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Hi all

I'm looking for a new big ass, all guns blazing toy to add to my New 40k IF army.

The forgeworld fellblade has caught my eye. It looks and sounds awesome. I really don't know much about forgeworld models and the whole super heavies so some opinions would be great please. Even other units suggestion if a better choice if poss please.

Thanks

The Fellblade is certainly a very sexy model, one of my favourites from FW for their Horus Heresy line.

It is a legal Lords of War choice for 40k Space Marines, and is a mountain of wallop; the rules are found in Imperial Armour 2: 2nd Edition: Warmachines of the Adeptus Astartes, along with several other glorious toys which are also eligible Lords of War choices.

The problem you might face is it is slightly more powerful than a Baneblade, which is not something people would like to regularly face; there is no legal restriction on using it, but 2 quad-linked lascannons, a demolisher cannon and the Accelerator Railgun or whatever the main gun is called will tear whole chunks out of many armies.

I've certainly been eyeing one for myself for quite some time (I'll probably get one once I return to Canada after I've finished my year here in Europe, because big awesome stompy tank), but I wouldn't expect to field it in every game without some raised eyebrows; it's usually considered good form to ask to use a Lord of War beforehand, and generally the more powerful it is, the less likely the opponent will enjoy facing it.

I've been using a Macharius Battle Tank in my Death Korps for some time, but on account of it being godawful, no one bats an eye.

As for other Marine choices, there aren't actually that many; most of the FW Knights are eligible, but you also have the Cerberus Tank Destroyer and Typhon Seige Tank, both built off the Spartan chassis. The Typhon in particular is another fun one; consider it a giant vindicator with Land Raider armour, a bunch of hull points and a cannon of absolute sillyness; ignores cover, St10 Ap1 or 2, uses the 10'' blast I think.

Basically, if you're looking for big guns for Marines, the IA2 book is the place to go, as beyond superheavies, it also includes a number of other previously HH only tanks, which are all now 40k legal. There are some people who still strongly dislike playing against anything forgeworld, it's not something I've ever encountered in real life, but before going whole-hog, it's worth checking with your local clubs/stores and gauge their reaction to it. In the age of dataslates, Tau/Daemons/Eldar, I don't see why anyone would begrudge the Marines a fun tank or two.

I will look up the ones you mentioned before I decide.
Thanks

The Fellblade is big and cool, its primary issue is that it's too big. Superheavies in general tend to require games of 1500+ points, otherwise you end up with something that basically requires list tailoring to fight.

Past that problem the Fellblade is large and scary, it's best-suited for anchoring a defensive line (so very in-character for an Imperial Fists army) since it's rear armour isn't impressive; it can engage most targets on the field effectively, but you're going to need to buy Apoc templates to use one effectively since its anti-infantry main gun fire mode uses the 7" blast. Hide it somewhere the other guy can't land a Drop Pod full of meltaguns behind it (Armoured Ceramite only goes so far when you're AV12 rear) and blaze away.

You have three other in-faction options for Space Marine super-heavies. The Typhon is a super-Vindicator with better armour and a much bigger gun (as per the Vindicator's but it's 48" range if the vehicle didn't move, uses the 7" blast template, and has Ignores Cover), the Cerberus is a long-ranged sniping vehicle that exists to kill big scary things (2+ save MCs and tanks) very dead. The Thunderhawk is your most expensive option, it's a Super-Heavy Flyer loaded down with entirely too many guns that can carry thirty models with Hover Mode and Assault Vehicle; it's basically a much larger Stormraven.

