Love BA...need help

[tkenixon]

I am not sure that this is the right place for this post...crossing my fingers.

 

I am in the military so I feel like I have to give a little history. I started my warhammer playing about a month ago. I bought assult on black reach on a whim when I took my roommate to get paints one day. I started off with orcs and quickly changed my mind. I am tired of getting whipped by my roommate and his Eldar army. I need some solid advice from someone other than the guy trying to sell me another expensive tank claiming it will be the end-all to my problems. My problem is lack of tactic and poor army selections.

 

We play with 2k pts.

 

I am looking for suggestions on a solid army and some solid tactics. I am not worried about getting any new models for my army so dont be shy with suggestions. Any help would be awesome...I am tired of getting my rear end kicked.

 

Currently I have:

HQ

The Sanguinor

Dante

Astorath

Captain(came with the first box I bought)

 

Elites

1 set of Sanguinary Guard

1 of Terminator Squad

 

Troops

Tactical Squad of 12...I "borrowed" some bits from my roommate

A squad of Death Company

Death Company Dreadnought

A scout squad

 

Dedicated Transports

1 Land Raider Redeemer

 

Heavy Support

1 regular Dreadnought

[Tabgoi]

Without knowing how he is playing his eldar, I would make just a few reccomendations. The first of which is for the love of god get a Baal Predator. Eldar vehicles have low AV and a Baal will tear them up. In addition the biggest threat to your troops in assault comes from howling banshees and a baal or two would just destroy them. Also I would switch that redeemer to a crusader and pop a multi-melta on it. Blast some poor eldar squad with everything but the multi-melta, and use power of the machine spirit to shoot the multi-melta at a tank. The I would pick up a couple RAS and probably just field them with jump packs. Now I like razorbacks as much as the next person, but Eldar are very good at taking out vehicles. You may also want a librarian to counter Eldar psychic powers.

 

For basic tactics, focus on your movement phase. You are going to have to be very carefull how you use your tanks because a stray brightlance can reduce it to slag in no time at all. Focus on their close combat beasts like howling banshees and seer council with your Baals and Crusader. Then charge anything else, like guardians, swooping hawks, striking scorpians, etc with your troops. Always make sure you are the one charging. Also, I would equip the DC with bolters in this case as a rapid fire bolter before the charge is going to cause a lot more damage to most of his squads then a single shot from a pistol with the extra attack in CC. If he has a lot of vehicles put a bunch of melta guns in your RAS. If not, put a heavy bolter in your tac squad. Scouts should have the camo cloaks and I would probably take the heavy bolter and sniper riffles and just dedicate them to beating troops and pinning them in place. Just sit them in some cover, preferably on an objective, and encourage your enemy to shoot at them to prevent them from pinning key units. And if he assaults them you can send in your own RAS to crush the unit that assaulted them.

 

There is a lot more you can do, but you provided pretty limited info on his army, and whether you prefer mech or DOA. This should be a decent start point for you, though there are many valid ways to approach this. I do something very similar and have zero issues with Eldar armies, but every fight is COMPLETELY dependant on who controls the flow of battle and who choses when and where assaults happen. So I would advise you to focus most of your energy on mastering the movement phase of the turn. Everything else will fall in place after that.

[BOBMAKENZIE]

Disagree on the pred. Most Eldar Vehicles are AV 12 and immune to rending.

[Volcatus]

Welcome to the game, and the B&C. And thanks for serving your country.

 

First things first: You need Sanguinary Priests. You'll be using 1-3 depending on which list you play, but they are pretty much mandatory in most BA lists. Make sure you magnetize them so you can swap out Jump Packs. You'll also want to pick up a Librarian (again, magnetize the Jump Pack). The Libby is the BA HQ of choice for most players. A Reclusiarch is also a solid choice, although you'll miss out on Shield of Sanguinius to protect your tanks and/or deep striking jump squads.

 

There's a few directions you can go with a BA list. The most popular two being "DoA" (Descent of Angels, aka lots of Jumpers) and Mech. Both lists styles are built around the core unit of BA, the RAS (regular Assault Squad).

 

For DoA, 10 man squads with 2X Meltaguns and a Sergeant with a Power Fist(combat squad when you touch down). Dante and Sanguinary Guard fit DOA to a tee as well, if you choose to use them. For support you can add 5 man Devastator Squads (4X Missile Launchers). Give your Libby Shield of Sanguinius and Blood Lance (he'll use it on the drop to wreck mech parking lots, etc.)

 

The core of Mech is 5 man RAS in Razorbacks. 4 to 5 of them. Arm your RAS appropriately, because at some point they *will* be out of their transport. Razorback weaponry will consist of Twin-Linked Assault Cannon or Lascannon with Twin-Linked Plasmagun. Your Libby will be using Shield of Sanguinius once again, but the second power is up to you. Might of Heroes or Unleash Rage are solid choices.

