Shadowfield and Look Out Sir

Well, not exactly a 2+ w/ Rerolls but it definately plays out that way....

So I'm thinking of running Grotesques with either an Archon, or even Vect, for the boost in toughness but when blown out of their ride, or failing a charge, running the Shadowfield IC at the front, to LoS off the wounds; 2+ LoS onto a Grotesques who can take FnP or if the LoS fails we roll the 2+ on the SF

Thoughts?

If the aim is to shrug wounds off on to the Grots, why not just put them at the front to begin with? That way you never have to rely on the Shadowfield (and risk shorting it out).

I'm going to be doing the same soon, but with a bit of a twist - four Grotesques, Archon with Shadowfield, in a Raider... with Urien Rakarth. I don't care how expensive it makes them, the Clone Field and high toughness of Urien don't exactly make him a challenge monster so much as a challenge sponge. People who don't know his special rules and wargear will challenge on the charge, assuming I'll accept with the Archon In fact, some would have to challenge according to their rules, others would challenge hoping to take a dangerous IC out of the main fight. Against a standard marine or similar, you're looking at being hit two or three times on the charge, with one or two of those being ignored before the attempt to wound, which will need 5s, which he then probably gets feel no pain against.

The unit has feel no pain, furious charge and fearless, as Urien and the Grotesques start with one pain token each and he gifts at least an extra one, even without factoring in the potential bonus one from combat drugs. Whilst Urien and the enemy character basically engage in a slap fight, the Archon carves his way through the regular guys, who flail ineffectually at the Grotesques. On the charge I might have the Archon challenge, as the number of models in the squad will allow him a re-roll in the first round (that'll be for the Shadowfield save then!). They wouldn't be awesome against uber deathstar units, but it seems to me like this is what Urien was made for!

For added lulz, upgrade the unit to S6 and give the Grotesques an Aberration with a Flesh Gauntlet.

Mr Believer wrote:

On the charge I might have the Archon challenge, as the number of models in the squad will allow him a re-roll in the first round (that'll be for the Shadowfield save then!).

You only get the reroll if the character you challenge is on his own, ie not part of a unit.

Mr Believer wrote:

People who don't know his special rules and wargear will challenge on the charge, assuming I'll accept with the Archon

Love a bit of DE trickery

Ben_S wrote:

If the aim is to shrug wounds off on to the Grots, why not just put them at the front to begin with? That way you never have to rely on the Shadowfield (and risk shorting it out).

At first thought yes that was my initial rebutal to my strategy, but then on 2nd thoughts you are giving yourself maximum flexibility to those Str10 shots - a vinidcator, nasty on paper, itsn't that scary vs a 5 man unit really.....and you can spread your guys out so that only 2-3 models get clipped...then roll those 2-3 invuls. Then for pretty much every gun under Str10, you can choose to LoS stuff to guys behind cover; cover save followed by FnP - pretty tough to shift IMO. And if he's firing a shedload into this unit, the rest of the army ain't feelin it.....

A unit of 4 Grotesques has 12 wounds - thats more than any other 9 man unit that would escort Archon/Vect.

Mathematically the SF cracks once in 6 rolls right.....so why not make that first "1" an LoS roll.....

Count Adhemar wrote:

You only get the reroll if the character you challenge is on his own, ie not part of a unit.

Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out!

They will be getting other wargear too - a Phantasm Grenade Launcher to make them even more survivable on the assault, a Raider with enhanced aethersails (allowing them to move from one side of the board to the other in potentially one turn). A Flesh Gauntlet for the Aberration is a distinct possibility, but I'm not sure about it - I see this unit as more for sweeping stuff off an opposition home objective on the second turn, or staying in combat until it does sweep it off. They then climb aboard the other Raider which was carrying the totally not scary wracks alongside theirs, who are now ensconced on the enemy objective, and head for whatever was coming towards my board edge and own objective. Or they wipe out other troops choices in multi objective games. To that end, the gauntlet might not be that useful for me, as they'll be wounding most stuff on 2s anyway (yes, they're getting the strength upgrade), and much of what they'll face won't have multiple wounds. It does seem largely redundant to start trying to save points on this unit though

Basically, the purpose of the unit is to get right in the opponents face with something super tough that can't be ignored, but nor can it be shifted very easily. Hopefully they'll panic so much about the potential damage it could do that they dedicate too much time to trying to kill it. And the way I'm converting these Grotesques (which is taking a long time, orks being a big distraction for me at the moment) practically makes them scream "I'm dangerous! Shoot me first!" Might even give them a coven raider to really draw attention to them... The plan I mentioned with the wracks would be excellent for that one where you have a base each, Emperors Will I think it's called now? Particularly if Urien has given said Wracks a second pain token. Yes, the plan relies on my opponent only leaving a troops choice and maybe one other thing at their objective. But if they are huddled on their own objective en masse, that probably means they're somebody who REALLY sucks at combat anyway. Squishy! And if they're guard, I send more stuff their way. Nuts to my objective, I just want to kill things

The other benefit of the Flesh Gaunltet is that you get to reroll wounds if your S is equal to or higher than the opponents T. So anything T6 or less (7 on the charge) lets you reroll wounds and anything T7 (8 ) or higher is still wounded on a 4+

That is a benefit of it I suppose - being able to force more wounds is always handy. And it does give them more anti monstrous creature attacks, which would be good for them as they can actually fight them without having to take a leadership test to see if they forget how to!

Count Adhemar wrote:

The other benefit of the Flesh Gaunltet is that you get to reroll wounds if your S is equal to or higher than the opponents T. So anything T6 or less (7 on the charge) lets you reroll wounds and anything T7 (8 ) or higher is still wounded on a 4+

Also with the change to poison anything that is less T than your Str you get roll based on the difference. so the Flesh Gauntlet wounds on a 2+ if hitting T4.....and with the reroll To Wound