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With all the noise about cannons in 8th eddition and how they compleetly nerf monsters, i would like some actual data to see if it really matters as much as the internet makes it out to be, so sit back think for a second and give an approximation of how common cannon fielding armies are where you play.

Edit: To answer what seems to be a common question on this thread – a warp ligthing cannon counts for this because its basically a cannon with a larger effect area, hellcannon dosen't as it is more in line with stone throwers.

out of about 7-8 players in my area I am the only one who uses cannons. I personally find a mortar more useful however as big monsters don't come out to play too often round here.

You didn't have a zero option.

No one in this area even plays empire/dwarves, my old LGS had one empire guy who was a borderline TFG that ran 3 cannons, and two dwarf players who played mainly a melee oriented list with only a single cannon.

My third fantasy army is empire, and I own three cannons, though not sure if all three would be used at once.

VikingScott wrote:I personally find a mortar more useful however as big monsters don't come out to play too often round here.

Same here. There's a couple of Empire players floating around here but no one really goes gun heavy.

greenbay924 wrote:You didn't have a zero option.

No one in this area even plays empire/dwarves, my old LGS had one empire guy who was a borderline TFG that ran 3 cannons, and two dwarf players who played mainly a melee oriented list with only a single cannon.

Let me guess, all the Skaven players use Doomwheels and HPAs. More people need to try the 2 WLC and 2 PCC lists, it's better than many people think.

There's only one person here so far with a decent sized skaven army, I think he has one warp lightning cannon he uses, forgot to mention that.

The question should be what % of armies that have access to cannons use them. In that case 100% in my flgs, but as not many people use dwarfs etc in my area i would say 10% use cannons.

bennyboy6189 wrote:The question should be what % of armies that have access to cannons use them. In that case 100% in my flgs, but as not many people use dwarfs etc in my area i would say 10% use cannons.

No, see thats why i asked for cannon fielding armies, instead of asking for armies that could field cannons.

About one in five use cannons, because about one in five are empire or dwarf players. About one in three use elves, because about one in three are HE, WE or DE players... does that make elves more broken than cannons?

I don't think cannons are broken, not only that i think they're also rare, and am curious to see if im right.

HoverBoy wrote:I don't think cannons are broken, not only that i think they're also rare, and am curious to see if im right.

It's just that what you're measuring is the number of Empire and Dwarf players, because almost all of them have at least one cannon, and no-one else has cannons.

The better question would be ‘out of all the Empire and Dwarf players, how many include cannons?’ Not that that would really answer the question, because an item can be a really important part of a list because it does something no other unit can do, without actually being overpowered.

Perhaps a better question would be ‘out of all the Empire and Dwarf players you know who are playing competitive tournament lists, how many take the maximum legal number of cannons and other war machines?’

Lot of pointy eared folk around my part of the woods, and due to the isle of blood lots of rat things too (this includes me), so I guess warp lightning cannons count as a "cannon"...

Not so many "true cannons" here, but if you include hellcannons and the warp lightning cannon the percentage jumps to about 25%...

I was planning to include just the ones that follow the BRB rules for cannons mut the warpligtning cannons is very simmilar too, not the hellcannon though it's just a stone throwing monster.
And sebster i really didn't mean for this to be a tournament thread, in fact i am curious as to how often armies with cannons are on the field both in friendly and competitive enviroments, combined for a somewhat total, and therefore not exact, measurment of weither or not cannons are as wide spread as the internet entities make them out to be.
Oh and i do realise they are more common in tourneys altho im still not sure why.

My local group includes:

Skaven (me) usually fielding 2 WLCs
Empire - 1 cannon (and usually 2 mortars)
Dwarves - 1 cannon (and assorted other artillery)
High Elves - No cannons
Orcs n Goblins - No cannons
Dark Elves - No cannons
Lizardmen - No cannons
WoC - No cannons

So we're actually light on cannons. I definitely find my WLCs to be worth their 90 points though.

Question, does hellcannon count as a cannon to you because if so that would make three. Otherwise we have one dwarf army and one empire army with cannons.

WarWizard91 wrote:Question, does hellcannon count as a cannon to you because if so that would make three. Otherwise we have one dwarf army and one empire army with cannons.

Technically, it's a monster which has rules like a stone thrower, albeit the powerful and painful kind!!!

As it's more like a stone thrower, I wouldn't type is as a "cannon"...the WL cannon, however, should be as it has a bounce roll just like cannons...and wounds caused by it are multiplied to d6, the same as a cannonball hit

WarWizard91 wrote:Question, does hellcannon count as a cannon to you because if so that would make three. Otherwise we have one dwarf army and one empire army with cannons.

Due to repeated occurances of this question, i just edited the original post rather than keep answering every time.

TBH, other than going after heavy cavalry, monstrous infantry, and monsters, cannons are pretty pointless. Even then they can be ineffective if you mess up on your rolls, or blow it up turn 1 to just hand away 100 VPs. In the new empire list I'm thinking of using, I might not even take cannons, 1 at the most.

I agree with Hoverboy also, there's far less of the monster killer floating around than people think. Though, if you plan on not facing one, and one happens to show up, you're pretty boned, as my brother's bloodthirster found out at Da Grand Waaagh.

Aha cannons are also fantastic for counter battery fire..other war machines are easy victory points, and cannons are your best bet to neutralize them....

Cannons can also be your poor man's organ gun...after all if somehow an enemy unit ends up within 12" of it, then fire an artillery dice worth of s5 armor piercing shot up it's face....

That's part of what I like about the WLC so much. It explodes in a small template, rather than just going down the line. If you're careful/lucky, you can land the template right in the middle of a unit and get some decent kills. The strength averages out to 6, which is decent, but the look on your opponent's face when a S10 small template lands in their big hammer unit is nothing short of priceless.