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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Strike Ground 'em and Pound 'em! First off, I had to see what units I could use in both lists. Broadsides provide good antivehicle ability, even if they aren't perfect for the Alpha Strike, and they _are_ perfect for the Unseen Enemy as they are the most efficient SMS-Carriers out there. Pirahnas with Fusion work great for Alpha Strike and they are a great source for inexpensive Seeker Missiles. Finally, Pathfinders in Devilfish provide a good source of inexpensive Markerlights to guide the Seekers, their Devilfish can bring some more Seekers _and_ they provide an inexpensive way to get more BS4 SMS on the board. Sweetness. So here's what we've got for the main part of our list... Knowing that we'd need a commander, and without one that is particularly helpful for Alpha-Strike, I chose the AFP commander from the Unseen Enemy list:
Since I still needed 2 Troops choices, I considered what I could do with them. One option would be to make the team leader into a Shas'ui and give them a Markerlight. At 80pts for a single BS3 Markerlight, it's not terribly impressive, but it does make use of a mandatory organization slot _and_ make the list a little more effective. However, if I replaced the Pathfinders, I'd need to replace their ride, since I was relying on it for 2 Seekers and a BS4 SMS. Handily, the Firewarriors can also take one, so I could just shift it over to them and leave a Fast Attack slot free. Or so I thought. With all the gear, this unit ends up running 265pts, compared to the 173pts that the Pathfinders run. I could take the basic Firewarriors and a Shas'ui with just a Markerlight, PLUS the Pathfinders and have points left over (plus an extra Markerlight per unit of Firewarriors.) I think the idea still has merit, but I don't think it fits as well with this particular army. If I didn't need the Devilfish for the Seekers or the SMS, it would be a winner, however. The next thought that occurred to me was Kroot. If you can find a section of woods that is more than 6 inches deep, they can hide in it and be completely obscured, but still fire. Yet another way to add some damage without taking any. Admittedly, you won't always find such terrain available or in a useful place, but 10 Kroot can be useful anyway, and they don't break the bank, either. That gives us this configuration for the Troops selections...
Okay, so our final list, incorporating the AFP commander and the Firewarriors and Kroot, looks like this... I also did a quick comparison to see how the Alpha Strike weapons compared in terms of Predator vs. Rhino capability. As I expected, some were a bit better against one target over the other. I calculated by dividing the chance to damage a Rhino by the chance to kill a Predator. A higher score meant the weapon was more efficient against Rhinos, a lower score indicated that it was more efficient versus Predators. (To see this clearly, consider that if it is twice as good against Rhinos, you would end up with 2 divided by 1, giving a rating of 2. On the flip side if it was twice as good against Predators, you would have 1 divided by 2, yielding 0.5.)
So we can see that Fusion Blasters are more efficient versus Predators and Seekers are more efficient versus Rhinos, with the BS3 TL Railgun being sort of in the middle. That tells us that the Fusion Blasters should be targeting Predators where possible, and Seekers should be fired at Rhinos where possible, with the Railguns filling in the gaps. Admittedly, there isn't a huge difference between even the highest and lowest numbers, but it does give us a little idea about what to target if we have the choice. Fired in this manner, we get these expected results for turn 1: Okay, so that's our Alpha Strike Capability. Let's take a look at our Unseen Enemy capability, the capacity to reach out and damage the enemy and severely limit our exposure to taking damage in return. How do I work this?So then, how would we play this army list? Well on the first two turns, we would be going for our Alpha Strike capability. Aggressively move the Pirahna up the sides of the board and make sure that any Markerlight hits use the Pirahna Seekers first. (Because they are light skimmers and we'll be using them aggressively, they may well not be around by turn 2, so we want to use those Seekers before they get shot down.) The Broadsides and Seekers and Fusion Blasters will all be targeting vehicles. The only exception to this is to make sure that light vehicles (AV10, maybe AV11) are targeted by SMS, to leave the bigger guns free to target the heavier vehicles that only they can effect. Kroot attempt to infiltrate deep into forest terrain that has decent line of sight. Failing that, they will place themselves near the Broadsides, but out of sight. At the end of turn 1, all the light vehicles and most of the heavier ones should be destroyed. At this point, SMS fire and any free heavy weapons should switch to fast infantry targets, or simply infantry if there are no fast units left. If there are no targets available for Markerlighting (or none worth the effort) then the Firewarriors and Pathfinders will simply pull a fade and hide from view, preferably near or with Line of Sight to the Broadside firebase (or firebases.) Unless the Broadsides have good targets, they should fade as well, since otherwise they will be nice, juicy targets for the enemy.
From turn 3 onward, we are simply trying to hide from the enemy as much as possible and hit them with Smart Missiles from behind cover. A very important point is to protect the Broadside Firebase(s.) As the largest concentrations of our points, they are an obvious target. While they won't be easy to damage with all the enemy vehicles gone, the opponent will try anyway and must be stopped. This might be as simple as moving them back away from the enemy and or slowing them down with the Kroot. If the Broadsides are threatened, use everything in your inventory to help them out. Use Markerlights to increase the BS of the Broadsides themselves, or perhaps the Kroot or Firewarriors, depending on what you've got available and what the targets are. If there is a serious threat to the Broadsides, it is worth coming out of hiding and using direct fire to take out the portion of the enemy that is threatening them. Aside from that, keep cool, hang back and chew them up a little at a time. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
