Dark Eldar blocking.

Hey! Has anybody used our skimmers to completely block enemy transports?

Its basicly old trick i did with Vypers - you just flat out and surround target completely. Enemy cant disembark and can only attempt to ram , with very low S and our skimmer save against ram.
In the shooting phase , yes they do some harm , but goal is complete - enemy hasnt move and hasnt disembark. With the size of our things 2 raiders 2 venoms can block a Land Raider. On a new raiders there is even sliding part on the side of the deck , to help with this.

With Rhino it does have drawback in the form firepoints , but you can completely lock unit inside Razor.That was most helpfull one game against purifiers.Having to deal with just one Psycannon and none of their CC prowess.

I mean - it doesnt really matter how far we are with most Long AV guns, even with Night Shields, so why not be extremely close to cause some confusion? Of coarse not rushing into castle, bit picking some moderately isolated/atacking transport.
Nobody does castle against DE anyway (except for lazy IG who just park always).

I've managed to table block someone before. He all reserved, and I had just enough venoms to cover the entire long board edge.
Other than that, I've just used skimmers to stop rhinos and such moving on to objectives, but never completely surrounded one.

Sure, you can block a Land Raider with some transports, but every variant will just laugh at you, and proceed to annihilate at least one of your transports. While it's much safer against a Rhino, I really can't see a situation where the locking of a single enemy transport will be worth the removal of 4 of our own. We need our transports, and they're fragile enough without sitting still right next to the enemy army.

Azdrubael wrote:

Nobody does castle against DE anyway (except for lazy IG who just park always).

My Guard Airborne don't park, that's what they make their opponents do. Just because most Guard players play unimaginative gunlines and leafblowers doesn't mean we all do.

It's like saying that all Dark Eldar players do is Raider-rush people with Wyches and other assault troops. I ran a Venom-spam list that was able to outshoot Tau once. With the possible exception of Tyranids (and Sisters, but we don't talk about that dwarfdex), every 5th edition codex has dramatically increased the number of viable builds for each faction, allowing for multiple competitive play styles.

So, in summary, Dark Eldar don't only Raider-rush assault troops, Guard don't only sit back and shoot, Grey Knights don't only drop terminators into storm bolter range and open up before assaulting the next turn, Space Marines don't always attack from the front.

Back to the OT, I usually have enough AT at my disposal to not need to block my opponents (that, and they tend to be the sit-back-and-shoot types, mostly because I normally come to them).

You shouldnt be that defensive , i was refering to lazy players amongst guards not generilizing about guard being lazy. That was really wall of Captain Obvius atack text )).

Oh indeed, enough for razorspam? Enough for Razor DakkaDreds GK ?
I was forced into this tactics against this kinda list , lots of psycannons , psyautocannon dreads and razors.That was hell. No supressing because of Fortitude , and backed by purifers.

You needa block, essential that you do, IMO:

1 - It prevents the enemy from getting all their guns into range.
2 - It buys you breathing room (Read: Your enemy can't pressure you if he has no presence on the battlefield)
3 - Prevents the enemy from gaining objectives
4 - Nulls out some units effectiveness, effectively (Land Raiders + Termies for obvious obvious)

L O V E Blocking/Ramming

People say they have enough Lances, well I run ~27 in 1850 if I don't use a fun list (and my fun lists usually around ~20 still

Still aint enough due to the harsh damage table. This is where the Ramming would come in, much more effective Anti-Tank at times. You can still sorta block after Ramming due to potentially surviving the Ram and even if you don't, the Wreck/Crater is Difficult Terrain still affecting the enemy's movement

It's an old dirty trick and one you don't see very often. I think just like everything else, thinking outside of the box and keeping your opponant guessing helps. I'll put this trick in my back and shock someone with it one day. Thanks

Reavers can also do this to some extent as well. They're so fast most people don't see it coming, and a point blank shot from a Heat Lance will stop most transports dead in their tracks. Block the front (or whichever direction you REALLY don't want them going) with a raider/venom (preferably with Grisly Trophies) and use the 6 reavers to cover the other sides. Just don't do it against an LRC (unless it's the last turn and you really need to keep them from contesting).

Reavers aren't great at blocking IMO due to (Unless in a pretty big unit) not liking assaults (even with Drugs they're not AWESOME until you have 9) AND you're still subject to Tank Shock as the Jetbikes

That seems a bit mean (and quite unrealistic) if i say so, table bocking is the worst thing you can do in 40k, fist of all because it ruins the game and second because i doesnt make any sence (if you think about it)

That topic isnt about table blocking , thats tacitcs that can punish multi LR lists or any death starts units in transport.

For table blocking you need hellavalot of raiders and inexperinced opponent.If he well even try to reserve all army against me for some reason i will explicitely say what i will do next so we wont waste game (even in tournament).

It's a nice idea but frankly, if the game has gone to this stage, I'm probably not playing the right opponent / playing in the right environment.

I'm about having fun battles with cinematic moments, watching a story unfold on the table. This just doesn't do it for me.

Not that I condemn it either; for tournaments and what have you, I can imagine I'd love to see someone try this - it would be exciting to watch in that context.

You say it is unrealistic but try and imagine it like.... Dark Eldar surround craft... It has nowhere to go.... Dark Eldar unload dakka it blows up... any troops trying to escape are mown down by warriors on raiders.

Azdrubael wrote:

That topic isnt about table blocking , thats tacitcs that can punish multi LR lists or any death starts units in transport.

For table blocking you need hellavalot of raiders and inexperinced opponent.If he well even try to reserve all army against me for some reason i will explicitely say what i will do next so we wont waste game (even in tournament).

You pretty much already have the game in your hands when the opponent goes all Reserves - It takes very specific army builds to be effective coming from all-Reserves, and you don't see those builds at all. (Have to be like, dual sledgehammer/deathstar units for this to work OR be like us and have a lot of speed (Biker SM, Mech Eldar, BA but not MSU)

Experience shows that blocking works even versus skilled players. Fact is people bunch up regardless, if they try to spread out they get isolated units, which leads to us having easier fights. If you face against another Mech MSU kinda list (BA/SW/IG) they are usually crowded and you can take easy advantage. Where we have Skimmers and can bunch up and give ourselves easy Cover, we block 2 key front-of-formation ground vehicles and we cockblock a whole hella lot of ground tanks if it's well done.

AGAIN - Prevents them from getting everything into range, how is this not universal?

Complaining about unrealistic? How about all the rest of the stuff that's unrealistic, like Transports blowing up with people inside, yet the folks inside shrug it off like it was nothing?