It will not die + Look out sir = ?!

[skeletoro]

Maybe some of you have noticed some of my recent wacky ideas about rune priests and the like. Something just struck me. Let's say you're running 3-4 rune priests with at least some biomancy. You manage to pick up Endurance. Nice: Feel no Pain! Relentless!

 

But hang on. Endurance grants It Will not Die, and you're playing a list with maxed out HQ slots. You're got 4 independent characters. Each has a 2+ Look out Sir! save and 2 wounds. This means that they can pass wounds around. You get to pick where you send the wounds, provided that you choose amongst the closest-equal models. By putting some of your models in base-to-base contact, this should give you a few choices - let's say 3 (it does make you slightly more vulnerable to blasts, but if you're using models with 60mm bases, this is less of an issue).

 

In melee, wound distribution is a little easier - you generally won't need to worry about look out sir and can simply allocate incoming wounds to whichever of your models in b2b with an enemy model (often giving you a choice amongst more than 4).

 

So, you've got 4 rune priests, all on bikes and with runic armour, in a unit of thunderwolf cavalry. The rune priests are at 2+/5++ (from jink) while the thunderwolves are a mix of 3+/- and 3+/3++ (storm shields). All models have 2 wounds, and all models have toughness 5 and FnP. As wounds come in, you allocate them, using Look out, Sir! where necessary, in order to distribute wounds evenly amongst your 2w models and prevent any from dying.

 

Let's say you take a lot of fire, suffer 4 unsaved wounds, and distribute them amongst 4 models. Thanks to it will not die! you now have a 5+ chance of regaining each of those wounds. On average, you'll probably regain 1, maybe 2 each round. To put this in perspective, it takes about 40 bolter shots to cause 1 wound against a toughness 5, 2+/FnP model, and even lascannons will have a somewhat hard time against your T5,3++/FnP TWC (removing one wound every 8 or so shots at BS3). You probably won't regenerate all the wounds, but the next turn, you can reposition your unit to present mostly models with 2 wounds remaining, while the others heal up.

 

The only real pitfall I can see is that strength 10 attacks will bypass the strategy entirely - if your opponent has more than a few strength 10 ranged weapons, then I'd say you should give this tactic a miss.

 

I think it's fairly clear that such a unit would be pretty durable, on the whole. Obviously, if you cannot guarantee rolling Endurance, you shouldn't build your whole army on the assumption that you will have it (quick statistics: 4 rune priests rolling 2x biomancy would get endurance 1-(2/3)^4 = about 80% of the time; 3 rune priests rolling div/bio would get endurance 1-(5/6)^3 = about 30% of the time). But this possibility is leading me to consider the following:

 

1) If you're running a rune priest council and are considering foot-slogging, you may as well give all the rune priests bikes. They're not overwhelmingly cheap, at 35 points per priest, but they provide perks: a jink save against shooting attacks, an extra point of toughness, a 12" move speed, twin linked relentless bolters without sacrificing a melee attack, and a Hammer of Wrath attack on the charge. That extra movement is pretty useful especially - if you're using rune priests as buff units, a 12" move may actually come in handy if a rune priest wants to leave a mostly dead grey hunter unit and reattach to another one. Similarly, if you happen to roll iron arm, you might choose to use that rune priest as a tar pit, depending on your foe, their strength and points cost, and the presence or absence of the ATSKNF/fearless USRs.

2) Thunderwolf cavalry are good anyway, but once you've got all those rune priests on bikes, rolling biomancy, having a unit of 3-5 TWC with a couple of storm shields opens up the OPTION of using the tactic above. You don't need to put the rune priests in the TWC unit for them to do their job - but if you get endurance, you can.

 

What do you think? The point of this tactic (I say tactic rather than strategy because you're only using it when it seems appropriate) isn't so much to make a death star - the rune priests exist primarily for their buffing abilities, though they do pack a fairly decent enough punch with TL bolters, HoW, and 4 (precision shot) runic weapon attacks on the charge. A death star it would most certainly be, but most importantly, it would keep your rune priests safe. They can freely use their blessings and maledictions while locked in combat - as long as they stay within range (generally 12 or 24").

 

Given the points cost of the 4 HQs and TWC pack, you'd then need to keep the rest of your army relatively cheap - grey hunters, and perhaps fenrisian wolves.

 

So that's the basic idea. Think it could work? Any ideas about how it could be taken further?

[Reichfaust]

I really like the idea of mixing Biomancy buffs with TWC, but unfortunately your plan has one gaping flaw--only units with Thunderwolf mounts may join Thunderwolf cavalry units, as they say in the codex; "anything else is just asking for trouble!". It really irks me that we can't put our Rune or Wolf Priests on Thunderwolves, yet our Iron priests do get the option. Madness.

[skeletoro]

Oddly, the rule prevents Thunderlords from joining swiftclaw units, but it doesn't prevent rune priests on bikes from joining TWC units. Unless there has been a FAQ?

 

I will admit, this is a tad cheesy, and may be against RAI. It's funny, though, and I think I'd have a laugh playing against it.

 

Another thing, if you wanted to avoid the thunderwolf issue (for the record, I don't think it poses any issue, under strict RAW), is that you COULD use a swiftclaw unit with an attached attack bike. The attack bike has 2 wounds, at least. With 4 rune priests, that'd be 5 2 wound models to distribute wounds between, and swiftclaws are actually pretty good.

 

Also, it's worth mentioning that joining bikes and TWC makes the fleet rule useless. Which is certainly sad, but a price worth paying perhaps?

[eyeslikethunder]

Skeleton is right the rule states characters on Twm can't join non Twc units . There is no rule stopping bike riding characters joining Twc

[skeletoro]

So... another thing that I've just realized that makes this combo fairly juicy.

 

Feel No Pain works against Perils of the Warp.

 

This is a nice little boon to help against those pesky eldar, who really put a dampner on the whole rune priest council thing :D