SM Predator Squadron

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**SickSix**

Do the new rules for taking 3 predators make it viable to take them? Seems that with tank/monster hunter, 3 vanilla Predators would add a nice mobile fire team to an army. 6 auto cannon shots with AV13 front rolling around would at the very least provide a pretty good distraction. And for the price of a fleshed out tac squad.

The problem I have with sponsons is that you very rarely get to fire both. Usually LOS is going to prevent you from firing all your guns at the same target. So why bother paying essentially 20 points for one effective heavy bolter? You could spend 60 points on more marines or spicy upgrades on more effective units.

Also thinking about wieght of dice in general. Cheaper units and more of them. I haven't played 7th but the durability of marines doesn't seem to have improved. So more units and more dice seems better than less of both.

**UltraTacSgt**

I think it sounds like a pretty decent idea.

6 tank/MC hunter shots can do a lot of damage if you ignore them, but chewing through 9 AV13 hullpoints seems like a waste of time to silence autocannons. It could provide a real target priority problem for your opponent.

With sponsons, you could consider giving only one predator lascannons. You should be able to position at least one of the squadron with its sponsons in shooting position, and the extra punch from lascannons could be a big help to this unit.

I'm also generally a fan of having a larger number of more basic units making up my army. Weight of dice, unit redundancy, and simply having more options of what to move and shoot each turn can make your army hard to beat.

**TheCustomLime**

I'd just get the Sicaran battle tank. 6 autocannon shots that are twin linked, rending and ignore jink saves. Cheaper $ and points wise too.

Predator Annihilators need a serious upgunning. 2 Autocannon shots from the main gun of an army's main tank is just sad.

**Nevelon**

You only get the TH/MH when all 3 are alive. So once you silence one of them, the rest loose a lot of their punch.

3 naked preds are 225 points. 6xS7 AP4 shots for that investment, even with the special rule, is a little lackluster.

Squadroning tanks is generally a bad plan. Not as bad as it has been in the past, but still something to avoid.

If you want to squadron 3 tanks, I’d go with whirlwinds before preds.

**womprat49**

I agree.

Three Preds, even with auto cannons are viable. Playing tanks, it really opens up for mobility if you forgo sponsons and keep moving forward tanking-shocking in the later turns.

Auto cannons are great for stripping hull points off of rhinos, don't expect more but in multiples they can work.

A wall of AV13 that is moving constantly with something like JUMP troops behind is a nice tactic. Also need to consider many rhinos and razorbacks for full armor saturation.

**SickSix**

I have an idea for an armored task force that would also TFCs and vidicators. I imagine something like that would cause target priority issues for an opponent. The naked predators would probably be the last priority if presented with TFC or vindicators.

**TheCustomLime**

womprat49 wrote:
I agree.

Three Preds, even with auto cannons are viable. Playing tanks, it really opens up for mobility if you forgo sponsons and keep moving forward tanking-shocking in the later turns.

Auto cannons are great for stripping hull points off of rhinos, don't expect more but in multiples they can work.

A wall of AV13 that is moving constantly with something like JUMP troops behind is a nice tactic. Also need to consider many rhinos and razorbacks for full armor saturation.

A single naked Pred will strip 0.67HP off an AV11 vehicle. All three, on average, will do 2.01HP of damage to a Rhino. It gets even worse when you take into account cover saves. The only thing naked Preds are really good at doing is forcing light vehicles to snap and sniping medium infantry out of cover. You are better off with a Tri-Las Predator.

**SickSix**

TheCustomLime wrote:

A single naked Pred will strip 0.67HP off an AV11 vehicle. All three, on average, will do 2.01HP of damage to a Rhino. It gets even worse when you take into account cover saves. The only thing naked Preds are really good at doing is forcing light vehicles to snap and sniping medium infantry out of cover. You are better off with a Tri-Las Predator.

But we are also considering what else you can bring for the 200 points saved by not taking tri-las predators. You can't really analyze units in a vacuum. Thats not how the game works.

I could have a naked predator squadron + a whole other unit
Or
Just a tri-las squadron that would rate pretty high on the target priority list.

**Ubl1k**

I like the 3 stalker unit just the sheer weight of shots is gonna hurt any fliers you may have and once your fliers are dead they arent as much of a threat but still output loads of damage.

**Slayer-Fan123**

TheCustomLime wrote:
I'd just get the Sicaran battle tank. 6 autocannon shots that are twin linked, rending and ignore jink saves. Cheaper $ and points wise too.

Predator Annihilators need a serious upgunning. 2 Autocannon shots from the main gun of an army's main tank is just sad.

I don't remember Sicarans being TL'd. Been so long since I've used them!

**SickSix**

Sicarans aren't something every SM player has laying around either.