Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

It actually has quite a bit more fire power than a landraider.

Its shorter range and only a 3+ save vres a land radiers 2+, but you do have fly so swings and roundabouts.
But more fundamentally its 350 points with no invulnerable save.
It's not that it's a bad unit but your giving your opponent an obvious target for his anti tank firepower.
Razorbacks survive by being cheap enough to achieve target saturation.

The other thing that counts hard agaisnt hellblasters is the amount of negative to hit modifiers making overheating a real concern.

Also this is codex spacemarines tactics dark angles, wolfs bloodangles eg anyone with a snowflake codex gets different rules, stratageums etc so YMMV for reading across.

I'm interested in hearing what's your opinion on this matter.

I usually make reserves heavy lists. Assassins, Lias with some units, Inceptors, Captain w/ Jump pack and Thunder hammer, soon also a single Dreadknight (my girlfriend is playing GK) and other units.

Unfortunately some units need to stay on board. Usually it is 3 Dreadnoughts and Saint Celestine. If playing higher points I might also bring 2 3-man Inceptor squads to also start on board. I've read several times about bringing 5-man Devastator squads with 2 weapons only. That they are cheap and still pack a punch with Cherub and Signum.

So, what would you prefer to bring as sacrificial units (tactically very important drops that allow more units to come into reserves ) that actually do something themselves?

Saint Celestine
maybe 10-man Strike squad if bringing Dreadknight w/ Gate of Infinity

With:

a) 3 Dreadnoughts/Vendreads w/ twin Autocannon, twin Lascannon
Captain w/ Thunder hammer, Stormshield, Jump pack in reserves
Either Raven Guard for more tankiness or Salamanders for more damage. Actually this gives only 2 spaces for units in reserves. Might change Captain into a cheaper one and make him stay with Dreads, so this gives me 4 spaces instead of 2.

b) cheap Captain
cheap Lieutenant
3 5-man Devastator squads with Cherub and 2 Lascannons
Either RG or Salamanders for same reasons.

Both options are somewhat similar in points. Second one gives me 5 drops.

What do you think? Bringing IG doesn't count btw.

The Repulsor also has a field that reduces enemy charge range. Had one game it popped three RZB trying to charge it one turn.

 Primark G wrote:
I think the Repulsor is really good at what it does but yeah it is a lot of points unfortunately.

That's the cardinal sin of 8th.

 Primark G wrote:
The Repulsor also has a field that reduces enemy charge range. Had one game it popped three RZB trying to charge it one turn.

Charging a gunboat with fly rules with wounded razorbacks make it sound like you were playing a beginer.
That doesn't make a repulsor a good unit.
Manticor basis etc would eat a repulsor for breakfast and you can't retaliate untill turn 2 at best more likely turn 3 if the guard player has got lucky with terrain.

Repulsor has quite the arsenal of good weapons but you are still paying like 240ish points base (can't remember exactly) for the base unit. The base unit is worth like...130 points at most? Making the repulsor worth like 250 fully loaded...not the 340ish we pay now. Same is true of basic land raiders.

It really is a shame because it's a great fun unit and primaris marines really need to function. When stuff like this can get through chapter approved twice!??! I mean - GW has to be the worst run company in the entire world. How does it help them to make this unit suck on the field?

Ice_can wrote:

 Primark G wrote:
The Repulsor also has a field that reduces enemy charge range. Had one game it popped three RZB trying to charge it one turn.

Charging a gunboat with fly rules with wounded razorbacks make it sound like you were playing a beginer.
That doesn't make a repulsor a good unit.
Manticor basis etc would eat a repulsor for breakfast and you can't retaliate untill turn 2 at best more likely turn 3 if the guard player has got lucky with terrain.

He had a SW dreadnaught with two wounds left about 8-9" away and he was trying to lock down the Repulsor before sending it in to wreck it. The field ended up forcing the dread to fail.

Mandragola wrote:
Genuine question to all the people saying repulsors are no good: have you ever used them?

I’ve used them many times, to great effect. I’d like to know what the difference is between my experience and yours.

Hi Mandragola, yes I've used them, but I haven't been able to bring myself to buy a second, so my experience is limited in that way. My main problem with it is that it takes about 12 BS3+ lascannon shots to bring down, and most armies can dish that equivalent in a round. It draws that fire because a) it's quite tasty at shooting b) it's only got a 3+ save c) it's a big chunk of my list and d) it then spills its tasty innards, to be mopped upon by lighter fire and 1s from the destruction of the Repulsor.

