Tactics » Prometheus at War

Feast of Blades list, Tau & GK allies.

40K, Allies, Grand Tournament, Grey Knights, List Building, Tactics, Tau 4 Responses »

Sep 282012

Been a while since I’ve posted (~2weeks) and I’ve been thinking over a few things. I’ve qualified for the Feast of Blades in Denver, and lists are due Oct 1st, so, enough procrastinating. This is the list I’ve been working with for maybe a month now (before Tau vehicles got a 3+ cover save, 2+ when turbo-boosting, so that’s all Gravy now) and it’s been working pretty well.

Basic idea is that the Shas’El goes on top of the Bastion, with the pathfinders, and mans the Icarus Lascannon. Broadsides go inside, so we have a nice, fairly nasty fire base there with cover on the battlements and AV 14.

Purifiers rush up (18″) to midfield and just sit there in their rhino as a deterent with 8 psycannon shots, and happy enough to assault you if you ask for it.

Coteaz goes with GKSS and they move up the field on foot behind the purfiers acting as the main Dakka unit, with Coteaz using Divination and Precience on them.

Psykers move up however far is required to get within 36″, drop Str 8 AP1 pieplates.

Tau Firewarriors get in their Devil Fish (steal one from pathfinders) and probably don’t really get out until last turns, just scooting around with a 3+ or 2+ cover save as required.

Hammerheads do their thing, mostly their for the pie plates.

Dreadknight is there for disruption, counter-attack, and just outright breaking units when required.

Thoughts on the list:

Anti-tank: I feel pretty solid. I have 5 Railt guns and the icarus lascannon available for first turn initial strike, a strength 8 Ap 1 large blast, 4 psycannons that should be in play turn 2+, and many str 5 shots. Hopefully the hammherheads won’t be needed for their anti-tank and can be left for pie plates, but they’re there if needed.

Anti-horde: Super solid. 3 pie plates (2 str 6 and 1 str 8), the Heavy incinerator off the Dread knight, Cleansing Flame if required from the purifiers (I think not) and lots of Dakka.

Durability: Great. AV14 bastion (vulnerable to Railguns, Lances, and deepstruck Meltas, but that’s about it). 2 Av 13, 2 AV 12 (which should have 3+ saves) vehoicles. Weakspots are the rhinos, easy first turn kill sif I’m not careful.

Mobility: Descent. 4 transports, GKSs can deepstrike if they want to (probably will not) and NDK can be wherever it wants to. (but will almost certainly make itself a big fat target)

Scoring: This is what I’m worried about. I have 4. The GKSS are 10 strong and tough, but they’re walking and can get shot up if the opponent makes a goal out of it. The FW will be pretty hard to kill inside their 2+ DFs, but accidents happen, and there’s only 6 in each. I wanted to do a big squad of 12 but didn’t know what to give up. Psykers are scoring, technically, but are very delicate. So, 3 of those scorers really, really don’t want to get out of their vehicle until the last minute, and truth is the psykers rhino will probably be shot out form under them, anyway.

If it’s nightfight first turn, things are going very well for me!

Thoughts?

2000 Pts – Tau Empire Roster – Matt Bennett, FoB list 2012

Total Roster Cost: 1998

When and how to Challenge (6th ed 40k Challenge Tactica)

40K, Rules, Tactics 11 Responses »

Sep 112012

From a reader (yes, I have a reader….one, at least):

Prometheus,

I was wondering if I could get your opinion on something new to 6th edition that I have been running into a lot. Challenges. It appears that every single close combat can be host to a Michael Jackson “Bad” knife fight if one or the other players issues the challenge. If you happen to be in a situation whereby your “character” will be hopelessly slaughtered, your only option is to deny the challenge and thus you loose your characters attacks. I’m not so sure I like this as the game seems to lose its feel of a battlefield and instead seems to feel like a bunch of gang fights whereby the leaders butcher eachother while everyone else pipe-fights. I may be mildly biased by having almost all of my justicars be hopelessly walked on by vastly superior characters, so I admit, I’m a little bitter. but it seems like a stupid mechanic that will get most squad leaders killed early and change the dynamic of close combat dramatically in ways that dont make sense (EG- My justicar had to accept an challenge from a wraithlord or I would lose my only chance to damage it with the demon hammer, but was crushed to death anyway before I could even swing. Or, a friend was hampered by a lowly guard sergeant because the sarg “nobly” challenged his brood lord to one on one combat… a combat where the BL most likely would have made huge piles of death happen to the whole squad, but instead could only kill the sarg? And why would a BL even know what a sarg said?

