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All in the title, which predator do you use/find most effective?

As I have a predator kit (no magnets) and can to assemble one.

Mostly fighting mech chaos and foot necrons.

I'm pretty sure the Baal Predator is a different kit, so you wont have access to the assault cannons or flamers...

Anyway, for the Baal Predator I like Assault Cannons and Heavy Bolters. For the standard Predator I like the 3 Lascannons. One is anti infantry, the other is long range anti tank.

i have the resources from other kits to convert a Baal, however thank you for showing some kind of response.

That does sound like a good set up for getting both roles, however, couldn't one take a vindicator to drop a pie plate on infantry blobs? - I guess it depends on the army.

I haven't used the Baal since the new codex came out. Some clever scouting or outflanking was marvelous. They were also good because they were a Fast Attack choice and not a Heavy support so you had a few options there. I often used to run a Vindicator and a Baal Predator in the same list... Since the new codex I have tried the tri-las pred and the autocannon 2-las pred. I was disappointed with the autocannon because my best target was a necron monolith which made the autocannon useless, that game made me reluctant to take that loadout again.

I know you've said no to magnets, but Predators are pretty easy to magnetise, you wont regret it

Anyway, I'd be leaning towards the lascannon variant, I now use a razorback for my fast vehicle assault cannon shenanigans and my predator is very much anti armour.

i run a single tl-las pred in almost all my armies, he is a dedicated tank hunter

i have used the autocannon and i find it underwhelming, i think they need to be heavy 3 or possible 4 for me to consider bringing it again. it jsut doesnt do much good. a tl-autocannon is also an idea. i found that i was missing way to often with just two attack dice.

the baal predator seems like a cool idea and i could see them being useful if your going to run assault cannon /w flamestorms. triple flame templates is a bit empty

Really it depends on what your army needs, though I would say that the standard dakka predator is out of the running.

The tri las pred is great if your army needs more long range anti tank or if you find yourself facing a lot of heavy armor. 3 lascannons is great, but 3 lascannons that can fire on the move is better. It also has the advantage of range, wich cannot be discounted. However, it is a very limited vehicle, and is only good against tanks. Also accurately deep striking anti tank weapons is something BA have in spades, so ask yourself if you really need it.

The baal predator is an entirely different beast. I always run mine with assault cannon and heavy bolters, making it a brutal anti infantry and monstrous creature platform. Though it did lose scout, it also dropped by about 10 points, making it 15 points cheaper than a tri las pred. The baal is also the more versatile tank, with the ability to tackle light and medium armor as well as infantry and monsters.

I've found that with the way I build my lists, I get more mileage out of the baal, as my anti tank is covered elsewhere. YMMV, of course.

Just don't take flamestorms now as they are PPPPAAAANNNTTTS!

I play DA and I love my Tri-las predator. If you don't have any other anti-tank available, you should try it. Otherwise, like what others have said before, BA have other sources of AT. I only did mine as a tri-las because I needed some good AT firepower (DA don't do it as well as BA).

Las cannon predator has always been the best choice IMO. Your bolters will gib most geq easily. Melta and plasma for anti-meq/terminator. If you run out of vechs to shoot your lascannons can shoot at teq and hqs and if "worse comes to worse" you can always tank shock.

BA's Lascanon Predators are dope - fast vehicles can scoot 6" and fire all their guns at full BS. Regular marine's Predators are pretty boring by comparison, because you really just have to sit still the entire game to be able to get decent shooting.

I generally thing that Dakka Predators and Baals (both the flamestorm and AC varieties) inferior choices. The saving grace of Baals in 5th edition was Scout and Outflank - losing that has made them much less attractive. The Flamestorm cannon is still somewhat useful as a dedicated anti-MEQ gun.

Whilst BA have access to precision drop AaT, we very much lack ranged AT. We also have lots f anti-infantry in the form of our marines (assault, drop flamer tacs, dc, sang guard etc). So I would go tri-las, as much as I love my Baal press, they're just not as god as they once were.

D

I never really liked Baal preds that much. 24" guns on vehicles with AV 11 sides is a disaster in the making.

Martel732 wrote:
I never really liked Baal preds that much. 24" guns on vehicles with AV 11 sides is a disaster in the making.

just a questions, I have debated with you several times now to surprisingly enjoyable results, but do you still play BA?

as for my favorite pred? tri-las, even for BA, I too never liked the ball pred, we just had better options.

why tri-las? enemy has tanks? good to go, enemy has 2+ save models? good to go. enemy has MCs? good to go. enemy has lots of T4 2-5 wound guys? good to go.

Well if you get a fw predator I would say executioner plasma three plasma cannon shots and no gets hot either I think and two laz.
Or heavy conversion beamer sit it in a corner far away from their stuff and make it rain with s10 ap1 templates.

I'm currently fielding a standard predator with Lascannon sponsors in my BA army. It's a cheap enough way of adding some powerful fire from a distance. The Baal Predator really didn't interest me enough when putting my list together.

 raiden wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
I never really liked Baal preds that much. 24" guns on vehicles with AV 11 sides is a disaster in the making.

just a questions, I have debated with you several times now to surprisingly enjoyable results, but do you still play BA?

as for my favorite pred? tri-las, even for BA, I too never liked the ball pred, we just had better options.

why tri-las? enemy has tanks? good to go, enemy has 2+ save models? good to go. enemy has MCs? good to go. enemy has lots of T4 2-5 wound guys? good to go.

Yeah, I still play BA, why?

Martel732 wrote:

 raiden wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
I never really liked Baal preds that much. 24" guns on vehicles with AV 11 sides is a disaster in the making.

just a questions, I have debated with you several times now to surprisingly enjoyable results, but do you still play BA?

as for my favorite pred? tri-las, even for BA, I too never liked the ball pred, we just had better options.

why tri-las? enemy has tanks? good to go, enemy has 2+ save models? good to go. enemy has MCs? good to go. enemy has lots of T4 2-5 wound guys? good to go.

Yeah, I still play BA, why?

you are just so doom and gloom always, and while I agree with you on several points, I think you take it a tad to far on others mostly I was just wondering.

The gulf between BA and Eldar/Tau/C:SM is just pretty depressing.

As to the point of the thread,if preds only has AV 12 sides, I'd be much more excited about the Vindicator and Baal.

If those are the options, then these are the ways I see you running it:
Vehicle Destroyer- Annihilator+LC Sponsons
Versatile- Destructor+LC Sponsons
Suicide Infantry Destroyer- Baal w/ Flamestorm+Heavy Flamers
Survivable Infantry Destroyer- Baal w/TL AC+ Heavy Flamer
Cheaper Survivable Infantry Destroyer- Destructor + HB Sponsons

The Baal was a suicide infantry destroyer before. It's not anymore. It won't even reach the opponents without scout or outflank.

A dakka pred (autocannon + HB's) is a fairly cheap and tough choice able to dish out a respectable amount of damage to enemy troops. I generally use them when in low point games, but then its not too much of a points increase to go for an auto las pred.

Destructors are great for taking on enemy tanks, but not so great against infantry, so a lot will depend on the rest of your army. A baal pred will do better against infantry than a a dakka pred as well, but like the dakka pred, cannot really be counted on against heavily armoured troops.

Generally i would suggest you buy some cheap magnets so you can change the loadout based on the rest of the army, but failing that, if you have lots of anti tank or anti infantry already, use the predator to fill the other role