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What's up Dakka? So I took a gander through FW web store and saw those 2 artillery tanks. What are the perks of taking them and/or one over the other? I figure that it's a rhino APC with a heavy bolter stuck on the front with a large scary gun mounted on it. Can anyone sell me on it and describe its glory?

Medusas carry the Medusa Siege Gun (36" S10 AP2 Barrage, Ordnance 1, Large Blast). You can upgrade them to carry Phosphex rounds instead. Basilisks carry the Earthshaker Cannon (36-240" S9 AP3 Barrage, Ordnance 1, Large Blast). You use the Medusa when you want to fire huge gak-off artillery rounds of doom at your opponent. You use the Basilisk when you want to fire slightly smaller gak-off rounds of doom at your opponent, but from the next table over.

The Imperial Guard still use them in 41st Millennium mounted on a Chimera chassis (well the Basilisk anyway, since the Medusa got cut from their newest codex though you can still use the Imperial Armour books to field them).

I own an actual Legion Medusa model and it is actually a variant of the Chimera chassis. Just thought I'd clear that up.

Also, Medusas can take Phosphex shells. Not bad depending on your legion.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
I own an actual Legion Medusa model and it is actually a variant of the Chimera chassis. Just thought I'd clear that up.

Also, Medusas can take Phosphex shells. Not bad depending on your legion.

Same, always buy the medusa, as it's the same price and you get the earthshaker cannon and the medusa siege gun. Bits for the bits box and all that.

A Medusa is basically a 36" Demolisher cannon, so great for killing Terminators.

A Basilisk is S9 AP3, so only good against power armoured troops, but MUCH longer ranged (120"), so you can hide them better.

Both are mounted on variant Chimera chassis (or at least, something that looks a bit like a Chimera, since actual Chimeras weren't very common then). So better front armour but more vulnerable on the sides than a Rhino chassis.

My crusade army list book has the earthshaker cannon as Range 36"- 240"; did they change it?

....Is the maximum range of an earthshaker cannon really an issue?

Actually, it seems there's a bit of a discrepancy here.

In 40k, the Medusa is a 36" direct fire weapon (i.e not Barrage). SirDonald is correct that the Earthshaker on the Basilisk is 36-240" Barrage, which means that it can direct fire at targets up to 36" away, and then indirect fire at targets it can't see on the whole rest of the board. That's the advantage to make up for the fact that it's weaker - the Earthshaker can fire indirectly, but the Medusa can't.

In all the Forge World publications, the Medusa is ALSO a Barrage weapon, with no 'minimum' range, which is a huge advantage.

Not sure if that's a copy/paste error as it's in the Astartes and Solar Auxilia lists, or a deliberate change.

In 30K, the earthshakers benefit from nuncio voxes which allows LOS to be determined from the spotting unit + legion BS of 4 allows for much more accurate template placement.