The Martyr Vengeance Battery Review

I've stayed away from reviewing units for a while as my thoughts on certain units might not be that great. I'm not a top player by far, and I have certain ideas on how the CSM codex and it's counter parts should run and be used within games and it probably isn't a good view anyway. I do have this idea that I metaphorically hit you with a good idea once in a while and it ups your game then every one is happy, but your opponents become a little more sour. So to bring myself back to Reviews - probably best to call it a point of view review - let's start with a Vengeance... Battery.




The Vengeance Battery first off the mark looks like an impressive model, bar them Imperial Aquila's that need to be removed or covered up. It seems to stand higher than the average tank body (Rhino and Russ chassis) so it can give relative cover saves to units behind as an extra small bonus. I like the model, it looks like it could be quickly built/ assembled before a battle is joined and easily fits into an armies scheme. However that Aquila! Dam it GW!

The Vengeance Battery is AV14 on ever side meaning that it's a survivable investment like most other fortifications in Stronghold Assault. It also has the advantage of being a building that does not have to be manned saving you points for other parts of your army. This is an advantage as you are not giving away where you are setting up to your opponent when you place them on the tabletop.

Stock the Vengeance Battery comes with a Punisher Gatling Cannon, 24" range S5 AP- Heavy 20, which isn't necessarily a bad weapon, however if your opponent sits 25" away then you are going to hate life and it's only BS2 so when you shoot, you will miss a lot.

For 10 points you can upgrade to a Battle Cannon, you know the drill 72" range, S8 AP3 1 Large Blast, Ordnance.

I am not a Battle Cannon fanboy, and the reason why is partially down to my own codex as well as the weapon itself. Now 72" range is a brilliant range on any weapon, I am not going to try putting a downer on that, I am going to put a downer on blast weapons at 3" and 5" as models can be spread far and wide so that you can only get 4-5 max under the template, most of the time it will be 3 in competitive games, not much to shout about. However, with it's high strength and Ordnance it can be useful at chipping away at high toughness models or vehicles, which you are going to see in a lot of your games so it's not a bad investment.

Also, for free you can exchange the Punisher for a Quad Icarus Lascannon. 2 shots, twin linked, Skyfire, interceptor, 96" range.

Its good if your list is lacking in anti air, however I will say that it depends entirely on your meta to take this as many flyers can be ignored or you can deal with them without fortifications. It can be a good

You can also buy a 2nd vengeance launcher as well in a single fortification choice. This opens up many extra threads of tactics such as:

• Deploying the Battery's together blocking off a Firing lane, creating a choke, hiding an objective behind them or placing a Barrage unit behind them to keep them out of direct damage.

• Deploying them with LoS to objectives in your or your opponents deployment zone to pressure your opponent with having to deal with them.

• Deploying them to force your opponent into certain areas of the board.

 It gives you quiet a lot of power over the board before you or your opponent deploys and can place them in such a way that your opponent has to deal with them to win the game.

My final verdict on them is that they are not really a super competitive option but they are viable for many army builds that either struggle to put down some long ranged fire power or one that wishes to add to its firepower and fix a weakness. You can spam these through the Wall of Martyr Imperial Defence Network and get up to 8 Battle Cannons but I doubt many would push that many points into their fortifications choice.