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Has anyone tried this? They do seems to fit the tank very well, would add a good amount of killing power, and would decrease odds losing turret. Also moving and shooting would not be an issue. Any thoughts? Worth the points?

Not a terrible choice in that you get an extra weapon (as you say, protecting your turret weapon) and could be useful if you get assaulted by a horde, but I can't help thinking that a heavy bolter would get more use in most games.

Doesn't really matter, honestly.

If anything, I think I'd keep the heavy bolter just so that you can use the searchlight more easily in night-fighting situations.

Oh shoot, I forgot to specify - heavy flamer sponsons. My mistake.

Oh.

Pass. Heavy flamer sponsons are only ever going to be able to shoot one of the heavy flamers at a time, and heavy flamers are SUPER short ranged, which means it will be hard to get all that many hits on them in the first place. Plus, you have to be in suicide range for them to even have the CHANCE to fire.

Doesn't sound like a good use of 20 points to me.

Plus, you'll almost never be able to use all 3 at the same time, since they'll have to literally within 6" of the tank to fire. And dont forget that you can't snap fire template weapons if you fire an ordnance weapon, so you're either firing a template and the cannon, or the three flamers and thats it. No offense, but this seems like literally the worst choice for sponsons you could take. Bolters at least get you some range and flexibility.

Pass on the HF sponsors for sure, the only point of putting a HF on a demolisher is that the HB is probably going to do nothing, whereas a key heavy flamer shot might save your line from a squad of boyz of whatnot. I rate PC sponsons, any form of plasma russ is a beast. Build that thing naked with just a heavy flamer for cheapness, with PC sponsons for infantry work, or with mm and lascannon to scare the crap out of land raiders.

Furthermore, if you really want sponsons on a demolisher, spring out the few extra points for multimeltas. That way they'll actually get to fire, and match almost perfectly with the S and Ap (much less the purpose) of the main gun.

Yeah, MM sponsons makes a demolisher a real beast. Can liquify anything with an AS or AV.

I prefer lascannon on the hull. It's 15 points, 5 less than most lascannons in the codex, and it's super-durable. Try instant deathing a Demolisher with an autocannon

In my opinion, hull and sponson weapons on Demolishers aren't very good in the new edition, since firing the Demolisher Cannon means that all other weapons have to Snap Fire. I would definitely stick with the hull heavy bolter (maybe the heavy flamer instead) and leave out the sponsons. Weapon Destroyed results are rare enough now that a 50-50 shot to lose the primary weapon seems acceptable and not really worth spending large amounts of pseudo-effective points to mitigate.

 Kingsley wrote:
In my opinion, hull and sponson weapons on Demolishers aren't very good in the new edition, since firing the Demolisher Cannon means that all other weapons have to Snap Fire.

Except of course for the Lumbering Behemoth rule...................... Which allows you to fire any one weapon at normal BS and THEN fire the turret weapon as well. Kinda overrides that Ordnance restriction, don't ya see.

 don_mondo wrote:

 Kingsley wrote:
In my opinion, hull and sponson weapons on Demolishers aren't very good in the new edition, since firing the Demolisher Cannon means that all other weapons have to Snap Fire.

Except of course for the Lumbering Behemoth rule...................... Which allows you to fire any one weapon at normal BS and THEN fire the turret weapon as well. Kinda overrides that Ordnance restriction, don't ya see.

That's a highly debated rules interpretation and IMO needs an FAQ. Until then, my rule of thumb is to play with the rules interpretation that gives me the least advantage. Therefore, I would assume that the Lumbering Behemoth rule currently does not allow you to fire one weapon and your turret at normal BS. Even if it does, however, sponsons are still bad, though I'd consider taking the hull lascannon upgrade.

... but that's the rule. Just because people contend it doesnt' mean that your reading of the rule is wrong.

You should play with the way that's most accurate to the rules, not to the way that handicaps you the most.

 Ailaros wrote:
... but that's the rule. Just because people contend it doesnt' mean that your reading of the rule is wrong.

You should play with the way that's most accurate to the rules, not to the way that handicaps you the most.

My reading of the rule is:

"Lumbering Behemoth: A Leman Russ that moved at combat speed or remained stationary can fire its turret weapon in addition to any other weapons it is usually allowed to fire (even if the turret weapon is ordnance!)"

The Leman Russ chooses to fire its hull weapon at normal BS, then fires its turret weapon. However, if the turret weapon is Ordnance, the hull weapon is then forced to Snap Fire. Nothing about the Lumbering Behemoth rule says that the weapon is allowed to fire at normal BS or overrides the normal rule about Ordnance weapons forcing other weapons to Snap Fire.

I guess if you want to ignore the second part of "can fire its turret weapon in addition... even if the turret weapon is ordnance", then that's fine. You can choose to shoot your guardsmen at BS2 if you like as well. There's nothing stopping you.

That said, when talking with other people, it makes it very difficult to communicate if you're not using the same words (in this case, rules) in the same way as other people.

 Ailaros wrote:
I guess if you want to ignore the second part of "can fire its turret weapon in addition... even if the turret weapon is ordnance", then that's fine. You can choose to shoot your guardsmen at BS2 if you like as well. There's nothing stopping you.

Please explain what I'm ignoring. You are indeed firing your turret weapon in addition to your hull weapon, even if the turret weapon is Ordnance. However, this does NOT override the general restriction that firing Ordnance weapons forces all other weapons to Snap Fire. The rule was written in an environment where the other weapon would not be able to fire at all, so it kind of sucks that it does nothing, but them's the breaks. Hopefully it'll get FAQed soon.

IMO it's pretty clear that the intent of the rule is to allow you to fire a single weapon at full effect in addition to the turret weapon, to represent the Leman Russ lumbering towards enemy lines blasting away at stuff. When the intent of a rule is obvious it doesn't really make sense to me to apply such a literal translation. Interpreted your way the rule shouldn't even be there at all, as it adds precisely nothing. The codex was written in an rules environment where it was not possible to fire a second weapon at all, why wouldn't this translate over to the new rules where such weapons can be snap fired. It's still conferring the same benefit as always.

 Kingsley wrote:
Please explain what I'm ignoring.

The key point here is "in addition to". The Lumbering Behemoth rule allows you to fire two sets of weapons:

1) The weapons you are normally allowed to fire based on your movement speed.

2) The turret weapon.

So first you figure out group #1, including what BS they will be firing at, what targets (if you somehow get to split fire), etc. Then, in addition to your normal shooting, you get to fire the turret weapon. Whether or not it's strictly RAW (a stupid concept when the update/FAQ process isn't done yet), that's the interpretation that best matches the intent of the rule.

Snap Fire is a mode of firing, The Lumbering Behmoth rule allows you to fire normally in addition to your turrent fire. It does not indicate that the second shot is impinged in any way.

Therefore Lumbering Behemoth allow a second fire a full BS then snap shot for the rest fo your weapons.