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So I'm thinking about taking up SM as my next army. I recently picked up the Angels of Death and came across the Skyhammer Annihilation Force. No one in my club plays it and I haven't seen it being used in the local tournament circuit. On paper it looks really broken but I don't play sm yet so obviously I'm wrong since I don't see it everywhere. Opinions? Tactics? Favorite anecdote?

Imho, this is a Great formation, but the Internet just over-reacted and it is over-rated. It is great in alpha strike and there are every few units or formations can surpass its capability in this aspect. If things goes all "just as planned", you wipe your enemy with ease, But if anything goes "not as planned", you will got wiped. I think this is the common problem of all glass cannon alpha strike type army, which the Skyhammer formation is one of the most typical one. From my own experiences, in last year's local Tournament, it either won me the game with score 11:1, or I lost by 1:11, the first two turns will determine the game, losing side has No Way to make a come back from Turn 3 onwards....

But overall it is great because this formation with Grav Cannon Devastor is one of the best tool to destroy the super OP unit like Wraith Knights and Scatbikes, who with their mobility and toughness, only overwhelming alpha strike can cripple them in my game against Eldar, they took out 2 Farseers and 5 units of Scatbikes in one round of shooting and combat.

General suggestion on the builds is either deck out the Devastators (10 men each unit, 4 Gravcannons or 4 Multimeltas in each squad) and use the Assault Marines as taxes (might be ok to tie up enemy "not that strong in combat" units), or just use the Devastator to provide covering fire (i.e. forcing pinning or stop overwatch) for the decked out assault marines to go in. The first build might be better in competetive play, cause the Assault Marine deep strike might suffer weird scatter and put them out of reliable assault range (8 inch or more) and the assault can be bubble warp against, while the Droppod . Outside the formation, you need to support them as much as you can, use Librarians to grant the Devastators ignore cover, protect them with Invisibility or Veil of Time, and some tough combat beat sticks to rush up and rescure them from close combat, also you need some mobile Obsec units to capture the objectives which left by the destroyed enemy unit. Also, in order to enhance the killing power, Ultramarine Chapter Tactic is preferred.

Some worst enemy of this formation that needs to be watch out:
The 1st one being Tau faction, with EWO, their Riptide's Intercetpor large blast S8 AP2, and 3 man Broadside units throwing 12 TL S7 missles + 12 TL S5 missiles is a nightmare to any "glass cannon" alpha strike type army. Against Riptides you'd better Drop into ruins in order to get 4+ cover save and hope for the best before you can fire at them, against Broadsides, they are likely to force a hell ton of saves where you eventually will fail enough 3+ and got wiped, the best chance of survial is drop out of LoS, use Droppod and high-rise ruins to block the line of fire, where you will likely reduce 2/3 of your loses.

The 2nd one is Necorn. With their durability, they are likely to survive your alpha strike and grind you down. But anyway, remember to aim your alpha strike on enemy support units like Spiders (with Grav), Ghost Arks and Triarch Stalker (perfect target for Multimeltas), and tie up the Destroyers with your assault squads. Then the rest of Necron might suddenly looks much less scary.

The 3rd one is Null Deployment strategy, a typical tactic (just my brain-stormed, not sure if anyone has the some idea or any actual experiences) for Eldar to counter against the skyhammer is put only one Aspect hosts containing 3 units of 5 Warp Spiders, Jetbike Autarch , Jetbike Farseers, scatter bikes, WK , if the Skyhammer side goes first, Eldar player just put Warp Spiders on table to, because when they are shot, they jump away and waste the precious Skyhammer firepower, and the Autarch ensures almost everything comes in at T2 and wipe you out. If the Eldar goes first, they can either play the same trick or use the Farseer to buff the key units to nearly unkillable.

Neophyte pretty much nailed it on the head. It's a good formation. Definitely not broken but not something to underestimate. The internet overreacted to it hard when it first came out. People still hype it up every once and awhile. Plain and simple, it has counter-play - a lot of counter-play -especially someone with experience in the game. No one in my gaming group even bothered with it but we list build with WAAC (GT lists) in mind.

Piranha / Drone / Riptidewing (Triple Formation Lists)
Khorne Scorpion / Fatey / Grimstar / Drakes
White Scars Gladius
Admech Triple Decurion (Free Upgrades) with Conclave
Double Deathstar (Screamer/Farseer)
Old School Wolfstar (5 Iron Priests, 20 Cyberwovles attached to Libby Conclave/Ravenwing Command/Azreal)
Cabal Star with KDK
Anything you can think of, we do.

Once the opponent figures it out to play against it, it swings in their favor hard. If you catch someone by surprise, you win for free (assuming things happen "just as planned" (as Neo mentioned).

Ha! That's funny - White Scars Gladius is what I decided to build first. I've got 8 rhino/rb from my grey knight days to get me started...only need another 4

Neophyte2012 wrote:
Imho, this is a Great formation, but the Internet just over-reacted and it is over-rated. It is great in alpha strike and there are every few units or formations can surpass its capability in this aspect. If things goes all "just as planned", you wipe your enemy with ease, But if anything goes "not as planned", you will got wiped. I think this is the common problem of all glass cannon alpha strike type army, which the Skyhammer formation is one of the most typical one. From my own experiences, in last year's local Tournament, it either won me the game with score 11:1, or I lost by 1:11, the first two turns will determine the game, losing side has No Way to make a come back from Turn 3 onwards....

