Strike from the Shadows Tactical display

[GreyCrow]

Hey guys, just a pet project I wanted to work on in complement to my Mathhammer thread about the Winged Deliverance Chapter Tactic. This time, we look into the other half of out Chapter Tactics : Strike from the Shadows !

 

It all started with discussing tactical options between Rhinos/Razorbacks and Drop Pods for getting your Troops there. And I mentionned mapping the impact of the Scout rule on the battlefield.

 

Strike from the Shadows is in my opinion an awesome rule ! It is, however, hard to visualize all the additional deployment options you can get with it. It is indeed a move for getting the upper hand early game, whether through proper placement or alpha striking at the enemy.

 

In a nutshell, it adds 6" and 12" if the unit owns a dedicated transport to your deployment zone. In order to better visualize the impact, I have mapped 5 elements :

- Your deployment zone

- Where the Scout redeployment can take you, whether on foot or in a transport (different slides)

- The maximum reach of your move Turn 1, either on foot or in a transport (different slides)

- The maximum Rapid Fire range for each of the scenarios

- The maximum 24" Boltgun single shot range for each of the scenarios

 

Without delay, I invite your to take a look at the following slides !

 

 

 

Here are a few interesting points !

 

1) In the DoW deployment, both options allow to threaten the entire enemy DZ, although only within a dedicated transport can you hope to cover the entire enemy DZ with Rapid Fire.

2) In the H&A deployment, scouting a transport allows you to cover all of the DZ, albeit only half within Rapid Fire range. Regular scouts will only be able to aim at the front line, while the back 12" will be secure for the enemy.

3) As expected, the Vanguard deployment offers the best area for protection, and it is especially clear when not in a dedicated transport. In this scenario, Drop Pods are more efficient to take the fight to your enemy in an alpha strike situation.

4) However, in all deployments, because you are in RF range also means the enemy is likely to be within its own RF range. If you engage units in that zone, you have to provide support or distraction in order to protect their advance. Otherwise, if they fail to cripple the enemy's striking power, you can be sure that they will be in serious trouble !

 

My analysis on the CT :

1) I would forget footslogging full 10-man Tacticals. The Rhinos is the weapon of choice there imho, because it is much easier to control the delivery of your tacticals in the "painzone" (aka Rapid Fire range).

 

2) I would only footslog fire support units such as Devastators, or long range Tactical fire support.

 

3) Between this and Winged Deliverance which highly hints at using your Jump Pack all the time, the Raven Guard is a fast moving army. Make sure you do not let your backfield elements out of relief range from your more forward elements. I would recommend keeping an 18" tops coherency between your different units, in order to take care of any threatening deep strikers.

 

4) Drop Pod load outs should not be geared towards expensive suicide squads, but as a delivery means towards supportive elements that are less mobile than the bulk of your force. I would seriously consider highly survivable units, such as a close range Dreadnought, or an HQ like a command squad, or a Tactical squad that is better to operate at closer range (melta/combi-melta squad ?) and for whom the scout move would not be enough to reliably reach its intended target.

 

5) I would also not forget to aim for cover when applying the scout move with our without a transport. That way, you can benefit from the stealth rule in order to avoid payback from AP3 weapons. However, this should only be looked at when you have a high density of AP3 that can get in range when you will be positionned for maximum effectiveness (ex : a unit of Chaos Marines with 3 plasma pistols !). Otherwise, your armour saves are as good as the best cover save you can expect from Turn 1 stealth, so don't cower and go ahead to show what Marines are made of !

[Shrieker]

Throwing a curved ball, what is the 'maximum counter' an opponent can gain from an inquisitor with 3 servo skulls

 

Plus lets not forget Shrike's Infiltrate move... but maybe that's one for a 'goldilock' deployment range to benefit from WD (from infiltrate or DS and SftS

 

So many maths so little time :-)

[Thunderhawk3015]

Maximum counter is that this part of the CT is basically nullified by any army that has access to that supplement.

[GreyCrow]

Yeah, the servo skulls totally deny the Infiltrate or scout rule bonuses, sadly...

 

However, there is one more tool that we can use with these rules, which is Outflank. Now, I am not a very good fan of relying on Outflank, because it only gives a 2/3 chance of landing on the board edge you want, but it still allows to get up on the board, and is especially useful for the "Hammer and Anvil" Deployment type.

 

I don't beleive we should be scared much because of servo skulls. They are best used to prevent fast advancing armies that want to go into short range. Because of that, they are more suited to complement armies that rely on long range firepower, and that suck at close range fighting, and I don't see them to b of much use for close combat buids. Why ? Because removing the ability for the enemy to close in into your best fighting range (close range) only hampers you.

Thanks to Outflank, we can still retain our ability to move up the board and we can shield units from damaging firepower for a Turn or so.

 

However, the best counter to servo skulls still are deep striking units, especially Drop Pods because they will scatter less.