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I haven't seen much information on Al-Rahem and his uses and tactics and so have a couple questions.

1. What combos work well with him, footguard orientated?
2. Would you take Heavy Weapons with his platoon, and why?
3. What are your opinions of him?
4. Any other information, uses and tactics you know and could suggest?

Thanks a lot

I havnt played IG in a while, but I used to run Al-rahem with a full 50-man platoon with melta-guns (al-rahem in a chimera with flamers). Keep the squads separate and they make good skirmishers, and support their platoon with a corner firebase with tanks, CCS, a few weapon teams, artillery, and some vendettas/vultures flying air cover.
The enemy has to split their forces between the pounding gunline, and the really annoying piddly guardsmen running all over the field, gumming up their advances. Dont be afraid to sacrifice squads to block enemy movement, or generally be all up in their grill. Al's move-shoot-run order can be pretty handy as well for wrapping all over the enemy.

HTWs seem like a waste, his advantages are mobility and enveloping the enemy. Keep the heavy guns in the firebase.

IMO Al Rahem's PCS is better with Melta Guns since he has Bring It Down.

But if he's riding in a chimera, he cant use it on himself. He can use it on the 5 melta-toting infantry squads though.

You should take Al Rahem and put him into a Vendetta for luiz.

I would agree with whats been said, if going with foot squads go with melta guns or even plasma guns and if Al's squad is on foot give them meltas or flamers. Then just go harass the enemies back line and try to keep a squad alive for line breaker.

Ive also seen a mech theme. Basically you take the above squads and throw them all in a chimera. Now you have a decent longer lasting force in your enemies back field. only problem is it costs a lot more points.

Also I would pass on the HWS's the squads are walking on the board so they wont be able to fire the first turn and then HWS also die very easily. I would even give the infantry squads HWT's

I would keep the force low on points just because they are pretty much cannon fodder.

 McGibs wrote:
But if he's riding in a chimera, he cant use it on himself. He can use it on the 5 melta-toting infantry squads though.

The Chimera extends his reach, but he still needs to hop out. You roll up 6, turn around, deploy 6 out of the back, and now you have an 18" 2d6 melta threat range and 24" overall threat range versus 12" and 18" for the footsloggers.

3++ made an awesome article a month or two ago on how he can do awesome things with outflanking vendettas.

herpguy wrote:
3++ made an awesome article a month or two ago on how he can do awesome things with outflanking vendettas.

If by "awesome things" you mean "nothing". Outflank only applies to dedicated transports, Al'rahem must go in outflanking reserve while the Vendettas must go in normal reserve.

I think Al Rahem's special rule overrides that because he MUST outflank, he doesnt just give them the outflank USR as standard. You put him (and his buddies) in vendettas, and they have to outflank. Period.

 McGibs wrote:
I think Al Rahem's special rule overrides that because he MUST outflank, he doesnt just give them the outflank USR as standard. You put him (and his buddies) in vendettas, and they have to outflank. Period.

Exactly. He has no choice but to outflank so it overrides it.

Otto Weston wrote:
I haven't seen much information on Al-Rahem and his uses and tactics and so have a couple questions.

1. What combos work well with him, footguard orientated?
2. Would you take Heavy Weapons with his platoon, and why?
3. What are your opinions of him?
4. Any other information, uses and tactics you know and could suggest?

Thanks a lot

He can be quite fun to use. ESPECIALLY in hammer and anvil games when you play end to end instead of across the board.
1. Dont fool around when usinhi. Go big. When I do, I like to use chimeras. those multi lasers and heavy flamers can do some serious damage. This does not mean you can mob the units up. It just means that you have to decide beforehand and if they are mobbed up, they cant come onto the board in the chimeras.
2. I have tried heavy weapons with him. For ME, it did not work out too well. It was cool, but they were too easily taken out with only snap shots being fired as they come in. Remember, killing only a single stand of a HWS means a break test for it. I would recommend against it. if your going to use off units like that, I would suggest special weapons units instead.
3.I like him. I like his model and wish I had a bunch of tallern models (with all possible special weapon options to make his squad. He can be a terror. A savvy opponent will bunch in the middle of the board to avoid him but them you can pie plate them. Others will overload one side of the board to deny antry points and force units coming in from the other side to travel but again, they are bunching themselves up. My favorite game with him was plasma gunning 2 dreadknights to death on a single turn by having him and his squads come on.
4.Be sure to take a CCS and an astropath. that +1 for them all to come in (remember one roll for the whole platoon) and rerolls for which side each unit comes in on (for this, you roll each squad seperately so you can swarm them from both sides) come in REALLY handy. As mentioned a pie plate thrower or two can be handy. and the same goes for template guys like hellhounds. A barebones platoon with heavy weapons can help give your template guys a meat chield and some firepower to add to them until your cavelry arrive. The bad part about pumping his platoon up is the dice. Even with the +1 roll for an astropath, there is alsways the chance of you rolling poorly for them.