There are also a number of other awesome models within the Forge World range for Space Marines that aren't Super-Heavies; the Relic Predator (a Predator with things like a Large Blast Conversion Beamer or an Executioner plasma cannon for a turret), the Spartan (a bigger Land Raider), the Whirlwind Scorpius (a Whirlwind with better armour optimized for shooting heavy infantry), the Sicaran (a tank built to hunt skimmers and light vehicles), several Land Raider variants (the Proteus for a cheaper 14/14/14 tank, the Helios for a less schizoid fire-support tank, the Prometheus for interesting support tricks for big games, and the Achilles for heavy fire support and being literally invincible), the Storm Eagle (a slightly larger Stormraven with better transport capacity and fewer guns), the Fire Raptor (a grossly overarmed gunship Flyer), the Caestus (an assault delivery Flyer that can ram ground targets), the Land Speeder Tempest (a variant that can choose to be treated as a Flyer if it doesn't shoot), the Javelin attack speeder (a better-armed Heresy-era Land Speeder), the Lucius drop pod (which carries a Dreadnaught that doesn't have to disembark the turn it lands, giving it a turn of ablative shielding and making it the best way to deliver assault Dreadnaughts), the Deathstorm Drop Pod (the best way to slow the game down and clear out stuff on the ground so you can save your Drop Podding assault troops for the hard stuff), Chaplain Dreadnaughts (a Dreadnaught with Litany of Hate), Mortis Dreadnaughts (with more options for two gun arms than normal Dreadnaughts), Siege Dreadnaughts (a flamestorm cannon on a Dreadnaught! And it is license to up and remove buildings if you're playing with them), Contemptor Dreadnaughts (a better-armoured and more expensive Dreadnaught with an Inv save), Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnaughts (better-armoured and more expensive Dreadnaughts with more guns than anyone's got a right to, an Inv save, and Skyfire if it doesn't move), the Damocles Command Rhino (a better-armoured Rhino that can call an orbital bombardment and gives a Reserves bonus), and the Rapier battery (Space Marine artillery carriages with shorter-ranged twin-linked Ordnance lascannons).

Rules for all of these are in Imperial Armour Volume 2 2nd Edition. I'd recommend looking at the Sicarian, the Fire Raptor, a Relic Predator, a Whirlwind Scorpius, or a Contemptor Dreadnaught depending on what you're planning on fighting; the problem with super-heavies is that they're overkill in almost every situation in which you think you'd take one. You can get much more done with four hundred points of Vindicators shooting separate targets than four hundred points sunk into one super-Vindicator that overkills one target into next week, until you get to a game where everyone's using super-heavies and you actually need all that firepower.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MajorStoffer wrote:
Basically, if you're looking for big guns for Marines, the IA2 book is the place to go, as beyond superheavies, it also includes a number of other previously HH only tanks, which are all now 40k legal. There are some people who still strongly dislike playing against anything forgeworld, it's not something I've ever encountered in real life, but before going whole-hog, it's worth checking with your local clubs/stores and gauge their reaction to it. In the age of dataslates, Tau/Daemons/Eldar, I don't see why anyone would begrudge the Marines a fun tank or two.

I don't know why "Forge World is OP!" is still the standard in some places, I've never seen their rules team trip half so hard as with Riptides, Knights, Invisibility, or Wave Serpents.

IMO the Fellblade is a pretty bad unit. The huge blast on the main gun is much worse than a Baneblade (7" STR 8 AP 3 vs. 10" STR 9 AP 2), and the anti-tank shot (3" STR 9 AP 2 armorbane) suffers from the general 7th edition nerf to single-shot tank killers: you are likely to pen when you hit, but you're unlikely to do more than take off a single HP. So you're only using the anti-tank shot as an act of desperation, leaving you with a weaker Baneblade. And the Baneblade isn't even a very good unit most of the time.

So the dual-mode main gun is the worst of both worlds rather than the best?

As a lover of superheavies, that makes me sad; but as a Guard/Sisters fan bitterly jealous of the Astartes, that makes me happy. Now I'm conflicted!

I saw fellblade and though Space Marine with the Skaven sword...

Well, 40K originated as a spin-off of Fantasy and in early editions they dropped lots of hints the WHFB planet existed in the 40K universe, with Sigmar being a Lost Primarch, even.

tl;dr: Sure, why not?

