Tank hunting = Predator
Troop killing = Defiler

Personally I favor the Defiler more but its a close 60/40 in my book.

 

It does depend on what you want it to do. As Bishop pointed out defiler good for killing troops, preditor good for taking out armor. So it depends on what you feel is a more important roll that would be the better choice.

I like the defiler but that is more for modeling options than game play.

 

predator.
i dont like the look of the defiler

 

predator can be just as good at killing troops with autocannon 2x heavy bolter sponsons.

 

I find that the Defiler is more of a target than the pred. You stick a Defiler on the board and EVERYTHING shoots at it, stick a pred on and it'll probably get ignored in favour of something else.

The big + about the Defiler is that it is good at killing troops and can take down/tie up things in assault too and it's a pretty fast walker (fleet of foot). The downside is that it's only AV12, which make it too easy to destroy... the Daemon Soulgrinder will be far superior as it's AV13. Additionally, the Defiler is plug ugly...

The Predator is a good all round tank... lascannons/autocannon/heavy bolters... it can be tooled up to take down anything. It also has a good front AV value. It looks good too.

I think the distinction between the two should be how it fits into your army.
Do you have an assault army? If so then a Defiler is better as it can keep up with the troops, draw fire away from your transports and destroy any troops with an armour value of 3+ with impunity by battle cannoning them. A predator would be left behind in an army like this and probably not add a great deal to the battle.
If you have a shooty army then a pred is better as it has more weapons that it can fire and is likely to last longer against enemy shooting.

 

both have very different roles, thus cannot be really compared.

in the end really.. i'd pick a defiler.


but over both of them. i'd go havocs.

 

i think the predator is better just because if someone saw a defiler they always attack it first

 

Then they're not attacking things that are potentially more valuable...

Additionally, it ignores half the glancing hits table and gets a cover save as its a walker. It outranges the Pred by 24" with its pie plate, and can assault in a way that leaves most infantry helplessly dinking its armor. Don't forget the twin-linked heavy flamer for infantry.

I'd have to say Defiler. It's harder to use for sure, but the versatility is ridiculous, and the high price is justified by Daemonic Possession which is a 20 point upgrade.

Predators are solid, sure, but I've never seen them do anything amazing. half the time one of their sponsons doesn't have LOS, and AV11 side armor is pitiful.

 

A Defiler is a bullet magnet and with the loss of the mutated hull upgrade its gonna get taken out(12 armor) ...its too powerful offensively to allow it to wander the battlefield and take shit out it has to die. With a 13 frontal armor the Predator can last longer.Also you can configure the Predator to deal with any threat.

 

I don't see 13/11 as significantly better than 12/12. I'm an Eldar player with mobile S6 weapons all over, AV11 gets toasted.

About 4 games ago my friend's Defiler took two penetrating hits (meltagun and rending ass cannon). Each rolled a 1, stunned. So, two penetrating hits did nothing to it.

If it gets immobilized, it fires the battlecannon still. If it then gets weapon destroyed, it still has a twin linked reaper autocannon.

If its 100% and gets weapon destroyed it can charge into melee.

I suppose from a Marine/gunline/lascannon spam point of view, the Pred is harder to take out. But from an Eldar point of view, or any team that would use mobility and lower strength weapons, the defiler is far more difficult to hurt, while I find it quite easy to draw a bead on Predator side armor and pop them.

Oh and I almost forgot, the fact that the battlecannon can pop Rhinos and other transports and a 6 on the ordnance table annihilates every passenger no save, very mean. Seen it happen a few times. No one likes losing an entire squad because of one 6 rolled.

 

But which is better, a defiler, or a Predator? There's only one way to find out....FIGHT!!!!!!

 

yeah but i'd rather have a little bit weaker pred then a defiler that will be targeted rightway atleast with a pred u have a better chance of taking out somethings before the person your playin even thinks about targeting it sure a defiler may have a blast template but that really does nothing i mean what u get one hit and maybe two parshalls it's about the same as the cannons on the pred plus preds are better at taking out vehicles and yes the side armor is weaker but if your smart u wont give them a chance to take a shot at your side armor

p.s sorry if my spelling is off

 

sure a defiler may have a blast template but that really does nothing i mean what u get one hit and maybe two parshalls it's about the same as the cannons on the pred

2 games ago the Defiler's cannon blasted down something like 8 Death Company guys! The same feat would require 3 lascannon Preds (165 points each!), or even more Dakka Preds because with FNP heavy bolters and autocannons are going to bounce off.

I think the Battlecannon is an awesome gun... it won't pop tanks as well as a Tri-las but the tri-las is more expensive and is basically stationary. But anyway rolling 2d6 pick highest for penetration makes it better than a S9 weapon.