Bladed Cog Tactics

[dandc]

I'm finding the laser spam not quite as intuitive as I expected. How are other people playing it? Do you just blip deploy a castle basically, or are you being a bit more mobile and flexible? Trying to keep 6 units in range of their 3 major buffs (Patty, Alphus, Iconward) is a challenge!

[wormlord666]

Jan 21, 2020 10:41:57 GMT dandc said:

I'm finding the laser spam not quite as intuitive as I expected. How are other people playing it? Do you just blip deploy a castle basically, or are you being a bit more mobile and flexible? Trying to keep 6 units in range of their 3 major buffs (Patty, Alphus, Iconward) is a challenge!

I don’t play it much anymore, but I did and had more succes with them dropping down from reserve providing support for the acolytes and abbberants.
Now TFC and whirlwinds rule the world and it is a struggle to have things alive if you seek to minimize deployment but if you can fix that, dropping in the neo’s giving ”coverfire” to the acolytes that probably best.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I ran 4 as a castle with all of the above support characters plus magus for some more caster + denial support. I ran 4 as it was the max I had.

My main goal was to castle up closer to the middle then pop out on my turn to shoot at the best in range targets. The middle of the board means you're likely going to be able to shoot some high value targets. Note: I was also running with jorm dakka fex + some rippers for left/right flank objective capture. If I deployed well, the only targets in line of sight were the carnifex.

As you're running 6, I might recommend starting 4-5 on the table and deepstriking the last 1-2 neophytes. This way, you start with some decent T1 board presence and then add come in with someore shooting later. It will be harder for your opponent to remove all of your shooting and it will be easier for you to chain to your needed buffs. Even if they don't kill any/many neophyte squads before you deepstrike your last squad(s), then you're probably winning anyways, so having difficulty buffing your squads isn't a major issue.

[kazetanade]

I had huge results out of mine by Deepstriking 4 or 5 units with their buffs (made do with Icon + Alphus at one point, but usually 3 or without Icon).

It drops out of DS onto the midfield to score easy 4 turns of recon or KotH for ITC scoring, or it just drops down as a targeted removal tool. Paired with Alphus and BC WLT on Patty/Primus, they've never been unable to kill their 1st priority target unless its a Knight.

Starting on the board I wouldn't do unless it's 5-5 or like 4-2 in Trukks. The 24" range is a big deal to be missing and likely you can't get enough units into the right threat range.

[dandc]

My list has 16 drops, so even with TCFB I'm starting 5 units on the table. Beyond my 6 BC neos I have my aberrants and 9 characters (3 buffs for the Abbies, 3 buffs for the neos, 2 Magus and 1 Kelermorph), so I guess I can start with both Magus and half the neos, then drop the rest in with their supporting characters. So far I've been starting 4 neo units on the table with their supporting characters and having two as a mobile reserve. The main drop is then the abbies/abo/Primus/Iconward.

[kazetanade]

How do you ever get into range with them? I lose 40 on the table rather easily.

[dandc]

Jan 27, 2020 0:46:44 GMT kazetanade said:

How do you ever get into range with them? I lose 40 on the table rather easily.

I'm ditching it. Frankly, I'm not good enough to play it. Clearly others have the skills to pay the bills, but I don't. Last run out I got absolutely smashed by a BA list (run by a v good player to be fair). Turn 1 charges and character sniping and I was done.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Jan 27, 2020 0:46:44 GMT kazetanade said:

How do you ever get into range with them? I lose 40 on the table rather easily.

I generally didn't have as big of an issue with range when I was playing nid/GSC soup. The league I was in, we'd set up the terrain ourselves and there was usually terrain to his in close to the deployment line. When I went first, I was able to move up and shoot either screens or juicy targets just behind the screens. If I went second, my opponent would usually have to come towards me to shoot, so I'd be in better range for taking out their units.

Note: I was also bringing 6 carnifex with deathspitters and venom cannons. I would have them out in the open to try to get my opponent to come forward and shoot at them.

I also brought the heroic intervention warlord trait on my magus to allow the neophytes to intercept charges if need be (set this up one game with acolytes as well).

The only game where I had major survivability issues was against a fake raven guard that had lots of heavy weapons. All my carnifex were shot off the board bottom of T1 and I couldn't make 6+ saves on my neophytes.