Fracture of Biel-Tan Review: Part 5- Formations and Forces of Ulthwe

Welcome to the final part of my Fracture of Biel-Tan Review. This section will look at the new formations that are available in the book.

Ynnari Formations
Triumvirate of Ynnead
This consists of Yvraine, the Visarch and the Yncrne.

The special rules for this formation include Heralds of Rebirth. This makes any non-vehicle unit within 12" of two members of the Triumvirate are Fearless. In addition, if all three members of the Triumvirate are on the table, all friendly Ynnari models are Fearless. This is a pretty potent special rule. Generally, you will have Yvraine and the Visarch together to benefit from their special rules, as the Ycarne generates a 12" Fearless bubble anyway. Making all your Ynnari models Fearless when all models are on the table is also a very powerful bonus, giving you a big incentive to keep them alive for longer.

In addition, if all three models are on the battlefield, you get to add 1 to the special Ynnead rolls that the three new special characters get. This means that Yvraine and the Visarch re-gain a wound on a 3+, or the Ycarne on a 2+ when an Aeldari model is killed within 7" of them. This gives them a very good chance of regaining wounds if your units are getting killed.

This formation is great if you are planning to take all three models, providing them and the army with some very nice bonuses.

Codex Deathwatch Review: Part 4- Formations

This final part of my Deathwatch review will take a look at the formations available in the new codex. Most of these formations are based on different Kill Teams available to the Deathwatch squads.

Kill Teams
The majority of the formations available to the Deathwatch are in the form of Kill Teams, made up of combined units from the codex.
All Kill Teams are fixed at a maximum of 10 models in the unit, excluding transport vehicles. Each member of the Kill Team forms a single unit that can't be combat squaded and cannot be broken up as the game proceeds.

Battle Report 72- 1850 pts White Scars vs Daemons

This week, my White Scars were taking on Craig’s Daemons in the Eternal War mission, Crusade at 1850 pts. 

Recently, I reviewed the Terminator Squad, Terminator Assault Squad, Stormraven and Strike Force Ultra for Frontline Gaming. In my reviews, I was not too kind to most of the units, labelling them as over-costed and not really effective at what they are supposed to do. In the Strike Force Ultra review, I was curious to see if anyone had actually run this formation before. This got me thinking and I decided that in my next game I would run the Strike Force regardless of my opponent and mission. Fortunately, my game was against Craig and his Daemons, as a grav-heavy marine army would have blown me off the table and made for a poor game. 

My army consisted of:

Strike Force Ultra

Captain- Terminator Armour, Power Sword, Storm Shield (With T4)

Terminator Squad- Power Fists, Storm Bolters, Assault Cannon (T1)

Terminator Squad- Power Fists, Storm Bolters, Assault Cannon (T2)

Terminator Assault Squad- Lightning Claws (T3)

Terminator Assault Squad- Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields (T4)

Venerable Dreadnought- Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer (D)

Stormraven Gunship- TL Assault Cannons, TL Heavy Bolters, 4 Stormstrike Missiles, Hurricane Bolter Sponsons (SR)

Land Raider Crusader- TL Assault Cannons, Hurricane Bolter Sponsons (LR)

Raptor Wing

Landspeeder- Multi-melta, Typhoon Missile Launchers (L)

Stormtalon Gunship- TL Assault Cannons, Skyhammer Missile Launcher (S1)

Stormtalon Gunship- TL Assault Cannons, Skyhammer Missile Launcher (S2)

I took the Strike Force Ultra and upgraded a few of the units to include some additional wargear. I had initially given the Captain some Cataphractii Terminator Armour, a Thunder Hammer and the Shield Eternal to allow him to tank wounds. However, this gave me very few points left in my army and I wanted to add another detachment to the force. I decided to go with the Raptor Wing. I have been meaning to try this out for a while, so I dropped some wargear off of the Captain and took the wing. The automatic arrival on turn 2 would also be a boost if my reserve rolls were poor. On a side note, I completely forgot to roll up my Warlord Trait before the game, I only realised this when I came to write the battle report. Oh, well…….

Angels of Death Codex Review- Part 6: Raven Guard Formations

Welcome to Part 6 of my Angels of Death codex review. This part will look at the formations for the Raven Guard (that can also be used by other Space Marine chapters) that were first introduced in the Kauyon supplement.

