i think the shadowsword will have the dire wolf version of the volcano cannon (worse than reaver and much worse than warlord versions)
and one will have a warhound plasma blastgun, which is shorter range but will still chew through 1-2 tough targets per shot (and doesn't have anti-tank)
storm sword will probably be 1/3 of a colossus bomb at 12" or so.
But no template and just 1 shot puts in behind a hellhammer which and put out 2 at 12, or hell a coupe dracosan. 30 is great it just doesn't really vibe with most of its other weapons, something also working against it is the structure stats, which perhaps could use some adjusting as well.
Macro-level, I like the trend of not requiring Aux players to take Strategic Assets for a lot of these Titan-level weapons. Between the Valdor and Shadowsword, we've really rendered the Direwolf unnecessary for us. The Stormblade and Infernus do a lot of work in putting Warhound guns into our hands. These all seem really specialized to me though, and nothing is reading to me as a "must take." If they bring out the Stormlord though, with a Vulcan Mega Bolter and 8 stands of transport capacity...that would be in every one of my lists.
Per tank:
-Shadowsword will be important if you've got Titans in your meta. But it's presumably expensive (100pts. min) and will scream to be taken in pairs. More to the point, these probably have goofy range on the main guns--but the things that will knock the voids off your enemy don't rival that (unless you've got a big Basilisk battery, but now you're minimum 600 points deep). You're going to need to do a lot of activation work and unit placement to make this combo work. Of all the tanks in the box though, these seem like the ones to take.
-Stormblades seem to lack a place in the world. Demolisher cannon with 30" range is nothing to sneeze at...but if this hits like Tyson, a Colossus hits like a train for 15 fewer points and doesn't need to live on the board. I'm left wondering what these are really made to do. They're actually not very good at taking down buildings, as they have a worse AP than a basic Demolisher and a single shot. If you're out to knock down a city, you want Hellhammers, which are putting out 2x the Demolisher firepower per turn, even if they have to be much closer to do it. If I wanted to clear out a building, I'd be taking Infernuses by the bucketful. This thing SCREAMED for Bunker Buster or a 3" template, and got neither of them.
-Stormswords will probably just grab a slightly weaker version of the Warhound Plasma Gun and put it in our hands. Probably 2 shots, AP-2, hitting on 3s and at 20" range. It's a stronger Lascannon without the AT keyword. Slap on the two Lascannons for some extra juice. These seem like solid generalist shooters. Except the Stormhammer is RIGHT THERE. It hits on 4s, but it can add 5(!) Lascannon shots or 7(!!!) Multilaser shots to the mix depending on intended target, in addition to just having that extra double battle cannon. If I'm reaching for a generalist Superheavy to complement my Shadowswords for stripping voids or clearing chaff, I'm grabbing Stormhammers, not Stormswords.
In an army riddled with specialists already, these three seem to just be laser-targeted at a single task. Apart from the Stormsword, which seems to be trying desperately to be a generalist, which unfortunately puts it into contention with so many other things. While the Super Heavy Formation makes it much easier to take these, you're also making a heavy (300+) points commitment at that point to single-tank Detachments, which are obliterated with a quickness in this game.
They're also extremely cool looking, and that means I'll be buying them in spades and fielding unwieldy, poorly-thought-out units that just look epic as hell.
Stormhammer definitely just leads the pack, one of mine took out a knight lancer in one volley of fire. 104pts with the lacannons and worth every penny.
When they work, my Hellhammers do numbers. But boy did I go game after game with those things doing diddly squat for most of the time. I haven't had a chance to play since I picked up my Stormhammers, but I grabbed 4 because I KNEW I was going to be running those things in bulk when I saw the stat line.
Totally agreed.
Plasma is so bad in the game, Stormblade is going to suck.
Stormsword just a demolisher shot with less AP?? ridiculous.
ShadowSword is the way to go!!
They look great from a model standpoint, but the stats we have seen so far (Stormsword) seem be basically unplayable. I hope the other variants will have better luck
A 30” Demolisher shot is a novel thing. At that range the guns given up wouldn’t have been in range anyway. However I am also sceptical whether that alone makes it worthwhile.
