How would you deal with a Stank?

[Eleven]

In 8th edition the Steam Tanks have been bumped to T10 which means our S6 Treemen can no longer dish out a lot of hurt. In a recent game all I could do was avoid it and send forests its way to hinder it's movement. What do you think is the best way of hurting it?

Here are a few of my ideas:

Machine Gun alter hoping for a 6 to wound with no armour save.
T10 (buffed) Treeman just to keep it stuck and out of harms way.
Massed attacks, preferably poisoned so that they don't have to wound. Some of our spells and spites may apply.
Spirit Sword perhaps although I'm not entirely sure on how that would work exactly.

I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas on the matter...

[Kaepora Gaebora]

Refuse to play against anyone with a Steam Tank.

[Minsc]

Refuse to play against anyone with a Steam Tank.

That's very helpful.

The Steamtank is indeed a real pain to get rid of, but my best bets would be;

Magic; (In particular Lore of Beasts with the S10 D6 spear), Massed shooting or treesurfing a forest infront of it.
The Machinegun Alter is also a decent idéa, since you only need afew 6's (3-4) to make it more or less useless.
Using Lore of Life to give a unit +4 T is also a great way to tarpit it.

[JRGumby]

Yeah, sadly we have no access to Metal or Shadows, which tear them up. We don't even have access to much in the way of 'ignore armor saves' attacks.

I'm honestly not sure what the best way to take it down would be, Ogre blade may be on of the few viable options but the Grind will tear the hero apart.

I think charged Amber Spear is quite possibly the best option.

The problem with a machinegun alters is that the thing still has a 1+ armor save, so even with a handful of sixes you're still needing a 1/6 chance of a failed save since the S3 shots won't modify armor saves.

[Kaepora Gaebora]

Refuse to play against anyone with a Steam Tank.

That's very helpful.

(assuming sarcasm <3, forgive my trolling in advance)
Hey, I was only sharing my ideas which was what the OP asked for. I could have posted a long winded post. Instead I decided to post a one-liner that sums my idea with brevity and humor. IMHO playing against a Steam Tank without a completely meta gamed list (the other part of the request in the OP) is too much of a 'challenge' to be a fun game. If it turns up in a tournament there is only so much you can do to deal with it but deciding whom you face as an opponent is still within the realm of self control. IE "How I would deal with a Stank"

[Azaireal]

The problem with a machinegun alters is that the thing still has a 1+ armor save, so even with a handful of sixes you're still needing a 1/6 chance of a failed save since the S3 shots won't modify armor saves.

I assume you mean a machine gun not carrying the Arcan Bodkins...

[lune]

Since 8th I'd say our TM is not less viable against a STank than before - S6 means he only gets a 4+ save and with 5 attacks (doesn't he get the mega stomp stuff too? sry, forgot name) you should get on average at least 1 wound off per combat from the STank - which means that STank's pretty useless after 2-3 rounds of combat (and he can only attack you dirung his turn which gives our TM a decent chance to survive all this).
Once You've reduced a Steamtank to 5 wounds it's more like an obstacle with the cacne of either firing a canon or blowing up itself (both about a 50/50 ratio).
As far as my experiences go, most empire generals I know (which are not much, ok) tend to keep the VP for it instead of trying something risky.
Our Machine Gun Alter has the problem that he's dead meat for the canon ball of the STank.. if you can avoid that (or the massive firepower of the Rest of the army), you stand a decent chance of immobilizing the STank in4-5 turns

What no one has mentioned yet, I consider a unit of treekon as a very valid choice against STank now.. we get 6 models to fight in addition to stomp.. even with wounding only on 6's and a 3+save we should get about 1 wound per combat phase off of this metal chunk.

[Siral]

Steamtank is a big pain theoretically, but with new faqs that removed his immunity to spells, I think that we'll see less Stank on the tables.

Any mage with Pit of Shades automatically kill it. And any lev 1 or 2 wizard with the shadow lore can try a 6-dice Pit hoping for a double six risking to lose 130-160 pts to kill a 300 pts model.

[The Virgin Forest]

People forget that we actually have access to all the lores now with 100 point lvl 2 mage thingamagic.

It really could be a great surprise to put your wardancer/Death/Shadow/metal wizard on the table

[peterhof]

can the stank be healed by for example lore of life spells?

As I haven't found in the book that chariots can't be healed

[Eleven]

I assume it can.

[Ease]

People forget that we actually have access to all the lores now with 100 point lvl 2 mage thingamagic.

It really could be a great surprise to put your wardancer/Death/Shadow/metal wizard on the table

Sorry, how?

[Salamander]

Wizards hat

[Aenarisi]

Actually, im quite concerned that Stanks WILL be fielded more often.

