Killhammer Strategy: Troops

[Warp Angel]

This is the final force org article for Killhammer and deals with one of the more interesting and complicated decision sets that a general needs to make for their army.

 

What troops should I take?

 

The reason it's the most interesting and complicated decision, is that your choice of troops literally determines the build and playstyle of your entire army. Even moreso than an HQ will, especially when considering non-C:SM armies.

 

Out of the five major roles in an army: Defender, Hunter, Firebase, Killer, and Cleaner - a troops choice can fill pretty much all of them except the Firebase as a primary role, but can back up any of them.

 

There are two basic kinds of troops out there to consider: Specialists and Generalists. Tactical Marines are generalists. They do a lot of things pretty well, but don't do anything better than dedicated units do. Specialists are sometimes obvious, like Khorne Bloodletters are close combat killers or cleaners. Plague Marines are probably the best defenders in the game. Sometimes specialists aren't obvious, like in a basic sister's squad. Then you have to look at numbers and transportation. Larger squads make better defenders, more mobile squads make better hunters and cleaners. Or maybe you're looking at weapon loadout. The smaller GK squad with psycannons is more likely a defending unit than the all Nemesis/Storm Bolter squad with more models in it.

 

And so far, I've rambled on, probably not telling you something that you don't already know.

 

Allow me to continue stating more of the obvious.

 

Troops choices (with few exceptions) are the only squads that will allow you to capture objectives. In 1/3 of the games, they're not going to have any objectives to take, so you don't want to over-emphasize defenders that place survivability over offensive capability. In 1/3 of the games, there are only two objectives, meaning that those defenders will probably be hard pressed at some point, and be subjected to an intense enemy push to kick them off of an objective, which means that you need to emphasize defense someplace. And in the final third of games, there are many objectives, which requires that your troops have some way to get to (and hold) at least one more objective to reliably obtain victory, which will require enough offensive capability to kick an opponent off of that objective.

 

So, to summarize the above: You need defense, offense, and mobility. But you don't need them all at the same time, and it's darn near impossible to find them all in the same troops choice. And since scoring units can become very high priority (have a heightened S) as a target, you're going to need to make sure that you've got some redundancy built in.

 

Fortunately for us, the rules require us to take two troops choices, giving us some instant opportunity for redundancy. But redundancy can be looked at in a couple of different ways:

 

1) Two or more identical, generalist units - both are equally suited for offense and defense, and have some sort of mobility.

2) More than two units - one for offense, one for defense, and one that switch-hits. There's some efficiency lost here, but not a whole lot, especially if the 'switch hitter' has got good offense on its own (like a small, well equipped, faithful unit in a Sister's army).

3) No redundancy. I.E. I'm using plague marines to camp the objective in my zone and sending the zerkers forward to kill everything near the one in your zone. It's risky, but with access to specialist troops like that, can be a very good idea.

 

Looking at it from a Killhammer perspective though, you need to examine your army list for what your troops choice does for you.

 

1) A defending troops choice should have a high D1 and decent toughness. This can be an armor save, cover save, etc. If there's anything that improves on basic capabilities (FNP, Shrouding, Invulns, etc), those are great traits for a defender. D1 should take into account surviving an assault as well. D2 should be as good as you're comfortable paying for. This more or less means NUMBERS. The longer you take to kill the squad, the more likely they are to be around at the end of the game, still scoring.

2) An offensive troops choice should have above average K1, and moderate or lower K2. They need to be capable of kicking an opponent off an objective - especially if they have some support, but they don't need to get there instantly. They just need to get there more or less intact. And stay that way for as long as possible. This means that they need some form of transport, but still can't give up too much D to get it. For example, if you had Inquisitorial Stormtroopers in your army, you would have to put some thought as to whether or not their defense was good enough to rely on as your primary offensive unit.

3) Your switch hitter is a bit more flexible. They need to be mobile, to do both jobs, and since they're a backup unit, their survivability (total D) isn't necessarily as important as the primary units filling that role in your army. In this place, Stormtroopers might be the best choice, where they'd not be as well suited as a defensive or offensive choice.

 

Defensive units should have some ability to inflict casualties at range, but it's not an absolute requirement (i.e. Plague Marines). You'll have to think about making sure that something else in your army has that capacity if your primary defenders lack it.

 

Offensive units should be able to both charge and recieve a charge adequately well, since the former allows them to inflict more casualties faster, and the latter keeps them alive in the middle of a hostile force for longer. Again, this isn't an absolute requirement. Sternguard (scoring though not troops) are capable of doing more damage during shooting than most units can get from shooting and assaulting.

 

Switch Hitters should have good mid range capability and some assault capability. I've read a lot of reports of Marine Scouts being used in this capacity to great effect. Some ranged equipment and some BP/CCW folks seems to work out well when used right.

 

A lot of people want to load up on troops choices, because of the POSSIBILITY of objectives in a game. I'm not going to delve into whether or not this is a good idea or a bad idea here, but I want to offer some general guidelines:

 

1) Killpoint mission - If your troops can't kill the enemy faster than they die, they're not as efficient as units that can. If you load up on lots of less efficient units, you're probably going to fall behind in the number of Kills you obtain.

