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Hi DakkaDakka,

Im going back to 40k (well, i want to play 30k), and i want to go back wih the most Dakka i could find (I played only close combat army back in the days) I bought 5 knights and their codex, already had the conquest book of solar auxilia, and i really don't know what is the best build for a Stormlord Assault Tank with an auxilia tank commander, and also have a few questions.....

Ceramite looks like mandatory given how cheap it is relative to the tank, but then are the additional pairs of gun worth it ? Is the melta worth taking ?
Is the Stormlord counting as a Lord Of War or a HQ ? the Commander entry read "XXpoints + cost of the tank..."
Do i need to give it the command tank upgrade or does the tank commander already have it ? That would be Primary knight and detachment auxilia so the tank commander make the list legal.
Consider no limits in points, i just want to know what is the most cost effective loadout for that combo.

Thank you

It's both. The Stormlord is a lord of war, the commander is an optional hq that bolts onto it - just like a medicae bolting into an infantry section.

You can't take him in an allied detachment as (a) allied detachments don't have a lord of war slot, and (b) he can't be a compulsory HQ and the detachment only has one slot.

Ceramite is definitely a good call. Extra sponsons are probably also good -remenber you can fire overwatch, so more secondary weapons = more defensive dakka. There's actually a decent argument for one pair of heavy flamer sponsons for this reason...


Tank Commander doesn't give you Command Tank. Similar name, two different rules - and probably not worth it in a decent auxillia army - a lord marshall can make the entire army Ld10, which combined with Hold The Line makes you a right bugger to shift.

locarno24 wrote:
It's both. The Stormlord is a lord of war, the commander is an optional hq that bolts onto it - just like a medicae bolting into an infantry section.

You can't take him in an allied detachment as (a) allied detachments don't have a lord of war slot, and (b) he can't be a compulsory HQ and the detachment only has one slot.

Ceramite is definitely a good call. Extra sponsons are probably also good -remenber you can fire overwatch, so more secondary weapons = more defensive dakka. There's actually a decent argument for one pair of heavy flamer sponsons for this reason...


Tank Commander doesn't give you Command Tank. Similar name, two different rules - and probably not worth it in a decent auxillia army - a lord marshall can make the entire army Ld10, which combined with Hold The Line makes you a right bugger to shift.

Most of this post is wrong (though not all of it).

You -can- take a Solar Auxilia Tank Commander in an Allied Detachment, as he only does not count as a compulsory choice "when taken as part of a Primary Detachment," (see the Support Officer special rule, HH4:Conquest, pg. 259) which an Allied detachment certainly is not. Though locarno is correct that there is no Lord of War slot for allies.

Remember that Ceramite and Sponsons add to the cost of the tank, and the Stormlord with anything other than a pintle-mounted weapon or HKM is automatically ruled out of 2000 point games, then.

The Tank Commander, however, -does- give you the command tank for free as part of his upgrade (See the first sentence, third paragraph of the Armoured Warfare special rule, HH4: Conquest pg 259), and he is absolutely worth it in a Solar Auxilia army, because re-rolls are awesome and the radius is huge.

First thank you both for your inputs.

As i Understand it to field this combo i need to make it my primary detachment with Imperial Knight allies then, which would mean i also have to add a "real" HQ.

Being out of 2k points game isn't a problem, Knowing this should i go with 1 pair of extra weapon or 2 pairs ? 2 pairs looks cooler so if nobody is arguing against it i think that what i'll do
Finally the tank commander can give a special rule to the Stormlord, does this depend on the opponent or is one of them regarded as better ?
Precision shot for example looks cool but also looks quite time consuming on a 90+ shot tank heh.


Being a Lord of war doesn't surprise me, it would be totally unbalanced otherwise, i just wanted to be sure.


Unit1126PLL , so seem to know a lot about tanks heh that's quite a nice force you got there. I saw no Stormlord, is it by choice or did i chose the weaker variant ?

Actually I am changing up my force, that post is old. I do have a stormlord now. At the time, I reasoned that a tank regiment wouldn't be issued transports (because what would they use them for?) so I didn't have any.

FW has said that in the Solar Auxilia, however, some regimental commanders use Stormlords simply because they are roomy and faster than Leviathans, so that convinced me to get one as my regimental command tank, so now I have one.

I have some tanks with 2x sponsons, some not. If you are putting an Auxilia Tank Commander in it, bring both sponsons and put heavy flamers on at least the front two, because tanks that can overwatch with heavy flamers are awesome, plus whatever you've got in the boot.

If you just want a Stormlord by itself with Knight allies, that is possible with the Leviathan detachment; however, you get no Auxiliaries at all.

I would recommend, if you're using the regular Age of Darkness FOC, a Lord Marshal. The ability to pick a warlord trait is very powerful, coupled with a Solar Auxilia Tank Commander means you can have a BS4 Stormlord which re-rolls 1s to hit (the trait you would get from rolling a '5' on the Command Traits table in the rulebook).