Warhammer 40K: Astra Militarum Unit Guide, Heavy Metal – PRIME
Today let’s take a look at the biggest beefiest units of the Imperial Guard and how to use them.
That Astra Militarum, or to us old-timers the Imperial Guard, is one of the classic armies of Warhammer 40K. They represent not only one of the most massive in-universe fighting forces, but also one of the largest model ranges. Generally speaking, they are an army that requires some skill to play, but they can be very rewarding. The other week we started our deep dive in the units of the Imperial Guard and how best they are used in this new edition; we then continued looking at some of the Fast Attack and Heavy Support units. Today lets finish looking at the many units at your disposal.
Dedicated Transports
Chimera
The Chimera is the iconic Imperial Guard transport vehicle. It is a relatively cheap and durable transport option that carries many troops and has decent firepower. It’s also a bit outdated. It is armed with a hull-mounted heavy bolter, which can be replaced with a heavy flamer, a turret-mounted multi-laser (which can be swapped with either a heavy bolter or heavy flamer), and two lasgun arrays, which may only be fired is there are models in the transport, and add the equivalent of 6 lasguns to its firepower. It can also take a pintel mounted weapon.
In the past, this firepower (with as many as 21 shots), made the Chimera one of the more heavily armed dedicated transports. When coupled with its ability to allow a transported unit to fire weapons out of its top hatch it can be pretty deadly. However, in 9th you can no longer fire out of the tank, and 21 mostly light anti-infantry shots aren’t much to brag about anymore.
This leaves the venerable Chimera, which hasn’t changed much in over 20 years, in a bit of an odd place. It’s not great as a tank and is about average as a transport, which transports not being in a great place. Going forward, unless the multilaser gets better, it seems like you will always be much better off taking one of the other options, either a pair of heavy bolters to kill Marines or two heavy flamers to fire in combat. If you want a transport, it is still likely the best choice. Though it will probably cost 3x whats the troops inside cost and you might just be better off taking more of them.
Taurox
The Taurox is the newer, lighter, faster brother of the Chimera. It’s cheaper, a little weaker, but has a top speed of 14″ compared to 12″. It mounts a pair of autocannons and can take either a heavy stubber or storm bolter. It has a transport capacity of 10, two worse than the 12 of the Chimera, meaning that while it can still transport a full infantry squad, it can’t bring characters along.
The basic Taurox isn’t super popular, and with autocannons not getting better, I don’t think that will change. The extra speed isn’t enough to make up for the fact that it is easier to kill and brings a lot less firepower to the table. It doesn’t do any of its jobs as well as the Chimera and is actually slightly more expensive than a base Chimera. It’s inability to take smoke launchers hurts it, and with heavy bolters getting better I think the Taurox is in a bad place. It’s also ugly and its guns will kill anyone trying to get out of it.
Taurox Prime
The Taurox Prime is an upgraded version of the Taurox and can only be used by Militarum Tempetus units. While it has the same base stats as the Taurox, it does get upgraded to BS 3+ like all other Tempestus Prime units. It also has many upgraded weapons.
The Taurox Prime comes with a turret-mounted Taurox battle cannon, a weaker version of the regular battle cannon, but still a decent weapon. It can swap this out for either a Taurox Gatling cannon, with a mighty 20 s4 shots, or a Taurox missile launcher. On top of that primary weapon it is armed with a pair of Hot-shot volley guns (each with four shots), which can be replaced with a pair of autocannons. It can also take either a heavy stubber or storm bolters. With up to 32 shots you can see why the Chimera’s 21 isn’t top of the line anymore.
All this comes at a price, and a Taurox Prime will run you between 115 and 155 points, around 50% more than a decked out Chimera. None of this makes it better as a transport, and indeed with Tempestus Scions’ ability to deep strike its questionable if they even need a transport.
The Prime can be used as a pocket, or cheap, main battle tank, and indeed was used as such back in early 8th Edition. It’s got good firepower, and its BS 3+ makes it more reliable. Unfortunately for the Prime, at this point its not much of a pocket unit anymore, a base cost Leman Russ is only 10 points more than the tricked out Taurox Prime and with the ability to fire its turret twice (and with better guns) has superior firepower. Even a fully loaded Russ isn’t all that much more than a Prime with a lot more durability and firepower, even taking the lower BS into consideration. If you want firepower thus you are really best just to go with a Russ. If you absolutely need ground transport for your Scions, this is your best option, but really, you probably don’t need one.
Valkyries
The Valkyrie is a flying transport/gunship with a host of unique rules. While on the slower side for an Aircraft it is fairly robust, with T7 and 14 wounds, it can take a beating and keep on fighting. It also carries decent weapons, with a multi-laser, that can be replaced with a lascannon. A pair of Hellstrike missiles, upgraded krak missiles, which can be replaced by a pair of multiple rocket pods (decent anti-infantry weapons), and the ability to take a pair of heavy bolters, it can be outfitted as an effective anti-armor or anti-infantry gunship.
