The "Uncomfortable Touch" Method of beating gunlines
Jul 21, 2017 15:01:48 GMT
nidzy, gigasnail, and 12 more like this
Post by rpricew on Jul 21, 2017 15:01:48 GMT
Hey everyone. I've had a lot of success vs Static Gunlines that include the following combinations:
Roboute Guilliman and x4 Dreads / x6 Razorbacks
Cawl & 12 Castellan Robots
Azrael & Razorback spam with conscript blobs
This also works AMAZINGLY well vs armies that have Units riding in transports or buildings. If you completely surround a vehicle/building and wreck it, then all the passengers are immediately destroyed.
Khorne Berzerkers in Rhinos
Devastators hiding in Razorbacks
Wraithguard in Wave Serpents (be careful of them flying out of combat next turn)
Land Raiders with big nasty hiding inside
Tau Pathfinders on a Tidewall / Shieldline
you get the idea...
Well this kind of army has taken a quick hold on our local meta so I had to adapt how to beat them. Thus, my list that I took to ATC was born.
2000 points
Swarmlord (Tyrannocyte w/VC)
Old One Eye (This was for backfield counter assault, and he's cool) - not essential to this list.
19 Genestealers (toxin sacs)
27 Hormagaunts (adrenal glands)
Mucolid
x3 Shrikes (RC, AG)
x3 Sky Slashers
x3 Sky slashers
x2 Hive Crones
x2 Trygon (AG, Toxinspike tail)
x1 Mawloc
So here's the plan. You combine the Trygons and Troops into the tunnels, load Swarmy up in his pod and then counter deploy as much as possible to keep the Crones out last and out of range if possible. Depending on the mission, most of your enemy commanders will castle up in their deployment zone to take advantage of the RE-Roll bubble from their Super Dude.
This pleases the hive. Now the lure is to jump on them T1 and just start smashing, but this could be a Rookie Move. You want to pick the right time to pounce. You want to pick a turn when they have either waited too long to move, or if it seems that they are going to move out quickly, then you move.
You have about 2.5 Battle Rounds to win the game with this army. Most of the time, if Rowboat is left alive, then he can carve through you in that amount of time. Cawl is also dangerous in this way.
So here's the setup, and you will want to practice your deployment, since it's easy to block yourself out of multi-charging. Usually one of the Crones get's shot down, unless you have the first turn and decide to strike early. Fly them up and prepare to shoot / assault the front lines of the enemy. They can pass beyond the magical 9" bubble and their job is just to soak overwatch from the conscripts / vehicles to keep the little guys alive. Remember that the positioning of the Crones will allow you to consolidate / pile into multiple vehicles to come within 1". You don't have to swing on these models, just touch them during the additional moves.
Once the right time has come, then you layout your 9" line from his armies. The point of this list is to "touch" as many of his shooting units as possible with your army to keep them from shooting in subsequent rounds. The goal is NOT to just wipe his army off the table (although that is entirely possible)
Deploy the Trygon with the Stealers First. This will be your Conscript bubble removal tool. Or, if your opponent doesn't have a screen, then you want to pick the best angle for the Hormagaunt Swarm to come at the enemy and deploy the Hormagaunts first instead. Hopefully on one side or the other so that they can consolidate into the 2nd row (where the dreads/robots are usually hiding)
Now deploy the Swarmlord to make sure that his 6" Hive Commander bubble is good to go. Last, you deploy the other Troop trygon (depending on who you put out first) and pick the best angle to either hit some vehicles or screens. I usually put Catalyst on Stealers since they are viewed as the biggest threat in this army. Next I either do a smite or just cast -1 to hit on the most threatening unit to the Hormagaunts / Stealers. Mawloc comes in and does some Mortal Wounds and I try to put him in position to block escape of units that are hiding in vehicles.
Shoot away with the Crones, Trygons & Tyrannocyte, but be mindful not to shoot the Genestealers / Hormagaunts out of assault range. Then it's time to pick your unit to move. I usually move the stealers since they are the most dangerous unit. 19 stealers that Advance and move have a huge footprint. This will usually block out the Trygon that brought them, but that's ok. The Trygon for the stealer is there to take some shooting next round and then counter assault on the following turn. However, you will figure it out after a few games as to which unit needs to move first. Remember, that you don't have to move up and get 1.01" away from the enemy. The goal is to spread out and factor in your assault roll & 3" pile in towards the "nearest enemy model" when it comes time to roll that charge. I've had 14" moves/advances followed up with 7-9" charges that meant I was able to surround a huge portion of an enemy's army.
