Unit of the week Unit of the week (10th edition index tactica) : Obliterators

[Cpt.Danjou]

+++Unit of the week+++

 

 

 

Obliterators

 

How do you use Obliterators?

• Mark
• Role

 

This is a discussion about Helbrutes in the 10th edition index. Tell us your tactics, fun facts, your experience with them, and other things that are interesting with Obliterators.

 

Cpt. Danjou

Edited September 11, 2023 by Cpt.Danjou

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I've only played one game of 10e with them, but they seemed good.

 

Didn't have any enemies shoot at them (as I deepstruck them out of LOS of most units that could have shot them, which weren't many given I was facing foot orks), so can't really comment on their resiliency other than that by its very nature their deepstrike ability makes them more durable as you can keep them off the table until they will make a difference, and you can put them down somewhere that is sheltered from enemy fire.

 

Their firing modes are still good, and unlike much of the infantry based anti tank weapons (melta, etc) they have kept their anti tank potency by having that mode bumped up to S 12.  As for the other two modes, I used the middle version (S 8) over the anti-infantry S 5 version - I found that with Dark Pact giving me Sustained Hits, and the blast ability, the extra chance to wound made up for the reduction of shots even against large units (I really like the 10e blast rules - they feel really potent but not in the weapon dependant way of 9e, it helping that you get +1 shot just from targetting a 5 model unit.

 

While normally I would feel 24" range is a real limitation, being able to drop them basically in the middel of the enemy backfield essentially puts them in range of whatever you want them to be in range with.  The once per game indirect fire option is icing on the cake, as it allows the unit to remain relevant to killing your enemy even when you don't want it shot at in return.

 

I made mine Tzeench, so as to potentially get a model back from the stratagem, though in that particular game I would have been better nurgle as they didn't take any casualties and I was pretty always choosing sustained fire for their shooting and criting on 5+s would have been nice.

 

In conclusion, I really like them.  They do it all - they are pretty survivable, pack decent and versitle fire power, and are great for kicking your enemy off of an out of the way objective then taking it themselves.  Sure, other units can do each of those things for cheaper, but its pretty much the only unit that can do it all and they seem reasonably priced for all they can do.  I don't think I would every choose to have them start on the table unless I thought the loss of a turn of their firepower was prohibitive (certainly I have games in 8-9e against Necrons that felt that way, where my army was essentially gone by turn 3).

 

Of course, they do have the one draw back of all deepstriking units - you actually have to remember to deepstrike them.    In my game, I forgot to bring them in on turn 2, which means I both lost a turn's worth of shooting and could have kicked my opponent of an objective (and claimed it myself) a turn earlier. 

[LSM]

17 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

I made mine Tzeench, so as to potentially get a model back from the stratagem, though in that particular game I would have been better nurgle as they didn't take any casualties and I was pretty always choosing sustained fire for their shooting and criting on 5+s would have been nice.

 

Tzeentch does also let you access the Warp Hail option's native [Sustained Hits 1] on a 5+, alongside the [Lethal Hits]. But I don't know how often one would even be using Warp Hail. (Even into chaff the Ruinous Salvo might be the better option, thanks to its [Blast] and higher S/AP.)

• Two Tzeentch 'Blits, Dark Pact Warp Hailing into a 10/20 strong GEQ unit average 12 shots, 4 Lethals and 8 S5 hits, at AP -1. >9 wounds, opponent saves <2. ~8 dead GEQ.
• Nurgle 'Blits, Dark Pact Ruinous Salvoing into a 10 strong GEQ unit average 10 shots, 10 S8 hits, at AP-2. >8 wounds, opponent saves 0. ~8 dead GEQ.
• Nurgle 'Blits, Dark Pact Ruinous Salvoing into a 20 strong GEQ unit average 14 shots, 14 S8 hits, at AP-2. >11 wounds, opponent saves 0. ~11 dead GEQ.

Nurgle does seem best.

 

//

 

Slaanesh might have some outside use, for Unnatural Swiftness. "It's clobbering time!". Struggle to see a point to Khorne or Undivided. I suppose the latter might help with dependability? 

Edited September 5, 2023 by LSM

[Wind Whistler]

@Dr_Ruminahui, a battle in which your opponent didn’t kill any of your obliterators is a battle in which their mark probably didn’t matter. Nurgle does give a slightly more offensive output, but the ability to reanimate models may be more clutch in difficult fights. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Dr_Ruminahui
Helping member post - B&C is acting wonky

[Kythnos]

What unit sizes are working best for you? The full unit for maximum destruction or smaller disruption deepstrikers?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

The one I fielded was a 2 man unit.

 

While a bigger unit gives you a better chance of getting a model back with the stratagem, I'm not certain whether that is worth it.  I am more inclined to multiple smaller units as they are easier to hide and give you better board coverage, both in terms of contesting/clearing objectives and of what you can fire at.  Plus, depending on placement and the number of squads your opponent has available, its harder to engage all of them in melee.

 

In previous editions, where we had a stratagem that doubled the firing of a unit, I likely would have gone the other way on this issue as a large unit could have significantly more fire power than multiple small units.  Without that, if you have a problem that a small unit can't handle , dropping 2 small units together will get the same offensive output as a larger unit while still retaining some of the advantages of the smaller unit size in terms of versatility and hide-ability.  Now, if we could attach a character to them, that might shift the needle, but we can't.

 

So, the tl/dr on the above is that the only reason to field the larger unit is to better benefit from the regeneration stratagem, but this is generally offset by the otherwise (IMHO overwhelming) benefits of multiple smaller units.  Not to say that there won't be opponents and/or table setups where the larger unit is better, but to me the default unit size is the smaller one.

 

Edit:  It just occurred to me that there is another situation where a large squad may be better, and that is where multiple squads shooting at the same unit could potentially trigger an adverse effect multiple times where the firing of one squad would only trigger it once.  Probably the most generic example would be where an opponent can trigger overwatch more than once a turn (through an ability such as on the Chaos Lord to generate a free and additional use of a stratagem) - though more potent examples may exist otherwise.  To the what extent this proves to be a consideration with any weight remains to be seen.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Dr_Ruminahui

[acrozatarim]

Undivided is very strong on Obliterators; full rerolls with Profane Zeal boost their reliability massively.