Background
The rapier is a well used artillery piece that sees extensive use within the Solar Auxilia thanks to its portability. Of course, for old timers like myself, the though of having a Thudd Gun in an army might be too hard to resist!
Strengths
The rapier itself is a tough one. With T=7 and multiple wounds, some well placed shots will be required to take it out.
Plus, it is configurable! The controlling player simply needs to think what type of gun the rapier should be carrying and how many of them to take in a battery. I'll look at a few plausible builds below.
Weaknesses
The strength and durability of the rapier platform sadly does not extend to the auxiliaries who staff it. They are pretty ordinary with a worse armour save than the platform itself. Don't expect to get more than a couple of shots out of these per game. Equally, they're cheap enough to perform their function before becoming overwhelmed.
Builds
Below are four builds; one for each of the main armaments.
3 Rapiers with Quad Multi-Lasers (105 points)
With twin-linked and S6, it hardly matters that the AP is so low here. I recommend taking a full compliment of them to pump out an incredible 18 S6 shots every turn. That should be enough to give many infantry units in the game pause for thought and inflict some unsaved wounds on even a modest terminator squad.
3 Rapiers with Laser Destroyer Array (150 points)
Effectively three las canons with twin linked on them. Take three so that if nothing else you can glance a lighter tank off the field of play.
1 Rapier with Quad Mortar (60 points)
With heavy 4 regardless of whether its frag or shatter shells, this is a unit that can stand on its own. It can punish enemy infantry with negative modifiers to pinning tests and the shatter mode can aid in the take down of a tank. I'd probably want the laser destroyers to be sure of a tank kill though. Hence only one here as a "completer" or "finisher" style distraction unit / utility unit.
2 Rapiers with Graviton Cannons (140 points)
Graviton weapons are useful against both low strength opponents, as well as armour due to their haywire rule. But they are also situational. Against a high strength elite army (like terminator-based legion strike teams), they may not be so useful (maybe). Hence I'm only taking two of them here - to fire twice at the same squad to inflict sufficient injuries to force a Ld test, and to snipe tanks thanks to the haywire rule - the latter being simply in support of other weapons (and like the above, a "utility" style unit that can be pointed to different targets as required).
The rapier is a well used artillery piece that sees extensive use within the Solar Auxilia thanks to its portability. Of course, for old timers like myself, the though of having a Thudd Gun in an army might be too hard to resist!
Strengths
The rapier itself is a tough one. With T=7 and multiple wounds, some well placed shots will be required to take it out.
Plus, it is configurable! The controlling player simply needs to think what type of gun the rapier should be carrying and how many of them to take in a battery. I'll look at a few plausible builds below.
Weaknesses
The strength and durability of the rapier platform sadly does not extend to the auxiliaries who staff it. They are pretty ordinary with a worse armour save than the platform itself. Don't expect to get more than a couple of shots out of these per game. Equally, they're cheap enough to perform their function before becoming overwhelmed.
Builds
Below are four builds; one for each of the main armaments.
3 Rapiers with Quad Multi-Lasers (105 points)
With twin-linked and S6, it hardly matters that the AP is so low here. I recommend taking a full compliment of them to pump out an incredible 18 S6 shots every turn. That should be enough to give many infantry units in the game pause for thought and inflict some unsaved wounds on even a modest terminator squad.
3 Rapiers with Laser Destroyer Array (150 points)
Effectively three las canons with twin linked on them. Take three so that if nothing else you can glance a lighter tank off the field of play.
1 Rapier with Quad Mortar (60 points)
With heavy 4 regardless of whether its frag or shatter shells, this is a unit that can stand on its own. It can punish enemy infantry with negative modifiers to pinning tests and the shatter mode can aid in the take down of a tank. I'd probably want the laser destroyers to be sure of a tank kill though. Hence only one here as a "completer" or "finisher" style distraction unit / utility unit.
2 Rapiers with Graviton Cannons (140 points)
Graviton weapons are useful against both low strength opponents, as well as armour due to their haywire rule. But they are also situational. Against a high strength elite army (like terminator-based legion strike teams), they may not be so useful (maybe). Hence I'm only taking two of them here - to fire twice at the same squad to inflict sufficient injuries to force a Ld test, and to snipe tanks thanks to the haywire rule - the latter being simply in support of other weapons (and like the above, a "utility" style unit that can be pointed to different targets as required).
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