Maybe I am missing something, and if I am, please forgive my ignorance,

But it should would be nice to hear your thoughts on the concept & what you believe would be the best way for grey knights to kit their justicars to make the most of these challenges.

Thanks,

Mike

On the use and care of Stormravens in 6th Edition (tactica)

40K, List Building, Tactics, Unit review 2 Responses »

Aug 222012

Note: I’m writing this from a GK pov, but a lot of it is applicable to Blood Angels as well.

Ah, the flying land raider. Using a Stormraven was pretty simple in 5th edition, at least for Grey Knight players. Blood Angels sometimes got tricked into using it as a gun boat, because of their fancy schmancy Bloodstrike missiles, but it’s use to GK players was very clear: Deliver Termiantors and maybe a psychic dreadnought to your opponents face.

I basically used my Stormraven like a really expensive drop pod in 5th edition. I’d load in Draigo and either some paladins or purifiers (later it was purifiers, because I decided I need the fearless in case of tank shock) and just ran the thing straight at the enemy first turn. 24″, get a 4+ cover save (librarians and shrouding were popular to make it 3+, but I had neither the points nor the room) and melta some poor tank, just because I could. That usually failed to hit or pen for whatever perverse reason despite the demands of statistics, but who cared? Draigo was now on the enemy door step.

Then, always, the enemy would fire basically their entire army at it. They had to, because if it didn’t go down, draigo was going to get to charge whatever he wanted, the SR was going to go nuts shooting, and it would be pretty much an auto-win for me. Since I was often fighting fellow GK, I’d really look forward to shooting the mindstrikes, but that rarely ever happened.

Stormravens are tough, even in 5th ed, but most of the time, they’d be able to bring it down. (how many shots does it take to get to the center of a SR? ”most of whatever you got”, honest assessment at the time.)

That was fine, though, because 1) It usually took a full turn of shooting to do that. 2) Draigo and friends, again, is on your doorstep. They’d just climb out of the wreckage, and murder everything within arms-reach. Turn 2 charge.

Now, keep in mind, that was easily a 700-800 pt investment in that one Stormraven, 200 pts of which usually got blown up on the way in. But still, totally worth it.

Soooo……..flyers are awesome in 6th, and the SR is a Flyer. The Stormraven was good in 5th, so it must be total broken-sauce in 6th, right? Uh……..yes and no. The truth is trying use my SR in 6th has left me a little conflicted and confused.

Firstly, let’s be clear, it is a flyer, and flyers are gross. If your opponent doesn’t have appropriate counter measures (which are hard to come by, absent their own flyers, at the moment) you’re going to run rough shod all over them.

But how are you going to use it? How are you going to use those 205-260 points to further your goals in winning the game?

I came in 2nd in the 40k Ard Boyz

40K, Grand Tournament, Grey Knights, Tactics 4 Responses »

Aug 172011

So, I went down to my local store this past weekend, where I am in fact a paying club member, to play in the 40k Ard Boyz preliminaries. I came in second, out of a fairly small 13 people, just narrowly missing first with a 61-58 battle points ratio. Two other folks tied for 3rd at 48 pts. I think the day mostly went pretty well, and I’m ok with coming in second, since it qualified me for the semi-finals……but in the semi-finals I need first, so I know I have a little work ahead of me.

Here’s the list I took:

OK, look, NFW Halberds are not as great as you think.

40K, Grey Knights, List Building, Tactics 20 Responses »

Jul 202011

“ZOMG, Halberds are so awesome!” The Internet raves. ”It should be like, all Halberds, all the time!” Hokay, now, calm down. Yes, NFW Halberds are good. Going at Initiative 6 puts you before the whole wide world of MEQs (like 60% of 4ok, at least), even before those with furious charge. Since they’re power weapons, that are often at a boosted strength, you are really fairly likely kill a lot of the enemy before they get a chance to swing. But, of course, not everything is a MEQ (just as not every vehicle is a rhino), and even against a MEQ (Marine EQuivalent) there are times when the the +2 initiative isn’t going to be helpful. Perhaps, more importantly, all the other Nemesis Force Weapons can be pretty awesome, though costs and cost effectiveness for all of them vary widely by unit. So let’s talk about when to use NFW halberds, and what the real cost/benefit of them is. First, let’s get two things out of the way.

Yes, you are pretty much alway going to get them on Purifier Squads. 2 pts (!!!) is stupid cheap, and it’s not just that low cost alone, it’s that it’s augmenting 2 attacks, so you’re really only paying 1pt per attack to make it Init 6.
No, you should pretty much never get them on Strike Squads. 5pts isn’t so cheap, especially for a unit that only has 1 attack, and wants to fighting in CC as a distant second to using it’s ranged firepower.

