Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Malcador Assault Tank

The final entry in the main Heresy-era army list (don't worry: I haven't forgotten about the legion specific units or Mechanicum -- they're going to be written in the coming weeks and months) is the Malcador.

The thing that sets the Malcador apart from other super-heavy Lords of War entries in the army list is that it is a fast vehicle. This has obvious application for armies that deploy rapidly, or from reserve. The key here is to figure out what role you want for the Malcador to play. Is it a dakka style tank focussed on anti-infantry duty or is it a bit more anti-tank? Clearly this will depend upon how the rest of the army is constructed. But I will point out that as a super-heavy, the tank can fire its weapons independently and at different targets every turn, so a combination of weapons and purposes can be achieved here as well.  With that in mind, here are 3 builds: one anti-tank, one anti-infantry, and one somewhere in-between.

Legion Malcador Assault Tank with standard battle cannon, hull-mounted auto cannon, Autocannons on sponsons, armoured ceramite, pintle-mounted heavy flamer and a space marine legion crew (370 points)
A large range of weaponry, mostly focusing on dakka and rate of fire. This is the anti-infantry tank. The pintle-mounted heavy flamer is for anti-charging duty in the main part, but I guess a Salamanders tank could use heavy flamer sponsons as well.

Legion Malcador Assault Tank, with twin-linked lascannons, demolisher cannon, lascannon sponsons, armoured ceramite, hunter-killer missile, pintle-mounted combi-melta, space marine legion crew (410 points)
This one is distinctly more anti-tank, sporting more high strength weapons and a lower rate of fire power than the one above.

Legion Malcador Assault Tank, Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, armoured ceramite, hunter-killer missile, pintle-mounted heavy stubber, command tank, space marine legion crew (410 points)
Well, this one is a mixed bag, leaving only the flamers at home. Not sure what role this has, but is an illustration of how one can build a menagerie of weaponry on a tank.

Legion Malcador Assault Tank, Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Heavy Flamer Sponsons, pintle-mounted heavy flamer (350 points)
A lesser tank and cheaper one in the same vein as the one above. But this time, packing in the heavy flamers to make it more suitable for Salamander type legions out there. 

5 comments:

Unknown said...

So can you mount a demolisher cannon on a regular imperial malcador with a battlecannon? I checked the book and it doesn't say anything about that. Also can you use a imperial malcador as a hq tank with a tank commander instead of a lemun russ?

jabberjabber said...

The demolisher cannon is a replacement for the hull mounted autocannon- so yes this can be done whilst retaining the traverse mounted battle cannon on the legion malcador. The tank can also take the command tank upgrade. Not sure about you Leman Russ comment-- this is not in Betrayal?

Unknown said...

Sorry, i'm still new to all this. I'm not sure what betrayal is either. The lemun (i keep misspelling it as lemon) russ thing was just a question i had because in the astra militarum codex it said that you could upgrade your lemun russ into an hq tank and it did not tell me if i could do so with any other tank.

jabberjabber said...

Ah - okay -- these are reviews of the 30k Legions "codex" presented in the Forge World publications Betrayal, Massacre and Extermination, rather than the Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum codex. Best regards - jabber jabber

Medivo said...

Random comment, but the Malcador (squadron) has been moved into heavy support with the release of the new red book.

Seems pretty useful considering its a tough nut to crack with the 8th ed super heavy rules.

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