 

These are starting points, and general ones. For more specific lists, a good place to look is Kirby's blog, 3++ is the new black. He has a lot of BA related articles, lists, and general tactics advice.

[Grizzly Adams]

a lot of it depends on what you like. The BA codex is very versatile, and can accommodate many different playing styles. I personally love assault marines, so i run 2-3 squads in every list, as well as a Death Company. A big question is what size games are you and your roommate playing, as that will have a deep impact on your list builds. It may help you to read some of these articles to give you a better understanding of different units.

 

When building Lists, i like to try and pick units that go together or work well together, you will hear many people use the word "synergy". this is important, as you have enough to worry about during a game without your army working against each other. If you take a Descent of Angels style army and deepstrike everything, then a tac squad with no transport being the only unit deployed might not be the best idea.

 

When I build Lists, i pick out the units that i like and really want to take. I then look at those squads' strengths and weaknesses, and then build the rest of my army in order to fill in the gaps and make up for what my first units can't do. For Example, i really like assault squads, dreadnoughts, and Death Co. So I decide, ok i need troops, and i really like Assault Squads, so I will take a Couple of them, as well as a 10 man Death Co. Squad, and throw a DC Dread in the mix. So i hsave this base, one of my big weaknesses is mobility with the DC and the Dread. So i pick up a stormraven to move them around with. I also need a chaplain to run with the DC. I am now lacking range, as the only thing i have that shoots over 24" is the Bloodstrike missiles. So i then take a couple predators/dev squads to attack from range. So just now I have -

 

Chappie

Death Co.

DC Dread

Stormraven

 

2 Assault Squads

 

2 Dev squads/predators.

 

Just by doing that, i have a pretty good chunk of a list. I then keep plugging stuff in until i get to the desired points level.

 

What is he taking, and what is hurting you the most? these will also help in the list building process.

[tkenixon]

Thanks for all the input. I guess there is way more to this than I thought. I am going to read all the information and try to figure out whats going to work best. I am gald to finally get some answers from someone other than the guy trying to sell me stuff.

[Tabgoi]

Actually I like the GW guys at the shop I go to now. They tend to put effectiveness on the table before the need to just sell you something expensive. Plus every time my brother and I have gone there we have gotten a free book or something similar. A rule book first time, Prospero Burns this last time, so we pretty much only go there for our big purchases.

[shatter]

You seem to have a model pool that would suit only smaller games with any sort of synergy.

 

I'd suggest a bulking purchase along the lines of increasing a reserve roll value as at the moment, your disparate elements would require deploying everything at once which means you're losing a lot of options in playstyles. More playstyles = more ability to react to a list in game-start and deployment and scenario options.

 

For example:

Stormraven

Sternguard (5-10) (7 would be okay (two 'blinged' tacticals and a sternguard box))

Furioso kit

2 priest models.

 

The stormraven can be used with any HQs or the termies, or the sternguard or the DC, or Astorath and the DC and... and ... yahh, you get it maybe.

 

I like the stormraven, furioso & sternguard reserve roll myself. DS the SR, the sternguard and furioso disembark and shoot... so your damage output is greatest with the unit combination as soon as the reserve roll is made. You don't have to wait for next turns assault phase.

 

Sternguard with combi weapons & heavy flamers (assault weapons can shoot at disembarkation), furioso with frag cannon (& heavy flamer/melta arm & magna grapple) and the stormraven guns can squash a LOT of guys and vehicles. If you add a priest/HQs with (combi) melta or two or blood lance from a libby (buy a libby! Psyker power 'Shield' is brilliant for a libby here as he can stay in the ride and give everything that dropped a 5+ cover save in the opponents following shooting phase).

I've proxied this to spectacular and soul crushing effect and will be getting it all to call my own and love... and cherish...

[Isryion]

Thanks for all the input. I guess there is way more to this than I thought. I am going to read all the information and try to figure out whats going to work best. I am gald to finally get some answers from someone other than the guy trying to sell me stuff.

 

 

As mentioned BA can go a lot of different ways in terms of building a solid army, so go with what pulls you (jump pack? mech?) and build around that, but start with what you like. At first glance, though, you're probably going to want an assault squad or two.

 

For DoA, 10 man squads with 2X Meltaguns and a Sergeant with a Power Fist(combat squad when you touch down).

 

Just to clarify, as I understand it, you don't combat squad when you touch down, but once you make your reserve roll. They can then land in different places. And, of course, you're not going to want to do that all the time;)

[Volcatus]

For DoA, 10 man squads with 2X Meltaguns and a Sergeant with a Power Fist(combat squad when you touch down).

 

Just to clarify, as I understand it, you don't combat squad when you touch down, but once you make your reserve roll. They can then land in different places. And, of course, you're not going to want to do that all the time;)

 

Yes. "Touch down" was just me using non-game terminology to describe the Deployment Phase, when Combat Squad from Reserves happens.