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So, I was talking with a friend over AIM about our Guard armies and how Cities of Death is quite the Godsend. Eventually she brought up the subject of Planetstrike came up, which neither of us had even thought about playing before.

So Dakkaites, what are your opinions/experience with Planetstrike? Worth a buy or avoid it like the plague?

I like planetstrike.

It really gives you a chance to have some fun being attacker/defender, which is a novel situation when compared to most other missions. Also the shear ammount of death that can be dealt is insane, and it can lead to many a "forlorn hope" style situation. Last game I deepstruck 2 platoons at the bottom of a hill topped by a fort. Throughout the game they ran up said hill untill only 1 commissar was left, who then meltabombed the fort flat. It is fun to go all out or try desperately to hang on for a few more turns.

It is also a game where the balance of victory can swing wildly back and forth. For instance your firestorm (the attacker's opening barrage) can wipe most of the units and buildings off the map if you roll well. Your forces can then proceed in unopposed only to find the defenders reserves appear on 3 sides at once and slaughter you.

I really find it fun whenever we play it and it gives you an excuse to play on well thought out and multiple layered defensive terrain. I think the fact that the defender sets up all terrain keeps the game fresh, as it adds another layer to the strategy. Do you go for a massive central fort of doom or try to spread your objectives over the map so they are harder to take?

With the planetstrike book being only half the cost of the main rulebook I would say it is worth a go as long as you have some suitable terrain to play on.

It's fun if you design the armies around the scenarios and each other. Otherwise it all too often ends up being very obviously heavily one sided very quickly.

I like the concept of Planetstrike.

I think it's execution leaves much to be desired though.


I always liken it to 40k's equivalent of Warhammer Siege. Now imaging playing a game of Siege where your opponent get to deploy their troops inside your castle. It wouldn't work would it? The same applies to Planetstrike. Why set up a defensive line when the enemy can just bypass it on Turn 1? It's like playings Daemons in every game.

And I think GW knows how badly they did with Planetstrike, as they forgot about it the month after it came out and started talking up their Planetary Empires release, and then a month or so after that Space Hulk hit, and we've hardly heard a thing about Planetstrike since.

I like Planet strike, but for the life of me I don't know why.

@ H.B.M.C i'm sure we've discussed this before

Like he says though its got some flaws in it. I think it works better with bigger points (over 2000), lots of scenary (at least 5 objectives and as much terrain you can scrape together) and a large table (at very least 6 by 4 prefereably bigger if you can).

To have a good game requires a lot of planning and cooperation between players. A lot of the games I've had have flopped becasue they were poorly organised, half the people didn't know the rules. I've had games where we didn't have fire storm, stategems or defensive weapons. I think its a good idea but you need to play around with the rules a little, personally i've always felt it was too biased in favour of the attacker.

Their strategems seem better, they get to go first after unleashing a fire storm, units with Deepstrike already can assault the turn they arrive and to claim the objectives any unit just has to be in base contact (I mean that makes no kind of sense "oh I guess you can have this bastion because your touching it, we'll just leave".)

Inceptor weapons always seem to get destoyed in the fire storm so are pointless, in one small game a friend rolled a hit followed by two so I lost a bastion and most the men in it.

I think fire storm should have the same rules as the MoO as in always scatters and the defender should get additional forces maybe 25%. Otherwise everyone just starts everything in reserve.

Ah. I had forgotten about that - yes, everyone starts in reserve. Another huge failing of the system.

I think the game has potential if its done right, problem is most people don't have enough scenary to do it right.

In theory you meant to place a crater for every firestorm shot but who has that many craters.

I think last tim I spoke to you about this H.B.M.C you pointed out that only way to stop athe oposition from rolling onto the board into your army was to by the asset denile strategem. Which is a valid point that thing cost two points which is two to many. Which means your only real option is to castle in the middle unless you have a huge scenary collection and thus are playing with 8 bastions.

Another game I played the attacker got the stragems which allows a unit to effectively respawn. 30 orks respawning is horrible.

