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I've now played around 10 games of 40K 7th edition, using the popular Smashbane as my HQ ( CM with bike, hammer, artificier, shield eternal. ) I haven't gotten him into melee even once. It's hilarious I know:

-Against CSM and SM, he was simply shot to death with a normal bike squad around him, while I tried to maximize a safe, fast route with cover.
-Against Tau, he was simply shot to death with a stormshield command squad around him, while I tried to maximize a safe, fast route with cover.
-Against Orks and Astra Militarum he failed a critical charge.
-Against Daemons... well he rolled double sixes three times on Warpstorm and summoned a lot of stuff... like 50 demons in 2 turns. Then his Greater Daemon rolled perils, and then a six, becoming an unkillable kililng machine. The game was over by turn 3. Most hilarious game I've ever played.

So my Smashbane has had a tough life so far!

I'm bringing him to the table with a scouting bike squad these days, are there any ways to increase and maximize the chance of getting him where he should be? Just plain hiding simply doesn't cut it I've noticed, the enemy is too scared of him and he receives an exterminatus's worth of fire every turn. I believe I should have enough target saturation though, I have a few riflemen, drop podding tacticals and sternguard, a vindicator and another bike squad rolling towards the enemy.

Are you failing your 2+ so much then? Or is the opponent bringing so much AP2 and you are failing those 4+ jink saves on the extra bodies too much?

I have a feeling this list will get him into combat: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/570018.page
:-p

All jokes aside, it sounds as though you have been incredibly unlucky!
What else have you brought to distract the opponents firepower? Running with some vindis, a knight, some cents or podded dreads etc should give your opponent more target priorities. A CM with SE, bike and AA in a bike squad should by all rights and purposes take more than his fair share of firepower to take down, and if your opponents are focusing the majority of their firepower on him and his squad, the rest of your list should be pretty unhindered!
What points are you playing?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry - only just read the last bit and you say you have enough target saturation... that is odd.
Maybe drop the dread riflemen and go for something that demands your opponents attention straight away. Try putting scarier dreds in the pods.

I guess it might have been luck, since I should be doing everything pretty much textbook.

Maybe I need to get a Knight just so there's a bigger threat than him...

Yeah, with super smashy deathstar squads, you really need a distraction.

Especially if this unitis faster than you others. When you speed him up, he becomes not only the priority target, but also the closest target!

I might recommend a few drop pods. Identify the unit that will putout the most Smashbane shootiness and drop a dreadnought in their face on turn 1.

Or heck, even some Deathwing termies. Drop them in, TL stormbolters and assault cannons.

 Icculus wrote:
Yeah, with super smashy deathstar squads, you really need a distraction.

Especially if this unitis faster than you others. When you speed him up, he becomes not only the priority target, but also the closest target!

I might recommend a few drop pods. Identify the unit that will putout the most Smashbane shootiness and drop a dreadnought in their face on turn 1.

Or heck, even some Deathwing termies. Drop them in, TL stormbolters and assault cannons.

I agree with everything here. When you overextend your death star, it makes it really easy for your opponent to see your strategy and destroy it. With my daemons it is all about threat overload. I need most of my army to be fast enough to give my opponents lots to shoot at. Otherwise my plague drones or soul grinder will just take every shot and die. If I was to throw screamers, drones, and a slaanesh grinder at someone though, with a greater daemon on the way or in the air, now there is a lot to think about and focusing on one target might not be enough.

Yeah. In that demon game I mentioned I had a DP and 3x GD coming at me simultaneously, it was madness.

I'm thinking Deathwing Terminators in some form could bring yet another threat in the opponents face. I just don't like Terminators gamewise since they never tend to get their points back...

...what do you guys think is the absolute best combo of Deathwing ( knights, terminators, command, whatever ) to Deep Strike into the opponents end of the table on turn 1 ( they will be accompanied by 2 drop pods ) to act as a target next to the pods, smashbane, the other bikes and the vindicator.

Any deathwing unit + 2 ironclads. Be careful with your demolisher blast around them. Having said that - I would rather run 2 vindis rather than 1.

Smashbane is nigh-invulnerable in melee... but is decidedly vulnerable to mass fire from infantry guns, or a saturation of AP2 fire. If you force him to roll enough armor and invulnerable saves, he will die. So abuse his extreme mobility to hug LOS blocking terrain, or use him as a DISTRACTION SMASHBANE while the rest of your army moves up the field.

It does sound like the OP was just particularly unlucky. It only takes a few bad rolls for him to die an ignominious death early in the game.