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Hey, fellow conscripts!

So I have been attempting to read up on the baneblade and it's variants, and I'm not sure what each one does specifically. I think it's the stormblade that eats Titans? Correct me if I'm wrong. I would like to know what the 8 variants do. Which are anti tank, anti infantry, etc. I am very excited to learn more! Thank you for your time!!!

Shadowsword kills titans, and us effective at pretty much everything else too when fully loaded. Doesn't transport guys though.

Stormlord has all the transport and the big gatling gun, but it's honestly not that impressive for cost anymore.

Baneblade is decent at everything, but you're going to shoot the big gun at tanks anyways, so you're really just paying like 50 points more for performance like a Shadowsword without the ability to zap enemy super heavies.

Those are the ones that matter. The one with the tremor cannon (banehammer) could concievably have a use, but the board is too small for that to really matter.

Buy Codex. Read Codex.

Or just google it and find a Wiki instead of being spoonfed on a forum! This kind of article is on various sites already - don’t make people search for you!

Didn't you read what I've said? I have read several pages, and I'm still confused. On this site, I could find passionate people who love this universe and are willing to teach it.

Decide first wherever you want it as a transport or not.

Transports
Stormlord - Large capacity, firing deck, good for anti-infantry/light vehicles
Banehammer - Tremor Cannon slows down fast units, smaller transport cap.
Doomhammer - Not too bad, combines good transport cap with strong weapon, not necessarily the best however.


Non-Transports
Shadowsword - Packs huge punch, will be a big target for your opponent.
Banesword - Long range artillery, probably won't play enough games where the range advantage comes into play.
Baneblade - Good all-rounder, powerful main gun, Demolisher Cannon and numerous point-defence guns.
Hellhammer - Used to be pretty decent, not sure if it still is; general consensus seems to be Baneblade over Hellhammer.
Stormsword - See above, better gun than the Hellhammer, not necessarily as good as Baneblade
Stormhammer - Can't comment, haven't seen any games in 8th, either in person or online where it's been used.

Recognition Guide:

I think they are all designed to blow the feth out of the enemies of the Emperor.

 Valkyrie wrote:

Hellhammer - Used to be pretty decent, not sure if it still is; general consensus seems to be Baneblade over Hellhammer.
Stormsword - See above, better gun than the Hellhammer, not necessarily as good as Baneblade
Stormhammer - Can't comment, haven't seen any games in 8th, either in person or online where it's been used.

Disagree with stormsword. Less shots is not good and d6 damage vs flat 3 is of dubious use anyway. Even with reroll that's still like 4 or less per average(2d6 pick highest is about 4.5 and this is worse ability than that). It's cheaper yes but still main gun worse and no demolisher cannon either.

Hellhammer...Hmm it's bit pricier but you get extra blip of AP. Cover ignore is marginal utility. If you can afford the 23pts it's decent enough.

For transport I'm han of banehammer(slowing down can be handy) or doomhammer which is just brutal against tanks. Unusually melta bonus range is not going to be an issue.

But baneblade and shadowswords are old trusties. Hellhammer if you can afford the extra points. Or go for transport variant. Those can be expensive one models but for example 9 mortars firing from inside makes nice firing platform and cuts down drops nicely(for that +1 for first turn)

Banesword seems to be weakest of the bunch. Ok average damage 4 is nice but 2d6 hurts. Best if you know you'll be facing lots of T7 or less(or T9+) multiwound models.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:

Stormlord has all the transport and the big gatling gun, but it's honestly not that impressive for cost anymore.

gak. I often dream of running a Stormlord list. That thing is so awesome.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/756251.page#9960931

I own a superheavy tank regiment with 22 of these vehicles. Each company of 3 is a different type of tank. I am happy to write a bit down about what they can do! I'll steal Valkyrie's method of categorization:

Transports
Stormlord
- 40 man transport capacity is very good. Main armament is also fairly good, though the high price it pays (40 points more than the typical price for a Baneblade hull) makes it not very good. All in all, I would say it's overspecialized for killing hordes and too expensive.

Banehammer
- Also a transport. The cheapest of all the transports, slotting in at the lowest price for a Baneblade chassis (the 'typical' price I mentioned above). Adequate but not exceptional capacity for a superheavy transport, with a gun that is essentially a worse Baneblade cannon. The main armament can prove useful in some situations with it's 'halve movement stat' special rule, but that by itself is not exceptional.

