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I'm seriously considering getting this piece of scenery/terrain to use as the main draw for my "Armies on Parade." After looking at YouTube videos on it, I think it's just an amazing looking piece of scenery. Seeing that it's 24" long, it'll just barely fit on the Armies on Parade 2' x 2' restriction.

All that said, is it worth the money and and after Armies on Parade would it be worth the points to run it in an army (say 2000 points)?

Thanks in advance

SG

I did. I don't have it anymore, but I would use it for a guaranteed vantage point for Karadread when I played GK. It is a wonderful piece, and the only thing that might hold you back is the price point. Remember that even if you don't use it in your list, it looks wonderful on the table as a piece of independent terrain - there are no real 'unfinished' sides of the thing.

It’s big, expensive in points, and looks cool. If you want to use it to it’s potential, you need to sink even more points into it to man the guns, etc.

I’m not sure how competitive it is these days. Sure, it’s a massive wad of AV14 bunkers, which get to laugh at things like scatbikes. But in a world where people are geared up to crack super heavies, how long can it hold out?

The missiles are nice, and the LC can pack a punch, and you can take all sorts of upgrades for it. I’d say it should be fine for more casual play, but would worry about more competitive settings.

Im not sure how competitive it is as an ingame unit but its a damn nice kit "in person", imposing, good detail, characterful and a great centrepiece/theme.

Really depends on whether you think you'll use it much after AoP or if it'll sit on a shelf.

I have one and have tried multiple lists using it, keeping it stock to loading it up with void shields. My expirences:

- people are TERRIFIED of the lazcannon. A lot of times they just pour everything into shooting that part. Dosent take a lot and even with shields it can drop fast. And it does bad things to the guys inside or on top when it goes. Generally things like close range Melta, vindicators, anything that can punch av14 will be going after it. The missile bunker is usually second on the list. It also does not take much to destroy the emplaced weapons.

Putting guys in it is tricky. You want enough to man the guns and be around the whole game but not the entire army otherwise they get hurt bad when the building goes kaboom. You need something to keep scary stuff away. Ideally you want the enemy outside of 24" so take stuff that can operate outside that range, and keep the other guy from getting close. (Or if he does he pays for it) a counter assault unit is good.

The other thing to remember is that in 7th skyfire and interceptor no longer combine - so that lazcannon is only good against fliers. (Snap shots on infantry). So you'll need something else to deal with enemy armor. And honestly your paying 300pts or so for a big non moving land raider that has 1 anti air gun, and one large blast ground weapon. And it's gonna draw all the incoming fire the other guy can throw at it - because it's big and scary (unless he doesn't realize you can shoot buildings and not the guys in or on them)

That said its a very awsome building and pretty impressive on the table.

It's a gorgeous piece of kit. It's competitive value is debatable. But it's great in regular games and can be of great use as something to fight for in games

I own one. I haven't found a way to make it useful so far in 7th.

I own one and I love it.

It's a massive distraction that not only can keep your squishier units alive with cover saves and void shields (HWS's etc.) but blocks LOS to and draws fire away from your back-field artillery. It's not that tough in high point games but it'll be drawing a lot of AT and high strength fire that won't be hitting your artillery or tanks etc.

For the bare-bones cost of a LR you get 4x AV14 buildings with a Missile Silo and Twin-linked Icarus Lascannon. In comparison, that's pretty damn good. Now, when you throw some more upgrades on, it can easily inflate to around 420ish points and might start getting a bit expensive at that point. Really though, you need to build an army around the FOR.

What can the FOR do for you?
- AA or limited AT (Icarus)
- Anti-Infantry upgradeable to Anti-Tank too (Missile Silo)
- Massive LOS blocker.
- Massive distraction.
- Extras; escape hatch trolling, searchlights, barricades, tanglewire, tank traps and heavy bolters.

The FOR can be used either as a castle to hide stuff behind in a corner of the map or as an area denial structure deployed as far forward as you can.

