Vanshrikebomb

[Solid Zaku]

Hi all. I'm a RG successor who loves Shrike. In a big way. In a 'let's go steady' kind of way. I've never used Khan or Sicarius, or anyone else but Shrike. Why? Fear. This guy puts the fear of whatever god they believe in into the enemy. Cause let's face it, what's worse than having Shrike scout in with a fully-decked Vanguard Veteran Squad, ready to mow whatever you put big points into on turn 1? Not much, I figure, barring Jetbike council spam.

 

What about you guys? Ever fight Vanshrikebomb? Ever use it?

[greatcrusade08]

ive fought it and countered it quite easily.. alsong as you have infiltrators of your own you can keep them from your lines.

 

i do agree though. he is a beast and giving fleet to all units is fantastic

[Meatman]

I use Shrike, but with an assault marine squad with fist, maybe a couple flamers. Cheaper then vets and still effective, you just have to pick your targets. Don't hit that assault termy squad, for example.

[Jackelope King]

I'll try him at some point, but Shrike is LOLHammer to a tee. What's that? Set up a really expensive and often relatively fragile unit right where my whole army can shoot it to death? And then cross your fingers and hope you get to go first? And nothing's stopping me from just going into reserve and laughing at you?

 

It'll be good for a friendly game, but I'd never try to use it in a competitive game.

[Sanctjud]

It's counter easily, either by reserves, bubble wrap, meching up, infiltrators of your own.

It's not a bomb either, as the OP described them infiltrating (not scouting, nor deepstriking).

 

Bombing involves deepstriking and Vanguard can't perform intervention when joined with Shrike and Fleet doesn't help as you can't run if you declare an Intervention.

 

Yea, regular Assault Marines make more sense in this situation as it doesn't hurt the rest of the list for points.

 

IMO, face it, Vanguard are the 'fun' unit and not competitive by most measurements.

 

-Sanct

[Meatman]

I'll try him at some point, but Shrike is LOLHammer to a tee. What's that? Set up a really expensive and often relatively fragile unit right where my whole army can shoot it to death? And then cross your fingers and hope you get to go first? And nothing's stopping me from just going into reserve and laughing at you?

 

It'll be good for a friendly game, but I'd never try to use it in a competitive game.

 

Apart from the fact infiltrators set up last, so I will know if your holding stuff in reserve and where your units that are deployed. I can then infiltrate out of LOS if I know I'm going second.

 

I only really use this set up when I have a large amount of scouts also attempting first turn charge, so it helps mess up the target priority. Typically in 1000 points I have 10 ccw scouts doing the same thing, infiltrating, scout move to get 12" away, as well as a storm with shotgun scouts. That's then 26 models in first turn charge range, and as most of the people at my LGS run gunlines, it is an effective tactic, as even in 1000 points there isn't really a way to take out 26 models including a storm in one turn of shooting. (except mass leman russ spam)

[Solid Zaku]

Admittedly, he requires a bit of finesse in abusing the tables terrain, but overall, it's a good uberunit. Countered easily? Meh, it's easy enough to look at his mediocre statline and say that, but in the hands of an actual human instead of a spreadsheet, it's a whole lot better than what it's being made out to.

[greatcrusade08]

Admittedly, he requires a bit of finesse in abusing the tables terrain, but overall, it's a good uberunit. Countered easily? Meh, it's easy enough to look at his mediocre statline and say that, but in the hands of an actual human instead of a spreadsheet, it's a whole lot better than what it's being made out to.

 

agreed, not wanting to 'big myself up' but it requires alot of finesse to counter this unit properly, as meatman once said to me shrike is an infantry killer, and hes capable of chooping through a tac/assault squad turn 1.. combined with other alpha strike units hes great, on his own hes getting owned.

[Giga]

I've had this "bomb" used against me with assault squad and vanguard squad alike. All it takes is some smart deployment to prevent them from doing any considerable damage, like going refused flank and placing my land raider in a way that prevents them from infiltrating close to the vulnerable parts of my army.

 

In many cases, even if they get the charge off, they will usually only be blowing up a rhino or a razorback, and then getting murdered in my own turn. I love it when my opponents use vanguard for this, as vanguard are horribly overpriced and it'll usually mean they're netting 500+ points for shrike+10 vanguard, meaning I can take out a third of their army in a single turn.

