Demolisher load outs?

[Koppenflak]

Hey folks,

I'm looking for opinions... My Leman Russ Demolishers have done nothing but disappoint me, and I'm going to re-gun them to be more reliable. At the moment with Lascannons and Plasma they are expensive, unreliable and never make the hits when they count, let alone coming close to getting their hefty investment in points back. In the role of killing marines, they have been totally replaced by the executioner, which by comparison, has done nothing but kill, win, and kill some more.

In the worst example of their amazing feats of fail, I ordered one to shoot at a nearby close horde of Genestealers, only to have the main shot scatter back a full 9 inches to land squarely on the head of my Lord Commissar, killing him, and turning my fearless horde in to a rabble of bed-wetting pessimists.

It did not end well.

So, how do you chaps run your Demolishers? Is the triple-heavy flamer load out worth the sacrifice of ranged shooting? Are Multimeltas better, and what hull weapon would you use with them? A flamer for last-minute horde defence? Or a lascannon to keep the AP consistent? Or do you run them dirt cheap as I do my Leman Russ line and strip them of sponsons completely?

I should stress that I'm not much interested in the opinions of "They suck, take Medusae instead" - I know Medusae and Manticores, Hydras, etc, are chronic over-performers and that LRBTs in general have fallen out of favour. As the vast majority of my games are friendlies with my local group, I like to mix things up.

[Tynskel]

me, I just like they flat, or with a lascannon. KISS! Keep It Simple, Stupid. That's generally what I follow.

Like everything in 40k, you can easily 'Slannesh' out on the toys. You can excessively buy the upgrades!

[Commander Vimes]

I like mine with a pair of plasma cannons and a heavy flamer. It has been good for me. I've found it to be surprisingly good at killing light and medium vehicles. The plasma cannons often inflict damage when the main gun scatters off.

[Madigan]

Like Tynskel said, KISS. I also only run mine with Heavy Flamers or Lascannons. I almost always keep them on the move so I sometimes add a dozer blade if I have the points to spare, but that also means I would never get to fire sponson weapons anyway.

To be honest though, the only reason I bring I the Demolisher is to coerce my opponents into shooting at it instead of my Heavy Bolter x3 standard Leman Russes, which for costing the same amount of points (after adding the Bolter sponsons and a heavy stubber) always out-perform the Demolisher in enemy casualties accounted for. The S10 AP2 large template may be quite deadly, but it's not going to kill most of a 10-man max-coherency space marine squad from more than half-way across the board like the Russes do, and plasma guns and melta guns can deal with elite infantry/monstrous creatures and AV14 much more efficiently.

[blackarmchair]

It depends on your play style. When I played IG I ran a farely static gunline style army so I tended to outfit mine with sponson plasma cannons and a lascannon so I could hold still and fire everything.

But as Madigan and Tynskel have been saying if you intend to move at all a simple lascannon is more than enough.

[Nungunz]

Demolisher Cannon, Heavy Flamer, No sponsons. Cheap, efficient, effective.

Can move alongside the rest of the army and shell everything. The Heavy Flamer is a nice deterant against units that are trying to assault.

[Brass Scorpion]

Two of my three Demolishers have multi-melta sponsons. Combined with a hull lascannon it gives them some real anti-armor punch and the main Demolisher gun is good for anti-armor too after it's vaporized enough infantry with the 5" blast. As for plasma on the sponsons, I have one like that too. That adds to the ability of the main gun to eliminate heavy infantry units. Accuracy is something you can't count on due to the luck of the scatter dice, all you can do is play the law of averages by taking more shots.

[erwos]

All of my Russes have hull lascannons. It's extremely infrequent for me to regret having that capability.

If I'm taking Demolishers in a squad, I run them without sponsons. Individually, I'll at least consider plasma sponsons - they add real punch and range for a not-crazy cost, as well as giving you some additional weapons to lose before the tank becomes worthless.

[Koppenflak]

Must say Im liking these "simple" suggestions of a Heavy flamer and no sponsons. The HF would give orks who are close to charge range something to seriously think about

...Looks like I need to order some side doors for when I rip those sponsons off.

...If only one could have a hull mounted multimelta, I'd be a truly happy man.

Thanks for your insights, Gents.

[Kahoolin]

WAIT don't rip off the sponsons yet!

My demolisher is the lynchpin of my army and always does well, even if it's just to draw fire/sow terror. I set it up with hull heavy flamer and sponson multi-meltas.

This works for me because I have an aggressive play style. You have to get close with the demolisher cannon anyway. Anything in range of your main gun is also in range of your multi-meltas, and if the main gun is blown out, by then you should be smack in the middle of the battlefield and you can still reliably threaten AV14.

The flamer is for roastin' suckas, obviously :D

[ElCheezus]

I run my Demolisher with a Hull LasCannon and no sponsons, currently. I like LasCannon to keep up the AP2. Using a flamer can give an opponent an opportunity to play wound allocation shenanigans. With the LasCannon, the only difference in the weapons is S9 vs S10, and that only matters for T5 multi-wound or FNP models. I think there are only 2 or 3 of those, if I recall correctly. Since IG are so much more mobile in this edition, gunlines usually get frowned upon. They're doable, but they get run over more often than mobile forces. As such, sponsons either don't get used, or slow you down, so I rarely use them on any LR, unless I have "extra" points, usually only for the HB sponsons.

If your blast is scattering back on you, you might want to rethink how you're using the Demolisher. If you're force is aggressive and rushing, I find a Hellhound to be more precise, and can't fry your own guys. If you're running multiple blasts, you generally want them far enough forward to soften up the enemy before you follow up with the rest of your force. Thinking about it like this made me take the Demolisher out of one of my builds, and using Hellhounds and Hydras. Niether of those scatter into my own forces. Of course, this is because I run mainly Vets, and don't have PIS to throw away, so your style may be fine with the occasional casulties.