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Shadow Wars Armageddon Army List and Tactics Discussion


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No problem Raven. Pleased that it was of use to someone. Do let us know how things work out for you as I don't foresee myself actually playing SW:A for a good while yet, so I'm curious to see how my theoretical list works in practise.

 

Most of my Killteam is still languishing on sprues. I'm hoping to fix that, as real life allows.

 

I just realised how far away, geographically speaking, you and Nicodemus are from me. That's something I really like about Bolter and Chainsword - how people who will likely never meet in person, or even be on the same landmass, can still encourage and inspire one another in the hobby that we share. I think that's really nice.

 

Looking forward to hearing from more people, so keep those Killteam pics and lists coming.

 

Dallo

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Played another 2 games of SWA yesterday, again against my friends orks.


 


Here is a pic of my gang at the beginning of the day:


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Imperial%20Guard/IMG_1321_zpsmf60spc1.jpg


 


Sergeant with bolter (the Lt.)


Specialist with plasmagun, las pistol, carapace, camo (has ammo hound skill)


Specialist with flamer, las pistol, carapace (hates the rokkit ork)


Specialist with grenade launcher & lasgun


Veteran with shotgun & carapace


Veteran with shotgun, frag grenades & camo


Veteran with lasgun & frag grenades


Veteran with lasgun


Veteran with laspistol and chainsword (has frenzy)


Newbie with lasgun


 


 


First skirmish was rescue, with the orks trying to rescue a boy I captured last time. I rolled minimum for guards (so I had 1) and he rolled maximum for orks (so, 10).  Knowing things wouldn't go well for my guard, I nominated my newbie for that "honor".  I did manage to move my guard into having a great view of 3 of my friends orks, then rolled a 2 meaning I only had LOS to the nob in full cover and failed to spot him.  The next turn, the nob charged into combat and got 9 hits on the newbie with his power klaw.  Ouch.  Then the worst thing happened - a "1" was rolled, setting off the alarm.  Each turn I managed to get a group of reinforcements on.  The first group camo on almost ontop of 4 orks... then I remembered that my flamer guy couldn't be part of the group as he was out this battle.  They pinned 2 orks, but were both charged and taken out in melee.  Next round, my sarge, grenade launcher and ratskin came on in the same place, and only managed to take out one ork with a point blank krak grenade.


 


Then this happened:


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Imperial%20Guard/IMG_1325_zpsvkvp9pe7.jpg


And my grenade launcher actually won combat and took out the ork when it fumbled with both attack rolls!


 


My last group came on way out of position, so when my friend took out half my gang, I voluntarily bottled.


 


My grenade launcher was the man of the hour, so got the advancement roll which got him the medic skill.  I was really lucky with my injury rolls, the worst one being Frenzy on my sarge, which I rerolled to full recovery with my new medic skill.  So, despite the trouncing, I was going into the next battle with my full kill team... all though I was now 2 promethium to my friend's 7.  With my 100 points, I gave a couple of lasgun guys carapace, hotshots and camo, and got one of them frag grenades.  My newbie and my chainsword guy both rolled "what doesn't kill you", making my newbie a veteran and giving the chainsworder + 1 A.


 


Next battle was scavengers.  My friend chose poorly for table edges, giving my killteam some open lines of sight a cover behind a long line of promethium piping.  This battle, my friend needed 7s to hit and wasn't the luck sack he had been previously, resulting in no models down on my side by the time he decided to bottle out.  I captured one of his Yoofs, so the next mission will likely be another Rescue.  I rolled super-well on the scavenged counters, and now have 6 promethium to my friend's 8, really cutting the gap.


 


Forgetting that I wanted to give an advancement to my sarge (this was the first battle he hadn't either missed or gone out in) and got the evade skill.  I had an extra 100 points to spend thanks to the subplot roll, so I bought carapace, camo, a plasma pistol and a power sword for my sarge (overkill, but its what the model has), a clip harness for my plasma specialist, carapace for the grenade launcher, and carapace, camo and hotshot my my former newbie.


 


And here is my gang now:


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Imperial%20Guard/IMG_1336_zpsdsfvwqow.jpg


 


One thing I've learned is IG vs orks is SUPER swingy - either he gets into melee and wins, or he doesn't and loses.  To my advantage, he has somewhat prioritized toys over boyz - but as he adds more and more bodies to his kill team, I see it getting tougher and tougher for me.


