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Having recently played a friend who mulched my army with an Avatar, i have been scouring the DH codex for a way to beat him. I think I've found it.

Take an Inquistor Lord. Equip with Grimoire of True Names, and then give him power armour and several Servo skulls to up his I. Also, take some acolytes to give the wounds he takes to. Any thoughts?

MC

Is it possible to remove him from the board with a grand masters nemesis force weapon? Nemesis force weapons don't follow the force weapon rules, so don't trigger the rules for instant death, and thus can still get around that. Seems like a good way to kill one.

And before people chime in about cheese or rules abuse, the official word of GW is codex overrules main rule book, unless there is errata. Heck I don't even see a fluff reason to object, the avatar is supposed to be a daemon, and GK grand masters are daemon slayers.

In all reality the best way to take out the avatar is to torrent of fire it with small arms. Just don't use melta, flamers, or heavy flamers vs him. The thing is also slow as any other foot model, so it isn't exactly hard to stay away from it.

notabot187 wrote: The thing is also slow as any other foot model, so it isn't exactly hard to stay away from it.

With Run he is faster than ever. So what he can't charge its going to take him 2 turns to get there (instead of 3 or 4). And imo DH are not one of the more mobile armies (unless all in LR).

However I agree a torrent of small arms fire (Avatar only what T6? T7?) should down him easier than trying to get him in melee. A vindicare assasin might work as well (need an Inquisitor though).

Otherwise a GKGM with his nemisis force wep. should work, you have enough terminators to soke up the avatars attacks and then get more attacks back if they live.

Simple make your inquisitor squad into a devistator squad. yeah its expensive but its worth it. Run 3 acoyltes with artificure armour gives 3 2+ wounds to allocate to, 3 warriors with 2X HB 1XPC, 2 Sages, 2 mystics, 2 familiars. Then give your inquisitor some fun stuff as well.

I say run a missile dev squad backed up by librarian will null zone think thats what its called

You're taking some one from the DH codex just to beat the Avatar? over kill but ok ...

Firstly he's Initiative 6 so the best you can do is match him by taking a servo skull and sacred Incense.

Your right the the Grimore will be useful since it half's his WS but you'll also need a warrior to match him (just take a warrior is better then just taking the book)

Weapons you have 2 options daemon hammer (good against every one great against daemons since it Strikes them at Initiative) or an Anointed weapon (wounds on a 4+ against daemons).

For Psychic power take Destroy Daemon (rerolling hits and wounds will make your life so much easier)

Ok question are you running a stright DH army?, or are you running SM with some DH as allies? Anyways I am still for just shooting the crap out of it. pardon my language.

Casper wrote:

notabot187 wrote: The thing is also slow as any other foot model, so it isn't exactly hard to stay away from it.

With Run he is faster than ever. So what he can't charge its going to take him 2 turns to get there (instead of 3 or 4). And imo DH are not one of the more mobile armies (unless all in LR).

However I agree a torrent of small arms fire (Avatar only what T6? T7?) should down him easier than trying to get him in melee. A vindicare assasin might work as well (need an Inquisitor though).

Otherwise a GKGM with his nemisis force wep. should work, you have enough terminators to soke up the avatars attacks and then get more attacks back if they live.

2 turns if he is deployed right across from something that matters. And you are deployed right on the line, and never move. Your guys can run too! Lets be honest, on foot CC guys just don't do much except act as a counter charge. Add in the fact that the avatar only has a melta gun, it isn't too hard to minimize what he can do. Big scary and slow things can be ignored, just shoot the rest of the army, and avoid him/feed him useless stuff.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to take the Inquisitor with my SM army, so I'll be able to benefit from the good troops there. Any ideas as to how I should get him into CC aside from the run?

MC

As a lone model MC, the Avatar has the same weakness as Demon Princes - sure it's big and scary looking, but it can be picked out and mowed down with lotsa piddly attacks.

Lots of dakka or lots of choppy - doesn't need to be anything fancypants.

*giggle*
You started a tread for me I'm...I'm...touched.
You do know the reason I inflicted so much damage was cos I was in combat almost every turn? if you and OCD had actually moved at all you could have left the big scary hitty thing on its own watching the blood drip down his hands. oh and dont leave your Master of the Forge within 12" next time.

extermikator wrote:Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to take the Inquisitor with my SM army, so I'll be able to benefit from the good troops there. Any ideas as to how I should get him into CC aside from the run?

MC

Imo the only thing regular SM have that probably could win a CC without much help would be SS Terminators. I would stick to trying to shoot him to death, with the help of some Missle Launchers, or a Tank.

