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Afternoon All,

I'm gearing up to play my first Apocalypse game late next month and I'm after some space marine formations. I've got the book on order at my local gaming store but I'm eager to get my models out and start looking at formations and see if or what else I need to get. I've played big multiplayer games before just using the FOC but this time it's no holes barred and I'm eager as all hell. so hit me with the best space marines formations.

Cheers in advance.

Are you bringing super heavies?

I always bring the line-breaker squadron from the Damnos book. The apoc book itself has several.

I'd recommend definitely using the proper apoc rules, rather than just playing big scale 40k, it makes a big difference and its awesome. :-)

Check out my blog, we just did a huge 24,000 point apoc: http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/

Preparing for the food 'breaks' is pretty essential as well.

i personally only have the two knights which i'll be taking with me. but it's a game made up of 2000pt armies with multiple people on each side not just 1v1 etc.

I was thinking because it's unbound just taking two knights and spend the rest on stern in drop pods. I'm thinking five pods with the surgical strike is it rule from the book. they'll hear the iron rain coming...

Big scale 40k was fun but it took a while for people to get there models in order.

I would say that since you are playing an Apocalypse game, remember this little key fact. In an Apocalypse game you can field any and all models that you own, regardless of faction. You should have a rough general idea how many points all your models are worth. So then you can have folks oppose others in roughly point battle totals, or even have some folks take on multiple opponents if they are model heavy.

As a few pointers, makes sure everything is WYSIWYG. When playing an Apocalypse game, the models that you have should represent your army list. With all the models on the field, you won't have time for proxies. As for formations, they are not required but if you can field one you usually get a nice bonus for fielding your models in that formation.

Also, if you're playing multiple people, make sure that there's a time limit per turn. I remember from experience the nightmares of apocalypse games with multiple people that took 4 hours for one then due to individuals getting side tracked. You should always have timers going to keep things moving along and also it'll help people aware that they're under the clock so that they won't be getting distracted as easily

The newest Apoc book is really fantastic and totally worth getting into...

The environmental condition stuff is frighteningly deadly, so we generally ignore them - however if the game is going too slowly and you need to give it a push - these rules will be sure to achieve that hah.

One of my favorite little Apoc rules is 'Strategic Reserves'... deep striking in on turn 1.

I was thinking of two options:

1) having the librarian formation - it sounds pretty cool. is it any good?

2) running a whole heap of sternguard in drop pods and aim for heavy hitting units behind the line.

Also keep in mind apocalypse is meant to be a fun game. It might not always be smart, but a challenge between warmasters can be exciting. You can use the different game scenarios in the book or create your own custom game. This can add a lot to the entertainment.

In one game, we set up a larger table and deployed all the imperium in the center. We were supposed to hold out from a tyranid onslaught for as long as possible. Dead tyranid units would be able to come back the next turn from any table edge. We'd get points every turn for objectives. It was crazy come turn 3-4. My poor sternguard and librarian died to a bunch of rippers

 Bonachinonin wrote:
In one game, we set up a larger table and deployed all the imperium in the center. We were supposed to hold out from a tyranid onslaught for as long as possible. Dead tyranid units would be able to come back the next turn from any table edge. We'd get points every turn for objectives. It was crazy come turn 3-4. My poor sternguard and librarian died to a bunch of rippers

Oh my god.... that is AWESOME!!!! sounds a bit like the sisters of battle mission that they gave them in the digital codex. and one that I've always wanted to try.

 captain bloody fists wrote:
I was thinking of two options:

1) having the librarian formation - it sounds pretty cool. is it any good?

2) running a whole heap of sternguard in drop pods and aim for heavy hitting units behind the line.

The Librarian formation looks awesome, but I've never used it.

As for the sternguard in drop-pods, if you checked out the bat-rep on my blog, several of these units were dropped in to put poison-bolter shots on the WraithKnight formation that was coming at us... they were very effective.

At 2k points per person it turns out you can't run a lot of formations; GW loves their "buy an entire Battle Company!" pitches, but neighborhood of 2,500pts of one-Wound power-armoured bodies don't tend to last long with the weapons available in Apocalypse.

The most useful Space Marine formations:

Main Apoc book:

Imperial Fists Titanhammer Squadron (Lysander, 3+ Hammernators). It's a good way of dealing with super-heavies with normal-scale models relatively inexpensively. If the other side doesn't have any it doesn't do much for you.

Librarius (5 Librarians, no more, no less): It's not my favourite Psychic Choir because it's so one-dimensional, but the one thing it does it does very well. Figure out a delivery strategy (I'm in favour of making one of the Librarians a Dark Angels Librarian with a power field and stuffing them in a Stormraven), drop in, and burn something.

Predator Assassin Squadron (3-5 triple-lascannon Predators): A great counter to superheavies using normal models if the other side has them. These guys are going to be a primary target, remember to protect them or present a distraction.

Warzone Valedor:

Decimator Cohort (3-6 Centurion squads with omni-scope sergeants): If you're really going to do this run 100% Grav-Centurions and watch vehicles cower in terror.

Deathwatch Strike Team (Captain and 2+ Veteran squads (either sort)): Not particularly powerful but fun, characterful, inexpensive, and useful if you're fighting Necrons.