Not everyone has those lores always, and so the Stanks in tournaments might not be that unheard of. Im expecting one or two.. as I think people are forgetting that the Stank is not always the ONLY thing in the opponents army. Also, dispelling is still capable!

So how to deal?

Throw a treeman at it..we're stuck with Life/Beasts *im ignoring Athel Loren spells atm over these two* so Treeman with Life spells augmenting it should be able to deal. Or a unit of Dryads perhaps?

Thats just my first thoughts..

[Minsc]

can the stank be healed by for example lore of life spells?

Yes it can.

[peterhof]

The healing part is definatelly a reason for empire players to field more of those

[Drool_bucket]

Steam Tanks will be very rock, paper, scissors now. Again an army with warmachines or a wizard with Metal (what am I missing in Shadow that kills Stanks?) they are going to be a waste of points.

Against armies like our, they will dominate the board due to their invincibility.

Of the solutions offered, namely Treekin or Treeman, the posters aren't remembering that the Stank gets to grind our wonderful units to death, not just sit their and get smacked.

Also, you can't Stomp a Stank, they aren't infantry.

I like the Amber Spear powered up, but its still just a 4+ to wound! Massed bowfire is a pipe dream, what will you do about the rest of the army? The Machine Gun Alter is a solid choice, but I don't use one so that doesn't help.

I think MSU and just minimize the damage it costs can be done, but with our standard 3x2 Treekin that might get ugly, quick.

I am still wondering what to do about them.

[Kertilien]

The Lore of Beasts has several spells that are fairly effective against Steam Tanks. Aside from the S10 Amber Spear, you can use the Curse of Anraheir to make them risk D6 Wounds if they attempt to move. The Savage Beast of Horros would also do well if cast on the right character (say, a high-Strength Noble, a Treeman Ancient, or a Spellweaver using the Transformation of Kadon). Odds are you'll get at least one of those three spells, so you should be able to deal with a Steam Tank without rewriting your list.

If you're going with the Lore of Life instead, you won't have much that can destroy the Steam Tank, but it should be easy for a Steadfast unit to tie it up for most of the game. Using a Treeman would be rather risky, as it can turn to face you even if it loses combat (it's Ld10, isn't it?) and a cannonball will reduce your Treeman to kindling.

I think the biggest concern when dealing with a Steam Tank is to avoid letting it do its job. It's offensive capabilities are hardly worth 300 points; they're paying for something that's going to soak fire or tarpit a big, nasty unit to protect the rest of their army. As long as you avoid making ineffective attacks against it and you can work around a single unit getting stuck in combat with it, then you should be glad they didn't show up with another 300 points of cannons, mortars, and such instead.

[mrtspence]

They are remarkably easy to avoid, move pretty slowly, and are hindered badly by terrain. I am much more worried about an Empire player's cannons than his Steam Tanks.

[saundena]

T10 (buffed) Treeman just to keep it stuck and out of harms way.
...

How do you buff a Treeman to T10??

[Herald]

How do you buff a Treeman to T10??

The Life spells Throne of Vines and Flesh to Stone.

[The Virgin Forest]

Steam Tanks will be very rock, paper, scissors now. Again an army with warmachines or a wizard with Metal (what am I missing in Shadow that kills Stanks?) they are going to be a waste of points.

Empire army with a Lvl 4 with the save DD for PD, an Arch lector and a couple of warrior priests will laugh at most magic. +4 to dispel with 4+ DD extra. They'll often have more DD than an opposing armys PD

[Eleven]

My Empire friend has the Book of Ashur equipped so make that +5 with at least +4 DD. My best bet against him is trying for IF.

[Jeroen]

In any ways, don't do what i did yesterday. I panicked somehow and dedicated two GG units (40 in total) in one round to shoot that nasty thing. Waste of arrows offcourse, exactly like Drool_bucket said in his posts . Meanwhile my other GG decimated his sowrdsmen and other rank&file infantry. Next time i face a STank maybe i will use GG units of 10 in 2 ranks and do that old MSU-dance around his tank while directing arrows to where it hurts. And while i'm dancing around his tank my elves will give a friendly slap on the vehicle saying "Bon Voyage, the beach is straight on!"

[Furion]

As a general rule, I'd suggest the traditional Asrai tactic of "Go away, I'm not fighting you today" otherwise known as the "Duck & Run" or (by my opponents) "The Cheese Tactic" and just avoid the STank for most the battle.

Alternatively I'd say a combination of 2 Alters? Maybe 1 machine gun with Bow of Loren//Arcane Bodkins and one with Helm of the Hunt and Relic Sword (or whatever is it that always wounds on a 5+) or Obsidian Blade (to get around its 1+ save)

I'm not sure I'd go for the Wizard Hat approach just as spending at least 245pts for a 33% shot at getting Pit of Shades doesn't strike me as points efficient but each to their own