Kasrkin Death Bomb

[MrKoolPants]

Here's a fun combo if you're trying to burn two or three CPs in one shooting phase to hand out 10-11 mortal wounds (assuming average rolls). Here's what you'll need:

 

• Ursula Creed
• Lord Solar Leontus
• Kasrkins w/ 1x Hotshot Volleygun, 1x Hotshot Laspistol, 8x Hotshot Lasguns, Barbicant's Key, Veteran Guerrillas

 

Coming to a grand total of 350 points. For me, these are 350 points I would be spending already (Creed, Leontus, and Kasrkin are auto-includes, IMHO). For this tactic, you will only really be risking the 100pts worth of Kasrkin. 

 

On a turn of your choosing (probably turn 1), follow this three step plan:

1. Command Phase: ensure your Kasrkin are within 6" of Leontus and within order range of Creed during your Command Phase; Creed issues "Take Aim!" for +1 AP, +1 to hit, and +1S; Leontus gives his "Lord Commander Solar" buff for full hit and wound re-rolls. 
2. Movement Phase: burn your once-per-game Barbicant's Key move to plop your buffed-up Kasrkin within rapid fire range of one or two units you want to slap
3. Shooting Phase: use Overcharged Las-Cells (1 CP) so that wound rolls of 6 deal a Mortal Wound in addition to other damage; use Ingrained Precision (1 CP) so that to-hit rolls of 5+ automatically count as wound rolls of 6, thereby tripping additional Mortal Wounds; depending on what you're shooting at, you can also throw Experienced Eye (1 CP) into the mix for an additional +1 AP. 

 

Note that Overcharged Las-Cells is capped at 6 Mortal Wounds per target unit, so you'll probably want to split fire between two enemy units. With Guerrilla Fighters, Take Aim from Creed, and Experienced Eye, your hot-shot lasguns will be S4 AP -4 with all of these buffs, ignoring bonuses from light and dense cover. 

 

In my opinion, this is a way to absolutely devastate backline units up to MEQ toughness and saves. I think it'll even put some sweat on the brow of TEQ units and light vehicles, too. Its best use would be to put serious hurt on choice "fragile" units meant to trade up (I'm thinking Harlequin Troupes and Bloody Rose Repentias), or gut a couple of your opponent's ObSec choices.

 

I probably wouldn't use Experienced Eye all the time, so I'm mostly looking at a 2CP, 100pt investment to throw a serious wrench in my opponent's plan. Depending on what you shoot at, that's a serious trade up, IMO. 

 

 

 

[Karhedron]

There are a lot of units that would find 6MWs on top of normal damage to be extremely painful.

[Jaipii]

Why only one Hot-shot Volley Gun and not two? They're Rapid Fire 2 and S 4 (S 5 with Creed's Order). So a couple of extra shots with better better strength if you're already aiming for rapid fire range 

[Karhedron]

Volley guns are good with this combo. They are S5 meaning they wound even T8/9 tanks on a 5+ with full rerolls.

[Hiroitchi]

Oh don’t forget if you split fire (until it’s FAQ’d) each targeted unit gets a maximum of 6 mortal wounds while under overcharged Las.

[TCC]

I used mine (but no creed or Solar) the other day to drop into the back and shoot at 3 zoanthropes and then a Tervigon. 7 into the zoanthropes and 3 into the Tervigon.

 

Maxed the MW on the zoanthropes and did one more (damn their 3++) taking one out and putting the other on 1. Then plucked about 3-4 of the Tervigon.

 

Then failed the charge in the zoanthropes (which would have taken an objective and got me 2VP for command).

 

Overall the shooting was affective and they did their thing then died to the swarm next turn). It cost me 4CP in total with the pregame relics, 2VP to being out of Vox range to command and 100pts.

 

If found my second unit of Kasrkin did more work and were able to shoot on more turns without dying.

 

I’m not planning to take the key next game and save the 2CP. 

[MrKoolPants]

On 12/21/2022 at 6:09 AM, Hiroitchi said:

Oh don’t forget if you split fire (until it’s FAQ’d) each targeted unit gets a maximum of 6 mortal wounds while under overcharged Las.

You think it's going to get FAQ'd to 6 mortal wound maximum, regardless of how many units the Kasrkins target? 