I personally equip it with -
4x Heavy Bolters (2 on each bunker annex to help with weapon destroyed results)
Krakstorm missile upgrade
4x Void Shields (one on each section)
1x Searchlight (on the tower)
2x Barricades
4x Tanglewire

Even if it dies horribly you can guarantee that it'll change the game and be fun

I man mine with Cultists.... from my Hellbrute Dataslates. Fearless gun point manning bodies are a godsend.

my FLGS has one, the owner has it as a piece of terrain that any player can use if he/she wishes, as it is a stupidly expensive kit.

I have used it twice, once with my space marines, scouts manning all the guns, and then once as guard with nid' allies (doubles game), with tons of gaunts shoved inside with an escape hatch.

It was meh, both times however, I would of rather had a landraider or something of the sort.

I love the look of the Dark Angels Castle Greyskull Playset but I've never actually used one in-game. I would buy it just for the aesthetics and to give some terrain to fight around in the middle of the table, especially if you had a Dark Angels army. It also affords some cool last stand scenarios.

A friend of mine used one with his SoB back in 6th. It gave his otherwise short range army some long range punch with the krackstorms and AA/AV with the LC. His biggest issues with it was dragging it to/from the game store. Building an army around it wasn’t that big a deal; but it’s not something you can just tack on to a list.

These days with the skyfire change, and overall building changes it’s not quite as good as it used to be. You can add some shiny things from Stronghold Assault to make up for some of that, but that’s sinking more points into an already expensive model.

The next time I'm taking it I think I'm going space marine drop pod Attack force with a token captain and some command squad basic guys no upgrades. Remote fire- so the squad can man all the guns from the tower, and then the rest of the army pods in and attacks. It may actually prove useful - forcing the other guy to engage the fort or deal with the pod army. If thw fort is "left alone" it might actually prove very useful. And with sky hammer I can hopefully eliminate any immediate threats to the fortress quickly.

 DarthSpader wrote:
The next time I'm taking it I think I'm going space marine drop pod Attack force with a token captain and some command squad basic guys no upgrades. Remote fire- so the squad can man all the guns from the tower, and then the rest of the army pods in and attacks. It may actually prove useful - forcing the other guy to engage the fort or deal with the pod army. If thw fort is "left alone" it might actually prove very useful. And with sky hammer I can hopefully eliminate any immediate threats to the fortress quickly.

I originally attempted something along these lines (I was thinking BS4 ratlings in the tower manning all the guns with remote fire)...
there's a problem that stopped me doing it and you'd have to work around it (I don't know if you can with SM):
The squad firing all the weapons from the tower using remote fire... can only fire at one target (unless you have split fire) because they have to obey the usual shooting rules.

I asked that same question in ymdc - would the squad have to do that - or would you use the rules for the fort that say each gun can target seperate just like a super heavy.

 DarthSpader wrote:
I asked that same question in ymdc - would the squad have to do that - or would you use the rules for the fort that say each gun can target seperate just like a super heavy.

The problem is, RAW say all the weapons have to be fired at the same target ALA squad shooting rules (unless you have Split-fire etc.).
RAI though, I find it difficult to believe that a tower with remote fire controls wouldn't dedicate squad members to different weapons to fire at different targets.

If you're playing friendly games, I see no problem going with RAI and having the one squad remote control all those guns at different targets.
For competitive though, the answer is no.

Plop some lascannon Centurions in the fort with an omniscope?

Then your losing out on the centurion weapons. Wich could be better then the forts. Other way would be a bunch of smaller squads. 5 man scout teams for each weapon system maybe. Or just go the above mentioned RAI option. As long as opponents ok with it.

Dominions manning the missile platform and using their ignore cover act of faith are good for the banter.

Top of the tower is pretty awesome for a Vindicare as well.

I like to put all the heavy bolters on one section and use a large team of retributors to unleash 8 rending heavy bolters! It is not the most competitive choice but it is good fun and looks awesome.