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Well I've decided to do an IG army but before I do anything i wanna know something. The leman russ is a slow unit now since the last time i used two and i cant do my armoured thrust tactic any more (using the two tanks to break the enemy in two and mop up with my lost and the damned army) so how are they any good nowa days?. One idea i did come up with is as infantry support tanks where they are supported by some infantry platoon and give support in turn like british in ww2 (my first leman russ is going to be called matilda ) but surely there are other ways

Usually they're good for anti infantry roles, especially anti MEQ. Artillery can do that too and cheaper though. Russes are more armored at the front and are more mobile to compensate

Russ' are fantastic. From my experience the regular Russ is all you will ever need. When you run at least two, their AV 14 front hulls can throw your enemies off guard and makes them change tactics. And they have just as good offensive capabilities as defense.

I use mine to hammer at the enemy, usually from 36"+, and blow enemy troops off objectives. They also provide good cover for advancing infantry if you want them to do that. Basically, there isn't much they don't do.

Guard is one of the few armies that can spam heavy bolters and make it work. 3 heavy bolters + a battlecannon per tank is an outrageous amount of firepower for what it costs. I'd start with that. Screen it with infantry so you don't get melted.

They survive rediculous amounts of fire and can really draw fire like nobody's bussiness. I've watched people freak out over just one at a 1,000pts. Now I'm bringing two and a medusa, and I imagine it's going to be a pain for the opponent to deal with.

Just think about it. AV14 front/13 side, with a 72" range battlecannon, a free heavy bolter, and it can move and shoot its cannon every turn. And all for a 150 points. Most armies would love to have a heavy support option like that. Add in all the different variants, each of which has a different role it can fill, and leman Russes are awesome. The only sad thing is you can only take up to nine, and after the first three you have to start squadroning them.

As has been mentioned, russes do backfield long range shooting, except for much more expensive than their artillery analogue, but they get AV14, which means they don't blow away like a fart on the wind.

Otherwise, lumbering behemoth means that they are able to be 50% less vulnerable to close combat when shooting its main gun, and sponsons mean that it can put down a greater number of shots than artillery. Artillery, for example, is worthless against monstrous creatures, but a sponson-bearing russ isn't.

In any case, the real question is if you need AV14 or not. If you're running a foot list, it doesn't make as much sense to include 3 hydras as it does to include 2 exterminators, because without target saturation, that AV12 isn't lasting long.

Depends on the Russ. Demolisher is still a decent linebreaker, Executioner is more mobile than most, but most variants are now simply bigger and more expensive artillery platforms.

Well last time i had two normal russes this time im gonna have a normal one and an exterminator :-) is an exterminator ok?

it's not quite as versatile as a LRBT, but it's good at what it does. Arm it with bolter sponsons and you've got something that kills infantry (even termies through volume of fire) and AV10/11.

Ok thanks all for the info :-) oh my tanks are gonna be called "Matilda" (LR) and "Lara" (LRE) and I'll be having 2 Basilisks in a squadron for fire support :-) (since they're guns they gotta have male names beginning with G)

I tend to prefer the Executioner (w/ Plasma Sponsons) as a linebacker/support unit. It is reliable in a way that most other LRBTs are not (as they suffer from Single Blast Syndrome), and provides something that isn't found elsewhere in the codex, i.e. Plasma Cannon spam.

Russes work best when you can loiter out of Meltagun/Assault range, and with 36" to work with, the Executioner can do that quite readily. The basic LRBT can also fill that role, but I dislike how unreliable they can be due to the vagaries of scatter dice.

KestrelM1 wrote:I tend to prefer the Executioner (w/ Plasma Sponsons) as a linebacker/support unit. It is reliable in a way that most other LRBTs are not (as they suffer from Single Blast Syndrome),

...instead they suffer from Small Blast Syndrome. A template with a 1.5" radius in a game where you can have up to 2" coherency doesn't take a genius to figure out how to make it so that you get only one hit per shot.

Obviously, the executioner is better against monstrous creatures, what with it being a three-shot weapon, but against anything else, I'd rather have a large blast, which is much harder to minimize casualties against.

