Post-release roundtable: what worked? what didn't?

[Calistarius]

I played a couple of low point games this weekend. The big standout for me was the Stormraven. I used it to transport my Libby Dread and a small Sanguinary Guard squad. It was a total game changer. Dumped its passengers turn 2 and continued strafing runs unscathed for the remainder of the game. I was doubting the 300+ points would pay off, but I doubt I'll play another game without one again.

 

Also, the SG squad was as good as I was hoping. I cast SoS on them each round for that nice 4++ and they cleaned house. Just with swords and Angelus Boltguns. Nothing special. I've got 14 plus the Ancient that I can't wait to use again.

[Poppaby]

Ivve now played 6 games, 3 against Thousand Sons and Three against Tau. Smashed the Tau all three times, and lost all three against thousand sons, although he did use magnus.

 

What Ive learned so far is Land Raider Crusaders full of Dc or THSS termys are` bananas. The three games against TS ive lost because I focused on killing Magnus, and by the time Ive done it its too late to pick up objectives. Concentrating on the weaker larger units is important.

[Karhedron]

Has anyone used inceptors yet? I'm considering buying 2 squads. They make a pretty decent mobile shoots unit to take down chaff I think.

Big problem with Inceptors is that their price in the Primaris mini-dex that comes with Dark Millenium does not match the price in Index Imperium 1. In the Mini-dex, they cost 53 points each which I think is fair. At this price they are reasonably competitive against other mobile fire-support options.

 

Unfortunately in II1, they are priced at 75 points each and I feel that this price they are too much. HB Attack bikes cost 55 points, have almost as much dakka and twice as many wounds. An HB/AC Land Speeder costs 125 points so you can almost get 2 for the price of 3 Inceptors. They have twice as many wounds as Inceptors and a lot more firepower.

 

Hopefully the next FAQ or Chapter Approved will confirm that the mini-dex price is correct. I don't see Inceptors being viable at 75 points a pop.

[Charlo]

Codex will probably sort them all out.

[Dante2285]

Ivve now played 6 games, 3 against Thousand Sons and Three against Tau. Smashed the Tau all three times, and lost all three against thousand sons, although he did use magnus.

 

What Ive learned so far is Land Raider Crusaders full of Dc or THSS termys are` bananas. The three games against TS ive lost because I focused on killing Magnus, and by the time Ive done it its too late to pick up objectives. Concentrating on the weaker larger units is important.

Yo Poppaby - My main opponent plays Tau and I am now 0-2 against him.  It's infuriating to be honest - not that I don't win - but it never seems like I make any gains on him during the game.  He is a good player, but I'd like to give him a cause for concern at some point.  I would appreciate any tips and tricks as I develop an all comers list which will be used against Chaos, Tyrannids, and Tau respectively.  Thanks for any advice sir!

Edited June 26, 2017 by Dante2285

[TheHarrower]

Started an escalation league at the local GW at 500 points. Razorback with AssCans is the business. Death Company need a bit of help to put the hurt on people. 5 with Jump Packs and Lemmy just isn't enough. They assaulted a Khorne Daemon Prince out of deep strike and couldn't take him down. Got counter charged by 15 Berzerkers after so I'm sure you can figure out what happened there. He didn't even need to use his second activation. With Death Company, I need a Thunder Hammer or Inferno Pistol to deal multiple wounds. Had a sword and axe. I was surprised by the amount of reliable damage a sword does to vehicles. Scouts did well. They did draw a ton of fire, which I thought was odd. All and all, fun games. Next week we bump it up to 750. I'll report back what happens.

[evildrcheese]

5 games deep so far. Loving it.

 

The good:

Gotta echo what's been said about Storm Ravens, excellent gunboat but quite pointy.

 

Missile Launcher Devastators, potentially MVP in all my games. Frag for hordes, krak for multiple wound things. I've been putting a captain with thunder hammer for rerolled and help if anything charges them. Also throwing a power sword on the Sgt to help if someone charges them.

 

Captain: see above. Great for improving efficiency of units and can counter charged stuff looking to tie up shooty units. I tried keeping him cheap with just a power sword but then it's problematic vs multi wound infantry, so I tried the Thunder Hammer and haven't looked back.

 

The Bad:

CC/Shotgun/Bolter Scouts. Have proved pretty awful in every game I've played. Gonna switch to Sniper Scouts I think.

