# Warpcannon & Hell Pit Abomination



## burton001 (Jan 24, 2012)

I recently purchased both models for my Skaven army. The rules for the Hell pit are pretty straight forward, however Ive never use a cannon like weapon before. What are the rules and best tactics for this model? Any advice and suggestions.


----------



## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

1- pick a point

2- move the point an artillery dice worth of inches away from the cannon, this is where your shot lands. If you get a misfire then you have problems...

3- roll the artillery dice for the second time, this is how far your shot bounces. All enemies between the landing spot and the end of the bounce are hit (but the line is paper thin, so only 1 model per rank of an enemy unit can be hit). A misfire this tiime does nothing, the shot just doesn't bounce.

3a- warp lightning has an added bonus that at the end of the bounce the shot explodes; place the small blast at the end of the bounce (central hole over the end point). The models hit are the models on the line or under the blast (can't be hit by both).

Normal cannons are just S10, but the warp lightning cannons are a little different: their strength is the same as the bounce length (don't know what happens if you roll a misfire for bounce length). This means rolling high means your shots are nastier, so while most players might aim about 4-6" in front of their target skaven is probably more like 6-8"


----------



## olderplayer (Dec 11, 2009)

First read the rule book on shooting cannons and the skaven army book on the specifics of the bounce roll and misfire consequences and damage. It shoots like a cannon but it causes multiple wounds with the strength equal to the artillery dice roll for the bounce. The cannon hits everything in an imaginery line from the place it hits on the table to the end of the bounce and at the end of the bounce distance it hits everything touched by a small template centered at the end of the bounce. It has its own misfire table, so you should read that closely. 

The warp lightning cannon is potentially one of the most potent war machines in the game but can also misfire (including causing it to fire in a random direction and hit your own troops) and can fizzle when the misfire comes up on the bounce roll (meaning zero strength and no bounce). Thus, it, like so many Skaven shooting weapons, is a bit unreliable but when it goes off with a bounce roll of 8 or 10, it can be devastating. Also, it can shoot into enemy units in combat with Skaven slaves. I believe that being a warp-stone weapon, it also can wound models ordinarily immmune to non-magical attacks, so the ethereal and immune to magical attacks characters and model, like spirit hosts and wraiths and the vc black coach late in the game are all vulnerable to its shooting. 

Because of these reasons, we typically see the warp lightning cannon deployed on the flanks of the army or away from units. Since the new model sits up high, it can usually see and shoot over your troops. However, that also means enemy cannons (dwarf and empire) can shoot the model and kill it pretty reliably, especially given the foot print of the model. The WLC model is not easily defended, so an army with flying models (chaos furies or harpies) will often get to it and kill it and, if you do not deploy correctly, fast units (fiends, sabrecats, fast cav units) can often get to and kill the cannona and scouting units may get to it if you leave gaps in your deployment. Thus, warp lightning cannons tend to not survive the game but do enough damage and attract enough attention to be well worth playing.


----------



## DecrepitDragon (Aug 2, 2011)

olderplayer said:


> . . . . Thus, warp lightning cannons tend to not survive the game but do enough damage and attract enough attention to be well worth playing.


All too true mate.

You can however ward off some of the less numerous or tough WLC killers by cunningly placing Jezzails, or a core units ratling gun/warpfire thrower in reasonably close proximity/range.

One or two opportunistic volleys should see off all but the most hardened flankers when combined with magic and possibly an initial shot from the WLC itself, leaving you free to blast lightening (or drizzle sparks) later in the game.


----------

