40K Deep Thought: The Fortress Player
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| Armies wanted – available for immediate move in! |
I think we are at the dawn of a new category of player entering the community. Stronghold Assault has created “The Fortress Player”
Now hear me out.
There have been Fortress Players before. Or at least many, many of us are already Fortress Players to a small degree. Pretty much everyone throws in an occasional Aegis Defense Line and a Quad-Gun into your armies from time to time.
But I’m talking about a REAL MAGINOT LINE kind of Fortress Players.
Stronghold Assault has given a new type of army legs. An Army that is designed to really hole up, dish out the punishment or make you pay to move into contact with it, then grab objectives late game.
Before, that single Fortification FOC slot meant that while an Aegis, Bastion, or even the Fortress of Retribution might sway your army’s performance a bit, you couldn’t really rely on it. Each of those is still only a single piece of terrain. But it’s the following “combo-fortifications” that are really going to open up player list-building creativity:
Imperial Strongpoint
The “old-school” combo network lets you combine multiple of the “first generation” defensive GW terrain kits into a single FOC slot. 2-3 Bastions for your shooters, Aegis lines for your forward infantry, and a Skyshield or Honored Imperium so spice it up can certainly give you army a lot of defensive AND anti-aircraft firepower. 250-350pts could be spent to make your army much harder to shift via shooting and grant you up to a dozen automated heavy bolters to make live miserable for the enemy.
Wall of Martyrs Defense Network
This is the “new-style” combo network that groups all of the more recent GW defensive terrain. Compared to the Imperial Strongpoint, most of these newer kits have less emplaced weapons for the points, but grant Stubborn more often. So you get a nice choice between the two. Armies with good leadership may prefer the Imperial Strongpoint to get the extra weapons, but armies with leadership issues will love the Wall of Martyrs Defensive Network. 250-400 points will buy you a bunch of Stubborn granting defense lines, and a bunker or two to spruce up with a weapon hardpoint. If you have money-points to burn, throw in a Firestorm Redoubt and watch the enemy flyers start to get real nervous real fast.
Void Relay Network
Here is the one everyone is talking about – 340pts gets you three 12″ bubbles of AV:12 protected triple void-shields to huddle your army under. Enjoy ignoring enemy small arms and watching them have to waste a turn of two of thier heavy firepower to bring your shield generators down, while you get to chew into their army.
Aquila Strongpoint
Arguably the best real world money-to-points unit in the game right now. 530pts will give you a monster that CANNOT be ignored. Stick a cheap scoring unit in it and an objective on it and watch the badguys start to sweat. If you were terrified(or filled with glee) at what a high BS character could do on a quad-gun or Icarus, you can’t imagine what putting them in a Macro-cannon’s gunner’s chair can accomplish. Alternatively, use it as a complete distraction in a far corner away from your army and watch the opponent grimace as he has to make a Sophie’s Choice over how to proceed.
I for one am already beginning my experiments and having a great time. So how would you build a Defensive Player list?
