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I'm sure this question has been asked before on this forum, but I can't find it. I'm new to Imperial Guard. I'm about to assemble a basic Leman Russ Battle Tank and I was wondering if sponsons are generally a good idea, and if they are which is generally the most effective?

Most are going to say no, in 6th ed. 40k.
It really depends on the tank and it's role.
I'd say yes for the Executioner, Exterminator and maybe a Demolisher 50% of the time for me.

Basic Russ, no.

Hamshire the reason you should not take one is that the LR lost lumbering behemoth this edition and was changed to heavy, now if your russ fires an ordinance weapon it has to snapfire its other weapons. this is why on Russ´ with ord you should keep them barebones.

Conversely the non-ordinance tanks get to fire all their weapons, so they're nearly always worth it unless you're bringing vanilla or Demolisher russes. In fact this rules change has really expanded IG's options when it comes to tanks.

And just incase you weren't including it as a sponson, your hull weapon wants to stay basic if you going the ordnance route. (as the thread title suggests.)

Yes, because you can easily correct you error of putting together an LRBT by calling it a vanquisher - a tank which does very well with sponsons.

If you made the default battlecannon tank ON PURPOSE, then I'd still take sponsons, because they will help you understand why the LRBT is so bad more quickly, rather than having to suffer through it longer to come to that realization.

And once you do, the tank you swap it too will likely benefit from sponson weapons, and you'll already have them on the model, saving you work down the road.

Be brave and magnetise the sponsons and main weapons.

Basic LRBT and demolisher: no

Any of the others, yes. Rules make it worthwhile.

 Clang wrote:
Be brave and magnetise the sponsons and main weapons.

Magnetizing the sponson's armoured boxes themselves would be an unnecessary pain. The only LRBT that don't benefit from any of the sponsons are the artillery variants. And even for the demolisher, it is to a smaller extent. Due to the main gun short range, you could be in a situation where having secondary weapons could prove handy as a backup. All the other variants have some sort of good combination with either heavy bolters, multi-melta or plasma cannons. A Leman Russ is quite expensive, you are paying premium points for a 14/13 armour value, that many armies have limited abilities to fight. But on the other hand, if you choose a bare bone variant, you will struggle to make profitable your point investment, so commit to buy these additional weapons.

Also, I'd note you don't need to magnetize sponsons, as the weapons have slots that allow you to dry-fit them in place.

As for magnetizing the whole sponson mount, good luck. That part of the kit is unfortunately less than well put together, and if you don't glue the mountings down, they lie really crooked.

 Ailaros wrote:
As for magnetizing the whole sponson mount, good luck. That part of the kit is unfortunately less than well put together, and if you don't glue the mountings down, they lie really crooked.

QFT! A-man speaks the truth on that bit 100%! It can be a huge pain. So much so I ended up getting another kit instead!

 Ailaros wrote:
If you made the default battlecannon tank ON PURPOSE, then I'd still take sponsons, because they will help you understand why the LRBT is so bad more quickly, rather than having to suffer through it longer to come to that realization.

Well yes, if your goal is to "prove" that the basic LRBT is bad then adding 20-55 points of extra gun upgrades that you can't use is a great way to "prove it".

...that moment when you did something everyone said not to do, lol. Well know, time to do some 'mending' on my LRBT.

 gnoise wrote:
...that moment when you did something everyone said not to do, lol. Well know, time to do some 'mending' on my LRBT.

Don't worry, I'm sure many of us had to pry sponsons off our years old Russ when 6th rolled around. I know I did. Still haven't gotten around to hiding the ugly holes on my LRMBT, but that's because it never sees the table as anything other than a proxy.

Add sponsons. They aren't expensive and make the tank look better. Sponsonless Russ just don't look right, I consider the extra points investment a style bonus.

 Orlanth wrote:
Add sponsons. They aren't expensive and make the tank look better. Sponsonless Russ just don't look right, I consider the extra points investment a style bonus.

Let's not give terrible advice based on aesthetics in the tactics forum huh? Not really following the spirit of the forum. Ordnance Russes will not be made better by at best snap firing and at worst being unable to shoot sponsons at all.

So here is my advice for aesthetics issues :
As said earlier, the fixation points for the sponsons are badly designed, so you would be better gluing them rather than not, and filling the gaps. Obviously, if you want to cut the costs of lateral weapons in some of your army lists, it would mean ugly empty slots in your LRBT. This can be solved easily if you have purchased a Valkyrie kit. In this kit, you have the choice between 3 different looking searchlights / camera plates, that would go on Valkyrie's port side. So, cut the excess plastic to shape a rectangle that would fit in LRBT slots, add some plastic card squares on the back to make them hold in place, like original weapon sponsons. Voilà, now you have lateral searchlights for your Leman Russ, that leaves your sponsons with a WISIWIG purpose, good looking, at zero point cost.

l]

 Ravajaxe wrote:
So here is my advice for aesthetics issues :
As said earlier, the fixation points for the sponsons are badly designed, so you would be better gluing them rather than not, and filling the gaps. Obviously, if you want to cut the costs of lateral weapons in some of your army lists, it would mean ugly empty slots in your LRBT. This can be solved easily if you have purchased a Valkyrie kit. In this kit, you have the choice between 3 different looking searchlights / camera plates, that would go on Valkyrie's port side. So, cut the excess plastic to shape a rectangle that would fit in LRBT slots, add some plastic card squares on the back to make them hold in place, like original weapon sponsons. Voilà, now you have lateral searchlights for your Leman Russ, that leaves your sponsons with a WISIWIG purpose, good looking, at zero point cost.

With that much work and bits investment you may as well just magnetize them.

With some mechanical aptitude it really inst that hard. You need to shave off the centering tab ar the top of the sponson mount Location (on the tank). Drill 2 1/8 Inch holes for the magnets in the tank to fit flush just behind where the sponson pivots. Then green stuff the inside of the sponson where the 2 magnets go. 2 1/8 inch magnets in the middle of the sponson is enough to hold it tight and square to the tank. I did this to an exterminator/demolisher/punisher kit I bought and it works and looks just fine.

I have magnitized everything I possibly can since 6th edition and the fast and furious codex releases and meta changes[


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kain wrote:
Well technically heavy flamers don't care about being snap fired.

Trolololol.

No they dont, because they are templat weapons you cannot fire them at all.

Well technically heavy flamers don't care about being snap fired.

Trolololol.