Beta Bolters

[Berzul]

So, I had a 1750 points fight againts tyranids last night.

 

The scenario was somewhat narrative. Matched in points, but deployed in Hammer and Anvil on a table with lots of cover but little to block line of sight. A swarm of tyranids were trying to overrun my line of defense.

 

My army was consistent of:

 

3x10 Tacticals with just bolters

a Bastion with 5 Devastators, packing 3 missile launchers and a heavy bolter

a Dread with Lascannons

a Predator with Autocanno and Lascannons

8 bikes + an attack bike, with PLasma guns, Storm Bolter and Heavy Bolter

10 Terminators, stock options

All led by a Master with Heavenfall Blade and MC Boltgun, and a Lieutenant with Chainsword and Bolt Pistol

 

I was deplyed on one end of the table, with the tacticals in overlapping lines 9 inches from the edge. Behing them, the bastion, with the Predator and Dread to one side. Bkes were about 6 inches ahead of the line, and the HQs in the middle to buff everyone. The deathwing was placed on reserve.

 

My opponent brought in:

 

2x20 Genestealers

1x10 termagaunts

3 Hive Guard

3 Venomthropes

3 Zoanthropes

an Oxecrine

2 Brood Lords

a Flying Hive Tyrant

a Swarm Lord as the leader

 

He deployed in a pretty regular way, with infantry ahead, near the Swarm Lord to double their advance. The ranged guys on one side, the heavy hitters on the other, and the Zoanthropes down the middile.

 

So, to sum up the battle and keep it simple.

 

I got first turn. We had to conquer 3 objectives, one on each deployment, one in the middle. We used the Open War cards and got everyone to have an extra attack as a twist.

 

TURN ONE: My infantry stayed put, to wait out the advance, but my bikes advanced forward, ttaying outside of the range of the Hive GUard and the Oxecrine. Beta Bolters were BRUTAL on this. At 24 inches, I wiped out all but 2 of the first group of genestealers. My autocannon took out the Venompthropes in one go, and the lascannons managed (through really bad rolls) to take out 7 wounds in total of the Exocrine.

 

My opponent rushed in with his genestealers. Smote my bikes with everything he had, but rolled horribly and managed to take out just the attack bike. Then the genestealers locked both my frontal tactical squad and my bikes in one charge, but managed to kill just 2 bikes and 2 tacticals. In retalliation I managed to take out 5 genestealers.

 

TURN TWO: My infantry moved back, interlocking places with the second overlaping squad (in a sort of roman style formation), while my bikes used intractable to get out of combat and go down the center of the board to pick shots at the expoes Zoanthropes. My Deathwing dropped behing him, using DWA to clear the termagants on his objective before clearing out the Hive Guard on the shooting phase. Then, my combined fire of the 2 tactical squads on support cleared all but 1 genestealer on the front squad. Meanwhile, my missiles and lascannons managed to punch through the Exocrine and take the Hive Tyrant down to 5 wounds.

 

Again, Beta Bolters were BRUTAL. Staying at max range but dealing out that many shots, even at S4 AP-, I was dropping tyranids left and right, leaving just the heavy hitters for the final push.

 

My opponent took the Swarmlord back, as I expected, and charged the Deathwing. I just hoped they could keep the monster locked there for a couple of turns, while I dealt with the Hive Tyrant and the Brood Lords.

 

THe Hive Tyrant advanced, but failed ALL its charges, even with rerolls. His brood lords took out my bikes in the iddle of the board, though. And with ease.

 

TURN THREE: I moved my infantry as little as needed to get everyone in range of the brood lords, trying to remain as stationary with as many models as possible. HEre, the combined 24 inch rapid fire shots of 28 tacticals wiped the Brood Lords off the map. It was a sight to behold. Meanwhile, my missile launchers on the devastators took out the Hive Tyrant with a double 6 for wounds. My master killed the last genestealer hanging there in the open with his MC Boltgun. And my DW made a wound on the Swarmlord... yay...

 

THe Swarm Lord, the Zoanthropes, and 2 genestealers from the first squad, were all that remained. Still, the beast killed my entire DW squad sans the sergeant. THe Zonathropes had moved back a bit to smite the terminators, so I had a bit of time before they came after the gunline in my area.

