RE: [Epic] 2000pt 'ideal' IG Army

From: Miller, Chris <CMiller_at_...>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 15:39:18 -0600

> >
> > I got burned once, because you can't support unless some of your
> units
> > are touched, I had a bunch of HH just sitting there, watching their
> > buddies die. A clever (or cheesy) opponent can screw you by charging
> > your flanks. Besides, I saved 25 points buy joining them anyway.
>
> The thing is if the Ork player decides to not engage the
> hellhounds in his assault, they'll be within FF range after the
> guardsmen are driven off (a FF that the orks will almost definitely
> lose). This could be very bad for the orks if you have a mobile
> reserve nearby that can either surround or simply beat on the
> broken greenskins (broken units are at 1/2 assault factor & FP for
> CCs and FFs, IIRC).
>
> Also note that with the above setup, the orks HAVE to
> engage at least 1 Hellhound in order to get into base contact
> with non-Comissar (non-Save) units. Assuming the orks charge
> from the front; if they hit your flanks then that's no longer the
> case. Perhaps a T formation for the hellhounds would be better:
>
> C C H C C
> IG IG H IG IG
> H H H H H
>
> etc, you get the idea.
>
-------> I wasn't going to jump in on this one, but I guess I will now:
I'm really really skeptical of any formation( both of the ones displayed
so far) requiring such precise placement of units - there are so many
ways this thing can be messed up it's not even funny. As mentioned
above, if someone manages to travel an extra few cm's and hits you in
the side, it's broken. More importantly, a single AT shot (or death ray
if it's especially important) picking off the front hellhound breaks
it. A megacannon will wreak havoc with it also.
   Anytime you depend on 1 unit being in a certain position in relation
to a bunch of other units to do something, you're taking a very large
risk, and these guys seem to be assuming they will survive the shooty
phase with no losses, when the front guy is the first thing which will
be hit if shot at with FP. I don't really see what the advantage is over
just taking them as part of the whole detachment. That way you don't
have to worry about getting a particular unit into HTH, you just need to
get close, which is far easier. Also the comissar saves can cushion the
HH's from FP attacks (if they're armor is the same - I can't remember),
and picking off the "keystone" HH becomes less of an issue.

   Not saying placement isn't important, just that this seems to require
a rather precise formation which looks fairly brittle to me. Also, the
intermingling of at least 2 detachments really needs to be mentioned to
your opponent when he shoots at them, and by drawing attention to it in
this way, he's probably going to think a little more about it, and may
well realize what you're trying to pull devoting a few extra shots to it
to make sure things don't happen the way you want.

Chris Miller
Received on Thu Mar 12 1998 - 21:39:18 UTC