I really don't think the tank needs much to make it good. A 2+ might be enough, or a 5++. Heck, just give it chapter tactics, so it can be buffed by IH/RG. But right now it does cost about 320pts minimum to run with a nice loadout, which is in the landraider price bracket without the range or the 2+.

Mandragola wrote:

grouchoben wrote:
Hellblasters aren't good because repulsors aren't good, as far as I can see. As soon as Primaris get a decent transport option, hellblasters will be a great unit.

Genuine question to all the people saying repulsors are no good: have you ever used them?

I’ve used them many times, to great effect. I’d like to know what the difference is between my experience and yours.

Any army that can't reliably kill a repulsor in one turn simply deserves to lose.

So usually you get one turn to see it shine.

stratigo wrote:

Mandragola wrote:

grouchoben wrote:
Hellblasters aren't good because repulsors aren't good, as far as I can see. As soon as Primaris get a decent transport option, hellblasters will be a great unit.

Genuine question to all the people saying repulsors are no good: have you ever used them?

I’ve used them many times, to great effect. I’d like to know what the difference is between my experience and yours.

Any army that can't reliably kill a repulsor in one turn simply deserves to lose.

So usually you get one turn to see it shine.

Maybe that would just be bad match up, I tends to believe if Guilliman is nearby, Repulsor would do decent against nidz Kraken Genestealer centric list, owing to that tons of dakkadakka and the repulsor field (-2 to charge rolls).

Of course, If Nidz is taking a Swarmlord, move, run then DS those Genestealers 6" in front of the lord to allow the 20 strong genestealers to move run 14" in the shooting phase, it is totally another story. This is especially true if Nidz also take Harpy / Hive Crone who can make a solid T1 charge to tie up the tank so GS won't be overwatched at. However, many Nidz players had screamed "Swarmlord is garbage, too overcosted, opponents can easily shoot it dead T1... etc. etc." which I don't know if it is a fair claim.... So it is a shame that I cannot justify if this combo is very common or not, though it is a potential threat to be all honest.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, If I know there maybe shooty armies, I take Tigirius and a Techmarine to go with this tanks. For that -1 to be hit and the potential repair. It will potentially buff this thing to T9 (melta and missile and battle cannon gonna wound it on 5s) -2 to be hit and regain D3W a turn. However, I admit it is bloody expensive, it is over 820pts already with the 10 Hellblasters inside. Plus Guilliman, 1200+ pts which would be over 60% of an army......

I once tried this combo against Eldar a couple months ago. When this goes off, the Eldar player just "forget about it" and ignore the tank and its content then shoot my "everything else" into oblivion. Yeah, that tank and Hellblasters survived the Eldar alpha strike, but all is left still cannot handle an Eldar army of around 1800pts units left on the board. So I still lost the game by T3....

Hah, that game sounds about right Neophyte! Of course it doesn't help that Wave Serpents really rub your nose in it... There's an example of what a good transport is. It's much tougher than the Repulsor (-1 damage, -1 hit for 1CP); can fall back and shoot just the same; is much faster; can take 2 brightlances, the equivalent to the Repulsor's best weapon; and with the equivalent of PotMS tacked on, comes in at 157pts, less than half the price.

Give Hellblasters access to a wave-serpent equivalent, and they'd be transformed as a unit.

I like how the repulsor model looks, but I cannot say the same about its performance.
It is indeed a valuable transport for hellblasters as aforementioned in this thread, but then we are looking at a firepower magnet costing over 300 points.
The repulsor does bring decent amount of firepower and mobility, but it rarely survives the first turn in my experience.
Typical Imperium armies I face bring at least 7~8 lascannon equivalents.
Xenos bring even more firepower, with drukhari packing more than 15 dark lances and asuryani sporting multiple fire prisms/crimson hunters/hemlocks.
And now we are looking at riptides firing 6 lascannon shots each, while vaunting 3+ invulnerable save at the same time.

Even in relatively casual meta, I think there really is no place for single model units costing more than 200pts, including the repulsor.
A few exceptions exist though, such as hemlock wraithfighters, Daemon Primarchs, Roboute Guilliman.