I do think the system has potential though, I want to play it at high points so I can run chenkov with two 50 man conscripts squads and use the conscripts as deepstrike mishap fodder. The role all the good stuff on turn two and you don't lose out because you just send in the next wave.

There are much better ways to set up the terrain than a castle, which is the worst way to go unless you are playing a small game. I actually think it is difficult to win as the attacker against a well thought out defence. For instance, you can place 2 bastions in opposite corners with a bit of perimeter defence. Then you create defence lines across the field to make moving from one side of the board to the other extremely difficult. This either leaves the opponent stranded on one side of the board or seperated and dead.

I think you are right though that you need a fair bit of terrain to have a good game. Crafty GW, trying to make terrain important. Sometimes I think people should collect terrain like they do their armies, too many people ignore it.

The problem with deploying in two corners, or any other deployment where your not at least 18" from a side, is the attackers DZ. They choose what side they want after you've set up, and it can be any side if memory serves the book doesn't limit it to long table edges. So one of your two bases is just going to get walked into and the other maimed by fire storm, deep striking units or fast attack till the last turn when all the attacker has to do is touch the other corner objective and they own it.

This is all just from my personal experience though, I might be playing it all wrong. However I think small game of PS without a boat load of scenary suck.

I agree with you about the scenary though, people do to often overlook it.

I've only played one game, but it wasn't any fun. The person deep striked with a melta team and blasted the base, I was done by turn three.

@Mr Nobody How many bastion/objective you have?

As long as you have units near the edge they can only come in outside your baricade. As i play a lot of infantry with the trench strategem i usually have enough to make a tiered defence around those bases. They may walk on and kill the first line but then all the support weapons can open up across clear terrain, unless they run back behind the first barricades. The only point of the first base is to inflict a lot of casualties and weaken the force. Also, later on you can counter attack with your reinforcements if they only leave a minimal garrison.

The idea of the defence line across the middle is that you can't just fast attack past it as you would expose your rear armour or have to fight your way through it, which takes time.

You should usually play with an odd number of objectives. Sometimes it is nice to place a weak objective in good lanes of fire as a trap you can then counter attack.

I love Planet Strike as I played defender as Chaos in the Castle set up. I placed the Bastion in the center of the table and let my attacker come at me all all four sides. Problem was, it was a 6,000 pt game and it was a 2 on 1 and these guys could not work well together if their lives depended on it. So to say they never concentrated there attacks on one central location as that would have won the game. They did there own thing and it cost them the victory in the end as my castle was still standing in turn 6 and only a bastoin and adjoining wall was destroyed. A veteran squad of Traitor Guard held the breached wall vs. Marine Jump troops for 4 of those turns and Chaos still held the 3 objectives on the board. A total slaughter.

@Trickstick

What point are you normally playing at?

Does trench give them a better cover save or invul can't remember off hand.

I'm really interested to hear more about good experiences you've had because as I really want to like it.

Normal Planet Strike games are over 2,000 points, trenches give a +4 save, try putting razor wire up at the trenches to slow infantry or even mine fields. Use the Stratagems to your advantage, and even the free defencive weapons are great vs. drop pods. I have only played once and want to try more as soon as I dig my other 4,000 pts out of storage. Every Bastion you get 3-4 quad auto-cannons and a twin lass cannon turret, not to mention hvy bolter in each window. All this can and will rend any enemy.....

Lets see, I would say 2.5k+ for planetstrike. Although my regular opponent wants to play planetstrike apocalypse with about 6-7k. May be fun but that is a lot of gaming and sometimes I prefer to play several smaller games instead.

the trench network strategem gives you 5+ cover during the firestorm and the first turn, 4+ if you go to ground. I stuck Creed in a bastion and surrounder him with men who ent to ground. First turn he orders them all to get back up and they shoot the invaders.

Another couple of fun trick I pulled were to use a ground observer to reroll the scatter for my demolishers when attacking a 7 bastion complex. Or using the swap 2 defending units one to stick his 2+ save commander in a bastion and then hitting him with the "if you pass your armour save you fuse to the bastion and die" weapon. Fun time.

