Optimising our Alpha Strike

[Gentlemanloser]

I think we have a few significant advantages over others utilising our deployment from reserves, Teleport Strike.

 

In general, I like coming in from reserves now as it provides a nice going second protection to our units.

 

But we synergise really well placing ourselves within 12" of the enemy.

 

It places us in Smite range, and rapid fire range for our Storm Bolters.

 

Imagine dropping a 10 man Strike Squad at 9", backed by a GM aura and possibly Psybolt Ammo stratagem.

 

40 S5, AP-1 shots that hit on 3+ rerolling 1's.

 

Then smiting and (hopefully) charging (possibly a different unit) after.

 

So, how can we bring it all together and maximise our Alpha potential? Not forgetting the First to the Fray warlord trait, and even our Teleportarium stratagem.

 

What units are best to start on board, to cater for the 50% reserves matched play rule?

 

What tactics are you going to try, or have been successful with?

[Helycon]

I reckon best units on the board will be Interceptors, as they can shunt turn 1 and alpha strike as well. You can even put them in metal boxes suck as Razorbacks to have some LA's Cannon fire support, or if you're feeling ballsy, a Land Raider. Using Gate, you can quickly get something else close by too. A Stormraven could work too, but that's a dangerous game, as they should just aim for anything else on the board and try and kill that for an auto-win.

 

Still, I feel that Interceptors are a good bet to get half the army safely in the table and quickly in afterwards.

[Milosh]

Well, what I have planned is buying a couple 5 man strikes in razors to start on the board along with a storm raven.  I would deep strike a 10 man strike, 2 GM NDK, and 5 paladins.  This is where I'm starting at the moment.

[Gentlemanloser]

For units starting on board, I think we're looking at transports.

 

Razorbacks and Ravens.

 

These are durable (and have to face enemy first turn shooting if you go second) , and embarked units count for number of units on table for the reserves rule, but only count as a single deployment choice for who goes first.

 

For example 5 strikes with a Brotherhood Champion embarked in a Razorback is one deployment, but allows us to reserve 3 other units.

 

Edit. Ninja'd :D

Edited August 9, 2017 by Gentlemanloser

[Gentlemanloser]

You can have Interceptors in Razors disembark 3" after the Razor moves, then move thier full 12" move.

 

If that doesn't get them close enough, they can still shunt after disembarking, if really necessary.

[Helycon]

Disembarking is done at the start of the movement phase. So they need to shunt, unless you start very close.

[Gentlemanloser]

Ah poop.

 

I guess you could still start them embarked for protection. Then disembark and shunt.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Gentlemanloser

[Milosh]

Strikesquad is good as they are cheaper and have Obsec.  They also unlock battalion for precious CP.  I would consider them more then interceptors now imo.

[Corvus Fortis]

First to the Fray is autochoice for alpha-strike. With its help I made 4 out of 5 successful charges my last game. BroCap with relic-bearing Ancient is great for stripping some wounds from monster/vehicles you want to shoot/charge. Full falchion Paladin squad with Hammer Paragon backed by GM/Draigo/Chaplain and Paladin Ancient can cripple pretty much anything in one fighting phase. Use Finest hour if Ancient failed charge and you'll get 45 falchion strikes and 5 hammer strikes all of which hits on 3+. Combine it with hammerhand and Honur the Chapter, and this guys can esily take out a Knight in a phase.

 

As for board deployment choices Raven and LRC are great, former because it not only carries 12 models or 6 termies, but also a dread, that doesn't take additional place. Nice transport for a Doomglaive. LRC can take 3 strike/interceptor/purifier units and a PA character, like BroChamp. This are 4 deploy choices in one. It can be gated first turn in the face of opponent's army and has a good chance to charge with rerolls. Turn 2 the passangers has a guaranteed charge too. I want to try 3 purifiers squad with crowe in LRC. Turn 2 they unleash 4d6 mortal wounds. Besides transports, Interceptors and shooty Dreads are best choices to fill board deploys.

 

For my current 1k point games I use 2 purifier squads in rhino and libby. Use the same strategy as I described above for LRC. Want to replace libby with apothecary when I get it, though.

[Frater Cornelius]

Razorbacks are the doodoo right now. Use them as board presence. They also help the alpha strike with their heavy weapons. GK have need of some solid anti-tank at range, which is where Twin-LC comes in very handy. Stormraven has a similar effect.

