those S6/S7/S8 long range weapons.

Simply put, the Hydras have a longer range, exactly the same number of shots, can ignore SMF, and are 50% of the price of the Exterminator. Whilst I would agree that yes, there *may* be a place for an Exterminator dependant upon what comprises the rest of your list, 99.999% of the time IG players will take a look at the Exterminator, look at its price tag. and then go and get a pair of Hydras instead. It's not that the Exterminator is a bad tank, its just that Hydras do same job much, much better, for much, much cheaper.

L. Wrex

Just a heads up; my next musing will be focussed upon the Troops choices available to IG and should be posted in the next day or so!

Regards,

L. Wrex

Love the Musings and i can't wait for the 2nd round!

Any thoughts on Pask (I know there's been discussion of him here before...)? Seems like an Exterminator + lascannon + Pask could be worth it for antitank (effectively 4 Str 8 shots, 1 Str 10 shot, all at BS4).

couldnt handle anything above av12 that well. Its only 4 str 7 shots if moving like you should and even when sitting still to get the +1 you dont get the 2d6 ordnance which the standard russ would.

Only thing i could really see pask in to make it worth it is in a vanquisher with lascan making sure you bring down high armor.

Pask is too much for too little. Avoid him imo

Yeah, the lumbering behemoth wording is as following...

"A LR that moved at COMBAT speed or remained stationary can fire it's turret weapon in addition to any other weapons it is usually allowed to fire....."

The reference to cruising speed is "however, a LR travelling at cruising speed can only move at 6" at d6""

So it is very clear that you cannot fire any weapon when the LR goes at cruising speed...

My fave is the basic russ + a hull lascannon...no sponsons for me most of the time...makes it a mobile tough tank which can handle practically anything the game has...

My second would be a demolisher plus a hull lascannon. The hull lascannon makes the demolisher useful for something at range, and if anything has the guts to come into it's range, then I fire away..the demolisher is more of an area denial/psychological weapon, and it is nice to say "you sure???" when anything moves into it's range...plays with the opponent's mind...