Stopping enemy "hammers" in their tracks.

[bobanog]

I see a lot of topics talking about ways of getting our primarchs into combat but I havent seen one about stopping other peoples hammers.

 

If your opponent is coming at you with a flare shielded spartan with armoured ceramite I've found there are very few ways to reliably kill them before they reach their target.

Lighnings with kraken-pentrators seems to be the best way to get an explodes result with lascannons and medusas only being able to glance on 6s are there any other ways to kill spartans at range?

Melee isnt very helpful as if you are having to kill it in melee its probably where it wants to be anyway and they will be able to get the charge off in their turn and cant be assaulted as all charges occur simultaneously.

 

Have you found a way to destroy a spartan before it delivers it's deadly cargo without using a lightning which becomes more and more unreliable the more reserve affecting units that are added.

[helterskelter]

Mooching the tactics sections the alpha legion sab centurions ability combined with amarillus dynat adding plus 1 to vehicle damage rolls can stop at least one spartan. Drop podding melta support squads to glance it's Harris to death (going on strength knowing full well melta is irrelevant)

If you have something with speed/str 8 plus/ can get at sides and rear you can slow down near enough anything bar a titan

[Hesh Kadesh]

Sadly debunked, you have to declare the combat arrays use at the start of the turn, which you cannot do if the model is not on the board.

 

Melta is irrelevant Against AV14 Hulls; they will be armoured ceramite, so No bonuses and even glancing it to death requires 30 hits.

 

And yes, Graviton Cannons can bring haywire. 6 of them come to 450 and take down a Spartan and leave the enemy hammer if difficukt and dangerous terrain.

[infyrana]

What's the going luck of a Contemptor talon sporting dual fists w/Grav, chainfist, etc falling into this role ?

[vladsimpaler]

And yes, Graviton Cannons can bring haywire. 6 of them come to 450 and take down a Spartan and leave the enemy hammer if difficukt and dangerous terrain.

 

This is the option that anyone can bring and have it do well, although true to form AL and RG do it best. The only other solid first turn option is an Orbital Assault with 2 standard Dreadnoughts w/grav fists, it comes out to 380 with drop pods and although you only get 4 hits you can then engage the enemy hammer with them the next turn once the Spartan is knocked out by any other attacks. 

[Sircyn]

Medusa shells hit the side armour due to barrage so bypass the flare shield. Males them a decent way to chip away hull points.

 

Anything with a crap load of melta bombs and a means of getting close fast enough to make it worth doing. Jet bikes or thallax are good for this.

 

I've had the most joy with a pair of lightning's.

 

Haywire is nice if you can take enough of it, you'll need two units of three grav rapiers for instance, which a significant points and elites slot commitment.

 

I'm looking forwards to trying chainfist+2x grav contemptors myself, dropped behind a Spartan they can knock a load of HP off it, stay in their pods and either force the enemy death star to disembark to deal with them or the dreads have a free run at the enemy back line. Hopefully a nice catch 22.

[Hesh Kadesh]

It's not a massive slot commitment; it's 2 slots when you have 4 available. Up against what most people have been used to for 3rd through to 5th, and part of 6th when people started ignoring double FoC Clause is that they had 3 elites slots to use. You've only used one here. If you want to use multiple Terminators or Veterans, there is Pride of the Legion or Chosen Duty. Dreadnoughts are available 1-3 unless you're drop podding them, in which case you should take Orbital Assault and you can take Grav that way in any case. I'm not a fan of Contemptors for that purpose; normal Legion dreads are more than capable, and unless running them face first into a loak of Krak Grenades, you are safe (and even then; 20 Krak Grenades is 10 hits, 1, maybe 2 hp damage at most, just direct all of your attacks against the meltabomb/pfist dude). Against meltabombs, you're equally screwing the pooch whether you've AV13 5++ or AV12. Apothecaries, do people still think that Tactical Blobs are the way to run Legion lists these days, with all of the S8+ blasts running around? Unless you're IH, you shouldn't need it. And Techmarines? Unless I'm spamming Iron Hands Land Raider Achilles-Alpha, I'm not sure I have a potential use for these static guys.

 

So that leaves you with 2 opportunity slots. As for their points cost, 450pts is a large part of a 2K list. But it kills a 350pt Spartan/370pt Typhon dead in one turn in all likelihood (although depends on who gets first turn against a Typhon), which is why I like Drop Podding Dreads on them in the first turn as well.