Photo & model by Forge World.

Matt was pondering on artillery pieces to add to his Valhallan villains, so I thought I’d offer up my comments.

Options are:

• Basilisk: Incredible range (240″) and great strength (9 AP3)
• Medusa: Ok range (36″) and amazing strength (10 AP 2 or 1 depending on shell)
• Colossus: Great range (240″), good strength (6 AP 3), ignores cover
• Griffon: Solid range (48″), ok strength (6 AP 4), re-rolls scatter

Once you’re committed to using some artillery I’m not sure it’s possible to go really wrong with this decision, except for the Basilisk. It’s a shame, because I like the look of the Basilisk the most with its long barrel, but with a 36″ minimum range it really doesn’t make sense except on a *big* Apoc table.

I’ve seen Kiril make excellent use of the Colossus. The AP 3 with no cover saves on a Large Blast marker makes it a Marine killer par excellence. The Medusa also sounds impressive, but personally I think it’s less terrifying. It’s maybe good for working over Terminators (hint, hint), but generally the boards Matt and I play on have a good amount of terrain. Given that, I’m not sure it’s as useful as the Colossus. Certainly I fear the latter much more.

The Griffon though is probably a good safe bet. Previously I didn’t really realize it is so much cheaper than the others, and I’m generally a big fan of bodies over fancyness. The other guns don’t seem unnecessarily fancy, but the reduced cost of the Griffon yields up a whole additional full Veteran Squad, or another squad and a half of normal grunts. If you’re trying to soak up points I think the others are definitely credible, but there’s a lot to be said for simply having more guys out there soaking up wounds.

Another big point to me in Matt’s particular case is that he tends to play on his (awesome) 4×4, Warmachine styled boards rather than more traditional 6×4 40k boards. On a 4×4 the 24″ minimum range of the Colossus could really crimp your style; even on a 6×4 it’s tight, and requires parking the gun in a far corner, ripe for being outflanked. The 12″ minimum of the Griffon is a lot more reasonable for smaller boards.

In any case, remember that Ordnance Barrage weapons (so, everything here except the Medusa’s shells) cause a Pinning check with a -1 modifier to Leadership if they cause any unsaved wounds. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I think that’s actually significant. They could potentially achieve almost as much, particularly against MEQs, just by pinning units as they do by removing models. Certainly I’ve had important units held at a stand still from continual pinning wounds, with significant game effects.