It’s one of the biggest, baddest tanks out there and everyone’s talking about it – but just how good is the Legion Mastodon Heavy Assault Vehicle?
THE MASTODON. Today I’m going to delve into one of the newer offerings from forge world for the Legiones Astartes, the giant delivery truck of death that is the Mastodon Heavy Assault Vehicle. This is a delivery truck of death in both the sense that its occupants are likely to be a bundle of death but also the vehicle itself has serious offensive capabilities.
And for the princely base price of 700 points you would bloody hope so! Recent price points have this around the $500-600 mark or so. I expect it to cost the same as the Ordinatus Minoris Macro engine that is available to the Mechanicum.
Release date isn’t set but the apparent problems with production appear to have been sorted, this is the whispers (from my little birds…) coming out of the recent Warhammer Fest anyway.
Mastodon Unit Stats
Ok so the Mastodon comes with the following profile:
BS Front Side Rear HP
4 14 14 14 10
This is, in and of itself, impressive! Especially as it is a super-heavy transport so it cannot be one shot exploded by a lucky gunner. It needs to have all of those HP’s ground down to zero. It has no fire points, but it can carry up to 40 regular models, though as part of this complement it can also carry up to 2 contemptor dreadnoughts with each counting as 10 models for the purpose of carrying capacity.
Additionally the Mastodon has two access points which are at the front and the rear of the vehicle.
Overview – even before you delve into the equipment and special rules of the Mastodon it has a fearsome presence on the table and this only improves the more you look at it.
Mastodon Special Rules
The Mastodon, as one might expect, has a plethora of special rules to compliment its hulking exterior. These are Assault Vehicle, Enhanced Defensive Fire, Reinforced Shell and Void Shields (2).
Assault Vehicle – lets start with the simple one first, this vehicle is obviously designed to deliver a deadly payload and there wouldn’t be much point to the bloody thing if you had to stand around scratching your arse (or ass for our West Atlantic cousins) for a turn!
Void Shields (2) – That is right! This AV14, 10HP monstrosity also has TWO AV12 void shields. Collapsed by glancing, penetrating and D hits, these can be returned on a roll of a 5+ at the end of each of your turns. Dear Throne this thing is survivable.
Enhanced Defensive Fire – As long as one unit still occupies the Mastodon it can use its sponsons to fire overwatch, thus removing the negative of having zero fire ports. This overwatch is fired at BS2 for the standard weapons, whereas template weapons inflict D3+1 automatic hits. So its overwatch fire is better than normal! The most effective way to deal with this machine, close combat, just became a less friendly prospect… These can fire only once but at separate units as long as the unit is in their arc of fire.
Reinforced Shell – A lovely rule in a game where often bigger and badder is better. The armoured shell of the Mastodon is so secure that it contain and blast that occurs. Therefore you apply a -2 modifier to the catastrophic damage table when rolling for the Mastodon’s destruction. Should a 0 or -1 occur then the Mastodon remains in play but functions as a ruined building, with both doors acting as free access points. Very fluffy and cool.
Mastodon Equipment
As you would expect this beast is loaded with weapons and other equipment, lets just start with the standard equipped offensive battery shall we:
- Two Sponson Mounted Lascannons – The standard lascannon that can fire overwatch (only its arc of fire) at BS2.
- Two Sponson Mounted Heavy Flamers – Standard Heavy flamers with D3+1 overwatch
- One Fixed Forward Siege Melta Array – 12″, S9, AP1, Heavy 4, Small Blast, Melta, Stone Burner
- Stone Burner – if this weapon inflicts a penetrating hit against a fortification or building then it instead causes D3 penetrating hits.
- One Turret-mounted Skyreaper Battery – 48″, S7, AP4, Heavy 5, Twin-linked, Skyfire, Interceptor
OK so the Mastodon has pretty much everything covered here! Flamers for hordes, lascannons for armour, skyfire and interceptor for flyers and then magma death cannon for anything stupid enough to sit within 12 inches in front of its face! Blimey oh riley!
In addition to its offensive arsenal the Mastodon also has a searchlight, smoke launchers AND armoured ceramite to boot. So you not only have 10 AV14 hull points nestled behind two AV12 void shield, but it also isn’t vulnerable to ranged melta!!
Options
Optional extras with this beast include the following: 4 hunter killer missiles, an upgrade to be a super heavy command vehicle, an upgrade to have command vox relay.
Command Vox Relay – This replaces the Skyreaper Battery and means that while the Mastodon is in play this allows you to add or subtract 1 to your reserve rolls. In addition any deep striking enemy units that suffer a mishap will have -1 applied to the deep strike mishap table as long as the Mastodon is in play.
Super Heavy Command Vehicle – As far as I am aware this allows re-roll of morale within 24 inches. Any one care to correct me if that is wrong?
Utilisation
This will be a short section as this is a pretty self explanatory! You pack the Mastodon Heavy Assault Vehicle full of death and drive it at the heart of the enemy. There is no room for being timid with this UNLESS you are facing something packing shit tonne of destroyer weaponry. D weapons are pretty much the only serious threat to this other than a Primarch in close combat with retinue. But you shouldn’t be letting yourself get charged really, but dictating the charges.
I would recommend the command vox relay if you have any reserve support coming in like flyers, but otherwise give it a miss. In terms of the command vehicle, that could be very very useful in 30k given that Astartes are not fearless, but again that really depends on what you have put inside of it!
So much of how you use the Mastodon Heavy Assault Vehicle depends on the rest of your force and most importantly what you put in it! And that my friends I will leave that up to you 🙂
30Kplus40K
Peace out,
Rob
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
