My First Game with the 2SSF!

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

OK, I had my first game with my Black Devil's Brigade yesterday, and while it was a win, there is much to be learned.

 

So I figured I'd take a page out of Master Anteus's book, and do a little After Action Report and review the units.

 

First up, the units that that didn't perform the way I expected:

 

The Knight:

I had decided to try out some of the new toys. I'll break it down:

 

Meltagun in place of stubber- This would be great on the errant who is more likely to get close to the enemy, but I wouldn't bother on a paladin.

 

Missile launcher- Has the potential to be a game changer, but really didn't add anything to the paladin this go around.

 

For the paladin, my suggestion is to keep its points down at 375, allowing you greater flexibility in the rest of your list.

 

Elysian Stormtroopers:

They performed much like the Scions, except I took the reconnaissance rule, giving them scouts. It worked well for getting those pesky stealthsuits out of my back line. I think they would have been better employed in my primary detachment. Their nice special rules with the pistol and CCW, don't compensate for the inability to take orders.

 

I'm not saying these units were terrible, they performed their roles well, I just think they could have been more effective if equipped differently.

 

The things that did well but needed improvement:

 

Taurox Primes:

They needed Auger Arrays to make my deep striking more accurate, otherwise the gatling guns and autocannons did exceedingly well in providing weight of fire that slaughtered my opponent. His army had very little in the way of armor values, so being able to force tons of armor saves was nice. 

 

Command Squad:

My IG CCS needed a transport, and the Chimera would fit the bill perfectly. 

 

Vets:

Weight of fire killed a ton of my guys, but keeping them in a transport didn't seem to be the best use of their ability to produce volume of fire, given the amount of infantry.

 

Scions:

They did exactly what I wanted them to, except for the deep strike squads, which scattered into units and were delayed. Some form of homing beacons would have helped a ton. All the plasma fire really helped with killing things. However, I've learned that less is more with upgrades. Power fists and Power mauls might be fun, but they're not worthwhile upgrades on characters.

 

Orders:

The only two orders I could use were Suppression Fire Doctrine Sanctioned!, and Bring it Down! Both worked beautifully for stacking up wounds on the one riptide I took down. 

 

Now, This army did exactly what I expected it to, get in quickly and destroy things fast. Lacking ignores cover did hurt me dealing with jink saves. All in all by the end of my turn 3, I had all but demolished my opponent. 

 

The Auger Arrays would also have helped out my scion command squad, putting them directly where they were needed. 

 

All in all I was very impressed with how my army performed, but some modifications to the list are needed.

 

Any suggestions?

[Father Mehman]

I'm glad someone gets to game. I'll be living vicariously through you now, Ulrik. Expect to be hearing me in your head soon !

What missile system did you have mounted on the Knight? I would think it would be able to shred a lot of stuff given their ranges.

Now that you know you need Augur Arrays and a Chimera, what's the first thing to go to make room?

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I used the Heavy 3 S8 AP3 one. It didn't really help. 

[Father Mehman]

I've never faced the blue-skinned xenos scum. There was a player of them in my old gaming group but he was new and I never got to play him before I left. If their whole army can Jink, I'd take the Large Blast missile system and say goodbye to those monkeys. If not, I'd play with the same missile system again. That many anti-armour shots have got to do something other than look pretty.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Congrats on the win. I likewise experienced big problems with deep strike mishaps for my Scions at yesterday's tournament. I think the Augur array is just so expensive though.

 

Some cheap inquisition squads in rhinos with Mystics and an inquisitor or two with servo skulls seems better. Not cheaper but your warbands yield more targets and can add their own firepower to that of your scions.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

All tau vehicles can jink, as they are all either skimmers or flyers. My Tau army is not vehicle heavy, it is battlesuit heavy which makes it a very hard army to kill. Disruption pods are the nasty thing, they add +1 to any cover save the vehicle has, which means jink saves. 

 

It's a bear, but kill enough of his other stuff, and his vehicles can be attacked en masse by everything else. 

[WarriorFish]

Jinking reduces his shootings effectiveness though so it's not all bad. Well done on the win, learning a lot is the best result though ;)

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Indeed. I needed my leadership dice for my scatter dice, instead I rolled my overwatch dice... 

[Master Antaeus]

Loved the report!

 

Sadly, you will mishap.  I will mishap.  We will all mishap.  If you're pressed for points, an inquisitor with 3 servo skulls will set you back 34 points--less than the cost of 2 augur arrays, though the augur arrays are a lot more reliable.  I find, though, that when I deep strike troops, I never seem to have an augur array nearby.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

The auger array is present on my chimeras and my tauroxes now, and if I'm not mistaken servo skulls go away if the enemy is within 6 inches. Still, got another game coming up, so maybe I should change the name of this thread. Except I don't know how to do that...

