Spearhead + C:BA

[Schnitzel]

I've noticed two nasty combo's I'd like to try running in Spearhead with my C:BA army.

First is the Mech Assault Spearhead. With this I can take three transports and outflank 'em, with them coming on turn one. Stormravens any body?

The other is Archeotech Spearhead. All weapons on the vehicles selected by this get a +1S, which for a Furious Charging Death Dread with Blood Talons would be pretty nasty. Woah boy!

Some other nasties for C:BA would be Seek and Destroy Spearhead. Take some MM toting Land Speeders and you'll pack a wallop.
Also the Skyfall Spearhead might be interesting as having three Stormravens successfully deep strike could be very devastating.

C/C?

[DarkLink]

I've noticed two nasty combo's I'd like to try running in Spearhead with my C:BA army.

First is the Mech Assault Spearhead. With this I can take three transports and outflank 'em, with them coming on turn one. Stormravens any body?

The other is Archeotech Spearhead. All weapons on the vehicles selected by this get a +1S, which for a Furious Charging Death Dread with Blood Talons would be pretty nasty. Woah boy!

Some other nasties for C:BA would be Seek and Destroy Spearhead. Take some MM toting Land Speeders and you'll pack a wallop.
Also the Skyfall Spearhead might be interesting as having three Stormravens successfully deep strike could be very devastating.

C/C?

Try the Ramming one. A bunch of fast vehicles that count as having front armor 15 for ramming, and all enemies are at -1 ld against their tank shocks? Awesome

[pgarfunkle]

Yeah I was just reading the pdf and immediately the ramming spearhead caught my eye as a BA player

[DarkLink]

Yeah, now a Rhino moving 12" hits with a Str 10 ram. Now ramming can actually do something.

[DrWobbles]

i was thinking ambush spearhead with furioso dreads, you could get first turn charges with the libbys!

[AbusePuppy]

The other is Archeotech Spearhead. All weapons on the vehicles selected by this get a +1S, which for a Furious Charging Death Dread with Blood Talons would be pretty nasty. Woah boy!

I don't think it works this way. It adds +1S to your weapons, which I interpreted as shooting weapons, since the rest of the text refers to what happens when you shoot. Blood Talons, while a weapon, do not have a Strength value, so I don't think that it would apply to them.

The Archeotech and Tank Hunters ones could both be really sexy with multi-shot midrange guns, like Rifleman Dreads, Hydras, AC/HB Preds, etc. S8 Autocannons that cause ID on MEQs? Don't mind if I do! Extra super awesome vehicle-killing firepower? Hellz yeah!

The Infiltrate + Stealth one is really sexy for the Tau; sneak a wing of Piranhas 18.1" away from the enemy, zoom them in and melta something's face. Alternately, just slapping it onto some of your other tanks means that Disruption Pod is now a 3+ cover save everywhere all the time, basically. Yeah, I think I can live with that.

[DarkLink]

i was thinking ambush spearhead with furioso dreads, you could get first turn charges with the libbys!

I did it with some GK Dreads last night, and they did a great job of distracting my opponent for the first few turns. They even gave me an opportunity to kill Abaddon with a tank shock:D.


I don't think it works this way. It adds +1S to your weapons, which I interpreted as shooting weapons, since the rest of the text refers to what happens when you shoot. Blood Talons, while a weapon, do not have a Strength value, so I don't think that it would apply to them.


Yeah... this is a real tricky question. However, I see no reason why it would only apply to shooting weapons. It never says "all shooting weapons gain +1 str". It says "all weapons gain +1 str".

GW already needs an FAQ for their expansion:rolleyes:.

[Tynskel]

Outflanking Transports + C:BA Assault Cannon Razorbacks. Move 12" Disembark, fire weapons and fire the Assault Cannon at rear armor!

[Tynskel]

I think these spearheads are relatively balanced- against the Blood Angels.

Ex.
If the formation is within 4" of each other, they basically gain Power of the Machine Spirit.

The ramming spearhead helps blood angels, but it is basically balanced with all vehicles: 1 (for Tank) + 5 (Armor 15) + 4 (moving 12") = Str 10. Basically, all tanks except for leman russ can pull off this maneuver. What's awesome is that armor 14 tank is the only thing that can hurt you in this tactic!

What's fun for Blood Angels is that you can do this:

435 Crusher Spearhead
3 Baal Predators with Flamestorm Cannons and Hv Flamers

This formation is a jack of all trades! 3 Str 10 attacks vs armor, or Toasting units! Plus, these tanks all have Scouts, so you can just outflank!