In addition to firepower it can carry 12 models and thanks to its Grav-chute Insertion rule they can disembark from the transport, during its movement, though if the Valkyrie moves more than 20″ they risk death. The one downside to this is that they can’t disembark within 9″ of enemy units.
This puts the Valkyrie in the position of being one of the rare transports with special rules, that just might make it good. While the inability to deploy within 9″ enemies holds it back, they can still be used to rush forward on turn one and drop infantry squads onto key objectives, potentially netting you some early VPs. Combined with their mobility, which can again help with secondaries, they could have a solid role.
Since they no longer take a -1 to move and shoot, they’ve also improved as a gunship. Indeed thanks to their Roving Gunship rule, if they chose to hover, making them slower, and no longer getting a -1 to be hit, they will get a +1 to hit, effectively making them Bs3+ which isn’t bad. They are also the only Aeronautical Imperialis unit with fly in the book and as such the only unit that get re-rolls of 1s from a friendly Officer of the Fleet.
The Valkyrie isn’t cheap, but its also not too pricey either, ranging from 120 to 165 pts. This means that throwing one or two in your lists won’t break the bank and given their utility in 9th just might be worth it for some lists.
Lords of War
Baneblade
The Baneblade is the archetypical Astra Militarium super-heavy tank, on which most others are based. This mobile fortress has a massive about of firepower but is correspondingly expensive. They deliver a ton of firepower to the table but have some major weaknesses.
The Baneblade is a strong beast, with T8, 26 wounds and 3+ save, its on par with most other Superheavies, such as a Knight. In other departments, it’s lacking, however. It has a movement of only 10″ BS 4+ and (maybe most importantly) no invulnerable save. It does carry a deadly arsenal of weapons. Its main gun is the Baneblade cannon, which at heavy 3d6, s9, ap -3, D3, and blast is nothing to scoff at. This cannon packs a punch. In addition to the main gun, it mounts a deadly Demolisher cannon and a twin heavy bolter. It can also take either 2 or 4 sponsons, with each sponson carrying a lascannon and pair of either heavy bolters or heavy flamers. Lastly, it can take a hunter-killer missile and either a heavy stubber or a storm bolter. This lets it get up to 63 shots a turn.
The Baneblade and all its variants also come with Adamantium tracks, a melee weapon. This gives it between 9-3 attacks in combat (depending on how damaged it is, at WS 5+, S9, Ap -2 and D3. It’s not a good option and you should try to stay out of combat, but it is something.
With all that firepower it will outshoot a Knight, and given the changes to heavy bolters, being able to mount 10 of them isn’t anything to scoff at. The Baneblade is truly deadly, though held back by it’s BS 4+. The real problem comes in cost and durability.
A tricked out Baneblade will run you 655 pts., or about 1/3rd your army in a standard 2000 pts game. While it’s deadly it generally isn’t amazing at killing hard targets, and its main weakness is not having an invulnerable save. In modern 40K 26 wounds just isn’t that much and armies geared to kill Knights, with their 4++ saves, will chew right through your expensive Banebalde. Despite its heavy firepower a Baneblade is often more of a liability than a real asset. (It should also be noted that if you take a single Lord of War in an aux detachment it won’t benefit from your regimental doctrines, meaning you need to take 3, effectively your whole army, to get doctrines.).
Banehammer
The Banehammer is the first of many variants of the Banebade, and one of the more divergent. It has the same core stats as the Baneblane, has the same sponson options, and also mounts a twin heavy bolter. It does however have two major differences.
The first is in its primary weapon, it exchanges both the Baneblade cannon and Demolisher cannon for a Tremor cannon. At Heavy 3d6 S8, Ap -2 and D3 the Tremor cannon is straight-up worse than the Baneblade cannon, though not by a ton, and significantly worse than the Baneblade Cannon and Demolisher Cannon combined. It does force any unit hit by it to halve its movement in the next turn (though not its charge) which is nice, but I’d rather just have a better gun and kill my target if I’m shooting 600+ points at it.
The other major difference is that the Banehammer is a transport with the ability to carry up to 25 models. While it is slow at 10″ and so not great at getting models places, it’s Firing Deck rule allows up to 10 models being transported to fire out of it. This can help augment the firepower, especially if you were to say put 3 heavy weapon squads, with a total of 9 heavy weapons, in one.
The Banehammer is only slightly cheaper than the Baneblade and has worse firepower. If you aren’t planning on putting units in it, it just isn’t worth taking. If you are, well it is just going to cost you a lot more and not be any more durable.
