Games Workshop has previewed the Rogal Dorn Battle Tank rules for the Imperial Guard army’s snazzy new medium tank unit, revealed last month. The Rogal Dorn gets upgrades to Strength, Toughness and Wound stats versus its little sibling the Leman Russ – plus a new Turret Weapon rule that lets it shoot faraway targets even if tied up in melee.
It’s a big reveal for the Astra Militarum’s chunky new armoured toy, confirmed in GW’s Rogal Dorn Battle Tank reveal in October.
Shown off in a Warhammer 40k codex preview article on GW’s Warhammer Community site on Wednesday, the new Rogal Dorn Battle Tank has the same 10-inch move as the old Leman Russ – but gets one extra pip each of Strength and Toughness (S8 and T9 compared to the Russ’ S7, T9 profile) as well as an extra four wounds for a total of 17 to the Russ’ 13.
Meanwhile, its standard armament – the Oppressor Cannon – keeps the same Heavy D6+3 shots, Blast weapon type as the Leman Russ Battle Cannon, but gets an extra two points of Strength (10 vs. 8); an extra point of AP (AP-3 vs. -2) and an extra Damage (D4 vs. D3).
Wednesday’s WarCom preview also reveals a new Turret Weapon special rule for Astra Militarum tanks. This not only allows them to rotate their main turret gun to shoot targets at range, even if they’re currently in melee combat (which would normally prevent shooting at any other enemies but the ones crawling up the tank’s hull) – it also gives a tasty +1 to the hit roll.
Imperial Guard tank armies look to be significantly more playable in this new codex, don’t they…
We’re also treated to a preview of a new, improved statline for the Imperial Guard’s mighty Baneblade heavy tank, a seldom seen Lord of War unit that’s generally been considered very over-costed in points for its power in recent years.
The Baneblade gets an extra four wounds – for a terrifying, almost unmatched 30 wounds total – and an extra pip of Toughness brings it to T9, helping it to shrug off all but 40k’s biggest, deadliest anti-armour weapons.
On top of that, GW says the Baneblade’s first two sponsons will be rolled into its base points cost in the new Astra Militarum codex, along with reduced points cost for the extra sponson guns you’ll be adding on top.
All told, this may well make the Baneblade a more popular choice for Imperial Guard army lists – though we’ll have to wait for the full codex to come along in the upcoming Astra Militarum army set to be sure.