Doomhammer
- Expensive anti-tank version of the Banehammer. Not exceptional compared to the other variants, with the same capacity as a Banehammer and a similar gun to the Stormsword without the nifty special rule about damage rolls (though it does have the melta rule). It's also 30 points more than the Stormsword.


Non-Transports
Shadowsword
- Tank destroyer that overkills most things short of other superheavies, and instead merely regular-kills them. Very powerful, but worse against hordes than the other variants. The best Baneblade variant hands down, currently, being the same low price.

Banesword
- Very long range - outranges the Shadowsword by 50%. Has a fairly good gun, with the same min-3 damage rule as an Onager's neutron laser, and a great strength. But is outperformed on all but the largest tables by the Shadowsword.

Baneblade
- Good all-rounder. Main armament is considerably better against hordes than the Shadowsword (about twice as good), but when firing at armour/monsters, the Shadowsword is better. Pays a bit for the Demolisher Cannon and Autocannon as well, which are useful in certain contexts but do not make up the gap between it an the Shadowsword. This is the variant I use most commonly on the tabletop - it's very good, and is the most common in the lore, even if it's not as over the top as the Shadowsword.

Hellhammer
- A Baneblade but with different main armament, trading half the range for greater strength, greater AP, and ignores cover. Adequate, but not amazing, considering the price increase over the default Baneblade. Also has a single lasgun more, making it the Baneblade vehicle with the most guns in the game.

Stormsword
- Cheap hellhammer. Benefits from the Hellhammer's gun without the 30 point increase over the Baneblade - but cripplingly loses a d6 of shots, trading it for a paltry 're-roll 1s on damage dice'. Not very good; arguably the worst variant.

Stormhammer
- Used these at NOVA (pics available!). Quite good for the price, being a budget Baneblade with slightly less main-armament firepower. Very customizable to different needs. Very bad main gun, though that's compensated for by the free re-rolls given by the co-axial weapon, and the "extra" main gun in the Twin Battle Cannon makes up for it in spades, for the price. Generally reliably gets 4 hits with the main gun, while the Baneblade on average will get about 5, while paying for weapons it doesn't need, unlike this thing. Cheap, fun to use, looks cool, but doesn't measure up against the Shadowsword (none do).

Stormblade
- Gigantic plasma gun. Suffers from "stormsword" syndrome where it just doesn't have enough gun to really make it worth it over the very-similar-but-better-where-it-counts Shadowsword.

EDIT:
I am happy to elaborate (so just ask!) but I could go on for days about tips and tricks with these vehicles, and I'm sure no one wants to hear that.

So, the Baneblade Chassis, which gets you 1/3/5 Twin Heavy Bolters and 0/2/4 Lascannons, is "good", so any variant you pick isn't going to let you down too heavily. Because the tank is so resilient and it can fall back and shoot, it's pretty much the best platform for those twin heavy bolters and lascannons, so you should buy all of them [or at the base pair, because the kit only comes with one pair]. Also, their main guns are generally kind of underwhelming at their base 390+14(+40) cost, so load up on your secondary battery. Most of them are 390 points out of the box, with 0 point main guns, with the exception of the more expensive Stormlord, Doomhammer, and Hellhammer, so e're really only comparing the performance of their main batteries when comparing them.

Fundamentally, most variants will actually be doing the same thing: shoot a vehicle with the main gun, finish it with the Lascannons, and rip up an infantry squad with the heavy bolters. The main gun will generally be wasted against infantry, and don't work that well against infantry anyway. They've fallen far from making 10" diameter circles under which everything not-a-tank died. However, with good damage stats, they're quite effective at wrecking tanks, so that's your optimal target.

With that in mind, we'll start with the Shadowsword, which is the strongest of the lot [and the most awesome looking]. The main gun gets both a fairly large shot output for a gun so powerful and 2d6 damage rating, making it a strong contender for being the most powerful single unit that doesn't come from Forgeworld. It wounds almost everything on 2's, and with AP5, blasts through all armor and cover. Only Terminators and Land Raiders in cover get a 6+. It gets +1 to hit and re-rolls to wound against Titanic units. This gun alone will kill anything short of a super heavy that it hits, and will leave even those limping along with a few wounds for your lascannons to strip. Comparatively, this one also benefits more from being Cadian and getting re-rolls of 1 than being Catachan.

