What is the answer to Wolf-tide/Barkstar?

I just faced a pair of wolfstar lists at Warzone Atlanta this last weekend but was able to beat both of them pretty handily by focusing on objectives and keeping at max range to shoot what I could. I had to give up any dreams of causing substantial damage since both were able to get invisibility and endurance.

The first list seized the initiative on me and used electrodisplacement to get a turn 1 multicharge into 5 units that hurt pretty badly. I immediately turboboosted into the other 3 corners of the field and made sure to blast the small units to prevent future displacements (one unit I wasn't able to kill so I surrounded it so if he cast the power he wouldn't be able to place models within 6" of them). I baited a couple characters out of the wolfstar by leaving small kabalite warrior squads or venoms on objectives so I could pick them off, then he gave up on that and left his unit together in the center of the table sitting on the secondary mission objective till the game ended.

Second game, I took first turn and tried to damage the wolfstar before all the spells got up and running, but he had the compliment of dark angels characters in the unit to give them a 4++ and 5+ FNP on top of occasional models mixed in with rerollable 2+ jinks even without psychic powers. I carefully premeasured to make sure he was never within 27" of my main force and occasionally sent other small units to the opposite sides and flanks so that if he chased them he'd never be able to catch back up to the rest of my army afterwards. Those units would often be well within range of him but were never worth the cost of him sending his whole army after them giving me the opportunity to continue to take small objectives here and there and maintain board control.

Both opponents conceded when they saw that they couldn't catch up to me even though I couldn't kill them either. As long as you can keep enough alive you should be able to win the objectives at the end of the game. Honestly, the second game I may as well have skipped firing any shots at all.

Was this a raw MSU army, and what lists did you have trouble with? Or did you win with pure DE?

That's really inspiring, lessthanjeff!

Definitely, in reflection of the list I utilised, there was a lack of fast moving models. My Fire Prism was knocked out by S7 psychic shooting attacks, my Heroes Path and CTC formations had no way around the tsunami, but my remaining forces kited effectively until the end of the game.

I have gleaned a lot of info from you awesome peeps! Gotta love TDC.

Hi lessthanjeff. Congrats on using speed, range, msu and concentrating on the mission to beat the cheestars!

Quick question, how did he manage to multi charge 5 units?
Are you sure he was playing the multi charge rules correctly?

Hmm, with regards to multi-charging, keep in mind the geometry of the cavalry bases. If he added in a few wolfs, they could easily go sideways and take up more "base to base" room, leaving other models free to do the multi-charge.

Unless I am mistaken

Wolves have 40mm bases, not cav bases, still a big footprint but I think as likely to be a hindrance as a help.

This is my favourite of the new FAQ choices:

Quote :

Q: How does a unit consisting of a mix of Cavalry, Bike, Jump Pack and Infantry models move, Run, Turbo-boost and charge? Do they all use their respective rules while maintaining squad coherency?
A: Yes. Models move individually, so in the Movement phase each model in this unit can move up to their maximum movement allowance so long as the unit is in unit coherency at the end of the move. If the unit elects to Run, no models in the unit may shoot. The unit doesn’t benefit from the Cavalry model’s Fleet rule, as that only applies if every model in the unit has the Fleet rule. If the unit Runs, the Bike may Turbo-boost, but must finish its move in unit coherency. When charging, the Jump model may use its jump pack (if it did not do so in the Movement phase) to re-roll the charge distance - however that model, and only that model, must use the new distance rolled.

So jump pack dude doesn't grant re-rolls, and no fleet so major chances for biffed charge rolls!! hooray!

Is that the point of battle focus on windriders then? In case you put a footdar independent character in the squad?

Sorry for the delay in response guys. Forgot to check back after posting that.

My list did ally in 3 units of scat bikes for cracking armor values, 3 units of corsair bikes with splinter cannons (because they're even more dakka than venoms), and a pair of hornets. The prince and autarch ran melee duty for units that got close to my lines. Most of my army was composed of my 6 units of kabalite warriors in venoms and mandrakes though. Kept everything pretty barebones and expendable. Frequently used warriors and venoms to push objectives up when I knew they'd die or to block enemy movement.

The only game I lost was against a Khorne Murderhorde with Tetrad. I had everything set up to dominate the game but he stole the initiative. Since he was able to catch me in bad positioning and fly up high with all his princes it hurt me pretty bad. His swarm of khorne dogs got several first turn charges as well (I had the infiltrating warlord power) which really set me back by letting him get great board control and positioning early in the game and by stopping a lot of my first turn shooting. I hadn't realized they weren't using the ITC faq either so those lovely princes had 2+ rerollable saves. Just got caught off guard that game but I think I should have won it too.

I'm fairly sure he did the multicharge correctly. I have so many units that a lot of my things were fairly packed at deployment. The electrodisplacement let him get right in front of my lines turn 1 (he also stole the initiative on me) and the unit was massive with something like 7 IC's, the numerous dogs as wargear, and the core unit of cavalry.

So with this new FAQ, my brain screams "TANK SHOCK", followed by the voices imploring me to burn things (but thats something else all together )

I imagine a larger blob all running right at you (and your parking lot full of tanks) would be a great place to try out our tank-shock-D-weapon-lite shenanigans.

First thing I thought of when I read the tank-shock thread too perfect solution to that chap's barkstar issue

Ya, I tried to do the Shock last weekend, but to no avail. I think it would be easier if the enemy is running at you, where you have 3+ tanks within 12" to do our nasty stuff.

Of course only time will tell if this is a pipe dream or a feasible game mechanic that we can build around.