Locator Beacon-based Lists

[Hackbar]

I've been thinking about it for a while now and I'm seriously considering buying units towards being able to run a list heavily based on making use of Locator Beacons.

 

The basic idea would be to run a drop-pod heavy list with locator beacons on every pod, and 1-2 scout biker squads also with beacons. The point of the list would be to maximise the usefulness of locator beacons by taking 1-2 librarians with gate of infinity, 1-2 vanguard squads and of course plenty of units in drop pods and deep-striking terminators/legion of the damned/ allied grey knights/etc to benefit from the locator beacons.

 

If the enemy wises up to your plan and goes on a drop-pod pogrom, congratulations to them for killing an immobile storm bolter instead the dreadnought and tactical squads that just landed. If not, with drop pods (some empty, of course) all over the map and an outflanking beacon on a bike speeding towards the enemy's soft underbelly, one should be able to cover a large portion of the map with the zone of no-scatter deepstrike.

I imagine this resulting in the beacon player being able to quickly concentrate force wherever needed while still threatening a large portion of the board. As long as a tooled-up Vanguard squad is in resrve, the player can enforce a 12" exclusion zone around every locator beacon. As long as there is a single tactical squad in reserve or with an attatched Librarian, the beacon player can claim a seemingly empty objective at the last possible turn. Alternately, the player could hide some drop pods behind terrain in a kill-point game and use them to Gate a nearly-destroyed squad beyond the enemy's reach, denying a kill point.

 

There are some obvious problems with this concept. First of all for the cost of all the locator beacons it would use one could probably afford an extra tactical squad, or at least scouts. Second, it seems like this kind of list would eat up a ton of elite and fast attack slots and still want more, making the FoC a very limiting factor. Third, there's not much to deep-strike in the Heavy Support section unless you love devastators or are willing to sacrifice a Gate librarian in favor of a master of the forge. Come to think of it, master of the forge seems almost like a necessity since one would want lots of podded dreads, but would also want to be able to run some terminators, podded sternguard, or damned. Lastly, this seems like a list that would rely very heavily on close range firepower, with very limited assault power and only the vanguard and scout bikes able to assault quickly since the dreads would have to pod in and then hoof it.

 

So, with all that said, am I crazy to want to try this? Has it been done to death and proven so useless that I've never seen it mentioned? Have I stumbled upon pure genius? How long will it take before the jeske explains why this idea is built upon failure and foolishness?

[gdeathlegion]

First, don't use them on EVERY drop-pod, it's expensive and there is really no need.

Remember, your opponent is also allowed to use your locator beacons, so it might not be all that...

Chaos Deamons would have lots of fun with your army.

 

I say try it, if you already have drop pods then you're good to go, I think the scout bikers are a good unit because of the things they bring to the table, and locator beacons are no exception. A problem you might have is getting torn to pieces in the first few turns because this army relies heavily on reserves. Jeske will elaborate on the preceding point further.

 

ps: Jeske will be posting after 3 more ppl post. lolkatz

[Murrburger]

I don't really have much to add... however, the opponent being able to use your beacons has been cleared up in the Main Rulebook FAQ.

 

I'm not a fan of drop pod heavy armies, as they really tend to be one trick ponies. My preference is something a little more flexible.

 

Though, I must say you've given this a lot of thought. There is some good synergy going on here, even if locator beacons are expensive.

 

 

I really don't reccomend Damned... there are cheaper units that can do better. A 3++ save isn't as good as you'd think it'd be, because it's the same as a 3+ save against small arms. Sternguard are better in almost all cases.

[Hackbar]

First, don't use them on EVERY drop-pod, it's expensive and there is really no need.

Remember, your opponent is also allowed to use your locator beacons, so it might not be all that...

 

Really? I understand that the wording could certainly be read that way, but the Teleport Homer wording is almost identical. Does this mean in a SM mirror match both players can use the others' Teleport Homers? Is this the common interpretation of the rules? I mean its clear that the rule doesn't specify that it only applies to your units, but it just seems somehow wrong to me to interpret in a way so terribly detrimental to Space Marine players. I can't Imagine the 'Astartes Tactical Grid' is open to anybody with a laptop and a wireless card, as it were.