So with it being a pretty much auto-include on Purifiers, and a never-include on strike squads, and therefore interceptor squads, as well, (can we all admit that people don’t really use purgation squads?) what we’re really talking about is when to take them on Terminators squads (including paladin’s) and how much. And that’s what has really been making me pull my hair out, people saying termies should have all halberds, all the time. Well, no, they shouldn’t, and I’ll tell you why. Continue reading »

Lord Kaldor Draigo saved my butt at Boston Brawlcon: A tactical overview.

40K, Grand Tournament, Grey Knights, List Building, Tactics, Unit review 2 Responses »

Jul 072011

So, I guess my first post became at least partly a rant about my painting score, not really what I meant it to be, so let’s move on to what I really care about: Tactics. For reference, my full list that I brought can be found here: Draigo and Stormraven List. First, some general thoughts:

Review of the list by item: Continue reading »

Stormraven and Land Raider Grey Knight list, the Army to dominate Boston Brawlcon.

40K, Grand Tournament, Grey Knights, List Building, Tactics 22 Responses »

Jun 292011

This is it, this is The List. The List with which I hope to win fame and fortune at the Boston Brawlcon.

I’m very thrilled with it, actually, it has all the things I want; It can hit like a mobile flying truck, has sufficient anti-tank, and great scoring potential. It only has 9 Kill points, total, which is also pretty sweet. I was going to do 4 of these posts, with 4 different lists, running through the options, starting with that 3 LR list I posted last week, but nah, this is it, I’m done.

It’s like falling in love, sometimes you just know, y’know?

It doesn’t hurt that I did really pretty well against exactly the guy and exactly the list I most feared: Frank, with his really heavy Dark Lance Dark Eldar over at the ‘Arvard ‘Ard Boyz in cambridge (they play out of the Pandemonium book store in Central Square). Expect a mini Battle Report on that in the next few days, but the bottom line is I had a little bit, but not a huge amount of dice luck, and I nearly tabled him, so I’m pretty happy with it. I still hope Frank, who is going to Brawlcon, stays the hell away from me, I don’t want to fight him if I can help it, but it was still a good sign.

Go Heavy or Go Home: Brawlcon, Grey Knight Triple Land Raider list. Boston Brawlcon list #1

40K, Grand Tournament, Grey Knights, List Building, Tactics 12 Responses »

Jun 162011

So I tend to be of the belief that real combat is a lot of quiet, subtle maneuvering, and then sudden, over-whelming violence. If you can do your maneuvering more quietly, and your violence more sudden, things will go well.

On the table-top war-gaming front, I feel it’s usually more useful to think in terms of “pressure”. I should really do a post on that concept alone, but the basic idea is that if your opponent only have to worry about one thing in a turn, even if there will be another one next turn, if he has a clear target-priority and threat minimization strategy, then that’s good for him and bad for you.

So if you give him multiple threats, all credible, and make them more than he can deal with, meaning that he has to make at least one decision by ignoring one, then that’s good for you and bad for him.

It’s not everything you need to know about tactics, but it’s a hell of a good start.

In short, you’re trying to overwhelm your opponent. People are trying to do this when they have 9-11 razorback lists, or all terminators, or hundreds of gaunts. You can also do this with Land Raiders.

I play dual Land Raider lists all the time, and it works quite well. Two of them are pretty essential, as you need at least the two threats in order to give them multiple bad options. It’s all pretty likely that you will have a LR go down sometimes, they’re not invulnerable. Now, I’ve gotten into a lot of arguments on Kirby’s blog, people telling me that it doesn’t work because people can block your charges, and because of things like Dark Lances and such. Well, I play these things in tournaments, I do pretty OK with them, this is not just a rumor. I’ll write up a whole LR tactica later, but let’s leave at now that a big part of the trick is knowing when not to charge, which is a lot of the time, and using even the “assault LRs” such as crusdaers.

Now, Land Raiders are expensive, loading up on them can definitely leave your army thin in other areas. It also does put a lot of eggs in one basket. They’re tough, but that classic “6 and then a 6″ roll we all know and fear, 1/36 chance, well it’s rare, but it sure will wreck your day.

Conversely, though, they’re tough, and if you’re going to try to overwhelm your opponent in this way, you really want to push that to the limit. In short, Go Heavy or Go Home.

Now, three Land Raiders would be considered by most a little crazy, and I certainly had trouble making a list that had other essential elements such as sufficient scorers that I needed. However, I do own three, and I felt a terrible urge to use them. Grey Knight Land Raiders are certainly helped out lot by the Fortitude rule.

