New Edition, New Threats

Now that 4th edition has been released and people have started playing it, I'm getting a better idea of how it works and what changes we can expect to see in armies and tactics. Some of these are already in use by a few players, but more will probably pick them up, while others aren't in use yet, but likely will be as players make use of the changes from 3rd edition.

Problem: Demonbombing Chaos Bikers: Turbo-Boost 24" on 1st turn, relying on numbers and invulnerable saves to survive. Daemon icons then summon scads of Daemons straight into the middle of the enemy.

Solution: The easiest solution is to nail all the bikers, either with shooting or hand to hand. This is easier said than done, however. One thing to keep in mind is that only 1 member of each squad will have the Daemon Icon. If your shooting causes wounds equal to or greater than the number in the squad, you can request that the other player roll the icon bearer separately. If that doesn't work, remember to completely wipe out one squad before targeting another. (The opponent will remove the icon bearer last, so you have to get everyone else out of the way first.) Even if you don't kill all of them, by limiting the number of icons they have, you make it more difficult to get all those Daemons on the board. If you've managed to take down all but one or two icon bearers, try to mob them as much as possible. The Daemons will need somewhere to land once they are summoned, and anything you can put in the way will help. Note that when turbo-boosting, the save of the biker BECOMES invulnerable. That means that if you have a weapon that ignores invulnerable saves, they won't have another save to fall back on. This makes Grey Knights much more effective at this defense, for example. For those without weapons that ignore invulnerable saves, try to get them to make as many saves as possible. A Heavy Bolter will be more effective than a Lascannon, for example.

Problem: Infiltrating fast movers: Daemon Prince or Chosen with Daemonic Speed and Infiltrate. Could potentially set up 12" away, then charge in on first turn. There are probably other units that can do this too. Any unit that has infiltrate and faster than normal movement can make use of this and get into your lines in a hurry.

Solution: Most models or units that can do this will have to use the 12 inch version of Infiltrate, which means they need to be out of line of sight of all your units to do so. The simplest defense then is to spread out a little bit so that you can limit the areas of blocked line of sight. If you also have infiltrators, using them to set up a covering position on your front lines can be very effective as well. You can also make sure that you are set up further back than normal away from those covered areas. For that matter, setting up a bit further back than normal can be very effective even if the opponent has models or units that can get in from the standard 18" infiltrate. Although it won't keep the initial rush from hitting your lines, it increases the amount of time that those units or models are unsupported by the rest of their army, which means you can gang up on them and wipe them out. Finally, consider making a sacrifice. Let them hit a unit, then move your army away from them, so they are isolated. Ideally, make sure they will either be stuck in the unit for a long time (Swarm bases, lots of squad members, extreme Toughness or Armor save, something so they will stick around) or that they will only kill the unit during their turn, not yours. You may need to add another unit to the combat to ensure this. This makes sure that they can't go very far once they've taken out their first target, which allows you to "set them up the bomb" and wipe them out with your shooting or your own counter-assault.

Problem: 1st Turn Dark Eldar Lord Charge: How it works: Put the Drachite in a Raider with a Wych squad. Assuming they don't get 12" assault for their drug result, have the Raider fly up 12" and disembark, separating the IC from the squad. Then Fleet of Foot, then use Combat Drugs to get 12" inch charge. Gives you a first turn range of 12+2+1d6+12 inches or 27-32inches, maybe a bit extra since they seem to have clarified the "within 2 inches" disembark move as "has to have part of the base within 2 inches." Note that this isn't a new problem, but with the reduction of closed-top vehicular assaults, it will be more surprising than it used to be.

Solution: Setting up further back doesn't really do much as you can't get too much further than 32 inches on a 4 foot board and still have somewhere to deploy. Shooting it down doesn't always work, partly because you cannot rely on getting 1st turn, and partly because your opponent may have deployed it effectively to keep it safe. The most workable solution is to ignore it. Sure, it looks big and bad coming down the pipe, but it can only kill a few models in a turn, and that Shadowfield will quickly go splat when you get your large unit's attacks back. You did get a big unit, didn't you? This is 4th edition after all.

Problem: Drive by shootings: DE Raider zips up 12" and fires a disintegrator into the target squad while the squad inside adds 16 S3 AP5 shots, 4 S4 AP5 shots and 1 S8 AP2 shot to the mix. They never touch the ground and zip off to do it again next turn. 3.2 Dead Marines or 8.74 Dead Guard. While this occasionally occurred in 3rd edition, the adjustment to rapid-fire weapons makes it more effective, so more people are likely to use it. Dark Eldar are not the only ones that can do this, but they are probably the best example.

Solution: First off, shoot down all the transports. I know, it's easier said than done, but every transport you keep from performing this vastly lowers it's chances of success. For this to work properly, it usually has to involve two or more transports working together on the same target. If you don't allow them to concentrate like that, they will have a hard time doing enough damage to your units to make the return fire manageable. The second guard against this is to have large units. A 10 member Marine squad will still have 4 Marines left even if two Raiders target the squad, where a 5 or 6 man squad would have been completely wiped out. Get extra bodies on the field and then Rapid-fire the heck out of the enemy transports when they try this. Oh, one more thing, don't spread out too much. The further you are spread out, the easier it is for them to concentrate fire on a small part of your army and ignore the rest.