 


Seeing that I'm running out of places to put points, I've converted a VERY old figure for when I want to give carapace to my chainsword guy.  Here it is:


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/WIP/IMG_1339_zpsbw7nbqym.jpg


 


I'll post a pic again when I'm done painting him.


 


 


Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui


Edited by Dr_Ruminahui
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Thanks Reynor!


 


Yeah, WYSIWYG is a cruel mistress... it annoys me to no end that I don't have a lasgun modelled on my grenade launcher arbite, but even I'm not so anal as to model one on.  :smile.: As for my new arbite - WYSIWYG gave me an opportunity to paint a model that I've always wanted to field but never quite found the place.


 


Anyway, finished painting him now:


 


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Arbites/IMG_1340_zpsiodysw1o.jpg


 


I gave him a second ed. las pistol and chainsword because I didn't want him to lose his retro look.


 


Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui


Edited by Dr_Ruminahui
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Finally got my Anvil stuff in (actually very quick shipping from UK- 10 days but it felt like forever), so I've got a WIP od my SWA killteam.

 

Sarge and a couple of the troops.

http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r621/LordIkka/30k/20170523_171150.jpg

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Thanks. These guys will eventually be painted in a grey fatigue/dirty steel armor scheme. I'm going for a muted look, kind of a semi-urban camo without actually being a full urban camo.

 

I'd like to see the Praetorian hunters though I don't know if the dirty underhive will be kind to their pretty uniforms.

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Nice models, Ikka - I look forward to seeing them painted.  An "almost" city camo sounds great - olive green and brown might also look good.

 

"Thanks" to you guys and my modeller's conscience, I have added a lasgun to my grenade launcehr arbite.  So you're welcome. :P

 

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Arbites/IMG_1345_zpsatbom4qw.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Arbites/IMG_1346_zpsdndhgquu.jpg

 

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui

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Looking good Ikka. What colour scheme do you have in mind?

 

Life should hopefully be slightly less hectic for me next week so I'm hoping to put in a bit more work on my Killteam, so we'll see what happens.

 

Keep up the good work gents (and gent-ettes).

 

Dallo

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a game in yesterday.

 

Here's my gang before the game:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Imperial%20Guard/IMG_1336_zpsdsfvwqow.jpg

 

Sarge with bolter, plasma pistol, power weapon, carapace & camo.  Hates the ork Nob.

Specialist with flamer, las pistol & carapace. Has +1 T & hates my friend's Rokkit.

Specialist with grenade launcher (frag & krak), lasgun & carapace.  Has the medic skill.

Specialist with plasma gun, las pistol, carapace, camo & clip harness.  Has Ammo hound skill.

Vet with shotgun & camo.  Has Evade skill.

Vet with shotgun & carapace.

Vet with lasgun (with hotshot), frag greanades, carapace & camo.

Vet with lasgun (with hotshot), frag greanades, carapace & camo.

Vet with lasgun (with hotshot), carapace & camo (used to be a newbie).

Vet with las pistol, & chainsword.  Has + 1 A and Frenzy.

 

Once again it was against my friend's orks on a rescue mission to free the yoof I captured last time.  Again, he rolled max for attackers, but this time I rolled the same for defenders (6), rather than the 1 defender I got last time.

 

Can't remember the exact details, but it was a blood bath.

 

My defenders were pretty much set up as in the photo, with his orks coming in from the top.  The captive is at the top of the tower.

 

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Battle%20Report%201/IMG_1363_zps9lcjct6y.jpg

 

He run & snuck his orks to the bottom of the copper coloured tower before he got spotted by my guy with the chainsword.  My shooting hit, but failed to wound any of his orks... which was pretty much the trend for much of the battle... that and rolls of 6 to hit forcing ammo checks.  And his guys getting up from being down by rolling flesh wounds.

 

The 5 inch height of the platform posed a real challenge for him - the 2 inch height difference from the necromunda terrain levels is huge.  He tried running up the stairs on the tower (they circle the interior wall), but found that he shouldn't have, as it was much longer than going a bit farther to the ladders up to the platform.

 

Highlights:

 

- My sergeant failed his ammo roll for his bolter on the first round.  He then used his plasma pistol for a couple of rounds, tagging an ork at the top of a ladder, failing to wound but knocking him off for a 5 inch fall... which also failed to wound. And then he failed the ammo test for that as well.  He ended up charging the orks that made it to the top level, winning 2 separate combats (by 1 each) and taking out the downed rockit as well.

