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Since 7th is upon us and usage of my Warhound is in more than just Escalation/Apoc, wanted to get some thoughts on how to handle this and how to kit it out. Primary army is GK, so Psychic powers on the big guy are a thought as well.

Double Turbo Laser was prior edition hotness with D strength rules, but now, I'm not so sure. Plasma Blast? Flamer? Vulcan?

Any thoughts on what would make it a terror on the table?

Turbo or Plasma is best I think, Plasma has the huge blast with S10 AP2 after all..and Turbo is S which, while nerfed, is still powerful at destroying swathes of vehicles thanks to the automatic penetrating hits.

Keep it away from infantry because it's too easy to tar-pit, especially if it's something sturdy (like Maines). Stomps are unreliable and it's puny 1 Attack means it won't get free quick.

I've had a bike sergeant tie it and kill it (with its Meltabomb) in 3 turns of combat...

You want to stand back and delete stuff every turn.

 Shandara wrote:
Turbo or Plasma is best I think, Plasma has the huge blast with S10 AP2 after all..and Turbo is S which, while nerfed, is still powerful at destroying swathes of vehicles thanks to the automatic penetrating hits.

Keep it away from infantry because it's too easy to tar-pit, especially if it's something sturdy (like Maines). Stomps are unreliable and it's puny 1 Attack means it won't get free quick.

I've had a bike sergeant tie it and kill it (with its Meltabomb) in 3 turns of combat...

You want to stand back and delete stuff every turn.

Actually, D weapons no longer auto pen. So, unless the Warhound's has something special about it...

 obsidiankatana wrote:

 Shandara wrote:
Turbo or Plasma is best I think, Plasma has the huge blast with S10 AP2 after all..and Turbo is S which, while nerfed, is still powerful at destroying swathes of vehicles thanks to the automatic penetrating hits.

Keep it away from infantry because it's too easy to tar-pit, especially if it's something sturdy (like Maines). Stomps are unreliable and it's puny 1 Attack means it won't get free quick.

I've had a bike sergeant tie it and kill it (with its Meltabomb) in 3 turns of combat...

You want to stand back and delete stuff every turn.

Actually, D weapons no longer auto pen. So, unless the Warhound's has something special about it...

Well unless you roll a 1, it still is a pen on 2-6. Just doesnt auto-explode normal vehicles on 2-6.

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

 obsidiankatana wrote:

Actually, D weapons no longer auto pen. So, unless the Warhound's has something special about it...

Well unless you roll a 1, it still is a pen on 2-6. Just doesnt auto-explode normal vehicles on 2-6.

Right. But, under 6th, it penned even on a 1. I am sad it no longer does this. And a little bit bitter.

*glares at Knight*

Haha yea, D did need to be toned down a bit though

But I feel your pain

IMO the warhound can be made good with any of the weapons but certain weapons combine better with certain tactics, army lists, and other weapons. You need to properly balance your weapon choices to have a balanced army overall.

The turbo laser is a good multi purpose choice. It is one of the best choices you can get for killing off MCs and GMC even now that it allows invulnerable saves. It suffers against opponents hiding behind high level cover and against overwhelming numbers of targets or huge spaced out units.

The plasma blastgun is excellent against most infantry and vehicles as well, though weak against high AV and MC with T greater than 5. The ability to place a huge blast template has a number of strategic advantages though and can help in controlling the battlefield. It also helps with the greatest weakness of all LoW; all LoW have relatively weak ability to handle huge numbers of targets, ie venom spam/MSU/etc. Having a huge blast template to place and hurt anything it hits is a huge boon.

The vulcan mega bolter is the only weapon that can hurt flyers that the warhound can take. If you are low on AA then a prescienced mega bolter can do in a pinch. The large number of shots can also help with cover and skyshields getting in your way but honestly you are better off just destroying skyshields. Still a very valid option and if you can get +1 str or tank hunter on the warhound this weapon is fantastic. Overall I would call it relatively weak in comparison to the other options without proper support. It is however the weapon that can benefit the most of buffs though due to the large number of shots.

The inferno gun is a unique choice and relatively rare to see. If you take one you should really take two of them and specialize the titan as due to the relatively short range you will probably have difficulty getting more than a 1-2 shooting phases in before getting locked in combat.The inferno gun is the only weapon that cares nothing for cover saves and if leveraged properly will allow wiping out almost entire infantry armies by itself. Not bad but a weird way to use an imperial warhound. It works incredibly well on CSM warhounds though as they are better supported in melee and can be buffed to counter some of the negatives.

I must say I am much happier with the 7th edition treatment of the warhound titan. This is for two big reasons; 1) in the previous incarnation of D weapons it was not fun to play with or against, you picked a target an it died. Game over. If you played two titans against each other the person who rolled better won without any thought involved. 2) the warhound actually became slightly tougher to kill. With the new damage tables you have to roll a 7+ to strip 1d3 HP now. This means all SH became extremely tough to take down even with meltaguns. This combination makes for much more interesting games where positioning, cover, and support units actually matter.