Here is another 40k Thunder Hammer combo to watch out for! This time the Primaris Space Marines are coming in hot!
Now there is a cheaper way to spam Thunder Hammers and have them “protected”. We’ll specifically be looking at the Blood Angels Chapter, but it works in for every Chapter actually. However, the Blood Angels being the melee beasts that they are, are best suited for it.
Check out how to bring roughly the same damage output that a Smash Captain can give to multiple areas of the table at one time!
Spamming Smash Captain Damage Output
GW loosened the grip on Intercessors giving them even more wargear than ever before. With the Sergeant having a plethora of weapons available, you’ll want to pay the 16 points and throw thunder hammer on the model.
But don’t feel like you have to buy a box of Terminators to get all your hammers. You can just as easily use some Custodes spears, Deathwatch, or even Grey Knight hammers. Whatever you have as a spare to set them apart!
Jumping into the specs, let’s assume that you’re bringing a Battalion with three squads of five Intercessors. If you put a Thunder Hammer on the Sergeant, each unit will run you just over 100 pts. So for that, you’re getting a melee weapon that will almost always wound everything on 2’s with 10 essentially ablative wounds.
If you go all- Blood Angels, then by turn three on a successful charge, your Sergeant will be swinging with 5 S8 attacks that will pop any other Primaris non-character Infantry unit with each swing. That’s the same stats as a Captain with a Thunder Hammer in the initial stages of the game.
Sure, you’re hitting at -1 WS (4+), but you also get this damage output in the form of a Troops choice. You get enough damage to kill off an enemy five-man Primaris squad as well as filling out detachments for CP. In other words, two birds with one stone.
You Might Want to Stay Away from Power Fists
Looking at the points, a Power Fist might look more appealing for its cheaper cost. However, it’s something you might want to stay away from. At 9 points, you’ll be able to bring almost double the Power Fists as you would Thunder Hammers. However, following the theme of the meta, with all the Primaris running around, the variable damage might come back to haunt you.
With a chance of rolling 1 damage on the fist after getting through the -1 to hit, it could keep that enemy Primaris unit you were hoping to kill or maim still well in the running to win combat. Taking it a bit further, Gravis armor is also growing in popularity and in that matchup, Power Fists become even worse with even more of a possibility of leaving one alive.
While nothing can outshine a fully geared Smash Captain in his prime, the fact that you can mimic the same damage output with double the wounds across different points of the table is huge. Don’t overlook the wargear options available to your Intercessors! Plus many of the same stratagems work on them as well too!
What do you have your Intercessors geared with? Do you spam Thunder Hammers in your games to crack open other Primaris units?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials:@RealmbrushPainting
Bio: Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4.
If you like what he writes and want to reach out or get your models painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
