Making the most of Steam Tanks in 3.0

[Lord Krungharr]

I sure do like the Steam Tank model, especially with Duardin bits all over it!  That said, it clearly isn't the most super amazing unit, though perhaps nice and durable.  So thinking of a Steam Tank army, how would one go about making the best possible army with it?  I'm thinking Living City, for the healing 1 wound per unit every of our hero phases, and mitigating the swingy movement with chances to outflank if needed.  The Commander version makes a good general with Ironoak Artisan and Amulet of Destiny.  How about this then?

Steam Tank Commander (Ironoak Artisan/Amulet)

3 Steam Tanks (for Battleline)

20 Ironbreakers (for bodies and a screen)

Warden King and 2 Runelords (to help out the Ironbreakers perform better, and hopefully to get a Curse off at some point)

pair of Stormdrakes (because: reasons)

regular Celestial Hurricanum

single Gyrocopter

Idea being that the Commander and 1 Tank can be hitting +1, and the other 2 can go off with the Hurricanum as a squadron, even outflanking and still +1 to hit if there's an opening and reason for them to do so.  Dragons go where needed when needed, Ironbreakers can stay in the back and hold strong with the King and Runelords, etc, or they could outflank even.  

What are other ideas?  Greywater increases their range, but I like the healing, melting away, and outflanking of the Living City for the Steam Tanks.  Sillyness?  Anyone try them out en masse ever?

[Thugmullet]

A Steamtank army would be cool. One of those armies that you plonk down and your apponant and yourself just know your prob going to lose but know one cares because dammit, you brought a steam tank army and who doesn't love that idea 😂.

My input would be that the steamtank commander must without doubt be given The Spear of the Hunt. Furthermore, he needs to be actually modelled with a lance in the charge position.  There are few opurtunities in AOS to have a tank doing a lance charge.. It should be taken.

All tanks should also be named. With names written on there sides like WWI tanks. Tanky McTank Face being an obvious choice.

Just saying.... 😁

[Lord Krungharr]

Next time I go to my FLGS, I'll place my order for 3 more tanks!  Even better will be giving my Dwarf Steam Tank Commander an absurdly long Spear of the Hunt

 

[zilberfrid]

The spell lore of Greywater is also full of WWI vibes, which might interest you.

[readercolin]

So if I were to go heavy on steam tanks (which has tempted me a few times, just not enough to pull the trigger), I was looking primarily at either tempest eye or greywater as my city.  Why?

The main gun of the steam tank is straight up underwhelming.  It is a single shot, 4+/2+/-2/d6, and even with all out attack or a hurricanum or something it still only goes to a 3+ to hit.  But the average damage from it on its own is a mere 1.46.  Get 4 steam tanks (with or without commander) and you are doing... 6 damage.  Yeah, the long range damage isn't worth writing home about.

However, then we get to the steam guns.  With 2d6 shots, they remain unreliable, especially as they are also rocking that 4+ to hit.  But they still average almost 3 damage per tank, and if you stick them next to a hurricanum (which you should) you can be putting out ~15.5 damage before saves from 4 tanks, not including the main gun.  This is telling us that the real power of the steam tanks lies more at close range than at long, and if we want to maximize them, we want to be getting close enough to hit things.  However, with an 8" gun, the steam guns really need the tank to get close.

And this gets us to why I would consider tempest eye or greywater.  Tempest eye gives us more movement on turn 1, and we should be able to reliably demand more pressure, giving us 2d6+5" movement on turn 1, and potentially be able to run an extra 1d6+1 to get into position.  Greywater on the other hand doesn't give us extra movement, but it adds 3" to the range of our guns, which means our steam guns are now 11" range instead of 8.  Greywater also gives us either run+shoot within 12" of the general, or re-roll hits of 1 within 12" of the general.  Living city is probably the 3rd best city, but deepstrike doesn't get us within the 8" of our steam guns to shoot them, and beyond that all that it really gives us is healing 1 point per turn, which is generally going to be somewhat underwhelming.

[Lord Krungharr]

Yeah, I'd have to agree the extra range of Greywater is very good for Steam Tanks, which are probably actually full of grey water!  Also excellent for Gyrocopters too.  Ghoul Mere Ranger is certainly very good for a squadron of them as well, and I see the SteamPiston Plate Mail can provide the extra armor like Ironoak Artisan could.  All worth a try for sure; probably need to put my Irondrakes in there for running and shooting.

