STARRING ROLE

f you are going to include a super heavy tank in your Apocalypse force, you must ensure that its presence is pivotal to the battle. Even in the sprawling wars of Apocalypse, a super heavy vehicle represents a significant portion of your army, and just as you wouldn't include an entire tank company without a plan, the same applies to your super heavy vehicles. Bear in mind what other forces you have available, which stratagems you want to employ, and then set yourself tasks that you want your super heavy to achieve. Keep this direct and simple – such as destroying any enemy super heavy vehicles and gargantuan creatures, or ensuring that no enemies get around your right flank. Obviously the capabilities of the particular super heavy vehicle or vehicles that you have will be significant, and you'll find some specific examples later in this article.

Most importantly, remember that in Apocalypse victory ultimately goes to the side that controls the most objectives at the end of the battle. You should direct the terrifying firepower of your super heavy towards that aim – blowing away enemies that control objectives that you want to claim, or defending objectives that you already hold. Essentially, you can use your super heavy tank aggressively or defensively.

Some super heavy tanks are perfect for moving forward and bringing the fight to the enemy, such as the Hellhammer and Brass Scorpion. With these super heavies, you are looking to support an attack against objectives in no-man's land and the enemy deployment zone. The super heavy will form the spearhead of your assault, brushing aside the enemy's units and sheltering your attacking forces from incoming fire. The ability of a super heavy tank to move relentlessly forwards whilst still firing all of its guns makes them ideal linebreakers, which can provide covering fire for other units that are moving flat out and therefore are unable to shoot. When used in this role, the emphasis is on neutralising threats to your supporting troops and paving the way to the objective – survival of the super heavy itself is secondary to this goal. With this in mind, be careful just how close your troops get to the super heavy – an untimely Apocalyptic Explosion could undo any advantage gained!

The alternative role is for your super heavy vehicle to act as an anchor in your defence – a rock against which the enemy army will shatter. Super heavy tanks boast some of the longest-ranged and most powerful guns in all of Warhammer 40,000, often enabling them to target enemies that do not have the range to fire back. When defending an objective in this manner, the continued survival of your super heavy is paramount and the role of its supporting troops is to protect it against attack, rather than the other way around. Your first priority is to eliminate any threats to the super heavy tank, and once that has been achieved, to hurl back enemy units trying to take objectives in your deployment zone.

Depending upon how much time you have to play, your Apocalypse battle may end up lasting five, six, seven or even more turns. To ensure that your super heavy vehicle is operating to its maximum, don't be afraid to go on to damage control for a turn, especially if it takes serious damage in the first turn or two. This is especially true for an attacking super heavy that is slowed by Drive Damaged result, or a defending super heavy that has it's main armament destroyed.

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