Fear. We have it how can we use it

[gloomfang]

One of the most ignored boosts to MCs is that they now cause Fear. I know that against Fearless and ATSKNF units it doesn't do anything.

As I hate spending points on an ability that I don't use to its maximum advantage I figgured that the Hive might have some ideas.

So we are looking at IG, Tau, Eldar, DE and to a lesser extent Orks and Necrons. They are vulnerable to Fear for the most part. Not sure about Demons or Chaos as I rarely play them.

Anyone have any sugestions or should we just theoryhammer.

Disclamer I forget about Fear on my MCs @80% of the time, so I haven't really used it much.

[coredump]

Well, it is one of the few things that the BLood Despair could help with.

[halos]

I don't think I have ever remembered to force a Fear check with my MCs so far. I barely remember the HoW hit also.

As it stands I think it's a cute bonus but not something you can particularly rely on or aim to exploit. If it works, great, makes the combat a lot safer. If not then, eh, no big loss.
I guess you could try for multiple Ld drops from Broodlords but then you're throwing a lot of points into a gimmick.
I think there's a Warlord trait which forces nearby enemy models to use their lowest Ld as well? Obviously not something to be relied on but a useful factor to bear in mind for Fear checks I suppose.

[Deleted]

I think all you can do is remember to use it whenever an MC of yours gets charged.

[Psychichobo]

I wouldn't try to exploit it. In the old Dark Eldar codex there were tonnes of cool morale test forcers, but you really did feel the uselessness of them when it turned out you were against a fearless list. And since Fear doesn't work on ATSKNF either, it's best to not try and faff around with the already risky psychic powers to exploit it, only if the opportunity pops up.

[milkybarnid]

Fear can be quite useful in certain situations, it makes MCs slightly tougher to tarpit (not just ours though). I can only see it being useful against IG as stated above Fearless units and ATSKNF, block this. i can see it working rarely, though the tyrant and tervigon may be able to make better use of it. If a psyker could get the telepathy power that removes fearless from a unit, of course this only slightly increases the chance has a fearless unit tends to have decent leadership anyway. The tyrant can just cast paroxysm which is better anyway as that reduces BS and lasts until your next turn as well so fear is just another opportunity.

General thoughts: Tervigon and Carnifex (if used) need this as if it succeeds lets them hit on 3s and get hit on 5s. I dont see the need for the broodlord to cast aura of despair, it should be in combat, using hypnotic gaze.

[N.I.B.]

In the current meta with ~80% Fearless/ATSKNF armies, Fear is a fluffy gimmick that I usually forget the few times it can actually have an impact.

[DukeMantis]

Sorry, whats ATSKNF?

[Illithid]

And They Shall Know No Fear

[Jabberwocky]

It's definitely something to forget about in most cases, though could be vital against Tau and the like. It could also be great against nids used in conjunction with telepathy.

I never remember that or HoW though :-(

[jahatch42878]

I must say, bit off topic, that I hate the overlap of the Special Rules, in the 6th edition rule book (I didn't play 4th or 5th edition so I don't know if they are better or worse...)

but trying to figure out what abilities my models have, I have basically had to type out their stats and abilities for each unit...

and keep a shorthand of each ability nearby (like Monstrous Creatures gives this, which also gives this, which means this, which I need to remember when doing this) and then the combination of abilities like move through cover, fleet, which models ignore cover but not when determining initiative when charging and which have fleet with or without rerolls... I am sure part of this is just that I'm starting a new edition wtih a new army with an old codex but it does not seem like they thought this out very well...

and then you go and give something wings or biomorphs and all of a sudden you have a new list of rules that may or may not be spread out across a codex, a rulebook, and one or more faq/erratas...

Anyway, yeah, Fear, Fearless, Hammer of Wrath, Slam attacks, what AP my attacks are at, which cause instant death, which cause instant death due to boneswords, which get through on an attack roll of 6, which I can re-roll, which I can allocate to particular enemies if I roll a 6 or not depending on if I'm technically an independent character or not... going to take a while to get all these straight... =p

[Bot]

Sept 18, 2012 20:18:55 GMT jahatch42878 said:

I must say, bit off topic, that I hate the overlap of the Special Rules, in the 6th edition rule book (I didn't play 4th or 5th edition so I don't know if they are better or worse...)

but trying to figure out what abilities my models have, I have basically had to type out their stats and abilities for each unit...

and keep a shorthand of each ability nearby (like Monstrous Creatures gives this, which also gives this, which means this, which I need to remember when doing this) and then the combination of abilities like move through cover, fleet, which models ignore cover but not when determining initiative when charging and which have fleet with or without rerolls... I am sure part of this is just that I'm starting a new edition wtih a new army with an old codex but it does not seem like they thought this out very well...

and then you go and give something wings or biomorphs and all of a sudden you have a new list of rules that may or may not be spread out across a codex, a rulebook, and one or more faq/erratas...

Anyway, yeah, Fear, Fearless, Hammer of Wrath, Slam attacks, what AP my attacks are at, which cause instant death, which cause instant death due to boneswords, which get through on an attack roll of 6, which I can re-roll, which I can allocate to particular enemies if I roll a 6 or not depending on if I'm technically an independent character or not... going to take a while to get all these straight... =p

That's just Warhammer. You should remember about just as many things in 4th-5th edition as in 6th edition. The more you play however, the more rules will you learn to remember.

I've just learned about 10 new Warhammer players to know and they are just starting up. I took a 2000 pts 2 vs 2 game last Saturday and the game took about 7 hours because they had to look up the rules all the time. However, with the friends I'm usually playing with, such a game only takes about 2-3 hours... Simply because we have learned to memories the rules.

It is something every Warhammer player have to go through.

[ranmafan]

Fear is meant to help Tyranids deal with the big shooty armies that tend to suffer from Ld problems - which is indeed DE, IG and Tau, the three shootiest armies in my experience. It's probably more of a reward thing for actually managing to get the MC within charging range of the enemy models and surviving.

But yeah - don't focus too much on it. It's nice to have, but only as a pleasant bonus.

[N.I.B.]

Thing is, Fear doesn't make a difference, Tau and IG can't hold a candle in close combat even without Fear - if you reach combat with anything, you'll win that combat.
We don't really want to get better in combat against Tau and IG - If anything Fear is another drawback for Nids since you increase the chance another notch of breaking through on the charge, stranding your MC outside combat to be lit up by shooting in the following turn.

And the only combats you tend to experience from DE are the ones they initiate. It can be nice against dedicated CC DE units though, if you can beat the logistics to get there.