Ailaros wrote:

KestrelM1 wrote:I tend to prefer the Executioner (w/ Plasma Sponsons) as a linebacker/support unit. It is reliable in a way that most other LRBTs are not (as they suffer from Single Blast Syndrome),

...instead they suffer from Small Blast Syndrome. A template with a 1.5" radius in a game where you can have up to 2" coherency doesn't take a genius to figure out how to make it so that you get only one hit per shot.

Obviously, the executioner is better against monstrous creatures, what with it being a three-shot weapon, but against anything else, I'd rather have a large blast, which is much harder to minimize casualties against.

I find that between hugging cover, disembarking from transports, piling in for assault, deep striking, and being forced to move by tank shock, there are plenty of situations in which models become clumped together into prime blast formation. When a unit has their Rhino exploded out from under them, there simply isn't enough space in the crater to avoid having 2+ models within 1.5" of each other.

I'll admit it's not ideal, but even for units at max coherency, I vastly prefer four/five shots at 1 wound each than to have one shot at 3 wounds, given the vagaries of the scatter dice. This is doubly so for models that are in blast formation, as four/five blasts is far more likely to land at least a single "hit" than a lone large template. I can nearly always count on an Executioner to land a hit or two, whereas the LRBT is constantly battling the 2/3 scatter chance with its single blast.

They also make the most sense in the context of the lists I usually run. For all the great press Meltagun Veterans, Manticores, and Vendettas get, they struggle to deal with large bricks of heavy infantry, such as 10-man Marine squads - Blood Angels in particular. The Executioner shores up their weakness quite nicely by providing a solution to those types of units.

That's my 2c. If you prefer the Large Blast more power to you, but I prefer the consistency of multiple templates.

Blast templates in general are really only useful in the immediate wake of an action taken to clump an enemy. That said, the plasmacutioner is godly. It is the only LR variant that I rate as a priority target.

KestrelM1 wrote:

Ailaros wrote:

KestrelM1 wrote:I tend to prefer the Executioner (w/ Plasma Sponsons) as a linebacker/support unit. It is reliable in a way that most other LRBTs are not (as they suffer from Single Blast Syndrome),

...instead they suffer from Small Blast Syndrome. A template with a 1.5" radius in a game where you can have up to 2" coherency doesn't take a genius to figure out how to make it so that you get only one hit per shot.

Obviously, the executioner is better against monstrous creatures, what with it being a three-shot weapon, but against anything else, I'd rather have a large blast, which is much harder to minimize casualties against.

I find that between hugging cover, disembarking from transports, piling in for assault, deep striking, and being forced to move by tank shock, there are plenty of situations in which models become clumped together into prime blast formation. When a unit has their Rhino exploded out from under them, there simply isn't enough space in the crater to avoid having 2+ models within 1.5" of each other.

I'll admit it's not ideal, but even for units at max coherency, I vastly prefer four/five shots at 1 wound each than to have one shot at 3 wounds, given the vagaries of the scatter dice. This is doubly so for models that are in blast formation, as four/five blasts is far more likely to land at least a single "hit" than a lone large template. I can nearly always count on an Executioner to land a hit or two, whereas the LRBT is constantly battling the 2/3 scatter chance with its single blast.

They also make the most sense in the context of the lists I usually run. For all the great press Meltagun Veterans, Manticores, and Vendettas get, they struggle to deal with large bricks of heavy infantry, such as 10-man Marine squads - Blood Angels in particular. The Executioner shores up their weakness quite nicely by providing a solution to those types of units.

That's my 2c. If you prefer the Large Blast more power to you, but I prefer the consistency of multiple templates.

This, entirely. For every time a Demolisher kills 4 Terminators, it misses completely more times than not.
Small blasts, when placed properly, have a very high chance of hitting one or two enemy models.
They can also threaten light armour in a pinch, though I suppose the Demolsiher handles better in that regard. I pretty much always take a Demolisher expecting to use it against enemy tanks, particularly land raiders. With such a large hull you're very likely to hit, and damaging it 75% of the time is nice.