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I was discussing wargame terminology at my FLGS and after a few minutes it became easy to see that no one had the same definition for "Leaf-Blower". While the common concensus was that it revolved around a powerful army list, some believed it was a particular PART of a list that is used in concert with a powerful tactic to disolve resistance of any kind on the battlefield.

With exception to references to actual leaf blowers, (those bought at hardware stores for instance) what is everyone's personal description of a leaf blower list?

I always thought it refers to armies (especially Imperial Guard), who packed a lot of powerful long ranged firepower so as to do substantial turn 1 damage.

Leaf-blower lists are those which rely on annihilating the enemy at long range as early as possible, preferably crippling their army on the first turn.

Interesting! This is a new angle on the term I haven't heard yet. I suppose a lack of IG/Tau players at our FLGS would deprive us of this kind of term description but that's ok.

Term was coined by Darkwynn over at BellofLostSouls for his IG - army consists of essentially all chimera based vehicles - all squads in chimeras, heavy support of manticore,medusa,hydra and 1/2 valkyries thrown in too. To the best of my knowledge anyway !

I thought it was a prostitute that was only into trees.

Brother Ramses wrote:I thought it was a prostitute that was only into trees.

-Wow...that almost made my day if it were not the other people working next to me.

Leafblower is an IG list variant involving maximized firepower so that if they get first turn, they can cripple an enemy army in the first turn shooting phase. The list has a number of weaknesses (first and foremost is not going first).

Best to just avoid gamer-slang in general.

Leaf blower is a term used by BoLS to claim credit for creating any mech guard army. (Because no one thought of it before them)

The original army was 2500 and build very stupidly. It relied on the alpha strike, included an inquisitor for mystics, but couldn't spare 25 points for a Tarot.

I laugh whenever I see the original list.

So, to sum up.

A poorly crafted mech guard army that needs first turn to win.

The term “leaf blower” was coined by the 2009 Ard Boyz 2nd place finalist who was describing the 1st place winner’s army as “blowing opposing armies off the table like a leaf blower”. Since that time, the term has been incorporated into common slang.

I would define a “leaf blower” army or “leaf blower” variant as an Imperial Guard army that packs overwhelming long range firepower – often structured around a Medusa or two. The core principle is to mitigate IG weaknesses by devastating opposition early… effectively pitting your 2500 points against your opponents 2500 – whatever you destroyed, severely undermining his capacity to retaliate. The force disparity becomes exponential with every passing turn.

The list gained notoriety largely because it achieved victory at 2500 points in 60 minutes or less but there are some notable issues worth mentioning. The Ard Boys champion took first turn in every game. Additionally, he faced no “reserve heavy” opponent such as drop-pod marines or daemons. He also did not face mechanized Eldar, nob bikers, or jetlock council from my understanding.

I believe we will see numerous “leaf blower” variants this year but, the new Blood Angels and Tyranids inclusive meta-game will “rock” the Leaf Blower “scissors”. That’s not to say Blood Angels or Tyranids will win, just that the Blood Angels codex and Tyranid codex offers some extremely nasty counters to the Leaf Blower strategy… especially at 2500.

Can you have a leaf blower list without any tanks? I mean... if you tooled up on lascannons, plasma and autocannons and man spam.

GG

generalgrog wrote:Can you have a leaf blower list without any tanks? I mean... if you tooled up on lascannons, plasma and autocannons and man spam.

GG

I would say that you cannot. Much of the mathematical edge of a leaf blower variant list relies upon the exploitation what the IG tanks offer in terms of template weapons. Sure, for ~140 points you can take two lascannon platoons which will get you 2 very nasty shots, but for a mere 20 points more you can have a Manticore which will give you, on average, 2 Str 10 pie plates – and you don’t even really have to roll to hit. From the perspective of shooting accuracy ALONE, it’s an extremely efficient use of points, never mind the effects of a Str 10 pie plate landing in the right place.

... so that's what it really means;

all this time I've just been assuming 'leaf-blower' referred to the oversized turbines on the valk/vend; and so a 'leaf-blower list' is a largely valk-mounted IG army.

haha

Is anyone else really tired of hearing about this list (and Guard in general)?

I'm tired of seeing it on the table at the monthly tournaments my FLGS holds. I'd be taking first with my 'new nidzilla' if the IG players stopped showing up lol.

The leafblower lists are mech lists that rely on cheap chimera chassis units to get lots of firepower and screen the heavy hitters like manticores and hydras with chimeras.

The inquisitor with mystics is key, otherwise these lists would be vulnerable to deep striking units because they don't have any close combat units.

You can have mech IG lists without the inquisitor, but they are not leafblowers.

I heard a rumor that a new Inquisition Codex is in the works. But you know what rumors are like.

I only bring it up because RUMOR has it that they won't be able to ally with IG or SM in this new book. I think that would be the sweetness since Mystics make me cry in my diapers.