Next up on heavy support is the basilisk. Its the humble ole mainstay of the Imperial Guard. Unfortunately it has some issues that make it not the premier choice for your army. Most of this is how artillery works in 7th edition, with the major change to minimum range. Its still not a bad option, but there is more you have to be aware of it you want to use it.
So its the basic Chimera chassis with AV 12 front armor and 10 on side and rear. It has 3 Hps, is BS 3 and is opened topped like most of the artillery. It is 125pts and comes with usual vehicle equipment (smoke, searchlight) and a hull heavy bolter (or heavy flamer). You can have 3 in a squadron and its main gun is the earthshaker cannon. Its 36"-240" range S9 AP3, large blast, ordnance, barrage. Its solid don't get me wrong.
Its issue is how barrage interacts with minimum range. Basically you cannot target a unit within that minimum range with a barrage weapon if you cannot see it. This is a big change from 6th, where you could, but would scatter fully if you saw the target or not. The minimum range hurts other barrage weapons less because they either do not have it or its small. But 36" is a hug bubble of stuff you can't hit, go ahead and place it in a corner and get a measuring tape out and see how much this covers, it isn't small. You can fire directly, but will need line of sight in order to do so, so this affects how you can use them. The big thing is that it is hard to keep them hidden and still fire.
How to take them, really I would keep them pretty basic, they are not really worth adding a lot of pts too. A heavy flamer is good for when the enemy gets too close and the main gun can't be used. Other than that I would take one to two, as the game goes on it gets harder to hit things. You don't want to tie too many points into them.
You want to find a good corner with good cover and start banging away with them. A full squadron of them can really hurt an advance of either infantry or vehicles, but they will be unable to explode any vehicle except opened topped ones. They are best used against masses of infantry or light vehicles to get the most out of their large blasts.
Now if you are facing an aggressive army, you will have issues hitting targets in minimum range, that's why I recommend the heavy flamer. Once they get close you can use the basilisks as expendable units to move up and flame targets. This also works well against flanking units trying to get behind and hit your artillery in CC. The hard part about them really is that you will have to keep them visible to keep shooting their main guns, but they are relatively easy to kill. If you can find good terrain that will give you cover and allow you to shoot through, that is the best.
Honestly there are better choices for IG artillery, and I prob will not use them a whole lot. I like the manticore better and the wvyern is superior for dealing with infantry. The basilisk is just ok, and when you have choices that are great, its hard to take the ok one. If the way minimum range worked in 7th was different, then it would be completely different, but as is you will struggle to hit targets later in the game unless you are playing against a gunline or keep them visible in order to shoot directly. So if you are taking them, plan accordingly and use them to maximum effect early. They hit hard and are great as long as your opponent does not close with you. Once they get in though, they will struggle. Honestly for larger games like Apoc, they are a great unit as their long range can actually be utilized, but in most games they don't get to take advantage of it. Hey you can shoot at the table over if the guys playing there are ok with it :).
GG
Barrage allows you to do indirect fire, but you can always do direct fire even inside the minimun range of the weapon. so you can still shoot inside the 36", just as a direct fire weapon.
ReplyDeleteTrue, I read over that section. Blah letting old rules stay in my head.
DeleteGW have to be very careful when they touch the Basilisk its been around for so long and guard players love it S9 AP3 large blast whats not to love. If they tried to nurf it the Imperial Guard community would be after blood. But saying that no one thought they would change the name but they did. Always like to reading your stuff
ReplyDeleteYeah, its an imperial guard staple, they have to be careful. Luckily they still are good, just not great.
DeleteI find the 7th edition barrage rules have helped the Basilisk, since if the enemy is within 36" you usually have LOS to them, meaning you can now subtract your BS off the scatter, where previously you couldn't.
ReplyDeleteyeah, I just like them behind terrain to keep them alive, and I find a manticore can do that job without having to be visible where the basilisk struggles at that.
DeleteI just finished building a Basilisk so I really appreciate this article.
ReplyDeleteBut barrage rules still have me really confused. It isn't worded very clearly in the BRB. Might I suggest another post clarifying it?
I can do a post later on it. Basically though they function like normal blast weapons with two big exceptions. The first allows them to fire indirectly, which are targets out of LoS, if they do they will always scatter fully unless a hit is rolled. The second is that cover and wound allocation is always taken from the center of the blast. That is the short rundown. Multiple barrages work in that the first fires, do scatter, once its final position is determined roll another scatter and see where it lands. If a hit is rolled you decide where it goes as long as it touches any previous hits. Repeat till out of shots.
DeleteThe problem with the basilisk is that its a bit... lacking.
ReplyDeleteWith the new rules, you dont destroy a vehicle with it, i sometimes used them to barrage on land raiders even, wich quite worked in old times.
Usually we dont need anymore help to kill inf, in that scenario even with marines a pair of wyverns may do better, so now... whats its use? anti tank? nope, you wont destroy a whirlwind per example with one hit, anti inf? overkill on most, not totally bad on marines, but cover saves can overcome its hit so... what now? and in points 125 is not bad... but is not good either.
Yeah that is the big problem they have now, they are only marginally better at killing infantry than the manticore, but the manticore is now better at killing vehicles or at lest penning and putting HPs on them. Wyverns are just more efficient at killing infantry so its hard to take a basilisk. Its just ok.
DeleteAgainst Marines the Basilisk is far better than the Manticore. I sometimes use a battery of 2 of them and have wiped out entire squads of tactical and devastator squads with one round of shooting. Manticores still allow them their armour save so most are going to survive.
ReplyDeleteIt's best when the have their librarian in the middle of a squad of marines, and you centre the blast directly on top of him. Even if they are in terminator armour you will most likely kill him and a good portion of the squad, and if he is in power armour then they are just all dead.
It is, but you don't always face marines. Overall the manticore is better generally, with a few situations that the basilisk is better in. I may seem down on it, but its still not a bad piece of artillery, others just do the work better generally.
DeleteAlternatively, what do you think about the artillery carriage with earthshaker cannons from forgeworld?
ReplyDeleteThey are 75 points a piece, and much more survivable with T7 W4 Sv3+ and four-eight crew guardsman to take wounds.
I think fielding a squadron of them with a gunline would be quite a good idea, seeing how you don't need to hide them as much as the basilisks, so you will be able to shoot most of the time with the main gun