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Hi all,

I was thinking earlier about Knight Commander Pask and the best kind of tank to put him in.

The received wisdom is that the Punisher is the best choice for all-round carnage, with its only limitation being really heavy armour; the Vanquisher is a close second because in his hands it is amazing at AP; and the Exterminator hardly seems worth it.

Because I am super-cool, I did a bit of mathhammering via excel comparing the Punisher, the Vanquisher and the Exterminator for hull-point stripping potential against an armour 14 target. This accounted for hits, attempts at armour penetration, the Vanquisher cannon's armourbane and any applicable re-rolls (apart from the Punisher's theoretical ability to re-roll unsuccessful rending hits, which I couldn't be bothered to work out how to calculate).

Judged purely by hull-point stripping potential from one round of shooting, the results are as follows:

1) Punisher - 1.6803840878
2) Exterminator - 1.0864197531
3) Vanquisher - 0.7345679013

As we can see, the Punisher leads the way by quite a margin, even without factoring in its ability to re-roll unsuccessful rending hits, due to its rate of fire.

Having said that, the Vanquisher retains two obvious advantages:

1) Its range is far superior to the Punisher - 72" vs 24".

This is a valid point if you are specifically after a long-range tank hunter. However, I would retort that the Exterminator (due, again, to weight of fire and rending) is still a more reliable hull-point stripper than the Vanquisher for five points less, and while its 48" range is still significantly shorter than that of the Vanquisher, I would argue that it is still more than enough most of the time.

2) The Vanquisher can make vehicles explode.

If we were still in 6th edition then this might swing it for me. But in 7th it doesn't. Hull-point stripping is by far the most reliable way to kill vehicles.

When you consider that Exterminators and Punishers are so much better against other targets besides AV14 vehicles, these two advantages are just too slight to be worthwhile.

The final nail in the coffin here is that Pask has to take a buddy for his squadron. Vanquishers without Pask really aren't worth the points due to BS3 (even with preferred enemy), and so you will be saddled with either (1) an overpriced tank or (2) a different type of tank that doesn't really gel with the Vanquisher, forcing you to rely on the split-fire order all the time.

TL;DR Punishers are arguably the best tank even against heavy armour, Exterminators are surprisingly good with Pask and make a good alternative if you really want the range, Vanquishers are never worth it.

What do you guys think? Anything I'm missing? Have you tried Pask in an Exterminator?

All true. Have played play tested pask to deaths and the punisheris by far the best. It was even with the old ccodex

I will say that if you want a second HQ choice of a pair of Leman Russes, the Vanquisher + Exterminator combo is actually very effective.

Your Tank Commander is in the Vanquisher, hull mounted Lascannon too of course, and I typically throw a pintle mounted weapon on there too to help it not be a 50/50 loss of the main gun on a weapon destroyed result.
You then attach an Exterminator with a hull lascannon and hunt armor at 48" or closer. You can split fire if need-be, but most of the time any armor you point this squad at (assuming it's not AV:14) is going to have a bad day provided it's inside of 48" (and really, rarely are you going to have a target at further than 48").

Your Vanquisher gets a pair of BS:4 anti-tank shots in the form of the main Vanquisher cannon and hull lascannon, and then you follow that up with 4x twinlinked autocannon shots and a second hull lascannon at BS:3. I've had this squadron completely destroy a vehicle a turn, every turn, and they can split fire order too, so you can hit multiple targets if need be.

I agree that Pask is better served in a Punisher, or Exterminator, or even an Executioner can be fun some times. But don't discount the humble Vanquisher and Exterminator combo, especially if you know you're going up against some armored targets. They make a nice long-range platform for dealing with hard targets.

Just adding my thoughts on that. Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

I will start by saying that i love Vanquishers.
But a Vanquisher in the game as is now is a very mediocre, not to say bad unit.
The only time an HQ Vanquisher is good is in a ABG list where you must load him with a ton of upgrades so that he can begin to pull his own weight.
For my Imperial Guard the HQ tanks are Pask in Punisher with all Bolters and a Executioner with all AP2 guns. If points are tight or facing skimmer heavy armies i replace the Executioner with a Exteeminator w/ hull LC and multimeltas.

You're a bit late with this. It's pretty much conventional wisdom at this point that the vanquisher sucks, and the Pask punisher is great at killing everything from grots to land raiders.

Ah well.