Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I"ve noticed a good amount of people putting this in their list. I'm not sure if it's a valued point spend when it is expensive and can't hold anything. Can some people throw me some idea's on how you are using them?

Easy access to 4+ cover which can go up to 2+ cover if the infantry behind it is in danger of being destroyed. Useful guns/reserve modifier.

The fact you get to place it lets you fortify an area of the table that would leave you exposed if you didn't have it.

Cover saves for heavy support choices/cheap backfield objective holding troops and the use of either an AA weapon (Icarus lascannon, quad gun) or Comms Relay to get reserves in faster.

It's a very handy piece of terrain. For pure defense, I much prefer the Skyshield Landing Pad, but you want a mixed posture fortification, take the ADL.

For some armies, it's the only form of AA they have outside of allies.

It doesn't really warrant analysing.
It's cover you get to place down. That's it. It does what it says on the tin: gives things a 4+ (or 2+) cover save for a tiny amount of points.

 TheKbob wrote:
For some armies, it's the only form of AA they have outside of allies.

This I think is the primary reason for its current ubiquity. Even in armies that have AA it can still be the best choice. Flakk missiles cost 25 points apiece (just the upgrade, not counting the cost of the soldier), so buying four of those gets you the same number of shots, but not twin-linked and without the barricades.

I'm not sure if it's a valued point spend when it is expensive and can't hold anything.

The ADL is certainly not expensive, its half the cost of a terminator squad(if you get a quad-gun) and for that you can got 4+ cover for the majority of your army. Most non-skimmer vehicles can get cover behind it(only 25% is easy to achieve) and infantry can definitely get cover. 4+ cover is very good in 6th edition as it only naturally occurs in ruins.

Use it to cover an area you need to hold, like where there are objectives. So it can help make your scoring units more durable.

It has won me games. I have found no other way to get resv modifiers on my Necrons. I need my Doom Scythes coming in as early as possible.

My opponent rolled Warlord can outflank. He had some big Terminator guy in a Land Raider w/ A bunch of TH and SSs. Was 700+ points almost half his army at 1500. I get out my DeathMarks, and 2 Doom Scythes on turn 2. I table him on my turn 4 b/c i went 1st . He never got them in. I would have failed booth Doom Scythes on turn 2 and would have had to deal with those Nasty Terms in a LR. Had he had the Comm aegis me would have been a problem but b/c he didn't the game was a table.

It is reliability. Did I just miss it? I am new to Crons. Do they have a resv, mod besides Aegis?

I bought 4 boxes of these so that I could take the auto cannons out and put them on dreadnaughts. I may have to find a way to make those auto cannons detachable.

I have one for my Eldar as they have no anti-air capabilities (No, Dark Eldar do not count), and it helps my guardians stay alive with a 4+ or a 2+ cover save in a pinch.

For some armies, it's a bit of a no-brainer choice for defense and anti-air.

I take it that air units are getting big now? I have not played against any at all.

They're something to consider. More and more codices have them in the actual Codex, and others have Forge World as an option.

Usually you won't encounter more than 1-2 at a time. Necrons and IG are an exception.

The question is why is the ADL considered acceptable and the Fortress of the Unforgiven, not? They're both pieces of terrain you legally buy with your points.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
The question is why is the ADL considered acceptable and the Fortress of the Unforgiven, not? They're both pieces of terrain you legally buy with your points.

What do you mean by acceptable? Is you are asking why you never see anyone with one in their list it is because the thing is freaking huge. An ADL can fit in your box, it folds up nice and easy. The fortress is just ridiculous and only really viable if you are playing at home (I know I am not lugging that thing all around tau with me). I have never seen anyone actually take a fortress in their list but I wouldn't think anything wrong with them if they did, I just don't necessarily think it is all that good.

i imagine a fortress would cause issues if you brought it to a tourny, being pre-set up terrain n all. That thing is enormous.

We don't allow fortress in our tournaments purely because there is never any place for it in our already set-up tables and changing terrain is not allowed for fortifications.

So not that it is really broken or anything.

The ADL +quad can also be splashed into an existing army with minimal fuss. The FoR needs to have an army build around it. It's a chunk of points, and you have two guns you need to man with dedicated units (no firing ports in the bunkers) And that's before you add extra HBs and man the walls. At the end of the day you are probably looking at 500-600 points dedicated to static defense. This will impact how much of your army can go out to claim objectives, start in reserves, etc.

And as others have stated, the size can be an issue for a couple of different, valid, reasons.

to me ADL is very dependent on your army...yes, there is AA in there, but as more Codexes come out, everyone will have AA so that is only a temporary fix. Other than in a tourney though, don't count on using that AA - a smart opponent will place a piece of blocking terrain right in front of your nice gun.

As for cover...it is basically a piece of terrain that you get to place on the field when there might otherwise not be as much (low rolls in each section/where you want).

For me, I prefer more mobile - even with Tau - so that 100 is a waste for me...but to each their own...it is like any other unit - if it fills a hole you need filling, then take it - otherwise...meh

"as more codices come out" is a bit useless for lists made RIGHT NOW.

 Amaraxis wrote:

For me, I prefer more mobile - even with Tau - so that 100 is a waste for me.

Well even if you prefer to be mobile, there are still some games when you can benefit from 4+ cover. Especially if you don't take turn one - which I rarely do. 50pts to cut my 1st turn casualties literally in half seems like a steal.

The quadgun seems to be what everyone is focussing on, like it's part of the ADL. It's not mandatory, I find myself taking the comms relay 9 times out of 10.

Eh, with the number of fliers I saw last week, I think I'd prefer the quad gun. That or allying in a force of Hydras...

One quadgun doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference in my experience. Against flier spam it's plinking away a few HP every now and again. Against a single flier it won't make its points back. Snap shooting against a single flier is usually enough anyway.
Rerolling reserves has a much larger impact for the reserve heavy lists that I tend to run.

That depends on your use of reserves. But it's rarely an issue for me.

Some armies use reserves more than others.

Honestly the ADL is the best thing to happen to Orks in years. 2+ GTG in exchange for snapshots? Yes please. Invincible grots behind it? Sign me up. The only skyfire or reliable anti A14 the list can get? Damn right I'm getting one.