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Hello everyone, I am in a little bind in the creation of my Clan Skryre themed list. The debate centers around the choice of which warmachine to take for my army, in this case the Plaugeclaw Catapult vs. the Warp Lighting Cannon. Both are vastly different warmachines when it comes to how they are used tactfully and both have great chances to do untold damage to a unit. I also am well aware that the Warp Lighting Cannon fits the Skryre fluff better but I have decided that if I get the Catapults that I would convert them to look more Skryre like (Am thinking of using Poisoned Wind Globadiers as crew and making it look like a giant mortar) Just would like to hear of your guys opinions, stories and thoughts on these machines as I am trying to decide between the two, thanks for your help mates!

Warp Lightning Cannon hands down. 10 points cheaper, but leagues above the PCC in accuracy and killing power.

With line + small template you will really, really do a number on blocks of infantry. I've dropped Slaan Guard units down to a handful of models, decimated a greatsword block and nearly obliterated a unit of White Lions in one go. Sure, the PCC is a large template vs. a line + small for the WLC, but scatter is less reliable than bounce and S2 is pretty meh. While the WLC can be S2 it's more often than not going to be better than that. I forget if the PCC has the Multiple Wounds rule, but the WLC is d6 so it's great against even monstrous infantry/cavalry.

streamdragon wrote:Warp Lightning Cannon hands down. 10 points cheaper, but leagues above the PCC in accuracy and killing power.

With line + small template you will really, really do a number on blocks of infantry. I've dropped Slaan Guard units down to a handful of models, decimated a greatsword block and nearly obliterated a unit of White Lions in one go. Sure, the PCC is a large template vs. a line + small for the WLC, but scatter is less reliable than bounce and S2 is pretty meh. While the WLC can be S2 it's more often than not going to be better than that. I forget if the PCC has the Multiple Wounds rule, but the WLC is d6 so it's great against even monstrous infantry/cavalry.

A few of the reasons I have always taken them in the original list that I have put together for my Skaven . Wondering how do I go about making the cannon shot as accurate as possible. Watching my twin brother with his cannons he likes to start the shot 5.5 inches away from the target as it seems to be an average he will at least hit the unit with two rolls, is that what is recommended for the cannon or is there a better way to go about it?

For regular Cannons, optimal placements are as follows:

Single target; 10" before the end of the base.
Unit target; 10" before the middle of the unit.
Force LoS while also hitting the unit the model is joined to; 8" before the end of the base of the Character.

Since WLC have the blast template at the end of the line, and have a S value equal to the second artillery dice roll, I'd advise you to increase the distances mentioned above by a little bit.

Basically, I usually start 10" off the front of the unit. While it's possible to roll 10/10, I find that (far) more often then not the total distance is in the 10-12 inch range and so the template is going off at least partially within the unit. The chance of completely missing the unit is also fairly low, as only a few combinations mean you can't at least get a few models with the template.

This is the distribution of the extra flight distance (from initial placement point) to the centre of the blast:

4": 1/36 (S2)
6": 2/36 (S2 - S4)
8": 3/36 (S2 - S6)
10": 4/36 (S2 - S8)
12": 5/36 (S2 - S10)
14": 4/36 (S4 - S10)
16": 3/36 (S6 - S10)
18": 2/36 (S8 - S10)
20": 1/36 (S10)

So while the centre of the blast is most likely to end up 12" further than the initial point of placement, it might be useful to take an initial point of placement ~13" before the middle of the unit targetted, due to the Strength values being skewed towards the upper end of the distribution. Keep in mind these distances are useful for firing at units of models only, firing at single targets in a different subject.

Warp lightning.
Plague claw has some opponents that it's better at, but the warp lightning is good against everyone.

As soon as a game hits 1,520 points or higher, I'd take 2 of each.

-Matt

I thought the warp lightcanon bounches 2-10 inches and then thats where you place the template?

@ Question

The Warplightning Cannon fires exactly like a Cannon. So you choose an initial point and roll an artillery dice. If it is a misfire, roll on the mishap chart, if it is a 2-10, the line from the cannon to the initial point that was chosen is extended this amount of inches. This is where the Cannon shot lands. You then roll another artillery dice to see how far the shot bounces (in the case of the Warplightning cannon this roll also determines the Strength of the shot, with a misfire result doing nothing). At the end of this bounce, the blast template is placed. So the Warplightning Cannon blast template ends up 2 Artillery dice further than the initial point of placement.

I too will jump on the WLC band wagon. There are some days when I wonder if GW simply picks a number at random for points values. Suffice to say, WLC is nicely undercosted.