Re: [Epic] what should i run as a 3000 point army against eldar?

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 23:31:02 -0700

Sean; you took this way too personally. It was not a criticism of you, but a minor warning to players
who want to keep their interest in the long term. However, now that you've shown a sensitivity, I
feel a desire to help build callouses.

Sean Smith wrote:
>
> On Tue 10 Mar, Thane Morgan wrote:
>

> 2) I have played all my games with lots of artillery and none have been
> boring. In several games both me and opposition throught I had
> already lost the game until the last turn, when artillery has helped
> me win the game by a narrow margin.

Takes all kinds, I guess. Some people like fishing with dynamite...

 
> 3) Artillery is a vital component of IG and armies, just much as infantry,
> hellhounds and support weapons. To have a minimal artillery is like
> cutting the thumb off your hand, the hand will work, but not as
> effectively as if you had the thumb. By not including artillery you
> are reducing tactical options and capabilities.

I'm not saying "don't take artillery", I'm saying "Don't make it the focus of your army". And I'm
sorry, Artillery in this game does take less thought than most of the other units in the game; you
don't need to maneuver for range or LOS, just drop the overwatch/prep bombardment counter and pick a
threatening/vulnerable unit to spank. And it definately does have a place, but don't spend a ton of
points on it.

> If you put a 1/3 to 1/2 of you points in
> > static units, you lose the joy of maneuver and some of the bragging
> > rights of victory (great, you beat me. A chimp could have kept his army
> > on overwatch...)
>
> I will igorne the implied criticism of my level of intelligence and instead
> address the issue.

You didn't ignore it, and it wasn't a dig at you. However if you play this army a lot, your opponents
will rightfully insult you. I'm tempted to myself.

I have found that artillery allows IG and marines
> armies to do more movement, not less. This because your opposition is
> restricted in how he can move his detachments. First, because he wants
> detachments to end their move in cover if possible, to reduce the affects
> of artillery on his detachments. Two, because he has to spread his units out
> to reduce the affects of artillery. Third, the blast markers mean your enemy
> has to constantly deal with the possibility that some of his detachments
> won't be able to move, this not only restricts the movement of the detachments
> affected by the blastmarkers but also other detachments which he was planning
> use in coordination with them. The three factors above mean that your
> own detachments can move across more of the battlefield, because enemy
> detachments have a reduced ability to move into positions which would prevent
> your detachments movements.
>
> Also, if your opponent takes any nightspinners he can
> > shut down a lot of points really quickly, plus cost you a lot of morale.
>
> The simple solution is to take out the night spinners before they
> get in range of your artillery. Nightspinners have a range of 60cm,
> heavy artillery a range of 90cm and siege artillery a range of 145cm.
> In none of the games in which I have played have night spinners
> got in range of my artillery. This because my enemy was trying to
> avoid coming within range of my artillery (which they haven't always
> succeed in doing), instead my opposition has fire at my frontline troops.

OK, this is really, really wrong. nightspinners have a range of 90 cm (maybe that's why it's been so
easy?) and have no excuse to not be in range of an artillery battery on their first turn. a smart
opponent would keep them spread out, so you'd only get 1 unit under the template, so there'd be ~ 8
fp per turn on the unit from 8 artillery peices, for an average 1 blast marker and one or two kills
(maybe three on overwatch). For the same points, your opponent is getting an average of 4 (or 6 on
overwatch) BM's on the artillery detat, no kills, but likely shutting down a lot of barrages (better
pull that inititive chit, eh?)

> > Not that there's anything wrong with artillery, and against another
> > pure artillery force it's probably the best thing (except being in their
> > face with pods), it just removes a lot of thought from a game which has
> > already lost much of its tactics. I've played the heavy artillery army,
> > and its gets boring really fast.
> >
> > Take maybe 6 to 8 artillery for special purposes, and get in your
> > opponents face with the rest.
>
> I believe I have already answered this criticism adove

Yes, but not particularly well.

> > Sean Smith

"Indignation doesn't play well on the internet. For jerks, its like blood to a shark."

Thane "I am that jerk" Morgan
Received on Tue Mar 10 1998 - 06:31:02 UTC