I've been reviewing the rumors surrounding the new Blood Angels Codex on various forums and blogs, and I think Twin-Linked Assault Cannons might be the new hotness. Of all the accounts I've read, a 5 man Assault Squad armed with a Power Weapon, Meltagun, and Infernus Pistol in a Razorback with a Twin-Linked Assault Cannon will run you 170 points.
All of the tanks (aside from Land Raider variants) in the new Blood Angels Codex are fast. So for 170 points you get a Razorback that can move 12" and fire, transport a scoring unit, and deliver a unit that is deadly on the charge and can deal with almost any threat. In higher point games you can add a Sanguinary High Priest for 50 points plus wargear, and the unit gains Furious Charge and Feel No Pain. I really can't see not taking at least 2 or 3 Razorbacks in every game I play. Which brings me to the main point of this post.
If you want your Razorbacks to be WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), you are going to need to do some sort of modeling to make that happen as the Twin-Linked Assault Cannon bit only comes with a Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer. Alternatively, you would need to be rich because $57.75 for a Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer for only a couple bitz is pretty insane.
I'm not rich, so I was looking into coming up with some kind of alternative. I did some pricing and this is what I came up with:
- The Land Raider Crusader Pack will run you $19.75 from the Games Workshop which is still crazy.
- You can get two Tornado Assault Cannons from Games Workshop for $6.60 which is a fair deal, but I don't like working with metal when I'm doing conversions.
- I love the War Store and buy all of my 40K stuff there, but just the Twin Assault Cannon Turret is $21.99! Ouch!
- The Bitz Barn has very fair prices, but I've never seen them sell the Twin-linked Assault Cannon. I imagine they are gone as soon as they have them in stock. :(
I'm thinking that the best bet might be the plastic assault cannons that come with the Dark Angel's Deathwing as I have seen them go for a fair price on eBay. I'm going to scour around the internet and see else I can come up with. Once I have the materials together, I plan on converting my own and posting this as my first tutorial.
Tomorrow, I'm playing a 500 point Combat Patrol game with some friends at the Unknown in Scranton, PA. I'll be trying out the new Blood Angels 'Dex. Maybe I'll post some pics and a brief Battle Report in the next few days.
Until then,
This is exactly what I thought when I saw the codex. :D I have always loved the TL assault cannon turret option for the razorback, but just found its range to be lacking. But when you can move 12" and still fire, the range isn't such an issue anymore :D (same reason why I want to take vindicators in the blood angel codex too)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am a little confused as to where you got 170 points for that unit from..
100 (assault squad) + 55 (razorback) + 35 (assault cannon turret) + 40 (melta, infernus pistol, power weapon) - 35 (jump pack removal discount) = 195?
Looks like I didn't add the 15 for the Razorback being fast. Also, on the Wargear, how much for the meltagun and the infernus pistol? I thought the meltagun was 5 and the infernus pistol was 10. Are they more?
ReplyDeletePerhaps using the space marine dreadnaught assault cannon... course that's also a pricey way of doing things, the advantage being that a) it still has the lascannon arm, so the model isn't completely useless and b) you could convert a replacement weapon on the arms you've cut the assault cannons from. For example, a couple of Imperial Autocannons and a Space Marine Dreadnaught had me a chaos dread with twin linked autocannon - all you need is a like minded chaos player and you have some spare assault cannons for converting with :oD
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea. I'm still looking for other alternatives. Thanks for commenting! Anyone else have any ideas?
ReplyDeleteThere's always ebay for bits. Some great deals to be had there...
ReplyDeleteIf you plan on building a Baal Predator with a flamestorm cannon you could use the spare assault cannons for a Razorback.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the new plastic Baal kit but I imagine these would be usable (if you didn't want them on the Baal in the first place).
Great point! I'm going to try and magnetize my Baals so I have both options available. Of course we won't know how it goes until I see the new kit.
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