Sunday, October 12, 2014

DE: What will your competitive 1850 look like?

Let's go Autarch!

This is a great exercise.  Like I said, the idea would not to be to criticize your list, but present a possible solution to Mechdar and other high competitors.

Here are the restrictions:
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/community/bay-area-open-2014/bao-tournament-format/

You're building for 1850, and the meta will look like this:
  • Mechdar, 2x WK-variant, Autarch variant, Spiritseer/Wraithguard, all of these lists may or may not have Farseers to provided Shrouded.
  • Tau, with possible SM allies, assume your standard gunline with Broadsides, Buffmander, Kroot backfielders and Riptides.  New suit will be allowed at the event.
  • Space Marine-variants, possible Imperial Knight allies (made popular last major), but almost always grav-shooting
  • Imperial Knights
  • Chaos Space Marines, typical Nurgle play + Heldrakes
  • Necrons, big infantry or MSU mech-playstyles with Ghost Arks, Lord in Chariot and Annihilation Barges
  • Demons, typical flying circus
  • Tyranids, while rare, almost always come with dual dakka-Flyrants.

I listed this in the order of most frequently encountered and the hardest matchups for us (IMO).  If I showed up at this event, I would take heavy Eldar support.

1850
20 KP

HQ:
Archon, WWP, Haywire = 100
Autarch, Fusion Gun = 80*

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS = 120
5x Dire Avengers, WS/Holo/SS/Scatter = 210*
5x Dire Avengers, WS/Holo/SS/Scatter = 210*

FAST:
5x Fire Dragons, WS/Holo/SS/Scatter = 255*

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Night Spinner, Holo/SS = 140*

The playstyle is MSU, Archon is set as WWP bitch for the Fire Dragon's unit so it can come down and hopefully take down 2 units.  The Autarch is also in the same unit with the Fusion Gun, while taking advantage of the +1 reserve rule to bring in for alpha strike, or counter-reserve vs. enemy Eldar forces not using the Autarch.  The Fire Dragons have meltabombs, the Autarch comes with a Haywire and your own Archon has one as well, making them highly dangerous in an assault vs. any armored foe.  The pinpoint WWP drop will also make sure that I can get the jump in on a Knight, and hopefully take it down with a lucky salvo.

The list is constructed to take maximum firepower and ranged dominance for anti-tank, having no less than 13 lance shots at 36", which synergizes with the Wave Serpent's ability to follow suit with Scatter Lasers and Serpent Shields.  The Night Spinner is there to flush out tightly enemy Eldar hiding behind any buildings, since S8 barrage with typically no cover and side armor is actually not bad if going first.

My biggest challenge here will be opposing WS as they can take out my anti-tank elements if I let them, so the key would be reserve manipulation and deepstrike advantage.  My opponent will almost knowingly follow suit, but if he doesn't have an Autarch, I will be able to hold the advantage over him.  In a situation that requires me to negotiate a alpha strike, I will need to hide the Night Spinner on the board and just pray for lucky barrage while jinking for my life next turn if he tries to hunt me down.

I know that there is absolutely no presence of air here and that is fine for me, having seen what twin-linked Ignore Cover WS can do to opposing air units, and them doing little to no damage in return because of Fast Skimmer Jinks.  Due to the fact that I invested heavily in playing vs. Mech, I'm now vulnerable to stuff like Lootas, any kind of meat tides in general, and maybe even Tyranids considering that I don't have the massed Venom shots.  Then again, they don't like a lot of lance shots either, and I do have a healthy amount of S6+ shots myself coming from the WS support.  I feel that with this list, I'll also feel good vs. Tau, seeing how enough powerful shooting will hopefully do heavy damage to Broadsides and other T4 instantly-gibbable units, but that's never a sure thing.  I know for sure Riptides do not like the high volume of Lances, but Shrouded Wraithknights will most likely have a field day with me.  Hopefully, I will be able to negotiate the DS dice-gods into letting me have some Warriors drop down on their face while I concentrate on the lesser amount of WS present in double WK lists.

What will your list look like in 1850 with BAO restrictions in your meta?

3 comments:

Trentat said...

My list looks very similar to this. It seems about the only way to compete in the current WS heavy meta. The big differences are Bastion with Comms Relay rather than Autarch for reserve manipulation. I prefer a reroll on a 3+ to a 2+. I can roll 1's on a single die all day long! LOL. Also, the Bastion gives me a big LOS blocking scenic piece to cluster units behind to prevent Turn 1 tabling.

Venoms instead of Raiders for the FF in case the ignores cover units can't be tabled after deepstriking. It's only a 5++ but meh.

Iyanden allies for the 1-5 Spiritseers who have access to Telepathy in the hopes of Invisibilty. I think I could only afford 3 though.

I'd really like to figure out a way to field Reaver Jetbikes. I'm convinced their HoW caltrop attacks could really wreck WS in assault. I just can't figure out how to keep them alive until turn 2 to deliver that charge. Invisibilty I guess? But that's the luck of the psychic draw.

Gods I hate this fragging codex. :/

Terry Lee said...

Great post - it's Lelith in Dark City ;) I'm gonna try your list except for Wraithguard instead of Fire Dragons (I have no FD). Do you think this would be competitive to use?

HERO said...

Of course, Wraithguard are one of the best things to use in place of Fire Dragons. You will need to cut points here and there, I suggest dropping the Night Spinner and giving your WWP dropped WS a Shuriken Cannon. Other points can be used to give your Archon a Shadowfield so you can tank shots on a T6 unit.

Post a Comment