Phase Form and RW Land Speeders

[L30n1d4s]

This is something that I think might be quite effective for a Dark Angels army:

 

 

-Librarius Conclave rolling on Geomancy (roll to get Phase Form)

-RW Land Speeder Squadron (5 Landspeeders with HBs and TMLs)

 

 

The goal is to get Phase Form from Geomancy, then successfully cast it on the Land Speeder Squadron. This gives the Squadron Move through Cover, Ignore Cover for their shooting, and also the ability to ignore LOS when choosing their target.

 

 

If successfully cast, this means that you can put the Land Speeders being LOS blocking terrain (to protect them from enemy fire), then blaze away at 36" with their 5 HBs and 10 Krak or Frag Missiles each turn, all while Ignoring enemy Cover Saves and LOS blocking. Against almost any army, this ought to makes its points back and some after just a few rounds of shooting, plus put your opponent on the horns of a dilemma on how to deal with the Land Speeders that he cannot shoot at directly, due to LOS blocking.

 

 

The biggest shortcoming of this strategy is that it relies on the Conclave successfully getting Phase Form, which is by no means guaranteed, even with Ezekiel and up to 4 other Librarians.

 

[Chaplain Lucifer]

There's all kind of nasty tricks you can pull with this one, but like you said , you are still dependent on actually having it.. and casting it successfully.

[Saphrael]

 

The biggest shortcoming of this strategy is that it relies on the Conclave successfully getting Phase Form, which is by no means guaranteed, even with Ezekiel and up to 4 other Librarians.

That, and five land speeders have a pretty massive footprint. Unless you have massive LOS blocking terrain they're probably going to get shot at.

 

Not to mention indirect fire artillery. It doesn't even have to do much damage, just force this big, expensive squad to jink and radically reduce their damage output.

[CovertToaster]

Also you could take azrael, choose the warlord trait that gives him and his squad ignores cover, then put them in a pod/razorback.

 

OK so not that good as it doesn't affect his squad!

[ValourousHeart]

Cover should never be much of a concern for speeders, they have enough speed and range that they should be able to get around it.

 

As for the time your opponent puts all of his army in ruins... Well that just takes paying attention when setting up terrain. With terrain set up, 1 of 3 things will happen.

 

1) A third party sets up terrain. Generally they won't build castles, and most of the terrain will end up outside of either depolyment zone. Sometimes in this situation you still get the option to adjust some terrain, and you should if one deployment zone is the obvious first choice. Even at a tournament if you point out before round 1 starts that a table benefits the player that deploys first, they will if they can correct that. But you have to catch it before any games are played on that table.

 

2) Your opponent sets up terrain. If they build a castle, simply exercise your option to adjust some terrain so that they can't hide their entire army in one spot.

 

3) You either set up all of the terrain or you setup half of the terrain. Use your involvement in the terrain set up process to make sure that there are not any terrain formations that will negatively affect your army.

 

You'll want to look at the table from all 4 sides, and the goal is to not have one table edge be the obvious first choice deployment zone.

 

If you do all of this and you still find yourself in a situation where the table is designed to benefit your opponent and hinder you, then you still have a 50/50 shot at taking the best deployment zone away from your opponent.

 

The main benefit of this thoughtful terrain set up process, is that it isn't dependent upon getting the right random dice roll, or even catering to a particular play style. It also is not about giving you an advantage over your opponent, but instead about leveling the playing field.

 

"When two armies are equally matched, terrain will carry the day" - Sun Tsu