The skull cannon is an entertaining addition to the codex that fits in well with Khorne's theme of murder through any "natural" means (where "natural" excludes psychic traditionally). In this case, technological corresponds to natural.
On the positive side, the skull cannon has a reasonable armour value (12) on its front and side with 3 hull points. This will clearly put it in the dreadnought survivability category with some intelligent play. Therefore on that basis alone, it is viable. The higher-than-dreadnought BS is a clear advantage too.
In terms of weaponry, the skull cannon is reasonable: at S8, its going to hurt (and potentially instant kills) some enemies, but the AP5 value feels like a let down considering a dreadnought equivalent would probably be a plasma cannon. The dreadskulls rule is weak: allowing no initiative penalty for charging daemons is just a bit in the meh category for me personally. Finally, the chariot also the gorefeast rule introduced on the blood throne. Occasionally, it will therefore be able to regenerate its hull points.
Overall, for the points cost, its just a shade on the expensive side for what it does. If only it had a solid AP, it would be much better and more tempting. As it is, I think the soul grinder is still outshining the skull cannon for me. And since the cannon itself is very much anti-infantry and anti-light tank, many of the other units in the chaos daemons codex duplicate this purpose. Hence, although the model is nice looking, I'm leaving this one out of the army lists outside of Apocalypse.
On the positive side, the skull cannon has a reasonable armour value (12) on its front and side with 3 hull points. This will clearly put it in the dreadnought survivability category with some intelligent play. Therefore on that basis alone, it is viable. The higher-than-dreadnought BS is a clear advantage too.
In terms of weaponry, the skull cannon is reasonable: at S8, its going to hurt (and potentially instant kills) some enemies, but the AP5 value feels like a let down considering a dreadnought equivalent would probably be a plasma cannon. The dreadskulls rule is weak: allowing no initiative penalty for charging daemons is just a bit in the meh category for me personally. Finally, the chariot also the gorefeast rule introduced on the blood throne. Occasionally, it will therefore be able to regenerate its hull points.
Overall, for the points cost, its just a shade on the expensive side for what it does. If only it had a solid AP, it would be much better and more tempting. As it is, I think the soul grinder is still outshining the skull cannon for me. And since the cannon itself is very much anti-infantry and anti-light tank, many of the other units in the chaos daemons codex duplicate this purpose. Hence, although the model is nice looking, I'm leaving this one out of the army lists outside of Apocalypse.
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