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Hey Dakka,

Just about to finish my list for my SM army and I'm now at a stump. I've got room for either another Predator or take a thunderfire cannon. Is the cannon worth it with its point cost and money price?


Thanks!
I.H.

I would say the thunderfire is really undervalued. But it depends on what else you have in the list. Is this a gunline army or mobile? Ranged or assaulty? Thunderfire cannon really like being in cover and sitting at the back. However if they aren't protected, they will be dead really fast. You do also get the techmarine, so you can bolster a ruin too, so thats something to think about.

Just proxy the TFC and try it out.

I agree with what Dave said above. They must mesh with the rest of your army.

You can also do shenanigans with it and put the Techmarine in cover, and the TFC out of cover, but because of the Techmarine it is technically in cover. This gives a cover save, and gives it clear LOS to something.

Thunderfire Cannon is a BARGAIN, totally undervalued, considering it comes with a techmarine; it's a fantastic anti-infantry choice for a lot of armies, and if you're running a drop pod list, well thats another +1.

I'd go with what dave said about the proxy. You don't want to fork out a bunch of cash for a paperweight. If you have a nice big bolstered ruin at the back, I can see a rifleman and a TFC being good buddies

It's an effectively 25 pt(once you subtract the techmarine+servo harness, which you most assuredly wouldn't field separately anyways over a motf), 60" 4 shot, small blast variable ammo(really nifty, that) artillery piece that comes with it's own 3+ coversave(situational, given the rule wording). It can be S6(wounding most infantry on a 2+), ignore coversaves(but this only really helps vs units with a terrible save/are orks anyways...), or force lots of dangerous/difficult terrain tests(which is really nasty vs certain lists). So what's not to like?

Of course, to answer that, the downsides are that it's completely static, only useful vs infantry, bikes, and light armor, generally difficult to manage in dawn of war deployment, and takes a valuable heavy support slot.

Personally, I scratch-built/converted one(the expensive metal paperweight wasn't doing it for me) and really like it, it can be used as a good source of anti-infantry fire and few opponents will make the mistake of letting that shockingly durable hundred point fire magnet to fire even once at unprotected infantry. every lascannon, battlecannon, heavy bolter, multilaser, manticore, autocannon, krak missile, or whatever else gets shot at it(3+ coversave!) is one less that's firing at a multimelta attack bike squad or land speeder or rhino full of Angry Marines. The 2+ armor save of the gunner, combined with the astonishing potential to get a 3+ coversave on the whole unit makes it an ideal fire magnet, and the high damage output and durability to cost ratio makes it attractive in such a role as well. In addition, should the gunner survive the ultimate, eventual, and unavoidable destruction of his gun, he has a full equipped servo harness worth of gear to deploy in the stead of his mighty charge, all sorts of coolness there and realistically you'd never field an elite techmarine(MOTF, yes, but that's different) by himself, so it's really neat to play with.

As stated above though it really depends on the list. The suggestion to proxy one for a couple games against different opponents was a good 'un for sure.

forruner_mercy wrote:I agree with what Dave said above. They must mesh with the rest of your army.

You can also do shenanigans with it and put the Techmarine in cover, and the TFC out of cover, but because of the Techmarine it is technically in cover. This gives a cover save, and gives it clear LOS to something.

Shenanigans! Artillery is fun, use it! but ya, make sure it meshes well with the rest of your army, I've never personally played against a TFC, but ive seen it in battle reports and for the most part it does real well. Also I know it's off topic, but i've also seen Whirlwinds do great... (people talk so much smack on em).. anyway, good luck with whatever you decide, let us know how it goes!

My army is moslty range with the exception of one CQB terminator squad. Razorbacks and preds, tact squads, and twin linked autcannon dreads. It sounds like a TFC would be quite useful for extra support if a run my termies straight at the enemy lines.

If you can, I would try fitting 2 in. That way you have target saturation, and when your opponent kills one (which he will) you still have one to throw out templates.


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I also just reread the rules on these guys. For the tremor round, it only says you have to hit a vehicle to cause it to take a dangerous terrain test. So you don't have to do damage you just have to get one template on it.

This will be a 2000pt army so I can remove maybe one pred or dev squad to add another one in. The tremor round is a good asset to it too. Adds some extra insurance

I see the Str. 6 blasts of a thunder fire more appealing not that Scarabs look to be so nasty.

I could see a TFC ripping apart an entire DE army, if I have some defence (land raider.)


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I could see a TFC ripping apart an entire DE army, if I have some defence (land raider.)

ironhand45 wrote:I could see a TFC ripping apart an entire DE army, if I have some defence (land raider.)


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I could see a TFC ripping apart an entire DE army, if I have some defence (land raider.)

I can see that Dark Eldar army having enough Lances not to worry about your Land Raider.

On the topic of the TFC - it's armour is paper thin. If you are ok with that, you might want to consider using it, seeing as it has more utility and potential damage outpute than that Predator.