Planetstrike has such a massive rate of attrition that it is sort of a halfway house to apocalypse. Also it gives other armies a taste of taking off dozens of men in a turn, just like the guard.

If you are planning to get any of the planetstrike terrain for your collection I would definitely pick up the rules too. Grab a bastion and have yourself a 1.5k or see if you can get an into game in the shop. Do they do taster planetstrike games? Maybe if you mention you would like some terrain too they would. It is nice and easy to motivate sales staff by just being unsure of what to buy.

SpankHammer III wrote:I think the game has potential if its done right, problem is most people don't have enough scenary to do it right.

In theory you meant to place a crater for every firestorm shot but who has that many craters.

This. Not enough tables that I play on that have acceptable terrain for a standard 40k mission, let alone missions that require complex defensive fortifications like Planetstrike.

It's a lot like Cities of Death, in fact; great concept, but covering a board in good ruins is not something your average player can do.

I built all my Planet Strike Bastions, walls and terrain out of 5mm foam board, 1 board is enough to make 1 full bastion and walls for about $2.

I like it for campaigns and specific challenges, like apocalypse. Also like apocalypse, assuming anything about it is "fair" will lead to problems.

And yes, you need a bajillion pieces of terrain to play it correctly at all.

SpankHammer III wrote:@Mr Nobody How many bastion/objective you have?

One, one stupid box in the middle of the map.

Planetstrike is a really fun expansion to play, especially at higher points.

Or using the swap 2 defending units one to stick his 2+ save commander in a bastion and then hitting him with the "if you pass your armour save you fuse to the bastion and die" weapon. Fun time.

Pure Evil Genius.

I still think the attacker has the advantage.

Attacker
Fire Storm
Get to Choose DZ
Additional Elites
Additional Fast Attack
First Turn
Just have to be in contact to claim ownership of an objective.
Most Units can deep strike (don't have the book to hand but I think this is an attacker only rule, please correct me if I'm wrong)
Deep striking units can assault the turn they turn up (again don't have the book to hand but I think this is an attacker only rule, please correct me if I'm wrong)
Better/better range of Strategems (Ok this is purely subjective please feel free to debate it)

Defender
Arrange Terrain
Good reserve rule (basically making your entire army able to outflank)
Interceptor Guns
Starts in control of all objectives
Some nice Strategems
Additional Troops
Additional Heavy Support

Apolgies if I've missed anything or got anything wrong its been a while since I had a game of PS. Now I'm willing to admitt I might be wrong I'm just trying to start a discussion about PS, I tried when I first tried to play it and didn' get very far. I am someone who likes a good narrative in a battle, although it doesn't seem to happen that much, so Planet Stirke really appeals to this part of me but as many of you have pointed out it is a system that largely get ignored.

You are right about the deeptrike rules for attackers. Most things can deepstike and all things with deepstrike already can charge if they do. I really need to remember this for my stormtroopers in future, a few extra krak grenades could be handy.

I still say that the defender has a better chance than you think. The ability to govern exactly how the terrain is set up is such a huge advantage that things like the firestorm, better strategems and objctive capturing are simply trying to even out the balance. There is not much stopping you having a central castle surrounded by 12-24" deep difficult terrain that doesn't grant cover. Try deepstriking into that. You can set up awesome traps and fire lines and basically use every part of the map to somehow defeat the attacker.

The best point of a planetstrike game usually comes around turn 2 or 3. This is when the momentum either shifts to the attacker or the defender just keeps piling on the pain with reserves. You never really know which way the game will go untill all those reserves march on.

Well... you do know that guns with the interceptor rule will destroy or hurt all deep strikers? I dont think the Attacker has any advantage at all.

Well... you do know that guns with the interceptor rule will destroy or hurt all deep strikers? I dont think the Attacker has any advantage at all.

Yeah I know but if you miss the gun then can not fire in the following turn, also I've yet to have a game of PS where the majority, if not all, of them haven't been destroyed by the fire storm.

