Anti-Titans: Eldar Revenant Titan

The Eldar Revenant Titan isn’t actually that hard to kill on it’s own. For 800 points, it is actually pretty fragile. However, it has three things that make it really hard to kill:

First, the guns. Four destroyer shots with 60″ range. And while that is not the highest range, it is enough to cause massive damage to most enemies.

Secondly, the holo-fields. A 4+ invulnerable save, whether hit with a S6 weapon or a SD weapon.

Lastly, the mobility. This thing is nearly impossible to get in combat, because of it’s mobility. If it want’s to, it can move 36″ in the movement phase, with no penalties that may cause it damage.

So what do we do about it? The destroyer weapons are too powerful to ignore, and it is difficult to lock it in combat, so I say shoot it. Blow it to pieces. Deffkoptas, once again, work great against rear armor. Five deffkoptas will destroy 1 structure point in the shooting phase, and half of the time the deffkoptas will also destroy a weapon, or cause a drive damaged result. It is best to use 2 deffkopta units, though, each a certain distance apart, so your enemy will have a harder time hitting rear armor. Also, any S8+ weapons nearby will help. However, don’t ignore the rest of the army. If the revenant titan is not much of a threat, (If both weapons have been destroyed, maybe,) focus your firepower elsewhere. No need to waste bullets.

Eldar: strengths and weaknesses

So, today I am going to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of Eldar, from my experience.

The Eldar can be a very effective army, if played well. One of their guns (nightspinner, I believe,) can pin an enemy unit, and then cause even more damage in the next turn. (First, it causes damage, and then the next time that unit moves, it is going through difficult and dangerous terrain.) They have a high number of barrage weapons, great firepower, and still have some units that are good in close combat. (Avatar, anyone?) However, they do have a couple of weaknesses which are easy to exploit:

First off, they tend to lack high strength/armor piercing weapons. Like all armies they can take some, but they cannot take a lot. That means well armored units, such as Nobz or Meganobz, are very difficult to kill, because small arms fire is rarely effective against them, due to good armor and large amounts of wounds. And it also means that tanks with good armor, such as Battlewagons, (Or, in other armies, land raiders, monoliths, and other super-tanks,) will be difficult to kill. Rear armor will help, but the tanks will have several turns more than an army such as Dark Eldar with a dozen brightlances. (On a side-note, every time I have used Nobz, Meganobz, or both against Eldar, I have won spectacularly.)

Nearly all of their units have either/both WS4 or BS4, so they are pretty elite in what they do, but they only have S3 T3, so they are not exactly marines. (Armor isn’t great most of the time either.) Anti-infantry weapons work very well against the. (Big shootas wound on 2’s and penetrate, bigbomms wound on 3’s and penetrate, even grot blastas wound on 4’s, so one unit of grots will kill 6-7 of them in a single shooting phase.)

The elite units that they have are either expensive or low in numbers. Not unlike most other elite units, but in this case they also have bad armor most of the time. There are exceptions, but for the most part a gun will kill the elites just as easily as the troops. So, killing them first, before they can cause much damage, is always smart.

One of my friends, (Hey, Patrick!) Always takes the Avatar, so I am going to put a word on him here:

The hardest part about killing the Avatar is that ork boyz hit on 5’s and wound on 6’s. And, not many weapons are good against him because they either don’t wound easily, don’t penetrate, or have a low number of shots. The one unit I have found effective is one you have heard of from me many times before. It isn’t deffkoptas, it isn’t ork hordes, and it certainly isn’t Mad Dok Grotsnik. I even mentioned them earlier in this very post! It is decked out Nobz. With a Waaagh! banner, they hit on 4’s instead of 5’s. With big choppas, they wound on 3’s or 4’s, depending on the charge. (Even regular choppas can wound on 5’s, if they charge.) With power fists, they wound on 2’s and remove the armor save, (so it is a 4+ invuln instead of 3+ armor.) And they are still effective against other units. Also, this unit is really really fun to play. And, since the Avatar is only S6, he doesn’t cause instant death, so he will have to cause 10 wounds to remove a model, if you assorted your wargear well enough.

