Escalation really is a fun and laudable goal for game – letting you play with big toys. It just gave you the completely wrong models to use. Let’s fix that.
Pocket Superheavies
So first off what exactly is a “Pocket Superheavy”? Well it is a baby super-heavy. Something that you can easily add into your games to have fun with the Escalation book – have fun, but not overwhelm anyone. I usually shoot for something in the 400pt range, and 4-7 hullpoints. It turns out that there are a BUNCH of these out there form Forgeworld, and most of them aren’t even packing D weapons.
Our Opinion on Destroyers
Speaking of D weapons – I think these are getting kind of a bad rap these days. Remember that for you who play big Apocalypse games – D-Weapons are needed. They are the top of the food chain and fill a critical duty – they get scary stuff off the table and into the dead model pile.
It seems obvious, but for those who aren’t used to Apoc games, without D weapons, you often end up with a moshpit in the center of the table on turn 3 that just gets silly and unmanagable. Who really wants to resolve a billion complicated assaults between dozens of crappy units anyway? Well you drop a few D-weapons into those jams (something templates “miss”) and suddenly you can clear out jams and your generals can start to come up with plans for victory.
But the issue in 40K is the same as in Apoc. They need to be balanced, and in general, they only start to become a problem when superheavies are mounting them in large numbers (so they can split fire). Even a standard 40K army can often survive the attentions of an opponent who can drop a single small or large blast D template on you each turn. You’ll lose a couple of units, and some template will miss. You’ll live. This is very different from facing off with a protected SH monster who can drop say 4 a turn on you (Revenant), or 8 (Reaver)!
The List So without further ado, here is the official BoLS list of “Pocket Superheavies” that you should try out in your games. They won’t totally unbalance things, and you’ll have a lot of fun seeing cool new toys on the tabletop.
IG
Malcador series ~6 hullpoints and lots of standard game weapons
Macharius series ~6 hullpoints and mounting a single titan weapon equivalent at best
Baneblades – they are a little potent but not too bad.
Eldar
Lynx ~such a fun model, 6 hull points, easy to kill and can turn into a flyer!
Scorpion ~what the Revenant should have been.
Cobra ~Yes, these both mount Ds, but only one. Trust me, you can bring em down!
Orks
Gargantuan Squiggoth ~Can it get any more fun?
Battle Fortress ~Like a Stompa – with tracks…
Stompa
Tyranids
Heirodule ~A complete mystery why it is not in the Escalation book
Harridan
Space Marines
Thunderhawk
CSM/Chaos Daemons Zaraknyal ~She knows you want her… Chaos Thunderhawk ~Loyalists got their’s so it’s only fair…
Necrons
Gauss Pylon ~Deepstriking immobile superheavy with a single shot D-gun. Its just cool.
Tau
Tigershark AX-1-0 ~the one that should be in the book; BANG BANG!
Tigershark
~So grab those Forgeworld books, do some digging and have fun. Escalation is here to stay, just use some better models to have even more fun at the tabletop.
Dad, Gamer, Publisher, Pilot, Texan. All games all the time since junior-high.
I started BoLS Interactive in 2006. I’m a lifelong tabletop & RPG gaming enthusiast, and internet publisher working to entertain and inform my readers every day.
I've been playing RPGs and Tabletop Games since the 1970s. I'm been playing and covering Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for over 35 years.
