Kitbash: Heavy Weapon Teams

OK, let me tell you how this blog works currently. I normally like to run a buffer of 4 weeks, alternating topics where possible. Circa October, this was looking more like 6 weeks, as I prepared to wind things down over December, my busy period at work. I mention this because A) it means I have a lot of inertia, and B) I don't try to be topical any more. That's why don’t see me writing much about GW's periodic Balance Dataslates, as I’m just not nimble enough to match a newscycle. With today's subject though, I have to acknowledge such things.

Heavy Weapon Teams are something I enthusiastically built when starting my Chem-Dogs, but slowly went off as I learned more and the rules changed. Running these in dedicated units of three was manifestly unwise, as not only were they priority targets, they had the durability of wet cardboard. The only time that worked was as mortar units, but that ploy lost some utility when the rules for indirect fire got overhauled. Most of my heavy weapons were then shuffled into regular infantry squads, not necessarily because this made for a brilliant ranged unit, but because it gave the infantry options and made killing the guns harder. Over time, this tactic became less of a mainstay for me as I experimented with other battleline units and enjoyed tanks. I still had a stockpile of guns awaiting assembly and/or kitbash, but no real inclination to use them. Then the October Dataslate and points changes landed, and this changed the equation. A squad of three guns was now 50 points, and its hard for anything to be cheaper than that in 40k currently. You can just throw them into the list, and as long they do their job adequately or otherwise add an element you lack, its worth it. That’s how I use my Scion units currently; bare-bones and disposable to do secondary mission objectives. So, I decided to build a few out of what I had spare. No rush, and even if the forthcoming codex changed how they worked, GW was unlikely to retire a unit with a kit they made for 9th edition and was still actively selling. The worst case outcome would be that I would have more options. And bar the bases, it was money I'd already spent.

 

This build was mainly a combination of three different kits, the old school plastic heavy weapons, the Cannon Fodder kit, and the Stargrave Mercenaries. Its basically the same job as those Cadians I did recently, just with kitbashed carriages for the guns, often featuring wheels off toy cars. In the name of simplicity, I went for pre-existing helmeted heads, but I still did green stuff rags and tarpaulins. The crew were painted separately before affixing them on to the bases, the colours slightly remixed. I was kind of burnt-out on infantry and had a few things on my mind, trying to stop myself from buying more models without finishing some others first, when there’s a new codex around the effing corner, so it took a while to get motivated, but once I got going the process was fairly quick.

The weapon selection here was dictated mainly by what I liked the look of versus what spares I had. This meant five lascannons and a heavy bolter, to be combined with existing models to make two anti-tank, and one anti-infantry squad. The rational here was to pair the lascannons with something scary to force dilemmas on people, while the heavy bolters could make good use of the unit's overwatch bonus. I did consider more mortars and missile launchers, but I'm not hugely into either, and I'm holding onto my spare autocannons for now. Actual gameplay performance? Well… in the first game, one died horribly without acheiving much but blocking, and the other over-performed against a land raider. The second saw them sniping the odd Custodes.

So, maybe there's something in it?