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Hello! I am nearing the completion of my 2500 Iron Hands army and I wanted something to finish it off. Unfortunately, I am limited in my budget so I was wondering if any of the smaller lords of war are worth looking at. The army that I'm currently running uses the Head of the Gorgon rite of war to outflank tanks. I have a small close-combat squad in a Land raider, and a predator squadron that I plan to outflank. Along with that are a leviathan in a drop pod and some tactical in Rhinos. So to fit with the tank heavy theme I would like a largish tank.

The tanks that I'm looking at, mainly, are the Malcador, Typhon and Cerebrus. With the malcador I was thinking lascannon spam and Castrmen for anti-tank, Double cannons, for infantry. I can see pros and cons for each of the Greek tanks and I think I have the converting skills to make a the chassis interchangeable between a Typhon/Cerebrus. The Typhon has a really nice way of emasculating other super heavies (especially with Castrmen). The Cerebrus has that ignores cover ap 1. The Typhon and Cerebrus run close to the price of a Baneblade but are slightly cheaper even with shipping. I'm leaning towards the Malcador because i think it would react the best to being out-flanked, though the Greek tanks would be better at holding the fort till the reserves come in.

My main question is would any of these be "good." I could probably shell out for one of the baneblades or macharius, but the baneblades in the battles I've been in haven't really done all that much. So if that's the case I would really rather have something cheaper and more focused so it does one job decently.

Not really low cost, but I originally wanted to do a Stormlord with Orth inside it. 490 points (50 points extra for two lascannon sponsons) and if you don't move it, you'll get 30 BS 5 S6 AP3 shots. which is just crazy. also 40 man transport capacity that you can load up with heavy support squads instead of putting them in a fortification. also a tank so fluffy for IH.

Strip 250 points from your main list, and add 2 Macharius Vanquishers
2 Baneblade Armoured 6HP Super Heavies that can fire either a twin linked 7" blast battle cannon OR a Twin Linked Vanquisher Shot is nothing to sniff at

If you can outflank your tanks, then perhaps the Mach Vulcan, as you can pop it onto the table and open up at an angle to avoid artificer armor and eat units.

Macharius are nice, but i think the only one that has a significant advantage is the Macharius Omega, with the plasma blast gun.

I like Malcadors, but you need to use them like bigger 'regular tanks' rather than super Lords of War. I'd also warn against having lascannons everywhere - the sponsons are quite difficult to use, and it's rare that mine ever get to shoot all their guns.

I think, if price is an issue, then the idea of building one hull and converting is probably best. The Typhon/Cerberus combination might be a good choice. On the other hand, the Baneblade kit can be picked up pretty cheap from online retailers - £68 in the UK, which is now about...um...$68US.. :(

That kit, with clever converting, can be assembled as five different sorts of tanks in a Legion army, many of them much cheaper in points than the standard Baneblade. Lots of options from one kit!


..

 awbbie wrote:


The tanks that I'm looking at, mainly, are the Malcador, Typhon and Cerebrus. With the malcador I was thinking lascannon spam and Castrmen for anti-tank, Double cannons, for infantry.

Malcadors are no longer a LoW slot, they now are a HS Slot and can be taken in Squadrons of 3.

Are Macharius allowed in HH? I thought they were created after the heresy, after the Macharian crusade to be precise.

 NihlusX wrote:
Are Macharius allowed in HH? I thought they were created after the heresy, after the Macharian crusade to be precise.

Marine army list, page 10, specifically allows them under the former "you can use any FW superheavies" rule. Fluff-wise they're representing any of the countless heavy tank variants produced locally by individual planets, or who knows, maybe history is wrong and the Macharius existed in 30k.

From Lexicanum:

In the mythic past it is known that the Imperial Army once fielded many types of heavy tanks during the Great Crusade, though the knowledge of their design, construction and even the name of some of these tanks has been lost. It is the job of the munition-adepts of the Adeptus Mechanicus to rediscover this lost data, a tireless effort which can last years. During one such mission Magos Nalax of forge world Lucius, through diligent study of his world's vast archives, discovered fragments of a blueprint for such a tank. The task of reconstructing the missing data became his life's work, cross-referencing data with components used on the Baneblade and other vehicles, until finally he presented a complete plan before the Fabricator-General on Mars for final approval. The process took two hundred years of careful study and consultation with other forge worlds before acceptance was given and Lucius sanctioned to begin production, though Nalax would not live to see his dream realized.[1][2]
Ironically by this time Lucius had successfully lobbied for the right to build Baneblades and was already constructing them. However they soon found themselves swamped by the Departmento Munitorium's demands for the vehicle, and when the world of Krieg was returned to the Imperial fold it was Lucius that was charged with equipping their newly-raised regiments. To meet these demands Lucius turned to the Macharius, and in 852.M41 the first of these heavy tanks rolled off the production lines for the Death Korps of Krieg. Since that time other forge worlds have been granted permission to build Macharius tanks of their own, and its usage has spread to other regiments.[1][2]
The original name of this vehicle is now lost and remains unknown.[5]

Cited source [1] is IA5, while [2] is IA6. [5] is White Dwarf 81's article "Codex: Apocrypha Extra, Macharius".


So it seems they did exist, they just had a different name.