1500 point Elites list

So, the other day I decided to build a quick list, and so here it is:

Warboss w/ Power Klaw, Attack Squig-100

10 nobz, 2 big choppas, 1 PK, 1 bosspole, 1 painboy, 1 waaagh! banner, cyborks and eavy armor all around

10 kommandos, 3 burnas, nob w/ PK, bosspole

24 ork boyz, PK bosspole nob

24 ork boyz, PK bosspole nob

10 Stormboyz, PK bosspole nob

3 Deffkoptas w/ rokkits

Battlewagon w/ armor plates, grot riggas, kannon, 4 big shootas, deff rolla

It is not a ‘standard’ ork list, (There are only 2 boyz hordes, and they are both small.) A total of 3 scoring units, including the Nobz. In many ways, this is just a collection of my favorite units. (The funnily converted Kommandos, the Nobz which I worked on for hours to convert the weapons, Deffkoptas are my favorite unit, I just finished modeling the battlewagon, ETC,) and a few boyz at the core. But, it will be very fun to play. And,of course, nobody will expect an ‘Elite’ ork list.

Custom Units: Doctor Who Codex

So, recently I have become a big fan of the British television show ‘Doctor Who.’ So, just for fun, I decided I would do a write up for a Doctor Who codex. Now, it is not split up into ‘armies,’ so much as separate groupings of ‘units,’ but anyways, enjoy:

Good Guys:

The Doctor:

WS4, BS4, S3, T4, W3, I5, A3, LD10, Sv 5+

Wargear:

Sonic Screwdriver: Every turn, The Doctor may chose to use one of the following abilities:

Automatically inflict D6 + 3 glancing hits on a vehicle within 24″.

Add 3 to a friendly units Armor save. If they have a 2+ armor save, add it to their invulnerable. (So, a 4+ armor save would become a 2+/5++. A 3+/6++ would become a 2+/4++.)

Automatically remove 4 from an enemy unit’s armor save. If it has an invulnerable save, remove that first. (So, a 3+/6++ would become a 6+. A 2+ save would become a 6+ save.)

Tardis Key:

At the beginning of every turn, the doctor may chose to summon the TARDIS directly to him. If he does so, the TARDIS does not count as moving at all, and may do everything as normal.

Special Rules:

The Doctor is immune to instant death.

TARDIS:

BS4, AV14, 14, 14.

Unit type: vehicle (skimmer)

Wargear: Atmospheric Controller

Instead of moving, (But not teleporting,) the TARDIS may chose to cause an Atmospheric disturbance. (A storm.) Any units within 18″ of the TARDIS, (including the TARDIS itself,) gains a D6+ cover save. (So a roll of 3 would give you a 3+ cover save.) A roll of 1 counts as a 2+ cover save, but the distance covered by the storm is increased by 6″. (For a total of a 24″ storm radius.)

Transport capacity: 30

Special rules:

The TARDIS is immune to melta/lance. In addition, if the TARDIS has been immobilized and has no weapons, it still cannot be wrecked by a glancing hit.

Every turn, during the movement phase, (either before or after moving, it doesn’t matter,) the TARDIS may teleport. Roll a D6. On a roll of 2+, the TARDIS may be placed anywhere on the board, and any people inside are also moved. They may then disembark, move, shoot, and assault as normal. On a roll of 1, there has been a slight mistake as to the time of arrival. Roll another D6. If the roll is equal or higher than the turn being played, (for instance, a 5 while on turn 4,) then the TARDIS is removed from the board until that turn (unless it is the same, in which you teleport as normal.) When that turn comes, place the TARDIS anywhere on the board, as per a normal teleport. If the roll is lower than the current turn, they have caused a Paradox. Remove the TARDIS and all of the models inside.

Jack Harkness:

WS4, BS4, S4, T3, W2, I3, LD9, Sv4+

Unit Type: infantry

Wargear:

Laser Blaster: Range 36″, S6, AP3, Special: Assault 4

Special rules:

Never die: Jack Harkness is immortal. Every time he is killed, (takes 2 unsaved wounds, or is hit by a weapon causing instant death,) place his model on its side. The controlling player may not use him on his next turn, but once the controlling player has finished the Assault phase, Jack Harkness may be placed upright, counting as an unwounded model.For the purpose of killpoints, if he is ‘dead’ on the last turn, he counts as a killpoint.

Bad Guys:

Dalek Leader:

WS2, BS5, S4, T5, W3, I3, LD10, SV 2+/4++

Unit Type: Jump Infantry

Wargear: Dalek Blaster

Dalek Cannon: Range 48″, S10, AP1, Special: Assault 2, Melta

Special Rules:

Fearless

EXTERMINATE!: In close combat, rolls to hit may be re-rolled.

Dalek:

WS2, BS4, S3, T4, W1, I2, LD10, Sv 2+/4++

Unit Size: 5-10 Daleks

Unit Type: Jump Infantry

Wargear: Dalek Laser

Dalek Gun: Range 24″, S8, AP1, Special: Assault 1, Melta

Special Rules: Fearless, EXTERMINATE!

