Category Archives: Micro
Quick Tip: Tag-Team to Win Combat
Hey all Son of Adam here with a quick tip about tipping the favor of combat. This technique is a very particular one, but it can be shaped to good effect against most non-fearless armies; it’s called the tag-team. Please keep in mind that this technique cannot be used in every circumstance, but when it can be used, it can be the shift in power during a game.
Once in the last round of a tournament, I was facing a horde ork army with a full sized nob biker unit. There was nothing in my army that could have faced that unit head on and my opponent knew it. He stretched the squad out across the board so that no matter where I went in my turn he would be close enough to engage me. I was stuck in a hard place and had to employ the tag-team.
I happened to get the rule book power terrify (it relieves a unit of the fearless special rule) and I used it on his nob bikers (keep in mind this tactic can only be used on non-fearless units). I moved up my combat unit and did not shoot in order to keep the formations that he had put out in place. Then I multi-assaulted his strung out nobs squad (big scary unit) and tag-teamed his boys squad (an easily killable unit). I used my movement in such a way to make sure that nearly all of the combat squad could only get in on the boys squad and I dumped nearly all of my attacks into it. During his reaction most of his nob squad was too far away to fight, and most of the boys were dead.
For combat resolution I had killed enough of the boys that his biker squad was taking its leadership test on a two. Even with the re-roll they failed, and since the boys were still big enough to be fearless I couldn’t pursue them. The Nobs with both warbosses rolled their three dice and fled off the table.
That is the tag-team. In these pictures you can see how the eldar jetbikes are facing off against a paladin squad. During their movement they position themselves in a place where they can declare the convenient rhino as their primary target and the paladins as the secondary.
After they charge they dump all of their attacks into the rhino and only one of the warlocks hits the paladins. Since in sixth edition all damages against a tank count towards combat resolution the paladins end up loosing combat by enough to make them test on double ones.
They fail their leadership and if the bikes roll low enough to catch them, then the paladins will break and run off the table.
This is very situational, and it’s not a guarantee, but if you find the opportunity, try it. You can help push favor of combat towards your units if you can find a way to push the combat resolution to 9+ on your side. Good luck all.
Micro Gameplay Strategy: Defeating Deathstars with Tar Pits
How would you defend against a deathstar?
Hey guys Son of Adam here again with a little article about defeating deathstars with tar pits.
Since the new edition, deathstars have grown in popularity, and with them comes the need to shut them down. Generally people go about this by trying to find the best deathstar; one deathstart to rule them all. They will play test to see, deathstar vs. deathstar, which will win out. Others try to build a list around putting out enough shots to take down anything deathstar related. These are both valid methods, but I want to offer up a different idea for your considerations; tying them up.
Deathstars are made to crash into enemy lines and destroy all who oppose, but there are some units in the game that are made to do exactly the opposite. These are called tar pit units. Tar pit units are generally cheap, large, have an invulnerable save, deny attacks in combat, have fearless, feel-no-pain, or some combination there of. Some examples are plague demons, massed tyranid guants, or swarms.
The idea here is that you can tie up a large deathstar unit long enough to make them tactically irrelevant, or to lessen their impact on the game. And, with the cost imbalance for the rest of the game, you should be able to make enough of a difference with the rest of your army to gain the advantage, or apply this tactic again to further tie up the squad.
Consider that, in a perfect world, a Draigowing deathstar assaults 30 guants backed up by feel-no-pain. The guant squad only costs 120 points and the deathstar costs upwards of 1000 points (assuming normal deathstar overload with Draigo, apoth, and 4 psycannons). This deathstar will be getting 3 attacks on the charge, hitting on 3’s, wounding on 3’s, and the guants will get a 5+ feel-no-pain on all non-hammer attacks. That’s 36 attacks, with say 24 hits, 16 wounds, and 11 dead. So, with 11 dead at 5pts a piece, it cost you 55pts to hold that deathstar still for the top of a turn.
Now for the bottom of that turn. You know the drill; it’s only 25 attacks this time, with say 17 hits, 11 wounds, and 7/8 dead. So at the end of the full turn where they were charged it cost you 90/95 pts to make the Draigowing deathstar irrelevant to the game. Take that number over the course of 5 turns and make it 395 points (95 + 75 each turn thereafter) to keep 1000 points at bay. In a 2000 point game, it has now become 1000 points vs. 1605 points. The tyranid player will gain a significant advantage. (Please be aware that this is a perfect world scenario. However, when working with perfect world scenarios, we can look for what to try for in our actual games).
These ideas work with several different units against several different deathstars, but consider the fundamental idea, take small cheaper units to tie up larger, more expensive units in order to give yourself the upper hand in achieving the victory conditions. Now go out and see if you can work this idea into your list in order to deal with the deathstars of the 40k world. You don’t have to change what you are taking now, but it’s a good exercise none-the-less to see if there are more mild aspects of this strategy that can be helpful to you when considering what to bring to the table and while playing the game.
