Spicy Baron: Odd kung-fu tricks for the foreseeable future....

Today I just want to talk about the weird things I noticed with the odd style of deployment that could be incorporated into one of my rather odd idea that could work.

Just the other day when I was playing a 1750 pts game with my Dark Eldar against a Hybrid Deathwing-Dark Angels list using one of my more adorable testlists that I like to call the 'Cover Mania'.

The 1750 pts list consist of

Baron
1 Haemonculus with Liquifier gun
2 squads of 4 Blasterborn in Venoms with two splinter cannons
20 Hellions with Helliarch with Agoniser
5 Wracks with Liquifier Guns in Raider with flickerfield
3 squads of 5 Kabalite Warriors with 1 blaster in Raider with flickerfield
3 Ravagers with 3 Dark Lances and flickerfields

Since this is a fun game of sorts, I decided to try out a theory.

I reasoned that if I deploy them in a way that would allow everyone to get cover saves provided I had enough terrain/pseudo-terrain to get the hellions to get some cover saves, then I will not need to worry about an Alpha strike list or some mechspam-like lists. In the pic below, I managed to put that theory to the test and it worked.



In this picture, I managed to get my Hellions to get the cover saves they needed from the combination of hiding some of them in the terrain and also behind some of my vehicles while also covering my vehicles with their own massive profile. In return, due to the height of the hellions, I managed to get my vehicles cover saves as well. I managed to get the roll to start first here, but the formation is a one-purpose-fits-all deployment, as I am allowed to actually have enough numbers to soak up the shots if things goes badly for me (either due to them getting first turn or them seizing the initiative) and prevent the uncertainty of an all-reserve game which will feed my forces piece by piece.

This only gets better when my unit started to move.



This is a pic around my second turn. As you can see, some of my units turboboosted as they are unable to target stuff, and thus provided a much needed mobile cover for the hellions. At the same time, the rest of my forces are moving behind the wave, being protected by the hellions. As a result of the deployment of the hellions and also the facing of some of my things, I prevented some of the rhinos from getting cover saves. In this pic unfortunately the Ravagers are slower and thus their targets have to take cover saves, but at the same time, they could also be used to protect the rearguard as well.

My opponent unleashed quite a number of nasty whirlwind shots and also lots of high strength weapons at me, but my casualty in the second turn is just 6 hellions due to the cover saves that I can reap from all the turboboosting and Hellion-wall, while the hellions managed to get their cover raves from the various terrain and also buildings which allow me to get my much desired stealth cover saves.

In turn 3 the hellions dissappeared due to me being overconfident (Damn you Dark Angel scouts?!?!?! HOW YOU WIN COMBAT WITH ONE DEAD HELLION?!?!?!) but the DA army is quite disoriented from the large amount of targets to kill. Unfortunately for the both of us, we are unable to finish our game and we are forced to stop at turn 4, but the game was very tight indeed as I still have the superior numbers while he is trying to get all the objectives (He managed to get two with one Deathwing squad and a 4 man Tac squad, with one of my warriors getting the other one) but I have enough dark lances and venoms to kill all of them.


This game actually made my 'Cover Mania' list very viable, and despite it being rather abusive it allows for an unseen durability in a Mech Dark Eldar list. In addition, it also provides a very formidable psychological profile as the horde of both vehicles and also the Hellions will force the opponents to struggle with what they want to kill. If they kill the Hellions, the other parts of the army will wreak havoc but if the vehicles are targetted the Hellions will do their nasty deed. If you put the Mathhammer and common sense into the picture you can see that you can't kill everything. Furthermore, iF this is done right, I could actually pop some vehicles and also allow the Hellions to multicharge everything they can reach including vehicles and allow for the protection of the hellions in CC with infantry units as they bust the rest of the mechanized armies apart.

Combined it with the speed of a Mech Dark Eldar army and you can see that the opponent will have very little time to react to the ensuing wave as they got two turns at best to counter everything they see. Combined this factors of durability, speed, Synergy and sensory overload, we could see that this is the strength of this army.

In a 2000 point army, I would put either a Razorwing or for anti-infantry problems or some Reavers for anti-infantry needs and/or also some other units that could further help in harassing the enemy. In essence, this list is meant to make a person have a real big headache, and preferably not me. So far my playtesting with lesser versions of the list is actually quite successful but this is the first time I actually tested the list upwards of 1500 points.

Of course the game would change pretty soon, but the tactics will not differ too much as cover saves for vehicles would still be there (unless we have 4th ed rules again or something happens to cover saves entirely now) and the formation would be a pioneer to hybrid lists. I have heard that some person by the name of Reecius on the internet is now trying a Dark Footdar list with Webway portals and Grots as portal bodyguards. Of course his list is somewhat on the other extreme of what I am planning (I am aiming for a hybrid lists with lots of disruption), but the fundamental ideas apply. Mech Dark Eldar will need to be downtoned a little and the pattern of GW's old ruleset changes of always nerfing whatever is the overwhelming craze for the game of that edition will definitely affect the Dark Eldar in ways we do not know.

I love my Archon and my Mech Dark Eldar, but if I am too attached to it I will not be able to expand as a player and thus I will need to step out of my comfort zones to further advance my skills. Besides, bringing something unexpected is always a good thing as people will be unfamiliar with the way to combat the list. As of this moment of course, I am taking a sabbatical of sorts with real gaming but that does not mean that I am idle with my 40k theoretical thoughts. Besides this list is a result of a smaller sabbatical which allow me to see the game from an entirely different perspective (Amen Hallelujah Peanut Butter.....).