 

On 12/21/2022 at 2:18 AM, Jaipii said:

Why only one Hot-shot Volley Gun and not two? They're Rapid Fire 2 and S 4 (S 5 with Creed's Order). So a couple of extra shots with better better strength if you're already aiming for rapid fire range 

I'm a dummy. In my maths I accounted for 2 HSVG. 

 

On 12/21/2022 at 6:15 AM, TCC said:

I’m not planning to take the key next game and save the 2CP. 

So in your opinion, it wasn't worth the cost in points/CPs to bring that combo to bear? Maybe it's just my mindset, but I like to do whatever I can to punk out a couple of my opponent's key units on the first turn. This seems like a way to safely guarantee a huge damage spike, and seriously disrupt my opponent's plan for the game. "Alpha Strike" as we used to call it (do people still use that terminology?).

[mertbl]

It works well. I've used it in almost every game of the new codex. I also throw it on my vet guerilla kasrkins to ignore cover.

 

Is it broken? Meh, its nothing worse than what any other army in the game is doing. 

[MrKoolPants]

Ran some maths real quick against Scarab Occult Terminators for a proof-of-concept. 

 

For a Kasrkin squad with:

• 2x HSVG
• Leontus' full hit and wound re-rolls
• "Take Aim!" by Creed
• Experienced Eye and Overcharged Las-Cells (2CP total, 3CP if you include the cost of Barbicant's Key)
• NO Born Soldiers and NO Ingrained Precision

On average, after saves, would do: 

• 9.9 wounds
• 6 mortal wounds
• That's 5 dead Terminators, and one on 2 wounds remaining

With Born Soldiers and Ingrained Precision (for 3CP total, 4CP if you include the cost of Barbicant's Key) 

• 11 wounds
• 6 mortal wounds
• That's 5 dead terminators, and one on 1 wound remaining

So, if you want to take Regimental Traits other than Born Soldiers, it's an option! The difference is that you could pretty reliably dish out 6 mortal wounds to two separate units if you go fishing for 5+s with Ingrained Precision and Born Soldiers.

 

If you want your opponent to pick up the rest of the Scarabs, give a Tank Commander with Gatekeeper "Pound Them to Dust!", and clean up the last one or two terminators with whatever cleanup shooting you have left. 

[sairence]

Just for the record, I've used overcharged lascells with Take Aim Scions before and with only reroll 1s to wound from a banner, and it still reliably produced 2-5MWs per round of shooting. So even without the buff it's a nice strat.

 

And I would not at all be surprised if it gets changed to max 6MWs total instead of per target. Likely with a points hike on Kasrkin. Hope they keep it at that for nerfing that particular combo and don't go overboard.

[TCC]

14 hours ago, LtColKool said:

Ran some maths real quick against Scarab Occult Terminators for a proof-of-concept. 

 

For a Kasrkin squad with:

• 2x HSVG
• Leontus' full hit and wound re-rolls
• "Take Aim!" by Creed
• Experienced Eye and Overcharged Las-Cells (2CP total, 3CP if you include the cost of Barbicant's Key)
• NO Born Soldiers and NO Ingrained Precision

On average, after saves, would do: 

• 9.9 wounds
• 6 mortal wounds
• That's 5 dead Terminators, and one on 2 wounds remaining

With Born Soldiers and Ingrained Precision (for 3CP total, 4CP if you include the cost of Barbicant's Key) 

• 11 wounds
• 6 mortal wounds
• That's 5 dead terminators, and one on 1 wound remaining

So, if you want to take Regimental Traits other than Born Soldiers, it's an option! The difference is that you could pretty reliably dish out 6 mortal wounds to two separate units if you go fishing for 5+s with Ingrained Precision and Born Soldiers.

 

If you want your opponent to pick up the rest of the Scarabs, give a Tank Commander with Gatekeeper "Pound Them to Dust!", and clean up the last one or two terminators with whatever cleanup shooting you have left. 

To put the Barbican key on to troops, I thought it costs 2CP, 1 for the relic, one for the strat allowing infantry to take it.

