Competative List building

[Brother Tual]

What I want to talk about now is the 'alpha strike' unit.

 

How important are they to your army list? Do you use them and how many?

 

What are your alpha strike units?

 

What do you do with them if you have second turn?

 

Or is ranged weaponry better at providing first turn results?

[Brother Tual]

Post by 'Jackelope King'

 

What I want to talk about now is the 'alpha strike' unit.

"Alpha Strike" is a combat doctrine, one which you execute with your entire army, not some lone unit. The concept comes from Battletech, where you could design your mech in such a way that you could spam horrendous amount of firepower in a single go. It was risky, because if you failed to knock out the enemy mech, you were basically left helpless until your systems cooled back down.

 

Applied to 40k, an Alpha Strike is a combat doctrine in which your force is designed to cripple the enemy on turn 1. However, just like in Battletech, it's risky. Why? You have a very significant chance of going second. I personally think it's basically LOLHammer, only at higher points values. The "Leafblower" that the intertubes were hyperventilating over last year wasn't a bad list, but it only did as well as it did because of the matchups and because it basically always went first, so its Alpha Strike was always effective.

 

Its utility is primarily evident at very high points values (2500+) when you can pack an insane amount of firepower into your list, and where the durability of critical enemy units (especially transports and fire bases) just doesn't go up as much. It's not uncommon to see the equivalent of 40 krak missiles slamming down into the enemy lines, more than enough to cripple, or at least hamper, most peoples' transports.

 

What you're asking about is more the spectrum of how people apply pressure from turn 1, which is a key concept. You need to be able to project your army's threat right away. This doesn't necessarily mean being right up in your opponent's face by the end of your move on turn one, but your opponent should be forced to perceive every single model in your army as a credible and immediate threat to his army by the end of turn one. Your firebase should seem like a threat because they'll be firing for the rest of the game unless he silences them. Your forward elements should seem like a threat because they'll be at his doorstep by the next turn.

 

As for individual units devoted to running up and killing something first turn (like scouts in a Storm with a power fist or melta bombs)... this is LOLHammer. It's cool when you get it off, but it's easy to defend against (in this case, you use skirmishers / speed bumps / bubble wrap staggered to 6" out from your vehicles), and when it doesn't work, you're left with a unit sitting with its collective thumb up its butt for the whole game, and often a fairly expensive one (Scouts in a Storm being moderately cheap points-wise, but a considerable investment of a Fast Attack slot, especially when you could use that slot to buy multiple standard MM/HF speeders which could potentially be popping tanks for 5 turns).

 

So what's the proper use of this concept? Pressure, right from turn one. Look at your army list and ask yourself "What is this unit doing on turn 1 to increase the pressure on my opponent?" If the answer is "nothing", that's a big knock against the unit (and one of the weaknesses of Deep Strikers). Have units that can shoot from turn one and disable the opponent's long-ranged weaponry or transports. Have units that can cross the board on turn one so that on turn two they can start shooting. Apply pressure from turn one. The more pressure you apply (ie the more threats you present), the more likely it is that your opponent will make a mistake and proceed to choke on your force.

[Brother-Chaplain Gaius]

my alpha strike is primarily x3 AC/LC preds and x2 tac squads w/LC and occasionally a godhammer LR. so thats like 10 lascannons

 

If I get first turn and all your stuff isnt huddled in a crater somewhere, you're going to be limping through a hailstorm of plasma

 

If im not getting first turn I park everything so its 50% obscured, shrug off the spitballs. and return fire with extreme prejudice.

[Brother Tual]

Great reply Jackelope King

 

Have units that can cross the board on turn one so that on turn two they can start shooting. Apply pressure from turn one. The more pressure you apply (ie the more threats you present), the more likely it is that your opponent will make a mistake and proceed to choke on your force.

 

This the primary point I want to talk about. How do you achieve a significant threat level to apply pressure on the enemy (a single scout+LLS is not significant) yet not expose yourself or entrench your list to a single playstyle - shrike + cc scouts etc.

 

I see mobility as of key importance when dealing with lighning strikes (obvious) or atleast the ability to place well on the board (drop pod assault / infiltrate / turbo boost etc) but how much do you require? is your list divided (half fire base half speed) or is a small portion (one or two units) enought to provide the disruption/confusion or percieved increased threat level enough? how do you support these units (if you use them) to make this effect pay off?