 

- My being excited when the rokkit ork got to the top of the ladder, I expected to be able to charge the ork with 5 attacks from my vet with frenzy.  Instead, the ork hit with his rokkit and knocked my vet off the platform.  The next turn, the ork took out my flamer guy... the 2nd time that has happened in the 1/2 dozen games we've played.  Neither +1 T or carapace doesn't help against a rokkit, unfortunately.

 

- My grenade launcher catching his nob and 2 boys with a grenade and taking down the 2 boys.  He later hit his big shoota with a krak grenade, taking him out of action with 3 "flesh wound" results (on top of the one the ork already had).

 

- Except for with my sarge, when the orks got into melee, it hurt... I lost my plasma gunner and one of my carapace hotshots that way.  Incidentally, my plasma gunner also would have run out of ammo but for his ammo hound skill.

 

Eventually, with both of us having 6 guys down or out, he finally had to start taking bottle rolls, which he made the first round thanks to the reroll from his nob's iron will, the second round with his nob down (due to a krak grenade from the grenade launcher) from good rolls, then the 3rd round, despite getting his nob back up with a flesh wound, from rolling a 9 then rerolling a nine.

 

What a meat grinder.

 

Here's a pic of the orks going up the tower - shows how it was actually the long way up...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Battle%20Report%201/IMG_1366_zpsisw60cjv.jpg

These were the two downed by the grenade launcher... one then crawled to the bottom of the ladder up to the ring, then went out of action.

 

For my friend, the wound rolls were kind for him - 2 "what doesn't kill you" (1 on a youff, which is a bit of a waste), some hatred's and 1 captured.  For me, my plasma gunner got frenzy, and my grenade launcher, flamer and carapace shotgunner all got captured (so, all 3 of my arbites) - I traded my grenade launcher for his captured guy, but will need to try to rescue the other 2.

 

I gave my advancement to my sarge, due to how ace he'd been in melee, and rolled the Iron Will skill, which is about the best thing I could have gotten.

 

As he failed to rescue his youff, I got an extra 100 credits... which I really wished I could save for when I fail to save my two guys and need to buy some replacements. :tongue.:  As that isn't allowed, I bought my hotshot lasgunners and my plasmagunner telescopic sights, and got some more frag grenades.  Oh, and I upgraded my chaisword guy to have carapace, so I could use this model:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Arbites/IMG_1340_zpsiodysw1o.jpg

 

So, lots of fun, but we only got one battle in instead of our usual two as it was a real drawn out nail biter.  One thing I did learn was that carapace makes it hard to spot attackers on rescue/raid missions, and that it doesn't really help in melee when outclassed - the enemy is getting enough hits on you, only one of which needs to get through, to make any armour protection kind of moot.

 

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui

Edited by Dr_Ruminahui
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Nice report. I agree with the Carapace armour. Less Initiative sounds like a nice trade-off, but it does make a big difference in some cases. These cases are not as rare as you would expect.
 
I played some games as well and posted the results in the SW:A thread. So I apologise in advance if you've seen it already:

 

Played my first 4 games too. I played with a mate that hasn't played anything from GW before (except maybe Space Hulk). Strangely enough he had the hang of it as soon as I did, which was after the second game. It was a ton of fun with happy and bad accidents, which is bound to happen when someone is playing Orks. My mate is just starting with his orks, so he had only 2 models to play with. In the pictures below you'll see some Dark Angels as count-as, at least the colour was already correct.
 
My first game was against a couple of boys with Shoota's and 4 Yoofs with pistols and choppa's. I got slaughtered. My shooting did NOTHING at all. Guardsmen hit easily, but their lasguns struggle against T4 orks. One half of my guardmen got chopped up and shanked while the rest was unconcious from his Big shoota and Kombi-shoota. His only casualty was from a stray shot from his own guys.
 
