Spreading out an army

[Uberlord Gendo]

I've finally gotten to play a few games of 9th and I'm finding that I'm really inclined to bunch up around my characters for rerolls which doesn't work so well when there's more objective-based play. (Ironically, I'm observing this just as I started using Hellblasters and Apothecaries.)

Any suggestions for keeping buffs while spreading out? Or do I just need to accept that not everyone gets to have rerolls?

[Rik Lightstar]

That's the balance I'm afraid

 

For taking and holding objectives you either need to:

 

1) Commit Characters to the key areas with objectives you must hold

 

2) Use units that can operate effectively unsupported

 

3) Use units that are less effective anyway so the loss of Aura support is less of a detriment to your army and support from afar with key units

 

Rik

[jeremy1391]

One thing I have found effective to keep some buffs but spreading out is to take the Phobos captain and infiltrators with the comms array. Also having a dreadnought or two in the list to Chuck out the occasional wisdom of the ancients when you really need to buff a unit is helpful.

[MegaVolt87]

Loyalist SM players falling into the same trap as CSM players these days by taking far too many characters to get buffs. Be more selective with what you want, you don't really need more than one character from elites if you think about the rest of your list. Got a deathstar? Apothecary. Masses of intercessors? get a banner guy instead etc. 

[Rik Lightstar]

All Rerolls really ever achieve is to reduce variance in your dice rolls, they bring consistency, you can also get the same or a better result most of the time with just a higher volume of dice.

 

So "limited choices" either by cost or slot restrictions are best supported by Aura Buffs.

 

But things like troop choices are often better served by having more of them. 15 Intercessors have a better output than 10 Intercessors with a Captain or Lieutenant as well as being more survivable and better at holding objectives. Despite both options being approximately the same points cost.

 

It's about using the right tool for the job.

 

Rik

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Yeah Uberlord Gendo you pretty much have to accept that not everyone gets re-rolls. Like others have said getting more units/models on the table is a better strategy. Its worth pointing out that this is true for every army in 9th that has aura abilities so it's not a handicap.

[Dracos]

Bolter fusillades and whirlwind of rage for normal dudes

 

Captain/Chaplain and a Lt for things like Eradicators Hellblasters.

[Riddlesworth]

Bolter fusillades and whirlwind of rage for normal dudes

 

Captain/Chaplain and a Lt for things like Eradicators Hellblasters.

 

If your goal was more reliable/reroll auras, this is the way to go.

[CCE1981]

Honestly I am not seeing this edition as an objectives edition. You want units that aren’t going to die to a paper cut on remote objectives true, but mostly this edition is about the death ball. Annihilate your opponents ability to claim an objective and they can’t score points. Take the Secondaries that revolve around killing your opponent. Who cares if you mac out, once your opponent is effectively dead turn three, claim the rest of the objectives and raise banners.

[Dracos]

You'd be wrong then but I respect it as a subjective viewpoint.

[Emurian]

The dread suggestion is the way to go imo as Redemptor dreadnoughts are competitive atm so its not weird to see 2 of them in a list. 

You can deploy the dreads more or less on your flanks while your captain starts roughly at the midboard. 

I personally am not a fan of the herohammer and tbh, if I could get away with my list taking only a single HQ then I would do it. Once they nerfed the captain bubble from all nearby units to a single unit it instantly killed all appeal for me to run them.

Last game I ran a phobos Lt with a Seal of Oath relic over a captain. Reason for this was that I had a squad of Inceptors I wanted to try out.Now it didnt work out the way I planned as the Relic target moved so close to the board edge that I could deploy the Lt near the Eradicators to blow up said target and allow the Interceptors to pick something else. My plan was to use the relic for the rerolls I needed and then allowing the unit to simply die, as I do not expect a 150 pts unit that drops near enemy lines to remain there unscathed the turn after lol.

I didn't miss having a captain for a single moment as my dreadnought was fullfilling his buffing role for my Hellblasters.. My 2nd HQ was Tigurius which IMO is an auto include as a UM player. 

Buffs are nice, but like your finding out yourself it also gives this urge to keep all your units closely together. This in turn kinda goes against the thing you want to establish, board control. So I wouldn't worry to much about it. When I started with my first games in 9th I was playing more akin to the Deathstar formation, walk up to the middle of the board and spread from there. Later games I tried to alternate by spreading out my units more. If I plan to advance to a certain point on the board I tend to commit a max of 3 units that ''work together'' while the rest of my army moves up to take different points on the board. 

[Uberlord Gendo]

I may be missing something, but I think captains kept their everyone bubble and it's chapter masters who are limited to one unit.

Either way, I'm definitely going to give dreadnoughts a shot. (I'm seriously looking forward to doing up a plasma deredo to support my Dreadwing Hellblasters.)

I'm also going to give Bolter Fusilades a try. Particularly with Ultramarines doctrine, it should make for a pretty mobile list and very much get me out of the murderball headspace. I take the "they can't capture objectives if they're dead" point, but that's what Custodes are for.

(The real problem now is how to fluff it. Maybe someone got tired of pyromania and said "hey, let's try this bolter thing?")

Edited March 26, 2021 by Uberlord Gendo