As a side note, for those looking for a good Talarn conversions, Puppets War just put out some great Keffiyeh heads, which would integrate pretty well into the cadian range.



http://puppetswar.eu/product.php?id_product=277

Step 1. Get a power blob

Step 2. Outflank with al rahem

Step 3. Get abother power blob

Step 4. Outflank with creed

Step 5. Profit

Doesnt Creed only outflank a unit. Now if his rule said force org slot, he could do the entire platoon, but I believe his rule says unit.

 EVIL INC wrote:
Doesnt Creed only outflank a unit. Now if his rule said force org slot, he could do the entire platoon, but I believe his rule says unit.

Thats why you make the platoon one big unit by combining the infantry squads

On the basis that the whole platoon must deploy together and all or none must reserve/outflank, wouldn't Creed do them all anyway?

As for Al'Rahem, he can be very useful. Load up his platoon on flamers and meltas. give the PCS meltas to use BID, and just use them as a nuisance unit. Opening a second front with IG can be very good, especially when you couple it with Stomrtroopers, Harkervets or outflanking allies. It counters a lot of the mobility issues with IG.

Just make sure you have a plan for them arriving on the other side. It's only going to happen 1 in 3 games on average, but you do need a backup plan should the master of outflanking manoeuvres get lost on the way to the battle.

 Paradigm wrote:
On the basis that the whole platoon must deploy together and all or none must reserve/outflank, wouldn't Creed do them all anyway?

As for Al'Rahem, he can be very useful. Load up his platoon on flamers and meltas. give the PCS meltas to use BID, and just use them as a nuisance unit. Opening a second front with IG can be very good, especially when you couple it with Stomrtroopers, Harkervets or outflanking allies. It counters a lot of the mobility issues with IG.

Just make sure you have a plan for them arriving on the other side. It's only going to happen 1 in 3 games on average, but you do need a backup plan should the master of outflanking manoeuvres get lost on the way to the battle.

An Astropath will help that immensely.

I've played several games with Al'Rahem now and I think his platoon can be a very potent and useful force.

He serves three main uses:

1) He distracts your enemy immensely and commands attention away from your main force, in some scenarios he can completely

2) He is a very reliable method of getting scoring units which can actually reach the mid-backfield objectives and win games by pushing them off them

3) With a melta SWS/PCS it can threaten tanks and put some wounds on the hard nut MC's.

He's also pretty much the only time SWS with Demolition Charges become possibly viable, though it would almost certainly require a Chimera. I haven't tried the Vendetta trick and honestly I can't imagine it would work that well unless they were SWS inside them exclusively, you want your infantry squads in a blob and your PCS there to support the blob.

I went to two tournaments with him and played 6 games, essentially won 4 games and only lost 2, one of the losses was because half my army couldn't kill a single sodding Dark Eldar Archon, the last remaining model in the Relic. 2++ invulnerable save you see.

 A GumyBear wrote:

 EVIL INC wrote:
Doesnt Creed only outflank a unit. Now if his rule said force org slot, he could do the entire platoon, but I believe his rule says unit.

Thats why you make the platoon one big unit by combining the infantry squads

This would indeed work for the infantry squads but not he HQ or JR oficer squad, HWS, special weapons squads ect that are bought as part of the platoon. It would work I believe for getting the transports bought with the infantry squads though.

A full mechanised platoon with meltas and the free heavy flamer on the chimeras may put the fear of the emperor into your foe, a tad bit costly. Mad perhaps, but sometimes it the mad man that win the day!

Quick question, can you deploy an IC with the platoon (IE a rune priest) to join the power blob with AL and gain outflank? Or would the character need a special rule that grants them outflank?

