Tuesday, July 31, 2012

6th Ed Parking Lot, and why it's awesome!


So after play-testing the 1,500 pt list I put up the other day, I learned a few things including how durable vehicles can actually be in this new edition all things considered. I won my challenge game with that list against Dark Angels Deathwing, and the only vehicles I lost were my speeders. Here's a look at another list I'm planning on running:

HQ
Death Company Tycho

TROOPS
5x Assault Marines (Flamer, Power Weapon), Las/Plas Razorback
5x Assault Marines (Flamer, Power Weapon), Las/Plas Razorback
5x Assault Marines (Flamer, Power Weapon), Las/Plas Razorback

FAST
Baal Predator (TL-Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters)
Baal Predator (TL-Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters)

HEAVY
Vindicator
Vindicator
Stormraven Gunship (TL-Multimelta, TL-Plasma Cannon, Tycho goes here)

With eight hard-hitting vehicles in only 1500 points, this will be a quick and easy way to figure out if they have lost their edge in the new edition. While in my last game my Razorbacks only lost a few hull points here and there due to scattered shooting, I imagine with this list my opponents will have to choose which vehicles they want to eliminate first and pour everything they've got into them. However there are some pro's and con's to running vehicles in 6th:

Pro's:
-Each vehicle has three hull points, so you have to glance and/or pen each vehicle at least three times to destroy it (or get a lucky "explodes" roll on the vehicle damage chart)
-By only glancing a vehicle, it can still fire at full strength in this edition. Sure, the odds of glancing a vehicle have always been one in six since back in 4th edition (meeting the target vehicle's armor value), but glancing hits to crop up more often than you'd think. Even if the vehicle gets penetrated, there's still a chance the vehicle can fire at full strength, or at least snap-fire.

Con's:
-Regardless of what kind of hit it is (glance or pen), it removes a hull point
-S4 models have a much easier time of wrecking a vehicle on a charge by attempting to score three glances (S4 vs rear AV10) with their full complement of attacks
-Most vehicles have three hull points. Considering how easy it is to eliminate them that seems a bit low. I think 3 on smaller vehicles, 4 on regular vehicles, and 5 on the larger ones would have made more sense.

Running eight vehicles (and not much else) will be a surefire way to see how well tanks fare in the new rules. I'm not completely hosed though, I am bringing three flamers, three Lascannons, three twin-linked Plasmaguns, two twin-linked Assault Cannons, four Heavy Bolters, two Demolisher Cannons, two twin-linked Multi-Meltas, and two twin-linked Plasma Cannons, as well as three Power Weapons and Captain Tycho in a plane.

My initial thoughts are that a regular opponent might split their fire and allow my vehicles to live with a few hull-points missing here and there. However, a more savvy opponent will shoot the correct vehicles (my razorbacks) enough times to eliminate all three hull points and/or explode them, and by doing so hamstringing me to relying on scattering Demolisher Cannons and S6 rending Assault Cannons for the heavy lifting.

I don't think it's too bad of a list for 1,500 points, but I'll comment below with results after my games this weekend in my club's Challenge Pyramid League.

3 comments:

  1. I'm liking it. Glad to see you're testing out those Vindicators :) Though you need to make sure you're spread out. With templates hitting with full force on armor now, you don't want to group them together if you can avoid it. Also, how do you plan on dealing with enemy air units? I noticed there's no aegis line in there...

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  2. Of course they'll be spread out, they'll likely be on the flanks of my Razorwall. Ya know, I have done this before. :P

    As far as air units, most people at my LGS don't take them right now so I'm not as worried. I did use the Aegis Defense Line before (http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg39/dbgoldberg323/Razor-Wall.jpg) and it worked great, so I wanted to try something "different" if you can call it that. Just trying out new lists in these exciting early days of 6th has been a lot of fun!

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  3. I didn't mean to insult you. Just sayint that rule is a big change up. Both the top razorbacks in the picture could be hit by one (admittedly lucky) large blast.

    Though I gotta say I like the little fortress you built. Did your oppponent try and block it with terrain? How well did your quad gun do?

    You're lucky to be where air isn't prevailent. Most folks have a flier of some sort over here. :( Looking forward to new lists and battle reports :)

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