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The latest in the 30k AdMech translation series - and the first CULT MECHANICUS tank for AdMech. Lore can be found here.

Krios Exterminator (Heavy Support, Power Rating 7)

1 Krios Exterminator (7+ wounds remaining): M 12"; WS 6+; BS 3+; S 6; T 7; W 12; A 3; Ld 8; Sv 3+
1 Krios Exterminator (4-6 wounds remaining): M 10"; WS 6+; BS 4+; S 6; T 7; W N/A; A D3; Ld 8; Sv 3+
1 Krios Exterminator (1-3 wounds remaining): M 8"; WS 6+; BS 5+; S 6; T 7; W N/A; A 1; Ld 8; Sv 3+

A Krios Exterminator is equipped with: Krios lightning cannon; anbaric claw.

Wargear

Wargear Options

This model’s Krios lightning cannon can be replaced with 1 pulsar fusil.

Abilities

Canticles of the Omnissiah: See Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus, pg 84-85.

Explodes: When this model is destroyed, roll one D6 before removing it from play. On a 6 it explodes, and each unit within 6" suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Flare shield: This model has a 5+ invulnerable save against ranged attacks. In addition, each time a ranged attack is made against this model, if the attacker is more than 12" away, reduce the Strength characteristic of that attack by 1, to a minimum of 1.

Galvanic Traction Drive: This model can ignore any or all modifiers to its Move characteristic, Advance rolls and charge rolls (not including changes to its profile determined by its remaining wounds). This model does not suffer the penalty to hit rolls incurred for firing Assault weapons in the same turn that it Advanced.

Keywords

Faction: IMPERIUM, ADEPTUS MECHANICUS, CULT MECHANICUS, <FORGE WORLD>

Keywords: VEHICLE, SMOKESCREEN, KRIOS EXTERMINATOR

Points Costs




Automatically Appended Next Post:
In mechanical/balance terms, the Krios is probably best-understood as a variant of the Onager Dunecrawler; its lightning cannon/pulsar fusil is a bit weaker against the intended infantry/vehicle targets than the Onager's twin phosphor blaster/neutron laser options, and it doesn't get cognis stubbers. In exchange, it's significantly faster; +4" base move, its guns are both Assault and ignore the Advance penalty, its Movement degrades less than other tanks, and it ignores difficult terrain and other movement modifiers.

It's also tougher at range; anyone trying to shoot at it from beyond 12" will eat a -1S penalty, which can be painful for multi-meltas, plasma guns, autocannons or even cheeky bolt rifles. On the other hand, its invulnerable save doesn't work against melee, and its guns are shorter range, so there's more risk of the enemy getting inside that "bubble" in the first place.

The primary unambiguous "gain" over the Onager is its anbaric claw; effectively the electrocution defense system from the Batmobile, but in forcefield form. This basically gives it a free heavy flamer for each enemy unit in melee, used as melee attacks. A nasty defense system if you don't die to the initial thunder hammer attacks.

I’m leery of a three shot weapon that can be D8.

 JNAProductions wrote:
I’m leery of a three shot weapon that can be D8.

Hmmm. Neutron Laser is Heavy D3, with twice the range, at Damage D3+3 by default. I feel like the Pulsar's only going to get up to scary Damage against a) stuff that was low-Toughness to start, which generally won't have many wounds to begin with, b) bigger stuff that it hits several times, which is the whole point of its "cascade" effect.

Against, say, a Predator, you're looking at 3 shots, 2 hits; the first hit is S6 vs T5, so it wounds on 3s and has D4. The second hit is S6 vs T3, so it wounds on 2s and has D6. Total average damage of 7.66 at 24", compared to a Devil Dog dealing 4.66 at 24" or 7.33 at 12". The most extreme damage you could manage against something like a Leman Russ would be three shots that all hit and wound (on a 4+/3+/2+), for a total of 15 damage... but that requires enough good rolls to kill it with basically any anti-vehicle tool you care to name anyway, no gimmicks required.

Superheavy infantry are more in danger due to being T5 (and therefore being wounded on a 2+ with D6 to start with), but... how many of them even have more than 3 wounds? Functionally, it's just a Heavy 3 S10 D3 gun against them. Which already exists in a few factions, more or less. A light vehicle with T5 (for immediate 2+ to wound, 6 Damage) and 5+ wounds (to avoid wasting extra damage) that comes in a unit (to avoid wasting extra shots) is the "ideal" target for the Pulsar Fusil. That's... yeah, things like Penitent Engines, Killa Kans, Tetras. The Pulsar Fusil just deletes those.

Another concern, now that you've raised it, would be CHARACTERS, because they both have enough Wounds to be threatened by extra Damage, and often low enough Toughness that the extra Damage will kick in before landing that first hit. A Space Marine Captain is staring down 3 shots that wound on a 2+ and deal 7-8 Damage each... but that's what Look Out, Sir is for, surely?

Originally the Fusil was Assault 4, D1, to emphasise the scaling further, but those stats made it too much of an obvious Marine-shredder, as opposed to emphasising its tank destroyer role. I could knock it down to Damage D3 base?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alternatively, I could cap the Damage more cleanly? Something like:

Pulsar fusil: Range 24”, Type Assault 3, Strength 6, AP -4, Damage D3; Abilities: Each time the bearer scores a hit with this weapon, reduce the Toughness characteristic of models in the target unit by 2, to a minimum of 1, until the bearer's shooting is resolved. Each time an attack made with this weapon is allocated to a model with a Toughness characteristic of 5 or less, that attack has a Damage characteristic of 2D3. Each time an attack made with this weapon is allocated to a model with a Toughness characteristic of 3 or less, that attack has a Damage characteristic of D3+3.

Pulsar fusil: Range 24”, Type Assault 3, Strength 6, AP -4, Damage 1; Abilities: Each time the bearer scores a hit with this weapon, add 2 to the Damage characteristic of this weapon and reduce the Toughness characteristic of models in the target unit by 2, (to a minimum of 1), until the bearer's shooting is resolved.

Pulsar fusil: Range 24”, Type Assault 3, Strength 6, AP -4, Damage 8; Abilities: Each time the bearer scores a hit with this weapon, reduce the Toughness characteristic of models in the target unit by 2, (to a minimum of 1), until the bearer's shooting is resolved. Each time the bearer makes a successful wound roll for an attack made with this weapon, reduce this weapon's Damage characteristic by the result of the wound roll for that attack.

The first version does nothing to stop it from wiping up Penitent Engines like a spilled drink, but divides the damage into three brackets of D3 (for stuff you're wounding on 4s and 5s), 2D3 (for stuff you're wounding on 3+) and D3+3 (for stuff you're wounding on a 2+). That's more straightforward, at least, and avoids the 8 Damage high end.

The second version is even simpler, and ignores the Toughness characteristic to just make it a scaling Damage bonus per hit. Needless to say, this is much weaker against anything but T8 (where it's identical), and at that point I might as well just ditch the Toughness aspect to make it +1 to wound if you already hit the guy this phase. The third version is the weirdest, but probably the most straightforward in terms of outcome; it effectively turns the damage into D6, but with the cap set by how easily you wounded the enemy.

Ended up heavily simplifying the Pulsar Fusil. It now just starts off at S8/D3 and gains +4S/+2D with each hit. The first hit is S8/D3, the second is S12/D5, the third hit is S16/D7.

You can obviously use re-rolls and Awaken the Machine to make those three hits very likely, but overall it averages out to a similar damage output vs tanks as a Devil Dog with multi-melta or a Dunecrawler with Neutron Beamer.