I like the Rockgrinder, mostly because that huge ram/drill/siege-shield on the front is brilliant. It’s also the nearest thing we have to a tank, bringing some of our biggest available guns to the battlefield. How can we maximise its potential, and is it ever better to just bring the basic Truck instead?
Rockgrinders are fun. Big guns, an even bigger drilldozer, and the potential to carry around a few friends for utility purposes. Or we can drop the combat ability, swap in twin autocannons and double the transport capacity with a Truck – also a good option. It’s made me wonder a couple of things. Firstly, how does the autocannon compare to the Rockgrinder options? It’s a straight swap – the Grinder doesn’t get more guns, just different guns. Secondly, is the drilldozer worth it? Should we be looking to throw the Rockgrinder into combat as soon as possible, or is it more of a last-ditch back-up plan?
We’re always interested in how much stuff we can kill, but here, we’re also interested in a couple of other things – Crossfire, and how well the various weapon ranges align with the primary roles of the different variants.
And rather than writing a whole other piece about the Goliath Truck specifically, it’s getting bundled in here in its entirety. Because why not?
CROSSFIRE
Let’s start simple, with Crossfire. We can trigger Crossfire in two ways – five hits, or a single hit with a multi-damage weapon. As all but one of the main weapon options are multi-damage, and the heavy stubber only has three shots, it means that the stubber is largely useless for Crossfire purposes. In turn, this pretty much simplifies things to ‘more shots good’ – what we’re looking for here is simply the chance of not missing with every shot.
There are two caveats. The mining laser has d3 shots, and the figure below represents the overall chance of scoring a single hit (which, interestingly, is slightly lower than if we’d just taken two shots as an average). Then there’s the clearance incinerator, which is the only option where the stubber matters. If the incinerator rolls five shots (which automatically hit), we’re done; if it rolls 4, then we can still get Crossfire if the stubber lands at least one hit; and even if the incinerator rolls the minimum 2 hits, the stubber can still save the day with (an unlikely) three hits.
If all we’re interested in is setting up Crossfire, the long-wave seismic cannon is the best option, followed by the autocannons and the incinerator – all three come in at better than 90%. The short-wave cannon drops below 90% (but if you just want Crossfire, you’d fire it long-wave anyway), and the mining laser brings up the rear with around 70% - not terrible, but not reliable.
The incinerator is interesting. On its own, it scores five hits just 83% of the time, dropping it below the short-wave cannon (although it’s still the equivalent of rolling 2+ on a single dice). But because the stubber gives us at least a chance of five hits, no matter what the incinerator rolls, the odds increase significantly.
The other factor to consider here is range. Whilst the seismic cannon is the most likely to score Crossfire, it only has 24” range. The autocannons are slightly less likely to trigger it, but can do so from 48” away – that’s a potentially worthwhile trade-off. And whilst the incinerator matches the autocannon for efficiency, it’s down to just a 15” range. Not terrible, and potentially where a Rockgrinder wants to be anyway, but less flexible for picking up targets across the board in a pinch.
DAMAGE OUTPUT
Whist Crossfire is a valuable asset, what really matters is taking enemy models off the table. As usual, we’ll be putting the weapons into a guardsman, a marine, a captain with an invulnerable save, and a Russ. For our purposes here, we can take the mean average shots for the variable output weapons (so, two shots for the mining laser, and seven shots/hits for the incinerator).
We’ll calculate damaging hits first:
Now we can factor in the damage – the autocannon and seismic cannon kill the marine outright, and could drop two or three wounds on the captain and Russ; the mining laser gets the marine 83% of the time, with d6 damage on the tougher targets (which we’ll average out to 3.5); and the incinerator is single damage.
At the risk over over-simplification, I’ll round these figures to the nearest whole number for guardsmen, and go with average wounds to the captain and Russ. We’ll come back to marines in a moment.
Oddly, all five weapons ‘should’ kill a single marine, but that’s not the whole picture. The autocannon and mining laser benefit from rounding up (especially the mining laser, which was down to just a 57% chance of landing a kill once we factor in the chance of rolling a 1 for damage). On the other hand, both versions of the seismic cannon were rounding down, suggesting that they’d be more reliable in this situation. And the incinerator potentially gets a marine too, but is wildly variable in terms of shots, which isn’t really reflected here – over time, it’ll average that kill, but it’s even less predictable that the other options in the moment.
The incinerator is a good option into guardsmen (easily the best option), marines and the gravis captain – it’s strong enough to wound on 3s, and has low enough AP to ignore the invulnerable save cut-off. It even out-performs the autocannon into the Russ, through sheer weight of fire. And it’s eligible for the Overloaded Fuel Cells stratagem, making it 2 damage a go, and thus a lot more threatening to marines and other multi-wound targets.
The seismic cannon also comes out of this well. Better than anything bar the incinerator into guardsmen, fair into marines, second only to the incinerator again into the captain (and it’s pretty close), and virtually as good as the mining laser into the Russ (just 0.04 wounds less). Choose long-wave into infantry, and short-wave into tanks, and you’ve got a good all-round option.
The mining laser looks less good here. It’s the worst choice into anything other than the Russ. And although it’s the most effective into the tank, it’s by a tiny margin compared to the seismic cannon. I’m not sure the mining laser really sells itself here, compared to the other options.
