Maximising GMANs Aura

[Hopper21]

Hello all!

 

I was hoping to ask for any tips and tricks on maxmising GMANs aura especially when deploying.

 

A few times now ive struggled deploying around him, either leaving gaps for deep strikers or not maximising his buffs.

 

Any thoughts,links and vids welcome!

 

Andy

Edited February 24, 2018 by Hopper21

[Tamiel]

Hey there. What point level and game mode are you playing? How much terrain is there on your board? What army are you facing?

Edited February 25, 2018 by Tamiel

[Hopper21]

Hey man! So im playing at 2k normally an eternal war mission or maelstrom.

 

Terrain is fairly typical of what to expect at a tourny not to busy but enough for cover and LOS blocking.

 

Running the following:

 

Gman

 

Primaris Librarian

 

Fire raptor

 

8 Hellblasters

 

Primaris Ancient

 

10 Reivers, carbines, grapel hooks

 

6 Aggressors, bolter type

 

2 Redemptor Dreds, plasma type.

 

I often deploy in the classic clump which is leaving me open on flanks, and letting deep strikers in.

[Captain Idaho]

That is the problem with character clumping.

 

Personally I don't do it. I usually have one or two units with each character and spread around the board. Gives greater flexibility and the opponent doesn't have an easy decision to make where his forces mass to hit you.

[Hopper21]

Thats a good shout, i need to play test and spread out a bit. Just need yo wein myself of all those re rolls...

[Prot]

The Guilliman armies aren’t what they used to be... check the most competitive stuff out there and you’ll find a shift away from the Codex Astartes specifically.... I still think GW over flexed on penalizing CA based on one or two tournaments when there was only 2-3 codexes out, but that’s another story....

 

Anyway if you want to still do this, it mostly takes continuous experience and practice by knowing you opponent’s ability to react, to deepstrike, to utilize indirect fire, and to Psyker you to death.

 

The basics are like building a layer. The edge of the world is your first 9” barrier. Put something with a medium footprint here. Then you work out where your outer layer is. This is what gets hit first with speed, so it often won’t be able to react... it will be dead on contact or nearly so.

 

Next is your outer layer...often Scouts. The best marine troop imho. Put them in ruins, be cautious of over extending. While this layer will be hit with Smite first, it will often be leveraged for bonus movement by your opponent so make it a real grind for them to do so. Each layer ideally can reinforce the last with firepower. The scout layer is really there to push back deep strike.

 

At each layer you should be thinking of an ideal spot for maximizing Guilliman, and a fallback or reinforcement route.

 

This is something that takes a lot of practice and each army can bring a different challenge to it. I still get it wrong to varying degrees quite often. There’s always the internal debate of when it’s best to ‘spring’ Guilliman, allowing him to crush skulls but not be overwhelmed by chaff, firepower or the Smite phase....possibly getting stripped of his invulnerable ( it does happen more than people think at top levels of play even ).

[Hopper21]

Cheers prot, just trying to find a way of shoe horning some scouts in now.

[Ishagu]

Guilliman armies are pretty straightforward. As predicted, once players knew what to expect and the game moved to a focus on speed and numbers his effectiveness lessened, I'd even go as far to suggest he needs a point drop to 350.

 

Going back to topic, I like to run Guilliman in a mobile army that has units that really benefit from his aura. As Prot has pointed out you'll need some Scouts to prevent a reserve alpha strike against you.

 

Mu typical army involves Repulsors filled with Hellblasters, a Sicaran Venator and infiltration/reserve elements of Scouts and Reivers. No unit in my army suffers a penalty to BS when moving, so after the initial turns I can advance the whole force alongside the Primarch.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Ishagu

[Cruor Vault]

I'd suggest dropping one of those Redemptor Dreadnoughts to add some Bolter Scouts and maybe an Intercessor squad or two to your army.  You're sorely lacking in any sort of Deep Strike or Forward Operators defense.  Since you've got G-man in your list Intercessors are a surprisingly effective unit with the re-rolls he grants.  I also suggest changing your Rievers over to 2x5 man units, you get second sergeant that way and you can split them up to handle multiple objectives.  I'm personally partial to Carbines and Grav-chutes as well.

 

I might also suggest swapping your Primaris Librarian for Tigurius, Tigurius is the BEST 130pts you can spend in an UM army.

