What I'm Excited About in Skorne MkIII: The Siege Animantrax

I haven't heard a lot about our favorite turtle-based battle engine lately, but I have to say, I'm pretty excited.

The Animantrax costs as much as a Bronzeback now, but it can do a lot.

First, it's a very mobile gun platform.  With 3 Rage tokens, it's Spd 7, and can Trample and Shoot in the same activation (huge bases still can't find a landing zone when trampling over enemies, but the extra 3" threat on the gun is very nice).  After that, it gets a 3" Reposition.  A 7" advance, or 10" trample, followed by some pretty heavy shooting, followed by a 3" retreat, is pretty good.  The Animantrax can no longer boost its own gun, which is a shame, but on the plus side, that means it won't need to be whipped at all after turn 1 or 2.  You may want to keep Paingivers nearby though, because it can be Medicated, and at 24 hit boxes now, it's pretty likely to survive anything less than a heavy to the face.

As decent as its shooting is, I'm more excited about the Animantrax in melee, where it has a lot of attacks.  How many attacks?  Well, the Animantrax is a Cavalry model, so it gets Pow 15 impact attacks if it charges (and a Pow 15 mount attack if it didn't charge).  It can make impact attacks at people in its way or at everyone around its charge target.  Either way, there's a lot of potential there, since the Animantrax has a huge base.  After that, it gets a charge attack, which is boosted because Cavalry gets boosted charge attack rolls, followed by 3 (if fully loaded) Pow 18 tail attacks, 2 wimpy Pow 11 Spear attacks (but maybe it's attacking infantry), and d3+1 Pow 13-15 depending on the target Double Riever attacks.  That's at least 9 attacks, although some of them are admittedly much better than others.

Also, unlike warbeasts, who need a lot of attention from Paingivers to do everything we want them to, the Animantrax just needs that turn 1 investment of 3 damage from whips (or whatever, but Anatomical Precision is the best way to do damage) to operate at full force pretty much all game.  The only way it spends Rage Tokens is by committing to melee, and once it does, the opponent will either kill it, or fill it up again trying to.  If for whatever reason, they don't attack it, you can fill it up again, or just have it continue to harass them as a mainly shooting model until they do.  Even without Rage tokens, the Animantrax is too much of a threat to ignore completely.

I'm still wrapping my head around who I want to use this turtle with, and how, but so far, I've decided that I like it with eHexeris.  It's probably also good with Rasheth, eXerxis, and Xekaar, since they can buff both its ranged and melee attacks (and Rasheth and Xekaar can give it a big boost to durability too).