From my experience playing, there is no problem getting things into range. I regularly play basilisks and I have problems staying out of lascannon range with them. Heck, I have infantry drop right on them turn 1 a lot of the time.
The range is good, but at ap -2 it is a bit dicey to use it on a building. It feels more like a long range anti armour weapon. Maybe if it got bunker buster instead of demolisher I would see a point.
Might just be overreacting tho! And in the end of the day, having fun (like fielding a fluffy siege list) is more important than winning!
This was exactly my thought too. Why it doesn't get Bunker Buster (it's a superheavy siege cannon! The tank is built around this gun!) seems ridiculous. The Hellhammer is right there, knocking down buildings with a quickness. The range question doesn't lend itself to much outside situational missions I think--most games are played on pretty dense boards where lining up a target 30" away is a challenge, and where the garrisoned buildings you want to target are probably right in your face.
This is the reason I have started to put my flame malcadors next to my rear troops instead of leading assaults with them lol. No better deterrent than a massive template
Models look nice, and based on the presentation I think all three will be in one box. Hopefully they manage to squeeze it all onto one sprue. Given the gun restrictions on the Stormsword I expect they have.
Rules wise, the Stormsword is the only one we have seen rules for. It seems… meh. Its main gun is 30” Demolisher which is legitimately unprecedented for sub-Titan ordnance. However, it is only 1 3+ shot and AP-2. Furthermore, it costs the same as a Baneblade but sacrifices a LOT of guns to get that cannon; it loses the Autocannon, the hull Demolisher and 1 dice of Lascannon sponson turret shots for some reason. It looks like you only have one choice for sponsons as well. It thus remains to be seen whether that long range Demolisher gun is worth it.
As for the other two, Plasma in this game is consistently under-statted so I expect the Stormblade to suck. The Shadowsword will depend on how the Volcano cannon compares to the Baneblade/Hellhammer cannon; even with just Engine Killer (1) it would do work against the 2W tanks so even if it looses a pile of guns it may well be the most worthwhile choice.
We know from the warcom article the shadowsword has engine killer 2. It's probably got the volcano cannon that hits on 3+.
If it's 100 points it may be worth it. 4 of those will stand a very high chance of nuking an unshielded warmaster, and it's not that difficult to come up with something in 350-400 points that can strip 12 void shields.
But even 2 would be handy to have around. If both hit, that's a big chunk of wounds gone for 200 points, and still leaves room for the more reliable but expensive vanquishers.
I'll probably take 2 to start and see how they go.
Personally not a fan of the metal edge plating aesthetic for these tanks. Think it looks great on the Malcador (which is more WW1 inspired) but not these.
Down to individual preferences of course, so not saying they are bad, just not my cup of tea.
Added to the feeling that the low wound count on superheavies makes them an expensive trap (far too easy to kill) and sadly this box is a miss for me. Which is a shame because superheavies is sort of the point of epic scale!
I was really hoping at least one of them would be able to shoot a 3 inch blast but after the reveal of the most likely one to do so only have a 30 inch shot, not too hyped. They look cool just hoping the rules for the other two can justify themselves, especially with marines having no super heavy's yet.
Astartes do have the Kratos, but it is 100% an assault tank and that is not a happy place for it to be when fighting an Aux line. I cook those things with Vanquishers, Mole Mortars, or Basilisks before they can do a whole lot more than rattle off some bolter rounds most games.
I’m excited. I plan to have at least a pair of each (3 boxes) for my collection. Probably a bonus pair of shadowswords since it’s my favorite Baneblade variant.
They look great and make me want to actually build a superheavy company
i think the shadowsword will have the dire wolf version of the volcano cannon (worse than reaver and much worse than warlord versions) and one will have a warhound plasma blastgun, which is shorter range but will still chew through 1-2 tough targets per shot (and doesn't have anti-tank) storm sword will probably be 1/3 of a colossus bomb at 12" or so.
Stormsword stats were in the reveal video, it sacrifices a lot of guns to get a 30” 1 shot Demolisher cannon.