Following behind, we'll talk about the classic Baneblade. First off, you're paying 40 points for a Demolisher Cannon and 12 for an Autocannon on top of the rest of the cost for the tank. The main gun gets twice as many shots [3d6 vs 3d3], but for half damage and wounding on 3's instead of 2's. It's only AP3, but that's generally good enough because few target have a 2+. It is going to be do better okay infantry, but that's largely wasting it's potential unless those infantry are custodes, and you're probably going to need your Heavy Bolters to finish them off. The Shadowsword can cook super heavies, but the Baneblade can do more damage to infantry if you're run out of tanks to shoot at.

After that, there's the Stormlord, which is the kind that doesn't shoot at tanks. It's got the Vulcan Mega Bolter, which, while fallen from it's former glory, is still okay. It's got 40 transport, 20 of which can shoot, and because it costs 40 points for that you had better be using it. Of consideration is the fact that the Macharius Vulcan has the gun and is cheaper, and I'm told it keeps All Power to the Weapons, so you might want to look into that if you just want the VMB.

Then there's the Banesword and Stormsword, whom we will talk about briefly, because they're basically a Shadowsword, but they have 2d6 shots at not-strength-16 and not-ap-5 and not-D2d6, but also cost 390 points out of the box. Strictly inferior to the Shadowsword for cost, and they're not going be reliably wrecking tanks in single salvoes and definitely not going to be seriously threatening super heavies.

There's the Hellhammer, which is almost identical to the Baneblade. It pays the 52 point pointless-gun-tax, and also pays 20 points more for the Hellhammer Cannon, which is perhaps the only recognition that not all these guns are the same. It's got 36" range, but you don't care about moving and are going towards the enemy anyway. It's S10 and Ap4, which makes it marginally superior than the Baneblade Cannon. However, this really only matters against T5 targets. Is the increase in performance against a narrow band of targets worth the extra 20 points? Probably not.

There's the Doomhammer, which falls into the same category as the Banesword and Stormsword of "inferior Shadowsword". The cannon is also nearly equivalent to the Hellhammer Cannon, but 2/3rd the shot output and damage as a meltagun [read: worse than the hellhammer cannon]. It also pays 30 points more than a Shadowsword [10 points more than a Hellhammer before the Hellhammer pays the useless cannon tax] to carry 20 guys, 10 of which can shoot, making this the worst of the lot.

Then there's the Banehammer, which has the weakest of the main guns. It's not a whole lot stronger than a Cadian/Catachan Leman Russ Tank Commander. However, it does come with the ability to halve the move of the target hit, which might useful to plonk Genestealers with if you get first turn, but otherwise won't be doing a whole lot. It also has some cargo space, but isn't a Stormlord. I'm not really decided on where this guy falls relative to the Stormlord, because he doesn't have as many dice, but he's S8 and D3, allowing him to better wound MEQ and the versatility to affect vehicles, and is considerably cheaper.



Of some more note: it's a good idea to plonk a target with a Basilisk or Leman Russ first to strip a wound, then pop Overlapping Fields of Fire on one of the targets being engaged by the baneblade. You can use it to push the main gun over the edge of finishing off the target, or to bump up the lascannon battery's performance. A Shadowsword will be hitting on 2's and wounding on 2's against most Titanic units, with full re-rolls. Enjoy outright deleting Knights and enemy Baneblades.

The Crush Them strategem now only works on the turn you charge, you play range games. It can make your otherwise kind of harmless melee weapons seriously scary.

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:

Stormlord has all the transport and the big gatling gun, but it's honestly not that impressive for cost anymore.

gak. I often dream of running a Stormlord list. That thing is so awesome.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/756251.page#9960931

For what it's worth, I heard the Macharius Vulcan keeps all power to the weapons.

So question, what is the best way to include a Baneblade/Shadowsword into a list and keep its <Regiment>?

I want to run one with my valhallans and that regiment is a great way to keep it running at 100%, especially if you have a few handy primaris psykers and enginseers hanging around to buff it.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:

There's the Doomhammer, which falls into the same category as the Banesword and Stormsword of "inferior Shadowsword". The cannon is also nearly equivalent to the Hellhammer Cannon, but 2/3rd the shot output and damage as a meltagun [read: worse than the hellhammer cannon]. It also pays 30 points more than a Shadowsword [10 points more than a Hellhammer before the Hellhammer pays the useless cannon tax] to carry 20 guys, 10 of which can shoot, making this the worst of the lot.

