White Scars Mission Tactics

[ASDF_]

Hey Guys, I'm going to be participating in an upcoming tournament (not necessarily playing to win, but would like to win a few rounds), but I'm a little new, and don't fully know the strengths and weaknesses of my army, and good strategy for my army. It's a 1500 point tourney, and my list consists of:

 

Khan

Command Squad

2 Bike Squads (Each maxed out with AB)(One squad with flamers and HB AB)(One squad with melta guns and MM AB)

MM Attack Bikes (2)

2 Land Speeders

 

There are 3 rounds in the upcoming tournament. first Capture and Control, second Annihilation, and third Seize Ground.

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone had some strategy that I could use in each of the 3 missions. I'm pretty good with annihilation, but not entirely, and capture and control I'm ok with.. seize ground is the mission I'm not good with at all though really, so any advice on what I should do would be great.

 

Some other armies I know I'm playing are: Salamanders, Daemons, Dark Angels, and Orks.

 

I was told in objective based missions I should combat squad, giving me 4 good scoring units. The Land Speeders are in separate squads, so in the round of Annihilation I guess I will just move fast most of the time to get a cover save so they don't blow up. I was thinking about having them in one squad for Annihilation, and then two separate for C&C and Seize Ground, but I have to keep it the same throughout the tourney, so I figured two separate squads since it would benefit in 2/3 of the missions.

 

Objective placing is something that has gotten to me in Seize Ground, as to where I should put my objectives. (All on my side? Most on Opponents to rush in and contest? Close together? Far Apart?) So any advice on that, plus a strategy on what to do would be great =)

 

Sorry if this seems stupid or hard, but I'm just not too good with strategy, and haven't figured out my army enough, so anything would be greatly appreciated =)

 

Thanks.

[confused_gordy]

Ive not played with bike armies myself, but ive done a lot of thinking about them so take what i say with a large pinch of salt.

 

in objective games, yes combat squadding your bikes is a decent idea, but keep in mind you dont have to hold any more than one objective (as long as your making sure you opponent isnt holding any) and so having effective troops is important also (one of the major failings of Space marines, and major incentives of bike troops)

 

As far as your speeders go (and particularly for an army like this) in annihilation, reserves is your friend. This saves them from becoming easy turn one kill points, and might protect them all the way up to turn 3! depending on your weapon loadout for these, it can have differing benefits (typhoon speeders comming from reserve are pretty good), as are HF, or MM speeders, if your enemy is comming for your objectives.

 

As far as objectives go, try and encourage your opponent to place his on flat land (if he places them on a first or higher floor of a building you are in trouble, as the only thing that can even contest those is your speeders).

 

I hope that helps. All the best with your battles!

 

Again for your objectives, make sure to place them outside of area terrain, but near to LOS and directional cover. As you want to make sure you can take and hold these objectives in the later stages, while not losing your bikes to dangerous terrain. (it also makes the opponent have to work harder in taking them, as once he is there, your counter attacks arent hindered by terrain.

[ASDF_]

Ok, thanks =) yeah my Land Speeders have MM's and AC's, so I could do some hurt to anyone harmful when they come out of reserves.

 

I was also told that at least for capture and control, I don't really need to worry about my objective unless it's getting taken over, because I can just go out and do stuff, then at like turn 4 or so, turbo-boost and run back to my objective since everything in my army can move 12-24''.

 

But anyway, this advice seems like it will help, so thank you =)

[ShinyRhino]

I love bike armies, and also have read up a lot on running them.

 

Here's some general tips on your upcoming tournament...

 

When it comes to placing objectives, you have an advantage in that you don't NEED to place them near to your deployment zone. Slower armies rely on having at least one objective in their own area for the whole game. Bikers are fast enough that it's not an issue. As you have already been told, you can zip to various points 24" at a time in turn 4 or 5 to contest or claim. But remember that if you're locked in combat, you can't zip anywhere! Avoid being tarpitted in close combat. Losses in melee will add up FAST for your army, due to limited model count. Remember that you won't have the Combat Tactics rule to fall back from a losing assault.

