Exemplum: Mordrak and Friends Explicated

I posted the following as a response to one of the comments and by the time I got done realized it was a mini-tactica. So here is that comment, blatantly plagiarized (can one plagiarize oneself?) as a post:

Tactical highlights for the Erudite Mordrak list:
-Mordrak and his termies form an old-school retinue (he can't be picked out in CC); plus halberd termies strike at I6
-Mordrak and his squad (incl. IC) have a special rule that allows them to deep strike on turn one without scattering
-Mordrak also has Grand Strategy (G/Strat) which allows up to D3 infantry units to have either Scout, Counter-attack, count as Troops, or re-roll all To Wound rolls of 1

So the simple strategy is to give at least the Purifiers the Scout USR (which conveys to their dedicated transport). If you manage to get a G/Strat roll of 2 or 3 then give the Grey Knight Strike Squad (GKSS - Troop choice) Scout with their rhino and the dreadnought Scout as well (all have to have the same G/Strat choice).

The librarian has two interesting powers in this strategy. Summoning allows him to deep strike an infantry unit to within 6" of him. Use the librarian's servo skulls to reduce scatter. The warp stabilisation field on a vehicle allows the vehicle to be summoned as well.

Shrouding is a power used in your opponents shooting phase and grants Stealth to any unit within 6" of the librarian (including vehicles). Strategic placement of vehicles via Scout and use of smoke should give your vehicles two rounds of 3+ cover saves.

So the librarian summons the land raider on turn two and either pops smoke or shoots the S7 assault cannon (it counts as moving Flat Out but with PoTMS can still shoot one gun). Meanwhile, the Purifier squad lays down covering fire with psycannons from the rhino, hopefully shielded behind the summoned raider. With luck and Stealth, you survive your opponents next round of shooting and on turn three deliver a heaping helping of terminators and purifiers into assault.

To me, this embodies the power of an elite, survivable army. You are banking on some cover saves, but Mordrak's termies should be in cover and Stealthed and 3+ cover on vehicles is as good as you can get in 40k right now. If you can weather the incoming fire, you have pretty much broken your opponents flank by turn three and should be able to roll right through.

Of course, this is all theoryhammer, but I feel like the new GK 'dex at least give you a reasonable chance of making this happen.

Gaming Aid - Codex: Civilians

Codex: Civilians gives you the ability to field civilians who take an active role in your battles. Civilians are aligned with one specific side in the conflict. This can be determined randomly or explicitly as part of a narrative for the game. For example, you might have the Dark Angels defending an Imperial colony against the predations of a newly uncovered Necron tomb. Or you could have a human genestealer cult aligned with a Tyranid assault force intent on consuming an Imperial stronghold.  Regardless, civilians become part of the action, both offensively and as part of the mission objectives.

You can download the PDF for Codex: Civilians here.

Indicium: Warhounds at the Gladiator Tournament

I have entered the Adepticon Gladiator tournament this year... and plan on losing every game! Seriously, my goal is just to have fun and take a unit or two that I normally wouldn't be able to run in a normal game of 40k.

Specifically, my Armorcast Warhound will be making an appearance, complete with plasma blastgun  and turbo-laser destructor. Having played a few games with this hulking beast, I am firmly convinced that destroyer blast weapons really have no place in a game of regular 40k. Of course, the Gladiator is not a normal game of 40k and I fully expect to see a bevy of flyers, super heavy tanks and walkers, and gargantuan creatures. This is also why I am expecting to lose. Having not used the warhound overmuch, I really have no sound tactics and will likely just shoot at the biggest thing on the board... hopefully that works!

On the plus side, no Reavers allowed this year and hopefully the organizers clean up that silliness about flyer bases blocking opposing units from assaulting.

Advocatus: Optimizing Unique Models in 5e

Warhammer 40k 5th edition (5e for short) presents some new challenges and new advantages where unique models within a squad are concerned. Historically, the owning player of a unit that has failed armor saves has had the choice to pull any model from a squad (within certain parameters). This mechanism allows models with special weapons or abilities to be protected and those models where usually the last to be killed off.

5e introduces a new game mechanic that requires wounds to be specifically allocated to individual models in a unit. In the case where there are more wounds than models, these wounds wrap around such that a given model may be forced to take more than one armor save. The intent of this change seems to be to force special models to take armor saves and potentially be removed prior to the rest of the squad being killed.

However, a slight twist to that mechanic requires identical models to make their armor saves together and the owning player to remove models equal to the number of failed saves. In the case where a unique or special model fails more than one save, that wound is lost and does not carry over to the rest of the squad. However, with identical models, those failed saves are spread around similar to the casualty removal mechanic of 4th edition.

A simple way to take advantage of this new save allocation is to ensure that there are as many unique models as possible within a given squad so that saves are taken on an individual basis thereby maximizing the number of "lost" wounds (i.e. those failed saves that do not carry over) within the squad. This means that even the most innocuous upgrades in a squad may be worthwhile just to ensure as high a number of unique models as possible.

A very simple example is that of a Dark Angels scout squad. The DA scouts are allowed to field a mix of weapons for no additional points cost, i.e. a bolter, shotgun, or pistol and combat weapon. Even if those scouts are considered ablative, in 5e it is now worthwhile to take a mix of these combinations. For example, a scout squad with sniper rifle sergeant, pistol scout, bolter scout, sniper rifle scout, and missile launcher scout represents a squad of 5 unique models. Should this squad take ten wounds, each model would take saves against two wounds a piece, throwing away any additional failed saves for a given model. Should the pistol scout fail both of his saves, he is removed from the game and the extra wound goes with him!

There are numerous possibilities for this technique throughout many 40k armies. In the upcoming posts, I will go over a few of these. Feel free to post your own thoughts and ideas on how to use this new mechanic to your advantage.

Advocatus: Playing Tau in 40k 5e

Playing Tau in 5e becomes a whole new game. With the new assault rules and new line of sight rules, I predict Tau will be one of the strongest army lists (at least until the FAQ comes out). Basically, with assaulting units not being able to consolidate into a new assault, the Tau gunline becomes a very feasible tactic. Add to that the Tau almost unique ability to be able to remove conver saves (markerlights) and the amount of AP1/2 weaponry that can fielded mean that the Tau should be nigh on unstoppable.

The real weakness will be in the troop department for scoring and the number of possible kill points that a decent Tau list can give up. However, keeping troop choices in transports and always taking a disruption pod (4+ cover save), you should be able to claim objects relatively easily. The key is going to be a mix of mobile and static infantry and knowing when the static troops need to become more mobile (even at the expense of shooting).

My current 5e Tau list looks like this:

Shas'el - Plasma rifle, CIB, Multitracker
2 x Crisis squad - Suits x 3, plasma rifles and fusion blasters
3 x Firewarrior squad - 10 x firewarriors, Shas'ui with bonding knife
2 x Kroot squad - 14 x kroot carnivores, 3 x kroot hounds
2 x Pathfinder squad - 8 x pathfinders, devilfish with disruption pod
1 x Hammerhead
1 x Broadside squad - 3 x broadsides, advanced stabilization, 2 x shield drones

A lot of markerlights coupled with the pathfinders' devilfish that can transport both firewarriors and kroot (not at the same time, of course).