[Brother-Captain Isaac]

Is it viable to use Shrike to bring a Dev/Sternguard squad onto an objective to "take" it before the start of the game? Or perhaps using Shirke and Sicarius to bring in 20 bodies right in front of the enemy lines?

[Hellios]

Is it viable to use Shrike to bring a Dev/Sternguard squad onto an objective to "take" it before the start of the game? Or perhaps using Shirke and Sicarius to bring in 20 bodies right in front of the enemy lines?

 

That really depends on what your enemy is doing... Tau players may not appreciate having so many guys that close that early... while I'm sure a number of Ork players would love that.... Dark Eldar being able to move between 27-32 inches a turn don't care if you are near or far... only that they take you alive...

[ShinyRhino]

Is it viable to use Shrike to bring a Dev/Sternguard squad onto an objective to "take" it before the start of the game? Or perhaps using Shirke and Sicarius to bring in 20 bodies right in front of the enemy lines?

 

I could see Shrike being taken to Infiltrate a non-standard unti lie STernguard or Devastators into a commanding position like that. But the dilemma you end up with afterward is: what do you do with Skrike afterward? He adds absolutely nothing to either unit after placing them in their (hopefully fortified) position. You could jump him away in the following turns to join another assault-oriented squad, but the risk of having him blasted out of the sky by a krak missile or lascannon is HUGE.

 

I'd not waste my time taking Siccy alongside Shrike. Siccy only allows a single Tactical Squad to gain Infiltrate. You're better off taking a Bolter Scout squad in the Shrike list.

[Divergent Reality]

The Shrike lolbomb is fun to see, but can be countered. Anything with a strong ap and a template tends to do the job versus such a unit.

 

I generally see it as an interesting distraction.

[DerekLee688]

I think it's worth a try to have half or all of your army hit his lines on turn one. Shrike+whatever, Scouts+beacon, terminators, and Iron pod. Reserve your army, I still own your deploymet zone.

[ShinyRhino]

I think it's worth a try to have half or all of your army hit his lines on turn one. Shrike+whatever, Scouts+beacon, terminators, and Iron pod. Reserve your army, I still own your deploymet zone.

 

An all-Infiltrating army backed up by some deepstrikers and a Shrike-led unit of jump packers would indeed be interesting to see.

It just relies heavily on getting the first turn. If you don't get first turn, you have to weather a full round of shooting with soft units (scouts die to a stiff breeze due to lower armor saves). if you avoid LOS, you've gutpunched your ability to pull off the first-turn charge.

If you go first, the all-reserve counter comes into play. You might be able to crowd him in his deployment zone, but that depends on deployment method. There's no way you can block off every avenue of approach on a 6' long board edge. If he's got deepstrikers or outflankers of his own, your back is open for a stabbing.

 

I digress, though. This sort of rock-paper-scissor fight could go on all day long. It would definitely be a cool army style, and one I'm actually thinking of branchng out to some day.

[chapter master 454]

Seen this so many times and so many times I have ether counter it or had some humourous way of killing it. My opponent has had more luck with his assault squad and shrike instead.

 

First counter I used: Flamestorms off my land raider redeemer, was a good BBQ that day.

 

Second counter: this was against someone trying to imitate RG witha fully decked out vanguard with jump packs and twin LCs, my whirlwind nailed 7 of them in one shot. Turned a loss into a draw.

 

Third counter: land raider crusaders hurricane bolter find little to fire at as my scout's shotguns suddenly have an attraction to shrikes vanguard who had split off from shrike himself (if I remember he had success tearing through tactical squads but was laid low when a krak found the mark). The scouts promtly kill over 4 of them followed by the entire squad dying to the scouts charge. They have yet to ever match that feat again.

 

Fourth counter: flamestorm again but it was a fail HI, may as well of deep struck into the dead pile no more than 12" away!

 

Fifth: a chapter masters OB, Shrike survived but his squad is now in the realms of charred earth around him. The last battle the vanguard I've seen take to the field.

 

Vangaurd are truely the fun unit but in BA they become somewhat more available (with you know, matt ward realising the points error and changing it for BA to have cheaper vanguards and hide it behind 'assault army' theme, my inquisiton shall know no bounds when I see him at GDUK'10, he better have a good excuse!)