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How do you guys arm yours? In my current list I'm planning on running one with just the hull Lascannon and go Light Vehicle and MC shooting. The sponsons appeal as every gun can shoot but which to use? None seem quite matched to the main gun.

I usually equip them with LC/HB's, that enables them to both hunt light/medium vehicles and infantry fairly effectively and at least have a chance against heavy armor. That makes for a decent "all purpose" Exterminator, a very good Troops Leman Russ for an Armoured Battlegroup.

Depends on what you're using it for. Back in the day when SW could use LR Exterminators, I had mine kitted out with 3x HB's, but that's because I mostly fought infantry-heavy armies of DE and Nids. That's 11 strong shots at AP 4.

There's one primary consideration for what to give an Exterminator; it's BS.

If you're using it in the vanilla 'dex without pask, Heavy Bolters all around will make it a decent, cheap infantry hunter, with some ability to engage light vehicles. LCs and MMs are good weapons, but when you're going to miss half the time, it's a dubious investment. Pask isn't a bad investment on a LC/MM combination, but expensive.

In an Armoured Battlegroup, the Exterminator becomes more interesting. BS4 is pretty easy to get in that list; Command Tanks, Commissar Tanks, General Grizmund making one quadron of tanks BS4, re-rolling first miss. I personally use one as a command tank with LC/MM; it's a good vehicle hunter, and retains the ability to hurt terminators, MCs and other valuable single-model units. BS4 makes a big difference in its lethality, and the command tank is only 10 points more than the base model, much better than spending 50 on Pask.

Generally speaking, however, I tend to rely more on blast-template Russes when they're BS3. Expensive, single-shot weapons with a 50% hit rate are not very attractive to me, so stick to volume of fire or blast when you can't get good accuracy.

Las cannon and heavy bolter sponsons. I hae been rrunning this for a while now. I run two in and 1850 point list. I never complain about the performance. The strength and quantity of shots is,pretty impressive for 185 points.

1 strength 9/ ap1
4 twin link S7/ ap 4
6 S5/ap4

It is a multi purpose tank. With the rule changes it makes sense to run with sponsons.

Lascannon and multimeltas for me. Provides a mix of threats at a mix of ranges. Not the best possible configuration, per se, but it's the best all-arounder option if you don't really know what the tank's role is, or have NO idea of the kinds of threats they will be facing.

That said, I'd probably take a vanquisher with lascannon and plasma cannons for that.

Thanks for the responses. My initial idea was to take MM Sponsons but both range and BS3 is a bit of an issue for me. I'm pretty new to IG and have never run one of the variants from the regular Russ box before and am trying out the Exterminator first as it appealed to me the most. I'd like to use Pask at some point as well and I imagine he'd be best in an Exterminator or possibly Punisher.

I mainly face podding SW and CSM so I'm looking for a tank who's bread and butter will be blasting apart Rhinos and Drop Pods. Pask and MM sponsons, whilst I'm sure will dish out the hurt, come in at 245. Its a tough old tank but it will be a prime target for podding Melta Guns and Termicide units. I usually prefer to spread the threat in units than have one or two big pointers.

Yeah, I'd probably pass on pask with that kind of a tank. Pask really shines when he's immobile, which means that any sponson weapon other than plasma cannons are unlikely to be in range. Better to just take a vanquisher or exterminator and a lascannon for him.

As for MM sponsons on the exterminator, you've really got to think of it as, combined with the lascannon, the same firepower as a lascannon HWS. Of course, the fire profile is a little different as the multimeltas don't have quite as much range, but do a lot more damage within an 18" threat range.

What I like most about MM sponsons, other than causing instant death to paladins (or, well, using them as a defensive weapon in general against targets that get too close) is to use them to swat down fliers. A pair of lascannon/melta exterminators that start the turn within 18" of a flier stands a pretty darn good chance of landing a hit with a lascannon or a melta weapon in melta range. With only one melta hit, you've got nearly a half chance of throwing the flier out of the sky.

Given that fliers, due to mobility restrictions, are fairly likely to swing near your tanks, this is a feat I've accomplished on multiple occasions.

Really, the only problem with multimelta sponsons is that people are starting to take more monstrous creatures, and I need those plasma cannon sponsons to start chiseling wounds off right away. If only there were a way of having an S7 Ap2 36" weapon that could still snap fire at fliers, I'd be all over that. As it is, though, which of the criminally cheap sponson options you should choose is kind of meta dependent.

 Ailaros wrote:
A pair of lascannon/melta exterminators that start the turn within 18" of a flier stands a pretty darn good chance of landing a hit with a lascannon or a melta weapon in melta range.

A 66% chance, IF the target is in the narrow arc where both sponsons can fire. Since you have to commit to aiming the tanks before the flyer moves you can't count on this, and if you only get one sponson per tank you're down to a 52% chance of getting a hit.

And let's not forget that you're spending almost 400 points on these tanks, while doing much less average damage than a 130 point Vendetta. Considering this a legitimate AA threat is laughably optimistic.

With only one melta hit, you've got nearly a half chance of throwing the flier out of the sky.

Can I borrow your melta guns that always pen and never get stopped by jink saves?

Well I currently have one Vendetta in my list to go heavy tank hunting. I also have an ADL so Pask could work if I were to sit the Russ behind it and pummel things from afar. In our group we do a round of games with everyone in the group using their armies against everyone else before changing things. I might go for the humble Lascannon option and try the sponsons in a few games time. I'm possibly leaning towards the HBolter option for anti-infantry as I believe my list has a good amount of Las/Melta for tank killing.

I'll probably be working my way through all the variants of both the box sets. I've had my Demolisher for a while and have tried the Demolisher and Executioner and found both to be effective. Need to have a go with a Punisher at some point to.

I mainly play at 1500 pts and currently have 2 Russes in my list, how many do people generally take at that level? I like both armour and infantry pretty equally so I always favour hybrid lists but maybe I am missing something in not going full mech or foot. Any ideas for a good starting point for both these please?

Depends who you're trying to fight. Back in the day when SW could take Exterminators, I loaded mine out with 3x HB's because I mostly fought DE and Nids. 11 strong shots could tear into light skinned vehicles and AP 4 really tore apart infantry.

In smaller games, how you run it should probably depend on what you've got in your other Heavy Support slots.

I've been running one with 3x Heavy Bolters for a while now, alongside 2 Manticores.

I've been running into a lot more Xenos players lately...with many of those having a fair number of 4+ save models, the AP4 all around is rather nice. It puts out enough firepower to really mulch through light vehicles (Speeders, DE vehicles, etc.), but it actually puts out enough shots to often kill Rhinos as well. I like it a lot.


The Punisher is probably better in terms of pure damage output, but the Exterminator is much cheaper, and having a Turret weapons with a better, rather than worse, range basically means that you're more often making shots that the sponsons won't have, than missing out on shots.