So now the time for assault has come. Pick one or two units as the target and assault with the Crone. Whatever is closest that you can then swing into and tie up with pile in / consolidate. Repeat with the other crone. Remember, if you roll like a boss on the distance, then you can move exactly where you want to position the pile in moves and clear the hole for the Hormagaunts / stealers coming behind. Do the same with the other crone if they are still alive. Now it's time for the stealers. Send them in and spread out ... spread out... spread out. Only target the minimum number of units that you need to in order to minimize the Overwatch at you. Remember, these armies have characters that allow re-roll hits/wounds so you want to minimize your losses.
Send in the Trygons/Tyrannocyte and Swarmlord next. Just to see if you can. A lot of times, these guys won't make the charge, but the real one your saving your soul for is the Hormagaunt charge. This is where you're saving the Cmd Point for the re-roll. If you can get these guys in, you use the positioning to really spread out and take full advantage of the 6" pile in and 6" Consolidate.
This is after I killed a 45 man unit of Conscripts with the Genestealers / Hive Crones and then Hormagaunts got to pile in and touch all the Razors and Dreads. This picture was taken before Consolidate.
Here's a few more examples:
Hormagaunts touching Sister Screen and Robots
Here is an overview with the Stealers removing the Sister Screen first
Here is the destruction of 9 Berzerkers in a Rhino that the Swarmlord blew up while surrounded
Here's an overview of a similar game vs the same opponent
This strategy is a lot like the old "Trapdoor Spider" You have to know when to drop on your opponent. In the DA game above, I deployed out of range of the guns and made him go first to give me bottom of turn. Then I just waited till turn 3 and dropped and pounded him into that corner while the Shrikes, Rippers and OOE went and scored the objective. In the CSM game, I just kind of rolled through his army with momentum and killed everything with some good rolls on the Trygons and the knights. In the Robot Game, I won 19 out of 20 points by winning all the objectives and preventing the robots from shooting effectively for all 5 turns. I dropped turn 3 in this game as well.
I hope you enjoyed this tactic. I call it the "Uncomfortable Touch" because that's how your opponent feels after you've successfully pulled it off. They have a plan and you just take it from them and win the game. Enjoy! Comments and Criticisms are welcome.
Remember, OOE is just in the list for fun, I love that model and he dies 3/5 of the time before doing something, but if you get DoW and a little bit of LoS blocking terrain, then when he hits the enemy lines... it's GAME OVER MAN!!!
Roboute Guilliman and x4 Dreads / x6 Razorbacks
Cawl & 12 Castellan Robots
Azrael & Razorback spam with conscript blobs
This also works AMAZINGLY well vs armies that have Units riding in transports or buildings. If you completely surround a vehicle/building and wreck it, then all the passengers are immediately destroyed.
Khorne Berzerkers in Rhinos
Devastators hiding in Razorbacks
Wraithguard in Wave Serpents (be careful of them flying out of combat next turn)
Land Raiders with big nasty hiding inside
Tau Pathfinders on a Tidewall / Shieldline
you get the idea...
Well this kind of army has taken a quick hold on our local meta so I had to adapt how to beat them. Thus, my list that I took to ATC was born.
2000 points
Swarmlord (Tyrannocyte w/VC)
Old One Eye (This was for backfield counter assault, and he's cool) - not essential to this list.
19 Genestealers (toxin sacs)
27 Hormagaunts (adrenal glands)
Mucolid
x3 Shrikes (RC, AG)
x3 Sky Slashers
x3 Sky slashers
x2 Hive Crones
x2 Trygon (AG, Toxinspike tail)
x1 Mawloc
So here's the plan. You combine the Trygons and Troops into the tunnels, load Swarmy up in his pod and then counter deploy as much as possible to keep the Crones out last and out of range if possible. Depending on the mission, most of your enemy commanders will castle up in their deployment zone to take advantage of the RE-Roll bubble from their Super Dude.
This pleases the hive. Now the lure is to jump on them T1 and just start smashing, but this could be a Rookie Move. You want to pick the right time to pounce. You want to pick a turn when they have either waited too long to move, or if it seems that they are going to move out quickly, then you move.
You have about 2.5 Battle Rounds to win the game with this army. Most of the time, if Rowboat is left alive, then he can carve through you in that amount of time. Cawl is also dangerous in this way.
