RE: [Epic] Stormblades

From: Miller, Chris <CMiller_at_...>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 09:54:00 -0600

>> But made for a different purpose - the Stormhammer is,
>> as I recall, strongly anti-infantry while the Stormblade is very
>> anti-titan. The Hellion missile and the PBG pack a lot more
>> punch than anything the Stormhammer carries.
>
> Yup. I can't remember too well, but I thought the Stormhammer
>packed about twice as many shots, though only at -1 or -2 Save mod.
>If you're firing that many shots, even at armor, you'll penetrate with
>some frequency. Not that I'd *want* to, but I was under the
>impression that it wouldn't be performing all that worse as
>anti-armor.

-----> The Stormhammer and Stormblade had basically the same problem:
Multiple short-ranged weapons on a unit which was a priority target for
the
enemy's long-ranged weapons, and the long ranged weapons usually have
a decent save mod, so the 1+ save was never enough. Kill 2 and gets
lotsa
VP's? The allegedly feared "superheavy" tank became an easy kill.
>
>> Which doesn't mean the Stormblade was useful - it wasn't.
>> Easy to kill short-ranged titan killers are not going to last long
>> enough to get into range of their targets... I never understood
>> why they cost more than the other SH tanks. A warhound detachment
>> with PBGs and TLDs is a much better buy.
>
> Nope. I remember reading the WD article a few months ago.
>It's for dense urban close-quarters anti-armor. It's a pity the
>typical Epic game involves some open areas, woods, and an effective 3
>turn time limit. If it was fighting in those conditions though, it
>would probably pay for itself unless mobbed in the rear by infantry,
>but any tank dies under those circumstances.
------> I've played a few games on an all-city map(ok, one wooded "park"
area)
and a lot of the commonly ripped units perform better there, including
S-hammers
and S-blades, though you have to do something about the pop-up rule or
the Eldar
absolutely rule and the game degenerates into an "everybody's on first
fire".
>
>> > This thing was in the same category as Moles and Warp
>> > Hunters, though not quite as high on the bad unit scale as Hellbores.
>> > [Oops, I lost my company. It scattered off the map. Here, have 6VP]
>>
>> 10 VPs for the Hellbore company. And even if you didn't
>> scatter off the map, the infantry couldn't disembark until the
>> next turn (you might as well paint a big red target on the 'Bore
>> model). Hands-down, the worst buy in the game.
>
> Yup. But the enemy has to at least shoot at it (As tough as a
>Stormblade to kill, right?) in order to take out the entire company.
>If it scatters off the map of its own volition, you really have to
>feel sorry for the Hellbore's owner.
>
>Mark
-----> One of the things I like best about E40K was the change to allow
superheavy
units to take multiple hits. Now they're at least a little more worthy
of the name. A
Hellbore did pretty well in one of the city battles I mentioned, coming
up right on an
objective and dumping out tons of troops, but that's the only time I
remeber being
 impressed by one.

Chris Miller
>
Received on Mon Nov 10 1997 - 15:54:00 UTC