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Has anyone ever used this to great effect? BA player, so for 10pts each they can be fast. Thats 450pts for 3 preds with fast

Well for 20 more points you could get a Sicaran with Lascannon sponsons, so I guess it depends how MUCH you want to save in points.

Tri Las Preds are great for BA. I run one in a list with a land raider filled with troops and a libby, a demolisher, and 3 pods filled with troops and a Dred. they always earn their points back and I haven't had one wrecked yet in 4+ games.

The Sicaran is far superior, especially when also equipped with Schism of Mars and Ceremite Armour. I either go all or nothing with my Sicaran (135pts for just the base unit is excellent). Thing is though, unless you have a Master of relics you can only have 1 per detachment. Also many people have the tri-las pred model but not the Sicaran.
I'm thinking of running a destructor with lascannon side sponsoons in a LATF since it will get fast and scout and costs the same as a Baal's base cost (an AC baal is very overcosted imo).
I have and have run both the Destructor-las and Annihilator-las a fair number of times and I really aren't sure about the value of the tl-las turret. 25pts is a lot for losing a shot and gaining 2st and ap2, especially when considering that preds are medium and light vehicle hunters - av13/14 is not it's optimum targets and an autocannon is more than decent enough to hunt medium/light vehicles when combined with lascannon sponsoons.

If you run tri-lascannons, you pretty much have to run three of them in a squad to get full use. As others have pointed out, tri-las is badly outdone by a Sicaran with Schism of Mars. Adding Tank Hunter and Monster Hunter to the mix really helps, though, especially if you can stick them way back on your deployment zone and have a Librarian nearby to give them ignores cover. (Or, even better, Ignores Cover AND Ignores LoS, if you use that one Geomancy power.)

Not everyone plays with FW as an option however, in which case, the Vindicator is a more apt comparison and it's often dough to argue against a str 10 ap2 ignores cover blast, especially for BA who can make them fast and get far more benefit out of it than a predator.

Having said that, people are going to actively shoot at vindicators because they're a threat and AV11 sides are squishy for a ~130 point vehicle. Preds are going to be showing their AV13 much more often, hence why people will often ignore them when there's other, better targets available. If you're wanting to run a bunch of lascannons though, I think I'd rather a pred as a chassis for them as opposed to a dev squad, but then, a dev squad is a mandatory part of a gladius, so they're gonna see more use there. Much of a muchness really.

You can't give a tank squadron ignore cover with psychic powers.

I don't play Blood Angels but I've had good success using lascannon-armed Predators with my Codex Marines. A single tank is a decent option to supplement your anti-tank firepower by stripping the last hull point from a target, and you can stick it in some cover off in the corner and not worry about it.

A more powerful, but more expensive, choice is the squadron of three which gives you Tank- and Monster-Hunter (I think Blood Angels get this too as of the Traitor's Hate book). You can arm all of the tanks with lascannon if you like, but my preferred load out is two lascannon Predators and one autocannon/heavy bolter/dozer blade Predator. The latter Predator sits out in front of the other two, hugging cover or using its smoke launchers as needed and absorbing all of the incoming shots, freeing up the lascannon-armed tanks to do all of the heavy lifting.

The squadron is a nice option and it's important to understand all of the nuances of the squadron rules, which really help the tanks shoot and absorb fire, but screw them over royally in assault. The tanks in a squadron never block LOS for each other, and the lead tank always takes incoming fire first, which allows your tanks to operate a cramped area and concentrate their fire far better than separate tanks can.

Poly Ranger wrote:
The Sicaran is far superior

Of course it is - it's fw. Just take tan'nar and call it a day.

On the more serious note, tri-las pred's days of glory are gone. It's too fragile and expensive to be all that great. Can still tickle an expensive vehicle but the problem is you're not likely to encounter an expensive vehicle now.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Martel732 wrote:
You can't give a tank squadron ignore cover with psychic powers.

I think he means the squadron bonus. s10 apoc ignore cover blast. Preds get something like tank/monster hunter - don't remember. Haven't seen anyone running a squadron of 3 preds.

 koooaei wrote:

Poly Ranger wrote:
The Sicaran is far superior

Of course it is - it's fw. Just take tan'nar and call it a day.

On the more serious note, tri-las pred's days of glory are gone. It's too fragile and expensive to be all that great. Can still tickle an expensive vehicle but the problem is you're not likely to encounter an expensive vehicle now.