The missions I’m designing these lists for can be found here. Continue reading »

The Great Big List of Grey Knight FAQ Questions, Part 2

40K, FAQ, Grey Knights, Rules, Tactics 1 Response »

Jun 132011

I tackled part 1 a few days ago, and after writing a quite lengthy post, I cut it short, not anywhere near done.

I’m doing the Boston Brawlcon 4th of July weekend. I desperately want many of these questions answered, as some of them will affect the viability of certain lists versus others. Of course, I’m probably only halfway through this series of articles, and if they FAQ’d the thing this weekend, I’d be deprived of something to blather on about, so I’m a little conflicted.

FAQ Questions, Part 1, can be found here.

As before, I will make some notes regarding RAW (read as written), RAI (read as intended), and GAP (game as played, which simply means what the consensus has been to play it as, in the lack of any other direction, or perhaps “screw it, rule is fucked)

Here we go!

All the Anval Thawn questions. I wrote a post about him recently, which people seem to have liked, and I’ve been using him a fair bit recently. GW actually did a good job describing when, where, and how he comes back to life, but truth is a great deal about him is unsettled, rules wise, because GW didn’t seem to realize a guy who has all these special abilities like an IC, but is a sergeant, and then resurrects on his own, might cause some unique situations and need more than a paragraph explaining him.
1. Does he grant the squad he leads fearless? “But ICs don’t give fearless to the squad they join!”, you say. Well, sure, but Anval isn’t an IC, and he didn’t join the squad, he’s their justicar. He’s a full part of the squad.
  - RAW: There’s really no precedent for this, so who knows. I’d say he does.
  - RAI: I think they probably meant for it to grant
  - the squad fearless. It’s actually not that big of a difference with terminators.
  - GAP: Probably not. People react very negatively to this, and keep on bringing up the IC rule, even though it has no bearing. In a tournament, in the interests of time and sportsmanship, you shouldn’t argue about this unless it’s going to matter, which is rarely.
2. Does he and the squad share a kill point, or is he a separate kill point entirely? The codex is very specific about when he grants a kill point, but does not mention if once he dies and resurrects, do you have to kill him in order to have finished off the GKT squad (and have him stay dead) or is he worth an entirely separate kill point on his own?
  - RAW: The closest precedent is a Devil Fish and its drones. But that’s different in that the drones are proper passengers, while Thawn is properly the sergeant for his squad, fully part of it.
  - RAI: He’s probably a separate kill point. It seems that if it can operate separately, in 40k, then it’s a kill point.
  - GAP: He’s a separate KP
3. A little minor one here, but, if you buy psybolts for the GKT squad, does Anval get a Str 5 bolter once he resurrects?
  - RAW: Who knows? It seems though, that if Anval’s clip had ammo filled with the emperor’s special love-juice when he died, the extra special holy rounds are probably still there when he gets up.
  - RAI: I actually doubt GW thought of this.
  - GAP: If your opponent ever argued with you about something minor and stupid like this, punch him in the crotch. Continue reading »

Servo-skulls are probably better than you think they are……and I know you think they’re pretty good.

40K, Grey Knights, Rules, Tactics, Unit review 8 Responses »

Jun 102011

So this may be the shortest blog post ever, but there’s something I wanted to share with you.

We know servo-skulls are good, right? Stupid cheap, cheapest if you can get them on a techmarine or inquisitor, and they let you play all sorts of board control games:

They deny infiltrators within 12″
They stop scout moves by the enemy within 12″
They reduce scatter for Deep Striking within 12″
The reduce scatter for blast templates similarly

I mean, we all know this stuff, and it’s been my policy to take 2 or 3 of them since the codex came out. But I was stricken, in a game today, by just how awesome they can be. It was GK on GK, and we were playing a practice game for the Boston Brawlcon that’s coming up, mission 4. It was spearhead deployment, and he had an infiltrating vindicare that I was quite scared of taking out my Land Raiders. I was able to, using my 3 servo-skulls and careful deployment, keep that vindicare more than 36″ from any of my units.

Turn 2 I take him out with a couple autocannon shots, easy. 145 pts down.

Older Entries

Prometheus at War

When and how to Challenge (6th ed 40k Challenge Tactica)

I came in 2nd in the 40k Ard Boyz

Here’s the list I took:

The Great Big List of Grey Knight FAQ Questions, Part 2

Servo-skulls are probably better than you think they are……and I know you think they’re pretty good.

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Here’s the list I took:

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