dementedwombat wrote:
-Loki- wrote:When your opponents learn how to pick apart a link - and they will - you'll be hard pressed being aggressive with that link. Line trooper links tend to mostly be for defensive links.
Don't really want to hijack this thread, but since the original question was about link teams anyway I guess it's kind of ok. Any advise on dealing with link teams? I'm sure there's some target selection or other kinds of tricks you can pull to make them less effective.
Look at it this way, if you are running a link team, you need to know what the worst thing your opponent can do to you is, so you can figure out how to deal with it.
Against most link teams, the easy solution is a direct template weapon, especially flamethrowers, though chain rifles are great as well. They are normally bunched up just enough that you can catch 2+ in the large direct template (and if they aren't, then they are possibly vulnerable to more
LoS-based threat removal).
Their main thing is they buck the trend of camo troops being the bane of line infantry and other cheap units. They are the exact opposite, they will rock a camo unit's face and are really risky to take on in the active turn because they skew the dice advantage of the active player.
Their biggest bane is that they have to stick together, and that is were a warband will be their worst nightmare. For less than 10 points (in most armies) you can usually make life very hard for a link team.
Just pop smoke over top of them (or close enough that you can close in without eating their
ARO spam) and lay a heavy flamethrower or chain rifle template across 'em with an intuitive attack. Will your warband (or what have you) eat it? Yeah, probably. But if they can kill even a couple of them, then you've removed the major passive advantage (SS2) and can now deal with them using more traditional means (like camo).
Another trick to try on
their active turn, requires a bit more deviousness and a hidden deployment trooper. While the link team leader becomes a veritable rambo on the active turn, the rest of its posse are very vulnerable. If you allow them to move past the position of, say, a camo sniper. You can usually time an attack to take out one of the supporting models (who, unless they declare a dodge, does nothing). This triggers a normal roll against them and has a better than even shot of taking one out. If they retaliate again, you can shave another supporting model off. Again, this risks the skirmisher/infiltrator but can usually get them down below 4 members which makes them vulnerable in your active turn.
Finally, indirect methods like mines and lobbing grenades is a good way of doing them harm without them being able to fight back. If you can be sneaky with camo deployment then you can usually bait them in to either avoiding the camo markers or in to playing a deadly game of cat and mouse trying to guess which one wont explode in their faces. The latter can be a bit more hit or miss (literally), though a model with a high
BS can place grenades fairly well with a launcher.
The main things you do not want to do are take them on head to head when 2 or more can see you (you can risk one if you sport a range advantage and a B4 weapon; B3 is pushing it and B2 is taking your life in to your own hands) and to not waste camo models on 4-man teams.
And if possible try to prioritize taking the leader out on your active turn if such a thing is possible. This will cause the team to dissolve immediately. So when placing the template, always make sure the leader is under it (so long as you can satisfy getting a minimum of two members under the template).
As a final note, because of their main vulnerability being cheap warbands, a large link can be a real bear to down if you have fairly sparse terrain. Of course, the opposite can be true, if terrain is too dense, then a 5-point warband wiping out a large link can make links fairly weak. So watch terrain density being too far in either direction.
Task Force Rath : 5000
Deathwatch: 4000
6000+ 
W-L-D: 0-0-0. UNDEFEATED 
