8e Combos

[Tactical Badger]

I would like to start a thread which collects ideas on combos, synergies and anti-synergies in 8e. 

 

I will be very happy if people add to these or challenge them. 

 

Note that for the time being, I am going off theory alone, since I have not played 8e yet. But it seems pretty clear that 8e, like AOS, places more importance on the interaction between your units and their abilities. At the same time, note that even if a combo exists, it is not necessarily the right choice in every situation (e.g. points cost, detachment requirements, mission objectives etc etc can all make an otherwise sub-optimal choice the better one).

 

Let’s get an obvious (and very DA-relevant) one out of the way first:

 

Captain + Plasma weaponry.  Having a captain nearby unlocks a much safer use of the supercharged mode on plasma weaponry.  GW gave a strong nudge for this with the Hellblaster squad in the starter set.  As an aside, I fully expect the primaris line to make a particularly good use of various combos, so pay attention to them.

 

Chaplain + Power fists, Thunder hammers, Chainfists. These weapons hit like a ton of bricks, but at the cost of a -1 to hit. A nearby Chaplain however allows you to re-roll hit rolls in the Fight phase, which offsets the modifier. Moreover, while I don’t want to embarrass myself with the maths, I believe a 4+ is the sweet spot for a re-roll, because a) the end result is over the odds (better than 50%) - unlike a 5+ or 6+ re-roll and b) the increase in the probability of success (by 50%) due to the re-roll is greater than the increase in the probability of success with a re-rolled 3+ or 2+ (although their actual probability of success is of course greater). End result: a) our Interrogator-Chaplain with a power fist is going to be a monster in CC, b) a Chaplain in terminator armour is going to be a great boost for a squad of Deathwing Terminators.

 

Deathwing Ancient (Standard bearer) + Power fists, Thunder hammers, Chainfists. The other way of counterbalancing the down-side of these powerful weapons is to increase the number of attacks. Combo of combos: stack the chaplain, the standard bearer and the terminators together to give your terminators 3 attacks on 4+ with re-rolls. Finally, if you combine the terminators with Asmodai and a Deathwing Ancient, you lose the option of teleporting in, but the terminators go up to 4 attacks with re-rolls. Their average hits per fight phase go up from 1 to 3! Possibly this is overkill.

 

Ravenwing Jink ability + Assault weapons. Jink turns on when Ravenwing advance, and after advancing the only weapons which can be fired are Assault weapons.  Meltaguns are the obvious beneficiaries of this, but flamers also combo well, especially as they don’t even suffer from the -1 to hit. I would really like to try a squad of three bikes with 2 flamers and a combi-flamer dong a move plus turboboost and then setting fire to some lightly armed unit or character who was initially 28’’ away from them. Powerful Overwatch and the Jink would give the unit a degree of survivability.  

 

Ravenwing bikers + chainswords. Chainswords cost as much as bolt pistols and their damage output is identical. But chainswords can be used in the fight phases of both player’s turns, whereas bolt pistols cannot be fired at the same time as the twin-linked bolters and special weapons, and will only be relevant for shooting in cc during your own turns.

 

Apothecaries + multi-wound models. The apothecary’s power is much better at healing than at resurrecting, being guaranteed vs 50%, so Ravenwing and Deathwing apothecaries healing their comrades is a better combo than an apothecary with a tactical squad. The nudge from GW is that Primaris marines also have 2W. Also, healing a Ravenwing attack bike should be quite fun.

 

Dark Angels Librarian + walls. None of the interromancy powers require LOS, so our Librarian can happily sit behind some cover while unpeeling some traitor’s mind.   

 

Deep striking + weapons that are good at 10’’. Good load outs for a deep striking squad include Rapid fire weapons with a range of 20’’+ (e.g. plasma guns, bolters, storm bolters) and Multi-meltas.

 

Anti-synergy: Deep striking + weapons that are only good at less than 10”. Flamers are the big losers here, but grav-guns and meltaguns are also sub-par.  These weapons ought to be better on models which can be transported close to the enemy in a tank or flier.

