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What is the best loadout for his PCS? He has a Plasma Pistol so I was thinking 4x Plasmas. In my lists however, I try to keep meltas, Plasmas and Heavy Weapons on the BS4 troops and add more template weapons and multiple shot heavies to my BS3 guys. In that regard rahiem with 4x flamers? Which loadout is/can be the most effective

Also I've see some people talking about his unit being able to use fleet. am i missing something here, because in his entry i don't see a SR for fleet, just "like the wind" shoot/cant run and then move D6 in any direction. would i be able to assault after this order?

thanks

lordsolarkodiak wrote:What is the best loadout for his PCS? He has a Plasma Pistol so I was thinking 4x Plasmas. In my lists however, I try to keep meltas, Plasmas and Heavy Weapons on the BS4 troops and add more template weapons and multiple shot heavies to my BS3 guys. In that regard rahiem with 4x flamers? Which loadout is/can be the most effective

Also I've see some people talking about his unit being able to use fleet. am i missing something here, because in his entry i don't see a SR for fleet, just "like the wind" shoot/cant run and then move D6 in any direction. would i be able to assault after this order?

thanks

1. What loadout really depends on the list you want to use him with. His PCS's BS of 3 however isn't really a big deal though, since he has "bring it down" as one of his orders. I usually put meltas or plasma on them, depending on what I feel I need. I think he works best with either melta or flamers, as then he can use "like the wind" on himself and get into assault, which leads me into...

2. "like the wind" is a really cool and unique order. Essentially, your unit fires, and then moves 1d6" as though it has fleet. What this lets you do, is fire say, 2 meltas (only the meltas, you'll see why) from an outflanking powerblob into a rhino about 8" away. Normally, your boys would pop the rhino, and then be stuck staring at the survivors unless a second unit bails them out. With like the wind, you can pop the rhino, move a few inches up, and then assault the survivors that same turn. I love using this tactic to "slingshot" powerblobs into enemy lines. You get 6" from the edge for outflanking, another d6" for like the wind, 6" assault move, and if you're REALLY lucky, you might wipe a small unit and get an extra 1D6" consolidation move. This can get your units a surprise boost of speed that not many people expect. Like the wind can also be used to help spread your men out and still fire on the turn they come in, as otherwise you'd have to choose to run or shoot. Another popular tactic is to outflank his platoon and give every squad a chimera. When you disembark, you can use "like the wind" to help spread your men out from the transport so they're not template fodder.

Hope that helps some! al'raheem can be tough to use, but he's one of my favorite characters in the codex. However you decide to run him, always, ALWAYS, bring an astropath. He's the best 30pts you'll ever spend when you're using al'rahem.

WOW...that helped a lot........ thanks.

my main reasoning for this question was that in my last game had i known this i would have won instead of getting a draw by contesting instead of 3" out of contesting. i dont have an astropath but i will very very soon now lol.

so to be sure, i roll and his unit comes in from the determined edge. i have his PCS and 2 squads combined, commissars and sometimes i have a SWS or 2 with them. and they all come in together 6" from the edge.....all of them!

issue the order, if passed shoot non rapid, roll D6 and move, then assault. and that is for his entire platoon correct?

Honestly, what I am looking at for my Al'Raheem platoon is to run him in a chimera with his squad packing a vox and flamers (HF too). He would run with a blob with melta guns and power weapons. Seems like the last thing you would want showing up on your doorstep, so it should be effective.

lordsolarkodiak wrote:WOW...that helped a lot........ thanks.

my main reasoning for this question was that in my last game had i known this i would have won instead of getting a draw by contesting instead of 3" out of contesting. i dont have an astropath but i will very very soon now lol.

so to be sure, i roll and his unit comes in from the determined edge. i have his PCS and 2 squads combined, commissars and sometimes i have a SWS or 2 with them. and they all come in together 6" from the edge.....all of them!

issue the order, if passed shoot non rapid, roll D6 and move, then assault. and that is for his entire platoon correct?

The platoon is rolled for as a single entity yes. you roll one D6 to see if the platoon comes in, and one to see which side they show up on. it's all or nothing. This is what makes the astropath so important. He gives you a plus 1 to reserve rolls AND lets you reroll the ede you come in on if you want to. He's worth every point, trust me. Then, you can add in things like marbo or stormies, and the astropath just gets better and better.

As for the makeup, you usually see either powerblobs, or the chimera spam thing I mentioned earlier. Both work well. If your running a combined platoon, I like using 2 meltas, Pw's on the sergeants and commissar, and maybe melta bombs if you tend to see lots of walkers in your area.

As for that final bit, yes thats the jist of it. Remember, the only weapons you could fire are assault and pistols. I usually just use them as rangefinders. If I see I'm more than 10 inches away, I know exactly what i need to roll for like the wind to assault.