[MrKoolPants]

The wording says to “Select one model from your army that has the ‘Sergeant’ or ‘Watchmaster’ keyword and give them one of the following Heirlooms of Conquest:…” 

 

To me, that means you spend the CP, and give them a Relic. Not you spend the CP, and that makes them eligible to spend another CP on a relic. I could see that interpretation though! 
 

4 hours ago, sairence said:

So even without the buff it's a nice strat.

100% agreed. I feel like Overcharged Las-Cells is a button you try to smash two or three times per game, if you can line it up. 
 

Do y’all think it’s wasting efficiency to play the strat without Born Soldiers and Ingrained Precision for the 5+ for mortals? I’m liking the idea of other Regimental Traits, but don’t want to miss out on damage potential. 

[mertbl]

19 hours ago, LtColKool said:

 

 

If you want your opponent to pick up the rest of the Scarabs, give a Tank Commander with Gatekeeper "Pound Them to Dust!", and clean up the last one or two terminators with whatever cleanup shooting you have left. 

really you want to lead off with gatekeeper. pound them to dust won't have any effect unless the doubling gets them to count as over 11 models. 

[TokyoRaider666]

On 12/20/2022 at 11:58 PM, MrKoolPants said:

Here's a fun combo if you're trying to burn two or three CPs in one shooting phase to hand out 10-11 mortal wounds (assuming average rolls). Here's what you'll need:

 

• Ursula Creed
• Lord Solar Leontus
• Kasrkins w/ 1x Hotshot Volleygun, 1x Hotshot Laspistol, 8x Hotshot Lasguns, Barbicant's Key, Veteran Guerrillas

 

Coming to a grand total of 350 points. For me, these are 350 points I would be spending already (Creed, Leontus, and Kasrkin are auto-includes, IMHO). For this tactic, you will only really be risking the 100pts worth of Kasrkin. 

 

On a turn of your choosing (probably turn 1), follow this three step plan:

1. Command Phase: ensure your Kasrkin are within 6" of Leontus and within order range of Creed during your Command Phase; Creed issues "Take Aim!" for +1 AP, +1 to hit, and +1S; Leontus gives his "Lord Commander Solar" buff for full hit and wound re-rolls. 
2. Movement Phase: burn your once-per-game Barbicant's Key move to plop your buffed-up Kasrkin within rapid fire range of one or two units you want to slap
3. Shooting Phase: use Overcharged Las-Cells (1 CP) so that wound rolls of 6 deal a Mortal Wound in addition to other damage; use Ingrained Precision (1 CP) so that to-hit rolls of 5+ automatically count as wound rolls of 6, thereby tripping additional Mortal Wounds; depending on what you're shooting at, you can also throw Experienced Eye (1 CP) into the mix for an additional +1 AP. 

 

Note that Overcharged Las-Cells is capped at 6 Mortal Wounds per target unit, so you'll probably want to split fire between two enemy units. With Guerrilla Fighters, Take Aim from Creed, and Experienced Eye, your hot-shot lasguns will be S4 AP -4 with all of these buffs, ignoring bonuses from light and dense cover. 

 

In my opinion, this is a way to absolutely devastate backline units up to MEQ toughness and saves. I think it'll even put some sweat on the brow of TEQ units and light vehicles, too. Its best use would be to put serious hurt on choice "fragile" units meant to trade up (I'm thinking Harlequin Troupes and Bloody Rose Repentias), or gut a couple of your opponent's ObSec choices.

 

I probably wouldn't use Experienced Eye all the time, so I'm mostly looking at a 2CP, 100pt investment to throw a serious wrench in my opponent's plan. Depending on what you shoot at, that's a serious trade up, IMO. 

 

 

 

 

Doesnt Overcharged Las cells only apply to Unmodified 6s? So your 5s wouldnt count towards your mortal wound count?

[TCC]

In my league guys have been ordering them to first rank second rank with all Solars re-rolls it’s better because more number of shots. 

[sairence]

4 hours ago, TokyoRaider666 said:

 

Doesnt Overcharged Las cells only apply to Unmodified 6s? So your 5s wouldnt count towards your mortal wound count?

 

They count because of the second strat, Ingrained Precision, which triggers Born Soldiers on auto-wounds with 5s to hit.

 

And yes, you go with FRFSRF, because you want to reroll everything that's not an auto-wound anyway. So it doesn't matter that much whether you base-hit on 3s or 4s.