9th edition test game lessons learned

[HallofStovokor]

So, I played a game against space wolves with the leaked rules here's what I learned from the game.

 

Infantry squads are still our most important unit. The obscuring terrain rules make it so that leman russes are going to have much shorter engagement ranges. As a result the threat of being bad touched is still present. Vehicles with non-blast weapons will still be able to shoot to break free from combat, but blast weapons are essentially shut off by being tagged. This means that infantry screens are still vital to playing. Next thing is that artillery is no longer just a nice to have unit. They are essential for mitigation of the terrain rules. Wyverns, basilisks, manticores and mortars seemed to be more important than tanks.

 

Psychic secondaries are pretty good for us. We have an abundance of cheap psykers and should be able to field more than anyone except for thousand sons and grey knights. This will allow us to do either psychic interrogation or psychic ritual. I did psychic ritual as it was a quicker way to get 15 secondary points. Attack on all fronts is great for guard, but the problem is with the fragility of our infantry squads. Attrition is another solid choice. We have very strong firepower that will likely be good, but we need to kill more than our opponent.

 

Morale is a mixed bag. I had one morale test that I failed by a lot and only lost one guy. I had another morale test that I barely failed and lost 4 to morale. It does reduce the effectiveness of commissars even further. Lord commissars and Yarrick are still the only commissars worth taking and that's just to get a WS 2+ model into a fight.

Edited July 13, 2020 by HallofStovokor

[mertbl]

Interesting thought to just run cheap punisher Russes as a distraction/bait and load up on artillery. Even if they get touched they still go brrrrttt.

[War Angel]

So, how do you think pure infantry can do?

[HallofStovokor]

So, how do you think pure infantry can do?

You'll be giving up attrition and you must bring a second detachment, so you'll be down on CP. I think that it is entirely possible to win as we can nearly shutdown all deepstrike with the board. We're fast and our lasguns are surprisingly powerful against most of our opponents. Terrain rules are going to make our infantry more survivable. My game against the wolves ended with the wolves having just 2 models left, A wolf priest and a lone wolf intercessor. I had 2 basilisks, a wyvern, 2 tank commanders 2 squads of infantry and 1 company commander left. Fun fact Ragnar was defeated by lasguns. He consolidated into a squad, lost 3 wounds to a sergeant, got shot up by Guardsmen in my turn and then Creed popped him with his hot shot Laspistols. Ragnar is a chump that can't kill Guardsmen.

[GuardDaddy]

great tactical insight - thanks.

[War Angel]

Thanks man, this gives me hope.

[Shamansky]

Thanks man, this gives me hope.

Hope paves the way to heresy

[Diagramdude]

Bare bones punisher russ is now 180 pts from 145. Pretty expensive! I agree on the tactical advantage of artillery given the new terrain rules, but the artillery tanks are very vulnerable to getting tagged because they can’t shoot if the single heavy bolter doesnt remove the tagging unit. Will definitely be necessary to bring a thick screen or bully unit like bullgryns which only went up by 1 ppm!

[sairence]

It's worth mentioning that without a movement or penalty for heavy weapons there's no reason for artillery to stay still. Use that 12" movement to stay away from your opponents and enjoy what Tallarn players have been able to do all of 8th...drive by artillery barrages. :D