I performed better the second time. My sniper and plasma gunner managed to get a nice vantage point at one map corner, taking potshots at everything that came into view. A team of lasgunners came around the other corner. He stacked his units close together, so pinning/downing a couple of Orks made them break morale quite often. Especially his spannerboys ran often when I pinned their meatshields. His bottle checks failed eventually too. I won that round by simple outshooting him.


http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/GreyRavenC/DSCN3158_zpsvupcaeto.jpg
http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/GreyRavenC/DSCN3159_zpsdvyumezs.jpg
http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/GreyRavenC/DSCN3160_zpsmlprt1ox.jpg
 
The third round was ambush. This was a fun game, even if I won in the very first round. Orks were defenders, I placed my sniper, sarge and plasmagunner on the same high building as before and some guys on the other guys to flank. He placed one team one floor beneath my snipers. When I stared my turn, I managed to down his boss and spannerboy, the ork nearby broke morale and ran. My second team shot from the other side of their hidingplace. I pinned one and made his neighbour break morale as well. This second team also had sight on the orks under my sniper. I managed to lob a grenade in there, downing one and breaking morale on his neigbour. He bottled out before even doing anything. We were laughing from start to finish, cowardly orks!

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/GreyRavenC/DSCN3161_zpsg2dlbmsq.jpg
http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/GreyRavenC/DSCN3162_zpsek2keikw.jpg
http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/GreyRavenC/DSCN3163_zps2ts2xdxa.jpg

The last game was a bit of a dud, we had to capture 3 loot tokens, but my opponent messed up with the placements, so he essentially gave me 2 of the 3 tokens first turn. His shooting missed everything, while mine brought disaster on his guys. He bottled next turn, although I would have won next turn even if he made his roll, since I just had to walk back to my table edge with my loot.
 
The games were usually one sided for one or the other, but it were fun games nonetheless. His Orks that break morale, my grenade launcher than always fails his ammo rolls, my lasguns that never wound or my opponent's ability to hit so often on 6+ and 7+ throws.
And I managed to convince my mate to start a small force of 20 guys, something he would NEVER have considered before. This game is truly a powerfull asset to the hobby, it's a shame the initial support from GW is so weak.

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Thanks for sharing your games with us, Grey Raven.  I too have found that games against orks tend to be rather lopsided - with one army or the other getting trounced.

 

No gaming this WE, but thought I should show you guys some newly painted terrain that will predominantly be for SWA.

 

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Terrain/IMG_1385_zpswcustun6.jpg

 

I'm pretty happy with it.

 

It's meant to go along with a water tower I had previously built out of a gum ball machine.  The tower is a fair bit more reddish, but otherwise they match pretty well.

 

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Dr_Ruminahui/Terrain/IMG_1368_zpsohdpge7u.jpg

 

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui

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  • 2 weeks later...

Played 3 games against my friend's orks last night, wrapping up our 2-man campaign.  I, as always, played my Imperial Guard killteam, which by now is all in carapace and most have hotshot lasguns with telescopic sights and have frag grenades - in other words, I've maxed out may gang, have 3 specialists (one grenade launcher with both types, one plasma gun and one flamer).

 

Unfortunately, last game 2 of my guys (my flamer guy and a guy with a shotgun) were captured.

 

First game was rescue.  I had 4 would-be rescuers, my friend had 8 or so defenders (his yoofs, nob, rokkit and big shoota).  I snuck forward, trying to get good lines of sight for my opening round.  Unfortunately, my opening round of shooting was very bad, taking one ork and pinning another (despite it falling 9 inches).  His downed ork quickly got up with a flesh wound, and he was able to down two of my guys, at which point I withdrew.

 

My close combat arbite (who held off 2 orks in melee) got the cat fall skill, and I used my 100 points to buy a new guy with carapace and a shotgun.  My friend bought 4 yoofs to bring his band to 20 models.

 

 

Second game was hit-and-run, with me rolling (hidden from my opponent) that I needed to take his nob out of action.  I got 5 attackers, and I don't remember how many defenders my friend had, as it ended up being irrelevant.  He placed his nob and another ork kind of seperated from the rest (to be truthful, everything was kind of separated from each other, as he spread his models all over the battlefield).  I was able to find 2 tiny deployment areas (I had to be 12" away from his models) in the corners by the nob.

 

The fIrst turn went well - I was able to get all my guys into range and LOS, and took both the nob and the boy down.  Unfortunately, however, my friend then got 4 reinforcements on the table edge by all my models, and charged all my models (1 ork charged two guys), taking out 4 of them.  I voluntarily bottled my next turn.

 

Two models (my plasma gun and close combat arbite) were out for the next game, with one getting frenzy (which he already had) and the other getting hatred.  My grenade launcher, who held off an ork in melee, got the survivor promotion.

