IC units on their own.

[Vanor]

I have a question for my battle brothers.

 

I have a librarian in TDA, whom will be attached to my terminator squad. I don't have a LR so they'll either be deep striking or walking for now. I'm thinking of getting a LR at some point however for the terminators to ride in. But if do that then there's no room for the Librarian in the LR... So either I attach him to a different unit like a Tact squad or he goes out on his own. Which brings up the problem of 11 models not fitting in a rhino, and the TDA takes up 2 of the 10 slots...

 

Would having a IC on his own be effectively suicide for that IC? Or could he survive on his own long enough to be worth fielding in the first place?

[Koremu]

Can't put TDA in Rhinos at all.

 

Land Raiders have a Capacity of 12 models. 5 Terminators + Librarian in TDA = 12 models for the purposes of Transport Capacity.

 

What's the problem exactly?

[thade]

Koremu hit the particulars.

 

ICs by themselves are a bad idea unless your opponent has no hope of tracing LOS to them or getting into an assault with them (with few exceptions...notable ones like Calgar and Meph). LOS = bad because they can hose your IC with small arms fire. That 2+ save will not be enough to survive a salvo of 12+ rounds for most ICs. Maybe you'll get lucky...but better than luck is the sure thing that is ablative wounds (other troopers).

 

Leave him with the Terminators. Barring that, attach him to a tactical or dev squad...some kind of unit that doesn't need to be mounted because it's sitting on an objective. Maybe a scout squad even. In this case he's defending that objective (and as a Librarian, parrying psychic powers within his range). If you want him mobile to fight, you'll want a Land Raider. If you want him mobile to shoot, give him any kind of squad at all and Gate him around the table, Vortexing as you please.

[Xeonic]

One combat squadded lascannon can ruin a solo T4 IC's day, espescially a libby who has no base invuln to protect him against it, so has to rely on the 5+ TDA or 3+ SS invuln to keep him from being instant deathed. Failing a 3+ invuln is only a 33% chance, but if you fail the libby is off the table. With a retinue of termies you put the lascannon wound on a regular termie, who has the same 5+(or 3+) invuln, but costs a much smaller amount for your army to lose as a whole.

 

This is of course a nonissue for an IC with eternal warrior, but running an IC of any kind solo is putting wounds on him he shouldn't have to take.

 

A good example of how bad it can be though is death company tycho from the new BA book. He's T4 without eternal warrior, and can't be joined to another unit. This makes him pretty much unuseable over his sane(non DC) self, as one round of shooting from most squads will either wipe him from the table or be able to easily dispatch him in CC afterward.

 

At the very least, a cheap squad to stick your ICs with such as scouts or assault marines who swapped their packs for a rhino wouldn't go amiss, and for TDA characters, putting them with a termie squad is a great bodyguard. Tac termies rely on no transport, and have the range to walk up the board(espescially with cyclone launchers), or if you're feeling particularly gutsy you can deep strike them into battle. In addition they're hardly pushovers in CC except to mass power weapons/rending.

[Justicar Valius]

I wouldn't do it unless:

 

The HQ does not have the independant character rule (Mephiston)

The HQ is T6 or above or has eternal warrior (Mephiston, Lysander)

 

For the second one I would still be wary with it. I only ever run one HQ and he is attached to his retinue that I buy him so he isn't an IC so I won't comment much more.

[Vanor]

Land Raiders have a Capacity of 12 models. 5 Terminators + Librarian in TDA = 12 models for the purposes of Transport Capacity

 

I thought it was 10 and the 12 was a typo/mistake in the Codex and was corrected with errata, because the Space Wolf or some other codex had a different number... So that's was the problem. :P But if that isn't true, then there's no problem at all, just a mater of picking which LR I want. :)

 

And thanks for all the input. It reinforced what I already figured, that a IC on it's own was just asking to get it killed ASAP. It would be far too good of target to pass up putting as much fire power on as possible. Which most likely means it's a waste of points in the long run.

[thade]

Follow *your* codex and *your* FAQ. Don't sweat the other guys. :P

[Giga]

Most of the time, running an IC around on his own is a bad idea. They need some sort of a retinue, or a transport (preferably both) to make them worthwhile. Otherwise, they're just going to be instant-killed by a melta/lascannon/missile launcher shot.

 

That being said, there's a number of situations when I feel free to let my ICs attack something on their own. What's important to know is that, if you got a combat IC (Vulkan, beefed up captain/chapter master, lysander, bike captain/chapter master with relic blade, Calgar, etc.) you can safely assault entire units of lesser models so long as those models don't have a powerfist/thammer, or some other way to inflict instant-death.

 

Hence, since my combat ICs usually ride around with in a LR accompanied by 5 th/ss terminators, I tend to move the LR in such a way that will allow me to assault one enemy unit with the IC and another with the terminators. A lot of the time, my ICs will need a turn or two to decimate the unit they assaulted (if they don't sweep them first), but that's good since that's one whole enemy unit out of the battle for a while + your IC is safe in combat + it's very demoralizing for the opponent.

 

Ofc, don't get overly confident and start sending your IC against badass assault units. IC vs unit is a tactic that works if the squad you're targeting is of the weaker variety. Hence, some of the great targets are things like;

 

- IG veterans

- necron warriors and even immortals

- tactical squads with no powerfist

- devastator/havoc/longfang squads with no powerfist

- slow moving or passive vehicles (most of them have rear armor 10, making it very easy to pop them with 4 relic blade hits on the charge)

- guardians, dire avengers

- lootaz mobs

[JamesI]

An IC on his own will die. The question is will he provide something useful enough before he dies?

 

In my BA, I often will break an IC from a unit to send on a suicide charge into something he can take alone (based on my games lately that tends to be fire warriors). Sure, he dies to the retaliatory shooting. But if the unit he kills removes an objective from the enemy, or kills something nasty shooty (like some Broadsides) it may be worth the sacrifice. Plus doing this could allow your unit+IC to deal with two targets that aren't close enough together to multi-charge.