 Peregrine wrote:
IMO the Fellblade is a pretty bad unit. The huge blast on the main gun is much worse than a Baneblade (7" STR 8 AP 3 vs. 10" STR 9 AP 2), and the anti-tank shot (3" STR 9 AP 2 armorbane) suffers from the general 7th edition nerf to single-shot tank killers: you are likely to pen when you hit, but you're unlikely to do more than take off a single HP. So you're only using the anti-tank shot as an act of desperation, leaving you with a weaker Baneblade. And the Baneblade isn't even a very good unit most of the time.

I see your point against the bane blade gun but as I'm Space marines I'm unable to take BB? Only Guard can?

sc1980 wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
IMO the Fellblade is a pretty bad unit. The huge blast on the main gun is much worse than a Baneblade (7" STR 8 AP 3 vs. 10" STR 9 AP 2), and the anti-tank shot (3" STR 9 AP 2 armorbane) suffers from the general 7th edition nerf to single-shot tank killers: you are likely to pen when you hit, but you're unlikely to do more than take off a single HP. So you're only using the anti-tank shot as an act of desperation, leaving you with a weaker Baneblade. And the Baneblade isn't even a very good unit most of the time.

I see your point against the bane blade gun but as I'm Space marines I'm unable to take BB? Only Guard can?

That's right you can't take a Baneblade, however the Typhoon and Cerberus have both been mentioned and they are amazing.

Having the ability to lock a tank out of a game whilst damaging it is absolutely brilliant.

sc1980 wrote:
Hi all

I'm looking for a new big ass, all guns blazing toy to add to my New 40k IF army.

The forgeworld fellblade has caught my eye. It looks and sounds awesome. I really don't know much about forgeworld models and the whole super heavies so some opinions would be great please. Even other units suggestion if a better choice if poss please.

Thanks

Well, this is all you need to know:
-It's a LOW for any marine army
-Armament= TL Accelerator Cannon (Either S8, AP3, 7" Blast or S9, AP2, Large Blast), Demolisher Cannon (S10, AP1, Large Blast), 2 Quad Lascannons (Heavy 2, S9, AP2, TL) & A TL Heavy Bolter (S5, AP4, Heavy 3, TL)
-The Fellblade = Complete Destruction

Thanks all for your help.
Think I'm gonna go with the fell blade over the typhon. Like I said before, for extra 150 points you get a lot more guns and HP.
Cheers

 AnomanderRake wrote:
I don't know why "Forge World is OP!" is still the standard in some places, I've never seen their rules team trip half so hard as with Riptides, Knights, Invisibility, or Wave Serpents.

I think it was more against the SHV, which most people would have a problem with.
And it wouldn't matter if it was a FW-SHV or a Baneblade or a Knight.

sc1980 wrote:
Thanks all for your help.
Think I'm gonna go with the fell blade over the typhon. Like I said before, for extra 150 points you get a lot more guns and HP.
Cheers

On principle, I would definitely not take a Typhon in an Imperial Fists army (it was designed by Perturabo of the Iron Warrios, allegedly), so you made the better choice.

Give it battle of keylek so that both if it's blast weapons ignore cover and you are golden.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Typhon is much better point for point imo though.

Get one, they totally rock, can't say you'll be using it much unless it's a huge game or already agreed with your opponent. I played a few apocalypse games with one I gave my Carcharodons plus a few extra FW heavy's. The smug Guard player opposite was a little upset when his pride and joy Baneblade went mega pop and took out lots of russes.

There is a Legacy of Glory upgrade for Fellblade. For 75pts all Your blast shoots get Ignore Cover special rule

Isn't that only for Warhammer 30k?

No, it's one of the 40k things.
But 75 points is a lot, there might be stronger and better options.

Could You mention some of them? I would love to try them.

Don't forget to get the armoured Ceramite upgrade as well!

As others have said, make sure you get Imperial Armour 2, 2nd edition for the rules. Though, I warn you: when you buy your first FW book, you'll never go back!

its a great model. Rules wise its good too.

But honestly unless you regular games are 2k+ you shouldn't use it. SHV at lower point values are not really balanced and an average list wont be able to even hurt it.

we play 3-3500 and no SH tank makes it past turn 2. So on the flipside it becomes a become for destruction.