# Are assault cannons worth it?



## Magpie (Oct 5, 2011)

Specifically within Codex: SM. Are they ever worth it? On the units that you'd traditionally want to field assault cannons (Terminators, Dreadnoughts, Land Speeders) they are expensive and/or outshined by other options (cyclones, multimeltas and Tornado configurations). You can also place assault cannons on some other units but I'm not very familiar with them. Do assault cannons still have a place or is it generally better to give them a miss in favour of other options?


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

hmm, on dreads prolly not - but it depends on the set up.

terminators NO not when the cyclone is the same price & more range/effective.

land speeders i can see them more often. its either the MM/HF tornado or a MM/asscan tornado.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

I always use Assault cannons on my dreadnoughts, but use the cyclone missile launcher on my Terminators

Assault Cannon dreadnoughts are great for harassing light tanks, like Vindicators, Predators and Rhinos. They also do well against Monstrous Creatures and Heavy Infantry. with their strengh, they actually make a decent AV killer, so thats why I take them. I also use them on my land Speeders when I'm not using the Typhoon with A heavy bolter for a bit of anti-horde.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I love assault cannons. I've seen asscannons take out LRs. Rending and multiple shots makes the chances of scoring 14 or 15 on your AP rolls quite reasonable, especially if you can get more than one cannon fring at the same target.


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## Magpie (Oct 5, 2011)

In order to destroy a Land Raider with an assault cannon you'd have to penetrate it. I think the chance of an assault cannon getting a pen and destroyed result is something like 1%. It's like the lascannon, you can potentially destroy a Land raider with one of those too but it's not very likely. Assault cannons destroying a Land raider will happen occasionally but it's something you should only attempt if you're out of better options, whereas if you put a multimelta on your Dreadnought you have a much better chance of destroying vehicles. 

I'm not seeing how rending is worth the assault cannon's price tag in 5th edition, maybe if it was a bit cheaper then it would be more attractive.


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## Sephyr (Jan 18, 2010)

Assault cannons need a bit of spam to be fearsome. I can ignore one or keep it stunned or out of range. However, I've seen what 3 do to my termies (chaos termies don't get sweet Storm Shields to anything that rends is dangerous), Daemon Princes and plague marines. It's not pretty.


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## Jack Mac (Apr 29, 2009)

Fallen said:


> hmm, on dreads prolly not - but it depends on the set up.
> 
> terminators NO not when the cyclone is the same price & more range/effective.


This isn't completely true. The assault cannon is better than the cyclone missile launcher *on average* against every AV except 11 or 12. 

Against AV12, the asscannon causes as many penetrating hits as the missile launcher but doesn't ever glance, and against AV11 the asscannon causes as many total hits but has proportionally less penetrating hits compared to the launcher.

So the range thing is definitely true, but I don't know about the effectiveness, it depends what you expect from it.


(As an aside, I realised this some time ago and it struck me as odd. The assault cannon is straight-out better than the lascannon against AV, all the time. Of course, it's got half the range and can't do as well vs wave serpents or monoliths, but against anything else the assault cannon is more powerful.

Again, the assault cannon is better than the lascannon in a weird way, in that they're closest when firing against AV11 or 12. You'd really think that would be the asscannon's strongest point, not it's weakest.)


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## Caratacos (Aug 26, 2008)

When playing with my Dark Angels I always bring at least one Deathwing squad with an Assault Cannon. They can deepstrike down so the range issue isn't a problem. And as mentioned above, they can and have brought down landraiders.


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## AAAAAAAAARRRGGHH (Apr 17, 2009)

Magpie said:


> Specifically within Codex: SM. Are they ever worth it? On the units that you'd traditionally want to field assault cannons (Terminators, Dreadnoughts, Land Speeders) they are expensive and/or outshined by other options (cyclones, multimeltas and Tornado configurations). You can also place assault cannons on some other units but I'm not very familiar with them. Do assault cannons still have a place or is it generally better to give them a miss in favour of other options?


You're mostly right. Land speeders, because of their speed, tend to fare much better with a Heavy Flamer and a MM. The range isn't a problem and it can deal with almost anything it encounters.

Terminators love cyclones as their range and 2 shots make them very attractive choices. The only time you would want an asscan over the cyclone is if you plan on deepstriking them. But even then, you pretty much have to do this every game, whereas the cyclone gives you the flexibillity not to.

On dreadnoughts however, I actually find the asscan quite useful. Because most dreadnoughts tend to get into the thick of it, either by podding down or simply waltzing across the board, only the rifleman dread seems to never move. And here, the asscan provides some lovely flexibility over, say the MM. 

First and foremost because it is more useful against the widest array of targets. Podded down behind a leman russ? Does it really matter whether you fire a MM or an asscan? It gonna hurt anyway. Inbound hammernators? You prefer the cannon don't you? Swarms of pesky orks? Still the asscan.
When podding, the asscan may not be as godly as a MM to take out tanks. But it gets the job done.

And when your dread have to walk the whole way, the 24 range of the cannon really helps out (because the MM have to be within 12 to actually be better than rocket launcher).

In short, a dread with an asscan is like a swiss army knife. Sometimes you'd rather have a real screwdriver handy but more often than not you can do without. At least give it a try and see what you think.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

The cyclone launcher is more effective on the whole. You don't have to be mega lucky to get 4 kills - in one turn of firing the Cyclone launcher, I managed to kill a Raider, and 9 Trueborn.

Although technically not an Assault Cannon, the Grey Knight Psycannons are excellent, due to their additional strength.

Many people prefer the Psifleman with 2x Autocannon and Psybolt - I prefer the VenDread with Psycannon and Autocannon with Psybolts. Although more expensive, it's more resilient, and at the expense of range (which is not an issue as you want it stay close to your marines thanks to its aura), you get 2 more shots with an equal accuracy, and rending.


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## moswantd407 (Jul 7, 2011)

Well on dreads on speeders no not IMO. While some say the cyclone ML is better on termies I disagree against the standard T4 squad its 4 shots vs 2 shots both need 2+ to wound and 1 has rending to ignore some armor. and on non T4 stuff if it has a 2+ save assault cannons are still better. If it has a 4+ save assault cannons are still better because of more non saves. Even against monstrous creatures it will end up being approximately the same. the only thing the ML has on the assault cannon is range.


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## Wax (Jan 6, 2010)

moswantd407 said:


> *snip*


The other (two) thing(s) the missile launcher has over the assault cannon is the ability to lay down two templates a turn over hordes, enabling you to get far more than 4 hits per shot. Also the termie gets to fire his storm bolter in addition to the missiles.

Don't get me wrong, I love assault cannons, but in C:SM the only place I like them is on LRCs.


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