Dirty tricks of BA

[GrunTeufel]

The sketchy stuff... (use only for fun and check with your group first!)

RAW you can grapple super heavies and buildings too...

RAW you can tankshock (but not ram!) with a deep striking land raider arriving from reserves, effectively making you immune from mishaps due to infantry! Just declare a tankshock before your place and roll for scatter

Can you prove this to me? I am not trying to be rude, I would LOVE to try tank shocking from deep strike but is there a FAQ or some such thing that shows us this is legal? People in my group would probably ask if I tried and puılled it off.

[knife&fork]

You are allowed to tank shock from reserves, and there's nothing preventing a tankshock from happening just because your movement is random. The sketchy part is that you declare a movement which you probably won't be able to fulfill exactly as stated/intended. You always count as having moved cruising speed though.

When doing a tank shock non vehicle models must move out of the way so that they are not within 1" from the tank. And only by having a model within 1" will you suffer a mishap. Models who are unable to move out of the way are removed from play.

AFAIK this can only be done using our land raiders or a dark eldar raider with shock prow upgrade. As you might imagine it's not exactly something that will come into play often.

Seriously doubt it's RAI though I've never had this OKd on a tournament, but our group (and the tourneys we host) play it like this because it's cool and have minimal impact on the game.

EDIT: There are a bunch of non-sketchy moves we can pull with our fast tanks, I'll try to post a summary of that tomorrow.

[bushman101]

I'm a big fan of Bike units with a Sang Priest

T5 with a Jink Save and FNP has good staying power

 

Sacrifical Tech Marines can be neat also. Give a Tech Marine a Melta Gun and a JP and drop them with Desent of Angels on the target of your choice

[Quozzo]

Im surprised no one has mentioned its possible to take 9 or more dreads depending on points limit. You need at least 5 dc to take one dc dread but with 3 dreads, 3 furiosos and as many dc dreads as you can afford, not many lists can deal with that much AV when assaulting :P

[Tabgoi]

Quosso, that is one of the best ideas I have heard all day.  Also, don't forget that we are the only army with flying Dreadnaughts.  Probably going to lose it next edition, but for right now you can give a libby dread wings of Sanguinus.  I just image a situation like this:

 

Blood Angel Captain "Don't worry, we have their bombers right where we want them."

 

Inquisitor "You only have one Storm Raven, its massively outnumbered.  How do you expect it to do any damage?"

 

BAC "Its not the raven we are counting on, it has brother Belfore.  He just needed some altitude to get him in position."

 

I "Belfore?  Wait, what the hell is that thing jumping from bomber to bomber riping them apart?"

 

BAC "Brother Belfore."

 

I "That is a dreadnaught.  Dreadnaughts don't fly.  You didn't.  You wouldn't.  No one can be that stupid.  You put a librarian in a sarcophagus and interred him in a dreadnaught!  What is your solution if he falls to the warp? Orbital bombardment?"

 

BAC "Basically."

[knife&fork]

Im surprised no one has mentioned its possible to take 9 or more dreads depending on points limit. You need at least 5 dc to take one dc dread but with 3 dreads, 3 furiosos and as many dc dreads as you can afford, not many lists can deal with that much AV when assaulting

Actually I'd say the opposite is true. A maximum of 3 will have AV 13 fronts, the rest can die to krak grenades even if they make it into combat unscathed. Plus all of them have that rear AV10 which you are almost guaranteed to expose at some point when moving in close to the enemy.

Dread lists are very cool but not very good since you'll often have 0 scoring with little fire support. Not a good place to be in 6th.

Now for something completely different!

Tank shocks and you

Tank shocks might be almost universally available, why list it as a 'BA dirty trick' ?

Because all our hulls are fast and that's a huge benefit!

You have to move more than 6", so non fast AV will only fire snap shots. Plus we can get in position more easily thanks to the extra 6" flat out and the scout move of our baals.

First an important reminder!

Only the models in the path of a vehicle may attempt 'death or glory' and only these models are allowed to move. They must also move away using the shortest way possible and may not forgo normal movement restrictions! In other words, must stay 1" away from the enemy, may not move over impassible terrain, friendly or unfriendly models and there must adequate room for a models base if it wishes to move through a friendly unit. If a model cannot do this or fails its 'death or glory' it is removed from play.

A lot of people play one or more of the above incorrectly.

So let's take a look at the different ways we can use tank shocks to our benefit. I'm just going to skip the obvious use of trying to force a morale test to push a unit off an objective or off the table edge.

Divide and conquer!

IMHO this is the most useful trick to learn as it only requires a single vehicle, is the easiest to pull of and can be used as a combo for setting up your opponent in many different ways.

Your general aim here is to break up a unit in two parts. This can be done with a number of ends in mind but the most likely is separating a character from the bulk of his unit. Simply aim your tank at models that have a poor chance of succeeding with a 'death or glory' and declare your tank shock.

E = enemy infantry

Ch = enemy character

BA = BA tank

E E Ch E E E E E E E

BABABA

BABABA

BABABA

BABABA

After the tankshock (if you survive) the units will be lined up something like this:

E

E BABABA E

E E Ch BABABA EE E E E

BABABA

BABABA

Now, even if you do nothing else you might have broken coherency and will force him to move in his turn. You have also blocked sight between the two blocks which can be useful for wound allocation or denying dangerous overwatch. With a large vehicle you might have limited how many models the character have for valid LoS rolls or how many models can fight in the first close combat phase if you chose to charge one side or the other.

