Elysian Tactics - Cyclops demolition vehicle

The Cyclops demolition vehicle is probably not the most competitive of units due to it's randomness and being a lot of points for a single shot weapon, but it is not a bad choice by any means. I have used these in my Cadian army a few times now, and they can be hit and miss. They do draw a lot of fire so you don't want them too close to any of your own troops as they have a good chance of exploding when killed. They won't die easily with T6, 4 wounds and a 3+ save. They also come in squadrons of up to 3, so even with the rule of three, that's 9 Cyclops's.

Target selection is very important for the cyclops. You don't want to waste one killing 5 or 6 guardsmen, or on something with a decent invul save. Since they hit every unit in the radius when they detonate, groups of characters are probably the best target.

However taking these in an Elysian gives them the ability to deepstrike, which is a huge advantage. While there is no point detonating the turn you arrive, their 10" movement is plenty to get them where you want them. Ideally drop them out of sight, but even in cover they become very resilient, and then move them out the following turn. This does mean they generally won't be used till turn 3, but if needed you can use them earlier by deploying them in your deployment zone.

Most opponents will be reluctant to charge them as even of they do kill them they may take some mortal wounds, and if they don't kill it you can detonate it in your turn.

And talking about the detonation, 2d6 auto hitting S9 AP-2 shots. Enough to ruin anyone's day, and this is on every unit within d6". So make sure you have a command point to re-roll that dice if you roll a 1. That's pretty much an auto-hitting Manticore shot on each unit for comparison. Also detonating them like this does not give away any victory points in kill point scenarios.

And if they get destroyed any other way, on a 3+ they do D3 mortal wounds to any unit with 6". Also decent, but also a good reason to keep them away from your own troops.

So in all an interesting unit to use. Not an auto-include, and probably won't have a place in competitive lists, but not a bad choice to include in your army. How effective it is will depend greatly on your opponents army composition, especially if they have a lot of small units or characters close together.

Next time I will cover veteran squads.