Banesword
The Banesword is identical to the Baneblade with the exception of its primary armament. It trades out the Banebalde cannon and Demolisher cannon for a Quake Cannon. This change makes it a bit better at anti-tank work.
The Quake cannon has a 140″ range, which is mostly overkill, is heavy 2d6 S14, AP-4 and D d6. In addition When rolling damage any rolls of 1 or 2 count as a 3. While this cannon is a bit better at anti-tank shooting, it’s not at all a huge improvement. It can do a max of 72 damage to a target vs the max of 90 damage the Baneblades primary guns do, which is actually worse. With S14 its better at wounding vs T6-7 vehicles, but the same vs T8 and AP -4 is only a bit better than AP -3. All in all vs most hard to kill, T8 targets the Baneblade is just as good if not better than the Banesword, and it’s much more versatile vs infantry. With only a 40 pts different I’d go for the blade over the sword every time.
Doomhammer
The Doomhammer is another super heavy and is effectively a variant of the Banehammer. It has the same stats and transport capacity and firing deck. Instead of the Tremor cannon, it is armed with a Magma cannon.
This super melta-gun has a 60″ range, is heavy 2d6 S10, Ap -6 and does D6 damage. At half range (30″) you roll to dice for damage and take the highest. Against heavily armored vehicles, this might make it a bit better than the Banehammer, but not by much. Unless you want the transport capacity it’s worse than the Banebalde.
Hellhammer
The Hellhammer is in all regards identical to the Baneblade with the exception of its primary weapon. Unlike most other variants it does keep the Demolisher cannon. It simply replaces the Baneblade Cannon with a Hellhammer cannon.
The Hellhammer cannon is a pretty solid weapon, with 36″ range, Heavy 3d6, S10 AP -4, D3 and blast. In addition units attack by it don’t gain a bonus to their save from being in cover. Aside from the shorter range it thus straight up, if only slightly, better than the Baneblade cannon. Given the shorter table sizes in 9th, and the size of the Hellhammer model it’s self, the 36″ range, combined with a 10″ movement is probably enough that you will only rarely need to worry about being out of range (and is greater than the Demolisher cannons range anyway.). While the tank is 40 pts more than a Baneblade the better gun is likely worth it if you can find the points.
Shadowsword
The Shadowsword is the anti-super heavy super heavy. It shares the common Baneblade line stats and trades the Baneblade cannon and Demolisher cannon for a Volcano cannon. It does not have any transport capacity.
The Volcano Cannon is a pretty impressive weapon. With 120″ Heavy 3d3 S16 Ap -5 and D 2d6 and blast. In addition, it can re-roll failed wounds when targeting titanic units. On top of that its Shadowsword Targets give you +1 to hit vs titanic units. Thus vs most Titanic units its will be hitting on 3s and wounding on 2s with a re-roll. 3d3 shots also make it fairly reliably and it has a max damage of 108.
This all seems pretty solid, and it’s not bad at killing large targets but has some major drawbacks. The 2d6 damage is very swing-y. Even if you hit and wound with everything you are still looking at minimum damage of 6- vs 9 from a Baneblade. Worse still when going up vs Knights the lack of in invulnerable save really shows, as while it can one shot a Knight, on average it won’t and it has very little protection in return. Still, it is the best at what it does for what that is worth.
Stormlord
The Stormlord is similar to the Banehammer, with identical stats in most ways. One of its two key differences is that it can transport 40, rather than 25 models and that 20, rather than 10, can fire out of the back. In addition it swaps the Tremor cannon for Vulcan mega-bolter.
The Vulcan mega bolter is a pretty solid anti-infantry gun, with 60′ range, Heavy 20, S6 AP -2 and D2. In particular, this gun is pretty solid vs MEQ units. In 8th this tank was clearly better at dealing with hordes than the Baneblade, however, the addition of blast to the Baneblades guns actually makes it better at killing 11+ size units than the Stormlord. Still, vs a 5 or 10 man Marine squad the Vulcan Mega-bolter is pretty deadly, and with the ability to add on 30 more heavy bolter shots, plus a lot of shots from transport models you can turn this into a real Marine killing fortress. Overall I think it’s one of the better options for Lord of War.
Stormsword
The final Baneblade variant in the Codex, the Stormsword trades the Baneblade and Demolisher cannons for a Stormsword siege cannon. This isn’t a great trade.
The Stormsword siege cannon has a 36″ range, is heavy 2d6 (blast), S10, AP -4 D d6. In addition, models targeted by it don’t gain cover and you can re-roll damage rolls of 1 for it. While this isn’t a horrible weapon and has decent damage output, the fact that it has half the shots as the Hellhammer or Baneblade cannon + demolisher cannon just kills it. It’s not that much better than either and will do less damage and kill fewer targets almost every time. It has both a lower max and lower average damage. This is a tank to skip.
Whew, that’s it for the Astra Militarium Codex units!
