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Nick speaking,
So I have previously talked about how playing different scenarios and missions can really change your army, and how Cities of Death really helped my Wulvenkind perform on the table, even with my old Codex. But the best thing about playing something different, is that it can unlock those units that you don't usually play with! And that is what I love about playing Cities of Death...
I have found that it also makes a big difference to my Eldar army as well, allowing me to take advantage of the buildings and scenarios, and getting a different type of list on the table is what it's all about. Here is a peak at my standard 1500 point list for Cities of Death.
HQ
1x Avatar
1x Eldrad
TROOPS
5 x Pathfinder Rangers
3 x Guardian Jetbikes/Shuriken Cannon
10 x Guardians/Scatter Laser
ELITES
10 x Harlequins/Kiss/Fusion Pistols/Troupe Master/Death Jester/Shadowseer
10 x Striking Scorpions/Exarch/Scorpion’s Claw/Stalker/Shadowstrike
HEAVY SUPPORT
1 x Wraithlord/Flamers/Bright Lance/Missile Launcher
3 x War Walkers/Scatter Laser
Normally four of these units would never make it into my standard 40k list, but the Avatar, Scorpions, Warwalkers and Guardians are all perfect for Cities, and it's only because I also have an Eldar Harlequin army, that the number of units I would not normally use isn't eight, with Jetbikes being the only unit I use in my Eldar Mech and Saim Hann lists.
So with the ability to have some fun with units I love but don't usually take, how does the list work?
Well first up the Avatar advances forward to cause trouble, whilst the Wraithlord, Guardians and War Walkers all sit at the back giving out some firepower, with quantity of shots over quality being key in Cities because of all the cover saves. Eldrad hides out of site or joins the Guardians to do what he does best with his Jedi tricks, and to help with wraithsight. Harlequins sit nearby ignoring terrain ready for the counter assault, or to quickly move out depending on the mission.
Striking Scorpions infiltrate in a position to help the Avatar out midfield, or to get into the enemies back ranks taking advantage of move through cover. The Pathfinders infiltrate into a high advantage point to shoot, distract and hold any buildings. A small unit of jetbikes are ideal for reserving, it is small enough to avoid landing on terrain, and can either contest or pop out from behind terrain, shoot the Cannon and then hiding again in the assault phase.
Playing something extra like Cities of Death and the different missions, really does add a different dimension to your army and how it work, and gives you something different to work with...
Do you have any units you never use in normal 40k, but work really well in different scenarios?
I have a unit of 6 striking scorpions with exarch in my army that never really get used, until I put them into a 750pt list for a 4 way game. The objective was to secure the central building. I decided to take a list that had as many 3+ saves in it as possible and did as little regular deploying as usual. The list was:
ReplyDeleteAutarch - fusion, power weapon, mandis, jump generator
6 Scorpions - exarch, claw, shadowstrike
5 Rangers (we only decided to take 1 troop choice due to the size of the battle)
7 warp spiders with exarch
4 dark reapers with exarch
The only unit that deployed normally was the dark reapers, although they were joined by the rangers in my deployment zone (deploying last due to infiltrate). The scorpions outflanked and the warp spiders with autarch used deep strike. The game didn't go to well for me as the rangers ran off the board first turn, the scorpions hacked up a squad of raptors then got killed by an emperors champion and crusader squad, the warp spiders and dark reapers were shot up by tau battlesuits and noise marines, then my last surviving model (the autarch) managed to kill himself with his warp jump generator a turn before he was about to charge into the objective building!
The list failed utterly but it was fun to take those under used units in the collection and the game itself was a blast!
I mean as little regular deploying as possible, not as usual. Typo, oops!!
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel that common wisdom unit effectiveness is heavily swayed on the netz by tournament play. Every army and unit in the codexes is examined by how well it does on the typical tournament table.. i.e. usually light on terrain, multiple objective based, time limits.
ReplyDeleteArmy codexes are judged purely by how well they do in this one type of game. If a tournament was able to run multiple tables of nothing but Cities of Death, you'd get some very different lists I feel.
Well, I'll use just about anything in my normal lists, so the question doesn't really apply to me; however, I did start thinking about this when our gaming club recently held a 500 point tournament with a new set of restrictions on rules. Limiting things like maximum armor value, armor saves, invulnerable saves, etc., as well as the reduction in points made for an almost completely new game. In that format, Tomb Spiders turned out to be remarkably tough (as no 3 wound creatures, and nothing with a 2+ armor save were allowed), from what I can tell, they're the only T6 creature (or MC for that matter) allowed in the format.
ReplyDeleteIt's neat how tweaking the rules slightly, can make units vastly superior than what they used to be.
Interesting, did they let the Spyder poop out a Scarab Swarm with three wounds?
ReplyDeleteThey sure did. The rationale was something to do with the wording in the
ReplyDeleteoriginal restriction "army lists can't contain any of the following.." sort
of thing. Since the scarab didn't exist in the army list itself, they
allowed it. It was truly odd. It also lead to all sorts of nonsense with
the scarabs granting enhanced cover saves to the spider, but using the
spider's toughness/armor, etc.
Ultimately he didn't do that well in the tournament--whether it's because of
phase out, or some questionable judgement calls, I can't be sure. But the
tomb spiders were astounding, and not just because of the iffy rulings.
Even without them, having a t6 multi-wound creature with a 3+ armor save is
hard to deal with. Likewise, thunderwolves became much more respectable.