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It was recommended to me to spread my guys out in a line, 2 inches apart to minimize the damage done by ordnance attacks....does this work? I'm playing in a tourney in a few weeks and the top player plays a 3 Leman Russ, heavy weapon army from hell IG force.

 

Thanks for any tips.

Keith

What are YOU playing?

 

I have a Blood Angels army, a Space Wolf army, a DIY Marines army, and I could do Templars or Guard in the two weeks. I could also scounge together a weak Eldar list from my old stuff lol. I'm leaning towards the Blood Angels, though I found my drop podding Wolf Guard termies more competitive.

Yes, standard procedure against any army with Templates is to keep maximum spacing between your troops, so 2" between them. A line works, and is the least vulnerable, but isn't always practical. Sometimes you have to grid them up, and sometimes you might even bunch them up if it get's them behind cover. After all, if you're out of LOS he can't shoot you in the first place.

You mentioned in another thread that you play BAs. If that's what you're tabling for this game, I'd recommend moving jump packers up the flanks, using cover, and trying to get into his lines. Once you get your assault troops into his lines, he's got a lot of models back there, and it makes it easy to keep consolidating into fresh combats. Not only are you wiping his army out, or forcing it to run, but you're hiding from his guns as well.

I'd suggest that you pick a side with good cover to flank through. Then, take the Russ closest to that side of the table, and set up your Las/Plas squads to work on it. There's probably nothing else in his list that's worth shooting Lascannons at, so the decision is pretty easy. Commit yourself to pounding on the Russ. It takes a lot of shots, but if you're taking 2 or 3 a turn, and have a bit of luck, you'll kill the tank. Even if you don't you can at least be stunning it, or taking off weapons.

As intimidating as Battle Cannons are, they tend to miss quite a bit, and if you're in hard cover, and properly spaced, they can be extremely underwhelming. A Russ shooting at Marines in cover, say 4+ cover, is probably going to kill less than 1 per turn. With three Russes, you're looking at maybe 10 Marines that die to them in a 6 turn game, and that's if you don't manage to stun, shake, destroy the tanks, and you give every one something to shoot at every turn (and you shouldn't do that). Spending 500 odd points on tanks that kill 150 points of Marines just isn't a winning proposition.

Pie Plates are intimidating, but they're really not that big of a deal. AV14 can be scary, but a Meltagun will take care of it pretty well, and a Blood Angel with a Power Fist assaulting it from behind will make short work of it. Don't underestimate the Fist as an AV weapon, especially on the DC, or an Assault squad. Often the tank will not have moved the previous turn, so in you come at the AV12 side armor, 4 S9 attacks, all automatic hits... You're going to kill the tank. Just hope it doesn't blow up and take your guys with it.

Could be that you play the Wolves better, but I think the BAs are an emperically better list. They are, IMO, one of the elite lists in the game, and have the Death Company, which are probably the most broken unit in the game.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm leaning towards the Angels. I'm adding in another tac squad and a sniper scout squad with an ML. I took out 2 landspeeders...they died so fast to mobile enemy units. I'll miss them for grabbing objectives, but I think I need to enlarge my firebase.

I would not use shooty scouts in a Blood Angels list. Scouts are particularly nice for Blood Angels, but only with Pistol/CCW. In that capacity they're a cheap source of Death Company (particularly with a naked Vet Sarge), and with Furious Charge they really get a lot out of their close combat weapons.

Scouts with Heavy weapons (sniper rifles and missile launchers) are not very good for BAs, since they're basically only 5/6ths as good as normal Marines, due to their black rage. Don't use them. The only reason you're using Las/Plas squads, is because they fulfill a critical role in a Marine army, and are so no-brainer cost effective, even when they're only 5/6ths as effective at the job. They offset that by being a good source of Death Company.

So, think about it... CC Scouts give Blood Angels a cheap source of Death Company, Black Rage only makes them more effective in getting into CC, and they'll make very good use of Furious Charge. By comparison, shooty Blood Angel scouts will not be cheap DC (they have costly upgrades), Black Rage makes them 1/6th less cost effective (or reliable), and they're unlikely to ever get use out of their Furious Charge. You don't want shooty Scouts. You do want CC Scouts. Everyone has their own play style, but I think this particular call is pretty close to a no-brainer.

Really, you don't need a firebase with Blood Angels, and to whatever extent you have one, let it be handled by vehicles like Baal Predators, who can move with the force as it tries to get into CC. A Blood Angels army should be thinking "how do I get as big and cost effective a Death Company as possible, and how do I get everybody into CC as fast and safely as possible?"

Many small Scout Squads with naked Sergeants is one way to build up your DC and get free Fists into it.

Assault Squads cost no more for Blood Angels than for normal Marines, and are markedly better, thanks to free Furious Charge, and bonus movement from Black Rage.

I use a Baal Pred, a Vindicator and a Rhino in my BA list. I put these tanks in mainly because I wanted to paint them. They can be useful for firepower, and as a moving screen for assault troops, but if I wanted to make my BA list even more ridiculous than it already is, I'd trade in the Rhino and Vindicator for more CCW Scouts, and more Assault Marines.

If you don't have a Baal Pred, get one, maybe two. They're a great Predator loadout, maybe the best one, point for point, right now. They also mesh very well with the Blood Angels list.

Phryxis speaks the truth. On average your opponent is basically playing with a 200-250pt handicapp in your favor due to the free crap BA gets and that normal marines have to pay for.

If you can I would recommend your second HQ choice to be a librarian with jumppack. A strength 5 init 6 forceweapon on the charge is nasty...

Capt K