[KhorneHunter57x]

I am a firm believer in the use of intense firepower early on to cripple my opponent's mobility, and then finish off the weakened, limping army at close range. Therefore, I fall in the category of "ranged weaponry is better at providing [early game] results". I always take H-Ks on my Rhinos, as well as long-range heavy weapons on my 3-4 Tactical Squads. This fills my role of an "Alpha Strike," as the H-Ks only get the one shot and my Tactical heavy weapons usually only get that first turn shot before I move them up in their APCs, and the Tac heavies are usually silent after the Alpha until turn 4-5.

 

The nice thing about such a force (based heavily around Tacticals in H-K Rhinos, with at least 50% of the points of my list in Tacticals and their transports alone) is that I can use it either as a mobile, fast-strike army, or as a solid firebase depending on the mission requirements, my opponent's army, and my opponent's tactics. The rest of the force is usually mechanized, so I have the combination of mobility and heavy firepower. It does not lock me into a single strategy, and I have found that this tactical flexibility can be very useful. After all, they are called Tactical squads; and I play Ultramarines so I guess having such tactical flexibility is fluffy :D . (but 'Courage, Honor, and the ability to adapt your tactics to suit the battle' was too long for a battlecry)

 

And a note on Alpha Striking in 40k: Don't try it with Plasma weapons :D . After all, an Alpha Strike does overheat everything.

[spartan249]

I don't subscribe to the idea of using an alpha strike to hopefully cripple my opponent on T1. I think more in terms of sustainable firepower. Especially when spread around into the entire army list. My current dreadraider list pulls out 7 lascannons and 11 missile launchers backed up by a few heavy bolters and multi-meltas to apply enough weapons fire to disable/destroy the transports/tanks in the opposing army in the first few turns, then uses assault terminators to clean up messes that I may have left behind in the later turns. While it feels a little bit like an alpha strike, I can continue to produce this firepower if left unmolested. Alpha strikes usually flop if anything is left operational after they are implemented.

 

I used to use Shrike + 10 Assault Terminators to infiltrate somewhere and cause trouble, then drop pods full of good news around the terminators to intercept some threats. Ultimately one faceted, and ultimately predictable. It was particularily effective when the tactic was not anticipated, but beyond the first or second match it lost a lot of it's bang.

[Jackelope King]

Yes, a true Alpha Strike is very risky. I'm not a fan in general.

 

Instead, I apply pressure to my opponent from turn one with a not-insignificant firebase. 3x Dakka Preds, 3x Rifleman Dreads, and 3x Typhoon Speeders spend turn 1 focused on popping transports and eliminating torrent firebase units (the most significant threat to my Bikers). My 3x Biker Squads and 1x Biker Command Squad turbo-boost across the field to target now-exposed and ideally isolated enemy units, so on turn 2, I have a mass of mobile melta rolling around, while my firebase turns its focus to eliminating nearby support elements to my Bikers, softening up the Bikers' next target.

[greatcrusade08]

Very nice and concise post JK.. i agree it has to be about pressure and control.. ive always liked the water style of play, but these "aplha strike" lists are more proactive than reactive.

 

I disgaree that it has to be your whole army though or that its a Lolhammer concept, i myself run a list that is capable of a large aplha strike involving twio thirds of my army should i get first turn and iof i dont two third of my army can castle up whilst the other third outflank.

i call it a hammer and anvil concept, two halves capable of supporting the other regardless of tactics.

 

It is very hard to get the balance just right, certain units have to have dual uses, which is where bolter scouts and perhaps scout bikes come in handy.

 

The main difference between myself and alot of the posters here is that i consider an aplha strike to be a first turn assault, things like lascannons etc can also be used in turn one but this isnt anything special.. any shooting you have should complement the cc strikes for it to be a true aplha strike IMO.

blocking LOs is a sure way to avoid lascannons, you cant avoid close combat unless you reserve ;)

 

things that make good aplha strikes (can reach cc first turn):

Shrike and any attached JP/bike unit

any scout unit with fleet (see shrike)

scout bikes

land speeder storm squads

 

By taking lascannons, MLs etc you can take down the mech and use the above units to scoop out the gooey centres.. thats how it works in theory anyway :)