Not that much worse actually. Assuming autohit/autowound/autopenetrate for both(ie taking just shots and damage output into account) doomhammer causes 31 wounds or so in average within 30" while hellhammer does 31.5. The melta rule averages out enough that the extra shots are about same. So difference is more price for doomhammer for extra AP. It's also cheaper but lacks demolisher cannon.

Hellhammer is better vs infantry but doomhammer is decent cheaper alternative to hellhammer against vehicles.

Real problem for doomhammer is thus shadowsword is ridiculously much better at that role doing about 50% more damage to a vehicle so doomhammer pays more for 2/3 of tank busting firepower and being somewhat better vs infantry or light vehicle squadrons like killa kans.

It's hard life being tank killing super heavy when you have to contest with shadowsword.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 generalchaos34 wrote:
So question, what is the best way to include a Baneblade/Shadowsword into a list and keep its <Regiment>?

I want to run one with my valhallans and that regiment is a great way to keep it running at 100%, especially if you have a few handy primaris psykers and enginseers hanging around to buff it.

Well there's 2 ways. Supreme commander(maybe with 3 primaris psykers) or trio of the super heavies for ~1200+ points. If you want just one the primaris psykers could be good trio to have. That or company commanders if you are running short of them.

I hope you don't mind some nitpicks.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
So, the Baneblade Chassis, which gets you 1/3/5 Twin Heavy Bolters and 0/2/4 Lascannons, is "good", so any variant you pick isn't going to let you down too heavily. Because the tank is so resilient and it can fall back and shoot, it's pretty much the best platform for those twin heavy bolters and lascannons, so you should buy all of them [or at the base pair, because the kit only comes with one pair]. Also, their main guns are generally kind of underwhelming at their base 390+14(+40) cost, so load up on your secondary battery. Most of them are 390 points out of the box, with 0 point main guns, with the exception of the more expensive Stormlord, Doomhammer, and Hellhammer, so e're really only comparing the performance of their main batteries when comparing them.

I generally agree with this, save to mention that they're not actually very durable compared to other options available to the Imperial Guard. I caution players who rely on a single superheavy tank to expect it to last past Turn 1, unless they go first.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Fundamentally, most variants will actually be doing the same thing: shoot a vehicle with the main gun, finish it with the Lascannons, and rip up an infantry squad with the heavy bolters. The main gun will generally be wasted against infantry, and don't work that well against infantry anyway. They've fallen far from making 10" diameter circles under which everything not-a-tank died. However, with good damage stats, they're quite effective at wrecking tanks, so that's your optimal target.

Also generally true, though there are not always vehicles to shoot at. I would also add that the main gun can oftentimes find it shooting at elite infantry, even when there are vehicles in the game. This is the target profile of the Baneblade as opposed to the Shadowsword: things like Custodes. It's narrow, and in most cases the Shadowsword will be better, but in cases where there are no optimal targets, the Baneblade cannon is more passable, and against heavy multi-wound infantry/bikes/etc, the Baneblade outperforms the Shadowsword, taking the main gun in isolation. I agree the Baneblade is overburdened with secondaries.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
With that in mind, we'll start with the Shadowsword, which is the strongest of the lot [and the most awesome looking]. The main gun gets both a fairly large shot output for a gun so powerful and 2d6 damage rating, making it a strong contender for being the most powerful single unit that doesn't come from Forgeworld. It wounds almost everything on 2's, and with AP5, blasts through all armor and cover. Only Terminators and Land Raiders in cover get a 6+. It gets +1 to hit and re-rolls to wound against Titanic units. This gun alone will kill anything short of a super heavy that it hits, and will leave even those limping along with a few wounds for your lascannons to strip. Comparatively, this one also benefits more from being Cadian and getting re-rolls of 1 than being Catachan.

The Shadowsword is indeed by a good margin the best of the bunch, but suffers when firing at anything not-a-vehicle or not-a-monster. That said, the secondary armament goes a long way towards addressing this, while in general the 4 lascannons do not address a paucity of anti-tank in other guns/vehicles.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Following behind, we'll talk about the classic Baneblade. First off, you're paying 40 points for a Demolisher Cannon and 12 for an Autocannon on top of the rest of the cost for the tank. The main gun gets twice as many shots [3d6 vs 3d3], but for half damage and wounding on 3's instead of 2's. It's only AP3, but that's generally good enough because few target have a 2+. It is going to be do better okay infantry, but that's largely wasting it's potential unless those infantry are custodes, and you're probably going to need your Heavy Bolters to finish them off. The Shadowsword can cook super heavies, but the Baneblade can do more damage to infantry if you're run out of tanks to shoot at.

