Reassessment Time: What are the Must-Haves for SW's Now?

[Karack Blackstone]

Hello all.

 

I seem to be making more threads than I should, but this one has an intent that I think might work out.

 

The Big FAQ dropped.

 

Our CP's are pretty strong for only a decently select few.

 

What are your Must-Haves?

 

- Troops:

     - I take GH's and BC's, mostly GH's, working on getting some Intercessors built up over time

     - Intercessors just got noted as having a PL with BR and can take a PF along with it, giving the IC's the chance to tarpit just about anything now.

     - BC's still need a ride for maneuverability reasons, but past that, so does every other model at the rate the current game is progressing right now.

 

- HQ's:

     - I think RP's and WP's are nearly must haves, but if there's just two, it's RP's and either a Smash Lord or Smash WGBL. For the sake of argument, what is your kit for this smasher?

 

- Elites:

     - Wulfen are pretty sadly a no-brainer. Well, for some, I guess it's time to just accept that without the lost puppies, there's little easy chance to be able to compete at some levels? Mileage may vary, but still, it's a choice and it forces a thought to me: do you keep playing, or wait for a balance that might never arrive? I honestly hope it does, the hobby needs both fresh and old blood to survive.

     - Dreadnoughts of all types might be okay, not sure there.

 

- Fast Attack:

     - What sort of packs are you using? TWC aren't really great, and until the SC's get their unit entries fixed to 5 to 15 again before their WGPL and the option is put into the various force designer programs, there's not much that seems to truly excel in this area.

 

- Heavy Support:

     - LF's, HBr's (Hellblasters), and LRC's. That's about all I'm seeing, but then, what do you see? are Predator Annihilators starting to shine for you?

 

- Fliers:

     - The Stormhawk with Icarus Stormcannon and the Skyhammer Missile Launcher seems really cheap, really great, and makes a decent anti-air unit.

     - The Stormfang and Stormwolf are great for heavy fire and transport, but, what do you prefer on each?

 

Basically, overall, what's your Big FAQ thoughts? Please, by all means, do take your time. We have until the December Chapter Approved 2019 to figure all this out, so we might as well as players figure this out slowly, properly, and over time.

 

The GK's subforum mentioned that a mono-faction Grey Knight list won some big tournament in Britain I think, this year. It didn't play to CP's, but it played to the mission. Maybe the problem is a bit more of our thought processes collectively than I and possibly any or many others care to admit?

 

Constructive criticism and cogent thoughts, please.

 

Have at.

[Ratherdashing]

I'd agree with pretty much everything on our must-haves. I do have a question for you: every time people mention our Jarls and Huskarls it's about smash characters. Does anyone use them for the buff? Ie a Huskarl sitting in a gang of LF to give the rerolls to wound or a Jarl (maybe with Frostfury) moving forward with Grey Hunters to improve their shooting (especially with plasma)?

[TiguriusX]

I'd agree with pretty much everything on our must-haves. I do have a question for you: every time people mention our Jarls and Huskarls it's about smash characters. Does anyone use them for the buff? Ie a Huskarl sitting in a gang of LF to give the rerolls to wound or a Jarl (maybe with Frostfury) moving forward with Grey Hunters to improve their shooting (especially with plasma)?

I play support HQs (phobos WL with target priority turning my leviathan into a monster with njal and IP nearby). I think it works great and i can HI to prevent something from trying to rush in but the codex handicap is hard to overcome

 

We simply have too few bodies and die too easily

 

My last match (i will write up the batrep later tonight) was against chaos and he had double battalion and bodies everywhere and still had killer units in addition (magnus...ahriman...bloodletter bomb....xangor bombs etc.).

 

He spread out to 5/6 objectives early and there was nothing i could do to stop him. i shot and cut my way through his army but after 6 turns he still had bodies and i ran out of time. He won mainly because he always held more than me and scored bonus points for 5 objectives. We were even in killing power and secondary objectives.

 

I am going to reconsider how i play and maybe rely on terminator action to take and sit on more objectives

[Karhedron]

To be honest, I don't think that the FAQ has affected the ranking of our units greatly. Bolter Discipline gives a small but welcome boost to the Grey Hunters and Intercessors but most people were running those units for CPs and ObjSec already. The changes to FLY have made our Smash Characters a bit stronger but again, we tended to run those anyway.

 

I don't see anything that has given a strong relative boost to any units in particular or to our army as a whole. Our Troops are slightly better but the same is true for all Astartes and it is not like they were starting from a particularly high baseline. Welcome changes to be sure but small fry in the big scheme of things.

[lonewolf81]

With the new FAQ (change of the "fly" rule) the smash lord (jump pack, TH/SS, armour of russ, saga of wolfkin) and smash battle leader (jump pack, TH/SS, wulfenstone) became the most attractive HQ options (more than rune priests and wolfpriests). The smash brothers support each other and all units around them giving reroll 1s to hit and wound while hitting on 2s everything that comes their way and also being able to heroicly intervene 6" over enemy or friendly units (counter charge an enemy unit that charged your front line) to gain a free round of combat without getting targeted yourself. 

 

This is a reason why i think grey hunters and bloodclaws are still competing intercessors , the "transport synergy". When the smash brothers move forward they need support and screening. Imagine a stormfang and some rhinos /razorbacks full of tax troops for batallion and close behind them the smash brothers. Anything that tries to assault that line while it moves towards the enemy, gets heroic intervention and armour of russ debuff. If the opponent deletes the transports you still get screening from troops inside. I know marines struggle with bodies but we use everything we have vehicles and infantry to screen the chatacters 

 

Runepriests are decent with a lot of stratagem synergy but the reroll 1s to hit and wound melee and shooting plus the damage output of the smash bros cant be ignored. Also there is still talismanistic shield for a chance to deny a psychic power.

 

The "smash leutenant " is a spacewolves only thing  ( i think ) which makes us a bit special

 

 

Iam also thinking of using 5 thunderwolves all with shields (one hammer on leader) as screeners for the smash bros along with the transports becuase they get T5 and one more wound than wulfen plus they benefit from wulfenstone

 

 

We are at the bottom of the barel like all marines (except ultramarines) but the change of the fly rule really gave a boost towards gunlines and chaff screening and really helped our 6" intervention over units friend or foe

[CaptainStabby]

WG Bikers are a better choice for that screen imo than the Wulfen, but yeah same concept. The amount of dakka the bikers can put out is frankly terrifying.