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Screening units. Are they a thing for anyone?

By screening units, I mean totally expendable cheap units that present just enough of a threat to need removal, but are too small to warrant the use of any significant amount of firepower. The result being an annoying unit that depletes the enemy's offensive capability for a turn or two in order to let something more important to survive.

I love screening units. When I play orks that's a unit of grots or boyz or even an empty truck. The truck and grots are 35 pts each, literally anything that shoots is gonna be wasting firepower.

They're also dead useful for giving things behind them that 5+ cover save.

Thats the sole purpose of my piranhas.

200pts for 5 juuuust durable enough skimmers that stop assaults for 1-3 turns or soak up heavy weapons since theyre immune to troop guns in the front (or need a 6 on the few that can hurt them). On top of that, 10 drones dumped off for another screener thats a complete waste of time to remove but you cannot ignore them.

My friends absolutely hate those things lol. They have actually started taking things dedicated to remove those things quickly because ive been ticking them off that badly rofl

Kroot still make good screens for Tau gunlines. If you conga line them across the deployment zone you can trigger supporting fire from most of the army if they get charged and if your a fan of the Ethereal then they should have leadership 10 which helps keep them holding the line. Grots make good screening units for Ork backfield units like lootas or mek guns to keep fast assault units from your ranged support.

Kroot are crazy easy to remove though. For not much more in points, you get something considerably more durable on top of a free drone squad.

Yeah, no snipers, and probably constant BS1 from Jink, but theyre a screen not a damage dealer.

I like to use my Imperial Knight to screen my Nemesis DreadKnights. People be like, "damn, now that's a screen".

SJ

I sometimes use cultists to stop melta landing near my vindicators or to block up charge routes.

I like to use chimeras or infantry squads to screen my Tank Commander and his Squadron.

Tau gun drones

If I use a cheap unit to screen a better unit, don't I give my opponent a 5+ save when I shoot through my own unit? I see the examples above of using grotz in front of mek guns or kroot in front of Tau, but it seems counter-productive to screen my best shooting units since I guve my opponent a cover save. I can see using grotz to screen a metee unit like Boyz, but then I run into the problem of random run distance and my Boyz get slowed down if the grotz roll a lower run move.

The other examples of using cheap throwaway units to harass the enemy and soak up fire make sense. But I struggle to effectively use a true "screen", but maybe I'm missing something.

I don't use any screening units myself, but I regularly play against others who use a lot of Cultists and Grots (depending on who I'm playing) and they work pretty well. The Ork player in particular run Mad Docs, so a 5+ cover save and feel no pain really dulls impact from shooting.

I'm building an AM army right now, and will eventually employ an infantry platoon in front of my tank line in addition to camo gear. That'll be a first for me.

 The Riddle of Steel wrote:
If I use a cheap unit to screen a better unit, don't I give my opponent a 5+ save when I shoot through my own unit? I see the examples above of using grotz in front of mek guns or kroot in front of Tau, but it seems counter-productive to screen my best shooting units since I guve my opponent a cover save. I can see using grotz to screen a metee unit like Boyz, but then I run into the problem of random run distance and my Boyz get slowed down if the grotz roll a lower run move.

The other examples of using cheap throwaway units to harass the enemy and soak up fire make sense. But I struggle to effectively use a true "screen", but maybe I'm missing something.

Screen as in getting in the enemy's face to stop them seeing what's important.
Also running some cannon fodder in the shooting phase, when everyone is done shooting.

Screening is the only way footslogging orks can still function somewhat. You screen your smaller tarpits so that they can tarpit the enemy till the larger tarpits arrive.

Sort of.

My Dominions are one of the hardest hitting units in my army, but they've also got a limited shelf life due to only having one or two uses of Ignores Cover.

So I use them to kill the scariest stuff, then keep them attacking targets of opportunity while the slower (IE: non-scouting) parts of my army catch up.

They're not really a screen because they're an integral offensive unit, but they fulfil the same function in keeping the pressure on the enemy and distracting them until my army arrives to put real hurt on what's left of theirs.

In renegades and Heretics, you can get a T3 FnP+4 fearless zombie for 3pt. They are absolutely wonderful. not only do I screen with them, but I run out and assault smaller units to tie them up. I mean, 60pt is 20 bodies walking around the table. Your fancy 300pt daemon prince isn't going to kill 20 dudes, that will lock them up for the rest of the game, and who knows, zambies might just deal some damage.

I generally put them in a line in front of my army, then advance towards whatever I want to tie up the most.

Rhinos. Rhinos everywhere. And the silly thing is that they tend to survive the battle and end up capturing most of the objectives.

Screening is how you keep your Ravagers alive as Dark Eldar, because 125+ pt models that die like Rhinos are no fun.

1. Get a Ravager with Nightshields, so it has Stealth.
2. Shoot stuff with it.
3. During the assault phase, use the assault move on your jetbikes to move in front of your Ravager.
4. 4+ cover without jinking!

Gun drones for my Tau. I use them to block assualts by abusing their Jet Pack move to block off the path of attack of any melee units that are still alive. Works great against KDK.

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:
Rhinos. Rhinos everywhere. And the silly thing is that they tend to survive the battle and end up capturing most of the objectives.

Yup. they are appealing targets only in turn one. After that the enemy gets a little preoccupied with stuff that actually does damage. So as much as people online wanna say Rhinos are fragile, I am here to say that I take three with Dirge Casters, shove them straight forward in almost every game and almost never lose ll three until its long since stopped mattering.

Yay Rhinos!

I do it wrong. I pump 250~pts into Fearless Khorne Marines with Infiltrate to be the first thing my opponent has to deal with. And then throw a 300~pt Terminator squad into the mix. All to screen my 550~pt Slanneshi Chosen squad with HQs in a Land Raider... I can't remember if I won a game with this 'strategy'.