Oof, some big games over the weekend. Big Riptide-heavy
games. A 3k, 4k, and a 1.5k point games all in a short weekend.
One (we’ll call him ‘Bave’) is a Tau and Ultramarines player,
and the other (we’ll call him ‘Den’) has Tau and Blood Angels. Between them, my buddies have around 4500 points of Tau, this includes 4 Riptides and a R'vana. Playing my Marines with these guys before I’ve now accepted my tactics to dealing with the ever-present Riptides.
I don’t have enough models, or enough time and patience to
go after an Elite Monstrous Jet pack unit with a heck of rerolls and a hell of
support.
What do Marines have that are good Riptide killers.
Psykers,
Assault Terminators, Gravs, and Dreadnoughts you say?
 |
| Meh |
Firstly- I don’t have enough Psyker models to throw at it to try and score a wound.
It takes 1 roll (for me to hit), another (for me to wound), another (for them to make an armour save) another, (for me to pass a Psychic test), another (for them to pass some form of Invun save) and one more (for them to use feel no pain) to fail on. 6 Potential failures.
Play it safe and go for Psychic attacks at range, Psychic shriek from 2 Psykers, do it if you must.
 |
| No thanks |
 |
| Nu-uh |
 |
| Nope |
And finally my Ironclad (no
Librarian dreadnought for me) has been in combat with 2 Riptides in 2 separate instances.
In both instances the Ironclad took a couple of wounds off but mainly he got
Stomped, and with 3 hull points, died after three or four phases.
The Guard may be able to make it reroll a few saves if they
direct their entire turns shooting at it, or tarpit it with Vets or Penal
troops (just found the IA1 V2 Beast hunter shells, time to make an armoured
company!)
Face facts, per turn it’s likely to kill one vehicle, or
half a squad. It might knock off a transport, it might kill your Commander, which sucks, but you'll live.
Accept that it will happen. Just accept and ignore it. Missions people, missions!
It’s not a scoring unit, it doesn’t count towards anything
in any of the missions you’ll play it in other than Purge the Alien and it’s
going to hop around like the energiser bunny until the end of the game. If you
concentrate your death-kill units on the rest of his army you may stand a
chance to whittle down his scoring units and his support.
The possibilities are there to create Riptide killers, tool em up and smash them about. But what that means is that you have to go along with dedicated lists rather than playing for the hell of it. This was my list for the 3k, I just wanted some fun with a mass of troops!
+ No Org+
* Chapter
Tactics Iron
Hands
* Techmarine Boltgun,
bolter
+ HQ +
* Librarian Level 2, Teleport Homer,
Terminator Armour, Force Sword, Storm Bolter
* Master of the
Forge Bolt pistol, Bolter, Replace servo-harness +
bolter with a Conversion Beamer, Space Marine Bike, The Shield Eternal
+ Elites +
* Dreadnought 2x Twin Linked Autocannon
* Ironclad
Dreadnought Dreadnought
Power Fist, Heavy Flamer, Drop Po, Seismic Hammer, Heavy Flamer
* Terminator
Squad Assault
Cannon, Cyclone Missile Launcher, 9x Terminator
* Terminator
Squad Assault Cannon, 5x Terminator
+ Troops +
* Tactical Squad Meltagun, Multi-Melta 9x Space
Marine
* Tactical Squad Flamer,
Missile Launcher, Flak Missiles, 9x Space Marine
* Tactical Squad Missile
Launcher, Plasma Gun 9x Space Marine
* Tactical Squad Grav-gun, Multi-Melta 9x Space Marine
* Tactical Squad Meltagun,
Multi-Melta 9x Space Marine
* Tactical Squad Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon, 9x Space Marine
+ Fast Attack +
* Assault Squad Keep Jumppacks, 9x Space Marine,
Space Marine Sergeant, Power Fist
* Assault Squad Keep
Jumppacks, 9x Space Marine, Space Marine Sergeant, Power Fist
+ Heavy Support
+
* Whirlwind Storm Bolter
* Whirlwind Storm Bolter
And that looks like this on the field. Bodies!
This mission was fun, ultimately did suit the army I'd picked, (Big guns never tire) but I was outgunned fairly monstrously having lost the additional objective placement and the first turn. Though my Feel No Pain saves did help massively, the sheer number of shots pumped out in template form was enough to mean that nothing could get in range to capture a point and I was fairly firmly tabled. Lost by 9/6
The next was a 4k each side deathfest of epic proportions, On the mixed marine side, 2 Landraiders, 2 dreads, 2 Whirlwinds, 4 tactical squads, Marneus and 8 honour guards, 7 men bike squads with Psyker, Stormravens, Vanguards, Assault troops, Scouts, Termies, a Predator.
All vs 60 odd Firewarriors, some 20+ pathfinders, 4 riptides, 4 broadsides with Buffmander, a Sunshark some 6 deepstriking Fusion-suits Fliers, Hammerheads, Skyrays, Piranhas etc!
Very little survived but in the end the points were heavily in the Marines favour and I'd seen the first Riptide brought from full health to dead in one phase of combat, good old Honour Guard.
So to finish was a decent 1.5k Guard Vs Tau game. Whilst heavily fought, the result was a draw, the best thing that came from it was this nice photo of my Tanks in action, and I'll say no more!
More los blocking terrain would really help your battles...... From your photos you don't have much if any. If you can't afford to buy big terrain pieces to block los, take a leaf out of the lasvegas open, billboards with imperial propoganda on them. Cheap and easy to make, and Google image search will bring up loads of imperial style posters to print and paste on them!
ReplyDeleteOtherwise looks like you had a brilliant weekend! I only get to game with my mate's at tournies!
I know what you mean, but I've found I much prefer having a more themed battlefield than one thats balanced, also when we roll for the orientation of the combat etc it can balance out.
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly sure when I get competitive I'll give myself more of a chance, but playing across a battlefield that looks great is a big plus to me.