TWC armies and Dawn of War Mission

[Voracioustigger]

Hey all,

 

As someone building a TWC army, I was wondering what you all do in a DoW mission vs a shooty army (and even worse, a KP match). It seems that most TWC lists depend on getting a lot out of them, but a couple bad run rolls on DoW and you might not even reach CC vs a crafty shooty player until turn 4.

 

How do people make up for this? If you put 2 rhinos and a twc lord on the table to start, they'll just get shot to shreds first, but if you hold everything back, then maybe the game is over before you even reach CC. Can't a good shooty player in a DoW KP mission just split his army in half and chalk up the victory knowing that half his army is immune from your death star unit? I mean, you can HOPE your enemy just doesn't have a lot of long range weapons, but an IG player with even a few battlecannons/manticore/lascannon squads etc. should really ruin your day.

 

Am I overthinking this, or is this just one of those nightmare scenarios that Twc lists hope to avoid?

[Wispy]

Things can go horribly slanted against that sort of army with some bad dice rolls, but if things go south, whatever, it takes a lot of bad dice rolls to get in that situation and there's always next game. Things may go into your favor later, too.

 

I had that sort of game like the other night versus Tau, and had every roll stacked against me. He deployed his fire warriors to the middle to push me back even farther. With this perfect storm of rolls against me, I decided to bank on stealing the initiative.

 

Plunked my Thunderlord as close to the middle of the map behind some cover, rolled my 6 for stealing, and assaulted the fire warrior squad he was hoping to push me back with. Game quickly went in my favor, even though I lost a good chunk of my TWC to broad sides later.

 

 

In an objective game, you might consider keeping them behind LoS or in reserve, and use them as a counter assault unit trying to get at your objectives. Also, Maybe they're your hammer, or maybe they're your distraction. Mixing the TWC with mechanized elements also gives you a nice distraction on the board so they can operate unhindered as the TWC absorb fire.

[Voracioustigger]

Thanks for the advice wispy, but I couldn't help but notice that your victory seemed to depend on stealing the initiative AND the enemy giving you a free unit to charge. What would you have done if you had to go second and he deployed further back, thus making a turn 1 charge with your lord unlikely or impossible? Leaving your lord out alone would probably be a dead lord against tau. Even 2 FW squads plus a crisis HQ has a good shot at killing a lone TwC.

 

Also, I was asking specifically about armies based on TWCs, so they HAVE to be more than just a distraction. I'm talking about the many TWC lists that have maybe 1/3+ PTs spent on TWC.

[Wispy]

Well, that's not how I seriously would have approached the mission, and was mostly relating the tale as a joke. After landing the one tau opponent in the store, to the storm of bad rolls to get into this situation, I said eff it, I'm going to bank on the 1/6 chance it reverses and goes my way. You're right, that any other result would have the lord torn to pieces. :)

 

 

Which is why my real advice is to hold things is reserve. if it's objective, he has to come to you and can't target everything on the table. Use the cav as a damage sponge to distract for the rest of your army.

[Natanael]

Deploy 2 rhinos and a Thunderlord as far forward as possible. Then bring the rest on turn 1, and drive rhinos and lord as far forward as possible. Use cover like hills and stuff, but try not to get bogged down in difficult terrain with the rest of your TWC. For most armies, they really need to deal with your rhinos+Lord, or they wil wreak havoc in their lines. But considering the speed of the TWC they also need to get rid of them.

 

Try to push the enemy to move his troops more out in the middle of the field to avoid your lord/rhinos, and then hit him with TWC. Sure, lots of your guys will die but decent dice-rolls and some smart wound-allocation should see most of your TWC into combat, and then it is all over. Dont forget about the 1st turn nightfight, since it might help you against some of the shooting.

 

DOW is not that hard at all to play with a thunderlist. Use that 19-24" charge, man!

 

- Natanael

[NovaScotius]

For shooty enemies, I found Wolf Scouts work wonders! They're not the best unit out there (Equally, they're by no means awful!), but their Behind Enemy Lines ability makes them psychologically devastating! Watch you opponent agonise as to whether he should hold back and risk being 'Scouted' from behind, or move forwards, into the teeth of your Thunder Wolves!

