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So I had a 3k battle yesterday in which I used many new units for the first time and wanted to give some feedback on them. I will write up a full bat rep once I've picked up my connector for andriod-pc to upload the pics (it's at work atm).
Things to bear in mind:
-These were not a 'uber competitive' lists.
- I have not yet got all the units I want for my renegades so it is nothing like the list I am collecting towards.
- It was Renegades + CSM vs Eldar + BA.
- 'One eye open' was not used.
- We started playing a maelstrom mission but by T2 decided to sack objectives off and play to the death.
- We had played a game the previous day of BA vs Eldar and decided for this game not to take particular units such as Sicarans (for Chaos) and Wraithknights as we'd used these very effectively in the previous battle.
-This is after just one game with these units so anecdotal.
- My rolls throughout the battle were above average for the important rolls of the game.

So the pride and joy first, the Greater Brass Scorpion:
For 700pts I was dubious as to how this would perform. Suffice to say, I was mistaken in my doubts.
In T1 its Soulburner cannon killed 4 Sanguinary Guard and its Scorpion cannon killed 2 scouts in cover. It was then able to charge said scouts due to its 3d6 charge and finish them off. This was actually a huge mistake on my part as it put 2 Fragon squads in serpents in reasonable melta reach. During my mates T1 it then took the brunt of the Eldar firepower, taking 5 melta shots in melta range on side armour, 5 melta shots at 7" (he only needed a 4+ from one of 2d6 due to fleet and battle focus to have been in melta range with these and got a 3 & 2 - although it was this squad which actually caused 3 hp of damage) against side armour, 6 bright lance shots from 3 wraithlords, a bright lance from a guardian squad, a guided st9 lance shot from a fireprism and a vindi blast. It took only 7hp of damage due to its 5++. I was very lucky with explodes results generating only +1 extra hp of damage both times and making more 5++'s than I should have done. But I was amazed how much firepower it took and kept coming. T2 it flamed a fragon squad to death with its hellmaws (very short range on these btw due to where its hellmaws are located), then proceded to charge and rip up a serp it had shot at with its other guns. It then survived attacks by a small armourbane seer council, before annihilating them due to attacks and stomps and finished off a direavenger squad, all by the close of my T3.
All in all it outperformed my expectatuons by a country mile. A lot of this was down to luck, but I probably wouldn't have needed that luck if I'd not made the mistake by charging the scouts to begin with.

55pt spawn:
I had 4 units of these (you get 3 spawn in a unit for 55pts). They were amazing, when in cover they take so much firepower for their points it's disgusting. Yes Nurgle spawn do this better, but Nurgle Spawn are twice the price. 2 units worked well with my brass scorpion, going after and bogging down/destroying units which threatened it, such as a serp which had turbo boosted for rear shots in the next turn and the second fragon unit. Another unit of spawn took the firepower of 20 guided guardians + heavy weapons, a serpent, a scorpion unit and there was still a spawn standing with a wound at the end of it, causing the scorps + karandras to have to multicharge a unit of MoK CSM, which made a huge difference as the champ with fist survived (as the only survivor) to kill 2 scorps and put a wound on karendras. The 4th unit acted as a bullet shield for my juggerlord and ended up being charged by (and holding up) a wraithlord after the juggerlord split off from them. I've never had 220pts achieve so much tactically for me before.

Dreadclaw:
I proxied a drop pod for this. It had Abbaddon and 3 MoK termis in it with combi-meltas, chainfist and 2 LCs. Its Deepstrike was decicive in the battle. I'd deployed first. On my right flank I'd deployed a MoK CSM squad with flamers + powerfist in a rhino supported by 3 spawn and a chimera with 4 diciples with a flamer. The right flank had a massive ruined cathdral on it giving anything on that flank a 4+ cover against anything from the centre. My opponent deployed a wraithlord, a serp with wraithguard, karendras + scorps with exarch and a large guardian blob on this flank. I realised I had absolutely nothing on that flank which could do anything against this force. So the ability to reinforce it T1 with abaddon and termis was excellent. The deepstrike scatter took the pod a little closer than I would have liked, so I was able to move spawn forward to cover it and turbo boost it a few inches behind the spawn. I kept them in the dreadclaw during this and proceeded to split abaddon and the termis when disemabarking T2, Abbaddon charging the Wraithlord whilst the termis dealt with the wraith guard (combi-meltas dealing with the 2 D-scythes first). The deepstrike was a game changer in this circumstance, but the ability to move (and turbo-boost) makes it so much better than a drop pod, whilst the assault rule is just amazing on an av12 100pt fast skimmer.