The Baneblade's demolisher cannon does somewhat mitigate its poor anti-tank performance compared to the Shadowsword's main gun, but has a very short range and costs points, so yes, the Shadowsword is decidedly better in most games.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
After that, there's the Stormlord, which is the kind that doesn't shoot at tanks. It's got the Vulcan Mega Bolter, which, while fallen from it's former glory, is still okay. It's got 40 transport, 20 of which can shoot, and because it costs 40 points for that you had better be using it. Of consideration is the fact that the Macharius Vulcan has the gun and is cheaper, and I'm told it keeps All Power to the Weapons, so you might want to look into that if you just want the VMB.

In my opinion the Stormlord is actually the worst of the bunch. It doesn't do anything that Guard don't do better as far as firepower goes, and its only redeeming feature is the transport capacity. But for 40 points more than the stock chassis...

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Then there's the Banesword and Stormsword, whom we will talk about briefly, because they're basically a Shadowsword, but they have 2d6 shots at not-strength-16 and not-ap-5 and not-D2d6, but also cost 390 points out of the box. Strictly inferior to the Shadowsword for cost, and they're not going be reliably wrecking tanks in single salvoes and definitely not going to be seriously threatening super heavies.

Banesword is the longest-ranged gun in the group, and is cheap and still has kinda-sorta-Baneblade firepower, with a 2d6 d6 min3 damage gun. But it just doesn't compare with the Shadowsword. The Stormsword's only virtue is cheapness, but it at least has that over the Stormlord. It does not compete with the Shadowsword at all.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
There's the Hellhammer, which is almost identical to the Baneblade. It pays the 52 point pointless-gun-tax, and also pays 20 points more for the Hellhammer Cannon, which is perhaps the only recognition that not all these guns are the same. It's got 36" range, but you don't care about moving and are going towards the enemy anyway. It's S10 and Ap4, which makes it marginally superior than the Baneblade Cannon. However, this really only matters against T5 targets. Is the increase in performance against a narrow band of targets worth the extra 20 points? Probably not.

Generally agreed on all counts. The Hellhammer has no real place except ignoring cover against armies that benefit from cover a lot. Right now, that's a hypothetical - cover is hardly a benefit at all. If you start seeing armies that get +2 or +3 to their saves from cover, rather than to-hit modifiers, I think it might be less useless.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
There's the Doomhammer, which falls into the same category as the Banesword and Stormsword of "inferior Shadowsword". The cannon is also nearly equivalent to the Hellhammer Cannon, but 2/3rd the shot output and damage as a meltagun [read: worse than the hellhammer cannon]. It also pays 30 points more than a Shadowsword [10 points more than a Hellhammer before the Hellhammer pays the useless cannon tax] to carry 20 guys, 10 of which can shoot, making this the worst of the lot.

And it's not even cheap like the Banehammer, which is in my opinion the best transport.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Then there's the Banehammer, which has the weakest of the main guns. It's not a whole lot stronger than a Cadian/Catachan Leman Russ Tank Commander. However, it does come with the ability to halve the move of the target hit, which might useful to plonk Genestealers with if you get first turn, but otherwise won't be doing a whole lot. It also has some cargo space, but isn't a Stormlord. I'm not really decided on where this guy falls relative to the Stormlord, because he doesn't have as many dice, but he's S8 and D3, allowing him to better wound MEQ and the versatility to affect vehicles, and is considerably cheaper.

This is the best of the transport tanks. It's 3 flat damage and 3d6 shots, which isn't two bad, and the gimmick is gravy when firing at things that have to go fast. It doesn't actually have to inflict any damage to halve movement. Against T7 targets, this is essentially a 16% worse Baneblade Cannon without paying the "useless cannon" tax and while having 25 transport capacity. The primary virtue compared to the other transport tanks is cheapness. Even given that the Shadowsword exists, this still has a role, which says something about the Shadowsword.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Of some more note: it's a good idea to plonk a target with a Basilisk or Leman Russ first to strip a wound, then pop Overlapping Fields of Fire on one of the targets being engaged by the baneblade. You can use it to push the main gun over the edge of finishing off the target, or to bump up the lascannon battery's performance. A Shadowsword will be hitting on 2's and wounding on 2's against most Titanic units, with full re-rolls. Enjoy outright deleting Knights and enemy Baneblades.

