Vindicator Love?

The most famous vindi on the 'net- Jawaballs!

Why no love for the vindicator? Can’t remember the last time I saw one on the table in ANY game let alone tournament play. Shame really. A lone vindicator won Jawaballs and I a doubles tournament a few years back vs. some really strong players. This was 4th edition when or knob bikers were the OMG unit of the month, tearing dudes up, that nothing could stop. We fed them a unit and got them out in the open and dropped the vindi on them- HIT! Killed the entire unit. Later on we hit a point blank shot vs. a Black Templar squad that decimated them. Fun times.

So why no love for this tank?

Well even back in 4th it was a hit or miss unit. Much like the fire prism you had one big and scary gun- if it got weapon destroyed or vehicle destroyed it was done. Also, unlike the fire prism which has some nice range to it, an immobilized vindi is as good as a dead one. You could get around some of the issues with machine spirit back in the old marine codex- right now only Black Templars can tack this on, but that makes the tank even more expensive.

What killed the vindicator was the expansion of mass vehicle spam and most events running at 2K points. At 2K you don’t have to make and hard choices to your army list- you get all your anti-tank, infantry, death start units, mobile units- everything and anything! It’s like being a general and going to war with everything you could ever want and need. At this point level the vindi is just too vulnerable. 1200-1500 points and it’s a different game altogether, but those days of 40K are sadly over.

But what if I wanted to run a vindi? Right now I think only BA can do it = stand a chance of having it work. The key is going to be pushing a wall of AV 13 together with more important things to shoot at then the vindies, and if you do shoot them and they die your other AV 13 will be in tearing things up. Three fast moving vindies running alongside three baal predators. I’d also want a termie squad in a land raider to take those incoming anti-armor hits and a second wave of cheap assault troops in razorbacks moving up- I’d give them assault cannons.

Even then I’d probably only get a shot off on each of the tanks before they go down…