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I was playing with my brother yesterday, and his genestealers almost couldn't get into close combat. My Overwatch killed them every time. Especially with the assault cannon. Is there a way for the stealers to ever get into combat against Overwatch or is the game built to make Overwatch kill everything?

As a Space marine player you have to move in that game eventually.

His job isnt to rush you to death but exploit any mistake you make with his mass of spawning aliens.

Its been ages since I played, but I have only played as marines, I usually won with few models left because I had to sacrifice men buy moving and taking the objective. As you move you start to make sacrifices in areas you cover or even having to leave men behind.

I never saw it as overpowered. All it takes is one of those nasty buggers to get in and your guy is toast.

Give it a few more games, just remember as the bug player he is going to lose a lot of models. Over watch balances it out, without it your marines would be dead very soon.

It's also kind of dumb that there are scenarios where you can end in a tie...if I have 8 left I win, if I have 4 left I lose. So when I was at 6 I went into defensive mode and he couldn't touch me.

Some of the scenarios need turn limits, especially where the marine needs to kill x stealers.

Remember overwatch can jam. I tend to mass 10+ stealers then attack, using distant ones first if charging overwatch to try and cause a jam before the near ones go in. Also the slower he is the more spawning turns you get...

Far more powerful is the ability to move and fire...

How do you mass genestealers when they line up in a corridor and can't move through each other?


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You have to move the closest ones first and the farther ones can't reach

Overwatch seems a bit more powerful now since it doesn't need to be reset after clearing a jam. It can be very difficult for the genestealers to get into combat. On the flip-side it only takes one unlucky roll for a genestealer to get through and then the whole squad gets massacred.

With the genestealers you want to first try and spread the marines out as thinly as possible. Probe their perimeter from as many directions as possible with lurkers, and try never to reveal your blips. That way they never know which direction an attack is going to come from, and the marines are forced to split up to guard their rear and flanks.

You should also try to prevent them from taking up good firing positions in the longer corridors, or advancing to positions where they can guard two paths with one marine. You don't need to attack, it's often enough just to pin a few marines in place guarding corridors.

Next you need to pick a good location to ambush them, usually somewhere on the way to their objective where the corridors are short, and have loops or corners. Turning is very expensive for marines, and wastes their AP. They usually need the flamer to get through these spots.

Pay close attention to their command points. If they don't have many left then you can send a few genestealers forward to try and waste their CP clearing jams. If you can get a genestealer within 6 squares, then sometimes it's best just to stop and then push up your other blips behind him, using him to block LOS.

Never push all your blips forward, you should always hold some lurkers back behind corners so the marines are always advancing at their own risk.

The dice gods can be fickle- I played a game the other day- overwatch killed lots of stealers. Played another game after that and all of a sudden I had the accuracy of a panicked marine in Aliens lol.

In my game my on guard storm shield guy butchered 4 stealers. Let's just say my opponent avoided him after that.

If you want to kill some Terminators while they are on overwatch then you need me to start throwing the dice.

You live or die by overwatch and the dice.

I played a total newb the other day and literally didn't get into close combat once as the genestealers. He rolled a 6 on every other dice and by the time he did jam, it was on my last stealer at the end of the hall.

It was tough not rolling a single die in the entire game.

But as others have said. If the stealers do reach their target, it's adios marines.

 Waaagh 18 wrote:
How do you mass genestealers when they line up in a corridor and can't move through each other?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You have to move the closest ones first and the farther ones can't reach

Because you will be massing out of line of sight. Imagine a long corridor with passages leading off. The stealers in the rear passages can't reach the marines - but the marine player still has to fire at them on overwatch when they move. You can increase the shots fired by making free 90 degree turns, etc etc. I.e. if your moving around has failed and you have to go head on, sacrifice stealers to die that will be of no use before you move the ones at the front that are of use. You can also open and close doors repeatably to trigger overwatch shots

If you have online space hulk (Steam or iOS) I can demonstrate...

But they don't HAVE to fire Overwatch...

Yes you do?

The only rules changes in this edition are

"Some changes that I noticed between the editions:
2014 has four new missions, including rules for boarding torpedoes, the turbo-lift, fighting in the vacuum of space and for breaching counters.
In 2014 you can choose not to fire overwatch at closing doors and if several Terminators can fire overwatch at the same target you can choose which of them that will fire.
A few clarifications about line of sight in 2014.
In 2014 they have tried to follow the fluff a bit more closely and Valencio (chain fist guy) is now in squad Lorenzo instead. So for example in mission 2, Suicide mission, you now have the chain fist instead of a power fist."

So the door trick doesn't work any more, but you still have to fire?

It says, "can, but does not have to". In no way is firing mandatory

That then is a new rule change, the 2009 edition didn't say that, nor does the PC game which impliments the rules. I guess GW felt the marines still weren't winning all the time... I will go check for myself when i get the chance that is a very surprising change. Though I guess not that surprising as it helps marines

With massing and charging out you are down to using the threat of charging to slow the marines down while you mass reinforcements.