For every five Daleks, one may be upgraded to a Gun Dalek

Gun Dalek:

WS2, BS4, S3, T4, W1, I2, LD10, Sv 2+/4++

Unit Type: Jump Infantry

Wargear: Dalek Cannon

Dalek Cannon: Range 60″, S9, AP1, Special: Assault 1, Large Blast, Melta

Special Rules: Fearless, EXTERMINATE!

Cyberman:

WS2, BS3, S3, T4, W1, I2, LD9, Sv3+

Unit Size: 5-20 Cybermen

Unit Type: Infantry

Wargear: Laser

Laser: Range: 24″, S5, AP3, Special: Rapid Fire

It is not complete, but it is a start. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment!

Flash Gitz VS Nobz

So, in previous posts, I have strategized about Flash Gitz. I have also done many write-ups about Nobz. But point-for-point, which one is better?

Well, Flash Gitz have the same point value as Nobz in ‘eavy armor, (which should always be taken.) Flash Gitz may not have any CC weapons, (with the exception of the painboy,) but they do have awesome, (if slow firing,) assault weaponry. Lets look at both specifically:

Flash Gitz: these guys are probably more flexible. ‘More Dakka’ is a must, but the other two are not as nescessary. They may not have close combat weapons, but they still are ork Nobz, so they still have 3 attacks in close combat, 4 on the charge. Also, (assuming more dakka,) five of these guys will potentially be able to take down 2-3 marines, (or even terminators,) assuming they get a decent AP roll. The only disadvantage is BS 2, but as an ork player you should know that already. At thirty points each, (plus the cost of the looted wagon you WILL buy them to ride around in,) a unit of ten will come in at 335 points. However, that unit of ten, with a tiny bit of luck, can kill five space marines in the shooting phase, and then charge them and cause five more, easily. And even if the marines had 2 close combat weapons each, they will still not cause more than 1 wound. And, they will take 4-5 wounds on average. That means it is one dead space marine unit. Even if you shoot at terminators, 1/3 of the time, (1/2, if you take the -1 AP,) you will cause 3 wounds. (I don’t suggest charging this time around.)

Nobz: These guys are slightly less flexible, and weaker at shooting. However, in close combat, these guys annihilate. They could take combi-weapons, but that is sort of stupid, since they aren’t supposed to be a shooty unit anyways. Against marines, (assuming 6 choppa/slugga, 1 painboy, 2 big choppas, and a PK,) these guys will cause maybe 1 wound in the shooting phase. Then they will charge, and cause 8.5 wounds, and take a maximum of (assuming the marines have 2 CC weapons,) 1 wound. In the end, both results are pretty much the same. However, against other enemies, one will do better than the other. The nobz will cause more wounds against lighter armor, (4+ or higher,) and the Gitz would be slightly better against CC oriented armor-heavy units, because they have more effective ranged weaponry. However, against gun-based units, bring in the NOBZ!

Skullhamma’s and Squiggoths: Apocalypse Strategies

So today I am going to do a couple more strategies on Apocalyptic units.

Skullhamma:

The Skullhamma is not necessarily the most deadly of tanks. It’s range (Comparatively to other apocalypse guns,) is mediocre, it’s AP is only 3 (good, but not great,) and the armor and structure points are lower than the stompas, and it doesn’t have any other extremely good weapons. (the kannon/lobba is okay, but not great.) However, it has one main advantage over other super-heavies: It is cheap. At only 400 points, it is one of the cheapest super-heavy vehicles in the game. And, it is fast, and can carry a full horde of ork boyz. 24″ of movement is always handy. And, with 12″ movement that allows you to disembarks and assault, this tank will come in handy. Get across the board in three turns, and lay down firepower for the rest. Don’t take to many of these guys, though, because while they are cheaper than most, they still come with a hefty price tag. paying 400 pts for a transport vehicle is a bit expensive, even if you get to use a good gun for the rest of the game. Make sure you have some juicier targets so that they will be shunned, or perhaps ignored completely.

Gargantuan Squiggoth:

This thing is a BEAST! 8 wounds, ridiculous toughness, immune to instant death, and 5 attacks at S10. The only gargantuan creature outside of the tyranid army, as well. This thing is able to take down practically anything in close combat, with one main disadvantage: it only has WS2 I1.. So while it will shred through most anything, (especially awesome with the ‘stomp special attack’ against really large enemy units,) it can still be brought down (or at least hurt ) by such characters as the Avatar and the Hive Lord. however, they have the problem of low strength. what you really need to watch for is powerful ‘greater daemons’ and more importantly, tyranid gargantuan creatures. those are the close combat threats. The larger threat is shooting from your enemy. It doesn’t matter that this guy has 8 wounds, he will be brought down eventually, and when that happens, you are out 600 points. And remember, you can only be locked in combat with super heavy walkers and gargantuan creatures, every one else has to run away, so you are still vulnerable to shooting. So: Use this guy for ‘scare tactics’ and to bring down things such as powerful yet low-strength CC units. Remember, anything short of S6 can’t hurt you. you could take down a horde of boyz, and the only thing that would even potentially be able to damage you is a PK nob.

