Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I play in a small, local gaming group. We pretty much only play 500 points each, ending up between 1000 and 2000 pt games. Often times though, we only get three people, and we instead play a 3-way 500 pt free for all, adapting the usual objective rules as close as possible. We really do not use the tactical objectives though, just the scenario detailed ones.

In any case, my usual enemies play Orks and Eldar (in the free for all), as well as having a Blood Angels, Tyranid, and now Chaos player amongst my possible opponents. I have Astra Militarum and Adepta Sororitas as my two main armies, though I also have a small Grey Knight force and am planning to get a Dark Eldar force as well. Needless to say, any game in which I am not on the same side as Eldar, I pretty much just lose (except one game Sisters vs Eldar where I tied simply because my opponent was having too much fun annihilating me and forgot the objectives...).

Do you guys have any suggestions on builds/strategies for these types of low point games? 90% of my games are 500 pts, only a few rares ones are 1000 pts.

Use kill team rules. That'll neuter cheap priced Eldar cheese.

I try and fit as many units in as possible at that points level. Numbers is where you will win.

Example:

Orks
Big Mek, Mega Amour, Boss Pole, Lucky Stick, Gitfinda 110
Shoota Boyz 70
Shoota Boyz 70
Shoota Boyz 70
Deffkopta 30
Deffkopta 30
Deffkopta 30
5x Kannons = 90
=500

8 units, and two of those will be tough to remove, another three difficult and a lot of bodies in the last three. It's also quite fast for objectives, what with Scouting Jetbikes and SnP T7 weapons.

Not sure of points costs for AM and SoB but the same concept applies. Numbers win games.

The regular guardsman is 5 pts, though typically when playing Guard, I tend to use veterans who have +1 BS and Ld for +3 pts each, on top of giving them carapace armour for another 15 pts and usually mount them on a Chimera for another 65 pts.

1 platoon of guardsmen (the other troop choice) consists of a minimum of:
-Platoon Command Squad (25 pts)
-Squad 1 (50 pts)
-Squad 2 (50 pts)

For 125 pts, I have 1 troop choice with essentially 25 basic guardsmen, requiring me to get another troop choice on top of that.
For 145 pts (barebones veterans and chimera) I have 2 troop choices, so I can focus my points on more quality things. I was able to fit a Tank Commander Punisher and side Demolisher, giving me plenty of fire power for decent chunk of my army.

At least for 500 pt guard, I have found basic guardsmen to be rather ineffectual against my opponents.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On the other hand, each basic Sister is 12 points, and compared to the average guardsman, have +1 BS and Ld with a 3+ save. Thus far, I really have not had any game in which my acts of faith did anything overly amazing, maybe besides the one time my Seraphim rended an enemy vehicle to death. Typically speaking Seraphim are my favorite and, despite being 16 pts base each, usually are the ones doing all the damage.
At 500 pts, more than 1 exorcist (if any) is out of the question, and even one is pretty ineffectual, with the 1d6 shots being generally unreliable.
I typically get a Canoness with the relic that lets her reroll armour saves and a rosarius for 4++ invul pretty much to give my opponent two tasty morsels to shoot at rather than just one with the Seraphim.
The biggest thing is I don't have Celestine yet, though I hear she's the one to get (wondering how good she would be at such low points).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Use kill team rules. That'll neuter cheap priced Eldar cheese.

I have taken a look at kill team rules, and they look interesting, but at least for the moment, no one else has shown interest in playing it.

Like I posted somewhere else. depe3nds on what your group allows for 500 point games. My group prefers fun games without the shenanigans so no 2+ saves or invul saves(there are exceptions), nothing over Av12 including necron shields, no more than 2W per model(exception being nids who have no choice) and a limit on force org 0-1 HQ, HS, FA, Elites, 1-3 troops, and one bonus slot for any of them. Makes for much more fun games because no one is really bring cheesy crap to the field at 500 points where no one else can tailor for it.

For anything else than 1000pts I use a smaller table. Changing the table side from 6x4 to a 3x4.

Col. Dash wrote:
Like I posted somewhere else. depe3nds on what your group allows for 500 point games. My group prefers fun games without the shenanigans so no 2+ saves or invul saves(there are exceptions), nothing over Av12 including necron shields, no more than 2W per model(exception being nids who have no choice) and a limit on force org 0-1 HQ, HS, FA, Elites, 1-3 troops, and one bonus slot for any of them. Makes for much more fun games because no one is really bring cheesy crap to the field at 500 points where no one else can tailor for it.

Other than the eldar (who has been trying an assortment of different, more varied combinations as of late), none of us have really used unstoppable armies for 500 pts. As guard, the most I've done was get the basic tank commander punisher combo, supported by veterans in a chimera and ratlings which, frankly, only survived an onslaught of tyranids since the tyranid player brought mostly shooters and kept them mostly immobile for objectives rather than flank me to take out my few vehicles.

So far, we've had only two games that used flyers:
-one in Eldar/Guard vs Orks/Nids, counting the later as allies of convenience; the flyer was the Eldar psychic one that, other than flying around and annoying the tyranid swarms, only managed to eliminate the opposing Terygon spawnmother thing after three turns of combined shooting with other units. Overall, it pretty must just drew termagant shots.
-one in Eldar/Guard vs Orks/CMS, using the normal allies rules; the flyer was a Guard Valkyrie with double missile pods replacing the hunter-killer missiles; after using the Warlord's outflank trait and putting the gunship just behind enemy lines (also paratrooping in stormtroopers with lord commissar and having them fall 12" away, just off the board and dying...) it pretty much just sat in hover mode for 3 turns, shooting its multi-laser and missiles into the back of a looted wagon. It managed to do only two hull points with the laser, the missiles all missed or did nothing.

Essentially, other than superheavies (since we really don't have the points for them), our group has not banned anything simply because we really have not gotten to that point. Though we are slowly learning (the ork player finally tried putting the Warboss in a Mega suit and, low and behold, he did not die as quickly as having no armour!)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Glitcha wrote:
For anything else than 1000pts I use a smaller table. Changing the table side from 6x4 to a 3x4.

We use 4 x 4 for 500 pt games, as our local gaming store has limited space available for wargaming most of the time.