Stormsurge Strike Wing (3-5 Stormravens): Powerful and versatile. Don't pay attention to these guys' payloads, after you drop a D/2 10" blast anywhere on the table and eat someone's Warlord and the superheavy he was standing next to there's going to be a fair bit of retaliatory fire coming back at your planes.

Ultramarines Honour Guard (Calgar, Honour Guard, 1+ Land Raiders, option for Tigurius, Cassius, and a Venerable Dreadnaught): Useful mostly for the bonus Assets but a Tank Hunting Land Raider is always a nice thing to have.

 Bonachinonin wrote:
Also keep in mind apocalypse is meant to be a fun game. It might not always be smart, but a challenge between warmasters can be exciting. You can use the different game scenarios in the book or create your own custom game. This can add a lot to the entertainment.

In one game, we set up a larger table and deployed all the imperium in the center. We were supposed to hold out from a tyranid onslaught for as long as possible. Dead tyranid units would be able to come back the next turn from any table edge. We'd get points every turn for objectives. It was crazy come turn 3-4. My poor sternguard and librarian died to a bunch of rippers

I'm working on setting up something similar to this. Between myself and a friend, we have close to 12k nids not including titans. We are going to have a last stand of every terminator our gaming group has. It will probably wind up being around 200 terminators and some defenses vs all of our nids, with nid infantry respawning (not MCs though). The terminators will have to survive 8 turns to evacuate or they shall be devoured!

So theres more formations instead of the ones in the brb?

All of the Warzone books have formations... but not all have Space Marine formations... Damnos has a lot of SM ones though.

I've found some of the other formations and I'm surprised there isn't more to do with drop pods.

Are there any rules in apocalyps rule book that stop other people from wiping out your 2k pts turn , and having to wait a few hours for the game to end ?

Makumba wrote:
Are there any rules in apocalyps rule book that stop other people from wiping out your 2k pts turn , and having to wait a few hours for the game to end ?

It's not in the rulebook but you can find the "don't be a dick" rule in the friendship social agreement.


Apoc is great fun but there are some gentleman's agreements that everyone should try to follow.

Do not try to min/max. This can easily be done accidentally. Take a mix of fun stuff and try to keep the force fluffy.
Do not use the Strategic Reinforcement (return 1 model for 1 victory point) on things with ranged D weapons. It just makes the game unfun when someone has an unkillable warhound/revenant.
Do try to balance the number of ranged D weapons. My most fun games of Apoc have been when both sides have minimal D weapons (0-1 per 5k points). There is lots of fun things that can be used to kill stuff too.

might sound like a stupid question but with the Librarian formation do all models have to stay together in a squad or and they still considered independent characters in an apocalypse game?

Unless it says specifically that they need to stay in a squad formation to cast spells etc, they do not...

This is going to sound stupid, but I have found it's better not to plan too much for Apocalypse games.

I mean, bring some formations or something if you want, but realize they are going to be coming off the board quickly if you are doing it right.

In general, it's best to just focus on bringing template weapons that can be spread out and fired from range. When I played Apocalypse games with my CSMs, I would bring like 8 Defilers and they were always more valuable that whatever else I had on the board.

 techsoldaten wrote:
This is going to sound stupid, but I have found it's better not to plan too much for Apocalypse games.

I mean, bring some formations or something if you want, but realize they are going to be coming off the board quickly if you are doing it right.

In general, it's best to just focus on bringing template weapons that can be spread out and fired from range. When I played Apocalypse games with my CSMs, I would bring like 8 Defilers and they were always more valuable that whatever else I had on the board.

I just want to follow up on this... I get what techsoldaten is saying, for the armies, yup - it's all going to die so fast hah. BUT I just want to say, that after running many very large Apoc games now, PLAN THE DAY: meaning have a rough plan for how many turns or how long your time periods will be.
- Allow for first turn to take the longest then time the rest (an hour per side for example)
- if the game moves too slow add or ramp up the Environmental condition stuff
- have food ready or a plan for food ready, this is the most important. Our first few games pretty much died when we stopped to figure out what to eat / order / etc.
- have LOTS of beer!
- have people come with their army lists already made/printed, have them select Strategic Assets prior (through email) and get them vaguely familiar with the changes to the rules for Apoc (Strategic Reserves, Finest Hour, Divine Intervention, and Scoring).

With all of this out of the way early you can focus on drinking and having fun... I personally love Apocalypse haha.

well here's my thoughts on a list.

2/Imperial knights (one errant and paladin)

2/Masters of the forge with conversion beamers for sniping from across the field (str10 AP1 small blast at max range).

and the rest of the 2000pts which off the top of my head is about 1030 i'll fill out with sternguard with combi plasma/melta in drop pods to surround and take down big things behind the lines. I know they won't survive but they may take down a few heavies before they cark it.

I do like the idea of dropping librarians in behind the enemy and telling rip but the points just aren't there especially if I can have 6 combat squads of stern.

Thoughts anyone?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The one problem Gunzhard is that it's through a GW store about 150km away from me so I'm basically flying blind on what everyone else is bringing to the game.

Might I recommend...

http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?p=3176