Playing a Necron Army

So today, I will do a post about how to play with Necrons. This post is for people who own Necrons.

Necrons are not overly deadly. Sorry, but it is true. Their guns do not have to much range, for the most part they do not have massive strength, and in close combat, they only get one or two attacks at best. They are also rather expensive. Their troops choices cost 2 points more per model than space marines. However, there is one thing that makes them powerful. They are hard to kill. Just look at there stat-line! WS4 (for close combat,) T4, a 3+ save, We’ll be back, and possibly take a re-roll on the we’ll be back, if they take a monolith. And, the monolith has AV14 on all sides, immune to melta, and cannot be killed via glancing hits. See what I mean about ‘hard to kill?’

So, if you are playing a necron army, what you need to do is avoid anything that can kill you. I am not talking about things like rokkits or melta guns. Yes, those are deadly, but they only get one shot each. I am talking about MASSIVE amounts of attacks with the ability to kill you. (I am going to make orky references, because that is what I know best.) If you see a battlewagon with a deff rolla, immobilize it or lost your monolith! Even a monolith is not immune to 7 S10 hits. Or, if you see a horde of ork boyz, STAY AWAY FROM IT AT ALL COSTS! Even a full unit of necrons cannot survive against a charging horde. If your enemy takes a killkannon, (S7 Ap3) or a boomgun, (S8 AP3,) shoot it to bits or suffer the consequences. You have a lot of very effective units. Just make sure to avoid the enemy units that can destroy them. One last unit if you are facing orks (or perhaps space marines,) MEGANOBZ! (or terminators,) I used these once against a necron player, and completely shredded him. They penetrate armor, wound on 2’s, and cause instant death so you don’t get your ‘we’ll be back’ roll. Sorry, but even the toughest necrons cant stand up to that. (unless you have a 3+ invuln.)

Also, make sure you have a lot of ‘necron’ models. You can’t risk phasing out, because that means you lose automatically. And while a necron army can’t exactly go for a ‘horde,’ you can take 20-30 necron warriors as troops, plus any other necron models you can take.

Anti-Necrons: Pariahs and other Non-Necrons

Pariahs:

A look at the Pariahs stat-line initially is not overly impressive, for 36 point per model. Basic necron stat-line, but with S5 T5, and one extra initiative. Then you look at the special powers, and it sort of helps. They are fearless, they can weaken psychers, and they lower opponents leadership. However, they are not necrons, so their hefty price tag doesn’t add to the ‘phase out’ number, (but killing them won’t help with it either.) Also, they don’t get ‘we’ll be back.’ Then, you see their wargear. They have guass blasters, nothing overly powerful there, but then you see their other weapon. And they have warscythes. For all intents and purposes, it has automatic rending against vehicles. In addition, it ignores all armor, INCLUDING INVULNERABLE SAVES! However, there is one more problem with them. They only have one attack each. So while their weapons are god-like, they can only have up to 20 attacks, if a full unit gets the charge. And that full unit would cost 360 points. That is a bit expensive. (however, these guys would be very useful against a daemon army.) However, against orks, they simply don’t have the quantity of attacks to justify their point cost. A charging horde of boyz will cause 10 wounds and take 3 wounds. Even if the Pariahs charged the boyz, (a very stupid move, might I add,) they would cause 7 wounds and then take 4 wounds. Next turn of combat, the pariahs would cause 2 wounds and take 2 wounds. 2 wounds and 2 wounds next, then 1 wound and 2 wounds, finishing off the pariahs. Against orks, pariahs aren’t much of a threat.

Tomb Spyders and Scarab Swarms:

In essence, Scarab Swarms being generated by Tomb Spyders looks like a good idea on paper. Against orks, though, it is not. You see, Tomb Spyders have T6. That is almost impossible to kill with normal ork boy strength. However, once there are two Scarab Swarms, the average toughness of the unit drops to 3. That is far easier to kill. A charging horde of boyz against a lone Tomb Spyder would cause 4 wounds. And while that is easily enough to kill it, the same charging horde of boyz against a Spyder with 2 Scarabs would cause 12 wounds to each Scarab, and 6 wounds on the Tomb Spyder. Both times, the horde of boyz takes no wounds. But in the second option, the killing is far more definite, so you can be absolutely sure of annihilation, so you can get that consolidation immediately, instead of being vulnerable to an additional assault.