I will get another chance to test this out, either in 5th or 6th (?), and will see how this hybrid 'cover mania' list would evolve.

PS: Since this battle is unfinished, I will not write a batrep.

I'm always interested in hearing how people try and run this.
This was one of the tactics I tried to use with my Baron/Hellion unit but I gave up on it really pretty quickly as it is so difficult to actually pull off correctly without bunching your hellions up so close that 1 decent template weapon finishes them off.

I had a look at your pic of 2nd turn and TBH I'm struggling to see the cover saves being generated by the hellions, they are IMO simply to far apart to cover 50% of the raiders. That was the real downfall for me the hellion may be the right height to provide the cover but he's too small.

Try this, stand some hellions together base to base then place a raider behind them. Look carefully and do you see them covering 50% of the raider? Without doubling up ranks or fitting extra bodies in, I very seldom could could truely say that I got the cover save. In tournaments it became a pain trying to justify using it as it was questioned so many times. Opponents also quickly realised that pinging away at the Hellions was pointless, there are better ways of dealing with them, and just shot the vehicles anyway as they carried the real threat. In the end I gave up running this tactic and looked for other uses for the Baron/Hellion unit.

Well done if your getting it right.

kenny3760 wrote:

I'm always interested in hearing how people try and run this.
This was one of the tactics I tried to use with my Baron/Hellion unit but I gave up on it really pretty quickly as it is so difficult to actually pull off correctly without bunching your hellions up so close that 1 decent template weapon finishes them off.

I had a look at your pic of 2nd turn and TBH I'm struggling to see the cover saves being generated by the hellions, they are IMO simply to far apart to cover 50% of the raiders. That was the real downfall for me the hellion may be the right height to provide the cover but he's too small.

Try this, stand some hellions together base to base then place a raider behind them. Look carefully and do you see them covering 50% of the raider? Without doubling up ranks or fitting extra bodies in, I very seldom could could truely say that I got the cover save. In tournaments it became a pain trying to justify using it as it was questioned so many times. Opponents also quickly realised that pinging away at the Hellions was pointless, there are better ways of dealing with them, and just shot the vehicles anyway as they carried the real threat. In the end I gave up running this tactic and looked for other uses for the Baron/Hellions.

Good done if your getting it right.

You are right if you just count just the hellions in their maxed out coherency alone. I just up the ante and put them in varying coherencies when rhe situation calls for it. I just need to get 4 hellions to get the save on the raider's and 2 hellions for the frontal facing. And I bunch the hellions' coherency only when there is a very obvious chance that the raider willl need it. If they don't need it then they will be deployed at the max of the coherency range.

It is a micromanagement of things and my opponent often see the logic once they use the laser pointer and rulers. My vehicles are decent enough of a threat that is true, but cover savea are a nice addition that will mitigate it a little. I already knew that would happen anyway but I just want to make it a painful choice anyway. It is a simple lesson I learned in my early days in the Malaysian tournament circuit where there is more micromanagement than the US scene.

But as I stated it before it is a developing plan for a more hybridized battleplan and I want to combine this plan with Dark Footdar-style of play but having more mobility.

Crisis_Vyper wrote:

You are right if you just count just the hellions in their maxed out coherency alone. I just up the ante and put them in varying coherencies when rhe situation calls for it. I just need to get 4 hellions to get the save on the raider's and 2 hellions for the frontal facing. And I bunch the hellions' coherency only when there is a very obvious chance that the raider willl need it. If they don't need it then they will be deployed at the max of the coherency range.

I'll need to check this out again, because I don't think I ever managed to get the cover save with the number of hellions you are saying. The gap between 2 hellions was so big that 50% of the front of a raider could be clearly seen between them unless another was used to fill that gap, either in front or behind them. Same issue arose with 4 on the side.

kenny3760 wrote:

I'll need to check this out again, because I don't think I ever managed to get the cover save with the number of hellions you are saying. The gap between 2 hellions was so big that 50% of the front of a raider could be clearly seen between them unless another was used to fill that gap, either in front or behind them. Same issue arose with 4 on the side.

To be honest, it is not a very big gap for the frontal arch, with the bases of those guys almost touching. I could always hide them behind a single Hellion as it is wide enough, but it is always nice to have a reassurance from different angles. The side block is much more easier to do admittedly. If you want to think about it, the 'W' or 'Doubling up the rank' would be easier as it uses less hellions. But sometimes I do not have the luxury and will have to rely on making the most of the hellions that are available for me. If you want to think of it, just think about a formation that looks like a ' / ' rather than a ' ~' . In a sense it is a compromise between doubling the ranks and lining them side by side.

In the second pic, the second raider from the left have 4.5 hellions on its broadside. The other raiders are using some of the terrain in addition to the Hellions to give that 50%. I forgotten that pics sometimes can make some terrain look flatter than they are.

But definitely I will want to think about a much less micromanagement headache and use Reavers or something. I could see why people use Hellions and Reavers together for such an endeavor now, to cover the weaknesses. Hellions have the multi-charge capabilities that is hard to ignore, nonetheless Hellionstar combo is always a tough one for me as I love my Archon a lot and I would like power weapons in my army.