Warhammer 40,000 - Unit Focus - Space Marine Predator Destructor
Good day Warhammer 40k players and the casual onlooker! This is Zak Ludick from Cape Town South Africa and this is Warhammer 40,000 the tabletop boardgame where you use units represented by models of troops and tanks and play a board game with rulers and dice to attack one another and to seize objectives on a board filled with terrain!
In this game there is an astonishing amount of units, tanks and armies.
The Predator Destructor is one of two Predator tanks that most Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines have access to. The Blood Angels also have access to a Baal Predator but we will get to that!
Right now, let's focus on the Predator Destructor of the Space Marines.
Above we can see its statline. A 10" move per turn unless it Advances, which is not generally something that you want to do.
Generally this statline is used for its defensive capability. Toughness of 10, meaning that it will require high-powered weaponry, stronger than a meltagun to wound it easily. Meltaguns and Missile Launchers are Strength 9, needing a 5 or 6 to Wound this tank. The real threat is the Lascannon at S12 and anything above that is pretty much decorative.
Very few guns in the game are S20 and if such a weapon hits your tank, well you can kiss it goodbye!
A 3+ Save, same as a Space Marine will give it some protection against most light and medium fire. Heavy, tank-killing weapons - like the lascannon has an AP of -3 meaning that the tank's armor shall be reduced to 6+.
Wound 11 means that it should be able to survive 2-3 that hit and wound it before being blown apart.
The key to this tank of course is placement, movement and picking your targets!
Now let's look at guns:
Like all Space Marine tanks, the Predator and all other Space Marine variations can be mounted with a Hunter-Killer Missile and a Storm Bolter for free, so really, you will want both.
The main gun is not optional and is the Predator Autocannon. 4 shots at 48" means that it can pick off targets at a great range. With a move of 10" means a total of 48" threat range on this guy.
It has Rapid Fire 2, this means that when the tank shoots at something at half range - 24", it will get an additional 2 shots!
S9 Ap-1 and D3 means that it will easily wound most INFANTRY and that is where this tank finds its bracket, more about that below.
The tank has the option of 2x Heavy Bolters or 2x Lascannons and though the Lascannons are great for damage, when we play GOOD Warhammer, we look for synergies!
So we look at the units Ability to decide on the best options!
The Destructor Rule gives the ranged attacks that target Infantry units an additional AP!
Now, putting Lascannons on the tank does not make much sense. Ap -4 lascannons but only against Infantry? What a waste!
Rather Ap -2 Heavy Bolters AND Ap -2 Autocannons!
Put this into perspective: More guns have in 10th edition seen a drop in AP. But AP -2 is perfect. You do not need more. Most tough infantry - some of the toughest are Terminators have a 2+ save and have a 4+ invulnerable save. We shorten that to 2+/4. So when we have anything more than -2 to that armor save, they will use the 4 save.
So -2 means they have a 4+ save roll against this tank.
At 36" this is 6x Shots (with Sustained Hits 1) S5 Ap -2 and D2 with 4x Shots S9 Ap -2 D3. Within 24" it will be 6x Shots S9.
This makes it great for mowing down Space Marines, Terminators and many other infantry.
The Hunter Killer is for a once-per-battle shot at a tank and the Storm Bolter is for extra pot-shots. Funny enough Ap -1 on that one on this tank only and only when hitting Infantry! Brilliant!
Thank you for reading! I hope that was a fun analysis!
All Images from the WH 40K app.
Cheers!
