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Hey guys, just wondering what people thought of the Forge World Land Raider Achilles under the new 6th Ed rules. It was a bit of a beast in 5th, but now with hull points and the increased lethality of the TFC, does it have a place in a codex army? What are the best uses for it? Just figured I'd see what people thought.

For those unfamilliar, this tank is a Land Raider in all respects with some weapon trade outs and special rules for 300pts

Lascannons: Traded for twin linked multi-meltas

Heavy Bolter: Traded for a TFC

Special Rules: Immune to Melta and Lance effects, so no double pen for melta, always AV 14 vs lance.

Cary Capacity: 6 models

Also it doesn't have a assault ramp. I love the achilles, the fact that it has a thunderfire cannon on it makes it great. Just take one and screw putting any troops in it, and do what you want with it. Maybe throw a smaller hq squad in it, or a combat squad and throw them on an objective and then on the 5th turn have them jump out and have the achilles be you shield. Just stay away from gauss.

IMO, it didn't really change much. Armies that can handle AV 14 without lance/melta still laugh at it, even more so now that you strip hull points even when the -1 to damage results keeps it alive. Armies that can't handle AV 14 without lance/melta still hate it (especially if there's more than one) since it takes an average of 24 melta/lance hits to glance one to death and there will probably be more important things to spend those shots on. End result: it's still a very uneven unit that hurts some armies way more than others, and leads to unbalanced games. Take one (or three) if you hate your local Eldar player, leave it on the display shelf if Necrons are popular.

Im sorry but saying that it barely changed is just ludacris. It changed alot, it got much worse. -1 on the table is not nearly as powerful when you can be glanced to death. The TFC got alot more durable so that makes the achilles less desirable as well.

tedurur wrote:
Im sorry but saying that it barely changed is just ludacris. It changed alot, it got much worse. -1 on the table is not nearly as powerful when you can be glanced to death.

The reason it didn't change much is that the -1 was always less important that its immunity to lance and melta. Against armies that could handle AV 14 without lance/melta (lascannon spam, 9-Broadside Tau, etc) they could simply roll enough damage results to suppress and eventually kill it. Against armies that needed lance/melta you could never suffer worse than a glance, so the -1 just made it a bit less likely to lose a weapon.

The same is true now. Armies that don't need melta/lance still kill it and wonder why everyone complains about the Achilles, the only difference is they might kill it through stripping hull points before they roll a 6 on the damage chart. Armies that need melta/lance still have no effective answer, since throwing all of your lances at it and praying for 6's to strip a hull point is almost as laughably bad as it was in 5th. The only difference is that Necrons have moved from the second category into the first.

The TFC got alot more durable so that makes the achilles less desirable as well.

The TFC is still pretty fragile, still can't protect a unit claiming an objective, and still doesn't have those multimeltas to keep vehicles away. I won't dispute that it's a good unit in 6th, but it isn't really comparable to a LR Achilles.

Thanks for the comments guys. From what I can see it looks as If I might be better off with 3 thunderfires in cover, with the buffs I can get a 3+ save, will split target priority, and will lay down 3x the templates per turn

The Achilles isn't as absurdly tough as it once was, as now glancing hits can bring it down, but it's still a strong contender for the "hardest to kill thing ever" outside of apocalypse. Be warned though, massed Gauss fire will tear it a new one and make you cry (though it's not exactly efficient), so be wary around Necrons.