2) 2 Objective mission - You can win by holding one objective and denying the other through killing or endurance. But the enemy can do the same to you. You have to be able to kill every enemy unit that gets within 3" of your home objective or the objective you've chosen to concentrate on. Again, if your troops choices can't kill the enemy fast enough, it's entirely possible that you can't prevent the enemy from contesting that objective. You'll probably find that a more lethal (and probably more expensive unit) is better at keeping the enemy off of your objective than your troops are.

3) 3-5 Objective mission - You can reliably win by controlling 2 objectives and contesting 2. Again, it's in your interest to have a unit that can keep an enemy from contesting your controlled objectives, and if your troops can't do it easily, consider more more lethal units.

 

It would seem then, that 2-3 good troops choices are all that is needed to win any game you're in, assuming that you can keep 2 of them alive.

 

IMPORTANT: Weight of numbers does not guarantee the ability to claim an objective. A turbo boosting bike squad, or a Falcon can show up on Turn 5 from across the table and camp an objective you thought secure. So if that's your thinking, you might want to spend more time at it.

 

I can't make any specific recommendations that apply to all the (very) diverse play styles and individual circumstances, but the general recommendations that I've provided here should be helpful when considering your next army.

 

Thoughts on specific units? Comments? Criticisms? Something I missed? If so, you know what to do by now.

[Marlow]

Thoughts on specific units? Comments? Criticisms? Something I missed? If so, you know what to do by now.

I had not thought of Grey Knights as Defenders. That is an interesting idea I shall have to try out. For Marines I like taking Sternguard or Grey Knights as it gives you a way of getting a Scoring unit that has a better K rating than most of the Tactical Squads you could include.

[Deathwing]

This made me think a lot about how you can have a really tactically flexible all troops Dark Angels army.

 

You can have an army composed of 1) very hard troops (Deathwing), 2) very fast troops (Ravenwing) and 3) very resiliant troops (full Tactical Squads) all at the same time! Each part of the army can score and covers at least one of the three things a troops choice needs to do given a scenario.

 

Presents some interesting ideas and options and gives me food for thought when I build my armies.

[Warp Angel]

This made me think a lot about how you can have a really tactically flexible all troops Dark Angels army.

 

You can have an army composed of 1) very hard troops (Deathwing), 2) very fast troops (Ravenwing) and 3) very resiliant troops (full Tactical Squads) all at the same time! Each part of the army can score and covers at least one of the three things a troops choice needs to do given a scenario.

 

Presents some interesting ideas and options and gives me food for thought when I build my armies.

 

I think the 350 points in mandatory HQs limits that idea to larger forces, but in general, that's how I play my army when I want to run counts-as "Dark Angels".

 

And in my normal 2000 pt Marine army, I've already done something similar: I've got 1 full bike squad as troops, 2 full tacticals w/transport, Scoring Sternguard squad.

[Warp Angel]

This made me think a lot about how you can have a really tactically flexible all troops Dark Angels army.

 

You can have an army composed of 1) very hard troops (Deathwing), 2) very fast troops (Ravenwing) and 3) very resiliant troops (full Tactical Squads) all at the same time! Each part of the army can score and covers at least one of the three things a troops choice needs to do given a scenario.

 

Presents some interesting ideas and options and gives me food for thought when I build my armies.

 

I think the 350 points in mandatory HQs limits that idea to larger forces, but in general, that's how I play my army when I want to run counts-as "Dark Angels".

 

And in my normal 2000 pt Marine army, I've already done something similar: I've got 1 full bike squad as troops, 2 full tacticals w/transport, Scoring Sternguard squad.

[minigun762]

Fortunately for us, the rules require us to take two troops choices, giving us some instant opportunity for redundancy. But redundancy can be looked at in a couple of different ways:

 

1) Two or more identical, generalist units - both are equally suited for offense and defense, and have some sort of mobility.

2) More than two units - one for offense, one for defense, and one that switch-hits. There's some efficiency lost here, but not a whole lot, especially if the 'switch hitter' has got good offense on its own (like a small, well equipped, faithful unit in a Sister's army).

3) No redundancy. I.E. I'm using plague marines to camp the objective in my zone and sending the zerkers forward to kill everything near the one in your zone. It's risky, but with access to specialist troops like that, can be a very good idea.

 

I think this is a very good way of thinking about building your troop choices. Many people either go with the 2 minimum to load up on other stuff or go with lots of troops to overcompensate, but if you actually think about what your troops are good for (and what they suck at) you should be able to find a pairing that works well for you.

 

For codex SMs, I think the Sniper Scout is often overlooked for a good objective camper (defender). average to above average K1, above average K2 and a good D1.

This frees up the Tactical squads to do what they do best, namely being aggressive and short ranged Hunters and Cleaners.

[Warp Angel]

Good D1 until they get charged by outflanking stormboyz/genestealers, jumped by howling banshees or harlequins leaping from a transport, or nailed by one of the many weapons that seem to ignore cover saves these days.

 

We differ on the usefulness of scouts in most armies. But we're different generals.