Alternatively, you can use Vostroyan, who can buff a single unit with +1 to-hit automatically, and also buffs the otherwise-bad Demolisher cannon on the Hellhammer and Baneblade. It's not amazing (Cadian is still better if you're not moving), but if someone wants to run one of the turreted tanks it's not an awful option.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
The Crush Them strategem now only works on the turn you charge, you play range games. It can make your otherwise kind of harmless melee weapons seriously scary.

I use Crush Them! every game on any turn I can, because I charge as often as possible and a charging Baneblade with Crush Them! hits harder than a Leman Russ Tank Commander does in the Shooting phase. Leveraging the Baneblade (and her sister)'s close-combat capabilities is vital to success, I would say.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:

Stormlord has all the transport and the big gatling gun, but it's honestly not that impressive for cost anymore.

gak. I often dream of running a Stormlord list. That thing is so awesome.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/756251.page#9960931

For what it's worth, I heard the Macharius Vulcan keeps all power to the weapons.

Yes it does! While being actually cheap enough to bother bringing to boot (unlike the 454-pt stock Stormlord).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 generalchaos34 wrote:
So question, what is the best way to include a Baneblade/Shadowsword into a list and keep its <Regiment>?

I want to run one with my valhallans and that regiment is a great way to keep it running at 100%, especially if you have a few handy primaris psykers and enginseers hanging around to buff it.

Put it in a Super-Heavy Detachment with two Minotaurs if you want to stay under 1k and get 3 CP, or with its sisters if you don't mind paying the extra points for way better tanks, or put it in a Supreme Command.

Valhallan is not good on Superheavies, in my experience. Enemies do not tend to "damage" them and then leave them be - they will kill it in 1 turn, if they can. If they can't, then they may very well cripple it, but it'll just die next turn if they do. The best way to ensure your vehicles stay in tip-top shape is to run a regiment that helps their offensive output, like Vostroyan (for the +1 to-hit CP), Cadian (for the same thing but also re-roll 1s when stationary) or Catachan. Alternatively, I'd suggest running Tallarn, which can make it 100% immune to shooting turn 1 for 3 CP, if you really want a 'defensive' regiment for your superheavy.

Once you do that, you can bring a Tech-Priest and 5 Skitarii in a patrol detachment (or a Battalion detachment, if you must) from Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus. Take the Necromechanic warlord trait, and you can regenerate 4-8 wounds on a superheavy in one turn fairly trivially, so there is little need for Valhallan.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Buy Codex. Read Codex.

Or just google it and find a Wiki instead of being spoonfed on a forum! This kind of article is on various sites already - don’t make people search for you!

Yes god forbid people participate in our community and ask what we think, ON A FORUM.

I made a chart =D (my math probably isn't perfect)

This is the amount of Wounds it would do to a single target. Without taking the weapons AP, targets save, or re-rolls into calculation. Your mileage will vary based on range and number of targets. Sponson values calculated separately.



My calculation for sponsons was wrong, heres the corrected chart




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Targets / Average Hits (BS 4+)

Baneblade - 4 / 9.25
Banehammer - 2 / 8.25
Banesword - 2 / 6.5
Doomhammer - 2 / 6.5
Hellhammer - 4 / 9.25
Shadowsword - 2 / 6
Stormlord - 4 / 16
Stormsword - 2 / 6.5

Las/Flamer sponson - 6 / 16
Las/Bolter sponson - 6 / 8

Can you do the Stormhammer with all it's re-rolls and stuff?

Is it also possible to apply model limits? Like the Shadowsword could do 20 wounds to a toughness 2 target, but only can kill 9 models max... (with it's main gun)

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Can you do the Stormhammer with all it's re-rolls and stuff?

Is it also possible to apply model limits? Like the Shadowsword could do 20 wounds to a toughness 2 target, but only can kill 9 models max... (with it's main gun)

What do you want it to shoot?

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Can you do the Stormhammer with all it's re-rolls and stuff?

Is it also possible to apply model limits? Like the Shadowsword could do 20 wounds to a toughness 2 target, but only can kill 9 models max... (with it's main gun)

What do you want it to shoot?

