Playing Assault.
I saw someone on BOLS posted up an article about melee in 6th. Made me wonder if the guy had read my post and decided to do his own take on it. If so, Hi guy! I read your stuff too!
If you didn't read it, let me save you time.
Synopsis: Take units that can get across the board, play to the mission if you are seriously outmatched, and oh hey, look at my Chaos-SM tri-land raider list and how great it is.. at 2250 points... a points level no one really uses for competitive large GT's at the moment. Also its a bad list, at 2250 any semi-decent list designer can bring plenty of tools to blow three land raiders and some marine bodies out of the water...
But the article itself wasn't bad.
I really dislike BOLS, and to be more specific, my dislike is caused primarily by the vast majority of people who comment on their posts. I also feel that often the articles leave something to be desired and lack a real clarity of purpose. Its like a love-hate relationship. I browse their website daily because every so often I see something I really like or is insightful or more rarely, inspiring. I end up reading all their posts to make sure I'm not just maligning the site/posters in my head without giving them a fair chance. I usually leave the site vexed or if I read the comments section - mad.
It's really aggravating how many people there are who bitch about competitive 40k game play, and then if you read their other comments, see how they brag about their "good old days", when their wonder-voodoo army of (fill in the blank) used to rape face but totally wasn't OP. It actually becomes funny when you see them brag about how they beat up on their local group of friends. UGH!
It's one thing to be annoyed at an author of a post because he says something I disagree with, or seems to be very self-promoting or lacking any intellectual output. On some level, I actually appreciate that the person put themselves and their thoughts out there. But man, those commenter's are downright vicious to the point of becoming vile. It really make me what dark hole some of them crawled out of.
Sorry, now I am rambling..
So assault armies.
Anyone who read my previous posts knows I play as my standard fare, Orks, Chaos SM, and Chaos Daemons. I may mix it up other times and play other things, but generally that's about it. Lets touch briefly on the state of their "meta" for Orks. Note, I'm aware eldar are coming out in two days and require their own additions to this. I'll post up something new then.
Orks
Orks have some real problems atm with Tau, so much so I'm not playing them currently, in particular with a very specific Tau build, which I'll label "Kroot Horde". (if you go to whiskey and 40k you can go see MVB's version of it which he has a name for / components of the army) Imagine facing an army that has almost as many bodies on the board as you do, and can outshoot you, ignoring your cover and armor, plus have a ton of really nice high S low AP shooting to back them up. You might begin to see the problem.
How can orks mitigate this? Tried and true suggestions I've made previously of Battlewagons, but you'd better be damn good at maneuvering and knowing when the right time to charge is if you want to play them.
If you are not facing kroot horde, then your next worst match up will be Fire Warrior Horde. This actually isn't nearly as bad, as they can't put out as many bodies. But, again, without Battlewagons forget about it, you won't make it across alive.
If you are facing anything else for Tau, and followed my previous posts on ork unit reviews, you'll probably be well equipped to handle them.
What about some of the other current builds?
Necrons - Orks still don't have to much of a problem with necrons. While it can be difficult to sweeping advance them due to comparable initiative, they'll be most likely running away from you after every combat. You can mitigate this with PK's and make sure your squads have nobz in them for the slightly higher initiative for sweeping. Meganobz are fantastic vs. the near-existent AP of necrons. Lootas /dakkajets are good at nailing their fliers. You should be ok here.
Dark Angels - No one really talks about dark angels, it's like the codex that got skipped over / lost in the cracks. Bolter Banner ravenwing is actually a horrifically powerful army, provided they are not playing helldrakes. I imagine they'll emerge from the rocks they've been hiding under as the meta shifts away from helldrake spam (though those of you hoping helldrakes are going to disappear, forget about it). Dark angels require you to be cagey. You really need to be careful setting up charges into 24 + shots twin linked. With the MM attack bikes, they'll probably be blowing up your wagons, so you'll have to target prioritize to remove them first if possible. Keeping in mind they can also scout move is big, take an extra moment think about placement during deployment, you don't want them to scout 12, move 12, and then blow up all your wagons turn 1. Due to the points cost of this army, they'll have about 35 to 45 models. You can just dakka the crap out of them and then assault. It'll work.
