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Hi,

I have been playing CSM for a few years, and have fielded mostly Maulerfiends, Oblits and Havoks as my HS. They usually perform well (if I don't blunder the deployment) but I want to try something new. I am looking at getting 3 Predators and magnetize the turret and sponsons. I know the tri-LC version is very common, but what about AC and 2 HB? Alot of dakka with solid front armour, they could hold HO as well as draw some fire. Might as well slap Gargoyles and Havoc launcher on them as well.

I know they aren't TL, but hey! We are CSM. TL is for wimps (and Oblits).

Does anyone have anything to share regarding this setup?

Predators are quite underwhelming, in my opinion. They can be OK, but rarely more than that. Being vehicles, they are too prone to penetration results messing them up,

I would suggest buying one and testing it before investing in a trio.

I've got two rhinos I've been thinking of using as preds and so I've been comparing and contrasting them between maulers, grinders, skull cannons, and the like. It really comes down to what your army needs and what you have that distracts the enemy. I'm running daemonkin so I have looooots and looooots of flesh hounds running all over the board with biker support. Predators provide decent mid range firepower for basically nothing (below 100 points for AC and 2 HB spons), it's very rare for that much firepower that cheap for CSM. For me it isn't worth it since I can take skull cannons (large blast with "high" BS chariot), but they could really rip through enemy infantry fast if you has three of them, or if you gave them the three freakin laz per car the enemy won't have armor by the end of your shooting phase.

The dakka pred with autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons, hell - havoc launcher too if you want - and the 5 points for the warpfire gargoyles makes it a fairly nasty anti-infantry unit. I find that people aren't particularly threatened by it, so it can get away wish wrecking a unit or two. With that many shots, I have knocked out devastator squads more than once.

I had two, I sold them... The loyalist get them cheaper and in squadrons... Dont bother buying yet.

Back in 5th ed they were good.

 Filch wrote:
I had two, I sold them... The loyalist get them cheaper and in squadrons... Dont bother buying yet.

Back in 5th ed they were good.

I was under the impression that CSM had the cheapest Predator Annihilator at 140 points. Besides, the formations for the loyalists aren't very good, as you lose the bonus the second one vehicle is destroyed.

For the same price as two Obliterators, a Tri-las Predator is better at killing vehicles and MCs at range.

And three Chaos Predators means there are zero HS slots left for Obliterators, Forgefiends, Maulerfiends and other very good models stuck in the Heavy Support slot. The benefit of the Loyalists is a bonus, but having multiple tanks take a single slot is the real benefit.

And Lascannons are not that amazing anymore. Still needs a fair amount of luck for a shot to cause an explodes, and if it doesn't, it takes more than one shot to wreck it. A lot of things can go wrong for ONE tank to fail to do its job, and it only has about six chances per game to do what it needs to.

This combination of things make the Predator pretty meh. I still like them as utilitarian models, cleaning up what more specialized units leave behind, but it's not worth a valuable HS slot in my Chaos list. I'd rather have a Sicaran or Obliterators and leave the basic Predator to my Blood Angels.

Thanks guys, lots of good points. I will try 1 first, that seems smart. I am very prone to over-doing things.