Quick Tip: Deny the Last Turn Dash
Hey guys, Son of Adam here again with another quick tip. By the way, we are working on getting some more videos out this week, but some things have slowed us down a little bit, expect at least two.
As we have looked into some of the methods for last turn contesting in articles here, it is worth mentioning that there are ways to try and slow down and better defend against this kind of move when it is being used against you. In this quick tip we are going to point out one of those ways.
In a tournament this weekend (which will have a video review very soon), I played against an army with a Necron night scythe. These guys are the kings of the last turn deny/claim move, almost as good as last editions Eldar Falcons. They are able to move very far in one turn and drop guys without chance or danger in a large radius around the base of the flyer. (Note: there are other models with a similar capability in other armies as well).
Thus the scenario runs, each side is claiming one objective and then on turn 5 the night scythe (or equivalent) jumps onto the other player’s objective and moves his warriors or immortals in to contest or potentially claim. Then the game ends, and at the very least, the result is 1 objective to none.
Aside from shooting down all of the night scythes on the table how can you prevent this kind of tactic? There is one simple method, though not foolproof and not guaranteed, it will in the least buy you a turn.
With whatever units you have near that objective move them to surround at least two inches of the objective. You may have to sacrifice shooting, even with a squad of shooting dedicated models (devastators), but if following the golden rules, this is the more than acceptable.
Eldar Rangers make a bubble around the objective.
Once your models look like this your opponent will not be able to drop off his troops within three inches of the objective, and is not able to assault you this turn in order to bring them within this three inch bubble.
This tactic does not guarantee the win or the objective, but it will slow down the opponent for at least a turn. This will make the last turn dash a bit harder to pull off as it requires the player to; first have this move in mind earlier, second dedicate their resources for at least two turns, and third, provide you the opportunity to return fire.
The rangers deny a last turn dash from the scythe.
I hope this helps out in one of your future games. Make sure to follow/like/subscribe to our stuff. Thanks again for reading fellas and post up some comments down below. Peace.
Quick Tip: Trapped in a Transport
Simply moving to surround an immobilized transport can sometimes be more effective than charging it.
Hey guys, Son of Adam here with a Quick Tip. These tips are all going to be under the Micro-Gameplay heading. Quick Tips are going to be short, very particular, ways to fight on the battlefield. Today’s Quick Tip is called Trapped in a Transport.
If you are holding, or trying to deny the enemy from holding, an objective and a unit that has the strength to take it from you just got immobilized in a transport right on top of that objective, what should you do? The first and most obvious thing people want to do is charge it, but I want to suggest to you a different approach.
For our example let’s take the mission I just recently play against Steve. Near the end of the game his Rhino full of Grey Hunters came running down on top of my home objective. Then in response I tried to come and take it back with my own, combat squad, of purifiers in a rhino (4 halberds, 1 hammer).
I was able to take out his rhino but his troops took the objective from me. I believe it was at the top of turn four that his grey hunters then made a counter assault to stop my purifiers. He charged my rhino and destroyed it. This however ended up giving me the advantage. At the bottom of five I was then able to move the purifiers into position to contest the objective, and then get a full volley off before charging.
Being outmatched, Steve could have employed this tactic to trap me in my transport. (To be fair, in our particular game my rhino was not immobilized or stunned, but we will continue to talk about it as if it were for the sake of the example). If his unit had simply moved into position to surround the rhino, my purifiers would have been stuck inside the transport and only been able to shoot out of it. Even if I killed most of the squad I would still have been trapped in my transport.
This is far more relevant in 6th edition when we consider a change to the rules. Look in your rule book with me at page 123. It shows you that units that remain fully in a transport can neither score nor deny objectives. Furthermore, neither can any tanks (with the exception of “Big Guns Never Tire” and “The Scouring” missions where they can become scoring –but still cannot deny, take a look at that part closely). With this in mind we can see the tactic come to life.
If the Grey Hunters were to have trapped the Purifiers in the rhino I would have only been able to shoot him, but not score/deny his objective. In this instance we can see the very heart of the Golden Rules of the Art of War(hammer). It would be more wise, and potentially game winning, to simply sit in front of the rhino’s doors and not attack anything than to charge the rhino and kill it.
Remember this little tactic whenever you are facing an immobilized transport with some very nasty units inside. Trap them in their transport and win the game.
Cheers
Again let us know your feedback. Has this ever worked for you? Have you seen this done against you? Were their games you could have won if you had trapped that deadly unit in their transport instead of freeing them? Let us know. And while you are at it check out our other stuff and like/follow/subscribe to our sites. Thanks guys, we are always looking to improve.
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