As for the whole "and that is for his whole platoon" question, what do you mean by that? It's an order, so it'll work for any non vehicle infantry unit. For example, if you had some stormies nearby, he could use "like the wind" on them, just like he could with any platoon, CCS's, SWS's, etc. I rarely ever get to use it for anything other than his platoon though.

lordsolarkodiak wrote:

so to be sure, i roll and his unit comes in from the determined edge. i have his PCS and 2 squads combined, commissars and sometimes i have a SWS or 2 with them. and they all come in together 6" from the edge.....all of them!

Hmm, it sounds like you've got a bit of an error here. You can only combine infantry squads. PCS and SWS cannot be added to blob squads.
Otherwise, sounds like a good idea.

He gets 2 orders so he can like the wind himself and the blob

Irdiumstern wrote:

lordsolarkodiak wrote:

so to be sure, i roll and his unit comes in from the determined edge. i have his PCS and 2 squads combined, commissars and sometimes i have a SWS or 2 with them. and they all come in together 6" from the edge.....all of them!

Hmm, it sounds like you've got a bit of an error here. You can only combine infantry squads. PCS and SWS cannot be added to blob squads.
Otherwise, sounds like a good idea.

i guess i kept that too close and jumbled. i meant his pcs and then 2 combined IS, not all 3 together


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MrMoustaffa wrote:

lordsolarkodiak wrote:

As for the whole "and that is for his whole platoon" question, what do you mean by that? It's an order, so it'll work for any non vehicle infantry unit. For example, if you had some stormies nearby, he could use "like the wind" on them, just like he could with any platoon, CCS's, SWS's, etc. I rarely ever get to use it for anything other than his platoon though.

yeah its an order and he can issue 2, i got confused since the whole platoon outflanks with him thinking he issues the order and EVERYBODY likes the wind. no, he can only issue it to 2 units so

Crimson-King2120 wrote:He gets 2 orders so he can like the wind himself and the blob

thanks guys








Automatically Appended Next Post:

Happygrunt wrote:Honestly, what I am looking at for my Al'Raheem platoon is to run him in a chimera with his squad packing a vox and flamers (HF too). He would run with a blob with melta guns and power weapons. Seems like the last thing you would want showing up on your doorstep, so it should be effective.

your saying just his pcs in the chimera and the blobs on foot? I've been leaning towards the flamers myself, ive had bad luck with BS3 and special weapons.

For the vox, if one IS has it and the other doesn't, but they are combined, that one vox counts for both units re-roll since its "one" unit? same thing, one commissar in a combined unit adds stubborn and all that to both, and for KP that combined squad only counts for 1?

btw, hows the Washington weather, i was at ft Lewis for the past 4 years and am glad to be dry for a change lol

Crimson-King2120 wrote:He gets 2 orders so he can like the wind himself and the blob

Always handy! Just remember to issue the order to blob first, as a PCS can't issue further orders if it's issued an order to itself (except in the case of Inspired Tactics).

Yep, deffinitely a handy trick to have up your sleeve. Just dont count on it.

As for BS 3 on the command squad, I've never had a problem. You can take up to 4 special weapons if you're really that scared of missing. Most of the things you'll be shooting at that *need* to have the melta hit, will be getting twinlinked from "bring it down anyways. However, I also play orks, so for me, BS 3 is practically sharpshooting .

Al'Rahem has a big bag of tricks, and unlike most other special characters with a big bag of tricks, he actually gets to use them all.

Outflanking is great, but outflanking with 42 models worth of fleeting power blobs (plus priests if you're so inclined) is awesome. Likewise, outflanking with a unit that can take twin-linked meltaguns has bagged me a big majority of my land raider kills. Or instead, he can use fleet on himself to show up from off the board and threaten stuff from up to 18" away of where he arrives with a power weapon that causes instant death. Heck, I've even killed stuff with his plasma pistol before (often because it was twin-linked against vehicles).

Probably the most useful special character that the guard has outside of perhaps Marbo (due to the latter's ease of use and ability to fit in any army).

The only one problem I've had with Al'Rahem is that you are forced to split up your army. Even with an astropath, there's a good chance he's not showing up until turn 3, and if your opponent is good about not deploying near the edges of the board (or if he shows up on the wrong side), there's a real chance that he's not doing anything until turn 4. Meanwhile, the rest of your army is sort of twisting while waiting for reinforcements, and because they don't have the option of coming on on your long side, I've had a few rare circumstances where force concentration was a problem.

Eventually I dumped him in favor of other stuff that doesn't have these specific problems (HWSs, mostly), but he's still a great addition to foot guard armies, and he is nothing if not a crowd pleaser.