But overall it is great because this formation with Grav Cannon Devastor is one of the best tool to destroy the super OP unit like Wraith Knights and Scatbikes, who with their mobility and toughness, only overwhelming alpha strike can cripple them in my game against Eldar, they took out 2 Farseers and 5 units of Scatbikes in one round of shooting and combat.

General suggestion on the builds is either deck out the Devastators (10 men each unit, 4 Gravcannons or 4 Multimeltas in each squad) and use the Assault Marines as taxes (might be ok to tie up enemy "not that strong in combat" units), or just use the Devastator to provide covering fire (i.e. forcing pinning or stop overwatch) for the decked out assault marines to go in. The first build might be better in competetive play, cause the Assault Marine deep strike might suffer weird scatter and put them out of reliable assault range (8 inch or more) and the assault can be bubble warp against, while the Droppod . Outside the formation, you need to support them as much as you can, use Librarians to grant the Devastators ignore cover, protect them with Invisibility or Veil of Time, and some tough combat beat sticks to rush up and rescure them from close combat, also you need some mobile Obsec units to capture the objectives which left by the destroyed enemy unit. Also, in order to enhance the killing power, Ultramarine Chapter Tactic is preferred.

Some worst enemy of this formation that needs to be watch out:
The 1st one being Tau faction, with EWO, their Riptide's Intercetpor large blast S8 AP2, and 3 man Broadside units throwing 12 TL S7 missles + 12 TL S5 missiles is a nightmare to any "glass cannon" alpha strike type army. Against Riptides you'd better Drop into ruins in order to get 4+ cover save and hope for the best before you can fire at them, against Broadsides, they are likely to force a hell ton of saves where you eventually will fail enough 3+ and got wiped, the best chance of survial is drop out of LoS, use Droppod and high-rise ruins to block the line of fire, where you will likely reduce 2/3 of your loses.

The 2nd one is Necorn. With their durability, they are likely to survive your alpha strike and grind you down. But anyway, remember to aim your alpha strike on enemy support units like Spiders (with Grav), Ghost Arks and Triarch Stalker (perfect target for Multimeltas), and tie up the Destroyers with your assault squads. Then the rest of Necron might suddenly looks much less scary.

The 3rd one is Null Deployment strategy, a typical tactic (just my brain-stormed, not sure if anyone has the some idea or any actual experiences) for Eldar to counter against the skyhammer is put only one Aspect hosts containing 3 units of 5 Warp Spiders, Jetbike Autarch , Jetbike Farseers, scatter bikes, WK , if the Skyhammer side goes first, Eldar player just put Warp Spiders on table to, because when they are shot, they jump away and waste the precious Skyhammer firepower, and the Autarch ensures almost everything comes in at T2 and wipe you out. If the Eldar goes first, they can either play the same trick or use the Farseer to buff the key units to nearly unkillable.

Skyhammer largely fails vs meched up lists as well. Like Gladius. You can never explode a vehicle with grav, and so you never get to shoot what you really want to kill. Skyhammer does NOT stand up well to counter punches. I hide DC behind my Rhinos and then jump over them and murderize the lot of them.

Martel732 wrote:
Skyhammer largely fails vs meched up lists as well. Like Gladius. You can never explode a vehicle with grav, and so you never get to shoot what you really want to kill. Skyhammer does NOT stand up well to counter punches. I hide DC behind my Rhinos and then jump over them and murderize the lot of them.

Yay, Martel wins with his Blood Angels against Annihilation Force I knew you could make a post that was positive towards Blood Angels! #proudposter

On a serious note - Martel does point out why SAF isn't very strong. Smart players will simply minimize damage potential and maximize counter attacks.

@OP - Gladius is hard to go wrong with. IMO - I've ran it with great success (especially in Nova format), but it's very boring and it's not very flexible when it comes to personalizing. It's a safe bet. That being said, if GSC (Genestealer Cults) start becoming more and more popular, it hard counters MSU/Gladius. Even to an extent it counters common Eldar lists. I expect to see more and more GSC armies in the near future. A "counter measure" would be Lion's Strike Detachment (psuedo-Dark Angels Gladius) because they have full BS Overwatch. GSU need to assault and they have army-wide 5+ armor saves - short of the Patriarch's 4+.

I have beaten skyhammer more than Gladius/Tau/Eldar combined.

I think Skyhammer is a great alpha strike against competitive Eldar (who already do not like opponent Alpha strikes), but unless you fight a lot of Eldar, then Skyhammer is just ok/good.
The best think Skyhammer does is make generally "meh" units into something appealing, which is what Formations should do, rather than making already good units broken. (see Warp spiders & Riptides)

Out of curiosity, how to best counter this formation with IG? Lot's of bodies? Bunkered arty? Bullgryns?

Some great info in this thread. I'm glad to hear it's not as op as everyone first feared, it's the ultimate fluffy Marine formation IMO.

Minds made up, I'm building a Skyhammer :O

 Xathrodox86 wrote:
Out of curiosity, how to best counter this formation with IG? Lot's of bodies? Bunkered arty? Bullgryns?

Meat shields and counter deployment.