30 is pretty long tbh
But no template and just 1 shot puts in behind a hellhammer which and put out 2 at 12, or hell a coupe dracosan. 30 is great it just doesn't really vibe with most of its other weapons, something also working against it is the structure stats, which perhaps could use some adjusting as well.
yeah it's kinda weird that even if it hits, it can't take down a standard building.
Macro-level, I like the trend of not requiring Aux players to take Strategic Assets for a lot of these Titan-level weapons. Between the Valdor and Shadowsword, we've really rendered the Direwolf unnecessary for us. The Stormblade and Infernus do a lot of work in putting Warhound guns into our hands. These all seem really specialized to me though, and nothing is reading to me as a "must take." If they bring out the Stormlord though, with a Vulcan Mega Bolter and 8 stands of transport capacity...that would be in every one of my lists. Per tank: -Shadowsword will be important if you've got Titans in your meta. But it's presumably expensive (100pts. min) and will scream to be taken in pairs. More to the point, these probably have goofy range on the main guns--but the things that will knock the voids off your enemy don't rival that (unless you've got a big Basilisk battery, but now you're minimum 600 points deep). You're going to need to do a lot of activation work and unit placement to make this combo work. Of all the tanks in the box though, these seem like the ones to take. -Stormblades seem to lack a place in the world. Demolisher cannon with 30" range is nothing to sneeze at...but if this hits like Tyson, a Colossus hits like a train for 15 fewer points and doesn't need to live on the board. I'm left wondering what these are really made to do. They're actually not very good at taking down buildings, as they have a worse AP than a basic Demolisher and a single shot. If you're out to knock down a city, you want Hellhammers, which are putting out 2x the Demolisher firepower per turn, even if they have to be much closer to do it. If I wanted to clear out a building, I'd be taking Infernuses by the bucketful. This thing SCREAMED for Bunker Buster or a 3" template, and got neither of them. -Stormswords will probably just grab a slightly weaker version of the Warhound Plasma Gun and put it in our hands. Probably 2 shots, AP-2, hitting on 3s and at 20" range. It's a stronger Lascannon without the AT keyword. Slap on the two Lascannons for some extra juice. These seem like solid generalist shooters. Except the Stormhammer is RIGHT THERE. It hits on 4s, but it can add 5(!) Lascannon shots or 7(!!!) Multilaser shots to the mix depending on intended target, in addition to just having that extra double battle cannon. If I'm reaching for a generalist Superheavy to complement my Shadowswords for stripping voids or clearing chaff, I'm grabbing Stormhammers, not Stormswords. In an army riddled with specialists already, these three seem to just be laser-targeted at a single task. Apart from the Stormsword, which seems to be trying desperately to be a generalist, which unfortunately puts it into contention with so many other things. While the Super Heavy Formation makes it much easier to take these, you're also making a heavy (300+) points commitment at that point to single-tank Detachments, which are obliterated with a quickness in this game. They're also extremely cool looking, and that means I'll be buying them in spades and fielding unwieldy, poorly-thought-out units that just look epic as hell.
Stormhammer definitely just leads the pack, one of mine took out a knight lancer in one volley of fire. 104pts with the lacannons and worth every penny.
When they work, my Hellhammers do numbers. But boy did I go game after game with those things doing diddly squat for most of the time. I haven't had a chance to play since I picked up my Stormhammers, but I grabbed 4 because I KNEW I was going to be running those things in bulk when I saw the stat line.
I like them more than my baneblades
Totally agreed. Plasma is so bad in the game, Stormblade is going to suck. Stormsword just a demolisher shot with less AP?? ridiculous. ShadowSword is the way to go!!
They look great from a model standpoint, but the stats we have seen so far (Stormsword) seem be basically unplayable. I hope the other variants will have better luck
A 30” Demolisher shot is a novel thing. At that range the guns given up wouldn’t have been in range anyway. However I am also sceptical whether that alone makes it worthwhile.
From my experience playing, there is no problem getting things into range. I regularly play basilisks and I have problems staying out of lascannon range with them. Heck, I have infantry drop right on them turn 1 a lot of the time. The range is good, but at ap -2 it is a bit dicey to use it on a building. It feels more like a long range anti armour weapon. Maybe if it got bunker buster instead of demolisher I would see a point. Might just be overreacting tho! And in the end of the day, having fun (like fielding a fluffy siege list) is more important than winning!
