Lessons from escalation: tactical squad spam works

Played another game last night, this time at 800 points against Space Marines. There were a lot of tactical marines in play in a Crusade mission with a bunch of objectives in the middle of the board. Lots of insights into the new dynamics of objective secured (OS) scoring and minimum sized unit (MSU) spam were to be had.

My list (White Scars):

Captain w/ bike, power fist
Bike Squad (5) w/ grav-gun x2, combi-grav, veteran sergeant, melta bombs
Tactical Squad (10) w/Rhino, plasma gun, combi-plasma
Tactical Squad (10) w/Rhino, flamer
Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer missile launcher

His list (Salamanders):

Chaplain w/naked
Scouts (5) w/bolters
Scouts (5) w/shotgun, power fist
Tactical Squad (10) w/Rhino, rocket launcher, flamer, power sword
Tactical Squad (10) w/Razorback, Lascannon, plasma gun, power fist
Whirlwind

The mission was short table edges (long way to travel to get to the opponent). He deployed first and took the first turn. His scouts infiltrated together in a copse of trees. I deployed my Rhinos along my lines and my bikes out of line of site (LOS) behind a building on the edge of my deployment zone.

The first few turns didn't feel like they went my way. He cover saved most of my grav-guns and my bikes were dead soon after from a poor assault. My Captain was gunned down by some shooting just as he was about to smash apart the whirlwind (two wounds from a Rhino's stormbolter! Always take artificer armour). My tactical squads did little damage to his and my storm talon didn't come in until turn 3 (it did then kill the lascannon though, which was nice). He seem poised to deliver the first charge in the tactical on tactical battle in the middle of the board, which was doubly nasty because his sergeants had power weapons and mine didn't. But a few lucky rolls either side (I was particularly lucky at saving wounds from the whirlwind) and the tide turned back to even.

What eventually won me the game in turn 5 was hit and run, which grants oodles of free movement and makes tactical marines into rather mobile units. I managed to slingshot a lone tactical marine over to an objective to contest it against his razorback. I had a rhino on one hull point holding an objective near my deployment zone. Two tactical marines in assault had managed to delay his scouts from reaching the Rhino to contest, and I was then able to slingshot the survivor of the assault through some forests to hold an objective in the middle of the board. Another Rhino turbo boosted to contest the objective my opponent's lascannon squad had been sitting on all game.

With hit and run (from White Scars chapter tactics) and a bunch of tactical marines in Rhinos/Backs, you can have a huge number of quite mobile and fairly tough scoring units. Rhinos are now really good if your opponent doesn't have much multi-shot strength 7/8 type weaponry.

The lame thing about this kind of list i.e. MSU/carpark spam, is that it is really boring to play. You don't really kill anything, you just slowly die, but not enough so you still get all the objectives (and don't forfeit kill points). The tactics are surprisingly complex, as you need to manage your opponent's movement using assaults, hit and run and blocking tactics with your Rhinos, and know when to go for big movements of your own with hit and run and turbo boost to contest objectives left unattended and thereby force your opponent to move his forces again. It reminds me a bit of the very passive daemon flying circus lists from 6th edition, which grabbed linebreaker and first blood and then spent the rest of the game evading before contesting objectives using fast moving flyers in the late game to win 2-1. MSU tactical spam runs in a very similar fashion.

One other thing I learnt yesterday was that trees in area terrain are no longer invisible this edition, so be careful with moving into copses (note the rulebook still has rules for area terrain at the back).

Another thing I re-learnt was to always be aware of where your special weapons are so you don't lose a sergeant to shooting because you absent-mindedly placed him at the front of your squad.

Based on my recent games I'm now looking at taking this to the September tourney:

Chapter Master (Iron hands/ WL) w/Bike, Shield Eternal, Power fist, artificer armour
Khan (White Scars) w/Bike
Command Squad (White Scars) w/Bikes, apothecary, grav-guns x4, melta-bombs x4

Tactical Squad (10; iron hands) w/Rhino, plasma gun, combi-plasma
Tactical Squad (5; iron hands) w/Rhino, flamer
Bikes (6; White Scars) w/Grav-gun x2, veteran sergeant, combi-grav, melta bombs
Bikes (6; White Scars) w/Meltagun x2, combi-melta

Storm Talon (Iron hands) w/Skyhammer missile launcher

Thunderfire Cannon (Iron hands)

1497 points

* I'm tempted to drop the combi-plasma and the flamer and get a rocket launcher for the MSU squad
* I could easily run this all White Scars. The Iron hands CM is a wound taking machine for the death star because he has 2+/3++/5+FNP/5+IWND and still has hit and run so long as he is with the squad. Away from them he is fighting tanks anyway so he doesn't need it. As IH the tacticals get FNP 6+ and their Rhinos repair with IWND, which makes them really tough, but they don't get Scout from Khan, which means you can't use the Rhinos early game to screen your bikes. I will try to experiment with the scouting list as well.

The thunderfire cannon and flamer gives me just enough against Orks, I hope. Orks and Imperial guard are tough for all bike I think. You don't have weight of fire for the orks, and wyverns and blast templates are a real menace to bikes. With the tactical squads you have enough bolters to thin the horde, and the Rhinos cam hide you from wyverns and battle cannons (they rarely pen and role a 7, so you can IWND heal). Tactical squads munch boyz squads pretty effectively. I would foresee a match against orks seeing me punch my bikes down the flank where he is weak while my tactical squads engage and hopefully hold up the bulk of his force. My bikes then come back in later once they have killed looters and mech guns.

6 grav-guns should give me an edge against other marine armies except bike armies that double down and take even more. Against them I am hoping that the single storm talon will do good things. I find it really irritating when flyers don't arrive on turn two because then they often fly in, shoot something with everything, shoot something with a reverse facing assault cannon, and then fly off the board - not much action for 125 points. But missing 125 for a few turns isn't as bad as missing 250, and one talon is useful for harassing bikes, OS transports, backfield units and Jetbike farseers.

I'm taking the meltagun squad of bikes because they are one of the few units that can pop a wave serpent and not get shot by the contents (because they charge in afterwards). Everything else needs Krak grenades, which is not ideal. I couldn't afford more grav guns anyway.

The list has 7 OS scoring, including the two bike squads and two Rhinos, which are fast. It also has the command squad, which is three fast moving units (squad itself, Khan and the CM). Even without OS, these are a scoring threat because in the latter turns of games with a lot of objectives, you can sometimes zip off and grab one that is unoccupied because so many units have died. This many mobile, OS scoring units will be critical for the September tournament because it is using the Maelstrom missions which require constantly adjusting your position to capture objectives as they emerge. One guy in my group (a bit of a power gamer) is running a bike list with allied in Eldar for jetbikes, just so he can get wherever he needs to.

So the army can handle anything to some extent and I figure anything that I can't handle is probably so composed as to be bad at capturing objectives, in which case I will dance away for most of the game and then zoom to objectives in the final turns.