Introduction

In my last blog post I mentioned something that’s been close to my hobby heart for nearly a decade now. In 1st Edition it was very much an anti-anything-in-that-direction tank. In 2nd it was very much neutered and in 3rd Edition it isn’t in a wonderful spot. Much like the phrase uttered by Anatoly Dyatlov; “650 points, is not great, not terrible”. Lets get into the Glaive Super-Heavy Special Weapons Tank.

Why take one?

Look at it.

No seriously.

That’s the best looking tank in the game. Sure the Mastodon has a presence of its own – looking every bit ready to crash into your lines and ruin your day. The Falchion looks like it’s ready to open up tanks like cans of beans, and the Fellblade looks suitably menacing with its Mammoth Tank-esque aesthetics… Even the Kratos has a vicious presence… But the Glaive… That Volkite Carronade with the turret bustle built out with esoteric looking equipment, the fact it omits the Demolisher cannon from it’s chassis, intimating the internal layout is more akin to a power plant than a combat platform. It oozes class and something special.

But when it comes down to it, you take one because you despise seeing enemy infantry on the table. This is an Anti-Infantry Super-Heavy tank by nature. So lets look at how good at surviving the battlefield and nuking infantry it is.

Defensive Profile

The Glaive has the standard defensive profile of the Fell-chassis platform, being AV14/13/12, with 18 Hull Points. This means it’s got good all round use across the table, but really has a limit of exploitation in the vanguard of the mid-table, unless you can really assure the enemy won’t be able to get into melee with it or sneak their dedicated Anti-Tank behind it. It moves 10″, which isn’t terrible and will enable you to get into defensive positions during deployment and still be able to reach out and touch people on Turn One.

Don’t expect it to last if you position poorly though. Laser Destroyers will tear chunks off it, and it cannot react to anything less than a Super-Heavy or Knight – making it’s inbuilt Smokescreen an annoyance more than a boon. It also cannot take the Decurion Magna for 60 points that the Fellblade and Falchion can, which seems seriously odd seeing as it isn’t only a return fire/overwatch benefit, but also defensive profile benefit with Auto-Repair (4) – but this is Games Workshop and they very clearly are struggling to write rules this edition.

Offensive Profile

The Glaive comes stock with the Volkite Carronade, a hull mounted twin heavy bolter and two sponson mounted Lascannon arrays.

It can take options from the Legion pintle mounted weapons list, can swap the twin-Heavy Bolter for a twin-Heavy Flamer, and can swap those sponson Lascannon arrays for Laser Destroyers or Gravis Heavy Bolter batteries. This means you can either max out Anti-Infantry, or try your hand at taking a more generalist loadout. It doesn’t have the Demolisher cannon of the other Fell-chassis platforms, which is more problematic than it might initially seem – but we will get on to that in a second.

The main reason you take a Glaive is the Volkite Carronade, the biggest CHOOM cannon on an Astartes platform. It has 12 shots at Range Strength 8, AP 3, 2DMG – Deflagrate (8). This is pretty good, able to reliably reduce the number of Astartes in Tactical, Despoilers, or Veteran Squads – but it won’t be annihilating them wholesale. The dice aren’t in it’s favour facing 10 man squads – let alone 20, with it likely to leave one or two marines left alive on average. This is actually a little problematic.

You could purchase two full-Volkite Kratos for just over the cost of a single Glaive, and that’s a lot more flexibility and firepower effectiveness. The Volkite Cardanelle on the Kratos is 12 Shots, Strength 8, AP5, 2DMG, so not really that far off the Glaive’s main armament in terms of output, and then it has the Calivers and Culverins to back it up further that the Glaive doesn’t have – because it lacks the hull Demolisher cannon, or even the option to mount a twin-Volkite Culverin/Caliver in place of the twin-heavy bolters. Hell, even offer the option for Volkite Culverin (or Falconette) sponsons. That would have been thematic and quite tasty, which is probably why Games Workshop didn’t bother doing it.

