RE: [Epic] Tactic Critique

From: Miller, Chris <CMiller_at_...>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 15:41:26 -0500

>> ----> Greater demons were hard to kill? Eldar certainly don't have a
>> problem
>> with them
>
> Which is why taking the Tower against Eldar (or Tyranids)
>was (is) a mistake. It was good against anyone else, though.
----> Chaos always seemed to have a hard time against eldar, unless they
took the "Renegade Guard" approach, and even then it wasn't easy. Orks
and Imperials seemed the most evenly matched opposition for them,
but I never tried squats...


>> The imperials
>> probably had
>> the fewest psychic attacks , but even then, you got 3 cards per GD.
>> That's
>> going to get burned up quick against a titan or artillery heavy force.
>
> Hey, if my opponent is going to concentrate all his fire
>on a Plague Tower full of Beasts and ignore everything else rumbling
>his way... fine by me. But generally, the Tower isn't a primary
>target. To be fair, my opponents usually don't go for the 'suck
>out all the cards early on' strategy (which really only works in
>small games anyway, IMHO unless you're playing against squats).
----> The card suck strategy only works if you stick to it religiously
right from the start of the game, and it can be a waste, but that tower
is
worth some VP's, and if the units inside it die, that's some more. Also,
it can be fun to make Chaos actually take some morale checks when
 their demon leader is gone, so targeting the GD's should be somewhat
important. With the empire, my librarians usually died horribly no
matter what they targeted, and they really don't have other psyker
units. I played one game where I used a lot of space wolves and
had all the nasty weapons target the GD's. Once one was gone,
here came the blood claw packs with their special "make a morale
roll" ability for a charge. I actually got some units to run...
>
>> I don't think it was that much faster, either. Maybe a little faster,
>
> 30cm compared to 20cm. Plus it was a SHV, so it wasn't
>likely to get bogged down in CC (not that anyone in their right
>minds would have assaulted 10 Beasts marching forward).
----> That SHV was probably it's most important trait. Let's you get
your riff-raff past the other guys riff-raff. The 30 cm vs 20 cm charge
didn't impress me that much, but adding on the SHV status does
help.
>
>> but
>> it had the same prob the Capitol Imperialis did- makes it an even better
>> target.
>
> Capitol moved 10cm, max. Couldn't even go 20cm. And
>you could stick 60 stands inside... (or 6 SH tanks) Why you'd
>want to is beyond me.
-----> Yes - it's one big target. But it has void shields, kinda like
those cards...
>
>> I managed ,
>> once, to have some grey knights teleport down on target to surround
>> a bloodthirster - "allright, I'm finally gonna kick a 'thirster's
>> behind in
>> CC." Then he played the "growth"card.
>
> Heh. I love doing that. But then, what were you attacking
>a Bloodthirster (one of the most useless GDs) with Grey Knights
>for anyway? GK are really only well-spent trying to kill Magnus
>or Mortartion.

-----> Well, if you want Khorne troops, you get a bloodthirster, a
LOB, or Angron. Being perverse, I had Angron and his marines,
and used 'em all the time. Used LOB a lot also, though I have
also heard it derided as "useless" though it usually took
a Hellacious amount of punishment before folding. I also took
a bloodthirster a lot, just because the enemy is usually more than
willing to come to your troops, and the big boy is handy for
cleaning them up. Just like 'em. I also have a LOC and a KOS
which I like a lot, but I tended to run more Khorne stuff(Like
Juggers, the more the better!), so I needed more Khorne leaders.
        In this battle, I'd dealt with Magnus and he didn't have
Mortarion (we usually didn't bring in too many primarchs into one
battle) and the main fight was on the other end of the table. He was
trying to sneak some stuff thru and scrap some artillery, and I
thought I'd be clever and surprise him...

>> >> "When it comes to Daemon Engines, Just say KHORNE!"
>> >
>> > That's a joke, right?
>>
>> I agree doomwings were the best of the Tzeentch engines, but
>> the Khorne units included numerous shots, some with template
>> weapons, some which fired blast markers (rare for chaos), some
>> transport ability, a generally high CAF, and the property of getting
>> better whenever you were ahead on VP's.
>
> And were 3 for 300 points, 3 VPs for killing 2. For
>killing 2 really big targets with a 2+ armor save. 2 really
>big targets with (at best) 50cm range weapons, that by
>definition has to get close to the enemy to do anything. 2
>really big targets that you can't play chaos cards on, and
>thus are easily swarmed by bikes. There's no way those guys
>were even remotely useful.

----> 50cm range weapons for Chaos are pretty good. How many of
their things have no shots at all or a piddly 15cm range ? Marines
were 50cm too. How many Chaos weapons, other than titan guns,
get a range over 50cm? Sure,the cannons have unlimited range, but they
 tend to blow up. Out of a group of 3, sure, 1 or 2 get killed, but the
one
that survives usually gets in some licks. Charge 'em the first turn, and
they usually got some kills. There's also usually a group of
bloodletters,
fleshounds, and especially juggers going with them, so there's a few
things to worry about. I used Deathdealers with enough success
to keep using them - take 3-6 of them, put troops in one, they'll do
something. The mortars weren't horrendous either - blast markers
are hard for Chaos to come by.

        With Chaos, more than any other race, I tend to just take what
I like. I also happen to like the banelord, and the 3 or 4 converted
warlords
with the heads & tails, etc. and adding a few titans to the chaos side
tends to even them up with the other races real quick( Gives the other
side
something to obsess on besides your GD's)
        One other thing - have you done much with Chaos in E40K? I
started Chaos and Eldar in SM/TL, then went mostly Imperial. I spent
most of the last year or so of it with orks. I haven't tried E40K Chaos
yet, and no cards would be a major change on the surface. How's
it working really?

Chris Miller

>
Received on Fri Jul 25 1997 - 20:41:26 UTC