Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts: Kill the Hammer!
If you are a competitive Warhammer 40k player, you all know how annoying Nob Bikerz can be. They are an extremely hard hammer unit that can win the entire game for a player. They are a unit with such destructive capabilities that an unprepared opponent will not know what hits them when the biker gang of doom comes knocking. Today’s thought deals with how to deal with this unit, as well as other hard hammer units.
Let’s first take a look at what makes these units so hard. Once we see their strengths, we can figure out their weakness and how to exploit them. Most of these units have 3 strengths that push them beyond the normal realm of a unit.
OFFENSE
First of all, and most importantly, a hammer unit has to have an extreme amount of offense. You can see this in Nob Bikerz by the amount damage they can put out when they get there. I know that they are really a tough assault unit, thus hampered by the changes in 5th edition’s brutal assault phase. If your units are in any way close, there is a good chance that the bikerz will be able to grab 2+ units to bring the pain on. Mix in a vehicle or two, and you have an extremely deadly assault phase coming at you. This can also help large assault squads as well as some of the other hammer units in the game (seer council, TH/SS termies, massed daemon assault) since they can try to spread out.
DEFENSE
Second the unit must have some form of resilience. We all know how the multi wound/multi equipped Nob Bikerz unit can spread wounds around to make auto kills disappear. We also know how tough they can be with 2 saves and ways to pawn off auto kill wounds to someone tougher (Warboss likes to take lascannon fire). This is the same with the other example units, who normally have rerollable saves or an invulnerable save that is a bit unfair (TH/SS Terminators).
SCARY
Third of all they have the ability to control the game through fear and intimidation. The units are so offensive and tough, that they control a game. Instead of trying to win the game, you can become focused on trying to kill the unit; sacrificing the actual objective of the game in order to somehow kill the unkillable unit. This focusing of your opponent’s army is probably the greatest ability of these “uber” units. If you make your opponent play your game, you’ve already won 50% of the match.
HOW TO DEAL…
Now how do we deal with these units? How can we control them and still win the match? Well all know the advantages of these units; lets break them down a find ways around them. Nothing is unbeatable, and with the power of math in our hands, we can push the game to our advantage when facing these units.
BLOCK EM
The ability of these units to do massive damage usually resolves around assault. 40k 5th edition brought about a massive change in close combat. You now have sides taking large amounts of damage and getting broken pretty easily. So how do we stop them from doing this? I’ve already gone into baiting before, but let’s look at something else that is a bit more advanced then just baiting your opponent with a nice fat worm. I’ve talked about rhino walls before, but the greatest thing about it, is that you can corral your opponent around. If you drive the rhino forward, at full speed, and create a wall that the opponent can’t just go around, you force them to either deal with it or add a turn in trying to get a charge off If they deal with it in combat, they do not get the advantage or getting closer due to not being able to consolidate after they blow up the unfortunate moving pill box. This leaves the unit high and drive, to get rapid fired/shocked and awed by your impressive fire.
LAY ON THE FIRE
This leads into the next point about abusing their high resilience. Most players, who field these units, think they are invincible. Use this to your advantage, by tempted these units into situation where you can pour fire into them in a way to build a mathhammer advantage to your side. Yeah you might have 2 saves, but if you take 60 wounds, you will most likely lose enough to make your crazy unit a lot more manageable. Rapid firing plasma is a great way to kill off enough of a unit, to make sure that even if they get to combat, you have a pretty good chance to taking them out. 3 Nob Bikerz are not that scary, especially when they have 1 wound apiece.
BAIT EM
Finally we get to the whole controlling the game aspect of these units. The best way to avoid this is to take the control back from them. It helps when you have highly mobile units you can move away from the opponent, and try to push them into over extending into your well constructed trap. Baiting works again in this situation, as you know you can create speed blocks, to make their game last longer than the first 4 turns. If you slow them down, you can get into a situation where you can control an objective and keep enough in the way that they have to spend 3 turns just to get a chance to get at your zone. You have the ability to control the game beyond the chances of rolling that 5 or 6.
Your movement phase and deployment skills are just as valuable as pulling and pushing your opponent into situations that build an advantage that isn’t dependent on dice rolls. There is strategy in 40k beyond having the bigger and better gun. I hope these thoughts help you out when facing some of the tougher players in your local store. I know it isn’t fun to bring a nice list to your local game night, and have it trounced by the latest cookie cutter power-list. Every codex out there can put together an army that has the ability to control a game, no matter how many subpar units they may contain.
I didn’t bring an army list last week due to the topic not really needing one, but here is one for those wanting something different then the normal orky list you see running around. I call it the Ork Bullet, and I’ve seen it crush Nob Bikerz like tin cans.
HQ: Ghazghkull Thraka –
Pts 225
HQ: Big Mek, Kustom Forcefield, Cybork Body, Burna
Pts: 115
Troops: Nobz (8), Painboy, Cybork, PK (4), Kombi-Skorcha (2), Waagh Banner, Bosspole (2),
Pts: 365
Troops: Shoota boyz (29), Big Shootas (3), Nob, Eavy Armor, PK, Bosspole
PTs: 240
Troops: Shoota boyz (29), Big Shootas (3), Nob, Eavy Armor, PK, Bosspole
PTs: 240
Troops: Slugga Boyz (29), Rokkits (3), Nob, PK, Bosspole
PTs: 250
Heavy: Killer Kans (3), Rokkits (3)
Pts: 135
Heavy: Killer Kans (3), Rokkits (3)
Pts: 135
Heavy: Killer Kans (3), Rokkits (3)
Pts: 135
Fast Attack: Deff Koptas (3), TWL Rokkits (3), Buzzsaw
Pts: 160
PTS: 2000
Thoughts are that the killer kans are in the front, becoming the bullet of orkie doom that goes at the enemy. The shootas are behind, mixed with the nobz and other goodies. The big mek attaches to the nobz, with Ghazghul. This should give him enough wounds to ensure that he lives for a while. Now if only killer kans were plastic like all those rumors said.
Questions? email me