[SJumppanen]

Deploy 2 rhinos and a Thunderlord as far forward as possible. Then bring the rest on turn 1, and drive rhinos and lord as far forward as possible. Use cover like hills and stuff, but try not to get bogged down in difficult terrain with the rest of your TWC. For most armies, they really need to deal with your rhinos+Lord, or they wil wreak havoc in their lines. But considering the speed of the TWC they also need to get rid of them.

 

Try to push the enemy to move his troops more out in the middle of the field to avoid your lord/rhinos, and then hit him with TWC. Sure, lots of your guys will die but decent dice-rolls and some smart wound-allocation should see most of your TWC into combat, and then it is all over. Dont forget about the 1st turn nightfight, since it might help you against some of the shooting.

 

DOW is not that hard at all to play with a thunderlist. Use that 19-24" charge, man!

 

- Natanael

 

About that deployment: Do you mean that i should deploy those Rhinos empty as AFAIK transport counts as single Troop choice and passengers the second?

 

Also, like mentioned in previous post, Scouts should work well against shooty armies.

[marine77]

We have many tools that help in Dawn of War. I personally play a lasback spam army with 2 TWC and a Thunderwolf Lord. I have found that if yo uare going second, it sometimes helps to not put anything on the table as your stuff will come in on your board edge in turn 1 anyway. That gives you two great advantages. 1) Your opponent can't shoot you for a turn, and 2) your opponent will come on during his turn one and you can see where he is deployed and counter. In the case of a shooty army, I would go with a refused flank. If your opponent spreads out his force, he will have much shooting that isn't in range and you can focus on crossing the board to neutralize the half you have under fire support. If he deploys compactly he runs the risk of blocking his own shots and/or giving you cover saves.

 

In a game I played last night against Blood Angels, he spread across the board with his 2 assault squads and sanguinary guard with dante. I in turn, chose to come on in my turn one and came on in a defensive position in a refused flank. I put my TWC+ Lord on the extreme left of my deployment (I took the right side). They guarded the side of my lasbacks and made a beeline for dante+sanguinary guard and took them out by turn 2.

 

I also agree about wolf scouts. They rock face. I take 5 scouts, 4 with pistol/CCW, and one with a melta, all have melta bombs. These guys scare the crap out of my opponents, so much that they dedicate whole units to destroy them. In one game, they came on the board next to a leman russ and a company command squad + infantry squad. They held all three units up for 3-4 player turns of combat before dying. This bought me time to close with a grey hunter squad and finish the infantry units off. In my game last night, they came on behind a razorback, shot it up, but didn't explode it, got charged by a 5 man assault squad who wiffed for two rounds of combat and finally lost to them. I escorted them off the table, walked back and destroyed their razorback and then ran up to put the last wound on the sanguinor to win the game. One squad is nasty, if you can squeeze in two, they are even better!

[ORKILL]

Deploy 2 rhinos and a Thunderlord as far forward as possible. Then bring the rest on turn 1, and drive rhinos and lord as far forward as possible. Use cover like hills and stuff, but try not to get bogged down in difficult terrain with the rest of your TWC. For most armies, they really need to deal with your rhinos+Lord, or they wil wreak havoc in their lines. But considering the speed of the TWC they also need to get rid of them.

 

Try to push the enemy to move his troops more out in the middle of the field to avoid your lord/rhinos, and then hit him with TWC. Sure, lots of your guys will die but decent dice-rolls and some smart wound-allocation should see most of your TWC into combat, and then it is all over. Dont forget about the 1st turn nightfight, since it might help you against some of the shooting.

 

DOW is not that hard at all to play with a thunderlist. Use that 19-24" charge, man!

 

- Natanael

 

About that deployment: Do you mean that i should deploy those Rhinos empty as AFAIK transport counts as single Troop choice and passengers the second?

 

Also, like mentioned in previous post, Scouts should work well against shooty armies.

 

 

That is correct the rhinos each count as a troop choice. I would deploy one fully loaded in cover w/the wolflord in cover/out of sight or farther back for DOW.