 

I say try it, if you already have drop pods then you're good to go, I think the scout bikers are a good unit because of the things they bring to the table, and locator beacons are no exception. A problem you might have is getting torn to pieces in the first few turns because this army relies heavily on reserves. Jeske will elaborate on the preceding point further.

 

I don't have the drop pods, but I was planning on buying them sooner or later (need more tactical squads and other stuff first) I imagine the first few turns with a locator beacon build would be interesting, to say the least, but then Space Marines don't feel right unless they're up against tough odds at the start of the game. I'm really curious to see if anybody has tried this yet. I think it'd make for an interesting game, especially since I don't know anyone who would think of using my own locator beacon against me. It's a shame I probably won't be able to field the required minis till at least next year. I'm short 2 dreads, 6 drop pods, a tac squad, half a vanguard squad, tigurius, and a full scout bike squad of the vague 3kish list I've been mulling over in my head this afternoon. paring it down to a more playable points level is going to take a lot of self-control and careful thought.

 

Edit:

I don't really have much to add... however, the opponent being able to use your beacons has been cleared up in the Main Rulebook FAQ.

 

Thanks. I had to read the FAQ 3 times to find that little bit. It's not as clear-cut as I would have liked, but it certainly provides a clear inclination towards Homers and Beacons being friendly-only. I really appreciate that GW seems to want to let the players play the game however they like, but I also wish they would give more definitive answers on some rules questions. Those of us who want to use rules different to what the GW staff play with will probably do so no matter how strongly worded the FAQs are, and those of us who just want to play it like GW plays it don't care for all the 'well you don't have to do it this way but if we were to play it we might play it this way, mostly.'

[gdeathlegion]

I know an evil chaos player who doesn't like being BS'ed by space marine players, he will occasionally use an enemy teleport homer to deep strike his termies, luckily he never does this too me, I don't use the things.

 

Just try out your list, sounds like you dont have any drop pods to speak of tho (not sure) maybe play a proxy game or two with a friend and see what you like and dislike.

[Paulochromis]

Use coke cans with old/scratched CD for base or some such to proxy the pods to get a feel for the tactics.

If you have a "plan" for where you want the pods to go, then you don't need beacons for each, just enough to give you "coverage" in the areas of interest (although spamming for redundancy might be useful once people get to know your playstyle).

Check out the "empty" Deathstorm pods from ForgeWorld - might add another dimension to your game plan.

If you can spare the points, Tigurius's ability to influence the reserve rolls could be very useful.

Not convinced about the scouts and pods mix. I'd go one or the other.

 

Cheers, Paul.

[ShinyRhino]

Your opponent can't use your teleport homers. Ever. Main rulebook FAQ, as mentioned before.

 

While the list will probably be fun to play once or twice, I think you'll find it's far too hit-or-miss forlongterm play, and certainly not tournament competitive. :(

None of the units you drop in, minus the Vanguard, can do much but shoot when they arrive. Your army will be arriving piecemeal, unless you have a crazy string of reserve rolls. This allows an opponent time to set up firelanes on your arrival areas, and blast the bejeezus out of each arriving unit. If you elect not to use the original beacon to avoid that killzone, you've just split your slow-moving forces and are now effectively fighting two battles at once.

 

Proxy some pods and such, and try it out. You might find a different result.

[fudal78]

I think the idea of adding Tigirius makes the list more viable with his affect on reserve rolling, and you can start units on the table and drop their pods empty to minimise the risks of arriving piecemeal. But I think you'd need a minimum of 2000pts to truely make it a force to be reckoned with.

 

I do love this kind of army though, and it's got me thinking about where I will go from my current 1000pt force.

[Hackbar]

Check out the "empty" Deathstorm pods from ForgeWorld - might add another dimension to your game plan.