I still say that the defender has a better chance than you think. The ability to govern exactly how the terrain is set up is such a huge advantage that things like the firestorm, better strategems and objctive capturing are simply trying to even out the balance. There is not much stopping you having a central castle surrounded by 12-24" deep difficult terrain that doesn't grant cover. Try deepstriking into that. You can set up awesome traps and fire lines and basically use every part of the map to somehow defeat the attacker

I can see your point. I think part of the problem is I never had a well organised large points game of Planet Strike.

The best point of a planetstrike game usually comes around turn 2 or 3. This is when the momentum either shifts to the attacker or the defender just keeps piling on the pain with reserves. You never really know which way the game will go untill all those reserves march on.

Agree even in the shamble games I've had you can tell who is going to win by turn 3. Except for one game I had against Death Wing ended in a draw on turn 5.


What are, in your opinion, the most advantageous defensive and offensive strategems? and which ones do feel are just a waste of points?
Does anyone ever use the race specific strategems?

Lets see. For attackers the extra d6 firestorm is a nice simple one. Ground observer is awesome as it works for any scatter dice; rerolling ordnace is fun. Supply drop is also nice, free melta bombs were what allowed me to take out that bastion with my commissar. I've already mentioned the sneaky confusion reins/teleport barrage trick. It is Imperium only though.

The defender gets some of great choices. Drop zone denial can be use to great effect but is on the expensive side. A void shield can be used to keep a bastion safe untill the game starts and adds some extra protection. Trenches accomplish a similar thing for troops. Lastly, force pylons can devestate the game plan of an enemy with little access to grenades, such as tyranids or daemons. Not quite sure which units they have which can get grenades.

I've never been the attacker (except for one game which wasn't really a PS game) as i'm a guard player I tend to get stuck as the defender at my FLGS.

I've always stuck with there fairly basic ones like ammo store and power generators. Rerolling hits and wounds always seemd useful. I also like the escape hatch strategem, the one where you disembark though a trap door that you place.

The pylons always seemed a little ropey.

I used to be mainly defender because of the "Guard should defend" mindset. Then I read a few BL novels that had guard planetary assaults described. I think they were The Guns of Tanith and The Armour of Contempt. After that i had some goes as the attacker and the Guard are suprisingly good at it.

With the ability to drop blob squads combined with forward observer you can drop large squads of men dangerously close to the enemy. You can rapid fire large amounts of lasfire (or frfsrf perhaps?) right in their face. If you can nullify any blast weapons for a turn by shooting/charging them you now have a spread out infantry force in their face.

Combine this with awesome tank fire to level bastions and very fast options like vendettas and you have a potent force. One tactic I tried was banewolves firing into bunkers to clear out the occupants (d6 hits on unit inside i think). It would of worked too if the bunker i selected wasn't empty. I didn't realise and then some dreadnaughts appeared next to me.

We have played Planetstrike only twice since it came out and both games were a lot of fun so not sure why we have not done it again, although around here I think most folks stick to the basic rule set as playing games from the Battle Missions or even Spearhead have been discussed but not played yet. Apocalypse has only been played twice around here as well with mixed feelings on that set.

In the two games of Planetstrike we did have the Attacker won once and the Defender won once so not sure if either side has a huge advantage. As I recall we made sure that we kept the force organization makeup of the armies basically a secret form the other side (you knew you were for instance being attacked by marines but not what flavor or what exactly was in their army list).

Both games were 3,500 - 4,000 points aside as I recall and I know in one game we set the terrain up as a line of defense and that basically outside of deep-striking (and it related risks when trying to deepstrike too close to other units or terrain), the Attacker had to come in off of the opposite board edge as the we decided that the table only represented a portion of the defense of a Hive Fortress and that the Attacker was trying to breach the defense all along the Fortress and this was just part of a larger battle.

I think they were The Guns of Tanith and The Armour of Contempt

Both awesome books, the assault in contempt is epic. You ever hear of anyone combining rules e.g PS and Apoc?

@Hialmar

Nice to hear of some one having fun playing PS.