Pinion Battle Demi-Company
This formation consists of:
1 Captain/Chaplain (no Terminator armour, but can be replaced by a special character Captain/Chaplain)
0-1 Command Squad
3 Units of Tactical Squad
1 Assault Squad
1 Devastator Squad
1-5 Scout or Scout Bike Squads

The command benefits for this formation are:
Scout Support- Each Scout sergeant (or veteran sergeant) can spot for a unit in the formation if in range of the enemy unit. The unit from the formation gains Ignores Cover. This is a nice bonus for the formation, but will force your Scout units to get in close to the enemy in order to do the spotting, so makes them more vulnerable to charges. This will be very useful for a tooled up Command Squad or Devastator Squad or for Tactical Squads targeting light infantry in cover. This might be more useful for Scout Bikers, enabling them to close with the enemy quickly and for added durability if they are charged.

EDIT- As Nick pointed out below, I misread the rules for Scout Support. The Scouts have to be within 9" of YOUR unit, not the enemy unit. This obviously makes a big difference to the durability issue as you will probably not need to close quickly with the enemy, but will need to stay close to your own forces. Also, check out Nick's Review of the Raven Guard formations (from someone who can actually read the rules before they review them!).

Wayfinders- Each Scout or Scout bike unit can "lead" another unit on from reserve. You only make one roll for reserves, but the led unit can outflank along with the Scouts and gets Stealth if within 9" of the Scouts. This can be a great way for getting in on the White Scars' outflanking fun with your Raven Guard and ensure that your reserves arrive in force. This would be useful for units embarked in a transport or on bikes for added mobility in the enemy deployment zone, as well as giving your led units a 3+ Jink or 4+ smoke launcher save the turn they arrive.

A decent battle company formation for the Raven Guard (or other chapters), though you will want to take a lot of Scouts or Scout Bikers in order to maximise the benefits of the formation, potentially making this a very expensive force. If only this formation gave you Objective Secured as well, it would be extremely powerful.

Battle Report 47- 1850 pts White Scars vs Tau

This week's battle report is another from the Medusa IV campaign that I am running. This campaign turn, Yans' Tau decided to attack my Guard's Shield Generator tile that had recently repelled an attack from Armel's Eldar.

As I had been playing my Guard the last few weeks, I asked if Yans wouldn't mind me using my White Scars, as I was keen to finally try out the new White Scars formations from the Kauyon supplement. Fortunately, he agreed and I was able to put together a Scarblade Strike Force for the game.

 

My army consisted of:

SCARBLADE STRIKE FORCE

HUNTING FORCE

Captain- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Glaive of Vengeance, Storm Shield (with CS)

5 Command Squad- Banner of the Eagle, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 Storm Shields (CS)

8 Bikers- Sergeant with power axe and meltabombs, 2 Grav guns (B1)

8 Bikers- Sergeant with power axe and meltabombs, 2 Grav guns (B2)

3 Scout Bikers- Astartes grenade launcher, sergeant has meltabombs (SB)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB1)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB2)

 

STORMLANCE BATTLE DEMI-COMPANY

Chaplain- Bike, Auspex, Meltabombs (with CS)

5 Tactical Marines- Meltagun, sergeant has meltabombs (TM1)

Rhino (R1)

10 Tactical Marines- Grav gun, sergeant has meltabombs (TM2)

Rhino (R2)
10 Tactical Marines- Flamer, sergeant has meltabombs (TM3)
Rhino (R3)
5 Devastators- 4 grav cannons (D)
Rhino (R4)
Attack Bike- Heavy Bolter (AB3)

SPEARTIP STRIKE FORCE
5 Scouts- sergeant has meltabombs (S)
Landspeeder storm- Heavy bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)
Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon missile launcher (L)

My warlord trait initially gave me Deadly Ambush (+1 to my reserve rolls or -1 to my opponents), but I re-rolled and got Hammer of Khan, giving my warlord (the Captain) D3 hammer of wrath hits.

My force was led by a Captain wielding the Hunter's Eye and the Glaive of Vengeance for some close combat punch. He would be leading the Hunting Force, featuring two large 8-man bike squads, a scout bike squad and two attack bikes. The large bike squads were to take advantage of the formations rules, giving me double hammer of wrath hits if I had at least 5 models in the unit. The two attack bikes were armed with multimeltas to take on the heavier battle suits of the Tau.

