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 was wondering what people found to be good counters against a buffed Broadside unit. (Commander in IA tanking, 3 Broadsides, drones with ethereal and potentially farseer or spiritseer).

Obviously getting into assault will do it but the problem is getting there. Thoughts?

Drop a sternbomb on one of their flanks and lay waste with insta kill combi-melta's. You can do this with a regular tac squad too if points are tight. Thing is just to simply engage them so that the commander is NOT the closest model and thus can't tank as effectively. Remember that 6" move after you get outa the pod can help.

Jaws of the World Wolf is pretty effective....

If nothing else, you can simply chase them around with a low-quality melee squad, like ASM, who should beat them despite the 2+ and will force them to turn to engage that or disrupt his entire battle line to save them.

Not amazing, but it can help if you don't have any real options to get rid of them with.

Wraithknight. IA Riptide with two Markerlights. Teleporter Dreadknight. Mawloc(Nom Nom), Psyker Battle Squad, Just about anything nasty out of a Drop Pod, PlasmaTalon Black Knigths, Barrage weapons.

The list can go on and on. Really depends on if they have a Spiritseer for Conceal, Farseer, etc.

For starters I don't even think a huge unit of buffed up broadsides are all that good except in specific matchups, such as serpent spam. Other than that you really don't need the buffing support of a commander. Farseers will do very little to help a unit of braodsides as they are already twin linked and assuming the commander is their, they already ignore cover. The best a farseer could hope to do is give a 4+ invul save which is just okay, especially considering they will already be in cover and very few things are ap2 ignore cover.

Anyway, lets assume you do have a 500+pt broadside deathstar, how are we going to deal with it?

Someone mentioned sternguard, which I actually don't think will work. Lets say you have a 10 man strong unit. Are their going to be firewarriors in the way? that 12'' melta gun may not be able to reach the broadsides. Do the broadsides have intercept, if so you are looking at 4.5 dead sternguard. How about a riptide dropping the pie plate down? Okay, assuming that none of those things happen you have 10 sternguard in range, chances are half the drones will be blocking the flanks of the broadsides. 10 shots, 6.67 hits, 5.55 wounds, 3.7wounds after cover save. So you are looking at killing 3 drones and maybe a broadside.

Someone else said Wraithknight, who also really does nothing to them. If you get your wraithknight too close I am sure a stubborn bunch of kroot would love to assault the knight. At range, the commander is just going to look out sir those shots to a nearby drone. A dreadknight is a little more annoying but should die the turn after it teleports. Riptides actually work out very well against them.

Anyway, my point is, for a large deathstar like this, it is not about what single unit can deal with them. You need to focus your fire and attack on multiple fronts or else they will simply tank the hits and kill off that unit that tried to hurt them.