The serpent is a lot less points but it’s not a good comparison due to the amount of dakka the Repulsor can chuck. If there was a Primaris equivalent that would be great but I don’t see it happening. Something along the lines of a Rhino (low points) would be great. If you cast MoH on the Repulsor that makes it that much tougher - lascannons wounding on 4+... Tiggy can also make it -1 to hit.

Both of which require you to have had a trun and one requires a successful cast of a power. Tiggy isn't a bad addition to an ultramarine army but he's one named charictor who is fairly squishy.

Again the problem isn't so much that the repulser is bad, it more that your giving meta players exactlly what their lists want as a target. One big high point cost model with no invulnerable save.

Few tanks have an invulnerable save.

 Primark G wrote:
Few tanks have an invulnerable save.

Those Death Guard specific ones? I think some of them have Daemon keywords.

Back to the topic, I think the effectiveness of a Repulsors depends on your luck of match ups. Properly supported, it is gonna give horde charging list a hard time, especially those rely on DS and charge without special rules like move again in shooting / psychic phase or 3D6 charge range etc (which you might notice that specturm is very limited, just Orks maybe, and Nidz Genestealer spam WITHOUT a Swarmlord, and of course, the vanilla Space Marines themselves and Greyknights). Against the army like Dark Eldar, Eldar, IG, and even Nidz, if the opponent wants, they can bring enough long range firepower and / or smite spam to kaboom a Repulsor in one round, and those units can be just a tiny fraction of their army. Under such situation, it is better to put all those buff on it to allow it survive at least one turn and get its job done.

Anyhow, yes the Repulsor Tank is overcosted, if the hull is somewhere around 180pts instead of 210pts, it'd be much better. Guns are good and very well priced.

 Primark G wrote:
Few tanks have an invulnerable save.

You missed the point, most competitive/ optimised lists are designed to be able to deal with morti or magnus in a single turn.
A repulsor full of hellblasters is a single target which if killed will yield the same amount of points killed. The difference is morti, magnus and guilliman are all rocking invulns so these lists have some saves built into their damage model that the repulsor doesn't have.

Work back from the models stats.
14 wounds is 4 lascannon wounds on avarage with a 4+ invuln thats 8 lacannons wounding on 3+ gives you 12 lascannons, hitting on 3's is 16 lascannons.
16 wounds on a repulsor 5 lascannons, 6+ save is 6 lascannons wounding on 3's is nine lascannons hitting on 3's is 12 lascannons.

This is ignoring buffs etc but hopefully explains my point that if your going to put an model over 300 points on the board (not including the hellblasters inside) it needs to be able to take the heat.

Simply put a repulsor on its own is too obvious a target, you would be relying on going first and hoping your opponent doesn't have a nul deployment list

My point was that it’s not common to see vehicles with an invulnerable save - point reduction and/or 2+ save wouid be a better fix.

Although some sort of shield system, represented with an invul save would be fitting the fluff of the ruplsor as the "high tech wundertank"

Do that and you would push a repulsor to close to 500 points, it would render primaris to walking permanently.

No it wouldn't. Repulsor is 100 pts overcosted atm.

Martel732 wrote:
No it wouldn't. Repulsor is 100 pts overcosted atm.

I'd rather they knock 100 points off the cost then add a buncha new stuff myself.

They aren’t going to reduce it by 100 points.

 Primark G wrote:
They aren’t going to reduce it by 100 points.

they also aren't going to stack a ton of rules on stuff, in fact it's more common for GW to cut the points on something then to give it a ton of new rules in a FAQ

 Primark G wrote:
They aren’t going to reduce it by 100 points.

Then I'm probably never going to own one or use one. Because its lascannon fodder.

You can squeeze a Repulsor down to 287 points by removing all its best guns. A -40pt price reduction would make it a viable transport option, at around 250pts. That's still expensive, but would be justifiable I think, considering its decent armament and stats.

That's an insane price compared to other tanks in the game. I'd honestly have to think about 187 stripped down. 287 is out of the question.

Is Sergant Chronus any good, and if so, which vwhicle and loadout is best for him?

Need a 4th HQ for a primarly space marine army with 2 batallions, and since he hides in his vehicle it fits the primaris theme better.

So far im using a primaris captain and librarian in the first batallion and a primaris lieutenant in the second

I’d put him in a landraider.