Warhammer 40K:Beware the Astraeus Super Heavy Tank
The Primaris super-heavy is now a lean, mean fighting machine thanks to Chapter Approved. Take a look at one wicked tank you should take a second glance at.
Do you all remember when the Astraeus came in out 2017? It’s ok if you forgot, as it kind of came and went in the early rollout days of the Primaris Marines in 8th, so folks were kinda busy taking everything else in about the new edition.
It’s datasheet was kinda cool, and it was one of the first vehicles linked somewhat to the new Primaris grav vehicle designs. It’s got a lot of wounds, high toughness, void shields, souped up Repulsor fields, the all important FLY keyword and decent guns.
Unfortunately it was also fairly pricey, and a fully equipped one ran into the 700s point range. It was quickly forgotten and the meta moved on.
But the game has changed in key ways in the last 2 years. One, Knights and in particular the Castellan came along and got people used to playing a pretty penny for uber units to stick into their armies. Now Chapter Approved comes along and slashes the price of the Astraeus by a cool 100pts!
The weapons are unchanged, so a default equiped one clocks in at 605 pts. LESS than a default equipped Castellan.
Enter the Marines
Now add in the new Space Marine craziness and put it all together. An Imperial Fists Astraeus’ Macro-Accellerator’s can put out flat 4 damage per shot – and it gets TWELVE of those a turn. There are of course all kinds of other Chapter combos out there to be exploited. Then remember those big gun’s ability to ignore negative to hit modifiers versus anything with the FLY keyword. I can tell you some Flying Circus lists are getting really anxious about now.
I’m not saying the Astraeus is the be all end all to the meta. What I’m saying is that I think it’s worth your strong consideration if you are a Marine player, and its increased presence on tabletops could have a direct affect on some other top armies.
~Time will tell. What do you think of the tank now?
