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I find myself with a lot of disposable income this year, and I'm thinking of buying something on Forgeworld.

I've seen and played with Warhounds before... and I know quite a few people with Warhounds (either armor cast, scratch build or even the real thing.) and I've even played against some Reavers.

But I don't know anybody who own or uses a Thunderhawk.

The thing is, I'm looking at the datasheet for it and I'm having a hard time seeing how to make it worth it's heavy point cost. While in Flyer Mode, it will be damn near impossible to destroy, aside from the Necron Pylon, few AA guns are above STR 7. But at 900 points, it need to do more than just fly around and shoot a few guns in order to make up for it's point cost! It seems you really need to use it's transport capability for that, and that means making it hover... and it may have structure points, but it will be gunned down if it's not flying.

While I know Apocalypse isn't about winning at all cost or fielding the best list ever, I don't want to spend that much money on something that sucks either.

So, the pros of the TH:
- It's more or less unique. Very few people have one. It will draw attention and will make those Apocalypse game even more special.
- It's actually a Space Marine legendary unit, so I can paint it my chapter's color and make it my own... it won't be something the IG or Adeptus Mechanicus lended them or something. Yes, that's a fluff issue, but it matters to me

Con of the TH:
- It's more expensive than a Warhound (Not by that much tho, once you factor in the weapons for the WH, it's only about a 100$ difference)
- And yeah, I have no idea how it'll play out or how to use it.

So yeah... I'm not sure if this should be in tactica or something, but I figured I'd ask on Dakka, somebody else has to be crazy enough to spend 600+ U$ on a model, right?

The ex-manager at my FLGS has one...haven't seen it in a game, but still, it's a good centrepiece for any SM army...

I guess you load it up with a deathstar or 2 then fly around shooting the guns until the last few turns where you hover next to an objective drop the deathstar and kill anyone holding the objective.

That would be my guess as well.

10 Terminator with Lysander being able to get an assault on pretty much anything is pretty bad ass...

It does have a STR D Gun (for 20 points), so it's not like it can't do some damage, and since it's a Super Heavy, it can shoot at different target (unlike normal flyers), so the las cannon could be used to pop transport or tanks (always hit on side armor) while the Heavy Bolter and Pylon Bombs fire on exposed troops... but I just don't see it doing 900 points worth of damage in a given game.

Yeah but damn it would look awesome. And with Lysander and his homies charging out at any random target you don't like the look of...
You could do 900 points worth of damage by simply helping the termies around. Also the strength D gun could be used for opportunistic shots on exposed targets.

10 TH/SS termies w/ lysander can do a hell of a lot of damage. well over 900 point's worth. say a titan is sitting on an objective- this thing turns up, and if the "D" weapon doesn't kill it, the TH/SS termies will. they can kill anything. They are my #1 fave deathstar unit (for thier points). And they will look awesome. And apoc isn't about WAAC, it's about:
having fun- this thing is pretty damn fun.
taking objectives- this thing can take an objective- nothing short of a reaver titan can sit on one and survive/be more points.

shrike wrote:The ex-manager at my FLGS has one...haven't seen it in a game, but still, it's a good centrepiece for any SM army...

Thats how Ive always viewed a Thunderhawk...more of a centerpiece or display model than a game piece. Same for all the larger things like superheavies, titans, etc. Sure, you can use them in Apoc, but unless you do Apoc for most of your games then they are primarily display pieces.

Truth to be told, there's a surge of Apocalypse game in my area, there's 3 planned game a year, plus a smattering of games now and than. I'm not that worried - whatever I buy will end up seeing game time.

I started playing 40K in Febuary of this year, and I have 5 Apocalypse games under my belt. There's a lot of people with tons of forgeworld stuff (Vincent Hudon is actually a regular at my local hobby store - and yes, I fought that beautiful warhound before ).

On top of that, a new store just opened about 30 mins ago and the owner loves Apocalypse.

While granted, I won't use the Thunderhawk as often as I use my Tactical Squads, I will use it several time a year regardless. Let's face it, Super Heavies are never really worth the investment (from a cost to time used ratio), but those huge games of apocalypse are so much fun!

Right now I'm borrowing a friend's Warhound when I go play Apocalypse, and actually being able to field my own super heavy is also a driving part of this decision to buy something from FW.