 

Baal Predator with Flamestorm/Heavy Flamers. Absolute tripe. AC/HB seems better but i can't see the AC/HB varient being better that the auto/HB if I'm honest.

 

The mediocre/middle of the road:

Terminator Librarian. Cool to drop in and Smite something. Jump Pack Librarian could do it cheaper.

Powers:

Smite. extremely good. Cannot underestimate how great d3 mortal wounds are

4++. very good. Liked putting on shooty termies and the Storm Raven.

+1A. Good. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Blood boil. Absolutely useless. Same difficulty as Smite. Cannot hurt anything =>T7, even somewhat unreliable against average infantry (T4). The only good thing about it, is it would give an extra opportunity to do more mortal wounds. In most cases I wouldn't even bother taking this power.

Pretty durable especially when given SS.

 

Shooty terminators. Mixed feelings on these but they're definitely on upper end of the mediocre. Rapid fire 2 storm bolters are amazing at ripping infantry to shreds. Drop in and unleash a storm. Personally I'm tempted to drop heavy weapons on these guys the -1 to hit for moving sucks. Powerfists mean they can be threatening in assault, especially against vehicles but I had one game why they just couldn't kill a dune crawler (even with the Lobby giving +1a) but I think that may have been a dice anomaly rather than them being 'bad'. Although the-1 to hit with power fists doesn't help.

 

TAC marines. Not amazing at anything but not awful at anything. Standard fair for them, liking the plasma for range synergy wit has bolters. Haven't bothered with heavy weapons, but have been kitting sgts out. Liking inferno pistols on them as they can really cause problems with vehicles they assault.

 

EDC

Edited June 27, 2017 by evildrcheese

[Indefragable]

Shooty terminators. Mixed feelings on these but they're definitely on upper end of the mediocre. Rapid fire 2 storm bolters are amazing at ripping infantry to shreds. Drop in and unleash a storm. Personally I'm tempted to drop heavy weapons on these guys the -1 to hit for moving sucks. Powerfists mean they can be threatening in assault, especially against vehicles but I had one game why they just couldn't kill a dune crawler (even with the Lobby giving +1a) but I think that may have been a dice anomaly rather than them being 'bad'. Although the-1 to hit with power fists doesn't help.

 

 

 

I am really thinking that dakka Termies will be fantastic distraction carnifex for us. Drop them in behind enemy lines, shoot up some characters, pull attention away from the jumpers coming up the board. I think the idea is to assassinate characters with massed bolt fire (4shots/storm bolter < 12") and then go punch up enemy Devastators and stuff with power fists.

[submarinesoup]

Played another game tonight and had a blast. BA came away with a hard fought victory in a 1500 point game. It's late so I'll (briefly) touch on the good:

 

• Land raider crusader! I am sold on the volume fire game. My opponent charged it to knock it out of combat and the overwatch was just ruthless. A lot of good space wolves died trying to charge the LRC, then death company piled out to finish them off.
• Lemartes. He is an absolute beast at 120ish points. So much value.
• DC. I'm convinced that the DC skeptics are stuck in a 7th ed. mindset. They are great role players, just don't expect them to win the game by themselves. Had mine kitted out with bolters and chainswords and they tore through a squad of stormclaws before helping lemartes kill off the enemy warlord. Again, volume of attacks is the name of the game. With a squad of five coming in at under 100 and capable of 20 attacks on the charge at full strength, these guys hit like a spiked bat and should be viewed as tac marines who just want to get bloody in glorious melee, but also expect a noble death. They've got the black rage and whatnot. Existence is pain for a meseeks death company marine.
• Company vets with SS and combi weapons. Good lord these guys pack a wallop kitted with combi meltas/plasmas and storm shield. 3++ for 5 points still amazing. Jump pack captain landing nearby to reroll hits was also brutal.

And now I'm on a roll so let's hit the not so good:

• Hellblasters?! What the heck dudes, I spent 190 points on your lame  es. Dice rolls were partially to blame, but I felt underwhelmed again. I don't think these guys will be at their full potential until they have their weird ski tank to help them get into rapid fire range, and even then I'm not sure I wouldn't just reach for devastators. Granted I've not tried devs, but the hellblasters feel pretty one-dimensional. I will say that both the hellblasters and interceptors seemed to draw fire away from the guys I did not want to get shot, which was nice.