[Vel'Cona]

How are you planning to switch up the equip on your Elysians?  On that topic, what were they running for this battle?

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I've dropped the demolitions doctrine, finding that they were a huge points sink, I'm dropping the character upgrades, except on the Lord Commissar, and dropping the Heavy Bolter sponsons on the Valkyrie and Vendetta. I've added some heavy weapons teams to my army, so I might rotate them in, Heavy bolter for the Elysians. I dropped the Elysian Stormtroopers, since they didn't bring anything to the table that scions couldn't do just as well for cheaper. The cheaper cost on the Flyers and the ability to get one as a dedicated transport made them the most useful, not to mention getting it in on first turn. Elysians really brought the hurt early, and my opponent wasn't able to recover. 

 

Next game I'll be running a streamlined list, learning from this one, and remembering my tracking beacon, I may just swap the demo doctrine for the Elysian F/O doctrine and getting them infiltrate and another beacon, So I can bring more deep striking in where I need it. 

[captain sox]

You need more Scions :)

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Of course I do Sox, but for now what I need is MOAR TANKS!

[ThatOneMarshal]

I'm sorry but what is SSF? I like the idea of the list and I myself have been thinking about doing a drop regiment. What's your opinion of eleysians? Do you think they can handle themselves or would it be better to run them out of the regular codex?

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

SSF (I was military and we love our alphabet soup), it stands for Special Service Force (Named after the 1st Special Service Force, the Devil's Brigade, from WW2). As for the Elysians, I really like them, the Vets are bit expensive (points), but the Flyers are great, it's good to have gunship support turn 1, and with the doctrines (expensive upgrades) they can do a ton of good, like being beacons for deep strike (which has worked wonders in the past). I have a heavy weapons squad to sink into them now, which should improve their killing potential, seeing as they rarely move once I have them in position. 

 

I just picked up 14 more Kasrkin to add, which will give me 2 full squads of them to field. Incidentally, I plan on fielding 5 Squads of 8 and 2 Command Squads, once I get these guys.

[Vel'Cona]

Good plans, overall.  I think a bit more armor will help to give you some solid (non-fleshy) targets to help your infantry get where they need to be.  I'd keep your armor choices low cost since you've invested so much in Scions, but that's me.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I think I might add a second 2 man Armored Sentinel PC team, that and the Second Valkyrie and Second Vendetta. I think I might round out my Stormtroopers with a 6th eight man squad, so I can do 2 (almost) full up platoons. I'm also thinking of 2 more Taurox Primes. My Plasma Squads will be mounted, while my command and melta squads will be deep striking. The Auger arrays are to aid the command squads going right where I need them to support my stormtrooper squads, with a rain of plasma fire, and orders. 

 

I'm going to do armor in a different army, that will focus on the Armored spearhead. This one is the tip of the spear, fast moving and hard hitting. 

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Second game with the 2SSF was a draw against Necrons. I play them and I think they're broken. I had the win on victory points when we called it, but he'd killed a lot of my stuff (It was my necron army too). The new necrons are a brutal opponent. The knight did quite well, getting me first blood, by annihilating his scarabs in one turn of combat.  It also killed his monolith, as well as taking off 2 hull points on his catacomb command barge. 

 

The master of ordinance performed magnificently, killing a majority of his Lychguard and stripping a wound from Trazyn. My scions didn't do much this game.

[WarriorFish]

Necrons can he a tough opponent especially when lower on numbers yourself, a draw is better than a loss ;) I'm sure you picked up some new tricks and things to remember along the way for next time too :tu:

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I didn't play as fast and aggressive this time, which may have contributed to the low amount of stuff he killed. I have to say though, that the Dark angels allies I took did not quite do the trick I was expecting. Next time I'll be trying grey knights, as the added psykers might benefit me more, with a couple of Ordo Malleus Inquisitors. It will also give me a nice unit that I can assault with and maybe tie up some stuff, as well as at the very least putting a unit out front that will tank a ton of shooting. I might have been better off taking Deathwing, instead of Ravenwing as allies, since DW can deep strike in first turn automatically, and I could have changed the dynamic of the game. I'll still try GK next time since I really think the Psyker support is worth having in the Stormtroopers.

 

For GK I was thinking, 

 

2 ML3 libbies, with stormbolter, stuck in with Stormie squads

 

2 GK Terminator squads, with psycannons and swords. 

 

And Inquisition I was thinking:

 

2 ML1 Ordo Malleus Termie Inquisitors with Psycannons and swords, also sunk in with Stormie Squads. 

 

That would give me D6 + 10 warp charges for manifesting psychic stuff, as well as having 2 units of termies to charge his stuff. I'd also have my knight to provide fire support and my master of ordinance, and melta vets to wreck his vehicles.