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Hey, everyone,

This may be obvious to other people, but I haven't really played games where I've suffered through more than 1 turn of NF due to solar pulse, but I will soon be playing against a Necron list centered around the Stormlord himself. My friend also hinted that he'll be accompanied by a cryptek that lets the squad roll 1D6 per turn, meaning probably many turns of NF. I was thinking of using assaulty command squads like Straken or PCS with 4 flamers and shotgun/melta vets to limit the cover enemy units could potentially have, while my vehicles are primarily Hellhounds and Colossi that laugh at cover saves, despite the slightly lower S and AP. I could keep the rest of platoon troops back towards my edge of the board and/or objectives, so they can finally have saves for once without paying for an ADL.

Any improvements to the general scheme of how such an army would work? Any feedback would be great.

Leman Russ tanks with searchlights. Hard to kill, illuminates a unit every turn. Simple.

Alternatively, Vendettas usually get within an 20''~ range attack run for me unless there's an imminent danger or my opponent is so spread out I need to maximise consecutive turns on the table so NF doesn't really affect them.

Al'Rahem platoons can circumvent the effective range issue as well I guess.

I thought all IG vehicles came standard with searchlights.

...I forgot completely about searchlights. In games, too.

Yeah. If you're playing foot guard, you're screwed. If you're playing mech guard, you just sort of ignore night fighting rules. Not literally, of course, like tau or DE, but very nearly.

Say a leman russ fires at the opponent. If you hit then you illuminate the target so basically when the russ goes to wound the enemy unit doesnt benefit from night fight? I dont have my rule book on me currently.

Thanks for the help!

 tankboy145 wrote:
Say a leman russ fires at the opponent. If you hit then you illuminate the target so basically when the russ goes to wound the enemy unit doesnt benefit from night fight? I dont have my rule book on me currently.

Thanks for the help!

I'm pretty sure that the Russ still has to deal with the NF cover saves/max range, but once illuminated, any subsequent unit can shoot at the target with no penalty. And yes, if the target survives, it can target the Russ that first used the searchlight without NF penalties, either.

Perhaps use a sentinel for the spotlight, then use the Russ to fire without the NF penalty?

Because the rules in the book say that once a vehicles has fired all of its weapons it may then use its search light to illuminate the target.

Now I see this as 2 ways the russ fires all of it weapons rolls to hit, then to wounds then the opponent gets their night fight cover saves and then the vehicle is illuminated

Or what I see is the vehicle fires all of its weapons and hit with them because you do all your to hits at once. At this point you have technically fired all of your weapons you then illuminate the target and roll your to wound rolls next. Now the target takes whatever save it gets and doesnt benefit from the night fighting.

Technically even if you dont roll to wound you have fired all of your shots and in the rule book it says after a vehicle has fired all of its shots it may illuminate the target. Once the target is illuminated it doesnt benefit from NF.4

I believe its vehicle rolls to hits(its fired all of its weapons) now it illuminates the target (It fired all weapons) Then you roll to wound (seeing if vehicles fired weapons damage enemy unit) .

U should consider 1 more vital thing. If the first thing you do is shoot with a vehicle and use searchlights, you can no longer issue orders. If you use orders - you fire before searchlights cause it works like: order-fire, next order-fire and as soon as you break the sequence - you can no longer give orders. So u'll have to decide what's better - shoot with orders but without searchlights, use searchlights and shoot without orders or make a few orders, shoot without searchlights then use searchlights and shoot remaining stuff without orders

Oh I understand that but assuming turn 1 and 2 your opponent probably will be out of range from most of your lasguns. So depending on your build firing 1 lascannon or autocannon at your opponent wont be as effective as allowing youur whole army to ignore night fight at a couple of targets.

Yeah, the when do the spotlights work thing is pretty vague. My FLGS plays it as after the totality of the shooting phase is over, then they turn on, but that could easily be either way.

In any case, if you're playing a mech list, you have plenty of spare multilaser and heavy bolters mounted to vehicles with spotlights to throw around before you bigger guns start shooting.

Or, you know, you play foot guard, and you don't. I don't know if taking a sentinel or two just for the searchlights is worth it, though. You might as well take a russ if that's your goal.

The Sabre searchlight platform does exist for giving a non-vehicular 'Guard list illumination capabilities, but I don't know if I would ever spend 30 points just for a scoring unit with a literal flashlight.