How to use the PBC

[McElMcNinja]

I clearly do not understand these things and I've never gone against them. So the only experience I have had with them is they sit in the back and shoot. I have read where people move them around and use flame weapons for the autohits. So are you all running them in front of your troops, because my troops are out in front when I play and I don't see how they would have any targets. I try to stop my opponents by locking them in combat so my other units can grab objs. It's more to it then just that, but I hope you get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

 

Any help/strategies would be much appreciated.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Like drones. Use them exactly like drones, but with more guns and more resiliency

[Prot]

Like drones. Use them exactly like drones, but with more guns and more resiliency

Pretty much this. They hit hard and don’t be afraid of advancing them. You’ll get the odd shots off with other weapons but with BS 4 it really isn’t that relevant.

[McElMcNinja]

I get it now, thank you. You just have to be more careful they don't get stuck in CC? The only real advantage drones have is they can fly, so the can fallback and still shoot (plus they ignore terrain when they move).

 

Well back to the drawing board for me...

[SkimaskMohawk]

The trick is to use the gnarlmaw as well. Since it lets all nurgle daemons in the aura fallback and shoot+charge again

[brimmstorm]

Like drones. Use them exactly like drones, but with more guns and more resiliency

I’m new to 40k(primarily play AoS with Nurgle and Tzeentch). When you day use them like Drones what do you mean for us noobies?

[Prot]

You advance and flame. You let your T8 do the tanking. Protect characters.... that is key.

[Bulwyf]

I prefer my PBC in the back shooting.

[Dallas Drake]

You'll hear arguments for the plaguespitters and arguments for the entropy cannons. It depends what you prefer. I think that if you have a way to manipulate the base strength of daemons then plaguespitters are best, where as if you're just dudes in power armour there's a lot to be said for the entropy cannons.

 

Personally, I mess with the daemons side of things and run 2 with plaguespitters and advance them up with 2 Daemon Princes and 3 spitter drones. On their own plaguespitters are pretty meh, but en-masse with +1S from a Poxbringer and +1S from Epi they can be scarily effective (especially until they drop below 6 wounds), add in arch-contaminator warlord trait if you want and you're re-rolling to wound too (though not worth it on a DP IMO).

[SkimaskMohawk]

I mean preference is good and all. But objectively, you pay less points for plaguespitters while simultaneously removing their terrible BS from the equation for main fire.

 

Throw in synergy like arch contaminator and you have 2d6 str 7 auto hits that reroll all wounds too. That's baseline without even counting daemons; the best you can really get from the ranged version is reroll 1s...

[Panzer]

The thing with an aggressive PBC is that you don't just shoot with the Plague Spitter, you also use it to block Line of Sight, paths, charge to absorb overwatch and/or protect characters with <10 Wounds by simply being closer and having T8.

You can read Prots tournament recap on his blog for some nice examples of how he used it.

 

On the other hand, letting the PBC sit back and shoot with its other weapons you do basically just that and nothing more so it's really just all about the damage output there.

[Bulwyf]

The thing with an aggressive PBC is that you don't just shoot with the Plague Spitter, you also use it to block Line of Sight, paths, charge to absorb overwatch and/or protect characters with <10 Wounds by simply being closer and having T8.

You can read Prots tournament recap on his blog for some nice examples of how he used it.

 

On the other hand, letting the PBC sit back and shoot with its other weapons you do basically just that and nothing more so it's really just all about the damage output there.

 

I've killed enough vehicles and high toughness creatures with PBCs sitting in the back with entropy cannons that it makes it more than valid for my lists. I don't need them to screen when I have 3 bloat drones that can tie up enemy shooting and poxwalkers as charge chaff and bubble wrap for characters.

 

There's nothing wrong with using PBC aggressively but there's also nothing wrong with using them as artillery pieces.

[BlackTriton]

I am considering one PBC in the back, if only because hes a prime target for blasfemous machine.

I understand people aiming at the highest level of competitve play will take some other (better?) option availlable to chaos for that role, while the spitter PBC is irreplacable.

For the moment I am limiting myself to the Deathguard and Nurgle Daemon, and in that optic I found the 4+ to hit workable and the long range capacity hard to replace.

Of course, my PBC will all be magnetized.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

I am considering one PBC in the back, if only because hes a prime target for blasfemous machine.

I understand people aiming at the highest level of competitve play will take some other (better?) option availlable to chaos for that role, while the spitter PBC is irreplacable.

For the moment I am limiting myself to the Deathguard and Nurgle Daemon, and in that optic I found the 4+ to hit workable and the long range capacity hard to replace.

Of course, my PBC will all be magnetized.

I'm working on magnetizing mine at the moment. As Im limited by only owning death guard and nurgle daemons, the entropy cannons are sadly my main way of tank hunting.