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I played a Grey Knight army last night who had an unusual build that I had not come across yet.

He had a Librarian and Techmarine with several Twin Auto Cannon Dread with psybolt ammo and some other strong ranged support holed up in a ruin.

Now what he had done was bolster the ruins defense with his Techmarines rule, turning a 4+ save into a 3+. He was then casting an aura effect from his librarian which gave them all Stealth, Thus a 2+ cover save!

So I had no problem with the infantry within the building receiving the 2+ cover save, looked within the rules to me (props to a great idea!), however I had a problem with his Walkers getting the 2+ cover save. He had the ends of the auto cannons popping out windows in the ruin so I was getting no cover at his return fire, but I had a semi blocked view of the main body of his walkers.

I see it as the vehicle getting a cover saved based on the obscurity of the miniature regardless of what is blocking it, thus a 4+ save increased to a 3+ by his aura effect. He saw it as the ruins providing the cover to him thus getting a 3+ save and increased to a 2+ save?

It didn't have a huge impact on the game as my ally and I ended up rushing up into the building to take it out in close quarters anyway, but It seemed like a hugely powerful strategy if its legal. I could see it been very hard if not near impossible for any sort of ranged army to shift that ruin with a 2+ cover save on all those walkers.

vossyvo wrote:I see it as the vehicle getting a cover saved based on the obscurity of the miniature regardless of what is blocking it, thus a 4+ save increased to a 3+ by his aura effect.

Why do you see it like that?

The walker is getting its cover save due to being obscured by the ruins. So it gains the same cover as an infantry model would, provided it is sufficiently obscured.


The 'default' 4+ cover save is only for if there is nothing actually physically obscuring the vehicle, as with the Ork Kustom Force Field, for example.

So yes, he gets a 2+ cover save in that situation.

It's a good strat, would be amazing with longer ranged infantry (if only we had them :() I'm surprised he was able to hide 50% of the dreads though, must have been some very well placed windows Alas all units within the cover AND within 6" of the libby will have a 2++ cover due to shrouding and bolster defenses.

Your right insaniak.

Not sure why I was under that impression, just something that our gaming group had always played. 4+ cover for a vehicle regardless of what was blocking it. I just reread the rules on it and thats totally wrong.

Why don't more people use this strat then? How would any ranged based army like tau or IG clear that out? I mean 2+ cover and that tech priest in there repairing weapon destroyed results seems awesome lol.

I'll get a pic or two of how he had the dreads set up, maybe our gaming group is a bit too generous with offering cover to vehicles.

remember he can only bolster a ruin in his deployment zone so you can screw him with deployment if you get the chance. I have played plenty of tables where there were no ruins to be seen.

Not to mention that to repair someone I think he has to be in B2B at the start of his movement phase, but if that's not the case then at least he isn't bolstering that turn if he's repairing the dreads. it's only one techmarine, he's only going to get 5-7 actions per game I believe.

You bolster once at the beginning of the game. It's not something you have to redo.

rigeld2 wrote:You bolster once at the beginning of the game. It's not something you have to redo.

Ah, ok.

Kevin949 wrote:Not to mention that to repair someone I think he has to be in B2B at the start of his movement phase, but if that's not the case then at least he isn't bolstering that turn if he's repairing the dreads. it's only one techmarine, he's only going to get 5-7 actions per game I believe.

bolstering isn't a shooting attack or anything. Its simply an effect that is applied at the start of the game and never has to be reapplied. The ruin is simply bolstered for the entire game even if the techmarine dies.

The Acolyte wrote:

Kevin949 wrote:Not to mention that to repair someone I think he has to be in B2B at the start of his movement phase, but if that's not the case then at least he isn't bolstering that turn if he's repairing the dreads. it's only one techmarine, he's only going to get 5-7 actions per game I believe.

bolstering isn't a shooting attack or anything. Its simply an effect that is applied at the start of the game and never has to be reapplied. The ruin is simply bolstered for the entire game even if the techmarine dies.

Indeed. You were ninja'd. :p

vossyvo wrote:Your right insaniak.

Not sure why I was under that impression, just something that our gaming group had always played. 4+ cover for a vehicle regardless of what was blocking it. I just reread the rules on it and thats totally wrong.

Why don't more people use this strat then? How would any ranged based army like tau or IG clear that out? I mean 2+ cover and that tech priest in there repairing weapon destroyed results seems awesome lol.

I'll get a pic or two of how he had the dreads set up, maybe our gaming group is a bit too generous with offering cover to vehicles.

Assuming he was cowering somewhere on the other side of the map (in his own deployment zone) I'd get all my troops to ground with a +2 cover save with orders and see how my opponant likes not doing anything the entire game.
But I'm pretty immature.