 

Those things look amazing, and I wanted one as soon as I saw them. Aren't they Apocalypse-only, though? And can they take a locaotr beacon?

 

@ShinyRhino

I would plan to deploy at least 2 squads on the table, leaving their pods empty. Then, depending on turn order and how the enemy deploys/moves on turn 1, I would either drop the empty pods for the beacons or drop dread pods or sternguard to reinforce what I have on the board. The 2 squads already on the board would ideally be attatched to Tigurius and a second librarian, and could then Gate to any of the pods at the start of turn 2. I think perhaps the best choice would be to drop empty pods near objectives or likely lanes of enemy advance, watch where the enemy moves for the first turn, and then concentrate my early drops/gates accordingly to stymie whatever the enemy's plan of attack appears to be. Tigurius will be a near necessity to ensure that reserves come in when needed. Scout bikes would outflank or deploy and turbo-boost depending heavily on the map terrain and enemy deployment. If the enemy tries to set up a kill zone around my drop points, I just sit units on objectives and use Tigurius to try and hold back reserves until the enemy is in striking distance. Alternately, a turn 1 or 2 charge by biker scouts could make it difficult for the enemy to set up such a drop-site massacre, and would also protect the scouts by threatening a Vanguard unit with a thunder hammer and relic blade dropping on the head of anything that got too close to said scouts. The more I think about this the more I want to delay buying the strikeforce box and instead pick up some pods, another dread, PA librarians (I only have the termie librarian) and scout bikes. Of course, for that price I could probably grab the strikeforce and a ravenwing box, battleforce, etc. Part of me says I should just put it all on my credit card to get it out of my system. XD

[ShinyRhino]

Check out the "empty" Deathstorm pods from ForgeWorld - might add another dimension to your game plan.

 

Those things look amazing, and I wanted one as soon as I saw them. Aren't they Apocalypse-only, though? And can they take a locaotr beacon?

 

They aren't "tournament legal" in most areas, and you'd need the Forgeworld rules for them. BUT you could always just use them as an empty pod armed with a Deathwind Launcher

 

@ShinyRhino

I would plan to deploy at least 2 squads on the table, leaving their pods empty. Then, depending on turn order and how the enemy deploys/moves on turn 1, I would either drop the empty pods for the beacons or drop dread pods or sternguard to reinforce what I have on the board. The 2 squads already on the board would ideally be attatched to Tigurius and a second librarian, and could then Gate to any of the pods at the start of turn 2. I think perhaps the best choice would be to drop empty pods near objectives or likely lanes of enemy advance, watch where the enemy moves for the first turn, and then concentrate my early drops/gates accordingly to stymie whatever the enemy's plan of attack appears to be. Tigurius will be a near necessity to ensure that reserves come in when needed. Scout bikes would outflank or deploy and turbo-boost depending heavily on the map terrain and enemy deployment. If the enemy tries to set up a kill zone around my drop points, I just sit units on objectives and use Tigurius to try and hold back reserves until the enemy is in striking distance. Alternately, a turn 1 or 2 charge by biker scouts could make it difficult for the enemy to set up such a drop-site massacre, and would also protect the scouts by threatening a Vanguard unit with a thunder hammer and relic blade dropping on the head of anything that got too close to said scouts. The more I think about this the more I want to delay buying the strikeforce box and instead pick up some pods, another dread, PA librarians (I only have the termie librarian) and scout bikes. Of course, for that price I could probably grab the strikeforce and a ravenwing box, battleforce, etc. Part of me says I should just put it all on my credit card to get it out of my system. XD

 

Good plan. For some reason I was skipping the deployment of empty pods as your Pod Assault part.

If you're also using Terminators, consider buying Teleport Homers for squads that start on the board. This gives you the chance to deploy the pods far out, and still call down Terminator support close to your defensive line if trouble pops up.

You might consider using the Termi Libby, actually, as the armor gives him an Invulnerable save, which a PA libby lacks. Thoughif he's just a taxi, you might not bother with the extra points.