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So there are plenty of shiny Forge World tanks for 30k, but I am looking to collect some leman russ variants and was just wondering how folks on this forum think the Vanquisher fits into the Horus Heresy? I mean its main gun alone would seem to be a nice touch, considering it's one of the only weapons I know of that can take out a flare shielded AV14 armor facing *cough Spartan cough*. I mean personally I've relied on my lightning with kraken missile for my Spartan cracker, but Vanquisher tanks (while missing out on being able to get BS4, and Tank Hunters) have the benefit some some very tough armor, more maneuverable (considering the restrictions of flyer movement your strike fighter maybe be unable to line up secondary targets, or even get a second shot at its main target without exiting combat air space), able to contribute from turn 1, and their main gun isn't a one shot weapon. Has anyone had experience using Vanquishers or facing them?

They're good, but they need a Tank Commander to make 'em viable or else that BS3 really hurts them hard.

Having Outflank doesn't hurt either, although it's useful to keep 'em in your main gunline sometimes.

Well I was thinking of taking a squad of 3 Vanquishers for my Imperialis Militia so sadly no BS4, however part of my overall strategy is making use of an Ammunition Dump so they may be rerolling 1's which can almost be as good

I cant remember, are they the ones that get "fast" for one turn?

No that's just solar auxilia ones. They also come with a 6+ save vs templates. My milita are just the cheap, mothballed versions lol

While I haven't used them in my own Imperial militia (mainly caused I moved to Northern Nevada, the bane to 40k/30k players), of the options available to the Leman Russ, the Vanquisher as far as 30k is concerned is pretty good. Sure it lacks the blast of the battle cannon and the demolisher, but for popping heavy tanks like Land raiders and 'shudders' Fellblades, except no substitute. Armor-bane on S8 is devastating, it isn't affected by armored ceramite like melta weapons are, and for Militias, you need anti-tank covered; get a squadron of three, add lascannons and you should be good for tank busting. It'll run 495 points, which can be expensive for games less than 2000 points, but if you play 3000 or 4000 points, its perhaps the best option.

If you need extra anti-tank capabilities and are willing to go outside of GW/FW, pick up 3 kits of you choice of artillery, though I recommend Takom's 1/35 scale Krupp 21cm Morser and have them proxy as Medusa, then purchase bastion breacher shells; armor-bane with S10 AP1 will crack even the mighty Fellblade, at a slightly shorter range of 48". It'll run you about 315 points in game, but you can still use the Medusa's large blast for infantry squads.

Or if you want a cheaper option (points wise), consider getting a Militia Heavy Support squad and kit them with 5-10 lascannons. It'll run 150-300 points,but if you choose to select them with the warlord trait that give's -1AP to your weapon (exp: AP2 becomes AP1), then you can use AP1 lascannons against any vehicle and add 2 to the damage result table, 3 if they are open top. The Moral of the story; spam lascannon and this warlord trait to make your enemy cry.

Now for those crying about our gakky BS3, that's still 50/50 chance to hit, which isn't that bad. Sure it's not as good as 2/3 chance to hit, but still, you are likely to hit and do damage.

But back to the Vanquishers, if you are going to use them, park them behind your lines, bubble wrap them with infantry (I prefer Grenadiers, but that's just me and being cheap $$$ wise, conscripts are probably better for bubble wrapping), maybe have a unit or two of enginnser auxillia with servo-arm equipped servitors to repair them, and snipe the enemy tanks. Spartans aren't going to do gak to them as their quad lascannons are sponson mounted and unless they are pointing straight on to you will only get to fire one of them off, and considering that S9 Ap2 with no other modifiers mean you aren't going to be penned easily from the front.

If you want to be more aggressive, then use Demolishers; not to be mean to the Vanquisher, but the main advantage of the Vanquisher is that 72" range, and if you are getting close, then you are losing out on it. Move up 6" with the Leman Russ demolisher, and fire 24" away into it; S10 will ensure glances on 4s, pens on 5s and 6s. And before you worry about flare shields (which I'm not sure Spartans can get, but the Mechanicum's macroaid explorator can and that's a evil Spartan), htting the sides and rear negates the advantage the flare shield provides.

I hope this helps you out.

Thanks for that rundown! I definetly concur about the artillery units, and I bought 3 of those sweet BFG kits from Victoria Miniatures to play with. Since the majority of my Dark Compliance army is going to be hanging back and shooting I think that the Vanquishers will pair well with them, especially since if I put them on a flank they can take side shots at anything with a flareshielded front.

The lascannons squads, or really any of the heavy weapon squads except mortars I don't like just cause they are expensive AND a big squishy target. Even in cover I feel like a legion volkite culverin squad just has to look at them wrong for them to all desintegrate lol

Personally I'd say that if you want to field vanquishers with militia army, you'd need to run them in squadrons of two or three because solo vanquishers don't do much if your dice decide to screw you over like they did for me in tournament last Sunday. In three games I didn't manage to hit hardly anything or even if they managed to hit, they didn't penetrate.
Best choice of anti-tank would be to either get heavy weapons teams with lascannons or get pair of Malcadors and start going ramming speed.