What ever targets the tanks were firing at in the previous graphs.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Can you do the Stormhammer with all it's re-rolls and stuff?

Is it also possible to apply model limits? Like the Shadowsword could do 20 wounds to a toughness 2 target, but only can kill 9 models max... (with it's main gun)

What do you want it to shoot?

What ever targets the tanks were firing at in the previous graphs.

Well, that stuff is straight mathhammer.

This is Stormhammer vs Baneblade against a Predator. Shots, damage, and hit rerolls included. Only the main cannons.

This is perhaps my favorite thread on this forum in recent memory. Seriously, I appreciate the discussion, the graphs, everything. Even my beloved Stormhammer is being discussed, which practically never happens. This thread made my night. Thank you all!

What are the Stormhammer’s ideal targets, considering all of its options?

 Wolf_in_Human_Shape wrote:
This is perhaps my favorite thread on this forum in recent memory. Seriously, I appreciate the discussion, the graphs, everything. Even my beloved Stormhammer is being discussed, which practically never happens. This thread made my night. Thank you all!

What are the Stormhammer’s ideal targets, considering all of its options?

Stormhammers are my favorite tanks! This is my regiment's 5th company with some support:


I think the Stormhammer's ideal targets depend on what you kit it out with. Mine have 4 lascannons and 4 Heavy Bolters, with 0 multi lasers, as the tertiary armament. The command tank has 4 Heavy Flamers instead of Heavy Bolters. But you could give it 1 Lascannon and 7 Heavy Bolters (only because the hull lascannon is mandatory), or eight lascannons and nothing else...


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 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Can you do the Stormhammer with all it's re-rolls and stuff?

Is it also possible to apply model limits? Like the Shadowsword could do 20 wounds to a toughness 2 target, but only can kill 9 models max... (with it's main gun)

What do you want it to shoot?

What ever targets the tanks were firing at in the previous graphs.

Well, that stuff is straight mathhammer.

This is Stormhammer vs Baneblade against a Predator. Shots, damage, and hit rerolls included. Only the main cannons.

I was hoping the Stormhammer could keep up with the Baneblade thanks to it's inherent hit re-rolls and damage re rolls. Oh well!

They’re beauuuuutiful. *sniff*

I know it’s expensive, but I’m tempted to go full lascannons. That’s how mine is built (too lazy to magnetize), but just to obliterate stuff.

Shame about the main cannon, though. Every codex variant got buffed, the index variants never touched. A little boost is all it needs.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:


I was hoping the Stormhammer could keep up with the Baneblade thanks to it's inherent hit re-rolls and damage re rolls. Oh well!

Well, don't count it out. It does have a twin BC over a Demolisher which will be useful more earlier on.

Wolf_in_Human_Shape wrote:They’re beauuuuutiful. *sniff*

I know it’s expensive, but I’m tempted to go full lascannons. That’s how mine is built (too lazy to magnetize), but just to obliterate stuff.

Shame about the main cannon, though. Every codex variant got buffed, the index variants never touched. A little boost is all it needs.

Thanks! The Stormhammer is a gorgeous tank. I am tempted to make two companies of them because they look so much more boss than the other variants. I went Lascannons / Heavy Bolters because I build them for 30k in 7th, and the Stormhammer's weapon arrangement made me want to make the forward facing guns lascannons but the side guns became multilasers/heavy bolters (got changed to HBs for 8th).

Yeah the 2d6 pick highest became flat 2d6 in the codex. That said, it does essentially have two main guns if you count the twin battle cannon.

Daedalus81 wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:


I was hoping the Stormhammer could keep up with the Baneblade thanks to it's inherent hit re-rolls and damage re rolls. Oh well!

Well, don't count it out. It does have a twin BC over a Demolisher which will be useful more earlier on.

Yes, that's true. Honestly the way I have thought about it is Baneblade Cannon [Primary] Demolisher Cannon [Secondary] Bolters/Autocannon/Lascannons/Flamers [Tertiary] for weapon tiers, so the Stormhammer becomes Stormhammer Cannon [Primary], Twin Battle Cannon [Secondary], Bolters/Multilasers/Lascannons/Flamers [Tertiary].

It may be better to think of the Stormhammer of having two Primaries and no Secondaries. Part of the reason I like the Stormhammer is it doesn't fit normal Baneblade tank convention lol. And it looks boss.