Thursday, April 5, 2012

Tactica - Maelstorm’s Anti-Mech guide


This guide applies to combating any Mech-based Warhammer 40k codex. (This guide does not apply to Tyranids or Chaos Daemons.)

Step 1: Pop the enemy transports and make the troops inside walk.
Step 2: Repeat step 1 until there are no moving transports.
Step 3: Did you finish Step 1? No? Then go back and finish step 1 before proceeding.
Step 4: Once the transports are cracked, outmaneuver and kill the walking dead.


Worried about a Stormraven loaded with a nasty Close Combat Feel-No-Pain unit and Furioso Dreadnought? Is it a transport? Did you Read steps 1-3? Important lesson: The nasty Close Combat unit is only nasty if it is in Close Combat, walking it is just another target to soak up extra fire not repeating steps 1-3.
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With most SM generals they’ve gone to great lengths to Min/Max their transports and troops. Pop the transports and their Objective scoring game falls apart. You can pick apart the walking troops at your leisure.

A question to ask yourself during turn 2 and beyond: If you’ve popped the opponents’ transports (you followed steps 1-3 above) and their Close Combat units are out and walking, can the Close Combat units impact the games score? If no (HQ, Elites, Heavy Support, Fast Attack), IGNORE IT the rest of the game and play around it. Let them stumble over and “contest” a spare objective. Focus all of your attention on clearing the objectives they can’t get to that will put you ahead on the final turn.

Put it in Reverse: Advance to the center of the table and then walk backwards while shooting. Your opponents stranded/walking close combat units will not make it to your lines if you are walking away from him at the same rate while whittling away at his models. Just remember to lead them away from the important objectives.

The Melta is king, long live the king: Every good commander has melta (or equivalent) in a couple of squads - now it’s time to pick up the lowly flamer. Mix 50/50 melta with flamer in your squads. The units with flamers are the ones heading into the opponents territory to grab objectives. The units with melta stay back and guard your objectives or head to mid-field for camping and threatening. I’ve killed more Terminators with the lowly flamer than the king melta (go ahead read that line again, I’ll wait). A single flamer (8” long template) causes more dice to be rolled than a single melta. When you roll dice, random things happen. Make your opponent roll lots of dice for armor saves, dead models will follow.

If you feel compelled to add a Step 5 to the list it should be to destroy/tie-up any of the opponents heavy weapons that can pop your heaviest armor. Once complete, your heavy armor can roam the open field with impunity.

Class dismissed. Now go out and politely stymie your buddies’ favorite tournament mech-list.
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Please comment below and let me know how well it works for you when you follow steps 1-3.

6 comments:

  1. I love those Rhinos. Where did you get the image from?

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  2. Hopefully 6th Edition won't be about alpha-strike the transports 'til they're dead.

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  3. GW doesn't make nearly as much money if they don't sell overpriced vehicles - Expect vehicles to be there in a big way...

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  4. 4th Ed was about larger squads and MCs, 5th Ed was about being in transports, 6th Ed will be Flyers. They have to come out with new models and that are better then the old ones to entice you to buy the new plastic crack. This edition it was Vendetta's/Chimeras/Manticore, Rhinos/Razorbacks, Tervigon & Trygon, T-Wolf Cav, Storm Raven, & most/all the GK and DE stuff. Next edition it will be something else. It could be vehicles but it won't be the same vehicles you already have.

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  5. I'd be happy to see a Rhino that is actually sized to hold 10 Marines in Armor. The Eldar, Dark Eldar and Necron vehicles seem to be sized approprately for 10 models - The Necron Ghost Ark actually incldues 10 extra models in the vehicle! A Rhino troop compartment might hold 2-3 Space Marines - Bulk it up to size!

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