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I've been trying to find a "good" vehicle to add to my army list. I want a heavy support vehicle that is decent-to-good at the job. But from what I can tell, they all suffer badly in comparison to a squad of Hellblasters or Devastators.

Currently, in terms of effectiveness, I rank them about like this:

Vindicator
Predator Destructor (with lascannon sponsons)
Predator Annihilator (with lascannon sponsons)
Stalker
Gladiator (I didn't want to rate them individually, but I think the las-talon one is the best, probably?)
Repulsor (haven't looked at the various types)
Land Raider
Whirlwind
Thunderfire Cannon

What are your thoughts on this ranking and have I left out any vehicles that should have been considered? Any other input?

Eh. Not sure I'd rank the Stalker (and you left out the Hunter), but that's pretty minor.

Truthfully, tanks are mediocre-to-bad in 9e, and marine tanks lean pretty hard on bad, since they were left behind on weapon upgrades later in the codex cycle.

If you want one, you just have to bite the bullet and take one.

That said, sooner-or-later, the old tanks will get the improvements the Chaos versions got. All-las predator looks pretty decent with t8 and additional damage on the turret lascannons.

Probably the Gladiator is the only thing on that list that isn't at least 50% over pointed.

I'd go with a Gladiator and magnetize it where needed.

As far as your ranking goes, I'd say just swap Gladiator to the top. Honestly once you go past that they're all so indistinguisably bad as to not matter much. In such a case I'd order them from the cheapest being to best to the most expensive being the worst, because they're all going to accomplish the same thing in-game: nothing at all.

Vindicators and Predators are overpriced (they got buffed in C:CSM for a reason). Vindicator is still decent due to cheap T8 2+.

Stalkers and Hunters used to be decent allcommers/support tanks, but aren't that great unless you use them against air anymore.

Repulsors and Land Raiders got a decent pointcut in the latest update, but they need more. They're still overpriced.

The Gladiator-variants (at least the Reaper and Valiant) are actually pretty decent. Maybe slightly overpriced but not much.
I love fielding my Lancer but in the current armsrace that is 9th, it's Heavy 2 S12 AP3 D: D3+3 cannon is a joke.

I don't think I've used the TFC or the Whirlwind in 9th. Don't see the point in them at all.

So my ranking would be(ish) :

Gladiator Valiant
Gladiator Reaper
Vindicator
-----
Hunter
Stalker
Gladiator Lancer
Repulsor Exe
LR. Redeemer
LR. Godhammer
Repulsor
LR. Crusader
----
Predator Annihilator
Predator Destructor

(?Whirlwind?)
(?TFC?)

With their current rules and weaponry, Predators are absolute trash.
Hopefully they get the +1T +2 Damage-treatment that C:CSM got, in that case I'd bump them (at least the Annihilator) up a fair bit.

1st things 1st, you need to decide what you want the vehicle to do.
That'll narrow your list of what's "good".

I'm trying to add anti-tank capability in a heavy support vehicle platform. Which I recognize is not something that Space Marine vehicles do terribly well in 9th edition.

I'm just trying to find the best out of a pile of bad to underpowered options.

Land Raider Achilles uber alles.

 dadx6 wrote:
I'm trying to add anti-tank capability in a heavy support vehicle platform. Which I recognize is not something that Space Marine vehicles do terribly well in 9th edition.

I'm just trying to find the best out of a pile of bad to underpowered options.

Gladiator Valiant.
(or Lancer, truth be told, the maingun of the Gladiator is easy to swap even without magnets.)

 dadx6 wrote:
I'm trying to add anti-tank capability in a heavy support vehicle platform. Which I recognize is not something that Space Marine vehicles do terribly well in 9th edition.

So right off the bat you can cross Thunderfire Cannons, Whirlwind, Hunters, Stalkers, and anything that relies on an Auto or Gattling as it's main weapon off the list.

Your list shrinks to 2 Gladiator variants, 2 Vindicator variants (ones by FW), & 3 Predator variants (destructir, & 2 FW variants).

You might be wondering: "Predators? Why is he still including Predators??"
Because while something like the Vindicator gets d6 shots with decent str/ap/damage? All d6 shots are going to the same target. The Predators? They can have 3 main weapons* & are thus a bit more flexible when picking targets.

Oh. And whatever you go with? Never pass on that 1-shot HK Missile if it's available.

*If you're not investing in the sponsor weapons? Then cross all Predators off the list as well.

 dadx6 wrote:
I'm trying to add anti-tank capability in a heavy support vehicle platform. Which I recognize is not something that Space Marine vehicles do terribly well in 9th edition.

I'm just trying to find the best out of a pile of bad to underpowered options.

Depends on the edition. i play 5th so i have a rather high regard for space marine vehicles.

In the setting of the game the only one that i would always consider "weak" would be the whirlwind, but like everything else it depends on the role and purpose.

against a horde of ork boys of gaunts the whirlwind will be much more useful than say a triple las pred annihilator. it also depends on what kind of points you have to spend and if you have some other option in your force that does the other parts of the heavy support job.

just the standard vehicles off the top of my head-

.predator annihilator
.predator destructor
.baal predator
.vindicator
.whirlwind
.hunter
.stalker
.deathstorm drop pod
.landraider phobos (standard)
.landraider crusader
.landraider redeemer
.landraider helios
.landraider prometheus
.landraider achillies
.landraider terminus ultra

Not sure about the current status of the primaris vehicles i stopped caring about them
The problem you have with 9th is that vehicles are mostly handicapped by the rule set where you have specialized infantry units for space marines that do the job better and are more survivable.

I mean i remember when these first dropped



No armor in the game they could get a shot at was safe.

I had not considered the Gladiator Valiant, but will definitely give it a serious look now. I had looked at the Vindicator and the Stalker as both have T8, and the Stalker specifically because it has modest volume of fire that's S7. Neither one seems to have as much offensive output as a squad of Hellblasters or Devastators, and both seem likely to get shot off the table turn 1, instead of hanging on until Turn 3, even though they have double the toughness of the infantry models.

Thanks for the input everyone!

I don't mind the LR Crusader. It has a lot of D1 shooting, which for my needs (my meta and composition of my collection) is quite handy. Can't give a full ranking but I think it's a decent tank.