Red Brotherhood

[Rogue]

Here's the rest of the heavy weapon teams - two sets of lascannons this time.

 

[Rogue]

I'm currently playing in a summer league at my FLGS - 1000 points, factions are locked, lists aren't.

 

Round one was an absolute bust. I took a chopped-down version of my Xenocreed list - two big units of Metamorphs in trucks, several small units of Acolytes, a Ridgerunner, a Reductus, that sort of thing. They went headfirst into a bunch of T6 marines and pretty much bounced off. Then got shot to pieces.

 

So for round two, I wanted to try something completely different, and ended up with this:

 

Xenocult + Broodswarm

Patriarch, 10 genestealers (star children)

Reductus

2×5 Acolytes, mining tools

2×5 Acolytes, hand flamers

2×20 Neophytes (one with disguises)

Ridgerunner (mortar, auger)

 

The general idea is that the stealers are a significant combat threat - infiltrate, S5, T5, advance and charge, devastating wounds. They plan to engage early and often, tying up (or removing) key enemy units.

 

Then the neophytes sit on objectives, shooting if targets present themselves, but mostly holding the ground so that other units (like the Reductus) can complete Priority Assets actions. And getting back 7-9 neophytes every turn is kinda handy too, as is the reroll-all-hits stratagem.

 

So, the game...

 

My opponent was playing Alpha Legion as Deceptors, disposed as Disruptors, and was able to infiltrate multiple units. He ended up with cultists on my left, backed up by a predator; five marines and two spawn in the middle; five marines on my right, supported by five chosen and a Lord in a rhino; and two obliterators and another lord in reserve.

 

I parked Acolytes on my home objective (my left), with the Stealers in cover ahead of them; Neophytes in cover in the middle, with the Ridgerunner; and the other Neophytes, Acolytes and the Reductus in cover on the right. Both units of hand flamers were in reserve. I went first.

 

TURN 1

On the left, my Genestealers moved up and blended the ten cultists hiding in the objective ruins. The Neophytes in the centre stayed hidden, and on the right, everyone pushed forwards into the objective ruins - there was a risk that the heretic marines on that side would charge me in their turn, but I was hopeful that the Neophytes would tarpit them if they did.

 

On my left, the Stealers took fire from the predator and the marines in the centre, taking five casualties. On the right, the other marines, spawn, and the rhino crept forward, but the marines stepped on the Reductus' mines and lost two.

 

TURN TWO

The Neophytes in the centre pressed forward, while the ones on the right ascended the ruins - between them they killed the spawn, and two of the central marines. The surviving Stealers moved across, charged the marines in the centre, and wiped them out. On the right, the Acolytes charged the other marines and shredded them with mining tools.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty good - he's down to the predator and the loaded rhino, with two units in reserve, and I still have almost everything (and just scored four secondaries to boot).

 

In return, the predator removes the rest of the Genestealers (but leaves the Patriarch alive on three wounds). On the right, the rhino tank shocks into the Acolytes (who'd just killed the marine in melee) and wipes out all five. Ouch.

Obliterators drop in behind my home objective, don't shoot, but then fluff the charge and just stand there.

 

TURN THREE

It takes both units on Neophytes to crack the rhino open, exposing the Chosen unit and the Lord, but I have nothing to go into them, and they're danger-close to my right flank troops. Meanwhile, the Patriarch charges the predator, bringing it down to four wounds.

Lacking options, the Acolytes on my home charged the Obliterators, and killed one with mining tools. And elsewhere on the left, hand flamers dropped into the expansion objectives (where the cultists were massacred in turn one).

 

The predator pulled back, and finished off the Patriarch (allowing me to put the Stealers into Ambush). The last Obliterator finished off the Acolytes in combat.

On the right, the Chosen went into the flank Neophytes, and killed 19 of them - fortunately, the icon survived. The second Lord dropped in behind my units on the right, but failed his charge.

 

TURN FOUR

The sole survivor of the righthand Neophytes was joined by nine friends, then immediately lost five falling back from the Chosen. But it made space for the Stealers to deep strike in, charge the Chosen, and wipe them and the Lord off the map.

The ridgerunner, Reductus and the last unit of handflamers took down the other Lord (helped by his failed Dark Pact roll in the previous turn).

 

At this point, the Chaos Marines had been reduced to a damaged predator and an obliterator. Both fired on the central Neophytes (with the Predator damaging itself via Pacts in the process).

 

TURN FIVE

The overworked Genestealers headed back to the centre, charged the predator and finished it off.

The Obliterator defiantly clung on to my home objective a moment longer, then teleported away - the sole survivor of the Alpha Legion force.

 

DEBRIEF

The Genestealers were the absolute MVPs here - they netted the cultists, marines, Chosen and Lord, and the damaged predator. Strength 5 was great, letting me wound marines on 3s; and the Toughness 5, 4+ save really boosted my resilience into bolters and havoc launchers. The unit got to rampage back and forth across the board, and the psychological impact of bringing them back, after my opponent had spend two turns whittling them down was pretty big - at that point, with most of his units dead, he just didn't have the resources to deal with them again.

 

That said, the Neophytes did good work too. They let me control the middle of the board, and the righthand expansion for most of the game (even if the centre was more about the threat, rather than piling on to it directly). And being able to bring so many back was fun (for me, at least), and meant I could afford to expose the units a bit more than I might have otherwise - as long as the icon was in terrain, I was getting back all or most of my casualties each turn.

 

And I was pretty pleased with my layered approach on the right. The Neophytes were effectively a screen protecting the Acolytes (who could counter-charge if necessary) and the Reductus (who could happily fire indirect, set off mines, and chuck grenades in a pinch). My right flank felt pretty secure early on, and only really fell apart once the Chosen arrived, ran over the acolyte and diced the neophytes; but by then, I had a huge lead in points.

 

In short, the Genestealers were deadly, the Neophytes were surprisingly resilient, and the rest of the list got things done and picked up points. It'll definitely get another outing in round three.

[brother_b]

Great rundown on your battle. I’m finding the neophyte units of 20, inside a terrain feature, with a re-roll strategy for shooting to be extremely hard to shift.
 

In our low point total games, they have stood up to high levels of fire power with very little reduction in effectiveness because they get their models back.

 

I also ran unsupported Abberants and they did just fine, but I think I really need to finish my blob of Genestealers and get them scooting around the battlefield.

 

Right now, my aim is for biosanctic and xenocult masses but I’m wondering if just throwing all three of the one point detachments together would work. I may try that out.