The formation also allows me to choose a primary target (an enemy HQ) and secondary and tertiary targets. I get re-rolls to hit and to wound against the primary target, then the secondary once the primary is dead and so on. This should be very useful for my special weapons and multimeltas at taking on the Tau commander.

Next, I took a Stormlance to try out the formation. This consists of 4 units mounted in Rhinos and an attack bike. The units must start in the Rhinos, but get re-rolls to hit against units holding objectives and get to make a free move after shooting, even allowing them to get back in their transport if they can. This should be great for the Devastators, allowing me to deploy and fire all four grav cannons then get back in the relative safety of the squad's Rhino.

Finally, I took a Speartip strike force, allowing me to take one of my favourite units- the Scouts and Landspeeder storm. I also took an anti-tank Landspeeder for some more firepower. The Scouts are the only objective secured unit in my army, quite a big change as I normally like to take a lot of objective secured units.

On top of that, the Scarblade gives me re-rollable hammer of wrath wounds if I charge over 8" and, more importantly, gives me re-rolls to my Hit and Run tests (anyone who regularly reads my Ravenwing and White Scars battle reports will know that I have a tendency to fluff these at the most inopportune times).

EDIT: It has been pointed out that my army is above points (thanks to Nate for spotting this). My army comes in at around 2070 pts instead of 1850 pts. Apologies to Yans for this error, I must have missed out a squad when I was adding up the total.

Battle Report 40- 2000 pts White Scars/Mechanicus vs Tau

This week's battle report features a combined army of my White Scars and Innes' Mechanicus taking on Shaun's Tau (complete with Stormsurge!). Innes and I were practicing for an upcoming doubles tournament (the reports for which will be coming soon) and wanted to test our army against a tough force. Enter Shaun's Tau, who have been racking up a string of victories in the Medusa IV campaign.

We would be playing a maelstrom mission at 2000 pts, in what promised to be a hyper competitive game. Those with an aversion to cheese should look away now.

 

My 1000 points army consisted of:

Kor'sarro Khan- Moondakken (with CS)

Librarian- Mastery level 1, Bike, Meltabombs, Hunter's Eye (with CS or L)

5 Command Squad- 4 Grav guns, Apothecary, Storm Shield (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (B1)

5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (B2)

5 Scouts- Bolt pistols, combat weapons, Sergeant has Meltabombs (S)

Landspeeder Storm- Cerberus launcher, Heavy bolter (LS)

Drop Pod- Storm Bolter (DP)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, Skyhammer missile launcher (ST)

 

Innes' 1000 points army consisted of:
 

Dominus Maniple

Tech Priest Dominus- Raiment of the Technomartyr, Volkite Blaster, Macrostubber, Conversion Field, Infoslave skull (TD)

10 Skitarri Vanguard- 3 Plasma Calivers, Omnispex, Vanguard Alpha with Arc Pistol and Arc Maul, Conversion Field and Radium. (V)

Onager Dunecrawler- Neutron Laser and Cognis Heavy Stubber, Cognis Manipulator (D)

 

Oathsworn Detachment

Mechanicum Cerastus Knight Atropos- Occular Augmetics. (K)

Khan was the warlord to give me Scout and the Librarian rolled on Telepathy, actually managing to get Invisibilty, along with Psychic Shriek.
 

My army was designed to be fast and hard hitting. Khan was there to provide Scout to the army, as well as a leadership buff thanks to his Warlord Trait. The Librarian was there to take the Hunter's Eye to give me some Ignores Cover shooting and the +1 BS should help out with the psychic shriek. He was also fortunate enough to get Invisibility.

Formation-ing an opinion: The Evolution of Formations in 40k

Formations seem to have become an integral part of army building in 40k these days. Whether that is a good or bad thing is for each individual to decide, today I thought I would take you through my thoughts on formations and how I feel they influence the vast universe of warhammer 40,000 these days.

Not a free transport in sight......

