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Hey Dakka,

I've been thinking about beefing up my IG army, and I stumbled across the Manticore Launcher. I haven't used it and although some people seem to swear by it, I haven't seen it used at my LGS since 6th edition appeared.

From what I can see, it has the same armor as a Chimera and a potential of up to 12 S10 large blasts per game at incredible ranges-basically a light tank with a bullseye painted on it. If it's placed anywhere in sight, it's dead, but it's Ordnance Barrage, so no LOS needed. My main concern is fast or deep strike heavy armies like DE, KoS, other full mech armies, Spore/Pod armies, Daemons, flyer spam etc. I want to field it for its awesome firepower, but how do you do that effectively? And how would you equip it? What other units would you team it up with? Any thoughts?

The manticore is a great piece of hardware for the points you pay for it, however, it comes with a huge caveat: there's no guarantee how many shots you will get off.

Personally I tend to run my manticores in a minimal configuration, possibly with some camo-netting if i suspect the site will come under fire.

The problem is that a single manticore occupies a whole HS-slot by itself and if you're unlucky with the dice you will only get the 4 str 10 templates per battle.
If you want a more reliable piece (albeit at a higher point total) i'd go with two basilisks, sure you lose 1 in strength but ap3 and the guaranteed two shots/turn make up for it IMO.

Bubble wrap it and 2 others like it in infantry. If you are mech then surround it with 2 russes and your Chimera's so they cannot deep strike into it. You'll be susceptible to blasts as well though.

Thanks for the first comments. guys.
tracer: The Basilisk's minimum range gives me pause. Do you have any suggestions to make it less crippling on a 4'x4' board? I do play at 6' sometimes, but still that's one hell of a minimum range.
Blaggard: I'm afraid I can't get 3 Manticores and Russes with a single FOC. Would you still recommend the Manticore for a less-than-2000 pts list?

Hedkrakka wrote:
Thanks for the first comments. guys.
tracer: The Basilisk's minimum range gives me pause. Do you have any suggestions to make it less crippling on a 4'x4' board? I do play at 6' sometimes, but still that's one hell of a minimum range.

Minimum range doesn't exist anymore as per the 6th edition Barrage rules, so don't worry about that.

 Kingsley wrote:

Hedkrakka wrote:
Thanks for the first comments. guys.
tracer: The Basilisk's minimum range gives me pause. Do you have any suggestions to make it less crippling on a 4'x4' board? I do play at 6' sometimes, but still that's one hell of a minimum range.

Minimum range doesn't exist anymore as per the 6th edition Barrage rules, so don't worry about that.

<This>

It was useless in 5th when the minimum range played havoc with tactics, now its just pure unadulterated goodness, just as heavy artillery was meant to be

Wow, didn't know that! Thanks a lot, Kingsley and tracer! I just decided to rip off all the Orky parts of my Looted Wagons (they're converted from Basilisks) and use them with my IG!

I was suggesting 1 manti and 2 russes for 3 FoC in total.

If you haven't built them yet, leave the weapon part off the chassis and custom build alternate weapon platforms such as the basilisk gun.

Manticores are good anti-spam units. They're good against mech spam, not because they're good at killing vehicles, but because they're capable of peeling off 1 HP from many vehicles simultaneously if they're really crammed in a single space. Likewise, they're good against big hordes of infantry where you know you're going to get a fair number of hits in.

What they're not good at, though, is killing individual units. Ap4 means you're still searching for 6's to kill vehicles, and it also means that you're not doing that much to small elite units (with 3+ or better Sv), or individual units like monstrous creatures.

Instead, they lay a lot of general damage down, and hope on the rest of the army to finish things off for them.

When I run them I run 2, again death through attrition. Let them soften anything up, or let them lay havoc on vehicles.