Warbikers

So today I am posting about warbikers. They are awesome, they are tough, and they are hard to kill. In fact, there are only 2 problems that I can see with them:

The cost

The cost

Yes, those two are the same. But the first one refers to the fact that they are 25 point per model. the second one refers to the fact that they are FOURTEEN DOLLARS PER MODEL! That is ridiculously expensive. But the hefty price tag aside, lets look at them.

Awesomeness’s of the warbikers:

Dakkagunz are powerful enough to kill almost anything, and a unit of twelve will cause 3 wounds on a bloodthirster, on average. In addition, the same unit of twelve will almost always annihilate IG units of 16 or less.

24″ movement if too far away from enemies, 30″ threat range with guns, 18″ assault range. This just shows how fast they are. However, the guns are actually just as deadly as the close combat, and since they cant run anyways, this sort of rocks.

4+ save and 4+ cover save. This helps a lot to keep them alive. Not much more to say.

These three bonuses are huge. They make a decent unit into an awesome unit. And the point value is fair for that level of awesomeness. However, there is one reason I will probably never field them. There is absolutely NO WAY I am shelling out 180 dollars for 12 models. However, if your budget is unlimited, (which it almost never is,) or there is a great deal on Ebay, go for it!

Speed Freaks: Trukk Boyz

So today I will do a post on the values of Speed Freaks.

Speed Freaks are a very popular tournament army. They are fast, relatively cheap, and can kill pretty easily.

Pros:

Really Fast

Cheap amounts of troops

Even in small numbers, boyz can rip through most units, (except uber-units such as MC’s and terminators.)

Cons:

Kill-points are very easy to get, due to more units of troops, (also, a single unit in a trukk gives two kill-points, because there is both the boyz and the trukk,)

If the trukk is destroyed, the boyz are no faster than normal boyz, and smaller in number

Eats up troop choices really quickly

Not very good against MC’s and 2+ saves, because of to few attacks

So, there are many pros and cons. They are much better in apocalypse, because kill-points aren’t an issue, and there are no ‘troop choices.’ And in normal games, there is a 2/3 chance that you don’t need to worry about kill-points. However, in the rare chance that you do play for kill-points, you will be at a supreme disadvantage against a unit with fewer ‘units.’ Or, lets say you have six units of boys in trukks, (around 600 points,) you get 70 boyz. However, you also have 12 killpoints within a 600 point margin. In a normal boyz horde, it would only be 3-4 killpoints. Now, the boyz in the trukks will usually get the assault, unless of course someone takes several anti-tank weapons. For instance, (i am going to compare orks to orks, because that is what I know best,) lets say you had 6 units of trukk boyz, which is 12 killpoints. (650 points or so, if units have maximum number of boyz available.) Your opponent, with that same number of points, takes 3 hordes of boyz and 2 units of 5 lootas (5 killpoints,). Each turn you will get an average of 2 penetrating hits and one glancing on the trukks, which means there is a very high chance of destruction, (2 rolls of 4+ for destruction, 1 roll of a 6 for destruction. The trukk is open-topped.) Almost definitely will the trukk be immobilized. So every turn, 2 more trukks will be taken out of action. By the times the remaining ‘trukk’ boyz are within assaulting range, there will be 2 units, (24 boyz,) left. they will get the assault on one unit of boyz, killing it completely. Or maybe they will just kill all of the lootas. If they do that, then the kill-point score would (on average,) be 2-3, in the horde players favor. Then one or two hordes of boyz could take out the two units of trukk boyz, making the score 2-5, in the horde players favor. Not good odds. However, if the same armies were played in objective style, the results would be different.  4 of the trukks would go for objectives, (probably getting 2-3 of them.) and the remaining two probably will go for the lootas. The lootas will be destroyed, then the boyz will be destroyed, but this time, the trukkers will be winning, because they have several more objectives. The boy hordes now have 2 turns or so to hunt down all of the trukkers, or at least beat them with objectives, (which would be very difficult.)

So, it all depends. In many ways, it is the pre-game that matters most. If you know which style you will be playing, take the appropriate army style. If you don’t it is your choice, I suggest you play the style that you prefer. Both options are good, so in many cases it depends on which style you prefer. I am partial to hordes, but I know several players who prefer trukks. (and note, this goes for other armies too. Though the tactics are not a perfect mold, much of this can be applied to other armies.)