Apocolypse Tactic

[adeptusmedicus]

Greetings to one and all,

 

I have an approaching game in apocolypse in Mar, and now find myself turning a bit of attention to my tactics i want to use, mainly my initial deployment. I was thinking initially of using my force of approximately 11K (as of right now), in 2 areas. The bulk of the force supporting the main lines, backed with 2 freeblade knights. Then having a flank protected by a house set of 4 knights, that i have developed the colour scheme for and created a name for as well. Mainly i am wondering if 4 knights will hold the flank for me or will there be potential problems??

 

Would this be a viable tactic to use, considering the opponents will be fielding an ork army. 

 

In my main line, I will be having 4 baneblades, bolstered by the Fortress of Arrogance and Yarrick, with various configurations, and 2 free blade knights to back that up.

 

I have loaded units out in the main lines with flamers, mortars and heavy bolters. Many leman russ tanks (like approx 9) in various configerments.

 

I hope to be making use of my orders on every turn, and especially first rank fire, second rank fire. 

 

Comments and concerns welcome.

 

Cheers

 

[librisrouge]

Against Orks? You should do fine actually. Seems like you've got it fairly well planned out.

 

As a fellow Knight player, what're you packing there? Any Cerastus chassis?

[FashaTheDog]

If you have 3-5 Deathstrikes take the Deathstrike Vortex Missile Battery formation! With three of them you hold them in Strategic Reserve and come rolling in on turn two far away from the enemy. Then he gets one turn to kill them before they launch two vortex missiles. If you wait until turn three to roll on, then when you launch on turn four, you can do so with all three. With a range of 1'-80', you will be in range unless you are using an entire parking lot for the game.

Now some advice about Apocalypse in general, avoid more than a 'token' infantry force, no matter how awesome thousands of Guardsmen in formation would look on the table. It will take you all day just to move and shoot your models once. If you just feel you have to field thousands of Guardsmen, and what self respecting Guard players doesn't feel that way, stick each platoon or "mobile" part thereof (so not Heavy Weapons Squads) on a tray so you just move the trays and have hundreds of dice on standby, preferably previously counted out in groups of ten for easy rolling. Mostly this is time management as some venues put a timer on turns or phases to prevent the first three turns from taking a day each, although sometimes the group is insane enough (and awesome enough) to say challenge accepted on the week long Apocalypse game.

Now the other thing is TALK TO YOUR TEAM. More games of Apocalypse have been one-sided beatings because one team planned things out and worked in concert focusing fire and supporting each other while the opposing team loses by a landslide as everyone does their own thing (usually screaming WAAAGH!!! as they go). In large games with big tanks and titans it gets real easy to lose sight of teamwork and go for all the glory. Pretty common trap even if your team does initially plan to talk to to each other throughout the game.

Last Apocalypse game I played had about a dozen players and somewhere in the neighborhood of 75K to a side of Imperium versus Orks with some Tyranid "pets". Much befitting the fluff, the Imperial players all worked together talking and plotting with me, the lone Krieg & Dark Angels player (I went for a Vraks theme), "ostracized" and told to hold the left flank to the last man (not really ostracized, although that fits the fluff of what I brought ; I just had no need of drawing team assets past the odd titan shot or two into my holding action) while the Ork team blindly rushed Imperial lines seeking individual glory for each Warboss as Stompas and Gargants exploded under coordinated Imperial salvos. It became a game where it was me delaying an Ork and a Tyranid player while the large remaining Imperial army squared off against a bunch of little Ork armies who were trying to out do each other for kills.

One last thing to consider for Apocalypse is Drop Sentinels from Imperial Armour I or the Elysian list from Imperial Armour III. At 5 points less than a plasma cannon Armored Sentinel are expensive, but these are deep-striking Scout Sentinels with multi-meltas. In large Apocalypse games, this cost is offset by the amazing value of sprinkling suicide Sentinels across the field. A handful of these are great at disrupting advances, blasting transports out from squads and tearing apart armor across the field. Sure they are unlikely to survive the following turn, but with a whole bunch of vehicles dead or damaged and a fair amount of firepower redirected away from your lines, it buys you more time to purge the xenos from afar.

Some Guard Apocalypse Formations to consider:

Lord Castellan's Supreme Command: You get to issue Creed's orders anywhere on the table, get 2-4 Master of Ordnance shots, and you get an extra Asset at break. Very nice for the already good deal of having to buy Creed, Kell, and all three advisers in a bastion. As an added bonus, if you also have a big unit of Rough Riders (or their grownup Krieg counterparts, Death Riders), Ogryns, or even a blob squad of some sort you can have them make an All-Out Attack thanks the this formation being High Command, so triple movement plus a charge to ensure that you are the one making the charge from anywhere (a cavalry charge of 38"-48" says yes to me).

