Theoryhammer: How would you kill this?

[YorkNecromancer]

So, I've been reading HH vol3 a little more, and one of the units available to the Mechanicum is the Thanatar:



It's been out for a while, and yes, beautiful.

HOWEVER: I didn't discover this until I got the book - these things can come in squads of 5. 5!

Stop and think about that. For those of you unfamiliar with their statline, allow me to elucidate:
MC, Toughness 8, 4 wounds, 2+ save.
They have a str6, AP3 twin-linked Mauler Bolt Cannon, and a Str 8 AP2 Ordnance Barrage which forces successful cover save re-rolls.

Imagine five of these in a single squad.

Now, their only disadvantage (aside from the fact that squad's just over 1000 points and costs more than Brazil's GDP) is that they have Programmed Behaviour, which means unless there's a Magos or someone with a Cortex Controller (like, say, Peturabo or Ferrus Manus) nearby, they behave like slightly more effective Tyranids (if there's a unit in 12" they have to shoot it, if it survives, they then have to charge it, otherwise they behave normally).

But that's it.

Obviously in a real battle, they're slow and that kind of unit - while terrifying - is never going to win a battle, because it can't hold objectives. So my question is this: you're up against this squad of nigh-invincible monsters. It's like dealing with a Wraithknight only five times worse.

How would you try to kill it? (And before we go for the obvious, Poison doesn't work against Cybernetica).

[DrLove42]

Lack of invuln is gonna be the weakness, same as Wraithlords
Im not as well versed with the legion army lists, but massed plasma seems a good place to start. Or some of the more unusual abilities that force tests or wounds on Ld or Init. Something like pyschic shriek if your a legioncthat allows pyskers

[Archon Charybdis]

Are we talking outside the context of a HH game? If so, I'd decline to play it with my Dark Eldar, and be willing to give it a good-natured shot with my Eldar list and hope that Bladestorm and Wraithcannons are enough to do the job. In my experience, the Legion lists I've played against really haven't seemed that out of whack compared to normal 40K, but the Mechanicum stuff is consistently bonkers hard to deal with.

[Charon]

If I really really had to play agains this in a standard 40k game (heresy is not balanced for 40k - not even remotely) I would probably fight fire with fire. An Adamantine Lance is faster, can ID them with their D weapon, have more Attacks, better I, better WS and is nearly immune to their shooting while costing a bit less.
Going hard on Fliers could also be an option.

[YorkNecromancer]

Either in HH or out; whichever you like.

As for massed plasma, that's much easier to pull of in HH. Legion tactical support squads are basically marine tactical squads but where envy one has the same special weapon, so you can have squads of ten marines with a plasma gun each. They don't have grav guns, which would be the obvious solution - graviton guns work differently in HH. 'Modern' grav guns are called 'graviton implodes' and are for Mechanicum HQ only.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Step 1, cast Misfortune on them,
Step 2, "FIRST RANK, FIRE! SECOND RANK, FIRE!"

Repeat until you clear this filth from the Emperor's sight.

[Archon Charybdis]

Also, what's their Ld like and are they Fearless? Mind War or some of the Dark Eldar wargear options that attack Ld might be an option.

[Tyrendian]

Step 1, cast Misfortune on them,
Step 2, "FIRST RANK, FIRE! SECOND RANK, FIRE!"

Repeat until you clear this filth from the Emperor's sight.

uh... yeah... right... against T8... that's gonna take you a while also, they are Imperial (usually), so throwing Emperor-related curses at them isn't going to do much good...
Necrons will really struggle with these, except for Doom Scythes and Night Shrouds, and even those will not kill more than one a turn...

[Mr Mystery]

It does have an Inv save - Atomantic Shielding to be precise!

And you can upgrade the unit to have Paragon of Metal, which removes the downside of Programed Behaviour, gaining It Will Not Die and Rampage. Also makes them a Scoring unit (hurr. Score.).....

[Shadow Raven]

Close combat it with Lukas the trickster...okay it's only 50/50....BUT, that's how I took out fulgrim