The Sicarian Punisher Tank Rolls Out Of Forge World
July 15, 2017 by brennon
Forge World has another big behemoth of a tank to show off on their webstore this week. See what you make of the Legion Sicarian Punisher Assault Tank. Yeah, that's quite a mouthful for a name, isn't it?
Here's some of the fluff behind this particular tanks...
"The Punisher-type Sicaran variant came into general use amongst the various Space Marine Legions in the final days of the Great Crusade, however the punisher rotary cannon it mounts has a far older history.
Originally mounted on the now rare Cerberus pattern main battle tanks, the punisher had established a reputation as a deadly tool in the eradication of massed conscript infantry or hordes of swarming xenos creatures, limited only by its relatively short range and prodigious appetite for munitions.
Married to the Sicaran hull, where the impressive speed of that vehicle effectively negated the short range of the weapon, and the complex feed assemblies developed as part of the various Terran accelerator cannon, the punisher is once again in widespread use among the Legions, though now it is employed against the very warriors it was intended to protect."
I quite like the design of this tank which has a very Horus Heresy feel to it in the style of the tracks and the hull. The weapon on the top is typical 'Warhammer' too, just ready to burn through whatever ends up in front of its sights.
However, despite that, I can't help but prefer the squat tanks and old school feel of the traditional Warhammer 40,000 vehicles. There's something reliably chunky about a Rhino or a Predator.
What do you think?
"I can't help but prefer the squat tanks and old school feel of the traditional Warhammer 40,000 vehicles..."
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£79 for the tank and then cough up another £15 for a page of rules, no thanks.
The rules are free for download on the forgeworld website
Well that makes it a bargain…
It makes the original comment incorrect and as it’s not mentioned in the original post it’s worth pointing out. I personally find the idea of ascribing ‘bargain’ to a hobby a bit silly. I’m not shopping for groceries I’m using whatever money I have set aside for my hobby to buy what I think looks great. Does this mean that i’m going to buy every product on release? No, I have a budget that I stick to, it just means I’ll buy less of their products because of their price point but it’s not something that bothers me too much
Well, then by all means enjoy your £79 tank lol.
Reading through you posts, here I think you have no interest in Forgeworld, 30K, 40K or the Sicaran Tank and have set out to ruin the comments discussion for those who do.
The rules for 8th ed. 40K are in the £15 index. The only free rules are the old ones for 30K/7th ed.
Not so, the rules available for free are all rules required to play 8th Edition which are available for download from the Games Workshop website directly. Beyond that the rules for individual units require you to buy the Index which is a £15 supplement which contains the relevant rules for all units listed by each Index. However said rules are also contained in the box of each model when you buy them as well. The purpose of said Index is a filler till such time that the official Codex can be released for specialised armies. The costs will certainly mount… Read more »
That gun looks like it would fall off …
Sure, it looks cool as heck but with the kind of firepower this thing will be exposed to it would be impractical.
What the hell has impractical to do with anything? This is 40k, there is no practicality only WAR! 😉
Interesting design. I always cringe a little when game designers get to the stage where they make aesthetic choices based on needing to have something different and lose sight of the miniatures purpose.
Having exposed tracks at the front of the vehicle makes this vehicle highly susceptible to becoming immobilised when taking fire, I hope this is reflected in the vehicles stats.
… and again, no suspension to speak of. The skirts go all the way to the ground, so the track can’t flex when going over obstacles. The impractical turret needs no further comment, nor does the price. Sponsons: why give a weapon a 360 degree arc when you can limit it to 180? Modern vehicles are built the way they are for a reason. A 180 degree arc requires duplication of a system, which adds weight and expense, not to mention the glaring blind spot. Also, those weapons are prone to being torn off on rocks, sides of buildings, etc.… Read more »
What are you expecting it to have? leaf springs?? with 28 thousand years to develop a better tank the best we can do is it still going to work the same way as a 20th or 21st century tank? Similarly with the sponsons – 300th century driving aids probably mean you can drive past a building without hitting it and knocking the weapons off. We have reversing cameras and radar assist systems on cars now. We can’t just apply what you know about the last hundred years of tanks and assume that the problems will be solved the same way… Read more »
Doesn’t matter how they do it. Leaf springs… Internal anti-grav inertia dampers… No matter what, the design of the tanks means no suspension on those tracks.
As for the sponsons, 40.000 years of development still doesn’t negate the fact that it’s incredibly stupid to mount weapons on the side of the tank because it 1) makes the tank wider, 2) limits the tanks maneuverability, and 3) severely limits the firing arcs of those weapons.
Agree completely.
Imperial tanks have always had a WW1 vibe about them, but some of these designs are not only stupid, they’re downright unsuitable for combat.
That gun-mount looks seriously unstable.