FW tend to have much greater balance than GW. I bought the Sicaran up due to the fact Slayer-Fan had mentioned it previously, wanted to highlight that although it is better than a Pred - not everyone has access to FW models, and a Pred is much more common, so it's still worth discussing the Pred.

There are much more effective ways for BA to hit high av vehicles; Melta drops, Grav, Deimos Vindicator, Rapiers, Multimelta speeders/Attack bikes, fists in assault, etc. But with tank hunter due to the squadron rules it does make the tri-las a good heavy tank killer.

 koooaei wrote:

Poly Ranger wrote:
The Sicaran is far superior

Of course it is - it's fw. Just take tan'nar and call it a day.

I don't know why you keep pointing out the Tau'nar as an example of FW being broken. The Tau'nar is a Titan class model and all the Titans are broken regardless of if GW or FW made them

Martel732 wrote:You can't give a tank squadron ignore cover with psychic powers.

You can with the Geomancy/Geomortis discipline (depending on which side of the "Emperor is Great" line you're on). Hands out move through cover, ignores cover and ignores LoS for 1WC. The primaris sucks, but the ignores cover one and and Shifting Worldscape/Worldwrithe are good enough that it's worth the risk

koooaei wrote:I think he means the squadron bonus. s10 apoc ignore cover blast. Preds get something like tank/monster hunter - don't remember. Haven't seen anyone running a squadron of 3 preds.

I did indeed mean the squadron bonus for the vindicators and yes, preds get tank/monster hunter in groups of 3. You can also do it via powers, just not as easily as you can with a dev squad as perfect timing is much easier to get since the div primaris and the rest of the powers are actually good while there's only 2 good things in geomancy/geomortis.

 Drasius wrote:

Geomancy/Geomortis discipline

We call it Earth Magic.
Long ago, everyone lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Probably cause their magic was the most underpowered and the neckbeards the thickest.

 koooaei wrote:

Poly Ranger wrote:
The Sicaran is far superior

Of course it is - it's fw. Just take tan'nar and call it a day.

On the more serious note, tri-las pred's days of glory are gone. It's too fragile and expensive to be all that great. Can still tickle an expensive vehicle but the problem is you're not likely to encounter an expensive vehicle now.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Martel732 wrote:
You can't give a tank squadron ignore cover with psychic powers.

I think he means the squadron bonus. s10 apoc ignore cover blast. Preds get something like tank/monster hunter - don't remember. Haven't seen anyone running a squadron of 3 preds.

3 preds get monster and tank hunter yep. It's not terrible. I usually just take HB on the whole unit and find a way to give them rending. (Tiguris warlord trait). Then you have a cheapish long range artilery unit that can put damage on practically anything at a high rate.

I like 3 fast auto/las preds in a squadron. Tank hunter/monster hunter makes the autocannons a lot better. Especially the tank hunter

I really don't see a benefit for the blood angels having a fast predator outside of the Baal or an autocannon/heavy bolter pred. 48" range on the lascannons themselves usually mean I can set up a predator in a corner and hit almost everything on the board. adding an extra 6" of movement seems like it is just unnecessary when compared to only having 24" on an assault cannon, or the main gun on a vindicator. those are tanks that will need to reposition over the course of an average game and the extra movement is needed to keep stuff in firing range.

 Renesco P. Blue wrote:
I really don't see a benefit for the blood angels having a fast predator outside of the Baal or an autocannon/heavy bolter pred. 48" range on the lascannons themselves usually mean I can set up a predator in a corner and hit almost everything on the board. adding an extra 6" of movement seems like it is just unnecessary when compared to only having 24" on an assault cannon, or the main gun on a vindicator. those are tanks that will need to reposition over the course of an average game and the extra movement is needed to keep stuff in firing range.

I frequently have to move around buildings and other LOS blocking terrain. Moving 12" and firing two weapons is amazing.

Wait, isn't it 6" and 2 weapons? 12 and 1?

Fast is 6 and all weapons, 12 and 2. Normal tanks are 6 and 1 12 and snapfire.

oh, ok. Than it's great indeed.

Martel732 wrote:
You can't give a tank squadron ignore cover with psychic powers.

He's referring to the Geokinesis Discipline psychic power Phase Form. It targets a single friendly unit within 24", it gives them Move through cover, all weapons have ignore cover, and does not need LoS in order to shoot at a target.

I figured that out. I think divination is better overall, though.