Really, I’d have liked to have seen the Glaive be 15 shots, Strength 8, AP 2, 2DMG. It’d feel more appropriate for its cost and the whole ethos of the platform. Or even 20 shots, Strength 8, AP 3, 2DMG. That way it’d actually nuke the targets it’s designed to go after and be able to do something to Terminators too. The lack of the Demolisher Cannon only hurts the platform more. That main gun needs to be able to pull it’s weight and right now, it kind of doesn’t – which means if you whiff slightly more than average, there’s kind of no way to recover in a round of shooting and your 650pts of tank is rather ineffective.

I have in the past run my resin Glaive with Heavy Bolters in the hull and Lascannon sponsons, however for 3rd and with the new plastic kit in my hands, I’ve switched to twin-heavy flamers and Laser Destroyer sponsons. This is because I want to support my Glaive with either a pair of Vindicator Laser Destroyers/Sicaran Venator or a pair of Kratos. The AT fire of the Glaive is then second order, a break glass in case of whiffage of the main platforms. Meanwhile the twin-Heavy Flamers can run amok dishing out panic to squads mid-table.

Yes, you read that right – mid-table. My intent is to be quite aggressive with it, and probably the rest of the army too. To push the enemy onto the back foot and maintain the pressure. I think this, if managed well, is where the Glaive can shine (same as the Fellblade) – being able to apply a persistent and defensively problematic pressure, whilst the rest of my army attempts to take apart the enemies transports, dedicated Anti Tank and tougher elements. With an aggressive Glaive in the mid, the enemy is denied total freedom of movement of their Line units – because you can’t score in transports they have to get out and to get out is to potentially face the wrath of the Glaive.

Summary

I think the Glaive is still paying for the oppressive rules of 1st Edition it had.

This is a shame because it’s quite an interesting tank, and could be significantly better than it is currently without being game breaking or oppressive. The lack of a Decurion Magna is a massive problem – not just a shame – because the Volkite Carronade isn’t a defensive weapon and you miss out on the Auto-Repair (4).

It also feels like Games Workshop are doubling down on their inability to write decent rules for quite expensive models (£100-110 and 650pts base), and that just feels bad. If they just gave it 20 shots at the base profile – I think it’d carve out a really nice niche for the Glaive to sit in. If they increased the AP to AP 2 and added 3 shots to take it to 15 shots, it again would carve a nice niche for it to operate from within. Still rubbish at AT, but now squarely targeting anti-infantry or anti-heavy infantry and reflecting its points cost. Right now, it does nothing well.

Glaives are gorgeous to look at, but there are so many other units in the game that would benefit you tangibly in the game for 650pts. The Fellblade for instance offers much better anti-infantry, and a chunk of anti-tank. At least with the Fellblade you’re truly generalist and with the Falchion, tanks simply evaporate under fire. The Glaive can barely scrub a single squad of Tacticals/Despoilers or Veteran squads that cost 1/4 or 1/2 its amount. Even with Heavy Bolter sponsons it’s not a certain squad kill – which reinforces the feels bad element.

If you keep the AT sponsons on it, it will still do some work against armour, but it isn’t effective Anti-Tank and you’re likely to end up out of position trying to get those sponsons to go into the target. Then there’s the issue of killing the target tank with the AT sponsons solely with the Glaive, as you’re then not able to kill what comes out in the same turn because of the way the targeting works in game. I think this relegates the AT sponsons to be take for second order AT in your army, on the off chance you roll badly for a turn and need to get something off it’s last few HP.

Realistically, the Glaive isn’t just the worst Fell-Chassis tank, it’s worse than the Typhon too, which will also nuke everything in the vicinity for around 200pts less. Again, hammering home the feels bad.

The Glaive is glorious, I’ve adored it since I first laid eyes on one in 1st Edition, and I’m looking forwards to getting it on the table at an event in November. This model is how you tell other players you’re a narrative player without actually telling them. It’s not good, but not terrible for it’s points – but it’ll for sure be the most stylish thing on the table as it kills 80-ish-pts of Sv3+ infantry a turn.

AVE DOMINUS NOX!