[Seizeman]

The main issue I see with a lot of GK players is getting obsessed about deep striking and first turn charges. Deep striking units are a complement to the army, not the main point. Alpha strike does not mean going all-in suicide on the first turn, but to coordinate your army so you can set up a deadly blow. You can look at my list on the army list subforum for reference of what I'm  going to talk about.

 

Trying to do an alpha strike with deep striking power armor usually results in failure. You are going to miss most of your charges and eat a lot of overwatch fire, and then your opponent will have the initiative. They will be able to easily charge and shoot you to full effect, and they will pick the best targets for it. These are going to be those expensive power armor units, that will be easily dispatched ( I can't stress enough how easily infrantry units die when in the open) before having the chance to pay for themselves. Mind that strike squads are very inefficient durability wise, but very efficient offensively, so if you are not able to maximise their damage, you are going to loose.

 

That's why I advise you to not play strike squads (or any kind of power armor) without  transports. Transports are amazing in this edition. Not only they get you closer to your target, but they add between 4 and 4,5 inches to your movement when you disembark, which is huge, while allowig you to charge from safety. Transports have become really tough, so the chances of killing them before you reach their lines is very small. These transports ;razorbacks and stormravens; happen to also be very efficient fire platforms, wich is also very important.

 

To support this core, you play some "tanks". In my case they are Paladins and NDKs, but doomglaive dreadnoughts can also help. A big strenght of these units is to be very durable, so you want them to be shot (instead of your strikes). They are very threatening, so you opponent pretty much has to shoot at them. They take the most advantage from deep strike, as the opponent won't be able to grind them down while they approach.

 

This configuration, with your troops  in transports and your tanks safely in reserves, allows you to be patient and not rely on some lucky dice,  negating (temporaly) a part of your opponent's army (their small arms fire will be ineffectual against you). Grey knights can be classified as a midrange army. They play defensively against aggressive opponents, and aggressively agains defensive opponents. Also they are effective on the 0-24" range, and specially within 12" of the enemy, so their way to be defensive is not to stay passive on your side, but to zone the opponent by staying close to the middle of the board and threatening them with your alpha strike. In a similar way, their way to be aggressive is not to charge forward mindlessly, as they don't have the numbers for it, but to harass the opponent to set the perfect strike.

 

If the opponent is an aggressive one, like a tyranid or ork melee horde, etc., you just have to play carefully. These kind of armies have to try to get close, so it is you who will decide when to do the alpha strike. Keep your troops embarked and just stay away at 24" (sometimes 12" in the case of an airborne stormraven), shooting with your assault cannons and hurricanes to weaken the infantry bubble. You can do this for one or two turns, depending on how much damage you do, how close they are, how damaged your transports are (usually not much) and how important is to hold the ground (for objectives). Also, if the opponent advances irregularly, it's possible that he overextends some units and you attack and split them. Then you disembark your strike squads and shoot with everything. Your Paladins and NDKs deploy in front of your troops forming a barrier, acting as tanks to protect your fragile units from the charges while adding to the firepower and giving everything rerolls. These units can try to charge if they have good targets, specially because you are probably not receiving much overwatch fire. From this point, the strike squads and razorbacks have many tactical choices depending on the situation. They can push on or counter-charge to finish the enemy or they can spread out, either to cut an escape route, engage your opponent backline, or taking objectives.

 

If the opponent is a defensive one (like imperial guard or mechanicus), instead of retreating or holding your ground, you advance towards the enemy, but the main idea is the same. Be patient and be sure your alpha strike is definitive. If you charge with a unit the first chance it gets, your army is going to get divided. If you try to charge directly from deep strike, some of your units are going to make it, and some won't. You will get disorganised, and they will be able to draw back while killing your units one by one. In the same way, don't fall into the trap of being lured. If the opponent leaves one of their units out of possition, don't just charge it, because then it is your army that gets out of possition, and you are giving the opponent a free turn. Just keep the pressuring and avoid getting tied up. When you are in a good position and you have reduced the ability of your opponent to maneuver, then you alpha strike. In this case, the alpha striking units are used to sorround the enemy. They will be forced to fight, you will start locking unit and they will not be able to retaliate. Against some of those armies, specially if they play a ton of vehicles, a useful tactic is to advance with everything and pop smoke. If they stay put, maybe they will kill your transports, but you will be able to alpha strike anyway. If they fall back, they will loose firepower and be unable to kill your transports.