[Sanguinary Dan]

Flank Attack Spearhead of Stormravens with DC or Sanguinary Guard and DC or Librarian Furioso Dreadnoughts. The ultimate in turn 1 assault. Fly on 12" unload troops 2" to the front and Dreads to the flanks and then pimp slap everything in reach. Sweeeeet! :D

[Hugz4Genestealers]

I'm with the dissenters on the blood talons/archeotech spearhead combo: I don't think the talons benefit from the +1 strength, although it does fall in a rather grey area. Most vehicles don't have a strength stat on their profile, and use the varying strengths of their different weapons, which is what the archeotech modifies. On the other hand, dreads do have their own strength stat, but again use the strength value of whatever weapon they are firing at the time. The blood talons, being close combat weapons, do not have an innate strength value of their own, using the dread's profile when resolving attacks, so normally I'd say no way do the talons benefit from the boost. Even if someone were to come up with a valid argument for why the dread's baseline stats should be boosted by the archeotech rule, the only possible balance would be to make the quasi-"gets hot" roll every time the blood talons were used: either the aren't affected by the rule and work as normal, or they are affected and all the benefits and drawbacks apply.

[Nabterayl]

The blood talons, being close combat weapons, do not have an innate strength value of their own
I concur with Archaeotech not increasing the Strength of Attacks delivered using Blood Talons, for this reason.

[Tynskel]

Played two Spearhead Games today. Small games:

1000 Points

1st Game:
Blood Angels
Armored Spearhead
Land Raider Redeemer with Extra Armor, Multi-melta
2 Predator Annihilators
Outrider Squadron
Baal Predator as leader
Rhino
Razorback

My opponent played BA as well:
Armored Spearhead
Vindicator, Poor Man's Annihilator, Baal Pred.
Ambush Squadron
3 Furioso Dreadnoughts with Magna Grapples.

Mobility plus Range won this one: My 2 Predator Annihilators and the Redeemer (when things got close) just raked the enemy.

The Outrider Squadron worked almost perfectly- turn 2, I removed the vindicator cannon, and I had moved in close to prevent ramming. Constantly blasting away with the Baal (which never hurt anything other than the Vindicator Cannon), my opponent attempted to stop the Outrider Squadron (for fear that I would get behind him). This allowed my Armored Spearhead to deal with the Dreadnoughts one by one. Every time a damaging hit came to the baal, it was placed on the Razorback or Rhino. I had set the squadron up that the Rhinos and Razorbacks were in cover due to the Baal, and therefore the Baal was being targeted, to overcome the cover save on the smaller tanks. But Armor 13 is still a pain in the butt to penetrate. In the end the Rhino and Razorback were Immobilized with all weapons destroyed, but not dead. The baal didn't have a scratch.

My opponent conceded when he only had his baal and a dreadnought that couldn't move and could not bring weapons to bear, and I had not lost a single tank (just damaged tanks). This was turn 6.


There are a lot of tactics involved-- felt very much like a 'chess' game. All about proper positioning and understanding the limitations of the formations.

Quick and fun--- If you have lots of different types of tanks, I think you'll enjoy Spearhead.

[Archon Charybdis]

Armored Spearhead
Land Raider Redeemer with Extra Armor, Multi-melta
2 Predator Annihilators


My opponent played BA as well:
Armored Spearhead
Vindicator, Poor Man's Annihilator, Baal Pred.

Not to jump all over you Tynskel, I don't know if you guys just house-ruled it, but are you aware you can only take units in a Spearhead from the same codex entry (with the obvious exception of the outrider)?

"Unless stated otherwise, all of the units in a spearhead must be chosen from the same entry in the army list, though they may take different options and upgrades."

[Tynskel]

whoops, missed that rule. It was our first game!

[Archon Charybdis]

Heh, not like it's a big deal, your opponent did it as well! I keep seeing a lot of people miss that rule though. I suppose it's just because it's a new and unfamiliar rules set. Though honestly, dropping the "same entry" rule wouldn't be a bad idea to let people with fewer tanks actually run spearheads, you'd just want to keep an eye out for any potential abuse.

[Tynskel]

Ture True,

however, most (if not all) of the formations can be 1 unit. It is nice to have more than one tank in the formation for the weaker 'Power of the Machine Spirit' bonus, but not needed.

In fact, I almost never used that rule (I think I ended up using it 2-3 times). That's probably because I was Blood Angels, and just moving 6" allows me to fire everything. If I was moving faster, I was moving the 18"--- the formation that was using it the extra weapon firing was the correct formation: The Outrider.