Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️
2/5 stars. I love the concept, but the likelihood of it exploding and killing all inside is just too high a risk. And its just too slow.
Background.
The Mastodon is supposed to be the last word in troops transport and used sparingly by the legions. It aims to carry its payload into heavily sieged areas and use its melta array to blast through and disgorge its contents into the heart of the enemy while keeping them safe along the journey to the destination.
Strengths.
The two void shields are great, of course, but the defensive capabilities really could do with some flare shields as well. Armour of 14 all round is terrific. And then there is the transport capacity of a whopping 42 which little other in the game short of the Sokar Storm Bird can even begin to hope to match. Being a lord of war, it can also carry multiple units. So have a good think what 4 units you might like inside (for instance!).
On top of this the melta array is certainly powerful, but do note the small range.
Weaknesses.
This thing is slow. You are arguably better off foot slogging.
Against focused enemy fire power even those 12 hull points can and will be whittled down with celerity. Doubly so since your enemy is fielding lords of war as well presumably.
The 12 inch range of the melta array is an issue.
Overall, you are better off taking the same number of points of marines with heavier weapons I would imagine. Hence as stated at the top, I love the concept, but its just too unwieldy to see use in this edition. Sorry folks. Maybe deploy in a tight city fight terrain board at best?
Builds.
Mastodon with Command Vox Relay (725 points)
Take hunter killer missiles to taste. There's not much choice in terms of upgrades here to be honest, and this near non-upgraded version assumes that you have a character inside that is going to be taking advantage of the Vox.
If anything I think you're being generous, For the same cost you could take a full Squadron of 3 Predators armed to the teeth. Assuming in a game of this size you'd be facing another Lord of War (or LoW lite such as a Cerberus) there's nothing this tank has to take them on, and against even a Scout Titan it'd be a sitting duck.
ReplyDeleteYep - I am being generous with 2/5 stars. I WANT to like the concept, but it is poorly executed by the current rules unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that they haven't quite managed to combine the idea of a big gun platform with that of a large transport. The Spartan is probably the best its one so far. The Stormbird is Ok but for the points cost I'd rather take a flight of Storm Eagles
ReplyDelete