 

TURN FOUR: I kept still, waiting on the advance of the Zoanthropes. But, as I used my missile launchers to clear one, my predator to take out another, and y Dreadnought to take out the last one, as well as a few bolters in range to clear the genestealers hiding in the terrain, all that was left for my oponent to bring against me was the Swarm Lord, whcih killed my terminators in the fight phase.

 

He then repositioned the Swarm Lord over his objective, and due to time (it was almost midnight here), we called it off on the last turn.

 

TIed for points, buy a narrative victory for the Dark Angels.

 

And the Beta Bolters? My god... Yeah, it won't work against power armor, but against something with saves 4+ or worse? It is a very good thing to have. Specially on bikes and Terminators. A full squad of bikes becomes a real beast on the board, with that many shots at 24 inches.

 

Now my opponent wants a new battle, where its Swarmlord comes back for a vengeance, so I'll see how that goes....


SOME PICTURES (if you'd like) follow,

 

Hidden Content

 

P.S.: My opponent mixed his bags and left the model for the Exocrine at his place, so we borrowed my daughters piggy bank, as a proxy.... Lucky pig, took over 8 lascannon shots to bring it down! .... Even with rerrolls!!

[domsto]

I wonder how the new Bolt Rule works against shooty hord Armys like Guard and Tau.

Outshooting them is impossible even with this buff i fear.

Yes you get double the shoots but your enemy has still about triple the men...

[Berzul]

Yeah but our men have a T4 and a 3+ Save.

 

Theirs have a T3 and a 4+ or even 5+ Save.

 

Take 8 bikers at T5 even. With a storm bolter on the sergeant, that is 36 shots at 24 inches, with a 12 inch move range to position yourself.

Support that with a Dark Talon for additional 24 shots at 24 inches, swooping over them with a 60 inch movement speed and a 4++ invul save, dropping a mortal wound bomb along the way.

 

Or drop 10 Terminators with stock options. Just storm bolters. Use DWA and manage 80 shots in one turn, at 24 inches, with a T4 W2 2+/5++ unit.

 

You will see that infantry drop from "By the Emperor, they are everywhere!" to "weren't there some infantry units around here a second ago?"

Like I mentioned in my small batrep. 8 bikes plus an attack bike, dealt 40 shots at 24 inches. I managed to position myself beyond the reach of any guns from my opponent and still get full shots at a 20-strong genestealer unit. And I took down 18 in one volley.

 

I do not expect shooty armies to fare much better than that.

[Knight Angels]

u have to kill a lot chaff (eg firewarriors) to get the points returned for that biker/terminator unit. then the riptide/broadsides will make short work of them. sure it will help but its still only bolters

[Berzul]

So, your oponent has fire warriors and riptides, while you have,Iassume, bikes + other stuff, right?

 

Sure, if you pin 8 bikes vs 60 firewarriors + 3 riptided, you are gonna lose.

 

But thatshould in no case be the match up. You will have more stuff on the board.

 

If you want to pair lists forcost efficiency, you have to consider itas a whole

[BlackTriton]

Doing vacuum analysis leads nowhere.

But we can compare the average exchange between some unit.

 

At 24" tac and intercessor win against guard, especialy when in cover.

That is new with the bolter rule.

 

A 10 man guard vs 5 man marine:

The guard has easy acces to reroll (cadian) and double tap (order) and assuming everyone is in cover... they kill in average 5 point worth of intercessor while taking 14 point of damage from intercessor.

 

10 fire warrior, no buff, same situation they deal 7pt of damage to the intercessor.

With +1BS and reroll 1 they average 11 point of damage and take 10.3 from intercessor.

 

Tac underperform the intercessor by a bit, the second wound for a few point gives them a lot, and the AP helps.

 

All in all, the intercessor looks like the big winner. With DA they do not need a character for buff and can keep some pressure while being low profile.

They hold up comparison with other troop, but there are a lot of weapon specialised in killing them.

[Interrogator Stobz]

Ofc Primaris are the winner.

 

Grumble, grumble, no school like the old school, grumble, grumble.

[Pvnisher]

Ofc Primaris are the winner.

 

Grumble, grumble, no school like the old school, grumble, grumble.

Of course. Let us pray for our old smaller marines.