The final weapon system carried by the Reaver class, the VSM is a very potent weapon. It has a monsterous range of 480", with the ability to fire indirectly. There is a minimum range of 24", but that is only for the indirect (18" minimum direct fire).
The best part of the VSM is that it will instantly kill anything its 10" template hits regardless of wounds/toughness - no saves of any kind allowed. It also removes any removable terrain features.
What this means is that if your opponent brings a trio of Land Raiders with Vulkan, Calgar, Pedro and a million terminators stuffed inside one shot will instantly remove them all. Similarly the vortex laughs at C'Tan, Hive Tyrants, Greater Daemons, Seer Councils, Courts of Khain and all sorts of other "defences".
It is only one shot however, so must be used wisely.
What to shoot
It is tempting to fire this thing off at the biggest, baddest piece of badassery on the other side of the table and laugh manically. But against SHs and GCs the effect isn't quite as impressive.
SHs lose D3 structure points per hit. This is a straight structure point loss, not damage rolls. So while potent it is somewhat unreliable and doesn't damage weapons or movement.
Similarly GCs lose D6 wounds with no saves allowed. You could theoretically kill off a Harradin in one shot, but you could do very little.
My suggestion is to try and catch SHs and GCs in the blast, but focus the targeting on lesser targets that will be more easily dispatched.
Imperial Forces (Guard, =I= etc) - Aim for concentrations of armour like Russ companies or armoured vet platoons. Also handy for nuking Inquisitors and pesky HQs like Creed. Not a bad choice for making a nice big hole in the enemy's ranks to deep strike into also. Attempting to wing any SHs isn't a bad idea either.
Space Marines (Loyalist and Traitor) - Against a pure marine force the VSM is a bit wasted. Unless you'll be up aginast massed Land Raider action (I can field 7 for instance) the AML or TTL would be a better choice. If you feel lucky it's great for terminating deep striking terminators - especially if they use a Formation that makes them have to pack in nice and tight.
Eldar - Crushed Eldrad and his million man seer council into oblivion, see the Phoenix Court of Khaine driven before you, hear the lamentation of his superheavies as you ignore their holo-fields.
One of the few armies I would advise in targeting the superheavies (if only to easily get by their titan-holo fields), the Eldar are prime targets for Vortexing. The Avatar is vulnerable to StrD weapons, not having Eternal Warrior, but the Phoenix Court of Khaine adds this (and more) at a mere cost of the six Phoenix Lords plus 150pts. The Phoenix Lords will all be nice and close, make them regret this.
You can't shoot down their flyers (unless you catch them as skimmers in hover mode), but neither can any of the other weapons worth taking so it's no big loss.
Tyranids - The best way to target 'nids is to aim for a big unit of tough, shooty synapse creatures and get any GCs in the edge of the template. They only need to be touched to do the damage, so use the bulk of the blast to kill Carnifefxes, broods of Warriors, Tyrants with guards and remove as much synapse as possible. Depending on deployment you could use well placed shooting to cut off big units of lesser nids from the hive mind.
Orks - Not one of the armies I'd take the VSM against. They have large numbers so a one-shot weapon won't make a big enough impact, and their superheavies are all tough enough to weather the vortex storm. However a Kult of Speed list with lots of truks and wagons could take a severe beating from the VSM.
Necrons - Main targets would be grouped monoliths providing screens via Nodal Grid and Nightshroud, and the lowly warrior. remove big blocks of anything with the Necron rule to force Phase-Out. Aim to take out Lords (especially Destroyer Lords) with Res-Orbs and any C'Tan, but th epriority should be lowering their bodycount. Monoliths should be secondary as StrD weapons can damage them well enough on thier own.
Tau - Clumped up Devilfish loaded with warriors, swarms of Crisis and Broadsides and Hammerheads would be the priority targets. But, like Marines, there are better options against the hated Tau. Also they have a wide array of air support immune from vortexing.
Daemons - Good for removing tight groups of deep strikers and Greater Daemons. Not so good when most of them will be deep striking at point blank range.
Dark Eldar - Until they get a new Codex I don't think it's really going to come up, except as an allied force, then I'd treat them like Eldar. Without any cool stuff to target outside swarms of Raiders (which even the VMB can shoot down with ease!).
When to Shoot
At the first opportunity you get. First turn is the best idea so you don't run the risk of getting shaken or destroyed results, and the enemy will still be bunched up in his deployment zone.
Second turn does have the pro of getting the enemies reserves partly on, so see what's on the board before deciding.
Personally if I'm getting first turn I'd keep the Titan in reserve so it can come on un-molested by enemy fire and lay waste to the foe (Careful Planning is great for this) wherever is needed. Just make sure to leave a big enough space to deploy into though.
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