The Leman Russ Eradicator

[Ponen19]

I went to the Killadelphia NOVA Open Tournament this past weekend and met quite a few very good 40K players. One thing I've noticed in my last few games and something I saw at the tournament was the lack of Marine troops, particularly among the top ranked players. Even the one player that was running SM/IG was running SM scouts, only his HQ's had power armour. With this in mind, would the Eradicator be the better option over the standard LRBT?

Here's my reasoning behind this:

--Both have the Leman Russ chassis, so they both benefit from the same, high armor value.

--The LRBT fires an ordnance blast that, while it does do better against armor, means that sponsons are usless. While this is countered by simply not taking sponsons; HB's, plasma cannon's, and multimelta's can really increase the killing potential of a tank. The Eradicator isn't ordnance and therefore allows sponsons to be effective.

--The LRBT shoots a STR 8-AP 3 large blast that allows cover saves. The Eradicator fires a STR 6-AP 4 large blast that ignores cover. Power armour Marines and Immortals are the only troop in the game that have a 3+ armour save, all other armies rely on cover or 4+ armour saves to survive. Since both the Eradicator and the LRBT wound on 2's, the Eradicator's ability to ignore cover seems to make it a better choice against troops that camp on objectives.


Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Empirespy]

In said metagame, the eradicator would appear to be superior. However these two tanks fill different roles, the eradicator is meant for taking out numbers of medium to light infantry, the sort that tend to rely on cover more, are found in larger numbers, and are going to have generally weaker armour saves. This is what the excell in. The battle tank on the other hand is a much more versatile unit, capable of firing on just about any target with reasonable degrees of success. It will however fall short of the damage caused by the more specialised tanks in their own fields, as we see in this case. Another point to consider is the battlefeild position of the tanks. The Eradicator is up at the front, due to it's relatively short range, and hence is going to be trying to put out as much damage as it can before it gets destroyed, as it will be a major target, and within easier reach of short/medium ranged AT. The Battle tank is a long ranged fire support, staying still just behind the lines to provide it's powerful ordinance. So overall both tanks are awesome, but each has it's own function, personally, I prefer the versatility of the main battle tank, as if something did come up that the eradicator was less equipped for (marines) then I would be kicking myself for not having taken the LRBT. Better still take one of each

[Ponen19]

Jun 17, 2013 12:21:39 GMT -5 Empirespy said:

Better still take one of each

One of each was what I ran, and to be honest I wish I would have ran a second Eradicator. It easily performed the best out of the two. As it was, most people would ignore the BT and gun straight for the Eradicator, particularly turn 2 after I wiped a troop off the objective and they finally realized it was a major threat. I wonder though if it did so well because most people don't know what it does? As it was whenever I told opponents what it was they thought it was "that plasma tank".

[treadiculous]

Interesting to hear about the success you had with the eradicator.

I think I'll keep to my main battle tanks for now as the range, high strength, large blast and instant death to tough buggers means a lot to me.

I keep demolishers as my fall back 'kill the even tougher units' tank of choice.

Ignores cover is always nice though .. though I look to my indirect weapons to provide this.

I guess your local meta will be the main influence here.

[WestRider]

I have to say, after these last couple of games against Eldar, the Eradicator is looking a lot nicer. Shrouding all over the place from Conceal gets really obnoxious, especially with Ruins being as common as they are around here.

[Ponen19]

Its starting to become this dark horse tank now with all the xenos and cover saves all over the place. Like I said before, I'm starting to think it's more effective than the normal LRBT. Now that might change once the Marine dex comes out, but until then I have Lascannons and weight of fire to deal with Power Armour.

[WestRider]

Yeah, all the Plasma I run is plenty for dealing with MEq Infantry most of the time. And adding Russes (I generally run mostly Infantry) will give me something that's immune to those @#$% Wave Serpents.

[verminard]

Ive been pondering this for a while. I hardly ever take the LRBT anymore for a few reasons.

