Taurox worth it?

[tatro43]

As the subject like asks;

Are Taurox worth it?

I see a cheaper points cost than a chimera, but less armor.

As Tempest Scions can deep strike, why would they be deployed with this vehicle.

Am I missing some benefits for a Taurox that I forgot or don't know?

Please help.

[Julian Sharps]

A Taurox is a relatively cheap twin-linked autocannon that can carry passengers. Space Marines pay about the same for a Razorback, which has inferior troop capacity, fire points, and a weaker stock gun.

My take: give it to a unit that needs the fire points and/or fire support, as well as a cheap way to get around quickly. Veterans come to mind.

Since units do not need to be deployed with their transports, there is always the option to take Taurox Primes for your Scions, and then deploy them normally in support of your main force while the Scions Deep Strike in. The Missile Launcher seems to be the best weapon upgrade; combined with the autocannon, it gives the Prime quite a punch against light and medium vehicles.

[Casiarius]

In Imperial Guard terms, the basic Taurox has armor and firepower roughly equivalent to an armored sentinel, and costs about the same. Plus, it can carry 10 men and (if taken as a dedicated transport for Troops) has the Objective Secured rule. If you are building a mechanized list, for the cost of 3 Chimeras you could get 4 Tauroxes. I'd say they are not a terrible choice for the price.

Are they better than Chimeras? Well, if you want to take advantage of Objective Secured, the Chimera's multiple shorter-ranged weapons are better suited to fighting up front with the troops than the Tauroxes' autocannons. If you can manage to keep the front armor facing the enemy, a Chimera requires a bit more killing than a Taurox, but not much.

For myself, I already had Chimera miniatures when the Taurox showed up and didn't see any major benefit to changing. I also don't like the Tauroxes' tracks and would have needed to convert all of mine to wheels. There are third-party kits for that, but it still adds time and money to the Tauroxes. If you have no miniatures and are starting from scratch, you could go either way and I wouldn't say either choice is wrong.


The Taurox Prime used by Scions is really two vehicles in one. It's a fast transport that ignores terrain AND it's a long-range gun emplacement bristling with deadly firepower and the BS4 to use it. Unfortunately, it can't do both at once, and you still have to pay for the wasted potential you don't use. Given that Scions can indeed deep strike, and that you can buy a squad of Scions for the price of a Taurox Prime, I would be inclined to get more Scions with my points.

[Lord General Armstrong]

Billed as competitors for the Chimera as a wide-spread Dedicated Transport, the Taurox variants are certainly interesting attempts at pushing the aging Chimera out of the fore-front but ultimately fail in that regard. Still, as an intriguing new option with a few unique traits to distinguish it from the mostly superior Chimera, the Taurox - and the Taurox Prime by extension - are worth a try even if only to break up the monopoly the Chimera chassis has in mechanized Astra Militarum army lists.

Taurox and Taurox Prime

Overview
The two newcomers to the transport scene, the Taurox and Taurox Prime are both in a similar price range to the Chimera but ultimately carve out their own little niches in terms of usefulness and capabilities. I will of course address the elephant in the room directly by stating that the Chimera is still the king of the Astra Militarum transports and the new vehicles aren't quite as efficient overall, but they definitely don't qualify as "bad" units in any sense. Still, the comparisons to the long revered Chimera do deserve mentioning considering the regular Taurox in particular is a direct competitor with the Chimera as a widely accessible Dedicated Transport option. A Taurox shares the same weak side and rear armour of ten, but features a reduced front armour value of eleven making it even less survivable than a Space Marine Rhino despite costing quite a bit more. It has a transport capacity of ten as opposed to the Chimera's twelve which only makes a difference if you want to attach an Independent Character to a Veteran or Infantry Squad, though it has two more access points and fire points to compensate.

Instead of a heavy bolter and multi laser for decent long ranged shooting, a Taurox features a twin-linked autocannon with the same Ballistic Skill 3 which makes it capable of glancing AV13 vehicles but it ultimately is less efficient against lightly armoured vehicles and infantry with a mere third of the total rate of fire. The Taurox variants both share the "All-Terrain APC" special rule which allows them to re-roll failed dangerous terrain tests, an ability that a Chimera needs to pay a few measly points for - it is worth noting that a Chimera is the equivalent of a quarter of a minute more expensive in points than a Taurox if neither takes any upgrades. To make up for this of course, a Chimera allows the embarked unit to either fire out of the two lasgun arrays or issue Orders from the top hatch - the latter feature is sadly lacking for the Taurox and thus makes it the clearly inferior choice as a transport for any type of Command Squad. Considering its points cost and abilities, the standard Taurox seems much like a stripped down Chimera with only a slight points decrease to compensate which marks it as inefficient to my eyes - inferior firepower, transport capacity, survivability and overall abilities (issuing Orders) are the key issues here.