High firepower bunker:
I proposed recently a bunker with 6 bs3 lascannon teams, an arch demagogue with likely bs5 (from mutant overlord) manning a quad gun and ammo dump for rerolls of 1's. All with bs2 snapfire (from cov of tzeentch). I tried this out this game, but due to what has arrivd so far from ebay, it was instead 4 lascannons and 2 autocannons. It was WOW. In three turns it killed a wraithlord, a vindi and half a scorpion squad. Considering I had to take the arch demagouge any way it only cost me 265 pts (275 with full lascannons), and it didn't even get to shoot at air units which is half its strength. Easy MotM for points to effectiveness ratio.

Other units I used for the first time were a hellhound which did incredibly well due to favourable circumstances, although I imagine this is an exception rather than the norm (from experiances of facing them in the past). And mutants. Mutants are realistically 30pt OS units which is great, but since we sacked off objectives, I didn't really get to experience their value.

My rhino riding plasma havocs and melta havocs did their usual decent job as did my juggerlord. The Oblitorators never arrived (we stopped after T3 as there was only a wraithlord, two firedragons engaged in combat with spawn, a couple of guardians with 2 heavy weapons platforms and a waveserpent left. We had decided to have a friendly, and due to me wanting to test out lots of new units I'd recently bought, my list ended up being a lot less friendly than my mates, my amazing luck didn't help either. I firmly believe he made better tactical decisions, but the strengths of the units listed above were just too difficult to overcome. I have rated the units from the title out of 5 below:

Greater Brass Scorpion: 3/5 - was 5/5 in this battle and caused catastrophic damage, but due to the size of it and the fact you want it in combat (and it will kill almost anything in one round), it leaves it very vulnerable to melta and rear armour shots. Costs 700pts so need to design a list around it. Easy to make a mistake with. If I hadn't had made the saves I did, it would have been a huge blow. Upside - with 1 or 2 hp left it is still as effective as with 9hps.

55pt spawn: 5/5 - Insanely points efficient. No armour save is easily helped by cover. Can achieve so much for 55pts. Caught and destroyed a serpent - enough said.

Dreadclaw: 5/5 - Was everything I hoped it would be. Next assault vehicle is 150% extra. Deepstrike and Assault rules without having to disembark after deepstrike, especially when it can contain things such as Abbadon, MoK termis, Kharn etc, is salivating. Remember av12, 4+ jink and 18" turbo boost.

High Firepower Bunker: 5/5 - just try it yourself to see what I mean.

I like the Brass Scorpion in a multiple-gods list where you can have Daemons with Cursed Earth following it; they're not targeting the Scorpion so they don't auto-Perils and you can pump its Inv to silly levels.

It looks good on paper but how would it stand up againt similarly-pointed Super-Heavies, preferably ones packing Destroyer weapons?

As long as said Dweapons don't roll 6, you'll be fine.

If they roll a 6 you're fethed either way.

epic

I'm going to need to trial the brass scorpion a bit more before I can truly decide its value. The hellmaw cannons in this case did well, but due to their incredibly short range thanks to their placement on the body, well back from the claws, I can see them not even being used in most battles. For a 700pt superheavy I would have thought they might be torrent, then it would certainly be worth 700pts, maybe more.
It is very difficult to navigate around a terrain packed board, as it's leg span is pretty big. There is also no hiding that bad boy behind anything.
If you don't have beasts, bikes or jps to protect it, its not going to last more than 2 turns of the opponent dedicating their firepower to it.
It did do an absolutely insane amount of damage though, and its blast is the same but only a bit smaller than a typhons.

I'll try get the bat rep up within the week.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I didn't use the same list that I put on the army lists forum btw. There were a fair few changes.