If an IC joins the blob, the blob MUST still outflank, so yes. The IC outflanks as well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Personally, the next time I run Al'Rahem, I'll run the platoon with meltas and HWS with MLs. That much AT coming in on the flank will probably make the opponent soil himself. That many bodies with that many missile launchers can make a person cry.

herpguy wrote:

 McGibs wrote:
I think Al Rahem's special rule overrides that because he MUST outflank, he doesnt just give them the outflank USR as standard. You put him (and his buddies) in vendettas, and they have to outflank. Period.

Exactly. He has no choice but to outflank so it overrides it.

No, what happens is that he can't embark on the non-outflanking transport because then you'd be breaking his "must outflank" rule.

 Peregrine wrote:

herpguy wrote:

 McGibs wrote:
I think Al Rahem's special rule overrides that because he MUST outflank, he doesnt just give them the outflank USR as standard. You put him (and his buddies) in vendettas, and they have to outflank. Period.

Exactly. He has no choice but to outflank so it overrides it.

No, what happens is that he can't embark on the non-outflanking transport because then you'd be breaking his "must outflank" rule.

Sounds like one of those rule conflicts that has no true answer, as the mechanics are insufficiently defined in the rule set. You know the sort that I mean, they lead to massive YMDC threads with arguments over the tiniest differences of words.

As for Al'Rahem's uses, has anyone tried using him alongside Chenkov? The ability to throw outflanking conscripts as a shield for your mech platoon sounds useful, and you could bring them on from your own board edge to claim objectives could be nice. Also, going by the FAQ, you could outflank them on a 4+. Taking both Chenkov and Al'Rahem seems expensive to me, although maybe if you are going for an infantry army it could be effective.

 Smitty wrote:
If an IC joins the blob, the blob MUST still outflank, so yes. The IC outflanks as well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Personally, the next time I run Al'Rahem, I'll run the platoon with meltas and HWS with MLs. That much AT coming in on the flank will probably make the opponent soil himself. That many bodies with that many missile launchers can make a person cry.

I did a few of that; Al'Rahem with flamers and 2 ISs with MLs, everyone in chimeras. It gets attention, and rear/side armour hits as well.

I've tried out a 50-man conscript squad with a xeno inquisitor with nades. And they're awesome in mellee and can even do some good damage with prescience! My 200 pt conscripts with inquisitor killed a big eldar jetbike squad without suffering any losses at all! Thanks to nades. So i've decided to try him with a 50-man blob + some indep. A blob costs just 250. Add some power axes, nades and meltas and it's still no more than 350 for 50 guyz.
With xeno inquisitor on their side they're gona be really fearful in mellee. Their problem is speed. Previously i've tried out an inquisitor with a scout-book. If it can be replaced with some other artifact (though it's just 30 pts but needs to pass a ld10 which can sometimes fail, not often though) like bs 10 to entire squad vs something with psykers. Can even bring some wounds vs that screamerstar or council. Also they can take Tigurius (btw can he cast 4++ on platoon the turn they come from reserve?) or Azrael for more reliable 4++ and they're a frightening deathstar.
So the question if IC can outflank with the platoon using Al-Raheim's rule is important. If it's possible - than inquisitor + allied IC are a way to go.

With Al-Rahem, I have played 3 games this weekend, while only one was a win, the other 2 were very very close!
I outflanked a banewolf with Creed alongside his platoon of two 10 man squads with a meltagun in each, his squad with 3 flamers and a heavy flamer, and 3 empty chimeras. This worked really well considering I had the other platoon with HWS and lemans/vendettas to pop all the vehicles on the side he came on

I use him a lot, he's very handy at least for linebreaker.

His "like the wind" order is great for closing the gap after you outflank. I tend to use a lord commisar in a guard blob of either infantry of conscripts and try to get closer to my enemy. One group of 50 infantry and one group of 50 consripts makes the most of his ability to issue like the wind twice. Make sure the infantry unit has a vox caster and use it on them first, in range of the lord commisar.

Heavy weapons would have to snap fire, so no go on those.

He's a great upgrade. Sadly you are forced to outflank when you use him, but between his orders and flexability, he's a great addition to a normally slow foot guard army.

Put him in a chimera. Intercepter can kill him before he does his thing. Don't forget he has an instant death power sword and a plasma pistol, as well as 2 wounds. Add melta guns to his platoon command if you feel like, or only are issuing one order per turn on another unit.

He's fun. My creation of a tallarn themed pseudo inquisition army as taken my FLGS by storm.

Actually I find Like The Wind is more useful for avoiding being templated into oblivion in the following turn while still getting your double tap fire, spreading out appropriately.