Hi everyone! I’m back with some more weapon comparisons. The most popular request in the previous columns was for Astra Militarum. I’ve decided to look at their heaviest weapons.

How to Read the Table

A refresher for those who haven’t read the previous article, here we see how some basic Astra Militarum weapons stack up against various enemies. The weapon stats are shown in blue, with a column in green and red for each enemy. For example, a Guard with Toughness 3, 5+ Save and 1 Wound. Pay attention just to the Toughness, Save and Wound listed about each column; the T7 3+ 8W column is relevant for the majority of Marine and Tau vehicles we’ve seen so far.

The results down a column is the number of “Expected Wounds”. For example, a Lasgun kills about .33 Guardsman, on average. You may prefer to consider the inverse, 1/0.33 = 3 Lasguns will kill one Guardsman, on average. You don’t have to understand what the numbers mean exactly, just “higher is better”.

Some caveats: The charts assume BS4+, stationary firer, no cover, and Rapid Fire weapons are at short range. There is assumed to be an unlimited unit size (because that one time a Stormshard Mortar kills 24 Space Marines counts towards the average). Damage gets “capped” so for example, a Volcano Cannon that rolls 10 damage only counts as 2 against a Primaris. I’ve picked 10 targets given input from the Chatbox. Some of the weapon stats are taken from leaks and thus could be wrong. Also, I might have made a mistake somewhere in the excel formula, leaving this article based on a pack of lies!

Hellhound Weapons

The first thing to jump out, is that the Inferno Cannon is pretty good! Solid numbers across the board, that 2 Damage gives it a great kick against vehicles. In fact, it’s just as good as a (BS4+) Lascannon against a Land Raider!

The Chem Cannon keeps its old role of efficiently murdering Space Marines & Monsters, but given its much shorter range and terrible stats against vehicles, I’d probably leave it on the shelf. One to keep in mind as a metagame choice.

The Melta Cannon has great numbers against vehicles, but unfortunately the Hellhound chassis has not gotten a replacement for their old “Fast” rule. That means the entry on this table is a bit deceptive – if the Devil Dog moves, the Melta Cannon loses a third of its effectiveness. Also, it’s 15 points more expensive than the Inferno Cannon.

The standard Hellhound with Heavy Flamer is looking pretty good at 110 points. I don’t think I’d bother with the other variants.

Leman Russ Turret Weapons

Comparing these only to each other, some options are obviously bad. The Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Executioner Autocannon and Eradicator Nova Cannon all cost more than a Battle Cannon, and lose in every category, AND in two cases have shorter range! (The Nova Cannon’s “Ignore Cover” ability does mean it’s slightly better against T5 models in cover, but not by enough to matter).

The Executioner Plasma Cannon is worse than the Battle Cannon on standard charge across the board. On Overcharge it’s pretty good, but given the 50% risk of D6 mortal wounds every time it’s fired that way, and the 36” range, I wouldn’t recommend it.

At least the two 24” guns do get something for giving up the 72” range. The Punisher Gatling Cannon is very good across the board, and the only thing that looks “outstanding” in a couple of categories. It’s also the cheapest option, so worth considering. The Demolisher Cannon has quite good anti-tank numbers, but it’s very limited versus MSU infantry.

All up, the Battle Cannon is a solid all-rounder with huge range. The Punisher is very good at its role and no slouch against all comers, and is the Russ most likely to see play, I think. But some huge misses with a bunch of downgrades costing more points – it really does make me wonder how much attention GW were paying when assigning point values.

Of course, this all assumes you want a Russ in the first place. The Russ has changed role considerably – it’s more like a Predator now. I mean, I hope people still want to take them, since it’s a bit silly including them as one of the sample targets in all these charts otherwise!

Artillery

Artillery all have some things in common. They can target out of Line of Site, with no penalty, and no minimum range.

The Deathstrike Missile is very simple: 3D6 shots (average 10.5), anything that hits (50%) is a mortal wound – so 5.25 mortal wounds on average, plus some collateral to nearby units – handy for taking out pesky support characters. But of course, it can only fire once per game, and must pass a check to do so. A fun and fluffy choice, but I’d be surprised if it sees competitive play.

The Wyrven is very good at what it does, and it’s cheap. (It’s worth mentioning, since lots of other weapons don’t really do what they say on the tin).

Earthshaker Canons are quite good, but it’s hard to notice them next to Storm Eagle Rockets! Time will tell how relevant the 4-shot limit is, but that’s an amazing weapon statline! No other weapon in the game is anywhere near that powerful, that isn’t on a Lord of War. Speaking of which,

Baneblade Weapons

Edit: There were two errors in this table originally. The damage for the Hellhammer Cannon was entered wrong, and the Quake Cannon wasn’t calculated properly versus 1 & 2 wound targets.

Edit 2: Unfortunately, fixing the Quake Cannon broke the other D6 Damage weapons in this table and the one below – giving them all the Quake Cannon’s “3 damage minimum” rule. If you first read this article after the first edit, D6 damage weapons were up to 12.5% better.

I don’t have much to say here, except wow, the Volcano Cannon is the first gun we’ve seen that has a decent chance of one-shotting heavy vehicles!

Just a note on my notations here, h1(2D6) means “Highest 1 of 2D6”. D6(min3) means “D6, 1 and 2 count as 3”. D6(rr1) means “D6, reroll 1’s”.

But now, what you’ve been waiting for:

The big table of everything

Those superheavy weapons at the top end really throw out the conditional formatting for everything else!

Complete with Autocannon stats this time. (Yep, it’s worse than the Lascannon at most things – but it is normally cheaper, so it might still come out ahead on points-per-wound).

-Neil