And finally, the autocannon. Better than the mining laser into infantry (which isn’t a huge recommendation), worse than everything into the Russ. If you’re bringing a Goliath for firepower purposes, the Truck is not the way to go. Again, it does offer the longest range, which is nice, but being able to scratch things at distance isn’t really what we want from a gun platform.
ROCKGRINDER
Having established that the Goliath Rockgrinder brings more firepower than the Truck version, let’s take a quick look at its combat ability. We’re not really worried about the direct comparison here – the Rockgrinder is going to win the head-to-head. Eight S8 attacks at AP-2, 2 damage and WS3+ will outperform three S6 attacks at WS6+.
What interests us is how useful that combat ability is. Will the Rockgrinder maul its way through flak jackets, power armour and everything else, or will it bounce and leave our units exposed to a counterpunch? (I’m going to assume that we managed a charge here, for the two extra attacks. It won’t always happen, but I’m interested in the maximum capacity. And this table shows damaging hits, not overall wounds.)
By way of comparison, if we put 12 acolytes (108 points to the Rockgrinder’s 110) into the same targets, we’d expect to kill around 16 guardsmen or 4 marines, or land 4 wounds on the captain and 2 wounds on the Russ. Unsurprisingly, the acolytes do better in combat, although it’s fairly close into the captain, where the Rockgrinder is likely to land a second hit for 4 wounds too; and the Rockgrinder edges it into the Russ because it’ll sometimes spike a second hit.
But then, the acolytes are a dedicated combat unit – the Rockgrinder is not. What the comparison highlights is the Rockgrinder’s relative efficacy into marines. Whilst it’s overkill into guardsmen (and likely to get bogged down by larger units of horde infantry in general), it’s a good option into power-armour – wounding on 2s, dropping them to a 5+ save, and killing a marine with each damaging hit.
Into hordes, the rockgrinder is far less efficient. But, in line with other transports, it has the potential to act as an overwatch shield, which is always useful. Unlike most armoured vehicles, just tagging into it and taking it out of the game isn’t such a good option – whilst it may get locked in, it will be chewing through the enemy much faster than most. And, if we sling some free demolition charges in there, there’s always the option to blow it up right in the enemy lines.
Would I want to build an entire strategy around the Rockgrinder? Probably not. Is it handy threat across both the shooting and combat phases? I think so.
TRANSPORT CAPACITY AND TOUGHNESS
The Truck can carry ten, the Rockgrinder only fits six (although that’s enough for a unit of five and a character). More importantly, the Truck is open-topped, so any unit inside can fire out. This opens up the possibility of ten neophytes, tricked out with special and heavy weapons, all able to add more firepower than the Truck itself can put out. Couple that with Industrial Affinity to remove hit penalties, or Agile Guerrillas to allow the neophytes to still shoot if the Truck advances, and we’ve got quite the mobile firebase.
This feels like a trickier decision. The Rockgrinder wants to be closer to the enemy lines (due to range and combat ability), but the combat units it wants to carry into that sort of position generally prefer to deploy in tens. But as tens, they can only ride in the Truck. The Truck is a launch pad for combat units (protection from incoming fire, an extra 3” move as they disembark), and might drop a useful Crossfire marker or negate overwatch, but can’t offer the same level of close support as the Rockgrinder.
The Rockgrinder also comes with an extra point of toughness, on top of the Rugged Construction that they both share. It won’t always matter (S8 and S9 both still wound on 3s), but offers some protection against S6 and S7 weapons (like the autocaanon, for example).
SUMMARY
The Goliath Truck offers the longest range, an effective way to drop Crossfire markers across most of the board, and a good transport capacity that’s also open-topped. It suffers from the same issues that face a lot of transports – it doesn’t want to get too close to the enemy, but may be carrying units that do. Perhaps the better use is as a baseline bunker, or as a means to shelter combat infantry against an alpha strike, before releasing them up the board whilst providing a degree of covering fire.
The Goliath Rockgrinder trades in the range (down to 24” for the heavy seismic cannon, or just 15” for the clearance incinerator) and transport options for toughness, firepower and a degree of combat punch. As such, it needs to operate closer to the enemy than the Truck, but is better equipped to do so. With the right main weapon, it’s also effective at setting up Crossfire, which could be a significant asset for any combat troops the Rockgrinder is carrying.
The Rockgrinder, as mentioned above, also benefits from Overloaded Fuel Cells, or any other effects that trigger off Industrial Weapons (like Industrial Affinity). In certain circumstances, that may allow it to punch above its weight, especially into multi-wound targets.
Where does that leave us? The Truck is a utility vehicle – the greater range and transport capacity make it more flexible than the Rockgrinder. It can carry combat units and neophytes, bunker up in the deployment zone or act as mobile cover up the field.
The Rockgrinder is more specialised – it can’t carry neophytes at all (unless they’ve already been shot up), and its small capacity means choosing between full-sized units on foot or small skirmishing broods in the Rockgrinder. Five aberrants (and an abominant) feels like a good option, or a small brood of acolytes as objective grabbers. Things like that aside, perhaps the best role for the Rockgrinder isn’t as a transport, but simply to utilise the close support it can offer, advancing alongside our combat troops or coming in as second wave.
Ultimately, the Goliath is a flexible tool that can be configured to serve a number of purposes. Whatever our wider strategy, we can employ Goliaths to support it. And that’s got to be helpful. Long may they carry us towards the enemies of the revolution.