 

[Barbarian Borelord]

On 6/4/2022 at 4:11 AM, Thugmullet said:

All tanks should also be named. With names written on there sides like WWI tanks. Tanky McTank Face being an obvious choice.

Just saying.... 😁

I gave the commander of my Steam Tank a name: Lieutenant Gruber.

I never use him though because I wasn't impressed by his preformance...

[Lord Krungharr]

Lt. Mack Gruber?!?  

I'm using my Steam Tank Commander as my Living City general this Saturday at a tournament as a test run (Ironoak Artisan and Amulet of Destiny to try to deny Slay the Warlord).  Hoping he can help snipe some heroes and soften things up for the Stormdrakes and/or Gotrek before they charge.  Warden King and Runelord will stay back with the 20 Ironbreakers and 10 Longbeards to guard backfield objectives.  The Gyrocopters will hover near units I think will get charged for a good unleash hell vs horde units...or the Steamy McSteamyface can do that vs non-horde units (though I suppose Stormdrake fire is pretty good for that too).  Got my Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-charger too for magical healing and general support.

I chose Sever the Head as my Grand Strategy, but now I realize Vendetta is the one I was thinking of.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

On 6/5/2022 at 3:53 AM, readercolin said:

So if I were to go heavy on steam tanks (which has tempted me a few times, just not enough to pull the trigger), I was looking primarily at either tempest eye or greywater as my city.  Why?

The main gun of the steam tank is straight up underwhelming.  It is a single shot, 4+/2+/-2/d6, and even with all out attack or a hurricanum or something it still only goes to a 3+ to hit.  But the average damage from it on its own is a mere 1.46.  Get 4 steam tanks (with or without commander) and you are doing... 6 damage.  Yeah, the long range damage isn't worth writing home about.

However, then we get to the steam guns.  With 2d6 shots, they remain unreliable, especially as they are also rocking that 4+ to hit.  But they still average almost 3 damage per tank, and if you stick them next to a hurricanum (which you should) you can be putting out ~15.5 damage before saves from 4 tanks, not including the main gun.  This is telling us that the real power of the steam tanks lies more at close range than at long, and if we want to maximize them, we want to be getting close enough to hit things.  However, with an 8" gun, the steam guns really need the tank to get close.

And this gets us to why I would consider tempest eye or greywater.  Tempest eye gives us more movement on turn 1, and we should be able to reliably demand more pressure, giving us 2d6+5" movement on turn 1, and potentially be able to run an extra 1d6+1 to get into position.  Greywater on the other hand doesn't give us extra movement, but it adds 3" to the range of our guns, which means our steam guns are now 11" range instead of 8.  Greywater also gives us either run+shoot within 12" of the general, or re-roll hits of 1 within 12" of the general.  Living city is probably the 3rd best city, but deepstrike doesn't get us within the 8" of our steam guns to shoot them, and beyond that all that it really gives us is healing 1 point per turn, which is generally going to be somewhat underwhelming.

I agree with this. My Cities list runs three Steam Tanks, and I use them in basically the way you describe. The Steam Tank has lots of down sides, but it is not completely unworkable. It has good bulk, charge mortals and its damage is not bad if you get to attack with all of its weapons. Getting it into combat early is the hardest thing about using it.

That's why I run them in Tempest's Eye. Extra movement and bulk turn 1 synergize well with what the Steam Tank needs to be successful. The Hawk Eyed command trait (+1 to wound aura) helps with damage and is just overall nice to have on a tanky, large base model like the Commander. The Zephyrite Banner (reroll charge aura) is a useful artefact, as well, which helps the Tanks get their charge mortals more reliably and mitigates the random movement to a degree.

The big problem with the Steam Tank is not that it is completely unusable. It's just outclassed several times over between the units of Cities, Stormcast and the other ally options available.

[Lord Krungharr]

Charge mortals?!  I must need new glasses, I never noticed anything about that!  

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

10 hours ago, Lord Krungharr said:

Charge mortals?!  I must need new glasses, I never noticed anything about that!  

You made me doubt my self for a second, but it's there on the warscroll (which, to be fair, is very cluttered):

Quote

Steel Behemoth: Enemy warriors are crushed beneath the ironclad bulk of this war machine.

After this model makes a charge move, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 1" of this model and roll a dice. On a 2+, that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

These mortals and the wheels attack profile don't look like much, but I find the deliably getting them them makes the Tanks damage go from "bad" to "adequate".

[Lord Krungharr]

Yes, adequate is acceptable.  Similar use to Chaos Chariots, if they get like 2 or 3 into a single target, they fare much better.