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In the 5th edition meta, AV11 just dies to easily to be worth 150 points.

Its a cool model, and I would enjoy having some beef to my marine list, but its overcosted by about 20%. If it was 130 for the AC/CML I would buy it.

winterman wrote:I could see a more death from above all drop pod or similar style themed list taking these as much needed long range support. The escort rule does seem to tie in with drop pod assault quite nicely and assuming its a heavy or FA should slot in fine in such a list. That's probably the intent of the designers and will likely be where you see them taken for the most part.

This.

The ability to clump your reserves is pretty handy, so when one comes in you get two. If this combines with drop pod assault, it can be very strong, giving you a few nice side shots on the first turn.

Though at 150 points, I'm still leary on how much good that model will do. Even with all its special tricks, it just dies to a stiff breeze.

schadenfreude wrote:The skyhammer is basically an AC with 3 shot and a 60" range. Against MEQ, AV12+, and MC with a 3+ save the 2 S8 AP3 shots will out perform the 3 S7 AP4 shots. It would also be a more reliable way to force pinning tests on MEQ.

Would it not be better to compare the two weapons to AV 10/11? Since you can drop the stormtalon within 6" of a drop pod, it should be pretty easy to line up side or rear shots.

Praxiss wrote:I'm guessing thsi might be one of those thgins that makes a lot more sense when 6th ed come out (mayeb the reserves rules will be chaning so you can choose tables edges or something).

Yep. Today the stormtalon looks like trash with wings. In 2 months, it might be pretty f'ing awesome.

Green is Best! wrote:I also don't run Khan. I run a normal captain on a bike, so outflanking it is a moot point. I see the escort rule being more of a "hey, that's handy" but not game breaking for me as I don't plan on running this as an in your face unit. It should be sitting in the backfield dropping shots in from far, far away.

HIstorically I've not run Khan with my bike army in the past. The talon makes me reconsider this.
I stopped reserving my bikes when I shifted to using more fire support with my army. This was to cover a gap I found with the lack of long range anti-transport.
The talon allows for me to outflank my anti-transport, which means that outflanking could be a decent option again.

Reserving gives a few key advantages that I like in a bike army.
* Less turns to be shot means that your less likely to die.
* You get an extra round of shooting if you go second. Since you come in on the bottom of 2, in a 6 turn game, you give your opponent 4 turns of shooting while you get 5.
* You have an advantage on objective grabbing if you go second.
* Reserving can bone a lot of armies, like drop pod armies, DoA armies, or demons.
This is why I like the talon on paper. It allows me to shift back to a reserve-based army and focus on my outflanking.

Green is Best! wrote:You bring up some good points. I may have to consider giving Khan a go. And, its not so much that I am against outflanking, it is just that I am very much in favor of combat tactics. Falling back out of assault range is very handy.

But, if I were to outflank with a stormtalon, I am thinking the TL Lascannon would be the way to go.

Only way to find out is to try it out on the battlefield. I am picking mine up on Saturday....

I'm a huge fan of combat tactics, and I hear you about how much it would suck to lose it.

That being said, I can understand the desire to go with outflanking now. Since the stormtalons help to 'clump' your reserves together, it means your coming on with a bigger hit.
I plan on testing this with some TH/SS termis in a LRR, some bikes, and a few talons. I don't expect it to be highly competitive, but I do expect it to throw some people off their game.