So here's the setup, and you will want to practice your deployment, since it's easy to block yourself out of multi-charging. Usually one of the Crones get's shot down, unless you have the first turn and decide to strike early. Fly them up and prepare to shoot / assault the front lines of the enemy. They can pass beyond the magical 9" bubble and their job is just to soak overwatch from the conscripts / vehicles to keep the little guys alive. Remember that the positioning of the Crones will allow you to consolidate / pile into multiple vehicles to come within 1". You don't have to swing on these models, just touch them during the additional moves.
Once the right time has come, then you layout your 9" line from his armies. The point of this list is to "touch" as many of his shooting units as possible with your army to keep them from shooting in subsequent rounds. The goal is NOT to just wipe his army off the table (although that is entirely possible)
Deploy the Trygon with the Stealers First. This will be your Conscript bubble removal tool. Or, if your opponent doesn't have a screen, then you want to pick the best angle for the Hormagaunt Swarm to come at the enemy and deploy the Hormagaunts first instead. Hopefully on one side or the other so that they can consolidate into the 2nd row (where the dreads/robots are usually hiding)
Now deploy the Swarmlord to make sure that his 6" Hive Commander bubble is good to go. Last, you deploy the other Troop trygon (depending on who you put out first) and pick the best angle to either hit some vehicles or screens. I usually put Catalyst on Stealers since they are viewed as the biggest threat in this army. Next I either do a smite or just cast -1 to hit on the most threatening unit to the Hormagaunts / Stealers. Mawloc comes in and does some Mortal Wounds and I try to put him in position to block escape of units that are hiding in vehicles.
Shoot away with the Crones, Trygons & Tyrannocyte, but be mindful not to shoot the Genestealers / Hormagaunts out of assault range. Then it's time to pick your unit to move. I usually move the stealers since they are the most dangerous unit. 19 stealers that Advance and move have a huge footprint. This will usually block out the Trygon that brought them, but that's ok. The Trygon for the stealer is there to take some shooting next round and then counter assault on the following turn. However, you will figure it out after a few games as to which unit needs to move first. Remember, that you don't have to move up and get 1.01" away from the enemy. The goal is to spread out and factor in your assault roll & 3" pile in towards the "nearest enemy model" when it comes time to roll that charge. I've had 14" moves/advances followed up with 7-9" charges that meant I was able to surround a huge portion of an enemy's army.
So now the time for assault has come. Pick one or two units as the target and assault with the Crone. Whatever is closest that you can then swing into and tie up with pile in / consolidate. Repeat with the other crone. Remember, if you roll like a boss on the distance, then you can move exactly where you want to position the pile in moves and clear the hole for the Hormagaunts / stealers coming behind. Do the same with the other crone if they are still alive. Now it's time for the stealers. Send them in and spread out ... spread out... spread out. Only target the minimum number of units that you need to in order to minimize the Overwatch at you. Remember, these armies have characters that allow re-roll hits/wounds so you want to minimize your losses.
Send in the Trygons/Tyrannocyte and Swarmlord next. Just to see if you can. A lot of times, these guys won't make the charge, but the real one your saving your soul for is the Hormagaunt charge. This is where you're saving the Cmd Point for the re-roll. If you can get these guys in, you use the positioning to really spread out and take full advantage of the 6" pile in and 6" Consolidate.
This is after I killed a 45 man unit of Conscripts with the Genestealers / Hive Crones and then Hormagaunts got to pile in and touch all the Razors and Dreads. This picture was taken before Consolidate.
Here's a few more examples:
Hormagaunts touching Sister Screen and Robots
Here is an overview with the Stealers removing the Sister Screen first
Here is the destruction of 9 Berzerkers in a Rhino that the Swarmlord blew up while surrounded
Here's an overview of a similar game vs the same opponent
This strategy is a lot like the old "Trapdoor Spider" You have to know when to drop on your opponent. In the DA game above, I deployed out of range of the guns and made him go first to give me bottom of turn. Then I just waited till turn 3 and dropped and pounded him into that corner while the Shrikes, Rippers and OOE went and scored the objective. In the CSM game, I just kind of rolled through his army with momentum and killed everything with some good rolls on the Trygons and the knights. In the Robot Game, I won 19 out of 20 points by winning all the objectives and preventing the robots from shooting effectively for all 5 turns. I dropped turn 3 in this game as well.
I hope you enjoyed this tactic. I call it the "Uncomfortable Touch" because that's how your opponent feels after you've successfully pulled it off. They have a plan and you just take it from them and win the game. Enjoy! Comments and Criticisms are welcome.
Remember, OOE is just in the list for fun, I love that model and he dies 3/5 of the time before doing something, but if you get DoW and a little bit of LoS blocking terrain, then when he hits the enemy lines... it's GAME OVER MAN!!!