 

Against Marines of any type, your bolter shooting outduels a tactical squad...at least on paper. All your shots are twin-linked, and you have that extra point of toughness. But, you want to watch out for long-range heavy weapons like missile launchers firing kraks, multimeltas, plasmacannons, and even plasmaguns. Those will put the hurt on you quick, fast, and in a hurry. While you conceivably COULD stand and gunfight a tactical squad, you probably shouldn't because of those special weapons. You want to be like Muhammad Ali...float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee. Find the safest spots to fire from with limited chances at retribution. When the opponent shifts to counter, move away and find a new spot.

 

Break transports whever you can. Your advantage is speed. Eliminate anything the opponent has that can move 12", and you keep your speed advantage. You've also got a very impressive range advantage. Even after moving 12", your bolters can fire a single shot at 24", or two at 12"! Hooray for Relentless!

 

Daemons are a tough fight, because they can come in pretty much anywhere. But they're prione to coming in piecemeal after the initial Daemonic Assault wave. If they do come in piecemeal, isolate units one at a time, and take them apart with bolter fire. Assign your speeders and multimelta attack bikes to taking down the big baddies, though. Bolters won't do much to those, and the 12" range you need for rapid fire volume of fire will leave you assaulted next turn.

 

Orks are where you can really shine. Ork shooting is unreliable, at best. But, everything they have fires in volumes, potentially levelling the playing field by sheer number of dice rolling. Your T5 should help you out some though. Avoid Shokk Attak Gunz like the plague, especially if they're attached to Lootas. That's some heavy fire with a high Strength that you don't want to stick around for. But, neither is a scoring unit. Either kill it early if you can, or avoid it.

Orks' troops choices can cover a LOT of the table. You won't have the help of any large blast weapons. This means you'll have to maneuver VERY carefully. You can play the stick-and-move game with them pretty well, but you have to watch for bottlenecks in the terrain that can leave you at the mercy of a pincer of two Mobz. If necessary, sacrifice one squad to the pincer, while the rest boost to safety. Remeber that you have range, and twin-linked shots. Five shots at 24" is better than 10 at 12", which leaves you open to the charge next turn.

Ork vehicles have shoddy AVs, which means your attack bikes won't typically need to be inside that 12" bonus range for the multimeltas. The two multimelta shots at 24" should be able to bust Trukks relatively easily. Battlewagons are a different story that will require some maneuvering on your part.

 

If you can find the points, make sure you put a meltabomb on each bike sergeant. You can move 12", and charge 6" more, so you should be able to clamp meltabombs on nearly anything you face.

 

When placing objectives, watch for the "Ork Overload". This is very often used in the Capture and Control mission, especially if you've placed your objective first. The Ork player will place his objective directly across the table from yours, which effectivle halves the table! Bikes can counter this though, as you have the speed and range to deploy on one flank of your deployment zone AWAY fromt he objectives, and fire at will on the way in! Other armies must assign defenders to the objective in hopes of holding the Orks off, which is nigh impossible with everything stacked on that one objective-laden side of the table.

 

Annihilation missions are rough on bikers. The good part is that you don't have all that many points to give away. The hard part is that you're stuck with large 8-man squads to maneuver around. You have to choose between combat squadding for freedom of maneuver but extra killpoints, or staying large and unwieldy. The choice should be made by what you're facing, how the table terrain looks, and your chance of killing enemy units for points. If you're facing a lot of high-strength templates (IG bombards), combat squad. It saturates the table with targets, allowing a couple to get through to the big guns and kill them back. If you've got a big, open table with minimal difficult terrain, stay large. the increased numbers aren't as much of a problem in large areas, and the added numbers reduce the number of morale checks you have to make from shooting wounds.

 

That's all I have for now.

[ASDF_]

Ok, seems good. Thanks for all the help. As for anti-tank, I have 5 multi-melta's and 6 meltaguns =P so I believe that's enough. But thanks for all the objective advice, and I will definitely take that in for consideration.

 

One thing I have been thinking about if I don't outflank is shielding all my regular bikes with my command squad, as they all have storm shields. 6 guys can take up quite a bit of room if they're all 2'' away from each other, and then I could just rush in, hopefully making the 3+ invulnerable saves, and then i can get to the enemy and hopefully do some hurt, but I'm not sure if I'll do that or not.

 

Thanks again though =)