First game with covens

Got my first game in with Covens in 8e.

Rakarth
Wracks (5 with Hex Rifle and Ossefactor) x4
Raiders (Lance) x3
Grotesques (3)
Ravager (Dissies)

Against White Scars:

Chappie on Bike.
Bikes with flamer, lightning claw, meltagun, attack bike with heavy bolter x3
Attack Bike with heavy bolter


Game was pretty lopsided. Ravager swung in and completely annihilated one bike squad while the others maneuvered for position. Bikes ALL dumped on the Ravager which limped away with two wounds remaining.

Then the wracks and grotesques came swarming out to smash into the bikers. It was horrific. Everything but the chappie was locked down in the charge. By turn three only a single biker remained alive, and we called it.

Our vehicles did GREAT. The ravager did some hefty destruction and absorbed a phenomenal amount of firepower. The grotesques did the same meatshieldy job they always did, if perhaps not as well.

The wracks threw out some great volume of attacks, and with the haemmie buff did a great job surviving as well. I'm really looking forward to using them en masse some more, although maybe without the ossefactors, as they didn't do so much.

Quick question though:

Bikes still take the -1 when firing Heavy weapons and moving? As do vehicles? We couldn't find otherwise.

Yup. If you move and fire heavy, you take the -1 to hit unless stated otherwise.

Glad to hear we did well with a Coven CC unit. And Ravangers are a BEAST!

Cool battle rep!

Having our heavy weapons turn into assault on our vehicles is wicked awesome. trading -1 BS for an advance roll of d6 isn't too bad of a trade off.

What was your rationale for taking 3x dissies on the ravager and 3 lances on the raiders instead of the other way around?

I recently played a game with two units of 10 Wracks and they tired up a whole Ork gun line (yes, an Ork gun line, gawd that feels wrong to type, I'm still letting it sink in myself)) for 3 turns, including a gorkonaut. That was without a Haemonculus to buff them

I personally dont like Rakarth, he didnt do anything the 2 games i played with him.

I really like the Haemonculus with Electro Whip

@barrywise- I was imagining that massing the dissie fire on the one vehicle would lump it where it would do the most good--the knots of infantry I expected to be facing. I thought there might be sporadic vehicles, and that the lances would be only targeting one or two things anyway.

@amishprn- Definitely. Rakarth didn't do anything that I couldn't have got out of a Haemonculus.

Hmm, fair. I almost feel like it's better to spread the DL's out like that and even if the ravager gets damaged, there's enough dissie shots that they will more or less average out so the lowered BS doesn't matter as much.

I would swap at least 1 dissy with a dark lance.
That way if you meat someone who hates dissies he needs to take out 2 vehicles to destroy your dissy shooting and still needs to take out 3 vehicles to stop your lance shots.
With the new split fire I prefer to mix guns a little bit more so they have a harder time shutting done one mode of fire.

Heams, wracks and talos are all business, all the time!

Ive run a unit of 2 talos (splinters cannons, scalpels), 10 wracks (electrowhip no guns) on foot and heam (electro whip) twice now.
Both games they walked up the table (suicide in 7TH) and made it into combat turn 2 and 3 and blended fools.

Sure some of them died but never the heam, not even close. Such a great bodyguard for a HQ.
Having a moving anvil to my fast units hammer was just lovely too and the board control.

Loving this...wracks are my fav models so it seems further purchases will be well rewarded!

So, are we new OP?

Azdrubael wrote:

So, are we new OP?

No.

IG and scions and sisters look pretty bonkers tho.

Do you think we'll be able to find alternate list builds to beat the meta? You bet your gray, millennia old a** we can

We are pretty darn good, and honestly until players figure out insane combos we are a strong contender

But there are some lists already floating around that can push out something like 70 S7-8 shots turn 1 with re-rolls to hits and wounds... its so silly.

Azdrubael wrote:

So, are we new OP?

No but we are in a good place I think.
Good enough that we can make people cry delicious tears, but not to OP that no one wants to play us.

I don't think we are OP at all.

From what I have seen it really does seem to swing one way to the other.

Our vehicles are much harder to kill than before...normally it takes mass concentrated fire to bring one down on the 1st turn...but that goes both ways. The Dark Lance is a very good weapon mostly because of the -4AP which leaves most vehicles without a save but against invuls you start to need a different type of weapon which we don't have (like multiple hit weapons).

I have also noticed that DE can seem on their way to an easy victory early on in games only to find that one good round of shooting brings them to their knees...don't bunch your transports because when they do explode they can do more harm than your opponents shooting (D3 Mortal wounds to the Venoms close by would have taken a lot of shooting to replicate).

amishprn86 wrote:

We are pretty darn good, and honestly until players figure out insane combos we are a strong contender

But there are some lists already floating around that can push out something like 70 S7-8 shots turn 1 with re-rolls to hits and wounds... its so silly.

This is where it is good to remember, re-rolls are done before modifiers.

It always hurts to no re-roll what you know will be misses.

Yes bu 3+ re-roll 1's before mods and even after mods is extremely good for 186pt unit that can shoot 2x with 8 Plasma that can DS and over charge while in rapid fire range, you are getting 32 Overcharge Plasma's

For 9 units you also get 2 command points for 558 pts, and a total of 96, S8, -3ap, D2, you can choose to get re-rolls at the cost of not dbl shooting, doing this with a unit or 2 IMO is effective b.c you keep your guys alive and if you are shooting at a -1 to hit mod unit.