List building/tactics in 7th ed.

[Polythemus]

Ok so lets try to hammer out some principles of how this game has changed for us all in 7th ed. I think that with the way that objectives are handled by mission cards there are several things to think about.

 

Goals:

 

Mobility - in a game where 50% of the cards/tactical objectives are based around randomly switching objectives it is clear that mobility is going to be extremely important in how you are able to score points better. This means mechanized infantry or bikes. This also means that taking terminators even scoring ones is very risky proposition. Unless they have a landraider it will be very hard for them to achieve any sort of mobility for objective grabbing so they will need to be able to come down close to an objective card in your hand. The problem is the only predictable objectives you need to achieve will be 50% objective based and the secondaries. Therefore the mobility of our deathwing, even with there new benefits, is a cause for concern.

 

Troops with objective secured - superscoring troops are going to be critical in your success. they will be able to deny opponents. I think we need troops but troops with mobility are going to be more valuable.

 

Balanced list - It'll be interesting to see how things develop from a list perspective. As ever balanced list building is critical. you will need long range and short range firepower to clear the enemy from places you need to go. Consider for example a list with Azreal and Zeke, in DP with power armored command squad, with 2x demi tact squads, 2x ravenwing, 2x deathwing. You can get all this at around 1850, and have room for the banner of fortitude. Pretty nice right, all superscoring, each with a different role. You can land on every objective, but you'll have a hard time with many kinds of threats as you inevitably have to split up your army and this makes it hard to win games. You'll need all the elements to have a fully funtional list.

 

The thing is with the new objectives you and your opponent are not always battling over parallel objective goals. This makes it tougher to predict what your opponent is going to do so board control becomes even more critical. Board control or positional dominance comes from being able to have a majority of your army capable of controling the middle of the field. When you do this you are able to more easily get to objectives around the board, and you force the enemy back out of reach of more objectives. Horde armies tend to be really good at this, but armies with really high mobility/eldar dark eldar, Tau, are also quite good at it. marines need to be able to choose where the strength of the army needs to be and this means picking your battles.

 

Specific Unit Changes

Librarians vs Chaplians vs Adamantium will upgrade.

 

LIbrarians - The utility of librarians of the DA is an interesting proposition. They are easily the most flexible HQ unit in the codex. In the psychic phase now they are more potent due to being able to shoot multiple targets in a psychic phase enabling them to increase the utility of the squad they are with. They will serve you well in a game where the warp charge is relatively balanced per side. However, in games where it is unbalanced you'll need to consider them purely for their ability to DtW (Deny the witch). Eldar can reliably get 14-20 warp charge dice per turn with seer councils, and demons can get 30-40+ with the demon factory build. WIth a 50% chance on 5 dice at manifesting a  warp charge 3 power that means any summoning can be cast  several times, although there are plenty of potent beings out there that can do other nasty things. While blessings are sadly only denied on a 6, the utility versus witchfire is good, giving you at least a 5+ at all times. It is worth considering the upgrade to ML 2, simply for the extra utility brought about (extra power generation, improved chance at denying enemy psykers, extra warp charge generation.) Keep in mind that while it is under debate in the rules thread, the only limiting factors on the powers you can cast in a single turn are:

1.) no power can be cast more than once

2.) the number of warp charge dice in your pool

There does not appear to be a relationship between number of casting attempts ("manifesting" if you prefer GW lingo), and mastery level as there was in the prior edition. 

 

Chaplians - these fiesty characters continue to have role but sadly their utility is lost slightly in comparison to librarians. Their main advantage is rerolling hits in the first round of combat, and granting fearless. I think you can also purchase adamantium will for some, but really these guys have truly been left in the cold, due to the fact that psykers grant so much more potential.