40K EDITORIAL: The Las Cannon Returns! Bring back the Tacs!
Hey folks, Jawaballs here!
Information does not need to be game changing or groundshaking to be insightful. Sometimes taking a look at the game from a tried and true, but forgotten angle is all you need to do to add more scalps to your trophy rack! It definitely benefits us all to take a look back once in a while, and see how we can buck the trends. On occasion, it is the obvious that steps up and slaps us in the face for that “Duh!” moment. Today’s subject is the mighty Las-cannon.
Why Las-Cannons
My recent tournament experience has me thinking about a couple of things. First, one of the scariest armies I have faced in a long time was a marine army with four tactical squads armed with Lascannons and Razorbacks with LC and a pred with LC and Auto Cannon, plus a couple assault squads in rhinos, and a big one with a chaplain. He ended up winning that tournament! And Second, Lac-Cannons are sweet!
True, this is no ground breaking news. But in a time where armies are packing dozens of melta guns and things that hurt from 6″ away, the easiest way to deal with them is to not get within 6″. Duh! Right? This is nothing new, but warrants further discussion.
I dropped one of my expensive Baal Predators, and replaced it with a LC/AC predator instead for my last tournament just to see how much of a difference it would make. I have to say, it was refreshing to be able to reach out and touch my opponent, and fire back at him with weapons that hurt. (My Blood Angels army previously had just two Las cannons in tacticals.) For quite a while I had been preaching the effectiveness of the Baal Predator, so people were quite surprised to see those two LC on the sides of that tank! The result? It worked like a charm! Most of the armies in the tournament were tooled out with close up weapons that had to spend a turn or two getting to you so they could vaporize your transports with melta fire then assault you with overwhelming force. My Las pred made the difference, either cracking his nuts on the other side of the table making his infantry walk into a hail of Baal Predator fire, or forcing him to move where he did not want to go to avoid my field of fire.
In all three games, the tank gave me the ranged fire support I was sorely, and stubbornly missing. Against a tyranid army, it was responsible for dealing out close to a dozen monstrous creature wounds before he finally got to it. Against Chaos it beat down those Defiler crabs with ease leaving him nothing to fight my Furioso Dread coming down in a pod in his back ranks, and against marines, it kept those pesky melta Speeders at bay or sniped them from across the table and put a hurting on his “baby-Baal” assault cannon razorbacks forcing them to stay out of range and pretty much dividing his army in two. Granted, I did not have the right army composition to take advantage of these new benefits, so I did not do all that well, but it was a glimpse of things to come!
Using the Las-Cannon
Currently a BA tank with autocannon and LC Sponsons costs about as much as two attack bikes and two power weapons. If the new dex follows the trend and prices in the other books, the price should be reduced to just the cost of two attack bikes, allowing me to spend the rest of those points buying more weapon upgrades for other units. For the buck, I challenge you to find a better bang! How could any list I write not include one? When thinking about my future army, I am starting with this option, supported by a Dakka Baal. The Wham/Bam combo. With the LC pred deployed in the middle of the table, on my edge, it can reach any where else on the table. This will also keep it safe from Flank Marching units.
Now to take this further. When you watch war movies, what has happened to every tank that advanced on it’s own. Sticky bombs in the treads in Private Ryan. Wolverines throwing grenades in the turret in Red Dawn. The list goes on and on. But how about Full Metal Jacket? Towards the end when the infantry was advancing into the burned out town, they had tank support. The tank was advancing while the infantry was surrounding it. They were using it as cover, and protecting it at the same time. This combination made both units stronger then they could be alone. The principal is the same when applied to 40k.
A LC pred sitting on the back line alone is a vulnerable target. But throw in a couple of tactical or combat squads with LC razors and you have a fire base. If there is no cover, you wrap the infantry around the tank so that 50% of the squad is getting cover, and they are also granting cover to the tank! If they argue that 50% of the tank is not obscured, a 5+ save is the rule book norm. If you see a danger approach, you can intercept it with the squads. Place the razors on the flanks to protect the more valuable Pred, but don’t block it’s LoS.
If you are lucky, you were able to set up terrain and low walls to give the tank and infantry cover. The tank gets saves from the wall and the infantry gets saves from the area terrain piece. They can fan out in a more effectively now too and wont have to move to intercept incoming fast movers. Now they can spread out around the tank, and deny speeders and bikes the space to land and get the 2d6 melta shot.
For at least a couple of rounds you should be shooting the four shots from the pred, plus LC shots from the squads and razors. It should equalize some of those IG armies that are pounding on you, or slow down those now “invincible” Ork steam rollers. And most importantly, it is a cost effective answer to the lack of Space Marine range!
This does not just apply to LC Preds. How bout your Land Raider? Who says you have to charge your LR into combat. It has two Twin Linked LC that can split fire! Plus you can put a cheap combat squad inside with bolters and a power weapon. They will claim an objective from inside a pretty safe bunker, and if something gets close, they can disembark and assault! Again, another “Duh!” moment, but is it really that silly a tactic to point out? Simple wins.
Las-Cannon Conclusions
What I am finally getting at here is that a Space Marine gun line is a formidable army that you do not see very often. Take a butt load of tacticals, give them each a LC and put them in cover. Support them with a good dose of LC preds or Land Raiders, balanced with plenty of close up dakka, and you are good to go. Throw in some missle launcher snipers for a little cinnamon on your oatmeal. If I am not mistaken, Lysander can strengthen defenses and makes bolters Twin Linked? Perfect! Throw him into your generic SM army and hold the line! Sure this army has it’s weaknesses… but the question is, will the armies at the tournament you are attending have the strengths to exploit them?
In the age of very small, very expensive but super killy armies, a gun line marine horde army bristling with Las Cannons might just be the answer! For roughly 1100 points you can put 60 generic marines and scouts on the table with upgrades then spend the rest of the points buying cheap tanks and close range support and transport. That is a big bowl of sweetness that I would love to take a bite of.
So lets hear your thoughts on the lascannons, gunlines and their use of late in your games.
Jawaballs
