Now this post I'm going to talk about the stats of the Barbed Hierodule in the first edition imperial armor book.
There is now a second edition imperial armor book which is good, however this means I don't know the new stats of the barbed hierodule, so I can only talk about the old ones, though I doubt there will be many changes in this new edition.
Firstly there is the points; at 750 points, this beast will take up a heavy amount of your army, unless you are doing a large scale apocaypse in which case you'll have many points to spare.
It costs 150 more points (I think) than the close combat equivilent, the Scythed Hierodule.
The scythed hierodule was armed with 2 pairs of scything talons (which in the codex of it's release granted extra attacks) and an acid spray weapon, which I believe was similar to that of the Tyrannofex in the latest 'nid codex.
with the extra points, you lose the acid spray, and one of the pairs of scything talons, and instead gain 2 biocannons.
I personaly preferred this model for its biocannons when I saw their stats.
One biocannon fires 6 shots (with the assault type) at strength 10, and AP 3, therefore 2 of these fire 12 shots.
Also the range of these weapons is 48".
The range could seem short in comparison to other titans, like the warhound's plasma cannon for example, however, the model is a gargantuan creature, which means it can move 12" in the movement phase.
The model also has a rule called "agile", which allows it to either fire both weapons in the shooting phase, run 1D6 and fire one weapon, or fire no weapons and run 2D6.
This makes the unit a very manouverable one capable of reaching long distances in a single turn.
The model also has the capability to tank shock, and rolls to penetrate vehicles with 2D6+S like a monstrous creature, aswell as ignoring armor saves.
The model has weapon skill 4, ballistic skill 3, strength 10, toughness 8, 6 wounds, Initiative 3, Attacks 5, Leadership 10, and an Armor Save of 3+
From this you can see that the highlight of the model probably is its guns, as it has weaknesses to make up for it, such as low initiative and the combination of 6 wounds with a 3+ save.
The model is immune to all psychic powers which is useful, and also cannot be instant killed.
The initiative is expected for this unit due to its size, and the fact it is a ranged specialist, but this can be sorted with the creature's stomp attack when against hordes in combat, but it performs not so well against elite units such as terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields, which are the kind of unit made for taking out powerful enemies.
Overall, I think this unit has great capability with the right rolling and placement on the field, and they make up for the weaknesses.
What do you think?