TFC is an awesome investment. I love the range on it, it's nice to finally have something that can sit back in a table quarters type setup.

If the terrain permits it. I always deploy it behind a small wall that it can see over. I then put a 5 man bare bones tac squad or combat squad in front of it, on the wall blocking LOS. During movement i hop the tac squad off the wall to shoot. Then use run in the shooting phase to move them back in the way.

alternativly, putting them on large terrain pieces works too, 3+ cover save to a large number of units is awesome.

If you run 2 preds, a rifleman and a TFC you will have good target saturation. Even if you lose the TFC, the techmarine could be use to repair the preds and rifleman!

It might be an idea to consider some transport for the TFC. It is able to go in a drop pod. Even if you drop it a moderate distance from your main force, with 60" range i cant see there being any problems (except LOS). If you drop it on the side, you could start to chew into the side squads of your enemy, especially with your deep strike from the drop pod, you already know where they are on turn 2 or 3 (or 4 if your unlucky) + you can shoot as soon as you disembark from a drop pod.

Happy Hunting

I totally can't recommend TFC's enough. And it totally complements your predators and riflemen dreads. You smash a units' transport, then hit them with 4 x S6 blast shots? Thats amazing. If you hit with all of them your killing a unit of marines per turn.

I rate them as one of the best things in codex:SM. And also, if you run Vulkan thats a twin-linked flamer on his harness

Thunderfire Cannons are a very underrated and very powerful unit, but you have to play well to prevent them from being killed. Overall, if you're good enough to prevent that, they will make their points back for you many times over-- if not, they may prove to be something of a points sink, as they can be neutralized very easily be enemy shooting. I would play a few test games before deciding whether or not to include Thunderfires in my army.

Also, i would think about your enemy

1. Orks, surprisingly, it is not a good idea. Enemy deffkoptas and lootas will destroy it VERY easily, and the damage it does to a single squad of boys is negligible considering there are 5 more just like it
2. Nids, as useful as you think it would be about the orks, but without the downsides. Be careful about sticking it near your board edge without protection
3. Eldar, DE, and Tau, the strength is high enough to pop Warwalkers and light transports. It also can do damage to compressed troops getting out of those transports.
4. MEQs, not that useful, i would chose a rifleman anyday
5. Necrons, don't know, i havent seen the new dex yet
6. IG, ok, the negatives of orks are similar, as are the benifits.

I played against one of these last week with my orks and got completely destroyed by it! It took out a whole squad of Lootas in one go and just decimated my boyz. It wasn't until Snikrot and his komandos crept up behind it that it stopped killing me, but by then I'd more or less lost anyway :-(

I see. I'll bring it with my army and depending on what army it is, i'll either play it or field another unit. SM and IG and maybe necs will be the only few army I won't field it against.

I honestly find that the Cannon does fine against SM and Necron armies, and excels versus IG. If you can destroy someone's transport and then blast the clumped up troops, you will do massive damage. In fact, in the past I've killed entire 20 man Boyz units in one TFC volley after blowing up their Battlewagon.

Another factor is if its HS based or troop based army. A lot of vehicles=TFC. Many many troops=No TFC.

Well, that depends. The TFC is actually quite bad against vehicles themselves, but excels at murdering units who were just forced out of their vehicles. On the other hand, many mass troops units are very weak to it. For instance, Imperial Guard Heavy Weapon Squads or Necron Scarab Swarms are extraordinarily weak to Thunderfire Cannons, since the Strength 6 shot will inflict Instant Death on them (and in the case of the Scarabs, instant kill two bases per unsaved wound thanks to Swarms!). It's really dependent on situational factors. Overall, though, I very rarely find myself regretting taking TFCs.

Besides, if you lose it in the first few turns, what is it, like 100 points? if you have based your army around the TFC your an idiot, in a standard game you have another 1400 points worth of your army left to deal with the enemy.

Its potential DEFINATLY outweighs the negatives

thunderfires are awesome

if you can get them behind a good peice of terrain to cut off LOS to half of their army, they have the range to deal with the other half and are far less likely to get pooched on the first turn.

if you can keep it firing for 2-3 turns it will /easily/ do some serious damage

I like this. I believe now TFC would be a great asset to my mainly shooty army.

I saw a battle report of a template army. They guy brought 3 TFC's, 2 3 strong units of land speeder typhoons, and tactical terminators with CML's. He could throw out something like 30 small templates a turn. Plus krak missiles from the speeders and CML's were good against tanks. That will be a force to be reconed with for any army.

Good thing because I am fielding a Typhoon squadron. But my termies are CQB. Everything else is range though.

I use two in my lists and haven't looked back. They are great for ripping through troops. Great for stopping vehicles and bikes. I sit them in the back with a pair of lascannon missile launcher dreads. For the third and final heavy slot I take a regular old godhammer pattern Land Raider. This is enough fire suppression to keep anything at bay.