Reapers and Tantalus, has anyone used them?

fisheyes wrote:

Eh. I think our 55 pt raider works better at the suicide Wraith approach. Same with the medusae bomb. And Distraction-Carnifex.

Its not like you are making use of its transport capacity in either of these cases...

I'd like to believe that with both a shock prow and the scyth on the Tantalus, that would give 2D6 extra penetration on a ram move at armor 12. This sounds ideal for going after heavy vehicles as it nearly guarantees a pen and still lets me jink to all end with the night shields.

IMO, this seems like a good strategy to keep the opponent focused on the Tantalus that just boosted into his zone of the board while my Reavers, Venoms and Kabalites run amok when they need to go.

The raider is Armor 10 all around while the Tantalus is 12 so it has slightly better survivablity.

Heck if he manages to blow up the tantalus while i am running it in his back.

Granted its an over costed Kamikaze charge that has to be very wary of enemy Melta's.

From my very limited experience I do feel that being aggressive with this model is likely a waste of points.  If you want to suicide drop some medusae just drop in a raider with a dissie cannon and then take a ravager with the other 3.  The end firepower is the same, you have more flexibility with targeting and you can keep the ravager hidden while the raider goes out to play.  It's a cheaper option with more redundancy.


You can jink all you like, it's open topped and AV12.  It won't win in a close-quarters brawl if your opponent has a credible assault threat or is packing melta.  On the other hand it can do a really good job of keeping your backfield safe vs most types of threat.  If you want a distraction just run the reavers in alone, they are more than capable of shrugging off most fire.

The real strength of the Tantalus is its standoff firepower and durability.  It's a solid brick unit that can give some durability to your backfield while your other elements are running around the table.  It's a bit of a viscious cycle for cost though.  There's really no point taking it if you're not making use of the big cargo capacity.  A unit strong enough to justify such an expensive ride will be easily in the 250-300 points range so you could easily be looking at 500 points concentrated in one model before all is said and done. Then again for a big game this kind of power unit can be a tempting lure, drawing enemy forces out of position to deal with the threat.
- This really is all the more reason to be coy with it and use it conservatively. It's so expensive that rushing it across the field and having it be blown up is just a waste. You want it to skulk about behind cover, menacing the enemy with potential damage in later turns.