 

 

Third game was a straight up fight... by with 8 models versus his 20, I knew I was in a tough spot.  As such, I chose the short table edge with some pipes for cover, so I could make a gun line and have the orks come the long way across the table without much cover.

 

I did manage to take 5 orks down, forcing my opponent to take bottle checks, but as the nob had a reroll from iron will, I wasn't likely to win that way.  I knew things were pretty much over when his nob and a mob of about 5 orks were close to charge range, and his rokkit took out my grenade launcher (over the course of the game, my friend made a statistically unlikely number target number 8 shots).  I did manage to put one wound on the nob, but needed another to take him down.

 

In the end, the orks downed about half of my team with shooting, with the nob making it into combat and taking out one more.  Even with 2 of my team getting back up with fleshwounds on the my second last turn, the writing was on the wall and I threw in the towel.

 

Still, it was a fun game, with some entertaining moments:

 

- his nob took out one his yoofs by shooting him in the back the head.

- after an entire campaign with no guns exploding, we had 2 in the final turns.  First, my sarge had his plasma pistol blow up when he wounded the nob, but it failed to wound him.  Then, the yoof with the nob who hadn't been shot in the head had his slugga blow up, taking him out of action.

- a yoof ran behind a baracade, hoping to shoot over it.  No such luck - if he'd been a boy, he would have been tall enough, but my friend used gorka morka orks for his yoofs, which are a fair bit smaller.

- for the one and only time in the campaign, an ork shot at my team needing only a 4+ to hit... I think he did so, but my carapace saved me, about the only time in the whole campaign (well, second time - it saved me in melee once) that it actually made a difference.

 

After that game, my friend would have had at least 15 promethium, to my 11.  I know by the rules he needed to win 1 more game to win the campaign, but it was pretty much a forgone conclusion so we called the campaign there.  My take aways:

 

1.  I need friends who roll worse.  The number of 8+ shots my friend made, and the number of wounded orks he had get back up with flesh wounds was statistically improbable. :)

 

2.  Boys before toys.  IG teams are strong in the early game, but as soon as they get outnumbered they really struggle.  Didn't help that at the end of the campaign, when my friend was still buying more orks for his team, I was basically forced to put points into things that really didn't give much value... given the choice between another guy with a lasgun, or carapace on 4 guys, the right call is the extra guy... and this gets even worse when forced to take more marginal gear like sights or frag grenades.

 

3.  The game is fun, but the factions certainly aren't ballanced - though it might be better in a campaign with more players.

 

 

Anyway, those are likely to be my last games in a while (my friend and I are likely to play 8th ed instead when we game together), but I look forward to reading the stories of your own battles - and I will continue to post my SW:A terrain here as I paint it. :)

 

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui 

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I played a bunch of games using my IG Kill Team (Death Korps of Krieg models - pics coming soon). Here was my list:

 

Veteran Sergeant — Laspistol (15)

Veteran Guardsman — Lasgun (25)

Veteran Guardsman — Lasgun (25)

Veteran Guardsman — Lasgun (25)

Special Weapons Operative — Sniper rifle (40), Red-dot laser sight (20), Toxic rounds (20)

Special Weapons Operative — Sniper rifle (40), Red-dot laser sight (20), Toxic rounds (20)

Special Weapons Operative — Plasma gun (80), Red-dot laser sight (20)

Guardsman — Shotgun (20)

Guardsman — Shotgun (20)

 

Since DKOK models are such a giant pain to fix/clean/bend/build/paint/etc I didn't have any extra guys to add during the short campaign, this hurt me bad. I kept beefing up individual guys, but if one misses a game it really hurts.

 

My main opponent was a CSM with a nasty autogun that just wrecked everyone. I lost pretty much every game but did learn a few things.

 

Lessons:

Keep a Carapace Armour guy in front of your Leader (within 6") at all times. He can tank wounds and still use the Leader's Init to get back up early, as well as Leader's Ld for breaks.

 

Ideally keep your Leader and the Snipers in his little group hidden, he doesn't need to fire and should instead use "voice of command", and the sniper can shoot while hidden. The non-hidden guy is the one wearing the Carapace all in the 2" coherency conga-line.

 

The new recruits are up further intercepting charges/shots etc. Red Dot is totally necessary given how much terrain you really should be using. I found that even when we used the 3x4 table, the Telescoping lense on the sniper was totally worth taking, especially as other players upgrade with camo gear etc.

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