If they are using tri-land-raider bolter banner, this is actually better for you. Deffrolla them if possible, if not, surround and assault with PK's. You'll lose a lot but they won't have a lot to begin with.
If its drop pod bolter banner, play cagey, dakka then assault.
If its any other build, don't worry so much!
Chaos SM - Most of the effective builds involve either plague marines, spawn, maulerfiends, some beat-face lords w/ black mace or epic axe, or helldrakes.
These matchups will require a bit of finese. Black Mace Lord and the Axe Lord are going to wreck entire squads of boyz by themselves. They'll also wreck your Nobz in challenges. You need to be careful how you commit. Meganobz are a good answer to the black mace lord, he's unlikely to wound you, and you'll carve him up super fast. However, meganobz will die a horrific death to the axe lord. Axe lords are best handled with lots of dakka or S10 deffrolla hits. If you don't have the opportunity to do either of those, you need to figure out how to up a situation where a full squad of boyz can cheer lead a mega-armored cybork warboss. The boyz will let you re-roll failed saves on the warboss, he'll need 4's to hit you, and 3's to wound you. So you should live, and if any of your attacks make it through, strength double toughness for the win... Not a good answer, unfortunately. The only other option is to attempt to swarm the squad with enough boyz to shoot / wipe out the spawn on the charge, accept you'll lose a nobz in a challenge (or if you are careful with positioning as per previous articles, you can keep them out of harms way). Then widdle down the axe lord through volume of attacks. If you go this route, make sure at least one squad is going to be fearless at the end of the round so the whole business doesn't get swept.
Most of the time those lords are running around with spawn packs or similar. So they'll be look out siring, like crazy. Thus just charging in a squad of megaboz to an axe lord and some T5 spawn, will only result in some spawn dying, and all of the meganobz getting squished.
Maulerfiends can be removed by normal PK assaults.
Plague marines are a tough match. Just always over-commit to eliminating a target. Don't send / set up shooting with just one boyz squad, do two, or three! Focus on removing entire squads. Don't try and tie them all up, you'll end up losing. Meganobz again, here, are wonderful at eliminating plague marines.
Helldrakes - Try for rear armor shots, or do your best to ignore them by staying in your battlewagons or locked in CC. Dakkajets and lootas might nock them down, just don't count on it.
Eldar
So if the rumors/ leaked screenshots are true... Wow that new eldar mega-walker / mini-titan is kind of disappointing. Having a 3+ save and no default invuln save, is kind of utter sadface.
Why is this bad?
That means missile spam will knock it out as readily as a wraithlord, and with its increased size, the probability of it having at least a cover save is really diminished. *edit* Being in area terrain will provide cover, but given that not everyone plays area terrain, or a lot of it, which means it will be diminished cover probability vs. other smaller MC's.
I'm really sad, I wanted it to be at least as much win as the Riptide / dreadknight.
It does look like some of the upgrades provide a 5+ invuln, so that at least is decent.
Now I will say that it being a JUMP MC, is good. Very very good. It will be fast as it comes across the board at people. I can see the weapons on it have the potential to be really devastating. It will require people dumping firepower into it because its going to be so damn threatening. So it may be worth it for that alone. If it does actually make it into CC too...
I really expect that guy to be a wrathful god in CC, and if played right be devastating there.
Now I've heard GW is play testing their stuff now for balance, so maybe the thing was too OP with a 2+ and thus it got the 3+ for a reason. We'll see.
I'll probably still buy one regardless for the cool factor.
I really wanted it to be epic /cry
That disappointment aside, I see lots of other things I like. Shurikean weapons getting mini-rending is great. It fits their fluff and means their basic weaponry has some real teeth. The warlock powers - while now random, are overall fairly good. Default power - Shrouded, is hilarious. I'm predicting right now, lots, lots, lots of jetbike armies running around with 3+ armor, 3+ cover.
While we don't know the exact disbursement / points costs of weapons in the codex, looking down the meele / ranged weapon list, I see LOTS of toys I like. There is so much AP2 AP3 on there, it really makes me wonder if GW is trying to get people to stop playing marine armies.
I am saying now that any armies which depend on fortune (looking at you jet-seer), should probably start thinking about other ways to mitigate damage. Yes with two Psykers, you can probably get it, but it's going to really suck those few games you don't.
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