40K Unit Review: Relic Sicaran
If you're like me, you find the current crop of Space Marine tanks pretty underwhelming. Edition change has not been kind to our Predators, Vindicators, and Whirlwinds, and Land Raiders have never been good. Even for casual games, they fail to excite. So, I went looking to Forge World to fill that gap.
The Relic Sicarin was my first Forge World tank. I was a little reluctant to pick it up at first. It's got a kind of funny look to it which I didn't immediately love, but the more I considered buying one, the more the look grew on me. It was like meeting a girl you don't initially think is very pretty, but who you find more attractive the more you get acquainted with her.
The Sicaran model is obviously an attempt to bridge the gap between the Rhino-chassis vehicles and the Land Raider. There's elements of both designs in the Sicaran, plus the dome-shaped turret that ties it to the original Predator models, or the Demios pattern Predators in the Forge World lineup.
As you can see, the Sicaran is quite a big model - not much smaller than a Land Raider, and a fair bit taller than one to boot.
Being a Forge World model, it's entirely resin, so it is a hefty model to carry around. Also, resin has a tendency to warp - particularly long, thin pieces like the gun barrels.
I didn't find Forge World's hot water technique for softening up the resin to reshape it to be particularly effective, but a blow dryer on high was. I've been finding the blow dryer to be a very helpful tool to have for assembling resin minis.
Also, both of those main gun barrels wound up breaking on me. Fortunately, they were relatively easy to pin back into place.
Rules-wise, the Sicaran is an interesting hodgepodge. It's IA:2 entry lists it as being AV13 all around, but it's been errataed to 13/12/12, which isn't bad, but seems a bit squishy for model its size. It's a Fast vehicle, so it can cover a lot of ground while still firing to good effect. It has a hull heavy bolter, and the option to take the same sponson weapons as a Predator - heavy bolters or lascannons. You can give it armored ceramite for anti-melta protection. The real gem, though, is it's main gun, the accelarator autocannon.
The accelerator autocannon is a beast of a weapon - S7 AP4 Heavy 6 Twin Linked, Rending, Rapid Tracking. It's a weapon you can use to engage any target on the table - even AV14 and Flyers have to be concerned about it. And, the icing on the cake, Rapid Tracking negates Jink saves! Take that, Eldar jetbikes!
When I first picked up my Sicaran, I envisioned using it as an anti-armor platform with sponson lascannons, but I was kind of underwhelmed with it in that role. It's not really that much more effective than a Predator Annhilator, which is disappointing, because it looks pretty killer with lascannon sponsons.
Fortunately, the sponson mounts lend themselves pretty well to magnetizing the guns in, so I'm able to swap in heavy bolters on the sponson mounts.
With HB sponsons, the Sicarin is pumping out 15 shots a round. That's only 1 less shot than 2 dakka Predators, and for about 3/4ths the price. Plus, with the accelerator autocannon being twin linked, it's actually apt to get more, higher quality hits than a pair of dakka Preds. Plus, you can move it 6" and fire everything at full ballistic skill, and move it 12" and still fire two weapons. Assuming one of them is the main gun, that's more firepower than a whole dakka Pred!
Obviously, with that kind of shooting, the Sicaran is a good anti-infantry platform, but it's also versatile. It can engage AV10-11 vehicles with all its guns, and anything AV12 and up with its main gun. Even AV14 is not safe - it's a near-statistical guarantee you should be able to strip at least 1 hull point a round off an AV14 vehicle with the accelerator autocannon. Plus, its speed lets you re-position to get shots at more favorable angles, going for weaker AVs or denying cover saves.
The size of the model can also be an asset, as it's tall enough to see over Rhino-sized vehicles with its main gun. That lets you use Rhinos as cover.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my Sicaran. It brings a lot of value to the table, and it makes a good centerpiece model for an army. I'm not entirely happy with the rules for it though. For one thing, as previously mentioned, AV13/12/12 seems a little weak for a vehicle its size. It's obviously Land Raider-esque aesthetic makes the original, more rugged 13/13/13 fit the model better.
Also, it's odd that it's a Fast vehicle. It occupies a halfway mark between a Predator and a Land Raider, size- and design-wise (well, probably more like 3/4ths towards the Land Raider), but neither of those vehicles are Fast, whereas the beefy Sicaran is. I think Forge World gave it the Fast rule because the fluff they wrote for it makes its machine spirit scary-smart, and making it Fast gives it a lot of ability to fire on the move. That said, all of the Space Marine vehicles supposedly have advanced machine spirits, but only Land Raiders have the Power of the Machine Spirit rule.
So, I'll happily keep using my Sicarian with its current rules. However, I think a better fit would be to remove Fast, return the all-around AV13, and give it Power of the Machine Spirit.
Either way, there's a couple other downsides to the Sicaran. One is the Relic of the Armory rule. A Primary Detachment can only have one vehicle with this rule, unless it also includes a Keeper of Relics character as an HQ choice. For vanilla Marines, this is a Master of the Forge. For Blood Angels, it's a Reclusiarch, for Space Wolves it's a Rune Priest (which seems odd - you'd think an Iron Priest would be a better fit), and for Dark Angels, it's an Interrogator Chaplain. Not much of a downside for DA players, as we're apt to be taking one anyway!
A Relic of the Armory can also be taken in a Secondary Detachment, in which case the Keeper of Relics has to be the detachment's compulsory HQ.
The other downside to the Sicaran (and all the FW tanks, for that matter) is they can't be included in one of the spiffy new detachments and formations GW has been giving us all through 7th edition. So, the only way to get one in, say, a Gladius Strike Force List is to take all allied Secondary Detachment and pay the HQ and Troops taxes. That limits their potential for tournament play. Forge World needs to address this by giving us a Relics of the Armory detachment, so we can use their vehicles in our Gladius-style lists.
In the meantime, my Sicaran will be a regular feature in all my casual CADs.