That both Taurox variants lack smoke launchers and searchlights - both of which are standard equipment for the majority of Imperial vehicles - just serves to make them seem like oddly priced attempts at stealing the thunder of the superior Chimera. The Taurox Prime does have a few more nifty tricks up its sleeve but it pays for this by being nearly twice as expensive as a regular Taurox, and one could argue its "upgrades" aren't worth all those extra points. The Prime is a Fast vehicle which makes it far more alluring as a transport for a short ranged unit which, coincidentally, is the only type of squad they can transport given their exclusivity with the Militarum Tempestus. Adding a second heavy weapon and an improved Ballistic Skill 4 make its firepower more effective certainly, but the weapon upgrades themselves are expensive and the stock guns are barely an improvement over the regular Taurox. I really think the Prime pays way too much for what it brings over the standard Taurox and that it is exclusive to Militarum Tempestus units really limits its uses as far as a transport is concerned, especially seeing as its high cost and those squads' innate Deep Strike capabilities have it draw very near to being redundant.

I need to stress however that these two vehicles are by no means inefficient in general but they just don't beat out the Chimera for overall effectiveness as a transport first and foremost. The in-built "dozer blade" effect is nice and they have decent firepower but the difference in durability between front armour eleven and front armour twelve is not insignificant and the Chimera just works better as an all-purpose transport with the lasgun arrays and smoke launchers. There is a limit to how many points one can feasibly spend on a vehicle as fragile as a Taurox and both of them certainly have difficulty striking that balance - the Prime especially is far too easily destroyed for how sizable its cost is - and that is why I think paying some extra (or fewer) points for a Chimera is usually the more advisable choice.

How to Equip Them
This is a fairly simple question to answer with regards to the standard Taurox seeing as it has no weapon options and needs no upgrades to perform its stated role as a transport. The twin-linked autocannon is the only weapon it can be outfitted with unless you count pintle-mounted storm bolters and heavy stubbers, but seeing as a transport should be moving that will usually see those weapons snap firing anyway. The vehicle upgrades are mostly wasted here for similar reasons to the Chimera - it just doesn't require any of them and you want to keep a transport this fragile as cheap as you possibly can so that its inevitable destruction isn't so painful when it does eventually occur. The only upgrade that I would usually recommend for this or a Chimera would be a dozer blade but fortunately the Taurox comes with the same effect built in to its base cost, meaning the dozer blade is unsurprisingly a "useless" upgrade for a Taurox.

The Taurox Prime is an altogether different story with multiple primary and secondary weapon options (I consider pintle-mounted weapons to be tertiary) though its heavily increased base cost reduces the value of the various vehicle upgrades even further. The stock primary weapon is the Taurox battle cannon which is essentially an autocannon that fires a single blast instead of two solid shells, making it a gun I wouldn't really rate over a twin-linked autocannon. It can be replaced by either a twin-linked taurox gatling cannon or a taurox missile launcher, either of which aren't cheap exchanges. Ten Strength 4 shots with re-rolls to hit on Ballistic Skill 4 isn't bad by any means but it limits the Taurox Prime to a dedicated anti-infantry attacker, a role that the unit embarked upon it should be fulfilling instead. On the other hand is the missile launcher and while this does amount to a typhoon missile launcher, that it increases the price of the incredibly fragile Taurox Prime to a century's worth of points makes it far too "risky" of an option. The return on investment simply isn't there, especially for a transport that needs to be moving closer to the opposition and objectives to be useful rather than a pure waste of points that could be spent on a proper "gun-boat" like a Leman Russ tank.

As for the secondary twin-linked hot-shot volley gun versus a twin-linked autocannon, I prefer the latter in every situation for the range and Strength that allows a Taurox Prime to engage other light vehicles fairly respectably. That it is a free weapon exchange makes it almost a no-brainer even though the hot-shot volley gun is a very decent Space Marine killer in its own right. If you somehow find yourself lacking efficient sources of anti-infantry such as Leman Russ Eradicators, Hellhounds, Leman Russ Executioners, Vendettas, Combined Squads, Wyverns and so on, then a Taurox Prime equipped with both the gatling cannon and the hot-shot volley gun might appeal to you as a heavily stripped down Leman Russ Punisher. It can be argued that this variation does suit the only unit it can transport - Militarum Tempestus Platoons - that will typically be outfitted with plasma or melta weaponry to combat vehicles with their increased special weapon allowance and Ballistic Skill 4, but I just don't really see the merits here. The cold hard truth of the matter is that a Taurox Prime doesn't compare well to any of those other options in that role and as such you should really just stick with the battle cannon and autocannon to keep it as cheap as possible and provide a nice mobile base of Strength 7 AP4 shooting. Like with the regular Taurox, the dozer blade is unnecessary because the Taurox Prime already re-rolls failed dangerous terrain tests, while the other upgrades should be avoided because they either aren't that useful or just add on too much to an already overly expensive vehicle.

Best Uses
My most basic advice for both variants of the Taurox is to keep them bare - save for swapping the volley gun for the autocannon on the Prime - and that means no upgrades or switching weapons. This is because both of these vehicles are fragile, expensive and already have the effects of the most important option for a transport, the dozer blade, as an innate special rule. From there, standard Imperial transport tactics apply with a small footnote related to the Taurox Prime. Disembarking a unit once it is range of its quarry or objective, then making a Flat Out move with the transport after the unit has fired provides an extra layer of defence for the more important squad. This is far easier for the Taurox variants than with the Chimera due to the extra pair of access points, the standard variant having little firepower to worry about wasting, and the Prime because it is a Fast vehicle with a 12" Flat Out move.