Not a fan, to be honest…
While I think that tank itself is fine that turret is easily worst part of that model. It’s like they just attached that weapon to it and called it a day.
I love the standard Sicaran battle tank and will definitely get one at some point for my Word Bearers but I’m not a big fan of the turret for this one. I mean it looks ridiculous, which is great as it’s 30K! I mean anyone trying to discuss the logical operations of a tank in 30K/40K really needs their head examined, that really isn’t the point. This variant however doesn’t seem to be as great an all-rounder as the standard Sicaran and there aren’t many horde armies in 30K.
Pardon me? Need our heads examined for pointing out obvious design gaffs that wouldn’t make it past a pencil sketch on a napkin by a lunch lady at General Dynamics Land Systems?
This isn’t general dynamics, this is 28,000 years in the future where gothic cathedrals float through space being attacked by daemons of lust, hope, despair and rage. Where on earth do you get the ridiculous idea that 30K or 40K is based around realistic depictions of real-world vehicles? It takes a theme, such as WW1 vehicles but certainly isn’t supposed to replicate the engineering faults. I have no problem loving the setting and appreciating the aesthetic without worrying about such absurd ‘faults’.
Good sci-fi should suspend disbelief… this doesn’t.
In other news, as a newb you should fit right in here for insulting people who voice constructive criticism of GW.
Really? you criticise something and I challenge it and you find that insulting? If you think that ‘you need your head examined’ as a general comment is insulting then I’m sorry about that but I won’t apologise for finding your idea on the requirement for
that level of realism in 30K ridiculous.
Also I’ve been a backstager for 7 years, there are many long term members who don’t post much.
One must assume that in the future humankind will be as intelligent as we are now, and that being warlike, certain accepted principles of weapon design would remain ingrained within us. A Gothic dystopian future, no matter how apocalyptic, would yield AFV’s with similar function and design, to those we know now. Grav technology would of course, alter the design somewhat, but weaponry mounted on the deck of a vehicle carries obvious advantages: 360 arc of fire, and the ability to place the vehicle hull down to lower its silhouette; this would still apply to a grav vehicle. If you… Read more »
I meant to say “If you are a lunch lady.” My apologies; I typed in haste. BTW, your tank design is lovely.
That’s your opinion of what makes good SCI-Fi. Science fiction is a huge landscape with room for every type of hobby. I’m not saying that degree of realism is ridiculous in general but it is to apply it to 30k/40k. How does an ork trukk work? Because they believe it does. Why does a daemons banishment last for a specific period of the earths rotation around the sun? How do Dark Eldar use others pain to stave off a gods desire? This setting is fantastical not realistic. Its ostentatious not grounded. You are criticising the setting for something it’s not.… Read more »
If you like it then power to you. Just don’t act all smug and claim that anyone who doesn’t has something wrong with they head because you will be called out for it.
Even the most ridiculous far-out sci-fi future tank has to obey certain basic principles, such as mounting guns securely with a protective mantle and making sure it has useful fire archs.
Function over form. No matter when and where you design your tank, it needs certain basic things such as suspension and propper gun-mounts. Something often in short supply in the 40K universe.
The same people making the same tired arguments as always. It’s fiction, the amount of realism ‘required’ is totally subjective to ones opinion. There are no rules.
aekhold was not that rude- it’s a common expression often used jokingly. Cpauls1 ought to not be so condescending to lunch ladies. Perhaps such an opinion says a lot about him as a person. Fragile ego?
Um… no. 26 years army service, now security management.
Yes, there are rules. Well… One, anyway… It’s called suspension of disbelief.
True, that varies from person to person, but it’s still something you need to keep in mind when working with fiction. You can stretch pretty far, but at some point the illusion breaks and the audience start disbelieving in your creation.
That is a nice lookin 40k tank. Suitably ludicrous armament, and the chassis is nice.
This look mighta suited the Primaris more IMHO – sophisticated, definitely Astartes, and somehow more realistically scaled than the Rhino/Land Raider chassis (not counting the gun, obviously) – the “hover-breezeblock” does nothing for me.
Cannot see what your careers got to do with anything Cpauls1.
Um… I don’t have a fragile ego?
Honestly surprised no one has said something like this yet, *ahem*
DAT’S A LOT OF DAKA BUT IT’S STILL NOT ENUF HA HA HA!!!!
*Cough* right that’s that done.
I have one of the standard issue Sicaran battle tanks with the twin auto-canons and sponson heavy bolters, its great for chewing through swarm armies in 40K and Punisher variant appeals to me in both aesthetics and game play.
I’m going to get a Sicaran for one (not sure which ) of my 30k forces, but there are now a few to chose from does anyone have favourite – either the model or the rules in game?
now that is a f’in chain gun.