[minigun762]

Good D1 until they get charged by outflanking stormboyz/genestealers, jumped by howling banshees or harlequins leaping from a transport, or nailed by one of the many weapons that seem to ignore cover saves these days.

 

We differ on the usefulness of scouts in most armies. But we're different generals.

 

True but lets face it, Tactical Marines in most of those situations are equally screwed. ;)

a 3+ Armor and 4+ Cover or a 4+ Armor and 3+ Cover is about the same in my book. The big advantage of Sniper Scouts is the range of their weapon. They're much more likely to be able to contribute to the battle as a whole while still parking their butt on an objective.

[Blood Scorpion]

I agree with Minigun 762, and I know we've argued about this in another Killhammer thread Warp Angel, but sniper Scouts are a better sit and hold Defender unit. If you are worried about them being run over by a Deepstriking/Outflanking assault unit give them a Power Fist.

 

For the majority of the battle they be shooting (if you play well they will always be shooting), and with the greater range and Pinning/Rending/Always wounding on a 4+ Sniper Rifles each they will have a greater impact with a greater K. Their D is also greater with a 3+ Cover Save. Their weaker Armour Save will hardly ever need to be used, whether it's a Lasgun or a Lascannon that has wounded them they get a 3+ Save. They can also go to ground and get a 2+ Cover Save which makes them impossible to shift!

 

Of course they come undone by a large Outflanking Genestealer Brood but so does a Tactical Squad!

[Koremu]

I disagree, because the best way to kill objective camping scouts is :drumroll:

 

Tactical Marines.

 

Scouts are better at holding an objective as long as nobody decides to come over and try and take it. I love people who take lots of scouts, because Rhino mounted Tactical Marines eat them for breakfast, and then claim their objective. :)

[minigun762]

I disagree, because the best way to kill objective camping scouts is :drumroll:

 

Tactical Marines.

 

Scouts are better at holding an objective as long as nobody decides to come over and try and take it. I love people who take lots of scouts, because Rhino mounted Tactical Marines eat them for breakfast, and then claim their objective. :o

 

Yeah but a Tactical squad wouldn't perform much better honestly.

Here is probably the best setup for either type as far as holding an objective.

 

Tacticals = 10 Marines, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher (Power Fist Optional) = 180/205 points

Scouts = 9 Snipers, 1 Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks (Power Fist Optional) = 180/205 points

 

Both squads have a long range flexible weapon (Missile Launcher) however Tacticals have superior BS.

Both squads have equivalent saves (3+/4+ vs 4+/3+)

Tacticals have an effective range of 24" with a max range of 48" with 1 weapon

Scouts have an effective range of 36" with a max range of 48" with 1 weapon

Both squads can take a WS4 Power Fist for extra insurance

 

This is the main reason I'd go with Scouts

Tacticals have an effective range of 24" with a max range of 48" with 1 weapon

Scouts have an effective range of 36" with a max range of 48" with 1 weapon

12" more of threat range. For a static squad, range = killing power = K2.

 

However I don't want to turn this into a Scout vs Tactical arguement because as Blood Scorpion said "been there, done that".

 

Good work Warp Angel, I really believe that making the general consider how they're going to use their Troops is the 1st step to success.

[Steelangel]

My comment for Killhammer theory:

 

Never plant the task unit-by-unit, make overall plan! The army is not only the sum of the units!

 

For example:

My attack part (in 1850 point tournament army) 2 troop in rhino+1 assault squad

My deffensive part: 1 troop on foot+1sternguard unit with Rino

Support (and tactical reserve) 1 sternguard+Cpt Lysander

This 3 block always work together, supporting each other. The result was much stronger than before, when I used separetly the unit.

Beacuse the marines are quality army, we need quantity over quality!

 

So, this killhammer sounds good, but never forget the real goal: Win the battle! And you can win, if you have flexible plan and co-operation between units! And for my wievpoint this is the most important thing!

I played against strong army which was constructed to one or two major unit. (lash army, 3 Falcon, 3 Monolith) After the death of the central unit, the whole army was broken. This is a big mistake.

[Warp Angel]

Steelangel: You haven't been around the previous Killhammer threads. It's never been about building specific units, or building the uber unit. It's about building a coherent force that can kill the enemy - ANY enemy - faster than it dies.

 

Which results in winning the game more often than not.

 

The complete army building article, which is forthcoming - and will be of Librarium Quality - is still a work in progress and addresses the very point you make... it's about building a force that can win, and building in synergy.

 

This article takes into account a subsection of your entire army and tries to direct some thinking about how to fit your troops into a larger army scheme. There are similar articles for HQ, Elite, Fast Attack, and Heavy, one addressing CC tactics, another addressing reserves, one for equipping tactical squads, and the mother (literally) of all Killhammer articles: the Target Priority article, that provides the framework for evaluating units and assigning them to specific roles.

 

Use searchy and enter Killhammer and look for "Killhammer Strategy: xxxxx" articles, and click on the link in my sig to get to the target priority article.

[Shadowstalker Grim]

Well Warp Angel i would like to say a big thank you for taking the time and effort to create these killhammer articles, they've given me some very good points to look at during army construction.

 

 

For all your hard work, i say thank you.

 

-Grim