 

Against other midrage armies, like some SM ones, or eldar, where they have a lot of units in transports and/or good counter-charge units (dreadnoughts, thunderwolves, wraithguard), usually you want to play their game. If you charge first, you will kill some transports and then the enemy will disembark and shoot you to pieces and/or counter-charge you. If they don't disembark, you don't, if they don't charge, you don't. Just grind their transports down and then strike with everything. In these cases, you usually want to deploy your tanks before the alpha strike. You use them as a barrier, the same as against aggressive opponents, but, in this case, you do it before disembarking so the opponent is forced to attack first, with Voldus disembarking behind them. They will have to disembark to deal with the threat (otherwise the NDKS and Voldus' fireworks will mince them), exposing them to your shooting, and their few melee units won't be able to charge into your line by themselves. 

 

The units I am not using it is because they don't compliment this alpha strike strategy. You can see that one of the main points of my list is to have no weak targets for the opponent to shoot. There's no point in having a land raider when the opponent can just shoot at your  devastators or tacticals  instead.

 

Regular NDKs  don't do enough damage. Because they are not threatening enough, the opponent does not have to shoot them, and there's no use in having a durable unit if the opponent is not shooting it (same principle as above).

 

Interceptors, because they go against my point of not having power armor outside transports. With how they shunt works now, you can't be sure they are going to be able to charge, so they don't do anything strike squads don't. They have better movement, but that's not that useful if you are going on a transport anyway, and the strikes being troops for CP and obsec is relevant, Of course, they also cost 20 points more per squad, which is pretty relevant on an already expensive unit.

 

Purgations, because they don't do enough. As I said, strike squads die easily and are expensive, so you have to maximise their damage output, and that's why the alpha strike is so important. When you alpha strike, the strikes can shoot and charge, dealing a lot of damage. It's very likely they die next turn, but if they manage to do good damage and then take fire that would be directed to your melee, they have probably paid for themselves. In case of purgations, the turn they disembark they do barely more damage than the strikes (a psilencer on the move does about 20% more damage than a storm bolter), then they do nothing on the fight phase, and they have tu survive the whole turn to shoot decently. All this while being more expensive and not being troops. Also, the new psybolt ammo/onslaught is pretty awkward on purgations (either they are only 5 or they have mixed weapons).

 

About dreadnoughts, if they are of the melee/hybrid veriety, they are generally inferior to GMNDKs, specially on the durability department. If they are of the shooty variety, they are generally ineffcicient and they don't work with the rest of the army at all (they are decent targets for the opponent shooting, get isolated and can't use psychic powers and auras, etc).

[Gentlemanloser]

Awesome write up!

 

I still have a soft spot for shooty dreads, and would even consider using Wisdom of the Ancients if they were together to give them a GM reroll for a phase.

[Helycon]

Awesome write up!

 

I still have a soft spot for shooty dreads, and would even consider using Wisdom of the Ancients if they were together to give them a GM reroll for a phase.

I concur, thanks for that writeup.

 

I guess it also depens on how lucky you feel with the dice ;) . Getting T1 charges of can be devastating, but you are indeed correct in stating that if you fail, a countercharge will be imminent and murder your Interceptors. 

 

I do like Interceptors though, but they are mainly for the objective-game. It's easy to move them quickly, without your heavy hitters to GoI back. I fullheartedly agree on the transports. I reckon las cannons will be great on the Razorbacks and the Stormravens, as that seems to be the weakness of the army in general. We'll see what happens when people get games under their belt with the new codex. 

 

Also, the new Chapter approved pre-emptively will give ObSec to ALL troops for ALL armies. That will suck for playing against horde armies. GW did post something of them being aware of it though, so they will fix it in due time. This seems like a bandaid for the other elite armies that do not have their 'dex yet.

[Gentlemanloser]

For Razors.

 

The mid range Twin AC version is 100 points.

 

The long range Twin LC version is 115.

 

If your using the Razor to move strikes about I don't think the LC variant is worth it.

 

But as a replacement to a Shooty Dread, possibly.

 

A non ven (for same bs) 'hellfire' dread is 162.

 

The razor misses a ML, but has 2 more wounds than the dread, for significantly less points.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Gentlemanloser

[Sweetcurse]

Seems like the new first turn rule coming in the Chapter Approved boom nerfs us on first turn priority. Sucks since that was one of our big things, going first always with out limited and expensive models. Seems that getting nerfed is our life now.