 

As far as Deployment goes.  You can use the giant base of your Fire Raptor and some carefully spread out Scouts/Intercessors to create a massive bubble of Deep Strike interdiction.  This should help to keep your army safe for the first couple of turns.

 

If you're having trouble figuring out where to put G-man, just use your Fire Raptor as a guide.  It's the largest single source of firepower in your army, so you want to keep it alive and use the buff for as long as possible.  Once you know where you need to move it to, that gives you a plan on how to maneuver Guilliman and your other units.

[Hopper21]

Cheers for all the feedback everyone so have amended my list accordingly witj the following;

 

GMAN

 

Tigarius

 

Fire raptor

 

8 Hellblasters

 

Primaris Ancient

 

10 Reivers, carbines, grapnel hooks

 

6 Aggressors, bolter type

 

1 Redemptor Dreds, plasma type.

 

1x 5 man scout squad with shotguns (for awesomeness)

 

2x 5 man scout squads with bolters.

 

Just waiting for payday to get the scouts! Looking fwd to trying it out.

 

Thanks for all the help appreciate it

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I don't believe Guilliman is worth his points anymore which is why I run Calgar... if you are mostly running plasma rerolling to wound is not that big a deal and Marneus a beat stick.

[Myrkul]

I don't believe Guilliman is worth his points anymore which is why I run Calgar... if you are mostly running plasma rerolling to wound is not that big a deal and Marneus a beat stick.

I think this is true if youre running a static gun line. I think for Robby G to be fully effective, he leans to a more aggressive style of play puching forward with the army and getting into CC. With proper support he’s a monster in CC and a good force mutiplier for a mid field gun line.

[Captain Idaho]

I agree with that. Much of Guilliman's points costs includes a character smashing face. Edited February 27, 2018 by Captain Idaho

[Ishagu]

The problem with RG is that he's a LoW. We have to remember you have to bring one or more other characters and the points really stack up.

It's why I'm currently running a Vanguard detachment with a cheap Techmarine as the only HQ.

I'm not sure even Tiggy is worth his points because of our lacklustre Psychic powers :-(

[Brother Captain Ed]

...what on earth are you running without HQs? Captains are great. Lieutenants are great.

 

Not to suggest anything about you (or something foolish like that) but I just don't see how you can play the current Astartes dex without HQs.

[Captain Idaho]

I'm getting a lot of use out Techmarines too. Fixing up my Contemptor has kept it in the green health bar for extra turns etc.

[Ishagu]

...what on earth are you running without HQs? Captains are great. Lieutenants are great.

 

Not to suggest anything about you (or something foolish like that) but I just don't see how you can play the current Astartes dex without HQs.

?

Captains and Lieutenants have redundant auras when you run Guilliman, especially when any infantry unit can be granted Scions of Guilliman for a turn if it's out of aura ranges.

 

Techmarine offers something Guilliman doesn't - vehicle repair, and long range firepower when running a Conversion Beamer.

[Captain Idaho]

Adding a Techmarine and Librarian to a Guilliman list is handy. :)

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I have found Tiggy to be a complete beast in the psychic phase. We have several amazing powers and NZ is a game winner.

[Captain Idaho]

He is the only one who can reliably cast it.

 

I'd rather it amended though. Make it 18" and -2 to Invulnerable for Warp Charge 7 for 1 unit.

 

It's just so short ranged and WC 8 is too much.

[Ishagu]

Yeah, or something like Death Hex - Target a specific unit.

 

It's silly to require our delicate librarians to charge into the frey to actually get a use out of null zone - especially as you might not even get it off'

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I think it also halves enemy psychic tests. Your opponent just knowing you have it up your sleeve is a psychological deterrent... versus Smash Brothers it’s pretty much must have. In conjunction with a Culexus assassin it really helps a lot versus Chaos if they manage to get into your battle line. I don’t pick it every time and units with a natural 2+ armor save are somewhat resilient... a save is always better than no save.

[ii_Angela_ii]

Add guilliman and a Captain with the stratagem of chapter master, deployed to 12um one of the other, is a very large Aura to put marines inside

And add a Lieutenant with the captain

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

That is a lot of points for what Guilliman already provides... if you place your squads correctly doesn't really matter IMO .

[Ishagu]

You don't need your Marines to always be in 6" of Guilliman.

 

Remember he has a 12" re roll 1s aura, and there are stratagems also.