 

Anti-synergy: Deep striking + enemy units which can scout outside normal deployment zones (i.e. Scouts). Setting up a scouting unit up to 18’’ away from your other units creates a buffer zone within which your opponent can’t land drop pods, materialise, burrow etc. Plus, they can be a useful road-block for early game Charges, although you don’t want to be so close to the enemy that you enable their charges.

 

Company Ancient (greenwing standard bearer) + heavy weapons. If you are going to get a final shot off before dying, make it a shot with something powerful. I have an image of Grav-cannon Devastators plus the Company standard doing a suicide Drop pod landing next to a lot of enemies and causing.. devastation. 

 

Anti-synergy: Morale + squads which have more models than their Ld minus 5. With Ld8, a unit must take three casualties before being at risk of losing additional models to morale. Be careful about taking expensive models, such as bikers, for example, in units of greater than 3 due to the risk losing whole bikes to morale. Expensive Primaris units consisting of three models (e.g. the Interceptors) backs this up.

 

Anti-synergy: Slay the Warlord + Land Raider Warlord. Bit cheesy this one, but your warlord does not have to be a character and potentially making a very tough vehicle such as a Land Raider could be a strong tactic in order to deny the opponent the point(s) for Slay the Warlord. 

 

Command re-rolls + I go, you go. Given the structure of the game, the more threats you can take out in your turn, the less damage the opponent can do to you in their turn. If this repeats over a number of turns, the initial attacker’s dominance will cumulatively increase and snowball. Note that I refer to the initial attacker, not the first player. Positioning, distance, reserves etc can all be used by the second player to reduce and mitigate the attacks of the first player and to seize the initiative. Being able to identify and focus on real threats, rather than distractions (be they bubble wrap units or Carnifexes) will be a key skill. But to the extent that you have the opportunity to eliminate a threat early on, use it and do not hesitate to use re-rolls to ensure success. I honestly expect to unload most of my command points on command re-rolls in the first couple of turns.

[Madmonkeyman]

The things I noticed was azrael giving re rolls and 4+invun to everything in 6inches which will be great on a bunch of tanks . Maybe with a dark shroud near for -1to hit for everything in 6inches

[Kewl Imp]

Interrogator Chaplains and any close combat unit.  The rerolls to hit in close combat has already served me well. Once we get relics back, he will become much more dangerous. Combined with a unit like Black Knights, it creates a situation when you want to charge.

[RayJ]

Any combo using a chaplain's reroll will also work with Azrael, Belial, or Sammael given the appropriate units.

 

A Company Ancient or Primaris Ancient pairs well with any apothecary, allowing the possibility of a resurrection after the final stand shooting attack. I'm partial to the RW apothecary due to movement and better weapon loadouts. I'd shy away from the DW apothecary due to its lack of a 3rd attack.

[PhilB]

I'm playing my first game of 8th tonight and will be 'porting 2 shooty DW squads with Belial & a TDA Librarian right in my opponents face on turn 1 while my back line of Predators & Razorbacks lend long range support fire. Looking forward to giving 8th a go and reporting back to the DA forums over the weekend!

[Ronin_eX]

One that I'm liking the sound of right now is a bit pricey, but a nice compliment to a teleport-strike DW list.

 

First, start with a Land Raider Crusader and a squad of Deathwing Knights.  Classic combo, assault terminators in an assault-centric transport.  The upshot being that everything inside and out is tough as nails.

 

Next, add in the spice.  Deathwing Ancient and Asmodai.  Both provide their own independent +1A buff and Asmodai gives close-combat to-hit re-rolls.

 

Those maces/flails are now hitting 89.11% of the time instead of ~66.67% of the time and getting +2 attacks a pop.  With the way maces and flails work now, these things are absolute blenders in hand-to-hand against basically anything.

 

But the real magic comes in a pure Deathwing force.  First, this unit is four units on the field for the purposes of how many units can be teleported in.  Second, because the DWKs don't give a fig about shooting re-rolls this frees Belial up to buff your teleporting strike force since Asmodai gives the DWK all the buffs they need.

 

So you can now roll your mobile fortress toward enemy lines and have a ton of leeway for packing extra units in to the teleportarium for a truly epic teleport strike from Belial and retinue of Deathwing.