[Valerian]

Seems like the new first turn rule coming in the Chapter Approved boom nerfs us on first turn priority. Sucks since that was one of our big things, going first always with out limited and expensive models. Seems that getting nerfed is our life now.

That only applies to the Mission scenarios in that book. If you play any of the many, many Missions from the Rulebook, you continue to use the method described in those scenarios to determine who gets first turn.

[Seizeman]

Chapter approved rules apply to every mission as long as you are playing matched play.

 

Technically all the rules in chapter approved are optional, but most tournament will use them and it will become the default for all competitive games.

 

Also, they are meant to make the game more balanced, and all three of the rules previewed are very good, so there's no reason to not use them (except in narrative games, etc).

[Helycon]

I'm pretty sure, 'more balance' is never a bad thing :) .

[Gentlemanloser]

Not gone back to check but pretty sure the article stated the new rule for going first only applies to the new CA missions.

 

Old rulebook missions aren't changed.

[Sweetcurse]

I'm pretty sure this will be the default as most people like it. I just think it hurts elite armies like GK.

[Godeskian]

Well.... :cuss.

 

I guess debatable good news from the article is

If you prefer the original method though, worry not! These new missions do not replace the matched play missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook, they supplement them, allowing you to choose the style of mission rules you enjoy playing the most.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Godeskian

[Valerian]

Not gone back to check but pretty sure the article stated the new rule for going first only applies to the new CA missions.

 

Old rulebook missions aren't changed.

 

That's exactly right.  Says so right in the article that it applies to the new Missions only.

I've obviously missed something. What's changed with the first turn rule?

 

Nothing has changed.  But, in the new Missions that will be included in the Chapter Approved book due out by Christmas, those scenarios will use a method by which there is a roll-off to see who gets to pick to go first, and whoever finishes deploying first will get to add 1 to their dice roll.

 

V

[Matt_149]

Yeah the plus one isn't great but it helps. I see reserved troops deepstriking in as a way to counter and take advantage of enemy deployment mistakes, force breaches or take focus away from whatever their objective is by putting pressure elsewhere. First turn charge sounds scary but I would rather use the psychological pressure of having units in reserve ready to pounce than just spunk them onto full strength units :)

[Godeskian]

Nothing has changed. But, in the new Missions that will be included in the Chapter Approved book due out by Christmas, those scenarios will use a method by which there is a roll-off to see who gets to pick to go first, and whoever finishes deploying first will get to add 1 to their dice roll.

 

V

Thanks Valerian. Have to admit, not a fan of rolling off for first turn under any circumstances. It completely changes the tactical complexities of setup

[sirk]

I am quite playing on alpha strike right now and I also think it's one of the directions the game is going at the moment.

Personally, I think the issue of alpha strike should be considered together to the one of going first, or at least trying to do so (alpha striking going second is not the same think, like, at all!).
For this reason, I am making some experiments with a quite low unit count armies and see how they perform.
The one I am playing at the moment is this one:

GK Vanguard detachment
GM (vortex, hammerhand)
Apothecary (sanctuary)
10 paladins w7 4 psilencers (gate)
10 paladins w7 4 psilencers (gate)

SM Vanguard detachment (raven guard or iron hands)
techmarine
venerable shooty dreadnought
venerable shooty dreadnought
venerable shooty dreadnought

 

I'd say I quite like the interactions betwenn shooty dreadnoughts and alpha strike units. Compared to other vehicles, they can stay where they are and shoot until wrecked, and combining venerable 2+ with the reroll stratagem you have a quite reliable shooting platform to support your alpha. Then things get so hot in you ds zone that your opponent usually hasn't all the time and resources to deal with them immediately (techmarine can help with spare wounds).

About the ds units, I chose paladins to minimize unit count. This way you have a much smaller number of shots but have good chances of going first greatly compensates for that in my opinion.

Boosted vortex of doom has also been quite a good surprise. Definitely, my favored psychic power at the moment together with gate.


When not getting first I try to separate and hide the dreadnoughts from first fire.
When got initiative stolen... well, that roll always sucked anyway!


PS: I really wanted to make it full gk, but going psychic with dreadnought for its cost makes really no sense compared to the free ability of chapters. And let's not even compare techmarines!!

Edited August 12, 2017 by sirk