I don't think you can just ignore him. You can out manouver him with transports, however, it's a bad idea to completely ignore him and its a bad idea to focus everthing on him. Really depends on what else your opponent is bringing to determine the Avatar's true threat lvl to your army.

It all depends on the size of the squad and how many points you are willing to put into it. You can either use a chrimera or a LR. IMO the LR will be better because you can assault out of it and when is a LR not helpful.

TH/SS Terminators charging. Sure you hit on 5's, but you wound on 2s. Add a Chaplain if you really feel you need one. Avatar kills 1 Terminator and then gets buried by the rest.

GK Grand Master with Grimoire of True Names and Sacred Incense plus a Terminator Retinue. Massed S6 attacks and the Nemesis Force Weapon bury the Avatar with wounds.

Or you can just shoot him to death. It's really quite easy with assault cannons and missile launchers.

Sourclams, I can see one problem in that you can't take a GK GM with a Grimoire, only Inquisitors can. Thanks for all the advice. Loving the idea of the TH/SS termies.

MC

All of this has been good advice.

However, if you are going up against MY Avatar, then I HIGHLY recommend that you hit him with as may meltas as possible

LOL

sourclams wrote:TH/SS Terminators charging. Sure you hit on 5's, but you wound on 2s. Add a Chaplain if you really feel you need one. Avatar kills 1 Terminator and then gets buried by the rest.

GK Grand Master with Grimoire of True Names and Sacred Incense plus a Terminator Retinue. Massed S6 attacks and the Nemesis Force Weapon bury the Avatar with wounds.

Or you can just shoot him to death. It's really quite easy with assault cannons and missile launchers.

And don't forget the Libby with Null Zone.

What exactly does Null Zone do?
I've read the rules, but it still makes no sense lol

MC

extermikator wrote:What exactly does Null Zone do?
I've read the rules, but it still makes no sense lol

MC

Any Invulnerable saves that are made by the enemy must be re-rolled, basically making it more likely he will fail saves.

A rapid firing 10 man sternguard with poisoned shells should take him out.
From 12" you have 20 shots = 14 hits = 12 wounds = 8 saves = dead avatar. By mathhammer he should be dead without risking characters in close combat.

Edit: Sorry I thought you were looking for DH allies with a marine army, my bad. That is what I get when I glance over things to quickly.

Ally in a cannoness. My friend I most often play runs Eldar and his avatar was driving me nuts too first few games. Not sure what you're HQ's look like right now though...

Try this: Cannoness with jump pack, eviscerator, litanies of faith and cloak of st lucious (along with other things but these are the important ones). Evisc counts as a power fist and doubles her strength. Of course that means intiative 1 but the cloak is whats makes up for that. It makes her armor save a 2+. Then with faith points you can make it a 2+ invulnerable save. She will come with 2 points, and litanies let you use a power with no points. So you get 3 uses of this power. The jump pack helps her get to him before the avatar can hit other stuff. worst case scenario, you tie his avatar up for 3-4 turns.

Thanks for all the advice. I like the idea of allying BS with my army, but would I be able to do that with DHs as well?

MC

Ironically the easiest time I had taking down an avatar was with my Eldar army.

Pathfinders and Dark Reapers brought him down on the first turn.

extermikator wrote:Thanks for all the advice. I like the idea of allying BS with my army, but would I be able to do that with DHs as well?

MC

No you cannot add both SoB and DH to your SM army at the same time. It must be one or the other.

Autocannons. They just work.

JourneyPsycheOut wrote:Autocannons. They just work.

Amen, brother!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

extermikator wrote: Having recently played a friend who mulched my army with an Avatar, i have been scouring the DH codex for a way to beat him. I think I've found it.

Take an Inquistor Lord. Equip with Grimoire of True Names, and then give him power armour and several Servo skulls to up his I. Also, take some acolytes to give the wounds he takes to. Any thoughts?

MC

Don't forget to give out manchatchers if they're witch hunters. Each one reduces the number of Avatar attacks. Forget force weapons, power ect (6s to wound) giver him/her hammerhand. Evens the playing field.

Auto/Las-Cannon Spam methinks.

Thanks for all the ideas. I think I've sussed how to kill the Avatar now. Could you ally SoBs with SMs?

MC

extermikator wrote:Thanks for all the ideas. I think I've sussed how to kill the Avatar now. Could you ally SoBs with SMs?

MC

Unfortunately, the codex SPECIFICALLY state no...
Not so sure about Grey Knights though, hmmmmm...