1) no sponson love anymore. Gotta say that was pretty rough to snapfire everything on a tank that I thought should be able to ignore that.
2) Cover, flat out makes it hard to be efficient. Unless your opponent is a boob, then they won't clump marines with this around, and they will hug cover, so you tag maybe 4? Then they get cover? so two dead marines. I always felt it to be lackluster in the scope of things.
3) Tank Killing, in sixth I gotta rip hull points off unless I roll a 6 on the penn chart, and lets be honest, its not that great at it, not compared to other things in the army.

Eradicator seems like a nice solution to #2 honestly, and I think that the trade off of ignoring 3+ armor or a 4+ cover is weighing heavily towards ignoring cover.

[Lord General Armstrong]

Jul 30, 2013 11:37:09 GMT -5 verminard said:

Ive been pondering this for a while. I hardly ever take the LRBT anymore for a few reasons.

1) no sponson love anymore. Gotta say that was pretty rough to snapfire everything on a tank that I thought should be able to ignore that.
2) Cover, flat out makes it hard to be efficient. Unless your opponent is a boob, then they won't clump marines with this around, and they will hug cover, so you tag maybe 4? Then they get cover? so two dead marines. I always felt it to be lackluster in the scope of things.
3) Tank Killing, in sixth I gotta rip hull points off unless I roll a 6 on the penn chart, and lets be honest, its not that great at it, not compared to other things in the army.

Eradicator seems like a nice solution to #2 honestly, and I think that the trade off of ignoring 3+ armor or a 4+ cover is weighing heavily towards ignoring cover.

No it isn't, the Eradicator is AP4, which will allow them a 3+ armour save when compared to the standard Russes 4+ cover. The Leman Russ is superior against Marines and vehicles in all respects when compared to an Eradicator. (It's also cheaper in points, the saving allowing you to throw a couple of upgrades around your list, hopefully in assisting with its drawbacks. A pair of flamers/grenade launchers, meltagun, heavy bolter/autocannon, eg.) The only time an Eradicator is more viable than a Leman Russ is against GEQ's and bikers without a 3+.

[WestRider]

A lot of times when I'm hitting Marines with a basic Russ anymore, they're Going to Ground in Ruins, Area Terrain, or behind a Defense Line, for 3+ or even 2+ Cover. At that point, it's a wash, and then the extra firepower from the Sponsons and Hull Mount tip things in favour of the Eradicator.

[Ponen19]

I agree with WestRider, cover is such a big thing that Marines will go to ground on an objective and basically ignore you're entire LRBT blast. Even indirect fire doesn't always ignore cover saves (area terrain still gives a cover save against indirect fire).

Here's a few more things to consider:
-Most troop choices in the game are relatively useless. With the exception of Guard and Orks (debatable, but still decent), the majority of the armies have a fairly weak troop selection. Whether they have bad stat lines, too expensive, or the codex is dominated by better units that need more points dedicated to them. With this theory in mind, most people will take the minimum number of troops for the lowest points possible so that they can fill their list with more useful things (Riptides, Helldrakes, Wave Serpents).

-With the exception of the Wraithguard and Plague Marines(which are only special cases), all the troops in the game are T4 or less. Against STR 6, 2's wound. Now yes, Marines and Immortals would get their armour save, but a roll of 3+ is a hell of a lot better than a 2+, especially when it's against a scoring unit that's gone to ground and isn't moving off an objective.

-While MEQ can stand up to this tank, the max number of Marines in a squad is 10 (not sure on Immortals, but I'm pretty sure it's close to 10 as well). These can easily be dealt with by pure weight of fire. Not only does the Eradicator allow a large amount of dakka, but we're Guard players, if we don't have mass quantities of fire then we're not playing IG. The problem with hordes is that they'll go for cover and can sit on an objective forever. The Eradicator not only eliminates the cover, but it also deals a large amount of un-savable wounds. An Eradicator dedicated to a Horde group (blob, mob, whatever), will easily remove it by the end of a game, possibly as early as turn 3.

While I'm not saying everyone should drop the LRBT and take Eradicators, just think of how often you may face troops in cover that need to die. Either way you should have a well rounded list, and I really believe the Eradicator is an invaluable tank in the game now.

[WestRider]

After last Weekend, I'd definitely add Grey Hunters to your list of good Troops. Not great for sitting on backfield Objectives, but for just about any other Role, they're amazing.