40K Tactics: Dealing with the “New Mobility”
Fritz here, One of the things that I have always enjoyed with Saim-Hann Eldar is their lightning speed – everything moving 12″-36″ inches! Being able to zoom to the other side of the table while throwing down lots of high strength and low AP shots is deadly, and quite addictive.
That said, with each new codex release and the Games Workshop trend for stuffing more models on a standard table I’ve been finding that speed counts for less and less. What does it matter how fast you can go when there is a unit waiting to shoot and assault you no matter where you go? The few games that I have recently faced vs. the “new” Tyranids have really highlighted this causing me to consult the Autarchs and cast the runes for an answer. Fellow craftworlders and bike based Mon-keigh, here was my solution to the trend for now, which I know will continue to evolve over time. As always, fill in the names and places with your own army and adapt the solution to meet your specific needs.
My solution has been to blob the center and create pockets on the table for me to move into. Seer councils used to be all about the killy. Doom combined with mass destructors followed by a witchblade assault tends to wipe most things out. Problem is that with more models on the table, killing a unit is meaning less and less. What the seer council still has is survivability with the 3+/4+ armor/invulnerable save and this is where the shift in usage is. In assault seer councils are really difficult to “kill” especially if you have an embolden warlock and a jetbike autarch.
I’ll deploy the council at the far right/left edge of the table and then reserve everything else as usual. Fortune up and meet my opponent in the center, trying to get in the assault as quickly as I can. I’m looking to create a blob of assaults in the center tempting or forcing my opponent to pile more models onto the ‘council. This in turn ties up some of their numbers and creates empty pockets on the table where my jetbikes, vypers, and grav-tanks can maneuver to so they can shoot, and then pull away.When the units come in from reserve on the second turn (+1 on the reserves roll for the Autarch) it is a matter of looking to see which side of the board has more empty pockets and then zip over to them. Moving around the blob like a wheel also means cover saves from the other side of the table when my opponent shoots through the assaults which is an added bonus.
~How are you older 4th edition codex players dealing with more numbers on the tables?