Using several vehicles or impassible terrain can allow you to 'box in' specific models, either isolating them even better in the way described above, or setting them up for situations where a second tank shock might see them auto killed if they fail their morale test or 'death or glory'! Remember that densely packed enemy units can be used to block his own fall back moves!

The second basic technique is herding.

Here your goal is simply to push as many models as you can to one side, usually because you want to shoot them with a template or blast weapon afterwards. This is where our fast vehicles shine as you will be able to tank shock and shoot with one vehicle, not needing a second one for this to be effective. A great way to maximize returns on your TLHF razor backs or flamestorms even if the opponent spreads out properly.

A character (or other key model) left at the edge of a unit allows for a combo move where you might be able to cut him off completely from his squad while still being able to bring all weapons to fire on the unit, or assault. This can be extremely deadly with a large vehicle like a land raider even though you can only shoot one gun at full BS.

[ixzion]

Im surprised no one has mentioned its possible to take 9 or more dreads depending on points limit. You need at least 5 dc to take one dc dread but with 3 dreads, 3 furiosos and as many dc dreads as you can afford, not many lists can deal with that much AV when assaulting

Actually I'd say the opposite is true. A maximum of 3 will have AV 13 fronts, the rest can die to krak grenades even if they make it into combat unscathed. Plus all of them have that rear AV10 which you are almost guaranteed to expose at some point when moving in close to the enemy.

Dread lists are very cool but not very good since you'll often have 0 scoring with little fire support. Not a good place to be in 6th.

Now for something completely different!

Tank shocks and you

Tank shocks might be almost universally available, why list it as a 'BA dirty trick' ?

Because all our hulls are fast and that's a huge benefit!

You have to move more than 6", so non fast AV will only fire snap shots. Plus we can get in position more easily thanks to the extra 6" flat out and the scout move of our baals.

First an important reminder!

Only the models in the path of a vehicle may attempt 'death or glory' and only these models are allowed to move. They must also move away using the shortest way possible and may not forgo normal movement restrictions! In other words, must stay 1" away from the enemy, may not move over impassible terrain, friendly or unfriendly models and there must adequate room for a models base if it wishes to move through a friendly unit. If a model cannot do this or fails its 'death or glory' it is removed from play.

A lot of people play one or more of the above incorrectly.

So let's take a look at the different ways we can use tank shocks to our benefit. I'm just going to skip the obvious use of trying to force a morale test to push a unit off an objective or off the table edge.

Divide and conquer!

IMHO this is the most useful trick to learn as it only requires a single vehicle, is the easiest to pull of and can be used as a combo for setting up your opponent in many different ways.

Your general aim here is to break up a unit in two parts. This can be done with a number of ends in mind but the most likely is separating a character from the bulk of his unit. Simply aim your tank at models that have a poor chance of succeeding with a 'death or glory' and declare your tank shock.

E = enemy infantry

Ch = enemy character

BA = BA tank

E E Ch E E E E E E E

BABABA

BABABA

BABABA

BABABA

After the tankshock (if you survive) the units will be lined up something like this:

E

E BABABA E

E E Ch BABABA EE E E E

BABABA

BABABA

Now, even if you do nothing else you might have broken coherency and will force him to move in his turn. You have also blocked sight between the two blocks which can be useful for wound allocation or denying dangerous overwatch. With a large vehicle you might have limited how many models the character have for valid LoS rolls or how many models can fight in the first close combat phase if you chose to charge one side or the other.

Using several vehicles or impassible terrain can allow you to 'box in' specific models, either isolating them even better in the way described above, or setting them up for situations where a second tank shock might see them auto killed if they fail their morale test or 'death or glory'! Remember that densely packed enemy units can be used to block his own fall back moves!

The second basic technique is herding.

Here your goal is simply to push as many models as you can to one side, usually because you want to shoot them with a template or blast weapon afterwards. This is where our fast vehicles shine as you will be able to tank shock and shoot with one vehicle, not needing a second one for this to be effective. A great way to maximize returns on your TLHF razor backs or flamestorms even if the opponent spreads out properly.

A character (or other key model) left at the edge of a unit allows for a combo move where you might be able to cut him off completely from his squad while still being able to bring all weapons to fire on the unit, or assault. This can be extremely deadly with a large vehicle like a land raider even though you can only shoot one gun at full BS.

Is tank-shocking now done in the movement phase? If so, that is some really good tactics you have there. And I wouldn't really call if especially dirty either.

[knife&fork]

Is tank-shocking now done in the movement phase? 

 

Indeed it is, in 5th it was done in the shooting phase and you were allowed to assault from the same transport. Very useful back in the days for picking off a model like a wolf lord with his TWC semi deathstar. Even if you don't stand a chance against the unit as a whole most marine units have enough attacks to kill off a single character.

[teblin]

Until the new Codex hits, our Vanguard Veterans can charge on the turn they arrive via Deep Strike. Couple that with only a D6 scatter and you have a potent surprise that can still catch some unaware.

 

Didn't that get errata'd?

[Jolemai]

Nope.

[Cronhour]

 

Until the new Codex hits, our Vanguard Veterans can charge on the turn they arrive via Deep Strike. Couple that with only a D6 scatter and you have a potent surprise that can still catch some unaware.

 

Didn't that get errata'd?

 

They took it out of the new space marine codex but we still ave access to it