Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a Bastion and tested it out a bit. I was a bit underwhelmed so far. I'd like to discuss it with everyone and see if I missed something or have seen anything wrong so far.

On the pro side:
- For 75 points you get 4 heavy bolters. However you will only be able to fire 1 of them in a given turn, maximum 2 if a big target is positioned optimally.
- The battlements are so high that you are very likely to cancel most cover, and since the 7th edition rules changed area cover a bit this can be a big deal, especially vs vehicles.
- You can take an Icarus or Quad-Cannon for more AA. That emplacement is placed nicely, it will almost always have a cover save from the battlements and cannot be reached in assault.
- Size: it's pretty big, so you can hide stuff behind it, maybe even completely out of LOS.

On the con side:
- Very suboptimal fire points. Two sides have 3 fire points which only 1 model can use. One side has 1 FP and one side (with the entrance) none at all. This is so sub par compared against Bunkers (fire points for 2 x 4 models) and Firestorm Redoubt (1 x 6 models). Especially bunkers for 50 pts are so much better if you just want to protect a soft infantry unit.
- Big model, hard to place on some battlefields if much terrain has been placed in the set up phase.
- Fire points distributed in a way that flamers can reach it from every side. With no escape that's a big ouch for the residents.

Alltogether I think that this building is pretty much special interest for units that benefit from battlements and have enough armor against flamers or templates (e.g. Dark Reapers). I'd use it with units with high range weapons so they can see most points of the battlefield. Or maybe with those who have ignore cover, like noise marines with 2 blast masters.

I thought 2 people could fire out of every window...

the size can be a big help as you can hide squishy stuff behind it (manticores for example) and be fully out of LOS.

flamers are pretty easy to defend against (except for heldrakes) with bubble wrap or counter charge units.

I had to experience first hand that defending against flamers is not always that easy when they come with torrent. Deep striking grey knights have very good possibilities to place the templates even through bubble wraps.

Good point with the size, I'll edit that to the pros.

Interesting, i would like to hear more about its uses.

Just a reminder that automated fire may help out with some of the bolters.

The bastion is good if you use it in the right combinations. Some of the combos I have found to be good;
*Get a bastion w/ HB and quad gun and the Escape Hatch upgrade. The bloodletters shoot the HB and quad gun depending on available targets and stay semi safe mid board in the bastion. Then when an objective within ~18-24" becomes important or a juicy infantry target comes within range then jump out using the hatch and either run onto the objective or charge the infantry. The bastion can shoot the weapons not in use at BS2 but having a BS5 quad gun to intercept flyers is pretty good and they actually become useful in their melee capacity if given a decent method to charge unit without getting shot at by bolters first.
*Bastion+quad gun or icarus lascannon+vindicare assassin+void shield
Put into a corner of your deployment zone the vindicare will almost always see 5 turns of shooting. This can easily rack up quite an effect on the fight with ignore cover quad gun fire on serpents, intercepting flyers as they come on with ignores cover skyfire, and sniping upgrades/leaders out of squads (this is much more powerful in practice than it appears on paper as you often buy the unit as "carrier cost" for the unit upgrades. thus 2 shots killing 2 special weapons can effectively negate 150 pts if they are the right targets).
*Bastion+Hatch+short range units
Deploy the bastion centrally and use it to catapult your unit up the board 18". Grav cannon centurions are a great example unit where this is useful.
*Bastion LoS blocker sometimes w/ comms relay
Often used in a nids lists to block LoS on their flyrants from the majority of the enemy long range firepower. They can also expand the range and protect a venomthrope or synapse, etc.

Does the bastion add to armor saturation with a vehicle heavy army?

You can put plasma cannons inside with an ammo dump and they get to reroll gets hot

The rules state that it has four bolters but it doesn't have to be modeled with them all on different sides like it's shown. Legally you can out them all on one side

6 models can fire from the 3 fp sides and you can assemble it so those sides share a corner which also helps with visibility.

One downside I've noticed is that once units close in to the bastion the units inside and on the battlements can't draw Los anymore.

Well you can take a bastion, then add a void shield and ammo store for guys inside, then throw a devastator squad on top and a devastator squad inside. One of the sides has 2 fire points so 2 dudes can fire out of each which would be the 4 heavy weapons.

Generally you'd point the side with the door towards your board edge, so less need for a fire point there. Two guys shoot out of each window, and heavy bolters not being fired by troops can shoot at separate targets at bs2.

Personally I like them with a comm relay and an allied IG command squad inside with a master of the fleet. 2+ rerollable reserves behind av14 means everything is coming in with little chance of impeding it.

Are you sure it is two models per FP? The BRB says (p. 80): "Unless specified differently in the vehicle's entry, a single passenger can fire out of each Fire Point and the other transported models cannot fire". I can't find anything different specific to buildings. And the Bastion entry does not say anything about having special Fire Points.

Good other points, especially the void shield might be a nice idea if you use the battlements.

BRB page 110 under firing from building:

"unless otherwise stated, up to two models may shoot through each firepoint of a building"

Also, incase its been missed, the bastion sides with the two additional fire points actually have three fire points total: the two windows next to the bolter and the window at the bottom that gets obscured by the door on the side which you add it. So six models should be able to fire from either of those sides.

Bastion was good until they changed it so you couldnt cast prescience in there. Still prefer it to an aegis line though.

I believe the bunker allows 8 models to fire from it, is 20 points cheaper, and can take all the same upgrades. That's what I put my broadsides in.

Bastion is great for Retributors or anyone who can modify their firing (rending for instance) since they can add the extra HB to their shots.