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Hi everyone Everybody seems to have different opions on which leman russ variant is the best.
I personaly think the Vanquisher and the Punisher are just great. I love seeing the look on my opponents face when i take out his Brand new tank first time with the Vanquisher. The punishers are excellent against low to mid armoured troops as they dish out 20 shots each (29 if you include heavy bolters) and thats awsome as well!

Just wanted to know which you think is the best.

A wrecked one.

The plasma flinger with plasma flinger sponsons.

I'm a traditionalist... "standard" LRBT

The basic is easily the most point efficient. The Executioner is fun, but overpriced, and the Demolisher is also good. The rest are pretty bad.

under the right circumstances the exterminator can be amazing, it loses the the auto tracking of hyrdas but it gets 2x as many shots as 1 is the same price than 2 and is on a much sturdier frame.

Well, I am playing a City of Death Campaign right now, som I have learned to fear the Eradicator. but outside than, they are rubbish.

For mty Nids, the Punisher is a doom.
My low model count Draigowing has learned to fear the Vanquisher and Executioner
And my Vanilla Marines, balance, fear the Battle Tank and Demolisher.

The Exterminator is pretty crap, but the best has to be the Executioner.

My friend who got me into the hobby plays guard. Plasma, Demolisher, and Standard are probably the best. The others are either too specialized to be effective in most cases, or not as good as a cheaper alternative.

Extrminator has actually, no use. Twinlinked Autocannons. If I wanted that, i would take the much cheaper Hydra, and they get the AA rule.

The Primarch

Leman Russ Demolisher is my favorite variant. It's not entirely that much more expensive than a standard LRBT, but the slightly increased durability and demolisher cannon make it a wrecking ball. That thing can turn any sort of infantry into paste, or serve as incredible anti armor. I've wrecked Monoliths with that thing, no problem. Second place would be the standard LRBT, since that battlecannon is wicked good and has the range to keep it safe.

Gonna have to go with Bluewulf on this one. Best Leman Russ is the original. The one who ran screaming into the Eye of Terror to fight Chaos, and inspired a legion of drunk Space Marine vikings.

Demolisher and LRBT are probably the best two options. Executioner is probably in third, but it's so expensive I rarely take it. Exterminator and Eradicator work in some lists. Vanquisher and Punisher are trash.

Well "Betty" is a Demolisher with lascannon and multi-melta sponsons.
And of course she can fire all of these when stationary. Deadly.
Obviously the Vanquisher (the Heavy 3 plasma cannon) with side plasma cannons wins in terms of being fething awesome, but consider a)190 points standard and b)your opponent will be SURE to keep his troops spread out, meaning direct hit only gets you one.
Vanilla Leman Russ with heavy bolter sponsons is also pretty cool, for 170 points you get the Battle cannon and 9 HB shots.
edit-desire to do mathhammer.
vs MEQ, 9 heavy bolter shots gets you
4.5 hits
3 wounds
1 dead.
That's a 20 point upgrade for something that will probably be able kill one marine per turn. Not bad at all.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and the Exterminator Autocannon should be AP3 to fulful its roll properly.

Deadshot wrote:Well, I am playing a City of Death Campaign right now, som I have learned to fear the Eradicator. but outside than, they are rubbish.

For mty Nids, the Punisher is a doom.
My low model count Draigowing has learned to fear the Vanquisher and Executioner
And my Vanilla Marines, balance, fear the Battle Tank and Demolisher.

The Exterminator is pretty crap, but the best has to be the Executioner.

Deadshot wrote:Extrminator has actually, no use. Twinlinked Autocannons. If I wanted that, i would take the much cheaper Hydra, and they get the AA rule.

I wonder what math hammer would have to say about his in terms of wounds per cost in terms of punisher vs exterminator.

I know punisher gets an ass load of shots but they aren't twin linked and their strength is low. While exterminator gets 4 twinlinked shots that if they hit are almost garunteed to wound or even insta-kill.

I would be interested to see a comparison of the two against different tiers of nids.

1 comparison that was base against base and then another with base punisher against exterminator with 2 HB sponsons. 4 Autocannon shots and 9 HB shots is a freaking frackton of shots.

Another thing to consider is that punshier is useless agianst any armour unless they present thier sides or back to you. While Autocannon can glance A13.

Executioner with hull-mounted Lascannons and Plasma Cannon sponsons. PROBLEM, SPESS MEHREENS?

The Exterminator is a jack of all trades. irt can't do decent Anti Infantry the way the Battle cannon or Punisher can. Battle Cannons can ID T4 and hit possibly more models. Vanquisher, or Battle Tank does better Anti Tank. Executioner can ID the same things, ignore all armour and FNP or all models, as well as dishing out more hurt with some low scatter, even more so if armed with PC sponsons.

Bluewulf wrote:The Primarch

Dammit, that's what I was going to say!

Joey wrote:Obviously the Vanquisher (the Heavy 3 plasma cannon) with side plasma cannons wins in terms of being fething awesome, but consider a)190 points standard and b)your opponent will be SURE to keep his troops spread out, meaning direct hit only gets you one.

Err thats the LRBT Executioner.

Best would probably be the Demolisher, but I do love the Vanquisher. It's expensive, I'll give you that, but a Pask Vanquisher is a nightmare for any armour it faces. BS4, S8+2D6+1 armour pen with a 72" range.

Vanquisher all the way. 72" of Str 8 +2D6 armor pen makes pedators tremble in their treds.

Not when your opponent gets 3 Preds for every Plain Vanq you have, and 10pts to spare.

Deadshot wrote:Not when your opponent gets 3 Preds for every Plain Vanq you have, and 10pts to spare.

preds cost 60 points? wow... runs off to make a space marine predator horde.

