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Hi all,

Just hoping for a bit of advice really in regards to my BA army.
Currently building a new legion from the ground up but I've found that I've gone stupidly heavy on assault cannons.

Is there such a thing though?
Granted they are not the world's best anti tank, but in 40k they used to do allot of work for me.
Granted these are only 4 shot, but it's still a ton of S6 rending.


Aiming for around a 2k list and currently this is what I have:

HQ:
Bare bones praetor

Troop:
10 man tac squad in rhino with assault cannon
10 man tac squad in rhino with assault cannon
10 man tac squad in rhino with assault cannon

Elite:
Contemptor with twin kheres
Contemptor with chain fists and assault cannons

Heavy:
Leviathan with twin storm cannons, twin assault cannons and phosphex
5 man heavy support with assault cannons


Currently I'm nowhere near the points goal and I've noticed the list is shaping around assault cannons.
Do I continue with this or am I setting myself up for a fall?

Thanks in advance.

Why are you running a Barebones Praetor? They are a model you SHOULD be putting points into. And if you aren't gonna run a RoW, since you havent listed one, dont bother with a Praetor if you're just taking one to fit in an HQ slot.

With Assault cannons the main concern is that they have a chance to jam in 30k, at least the one the Blood Angels have access to (but not the Kheres) so if you end up with a unit that has multiple you'll need to roll them all separate. There's nothing wrong with having an Assault Cannon themed list though.

Sorry, I should have specified.
The praetor and RoW are currently barebones as I've not yet made up my mind what I'm doing with him.
Still have a chunk of points to fill so shouldn't be an issue.

While they can jam, rolling three 1's out of four dice won't happen often atall.
It's technically got allot less chance of jamming than a TL plasma weapon has of overheating.

Don't get me wrong, with soo many in the list that chance does rise quite drastically, in a high volume I don't think 1 or 2 jamming is a game changing thing though.



The only downside is I can't swap out TL heavy flamers though.
Also a shame there's no way of running a terminator unit with one each.


Just hoping the firepower will be enough to bring down heavy armour though.
The leviathan should do pretty well when it's pumping out 20 shots on it's own.


Really not atall worried about infantry or flyers though as between rending and high volume of shots, both should die pretty quickly.





I'd rather have a jump army like a true BA list should be, bit they really do struggle badly.
And also the cost to field said army would be stupid currently.
More so when I'm wanting 40+ jump infantry as a core.

 Jackal wrote:
Sorry, I should have specified.
The praetor and RoW are currently barebones as I've not yet made up my mind what I'm doing with him.
Still have a chunk of points to fill so shouldn't be an issue.

Probably gonna want to have the Praetor built for melee as thats what they do.

While they can jam, rolling three 1's out of four dice won't happen often atall.
It's technically got allot less chance of jamming than a TL plasma weapon has of overheating.

Don't get me wrong, with soo many in the list that chance does rise quite drastically, in a high volume I don't think 1 or 2 jamming is a game changing thing though.

Its more you'll want to roll them separately for those times when you throw a big wad of dice and get multiple ones.

The only downside is I can't swap out TL heavy flamers though.

Which only really effects the Mad Cat

Also a shame there's no way of running a terminator unit with one each.

Do Terminators not get 2 weapons at 10 men?

Just hoping the firepower will be enough to bring down heavy armour though.
The leviathan should do pretty well when it's pumping out 20 shots on it's own.

Really not atall worried about infantry or flyers though as between rending and high volume of shots, both should die pretty quickly.

You'll have problems with heavy armor for sure, and I wouldn't count on the Leviathan for all your AT needs, it will get targeted as they are scary and awesome. Scary Awesome if you will.

I'd rather have a jump army like a true BA list should be, bit they really do struggle badly.
And also the cost to field said army would be stupid currently.
More so when I'm wanting 40+ jump infantry as a core.

BA were highly flexible in their tactics, so don't feel obligated to have nothing but Jump Packs. That said they did love them. I've not really heard much about ASM squads suffering in the game and certainly not BA one that have improved chances to wound in close combat. Plus Day of Revelation seems really good for Jump Troops and you're only really hampered in the LoW department. But yes, crazy expensive for ASM in the Dark Millennium, thanks FW.

I would be cautious before gluing and getting set on this 'till we see what changes hit BA in the upcoming book.

Beyond that, I've gone pretty light with my assault cannons for my BAs. 2 in a 10-man terminator squad (they ride in a stormeagle), and 2 on my 1 dreadnought

Honestly, Assault cannons are not amazing.

They're great when you can fit them on certain units, like taking the Predators with 2 sponsons and a turret mounted TL AC, or in the case of your Dreadnought, putting them on something that gets free HF upgrades, like you've done with the Leviathan (but I'd still keep at least 1 claw or put a seige drill on him, bc S10 AP2/1 plus the other bonuses)

Situationally, HFs can be better than Assault cannons, so they're not the auto-upgrade that people make them out to be. On a unit like the ubiquitous Marksmen Vets a pair of HFs with sniper is awesome outflanking in a rhino, now the Rhino itself would be well suited to a pintle mounted Assault Cannon to get into the sides/rears of vehicles.

Cheers guys.

While I don't mind heavy flamers atall, I just don't get enough from them as it means being right confront of the target.

My other legion is salamanders with orbital RoW that I make extensive use of them with.
While that works wonders, they are very limited on their targets.


I have since posting this acquired a deredo aswell, which I feel like adding the assault cannons to as it doesn't limit it in any way.


I've actually got a trial game at 1.5k (tiny game) so I can have a tinker and see how it goes.
I will take the leviathan advice though and drop a storm for a claw/drill I think.
The attacks are far more beneficial invade it gets caught in CC.


Trying to find some other ways of utilising cannons however.
Initially I thought of attack bikes, but I feel the melta is by far more useful given their speed and ability to hit rear and side armour.
Other idea was loading out a speeder orb2 with them for some quick flanking shots.

One of my main opponents runs a questoris list, so I need to be able to reach the side and rear quickly and hit it on multiple facings each turn to negate the shield.

The other player I'll be against often is iron warriors.
He tends to pack in siege terminators and iron circle almost as if they are tac marines.
In previous games I've found a kheres rips through them pretty well, but I think it will still be a struggle as I'll be relying on rending alone for this.