Daemon Princes and Hive Tyrants and Archons, oh my!
A few weeks ago I was playing a four player game of 40k (2 on 2, it works much easier than a free for all) and Chaos Mike's Daemon Prince rampaged through Adrienne's Space Marines. (Admittedly, it had help from summoned Daemons, but it did a great deal of damage.) More recently, I read about someone online that took on Orks with a World Eater army. Despite the fact that only about 5 Berzerkers made it into combat, the characters of the World Eaters managed to kill approximately 110 orks over the course of the game. Let me say that again. 3 Characters and a Dreadnaught managed to kill about 110 Orks.
They are big and bad (or small and bad) and they can rip through your troops with careless abandon, crushing your carefully laid plans with every armor-piercing blow. Even for those that manage to survive their onslaught and strike back, they have many ways of cheating death. They are the Characters and Monstrous Creatures of 40k, and they are forces to be reckoned with. As an example, the characters in the World Eaters army were all Toughness 5 or higher, meaning that they could only be wounded on a six by the standard Orks. In addition, each one had Feel No Pain, meaning they get a 4+ save even if their armor fails, like Blood Angels Death Company. With their high Weapon skill, they would have only been struck on combat on a 4+ most of the time. Even with the Ork Choppas limiting the armor saves they got, that's still (0.5 * 0.6 * 0.5 * 0.5=1/48 chance of causing a wound. In this case, they waltzed through the Orks with ease.
There are players that design their entire army around the character. Some Dark Eldar armies are known for being Archon Delivery systems, but they aren't the only ones. These armies are designed to take advantage of the fact that their leader is nasty in close combat and hard to kill, and they can certainly do an extraordinary amount of damage if left unchecked.
While the most common concept of taking out enemy characters or monstrous creatures is to throw your own character or creature at them, it's not necessarily the best idea. Not only are some more powerful than others, evenly matched ones will likely cause a great deal of damage to yours, if they don't kill them outright. Even if your side wins the combat, this leaves you with a badly wounded creature or character that won't be much good to you for the rest of the game. As an example of a mismatch, a local Black Templar player used to throw his Emperor's Champion against my Carnifex or Hive Tyrant. Unfortunately, having to either roll 6's to wound or go last in combat meant that the Champion died very quickly, sometimes without causing a single wound. On the other hand, some time back I was playing against another Tyranid army and our Tyrants tangled. They simultaneously killed each other, leaving both armies leaderless. Other options must be explored.
First off, shoot them!
Assuming that the target follows the standard Independent Character rules, there are restrictions on shooting them, based on them being in or near units. In general, you can fire a lot at a unit containing the Character, hoping to whittle it down so you can shoot at him. You can also try dropping ordnance or templates on him. Taking out squads and vehicles nearby can leave him out in the open where he can be shot as well. Even though these models tend to have very good saves, sometimes with high Toughness as well, enough shots will eventually strike home. No one fears one lasgun, everyone fears 40 of them.
You can also potentially target the character even while it is in a squad. Assuming that you don't have special abilities (Vindicare Assassin and Farseers with Mind War come to mind) you still have some options. First off, remember that your weapon can only affect models that are both inside it's range and within line of sight. Thus, if the character is part of a unit, but you have moved so that intervening terrain blocks line of sight to the rest of the squad, you are free to shoot. On the other hand, if the character is leading from the front (combat characters often do) they may be the only models in that unit in range of your weapon, so again, you may shoot. Finally, remember that if the character is the closest model within 12 inches, EVEN if it is part of a squad, you may fire directly at it. Certainly, these are limiting options, but careful movement and planning can help them come about.
Second off, feed them well.
If you can tie up the enemy character in some way, even for a round or two, that's a couple of rounds it's not going after your expensive troops. There are three ways to create a diversion or trap for an enemy character or creature. The first is to use cheap troops that will take forever for them to get through, allowing you to concentrate on other things. A Hive Tyrant kills the same number of enemies in close combat whether it is fighting Imperial Guardsmen or Space Marines. Once you are wounding on a 2+ and ignoring armor saves, the limit of your damage is the number of attacks you get. Force the enemy character to overkill against your cheapest troops. As an example, my Hive Tyrant would have to spend 8 or more close combat rounds (on average) to kill off 24 Dark Eldar Warriors and get it's points back. That's 4 full turns that it isn't doing anything else, and in a six turn game with at least one turn spent moving up to attack the enemy, it doesn't leave much hope of it doing anything else.
On the other hand, you can let them run into a wall. For a wall, you want hard to kill troops that will take forever for them to get through. Although most Characters have weapons that will ignore armor, very few have something that will ignore an invulnerable save. Daemons and other units with invulnerable saves can be very effective at slowing the Character down. Characters without high strength weapons will be particularly susceptible to wall units with good Toughness or vehicles with an armor value as well as multiple wound models.
The final way is to provide some sort of bait to lure them away from the rest of your army. That bait might be a unit they think is going to be really nasty or it might be an unguarded Devastator squad or a tank. The idea is to get them to go elsewhere, then either lead them on a merry chase or sacrifice the unit, to get them to waste their time, since every turn they spend NOT eating your units is one less chance for them to pay for themselves.
Next, Assault them!
If you've got something with a good chance of taking them out, counter assault them once you've fixed them in place. The perfect example for this would be Genestealers. With their Initiative and Rending Claws they are perfect at wiping out individual models quickly. A large squad of Terminators, with their invulnerable saves helping their survival, can also be quite effective. Sometimes, even sheer numbers of attacks can drag a character down, as they can only save so many times in a row.
When all else fails, shoot them some more
If they do end up winning the assault, make sure that you can shoot at them again. This may take some planning to get right, but it is well worth it. If they are out in the open, or (if you are not using the Trial Assault rules) when they make a sweeping advance after their own turn, you may shoot at them. Be very careful about this. After they win a combat, don't let them consolidate into another close combat. Move a distance away, then unleash hell when they do win and are stuck in the open. This may sometimes require sending another unit into the meatgrinder to make sure that they will win during their own turn, depriving them of that movement, but the sacrifice is well worth it when you consider the damage they might do to your army.
The Trial Assault Rules
As a final note, there are a few changes to this when you use the Trial Assault Rules in your games. with the Trial Assault Rules in play, characters can no longer allocate attacks to specific models, they do, however, get their own "danger zone" and are treated as a separate squad. The upshot of this is that as long as they don't wipe out everyone within 2" of themselves, any special weapons (such as powerfists) that you manage to get near them will be the last to die and will get more chances to lay them low.
If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know