Right off the bat, it is only fair to let you know dear reader, that I rarely use formations in 40k. This is not due to some particular stance on the use of formations, I just like the Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) and find it the easiest way to make up an army and what I have been used to for many years. The second issue is that even with my vast collection of models for some armies, I sometimes still struggle to have the basic requirements for many of the formations that I can field, so am limited in this respect too. The one exception to this is the Ravenwing Strike Force from the 7th edition Dark Angels codex. Being a big fan of Ravenwing (and bike) armies, I have utilised this formation a lot in recent months, even taking an all Ravenwing army to the recent Blog Wars X tournament using the formation and having a measure of success with it in my games.

 

So this is where these opinions and impressions come from, a player who generally doesn't use formations, but has some experience both playing with them and against them in a competitive and casual environment.

 

Also, a note of nomenclature. I tend to use Formations and Detachments interchangeably when talking about them. I know that there are differences between the two, but to me, the comments on one could be equally applied to the other.

 

The Early Days of Formations

 

Force Organisation Chart

You could argue that one of the earliest instances of the use of formations in 40k was the introduction of the Force Organisation Chart in 3rd edition 40k (I certainly would argue this, and since this is my article, I can do what I want!).

Hasn't changed much at all.

Prior to 3rd edition, armies were constructed using the percentage system. Your army would be composed of units/models based on the percentage of the points used, for example; 25% or more core units, up to 25% characters, etc.

 

When 40k was re-launched with 3rd edition in 1998, a new mechanic for army building was introduced- the Force Organisation Chart (now known as the Combined Arms Detachment). For the first time, units in an army were separated into 5 different types; HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. Players constructed armies by selecting units from "slots" in the force organisation chart and calculating their points cost for the unit until the agreed upon points limit was reached. The only compulsory choices in your army were one HQ and two troops slots. This limit still applies today in the CAD.

 

The idea was to allow players to build themed forces, more representative of typical armies your fraction would be likely to field. Your army would consist of an HQ unit to lead the army and two units of core troops to provide the backbone of the army. Additional troops units could be used to bolster your force and more powerful units could be taken from the other slots, though in lesser numbers to represent their more limited availability.

Dark Angels Codex Review Part 7- Formations

This is the final part of my 7th edition Dark Angels Codex review, focussing on the new Formations in the book. Unlike the previous sections of my review, I am going to repeat the reviews I have already posted for the Ravenwing and Deathwing formations that I have previously covered. This is so that I can put them into context when looking at the formations in general and when looking at the Lion's blade formation.

FORMATIONS

Battle Demi-Compay:

Though similar in name, the Dark Angels' Battle Demi-company is different to the Codex Space Marine formation. It consists of either a Company Master or Chaplain, three units of tactical marines, a unit of assault marines and a unit of devastator marines. It has the option to add up to one unit each of the company command squad, company veterans and Dreadnoughts.

The bonuses you get are overwatch at BS3 if you did not Jink (technically, a Chaplain on a bike could join a unit in the formation and Jink) and gives the formation objective secured.

The battle demi-company is a decent formation and gives a nice bonus to your overwatch attacks. You are forced to take some mediocre unit choices that I have covered previously, namely the assault marines and Company Master/Chaplain, though these units do get some bonuses in the formation. Having objective secured devastators and assault marines is good, the high mobility of the assault marines should help with objective grabbing, especially in maelstrom missions where they can move from objective to objective and the objective secured should help them with scoring.

There are obvious comparisons to the battle demi-company in the Space Marine Codex and I am torn as to which I prefer. The space marine demi-company gives you more choice as to which heavy support and fast attack choices you can add. You have a unit of Devastator centurions in place of the devastator squad, and for the fast attack choice you can take a bike squad, attack bike squad, landspeeder squadron or Centurion assault squad. In addition, you can have a choice of the three Dreadnoughts available in the codex. I feel that this range of choices will give you much better options for how you want to build your army and the Dark Angels battle demi-company is more restrictive.

The space marine formation also allows you to enact the Tactical Doctrine, a one-use only ability should increase the damage output of the company, particularly the tactical marines. The Dark Angels formation gives you the overwatch bonus and should essentially triple your damage output from overwatch. Depending on the armament of your tactical and devastator squads, this could amount to significant damage for any unit that is charging you. This ability is always active and not one use only, though it does rely on your opponent charging you, so may be of less use against certain armies.