Advance with cover in mind at all times - especially as the Taurox variants lack smoke launchers - because both of these vehicles are more fragile than the Space Marine Rhino despite being either slightly or considerably more expensive. I recommend advancing through cover wherever possible to increase the chances of each transports' survival - you may as well use that in-built dozer blade effect! Leman Russ Demolishers or a Bullgryn wall are slow but ultimately far more survivable than the other moving cover-providing options you could use, while the limited transport capacity of a Taurox compared to the Chimera means you should really keep squads and not attached independent characters reserved (as in a waiting line) for this vehicle. The additional fire ports compared to a Chimera make this more appealing to Veterans and Militarum Tempestus squads than for standard Infantry Squads, while a Special Weapons Squad or Heavy Weapons Team could feasibly hijack one of these. For the Taurox Prime in particular, use its Fast vehicle type to your advantage and move 12" a turn so that your embarked unit can be delivered as quickly as possible while sacrificing only half the firepower of the Prime rather than all of it.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my thoughts on both constituents of the recent Taurox kit! Whatever your opinions may be regarding the aesthetics of this new breed of transport, its intent as a direct competitor to the seemingly timeless Chimera just isn't well placed unfortunately. Still, it has a place for themed army lists and it certainly isn't a terrible choice (or choices) - it just doesn't compare too well to a Chimera for the most part. In any case, I hope you enjoyed the article and I wish you all a good and fruitful day!

I think this was an excellent summery for the latest Guard transport. Personally I think the standard Taurox could go down 5 points, and the Prime could go down 10-15; with its weapon upgrades both going down 5 points a piece.

[Julian Sharps]

Two questions, Armstrong: Where did you get this, and would you be interested in helping out with the IGMB Tactica Imperialis project?

[emptyhat]

Deploying a single Taurox seems to make it a massive fire magnet. Your oponent is probably thinking about how that lower armour is softer than the Chimera and that a twin-linked is probably more dangerous, leading them to pour first turn shots into it until it is dead, before moving onto your other armour (if they can get First Blood this way it is even more appealing). You might be able to take advantage of this by sticking it in cover with a camo-net. If you do then I'd leave the transport empty with the squad deployed next to it. I think a cheap PCS would be ideal, one that can issue orders to your line, or that is spare. A vet squad with camo might be good too, either could benefit from a spuad autocannon. Between the Taurox and the squad they should have enough firepower to appear threatening until the inevitable destruction of the Taurox. Of course if things go well and the rest of your army is doing a good job of taking apart your foe then you can load up your squad and go grab an objectivd.

[emptyhat]

I think fielding a platoon of them would have a totally different outcome.

[gamma016]

I agree with emptyhat, if you plan on doing an armoured platoon the taurox is the better choice. My suggestion would be Vets with special weapons in Chimeras, and naked platoons in Tauroxs. The chimera is better for units who want to be firing out of their transport where the Tauroxs is better for cheap armour you can spam.

[tatro43]

Thanks for all the help guys!

[Julian Sharps]

Actually, a platoon mounted in Chimeras can put out more firepower than an identical platoon in Tauroxen due to the virtue of the Chimera having a second gun, as well as the two lasgun arrays that effectively allow six guardsmen to fire their lasguns at full BS, even on the move. The Taurox has more fire points, which is better for Veterans and command squads.

I would, however, like to say that the Taurox model kit is not worth its cost.

[gamma016]

The Tauroxs only had two firing points, one on each side. So unless your target is sprawled across the table you will only be able to fire out of one of them.

[Lord General Armstrong]

Oct 15, 2014 10:59:46 GMT -5 Julian Sharps said:

Two questions, Armstrong: Where did you get this, and would you be interested in helping out with the IGMB Tactica Imperialis project?

I just quoted it from the Bell of Lost Souls site, which I think they ported it over from another forum anyway.

Oct 16, 2014 15:49:04 GMT -5 Julian Sharps said:

I would, however, like to say that the Taurox model kit is not worth its cost.

This, GW prices have pretty much turned me away from buying new models (the last thing I bought was the latest Guard dex). I live in Aus, so I'm getting some of the worst around, and even with a 20% discount I'm still paying more than the States. Besides, to be really competitive for its slot, I think the Taurox should either go down by 5 points, or be given armour 11. This would make it much more comparable to the Razorback and give it two things over the Chimera, better side armour and a stronger gun.

[Julian Sharps]

That would also give the Taurox a role in mechanized formations; cheap flank protection for Chimeras.

Would you be interested in helping out with writing the Tactica Imperialis?

[Lord General Armstrong]

I don't frequent the IGMB as much as I use to, unfortunately. Though I could give you a hand from time to time perhaps, but I wouldn't be very reliable - time-wise.