Problem: Double tap delivery: Rhino moves up 12" 10 Marines with Bolters jump out and hose down the nearest squad with 20 S4 AP5 Bolter shots. While that's not so bad against Powered Armor, it really chews up lightly armored things (anything with a 5+ or worse save)

Solution: Again, hose the transports. If you can keep them from moving or disembarking, you don't have to worry about this. Although you are less likely to see the whole army trying this technique compared to the Drive-by shooting discussed previously, it is still a possibility. If you suspect the whole army will try it, try to at least take out some of them and make sure you are not spread out. Sure, some of them will still jump out and blaze away, but if they are then in assault range of 2 or 3 of your other units, they'll be in a lot of trouble. In addition, make sure you are taking large units, to keep this from decimating them. Finally, if you have Tougher or more heavily armored units, consider putting them in front, that way they can soak up the bolter-fire more easily and then return the favor with fewer losses.

Now, here are some more general things that I think we can expect to encounter as 4th edition continues. Some of these may present problems, while others will present solutions, depending on your army and your outlook. They are by-products of the rule changes and will probably not be major changes initially, they will grow as the new edition matures and more players realize how the changes affect them.

Revenge of the Hordes: with the way the attacks rules are written in 4th edition, MANY more models can get their attacks in. While this offers a big bonus for those specialist squads, such as Genestealers, Terminators or Banshees, that have lots of special attacks, this also gives a massive bonus to those units that are, well, massive. B2B + all those within 2" suddenly makes those huge Gaunt broods or Ork mobz something to really fear. (Did I mention I got 78 attacks on a charge with a single squad of gaunts?) Everybody within 3" of the enemy (more or less) now gets attacks. Now think about 30 charging Orks with Slugga and Choppa, spread into 3 tight ranks of 10. That's 120 attacks on the charge! Admittedly, it'll be a little difficult to get that many Orks into range, but getting 20 or so in will be child's play, and that's still 80 attacks.

Tyranid Charge of the Heavy Brigade: An interesting note, though not likely one that will come up frequently, is that Monstrous Creatures now block Line of Sight. This means you could hide Genestealers behind 3 Carnifexes as they move forward. Further protecting the Carnifexes with some Guard Brood will make them more resilient as well, which would mean you'd have to shoot through at least 10 T6 wounds before you could start shooting at Genestealers.

Picky Eaters: Tyranid Monstrous Creatures can allocate their attacks to specific targets (I'll chop up that guy with the Powerfist) in Base contact with them. This makes them more dangerous to assault for squads that only have one or two special weapons, since those models will likely be the first to die.

The Quick and the Dead: With ICs being separate for combat, they must be in base contact to use their weapons, and Engaged Models are re-determined at each initiative step. Let's say I've got 1 gaunt in base contact with a Space Marine Hero, and the rest of the gaunts are engaged in combat with the Tactical squad he joined. At I4 the Tac squad kills off a gaunt, and I remove the one in base contact with the Hero. Now, at I1, when he gets to go with his Powerfist, he discovers that he no longer has any targets. Doh! ICs with slow weapons will be very unlikely to get their hits in, if the opponent is smart about removing casualties. (Make sure you are smart about removing casualties. This is something I'll have to work at, since I tend to just grab handfuls of gaunts and call it good.)

Less Devastation: Well, sort of. Now that screening can be ignored by Leadership tests, I expect that we'll see fewer Heavy Weapon squads (Devastators, Scourges, Heavy Weapon IG squads, etcetera. These high point models won't like being shot at and don't hold up well under fire, so they'll likely be phased out of many armies.

Combined Charges: Now that the Rhino Rush is gone, there are a number of people trying to work out how to charge in this new edition. Assuming you don't have tons of really fast, really awesome troops to zip forward and kill the enemy, you'll probably have to combine your efforts. I'll use Space Marines as the example, though most armies have some combination like this. Take a Tactical squad in a Rhino and an Assault squad with Jump Packs. Use the Rhino to screen the Assault squad as they move up, popping smoke on the Rhino when necessary. On turn 2-3, your Assault squad should be within range to jump over or around the Rhino and engage the enemy, while the Tactical squad either jumps out and softens them up with bolter-fire or waits in the Rhino to jump out and assault from it next turn before it moves. This helps to negate the problem of unsupported Assault squads. (Due to them being expensive, there aren't usually enough Assault Marines to take care of everything by themselves, so they need backup.) This also helps to protect those expensive Assault squads while they are blasting toward their targets. Note that you could also use Bikes instead of jump packs, or any other option that allows you to move some of your troops more quickly.

4th edition has a lot of little changes that make big differences. I really like the flow of the game more now and I'm pleased that it encourages more tactical options. (If you have several options, but one of them is much better than the others, it's not really much of a choice, is it?) While I have tried to scry the future and see what to expect, I'm certain there are other permutations out there that enterprising players will find and make use of, and that's part of the fun of the game, isn't it? So get on out there and try things out, just keep an eye out, because your opponents will be trying to do the same thing to you.

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