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Space Marines Review: Heavy Support: Thunderfire Cannons

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Oh… hello there. I didn’t see you come in! Welcome, to our discussion of the Space Marine Thunderfire Cannon. Scuba Steve here, and I’ll be giving you a brief walkthrough of what you can expect when you field on of these things and a few ways you can use them to great effectiveness. As always, for more great articles be sure to check out the Tactics Corner!

Thundering Guns

Space Marines are some of the bravest warriors in all the galaxy. For ages and ages, the Imperium of Man has expanded and triumphed thanks to their incredible bravery and thundering guns. Let’s talk briefly about the most thundering of all those guns – the Thunderfire Cannon. As I do with all of my articles and whenever you sit down to review a unit critically, it is best to break down all of their abilities and special rules, so you can see the truth of their value on the table top.

Wargear

Special Rules (Techmarine)

Alright, definitely a great line up of special rules and wargear. We have the makings of a truly awesome addition to almost any army, so how can we best put this thing to use?

On a side note… I wondered if humans ever tried to build a Thunderfire Cannon… apparently we did!

A little old school… but hey, it’s vintage – you gotta respect that… look how many Techmarines it took to man the gun back then! We’ve come a long way!

Anyways!

A Serious Case of Thunder Clap

I have found that there are two really effective ways to use/abuse the Thunderfire Cannon. of course – feel free to express any of your personal strategies in the comment section below and get your tricks and tactics out to the community!

By Thunder!!

Unfortunately, there are very few places where the Thunderfire Cannon fits into most lists of today. The reason for this is because it doesn’t fit very well into the Gladius Strike Force (or any other of the “Decurion” style detachments, for that matter). The only formation that allows it to be included is the Armored Task Force… and I cannot think of the last time I saw a Battle Company player use that as their auxiliary for the Gladius. It is a damn shame too, having it so limitied to particular detachments has really cut in to how often you see it on the table top. Now, hypothetically, if it were a stand-alone choice for an auxiliary option, or if there was a Formation made up of Thunderfire Cannons, I think that you’d see them much more often… until then though, they are just a little too hard to stuff into a list.

Beyond Thunderdome!

I think that the Thunderfire Cannon is an awesome unit and I believe that it has a place on the table top in a competitive setting – it just got a raw deal when GW starting dishing up Formations. The new list building strategies and mindsets started to do away with units that aren’t included in the latest and greatest detachment or formation. However, it is a really big and effective gun… and we can all make room for that, right? As I do with all of my articles, I challenge you all to test of some of the strategies I laid out above and experiment with your own! If you come up with anything really gnarly, be sure to post it below for us all to see and gawk over.

Scuba Steve, Signing Out

And remember, Frontline Gaming sells Games Workshop product at up to 25% off retail, every day!

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