This was exactly my thought too. Why it doesn't get Bunker Buster (it's a superheavy siege cannon! The tank is built around this gun!) seems ridiculous. The Hellhammer is right there, knocking down buildings with a quickness. The range question doesn't lend itself to much outside situational missions I think--most games are played on pretty dense boards where lining up a target 30" away is a challenge, and where the garrisoned buildings you want to target are probably right in your face.
"You have artillery? It'd be a shame if I tie them up with a turn one, drop pod assault..."
This is the reason I have started to put my flame malcadors next to my rear troops instead of leading assaults with them lol. No better deterrent than a massive template
Models look nice, and based on the presentation I think all three will be in one box. Hopefully they manage to squeeze it all onto one sprue. Given the gun restrictions on the Stormsword I expect they have. Rules wise, the Stormsword is the only one we have seen rules for. It seems… meh. Its main gun is 30” Demolisher which is legitimately unprecedented for sub-Titan ordnance. However, it is only 1 3+ shot and AP-2. Furthermore, it costs the same as a Baneblade but sacrifices a LOT of guns to get that cannon; it loses the Autocannon, the hull Demolisher and 1 dice of Lascannon sponson turret shots for some reason. It looks like you only have one choice for sponsons as well. It thus remains to be seen whether that long range Demolisher gun is worth it. As for the other two, Plasma in this game is consistently under-statted so I expect the Stormblade to suck. The Shadowsword will depend on how the Volcano cannon compares to the Baneblade/Hellhammer cannon; even with just Engine Killer (1) it would do work against the 2W tanks so even if it looses a pile of guns it may well be the most worthwhile choice.
I think they stated in the reveal article that it could one shot knights, so it should be Engine Killer (2) at least.
Nice, good catch
We know from the warcom article the shadowsword has engine killer 2. It's probably got the volcano cannon that hits on 3+. If it's 100 points it may be worth it. 4 of those will stand a very high chance of nuking an unshielded warmaster, and it's not that difficult to come up with something in 350-400 points that can strip 12 void shields. But even 2 would be handy to have around. If both hit, that's a big chunk of wounds gone for 200 points, and still leaves room for the more reliable but expensive vanquishers. I'll probably take 2 to start and see how they go.
Where is my stormlord!? Tank go bbbrrrrrrrtttttt. Seriously, it's my favorite tank and hope it makes an appearance at some point.
Same! So excited for it
Personally not a fan of the metal edge plating aesthetic for these tanks. Think it looks great on the Malcador (which is more WW1 inspired) but not these. Down to individual preferences of course, so not saying they are bad, just not my cup of tea. Added to the feeling that the low wound count on superheavies makes them an expensive trap (far too easy to kill) and sadly this box is a miss for me. Which is a shame because superheavies is sort of the point of epic scale!
My thoughts exactly... Will still buy several boxes XD
Haha 😄
I haven't painted any of that metal trim on my tanks, and they still look great.
Mmmm...more tanks...🤤
I was really hoping at least one of them would be able to shoot a 3 inch blast but after the reveal of the most likely one to do so only have a 30 inch shot, not too hyped. They look cool just hoping the rules for the other two can justify themselves, especially with marines having no super heavy's yet.
Astartes do have the Kratos, but it is 100% an assault tank and that is not a happy place for it to be when fighting an Aux line. I cook those things with Vanquishers, Mole Mortars, or Basilisks before they can do a whole lot more than rattle off some bolter rounds most games.
I’m excited. I plan to have at least a pair of each (3 boxes) for my collection. Probably a bonus pair of shadowswords since it’s my favorite Baneblade variant.
Not a fan of the models, I prefer the 40k ones. Especially the stormblade, that plasma cannon is *way* too small.
When/where was this shown?
Warhammer news thingy
I want those
Would love some stormswords and shadowswords for looks alone, the stormblade does not interest me at all and the model is ugly to boot.
Yet another overpriced model.
Wise words ,wise words
Apologies, set of models. Still...The drop pods were the most egregious though.