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I've been wondering about what types of units I should focus my Executioners' fire on when not playing against a MEQ army. Should I focus on light or heavily armored infantry, or even light vehicles? Any help would be appreciated

With my executioner(s) [if Im being a very mean IG general, so normal for me] I take scan of the table and just think 'whose hardest to kill? faceful of plasma it is!'

Although this brings up the 'I just wasted my 240 point tank (assuming PC sponsons) shooting on killing 54 points of Orks/gaunts/GEQ' so I'd choose the most benifital for the other supporting fire. It can take down a Rhino, a razor back or do some hideous damage to a carnifex/warrior brood. the executioner is THE ULTIMATE in TEQ destruction at range, since you can punish them and remain out of multimelta range .

go for the most armoured men on the table, and when they're all dead then turn your attention onto light vehicals

Anything with a 2+ save. pretty much. termies and MC's get a face full of plasma first.

If its going to give you problems, spam it with plasma.

If there isnt a worthy target, pick the highest threat out of the lot.

mebobsayhi9 wrote:Should I focus on light or heavily armored infantry, or even light vehicles?

Actually, this points to why I'm not very big on the executioner.

On the one hand, it's only S7, so it's not like it's great against vehicles. On the other, it only fires small blasts, which means that your opponent can seriously reduce casualties with proper spacing, and it doesn't ignore cover, meaning it's not actually that great against infantry either.

Basically, it's for non-winged monstrous creatures and for opponents who foolishly deepstrike next to it without either targeting it or running. For 230+ points, that doesn't seem like that good of a deal.

As for the original question, as others have been mentioning, they're probably going to shoot at whatever is most threatening at the time. It's going to be a really inefficient use of points, most times, but that's sort of what you have to deal with when you take an executioner.

My view on the executioner, is that is extremely good at putting LOTS of wounds down on monstrous creatures quickly. And at AV 14 Front armor, they have to pretty much get close to destroy it. In most games I use it, it's either helped down a Trygon or Mawloc in a turn, or roasted a Hive Tyrant by itself. If they can't focus it down, it becomes a nice Area of Denial weapon to whaterver firelanes it's occupying.

While I Can field almost 2 Vendetta's for the same point cost , they are only AV 12 versus 14, which makes them far more vulnerable to Hive Guard and such.

Anyways, my 2 cents on the exe's

I run all my tanks without sponsons, and have run three executioners in many games. My executioners have never failed to impress both me and my opponenent, from killing marines (in and out of cover) to MC's to light vehicles if nothing else is present. Sure, a demolisher is better against multiwound T4-5 deathstars, and the vanilla russ is better at taking down 3+ armour models at range, and so on, but the executioner is still fantastic against 2+ or 3+ armour models and MCs. Then again, I don't like sponsons because it forces me to remain stationary more often, and I prefer mobility.

Shoot infantry first over vehicles. 5 templates to ork boys is still going to sting.

Man, mine has been a boon. I run a template heavy list which forces my opponent to space out, but I don't have to do the same so unless he has a ton of ranged weaponry I end up focusing on whatever third of his army is closest, leaving the rest to wave in in later turns. It usually ends up in destruction in detail.

I like to run basilisks in my lists with the executioner ( or the X).

My X runs protection, and screen duties for my bassies giving them 4+ cover.

Target priority wise:

1) infantry clumps not in cover
2) infantry
3) MC
4) light vehicles

I don't like to get into priority of heavy infantry or not because it's all situational. The X is there to remove units from the board, so as long as a favorable situation presents itself I'll take it. But if all things are equal, Heavy infantry first.

In my experience, pretty simple answer:

Just go after whatever you can get the most hits on. The executioner will devastate it.

Tank shocks can be your best friend once you figure out the trick of compressing an enemy unit to get 5 or 6 guys' bases into the same 3x3 circle. Tank shock, pop smoke to protect your AV10 from the odd scatter, and let fly with the plasma balls.