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I am thinking of buying the FW Sicaran Battle Tank for my CSM army and was looking for suggestions on how best to use it and if it is worth the money. On paper it seems like a great tank and even at its basic loadout it seems both effective and cheap. I plan on magnetizing the sponsons so I can use it bare and with either the heavy bolters or the lascannons, but I would still appreciate any ideas the community may have. My main question would be whether or not armoured ceramite is a must have on it? Besides that, I am leaning towards the lascannons to make it strong anti-tank as I believe infantry killing can be handled by my infantry. However, the option to give it malefic ammo (which adds rending to all its heavy bolters) is a tempting choice, especially since it can have up to 3 heavy bolters. All these options quickly add up though; it starts at 135 points, but after giving it the armoured ceramite and the lascannons the total comes to 195 points and the heavy bolters plus malefic ammo are 20 points more. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Its an anti-tank vehicle. Its accelerator cannon is there mainly to hunt skimmers and flyers (since pretty much everything else that can jink will have 3+ armor so doesn't need to jink). As such you'll want lascannon sponsons pretty much exclusively to continue with the anti-tank role.

Taking Armoured Ceramite is a local meta decision. How many meltas do you think you'll run into? A lot of the top lists have stopped really utilizing meltas as their main way of dealing with vehicles (grav, StrD, Spamming S7) but their are still a few lists that can spring melta to pop a vehicle real quick. Its not mandatory.

Also, never bother with Malefic Ammo. Even with the HB sponsons you are only statistically getting a single rend out of the 9 HB shots. Not worth the points.

Ok, good to know. I was just working on the rending probability when you posted this. As I said, lascannons seemed like the right choice, I was just worried about the points, but if armoured ceramite isn't a must (and I don't think it will be in my meta) then 175 points is still very nice for what this tank has to offer. Is one enough, or is it something that works best in pairs?

Most people I see using them think you need 2. Vehicle saturation is always important so that not every anti tank weapon is focused at the single important vehicle

Only issue is the price (in real dollars), but I guess that is the main issue with all FW. I add Havoc Launchers to all my tanks simply due to preference, so having two of these would be 374 points. That seems pretty reasonable for all the firepower they can dish out. As far as tactics go, they seem like they would be used basically the same as LasPredators, focusing on enemy armour and letting my infantry handle the small stuff. I will put together a 1.5k list and post it tomorrow in the army list forum for review. I really want to make sure I will use these guys all the time before I spend the cash on them, but they seem like a solid buy.

I think Sicarans are cheap enough that I wouldn't bother with Ceramite.

Best loadout? Either keeping them stock or adding Lascannon sponsons.

I keep mine stock and if i play with daemon allies i'll give one the Death of Kasyr Lutien legacy for a backfield summoning boost