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how effective are they.

I just got my first three bikes with a melta, plasma gun, and Power sword.

Three land speeders with multi-melta's and heavy flamers.

One thunderfire cannon

these are new to me and i am wondering the best way to use them effectively

there ok for fast attack but they get taken out quickly but thats a total guess based on other fast attack. im just an ork player so this is not that reliable

This should be in 40k tactics.
But.
LS are best as suicide unit IMO.
Take 2 multi-meltas and blow up the most important tank you can find preferably a soon as possible.
Take 2 heavy flamers and flame a horde unit (Orks, gaunts, guard etc) as soon as possible.
(It has to be ASAP becuse LS are pretty vulnerable)
Bikes...
I don't run them but i'm told it's better to have an army of them (Captain on a bike lets you take bikes for the entire army)
Thunderfire cannon.
People say that Thunderfire cannon beats whirlwind. The also say that the vindicator beats thunderfire cannon.
BUT
Thunderfire cannon has a much bigger range so stick it at the bac of the board and use the shells that suit the target.

Ty for the advice guys

speeders are great with typhoon missile launchers + heavy bolter. out of range of most small arms, AND puts down enough dakka to kill most units out right.

I agree with the use of Land Speeder Typhoons. I field 2 of them in their own Fast Attack Slot so they can opperate independently.
I also use Thunderfire Cannons and used to use bikes. I love my thunderfire cannon. It always kills something. It won MVP in a 12,000point apoc game against 2 SW and one Howling Griffins. Shoot things with 4 blast templates, then tell your opponent to go ahead and take 15-20 saves and see how many things survive. Stuff will die.
As I said I also used to use bikes religiously with Kor'Sarro Khan. They are hard to use without enough. I used to only field 12 Bikers and 2 Attack Bikes. Didn't work. Not enough frontline support, by the time the rest fo the army got there the Bikers were hurting or in some cases, even all dead. So field alot or none, oh yeah and Attack Bike Squadrons. Tell the enemy to kiss your behind by sending say... 6 Attack bikes w/ 3-4 Multi-Meltas. Then you got BOOMY and DAKKA.


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By the way Brother-Thunder. I like your pic and sig. Go Lysander.

Thunderfire cannons are weak, so put them in a ruin and bolster it with the techmarine. It can and will force horde armies to stretch the 2" coherency as much as possible, so if you're impatient you shouldn't use it. Be sure to take full advantage of the long range it has by putting it in a ruin that has the best LoS. Once your cannon is killed (and it will, since it's too potentially devastating to ignore) send your techmarine to hang around your dreads or tanks. You can even take servitors, but they'll be mindlocked 1/2 of the time until your techmarine leaves the cannon. Also you should take the cannons in 2's or 3's like vindicators. 1's a target 2's a threat (i don't know where i heard this, but i agree with it).

as far as bikes and speeders go, i can't help you there, but hopefully my general guide on the cannon helps.

Oh, and just as a suggestion, but a Ravenwing Force. It will give you a land speeder, 6 bikers and an attack bike with a bunch of power weapons. That way your bikers will have a little more firepower/basic assault power and wound's that can go to something that you didn't pay to upgrade. It would also give you an excuse to put a powerfist on your bikers and make them a little more effective. That is only of course if you want to have more than just a suicide bike squad. Cause honestly 3 bikers will go down quick. I know, I've been on the recieving end of that firepower, and also on the giving end.

Bikes are good as an effective way to deliver fast melta.

Plasma guns arn't as good on them. it is better for them to have melta although being able to assault after using the Plasma is an upside. it should probably be one or the other and not both. get another box of bikes and you will have 2 guns for each squad. get an attack bike for both squads. 1 multi-melta for the Melta squad and the HB for the other.


Landspeeders are good units. i am not a fan of MM/HF suicide speeders, but others are. if you do run them like that you probably want them to be each their own squad. it will make them 3 seperate targets for your opponent to kill. They WILL die. it's just a matter if they can kill something first. they won't get a 2nd chance.

Typhoon speeders with Heavy Bolters and the Typhoon missiles are much more survivable as they can hang out at a distance. that means your opponent will have to shoot things like Lascannons, Autocannons, and missile launchers at them. weapons that won't be killing the rest of your army. and 2 Frag Blasts and 3 HB shots per turn(or 2 krak missiles) can just decimate infantry and vehicles alike.

ty for more suggestions, i will look into it.

forgot Thunderfire cannons.


they are most certaintly worth their points. it is really easy to kill, but when you think about it you get a Techmarine in full Servo harness(with Bolster Cover) that you can use if the cannon is destroyed. calculate up the cost of a Techmarine in Full servo harness and you will find what the cannon actually costs.

it's also the cheapest blast weapon in the space marine army. if you regularly face loads of infantry then the Thunderfire will be points well spent. 4, what are basically frag missile, blasts will take a chunk out of any infantry unit. Tremor rounds can make your opponent think twice about moving his tanks and jump infantry. airburst can dig orks, guard and Nids out of the cover they rely so heavily on.

the issue with the Thunderfire cannon isn't it's cost. it is really cheap in points. it is, however, really expensive in FoC cost. it occupies a whole slot for one gun. personally i think they should come in batteries of 3. then they would be truly devestating.

in small games it isn't an issue as most of the other options for HS are expensive to take. the Thunderfire cannon fills the nich of 1k HS quite nicely. over 1k-1500 and other options start becoming avaliable and they are more devestating.


FYI: the model is known to be quite difficult to assemble. 2nd only to the Ogre Scraplauncher in difficulty.

then i got lucky cause it went together easy, and if the gun dies you get a hq choice out of it, the gun is only like 25 pts of the cost

koridon wrote:then i got lucky cause it went together easy

so did mine, but others haven't been so lucky and it is now an object of loathing.

Yea, mine went together easy as well... THE FIRST TIME!!! not so much the other 7.

for those who advised me in this post you will find this funny, i ordered 3 heavy flamers for my land speeders and got in the mail assault cannons. So know the person is sending me the heavy flamers and i am gana magnatize the heavy flamer and assault cannons so i can swap them on the chin mount. And as the top one is still a multi-metla.

so i enquire having the assault cannon and multi-melta make it more surviveable and still beable to mount the flamers instead of the assault cannon if i am facing a hording type army?

I would, again, reccomend Typhoon Missile Launcher + Heavy Bolter. 36 inch range for all your guns, effectively always out of small arms fire. It also puts down enough templates to make most units (especially de-meched units) cry.

Combine with heavy mobility and you got a dakka platform that few other armies can match.

sadly they are built so it is to late