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So my local gaming group's annual Christmas break apocalypse battle is coming up and I once again face the task of uniting the many xenon factions together against the tyranny of the emperor's minions in a two day affair of blood and gore. Although my side is historically victorious on these occasions, it is generally just by luck. I'd like a better strategy then just praying that the dice gods before! (although I'll be doing that too) My main concern is that 12000 points of guard can pack a helluvalotta tanks (duh) including a bane blade and a shadowsword. Now there will be no shortage of antitank weaponry on my side, indeed I plan to bring a whole battery of rail guns myself, but, with the only superheavy on our side being an old elder tempest, I always face the decision of blowing all the big guns on often futile attempts to bring down the super heavies, or dealing with the multitude of battle cannons staring down my sorely outnumbered force. So, what do I do? The bane blade is hard to ignore, raining down it's 10 inch template, and the shadow sword is terrifying formats ability to so easily take down the tempest. Any suggestions welcome, including any on playing a massive war of attrition! Thanks!

20000 points equals 3,520 termagants kept in line by 40 Zoanthropes. Play objectives; win your game. Keep in mind that if you use a 25 cent piece to proxy a few thousand of them, it could still be quite costly.

But it should be impossible to dislodge the bugs, they would have to kill 3,000+ of them per turn to wipe you out. Not happening.

Too much painting, though.

When beating 200000 pts of IOM, bring 83000 pts of xenos

DE Have an apoc titan-killer formation i think.

Ork Pulsa Rokkits are a blast

EMP/Haywire can feth-you anything with an AV.


Stooopid numbers of orks, with Deffrollas galore, works quite well..


I'm getting too old to do major-scale Apoc these days, as i learnt to my joints' cost earlier this year, but you don't necessarily need a superheavy to take a superheavy out.

No offense, and I'm going to put this the nicest way I can, but if you are really personally and emotionally invested in WINNING a club-wide holiday Apocalypse game...

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG

IMHO, Apocalypse games (and especially annual fun traditions such as this) are in no way about winning or losing. Apocalypse is all about putting every single model you own on a table, and watching those models get blown to smithereens with strength "d" shenanigan weapons with a smile on your face. It's all about having fun. Everything about the game is taken to the heinous extreme. Want more fun? Tell your Ork friends to buy a Stompa. It is literally the most fun unit in the history of ever.

If you go in thinking that the only way you can have fun is by winning, then you are going to have a miserable and sore day.

My advice: Just play. If you win, great! if not, great! Nobody will remember the outcome more than they will remember the fun they had spending 8+ hours playing the game with their friends

 G. Whitenbeard wrote:
No offense, and I'm going to put this the nicest way I can, but if you are really personally and emotionally invested in WINNING a club-wide holiday Apocalypse game...

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG

I feel cheated if my opponents don't try to win games, it ends up being boring. You can have fun blowing stuff off the table and still try to be a challenge to your opponent.

What kind of tactics can you even employ in a 20,000 point game? No maneuvering. Shoot or charge whatever is within shooting or charging range. Every unit is a death star. You'll (I would) forget half the reserve deepstriking units.

Best bet... bring food, music, and a chair. You'll out last your opponents.

Agree with Whitenbeard. Have fun.

It's been a while since I played an Apoc game, but I seem to remember that the Necrons kinda break Apoc games:

Imotekh the Stormlord. Unless Apoc has some errata that I'm not aware of, he will make things very, very funny. Or very unfriendly. Depending on the reception he receives.

Scarabs. Let's see how well the superheavies work when Entropic Strike has reduced their armour to AV 0.

Harbinger of the Storm. Voltaic Staves give 4 haywire shots each turn. Not bad for a 25 pt model.

Harbinger of Despair. Veil of Darkness grants teleporting. Combine with the Harbingers of the Storm. One Despairtek and 5 Stormteks can easily VoD within 12" of the Baneblade and unleash 16 Haywire shots. They're a suicide unit, but it's also only 160 pts and will likely bring down the super-heavy. Good trade.

Deathmarks. Combine with a Despairtek & VoD, and go after everyone's favourite units in the backfield.

Necron Pylons. Time to drop your own Strength D blasts. And if you use Solar Pulses, then you're the only one that gets to, as nightfighting will screw over anything further away than 36".

 G. Whitenbeard wrote:
No offense, and I'm going to put this the nicest way I can, but if you are really personally and emotionally invested in WINNING a club-wide holiday Apocalypse game...

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG

IMHO, Apocalypse games (and especially annual fun traditions such as this) are in no way about winning or losing. Apocalypse is all about putting every single model you own on a table, and watching those models get blown to smithereens with strength "d" shenanigan weapons with a smile on your face. It's all about having fun. Everything about the game is taken to the heinous extreme. Want more fun? Tell your Ork friends to buy a Stompa. It is literally the most fun unit in the history of ever.

If you go in thinking that the only way you can have fun is by winning, then you are going to have a miserable and sore day.

My advice: Just play. If you win, great! if not, great! Nobody will remember the outcome more than they will remember the fun they had spending 8+ hours playing the game with their friends

You are of course right! I am close friends with all these guys and we have a blast blowing everything up and coming up with silly situations during the game. However, without competition, this game is just a bunch of over-priced army men that you put on a table and then take off after rolling a lot of dice. My goal is not to win, but to compete, and as was so eloquently stated by Yonan already, what fun is this game if you don't both try to win? I know my opponents will be trying to win, and I intend to do the same.

skink007 wrote:

 G. Whitenbeard wrote:
No offense, and I'm going to put this the nicest way I can, but if you are really personally and emotionally invested in WINNING a club-wide holiday Apocalypse game...

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG

IMHO, Apocalypse games (and especially annual fun traditions such as this) are in no way about winning or losing. Apocalypse is all about putting every single model you own on a table, and watching those models get blown to smithereens with strength "d" shenanigan weapons with a smile on your face. It's all about having fun. Everything about the game is taken to the heinous extreme. Want more fun? Tell your Ork friends to buy a Stompa. It is literally the most fun unit in the history of ever.

If you go in thinking that the only way you can have fun is by winning, then you are going to have a miserable and sore day.

My advice: Just play. If you win, great! if not, great! Nobody will remember the outcome more than they will remember the fun they had spending 8+ hours playing the game with their friends

You are of course right! I am close friends with all these guys and we have a blast blowing everything up and coming up with silly situations during the game. However, without competition, this game is just a bunch of over-priced army men that you put on a table and then take off after rolling a lot of dice. My goal is not to win, but to compete, and as was so eloquently stated by Yonan already, what fun is this game if you don't both try to win? I know my opponents will be trying to win, and I intend to do the same.

You are indeed correct. I did not mean to imply that you shouldn't try to be competitive in an Apocalypse game and I should have been much more clear in my previous statement. Mea culpa, mea culpa

You should always try to win. It gives the game an overall purpose. What I should have said was, "Try to win, but smile no matter what happens." What should be avoided, however, is being personally mad because you lost an Apocalypse game.

Now, on your actual topic (which I entirely avoided providing an answer to in my first post)

My suggestion is to bring more big threatening targets on your side, such as a Stompa or some super powerful Necron/DE/Tau formations that greatly enhance the fire output and spread out the target priority/concentration for the enemy. Second, if you have a Necron player, have him or her bring as many Doomscythes as they can. If that player was ever thinking about investing in more Doomscythes, this is the time. Imperial formations that require that units be within certain distances from each other provide unbelievably rich targets for the Death Ray. Same for Ork flyers, Chaos flyers, and DE bombers.