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So...I'm looking at the new weapon profiles here and I'm going to start with playtesting a bit today. First up is the Stormtalon since it's kind of my centerpiece in lower point games. Please chime in if you have thoughts. All in all I'm finding that Twin Lascannons might be the best choice if you decide to bump up beyond Skyhammer from the look of it.


110 Points: Base Costs: Stormtalon


35 Points: Twin Assault Cannon

24" Range, Heavy 12, S6, AP-1, 1 Damage Per Wound

*The Twin Assault Cannon seems like the moneymaker to me, it's just a ton of consistent dakka, meaning that I think the Stormtalon might be better off in an infantry harassing role, due to it's main gun alone. The close range limits you, but the weight of fire is tremendous. It's point costs aren't terrible either in proportion to the new system. I can see this being really effective at dealing with hordes threatening your gun-line troops. Or to the converse, this can be a great defensive weapon while you plink away from a distance with Twin Lascannons or Typhoon Missile Launchers.


20 Points (10 Each): Dual Heavy Bolters

32" Range, Heavy 6, S5, AP-1, 1 Damage Per Wound

I'm just not feeling this. Yes it adds more weight of fire and it's similar in range to the Assault Cannon, yes it's cheap, so if you get shot down you're not losing much, but I just don't think it's going to kill a lot of middle of the road to tougher infantry. A flubbed roll will cost you a lot here, whereas the 12 dice you get from the Twin Assault Cannon is likely to cut down something, I'm not sure that this isn't a trap choice for people who are afraid to sink a lot of points into what they will now naively think is a suicide unit.


50 Points (25 Each): Dual Lascannons

48" Range, Heavy 2, S9, AP-3, D6 Damage Per Wound

While it lacks Dakka, this will put the hurt on something if it connects. Running two Stormtalons ups your ante here as well, in that you can emerge at the start of deploying your flyers with targeted shots that are pretty much guaranteed to mess something up if not downright kill it. It's even more points efficient when you think about it's AP modifier, in that it a good turn with one could potentially bring down a monstrous creature and the like. I think if you run these you have to relegate the Twin Assault Cannon to a defensive purpose only, despite it's heavy dice flow. Waiting for the right time to advance closer to finish off a troop choice and the like. It's expensive, but it might be the best choice in an all comers list.


24 Points: Skyhammer Missile Launcher

60" Range, Heavy 3, S7, AP-1, D3 Damage Per Wound

I'm not sure that Skyhammer is as effective anymore. Yes it retains its long range and it has a bonus to hit against flyers...but it's also weaker against everything else. While it's about half the cost of the Typhoon and the Dual Lascannons it's potential for damage seems about half of that as well when you think about applying this weapon in an harassment mode like the Twin Assault Cannon. It could be good for out-ranging a lot of units though, and in turn be lethal to things like Devastation squads, but I'm not sure the safety of distance is as strong here unless you're running a pair of Storm Talons, which might be harder to do considering the points increase. I really want to know what people think about this though. since my opinion might be revised here if two Stormtalons at range prove to be a lot harder to deal with. However I do think that Skyhammer is worth the point increase when compared to Dual Heavy Bolters as an option, and is probably a bit of a better choice in terms of cost effectiveness Vs. the Typhoon.


50 Points: Typhoon Missile Launcher

FRAG - 48" Range, Heavy 2D6, S4, AP0, 1 Damage Per Wound

KRAKK - 48" Range, Heavy 2, S8, AP-2, D6 Damage Per Wound

The flexibility might be worth it at a glance, but considering how much more reliable the Twin Assault Cannon seems when it comes to finally closing in on a troop choice, I'm not sure that Frag Missiles work out to be much better than Dual Heavy Bolters unless you're stacking them enmasse with other Missile Launchers on other unit selections for redundancy. KRAKK is very good, but do you want to sacrifice the extra assurance of what would have been Dual Lascannons for the FRAG option? I'm just not sold on this yet, but maybe Flexibility is something I should rate a bit higher here?

Don't have my Space Marine Index yet, but I believe the Stormtalon has two heavy bolters, not a twin heavy bolter - so the cost is 20 instead of 17.

That said, I think your analysis misses the mark a bit. Heavy bolters are quite effective against infantry in this edition and are also the cheapest option - the only comparable one is the skyhammer missile, and I would much rather have six heavy bolter shots over three skyhammer shots.

Anti-air is less of a thing in this edition, so I think dedicated AA weapons are broadly "nice to have" rather than important. Further, the skyhammer missiles suffer from being a long ranged weapon on a vehicle that wants to engage within 24" to use its assault cannon. My Stormtalons are probably going to stick with the basic heavy bolters.

 Kingsley wrote:
Don't have my Space Marine Index yet, but I believe the Stormtalon has two heavy bolters, not a twin heavy bolter - so the cost is 20 instead of 17.

That said, I think your analysis misses the mark a bit. Heavy bolters are quite effective against infantry in this edition and are also the cheapest option - the only comparable one is the skyhammer missile, and I would much rather have six heavy bolter shots over three skyhammer shots.

Anti-air is less of a thing in this edition, so I think dedicated AA weapons are broadly "nice to have" rather than important. Further, the skyhammer missiles suffer from being a long ranged weapon on a vehicle that wants to engage within 24" to use its assault cannon. My Stormtalons are probably going to stick with the basic heavy bolters.

Ah you may be right looking at the data sheet on the Heavy Bolter costs...I'll edit that in a second. I do think Heavy Bolters are better, I just don't know if they're optimal. Maybe if you'd dedicating that Stormtalon to Anti-Infranty, because it's not going to help against anything big.

Just rememer, you no longer only need to shoot one thing and firing arcs are gone. You can strafe something close with the AsCs, while tossing the skyhammers across the table at something with the FLY keyword (which covers a lot more then classic flyers).

I’ve put a skyhammer talon in my list for tomorrow, we’ll see if I get a game in/how it does.