# Thoughts on Skull Cannons of Khorne?



## Calamari (Feb 13, 2009)

I've been looking at updating my deamons to 6th edition recently to take on the tourney circuit next year and I've been trying to work out whether or not skull cannons are any good. With open topped AV12 and 3HP they are averagely tough but can be decent on the charge with the HoW attacks (not that I'm looking to intentionally charge with them). The cannon itself is pretty good, there are always uses for a high strength, cover ignoring large blast even if it is only ap5. The thing that really interests me is the Dreadskull rule that means any unit hit by the cannon can be charged without counting as charging through cover. For the grenadless daemons this is pretty good. I'm just not sure on how they stack up to soul grinders, especially given the lack of sky fire. The list I'm thinking of is this:

Fateweaver

Herald of Slaanesh
Greater Reward (probably etherblade) exalted reward (portalglyph/grimoire)

Herald if Slaanesh
2x greater reward

Herald of Nurgle
Greater gift, locus of fecundity

11 horrors

15 deamonettes
Alluress with greater gift

15 deamonettes
Alluress with greater gift

20 plaguebearers
Plagueridden with greater gift

6 screamers

Skull cannon

Skull cannon

Soul grinder
Nurgle, phlegm

Aegis line with quad gun

I'm not sold on this list at the moment. While its ok I just don't think it makes the most of the skull cannon's rules with the only assaulting units being the screamers, deamonettes (who will deep strike) and whatever I spawn out of the portal. Perhaps I should have more deamonettes and bloodletters? 

Then again I could be thinking about it the wrong way and just treat the Dreadskulls as a nice extra?

Anyone have much experience with them? I've not tried them yet so it's all theory for now.


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Calamari said:


> Anyone have much experience with them? I've not tried them yet so it's all theory for now.


I have had 1-2 in every list I have played so far, when going mono-Khorne. Their use is three-fold:

1) The Dreadskulls if your Bloodletters are charging. 
2) They tend to get the attention of the enemy pretty fast, leaving your sloggers to go up the field undisturbed.
3) Against horde armies (Orks, Tyranid, other Daemons, some Tau) they are a godsend. Horde armies usually go for cover as they have no armorsave to worry about, so this one shoots them out of the water.

If you're against a elite/semi-elite army, one can be used for points 1-2. If you're against a horde army, bring as many as you can as they are a godsend!


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## Ravner298 (Jun 3, 2011)

Why are you spending so much on greater gifts on squad leaders and x2 on heralds? They don't benefit all that much from greater gifts at all....just grab the lessers for etherblade, and on the slaanesh heralds just grab the etherblade, tack on ml1 for shriek and you're set and you free up points.

As far as skull cannons are concerned, they're in a highly competitive FoC slot. While they're not inherently bad (they will mess up foot ig for sure) they are up against grinders and princes, both of which are alot more useful overall. A grinder with the torrent flamer can be just as if not more killy, as well as more resilient, and can follow it up with an assault. I think the cannons would be better overall if you could take 1-3 per heavy slot. They will only be of use in an infantry horde list.


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## Calamari (Feb 13, 2009)

Right now I'm considering a list that is heavy on the Daemonettes and Seekers. For the heavies I'm thinking of a pair of Soul Grinders and just one Skull Cannon for clearing out troops on an Aegis line or similar. I would be hoping to perhaps catching 2 units under the template so that my high initiative models can get the advantage. How would you rate the cannon in this style of list?

And yes, 1-3 per slot would be amazing.


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