The Pragmatic Realspace Raider: By power from pain! Get back in the fight!

The Pragmatic Realspace Raider: By power from pain! Get back in the fight!

These guides aim to give bitesize advice on the benefits of being pragmatic when playing 40k. They do not intend to delve into mathematical analysis of whether or not the units used in the example are optimal or cost effective, nor do they intend to cover load outs or configurations. Those will be left for other discussions. It is also worth noting that the examples in these guides are simplified for clarity, of course in practice there will be more units involved.

This article discusses the interaction of the following rules: Power from Pain, Going to Ground and Fearless. If a unit has Gone to Ground and then gains the Fearless special rule, all the effects of Go to Ground are immediately cancelled. Power from Pain makes Dark Eldar units fearless on turn 5 (turn 4 if the unit has a haemonculus, turn 2 if the unit is from the coven supplement and turn 1 if the unit is from the coven supplement and contains a haemonculus). This can result in a very useful timing effect.

Example 1:



It’s turn 4 the Grotesques are sheltering in a ruin, they get hit by a demolisher cannon. The Dark Eldar player decides to go to ground with them giving them a 3+ cover save (in order to reduce the number of casualties). Dark Eldar Turn 5 the surviving grotesques become fearless due to the power from pain rules and the effects of going to ground are immediately cancelled. Allowing the grotesques to move and charge as normal.

Example 2:



It’s turn 1 and a squad of grotesques from the Coven supplement have charged headlong into the enemy (along with the rest of the Dark Eldar army). Unfortunately their raider got wrecked and due to their low leadership they have been pinned behind the wreckage, this will prevent them from moving the following turn so the opposing player decides to focus his fire on other incoming dark eldar threats (note the grotesques also get +1 to their cover save for being pinned, and an additional +1 if night fight is in play). The following turn (turn 2), the grotesques become fearless due to the power from pain rules and the effects of going to ground are immediately cancelled. Allowing the grotesques to move and charge as normal.

Extra Considerations:

There are a few things to consider when using this tactic. Firstly it will only work if you have first turn, this is because power from pain comes into effect on game turns not player turns. Secondly going to ground prevents you from firing overwatch and allows enemies to strike at initiative when charging through terrain. So don’t go to ground if you think you are going to get charged by a unit that doesn’t have assault grenades!

Finally try to work out which turn this trick would benefit your army the most, and modify the power from pain turn counter accordingly (adding/removing haemonculus from the unit, using the most appropriate power from pain table etc).

Hope you enjoyed this guide! Have fun going to ground!

For more guides checkout #ThePragmaticRealspaceRaider

Good article again Mush!

One thing to remember is that if those grots lose 25% of their units and run (LD3/4) they autoregroup next turn but are unable to do anything else than move 3" and shoot snap shots. So the above mentioned situations support going to ground to avoid those ld checks.

Vasara wrote:

Good article again Mush!

One thing to remember is that if those grots lose 25% of their units and run (LD3/4) they autoregroup next turn but are unable to do anything else than move 3" and shoot snap shots. So the above mentioned situations support going to ground to avoid those ld checks.

Thanks Vasara. Yeah, there is a risk of the grots falling back (after loosing two models). I guess people can way that up against not having to give the grots an escort and getting an extra grot in the transport.

It was mainly being used as an example of a different timing (turn 1-2 rather than turn 4-5). The main point of the article is that if you are going first with army from the Dark Eldar codex, you should be going to ground with any unit that gets shot at in your opponents shooting phase turn 4 as you get back up anyway on turn 5 (aside from if you want to shoot overwatch or prevent an assaulting unit striking at initiative).

The coven grot example is a fun one though. If you turbo boost your raider into a ruin near your opponent on turn 1, and you have night fight the surviving gots can go to ground for a 2+ cover save and get right back up the next turn.

This isn't a strategy that you use a lot, but can make the all the difference when you do use it (and adds another advantage to going first).

On another note turn 5 fearless is great for regrouping that one true born who has been running for your table edge from your opponents half since turn 2 and needs snake eyes to regroup. Handily scoring an objective in your half turn 5-6 or denying your opponent a kill point he though was guaranteed.

Vasara wrote:

Good article again Mush!

One thing to remember is that if those grots lose 25% of their units and run (LD3/4) they autoregroup next turn but are unable to do anything else than move 3" and shoot snap shots. So the above mentioned situations support going to ground to avoid those ld checks.

This is a really nice catch. I always believed becomming Fearless negated the effects of everything, but upon close inspection, Fearless only negates Go To Ground. In all the other circumstances, it merely counts as passing the test automatically, meaning you still suffer from the post-effects. Very nice catch indeed

Sigmaril wrote:

This is a really nice catch. I always believed becomming Fearless negated the effects of everything, but upon close inspection, Fearless only negates Go To Ground. In all the other circumstances, it merely counts as passing the test automatically, meaning you still suffer from the post-effects. Very nice catch indeed

Yeah the only thing that negates the regroup penalties is ATSKNF to my knowledge.

Nice little article Mush. I'll have to bring along a Grotesquerie to my next game and try it out

Also worth noting that a coven haemy can attach to any unit to make them fearless - if you have one attached to a nearby squad B you can send squad A to ground and move the haemy from B to A next turn.

Creeping Darkness wrote:

Also worth noting that a coven haemy can attach to any unit to make them fearless - if you have one attached to a nearby squad B you can  send squad A to ground and move the haemy from B to A next turn.

That's a good one. You can catch a few people off guard with that.