Punishers and Vanquishers are bad.

Adding Pask doesn't make them better, it just makes them a more expensive bad tank. Paying 210pts for two shots are BS4 is not points efficient in a competitive setting. At fun and semi-competitive, it might work against opponents who don't know how to deal with AV14, but will otherwise die a quick death.

Punishers are just bad. They don't do anything that any of the other variants already do for cheaper.

Eradicator is weird, but its relegated to MEQ killing in cover. Otherwise, you're better off using your heavy support slots for better things and bring a Hellhound for the same role.

Demolisher is solid. Short range hurts, but good armour and the biggest gun you'll need, makes it feared. It will be targeted almost immediately.

Vanilla russ is the standard. Good pie plate, solid armour. Versatile and long range. Can never go wrong with a vanilla russ.

Executioner is also a solid tank. Expensive but three plasma cannon shots is nothing to sneeze at. I personally run no sponsons, but there's a valid argument to plasma sponsons. TEQ fears this tank, and light armour if you need to.

Exterminator is betweem the three solid choices (Vanilla, demolisher, Executioner) and the three bad choices (Punisher, Vanquisher, Eradicator). As Deadshot has pointed out, a Hydra is cheaper. In fact, it costs twice as much. However, what you gain is a survivable platform that can move and shoot, including the heavy bolter (not that that's a huge deal, but better than nothing). Reasonably priced and does what a Hydra does, but it meshes with other Russes better. Nevertheless, it is still four twin-linked autocannon shots, which is never anything to sneeze at.

And no, Preds are not one third the cost of a Vanquisher. Vanquisher is 155pts, Preds are 60. 3x 60 is 180pts. Math.

Blacksails wrote:
Exterminator is betweem the three solid choices (Vanilla, demolisher, Executioner) and the three bad choices (Punisher, Vanquisher, Eradicator). As Deadshot has pointed out, a Hydra is cheaper. In fact, it costs twice as much. However, what you gain is a survivable platform that can move and shoot, including the heavy bolter (not that that's a huge deal, but better than nothing). Reasonably priced and does what a Hydra does, but it meshes with other Russes better. Nevertheless, it is still four twin-linked autocannon shots, which is never anything to sneeze at.

And no, Preds are not one third the cost of a Vanquisher. Vanquisher is 155pts, Preds are 60. 3x 60 is 180pts. Math.

jsut adding to the point above, I dislike having front line heavy support on a f av 12 frame. back in the back where your art will be it doesn't matter as much but the combonation of not being able to fire and move as well as light armor makes hydras much less flexable imo.

Each one is good fopr certain things.

If your opponent has brought lots of Gaunts-Use Punishers( though not that effective)
If your oppoenent likes Deathwing and Draigowing-Executioner
If your opponent has brought long Range haevy Armour-Vanquisher
If your oppoent has Short range Armour, heavy T units, large tough hordes like Death Co.-Demolisher
In crowded zones with cover, like CoD, bring Eradicators
If you want to waste points, bring an Exterminator
If yopu want an al ropund monster, bring the Good Ole' Fashioned Battle Tank.

And if you are a SW fanboy, or just want to annoy people, the bring the orginal.

I agree. Hydras are great, don't get me wrong, but that doesn't mean the Exterminator is bad. It just relegates the Exterminator to supporting other russes.

Hydra works great with Manticores, or just on its own (i.e. three Hydras).

*EDIT* Let me clarify. The Punisher is BAD. There is nothing good about it. You will, on average, roll 10 hits. Against T3, you'll miss 1-2 shots, so we'll say 9 because I'm being generous. Nine hits will cause 8 unsaved wounds out of cover (still being generous). Against Orks you'll get six wounds, resulting in five unsaved wounds. Against Guardsmen, 9 will wound, resulting in six unsaved wounds.

(Mathhammer is all rounded, being generous, feel free go into more detail)

All at 24", for 180pts. WOOOOOO! 8 Gants! That's amazing!

And remember, if there's cover - and there normally is - those number drop by half.

No. It isn't. The Punisher is moderately okay when shooting at T3 models with 6+ or no save. Nothing else. Period. Its just a bad tank, it has no use, no role, no function. Its a handicap.

Its only saving grace is that its a cool gun.

The punisher is good when you put it in a squadron, then you can fire off 40-87 shots at the enemy and I don't care what armour save or toughness he has 87 strength 5 shots will wipe out a squad of dark eldar and space marines easy.

Captain Knight wrote:
Just wanted to know which you think is the best.

The primarch.

Drunk viking FTW.

@ knight yeah but a squad of regular lemun russes or exterminators will do the same job for 120 points less. Thats almost another whole tank and it is = to 2 chimeras. 2 chimeras is a much better way to spend those points.

That remionds me of an Apoc game I pklayed where a IG Vet Player (he had aboput 20 of everything, including about 6 Baneblades and 3 Shadowswords). He took a big giant unit of like 12 Punisherrs or something with 3 Heavy Boltwers.

On the far objective, just in range of all 12 tanks, was 10 SS Termies. In this game, any non vehicle could captuyre, and at turn 6 it was 0 (us) :1 objective. these buggers would not die. I emptied about 3 scheduled bombardments into thwem over the coarse of a game. Not one fell.

Untill these Punishers fired on them. 384 Str 5 shots were fired on the unit. 1 died.

Fail


Then a Termagant assaulted the unit, killed one and survived. Termies don't kill it, they fail morale and run off board.

Epic Fail.

That Termagnt now controlled the objective, so it was 1-0 us. The game ends.

Complete and utter Epic Failure.