Fun Combo: Add a unit of Rough/Death Riders charging clear across the table on turn one while the aforementioned Drop Sentinels are raising a ruckus along with a few Drop Pod Marines and/or Deep Striking Terminators (preferably Deathwing). You have most likely just forced the Ork team to turn a good chunk of their front line around to spend their next turn cleaning up their backfield while you continue to scythe down their lines. This actually works better if your team goes second so the Orks have already committed to the advance, effectively forcing them to waste two turns as they need to backtrack to kill the stuff behind before having to cross no-man's land a second time. Make them pay for the same ground twice.

Stompa Hunters: A great and relatively cheap answer to enemy super-heavies.

Heavy Weapons Company: Questionable for short timed deployments, but a decent way to get extra accurate firepower if you have the cover/fortifications for it. Also, a must have if you are already taking 10+ Heavy Weapons Squads as you just add a Platoon Command Squad for the bonus order and twin-linked heavy weapons formation wide, huzzah!

Artillery Company: Not a bad way to upgrade a crap ton of Basilisks if you already plan to bring them.

Recon Company: This is a rather nice response to weaken Green Tides if you think you need that little bit extra. It also can be used to wreck havoc on the Ork backfield in general.

Tank Company: Like the Artillery Company, this is a nice way to upgrade your ten pack of Leman Russ. Bring Pask, Tank Commanders, and/or Forgeworld Armored Battle Group Company Command Tanks (including Schfeer and/or Grizmund) to baby-sit the formation with orders.

Storm Trooper Mission Elite: Relatively small requirement with a huge potential impact as they can zip in, lay down double cover ignoring shots while running, and then grab you and additional Strategic Victory Point (SVP) when the break rolls around. Fun on the fly.

Bear in mind that since you are facing Orks, watch out for Overlord von Strab. A unit of 9 Nobs with an Imperial Guard Senior Officer doesn't sound particularly troubling, but there is that pesky Von Strab Must Die! special rule that grants the Ork player an additional SVP at the end of each break he is alive. If your group has say three breaks, that is three free SVP for hiding him far away from the fighting. Now if you can kill him early on, you turn the tables and score a SVP each break he is dead. If your group says no breaks, then the formation is not so bad, but still can really toss a monkey wrench in your plans as if they can manage to drop him right in front of a bunch of stuff you do not want in the assault (like Heavy Weapons Squads, your Warlord on foot or in an assault vehicle, etc) von Strab will force them to charge him and his Nob minions, potentially leaving cover and facing a bunch of kombi-flamer hilarity for their trouble while leaving you in a less than desirable position.

[adeptusmedicus]

Thanks for the insights.

 

Librisrouge: I was planning on bringing the obsidan and Amantine free blade knights to bolster my lines. The packing 2 knight errants, a pallidin, and to lead the house a Questoris Knight Mageara (mainly cause i like the shoulders for the leader).

 

Fashathedog: You raise some great points, things that i will be looking at. I was already thinking about Overlord von Strab, and was planning on taking him out as fast as possible, mainly with ordanace if i could. I am thinking by the time march rolls around, I will have about 150 guardsmen, and 2 formations of 35 scions ( one formation on the ground & one in the air). Was gonna be using Castellan's formation as well, and I want the orders to help my side. But will have a think about the 3 advisiors as well to join, hadnt given them much thought. Right now, I  am not too sure who is on my side, i know i am battling 2 ork players who are scrambling to catch up to my points at this time. Will post the list when i have a bit of time for you to look at, which will be using everything i own. 

Still have stuff to put together, but one unit i am looking forward to seeing how they do is a unit of 9 bullgryns hopping out of a stormlord. That should be entertaining.

 

This is only my second game of apocolypse i am playing since it came out, and will be the first using the new 40K rules, as i had not had time to play much in the last number of years to play a game, missed the whole 6th edition. The Orks players are GW emplyees, so they will be helping me with learning rules, and hoping to get a few games in before to learn a bit before the game starts. I am also going to be bringing psykers to this game, so that may assist as well.

 

Question though, would you put an enginseer in a chimera, and if so would you have anything with him?? Like servitors? Would it be helpful to have more than 1 enginseer?? Another idea i have, is using an Inquisition force to deal with some of the heavier items that orks would present, and mainly to wipe out characters. Would this be prudent? which codex would i need, thinking Grey knights.