Road to the GT: Anti- Spam Tactics!

Hello! Today I'll be continuing my Road to the GT series with another tournament tactics article. Last time I looked at several popular Death Star builds and some counter strategies, but now I'll be looking at another popular style of tournament army lists- spam!

So to start, what do I mean by a "spam" list? Essentially, a spam list is simply one that takes many of the same unit, rather than many different units. While this may sound innocuous, it's normally because certain units are simply better than others- a Space Marine Stalker is quite simply better than a Hunter in all regards, for example. By taking multiples of a reasonably good unit ("spamming" the unit) it's quite easy to get a pretty good army; however when you start spamming the best units not just from your faction but from the whole game, the army goes from pretty good to obscenely strong. Below I've listed a few of the most frequently spammed units you're likely to run into, along with some of the corresponding builds:

• Eldar Wave Serpents. One of the most common, and possibly the strongest, spam builds currently. Expect to see 4-5 of them, either containing Dire Avengers for Objective Secured or Fire Dragons for dealing with high armour. My list for the GT is a prime example of a "Serpent Spam" army.
• Necron Barges. Both Catacomb Command Barge chariots and Annihilation Barges are very strong vehicles, each having AV 13 and 3HP. Command Barge chariots are currently very strong with the changes to chariots and Jink in 7th Edition, and Annihilation Barges have fearsome firepower with their twin-linked Tesla Destructor-, 4 shot Str 7 weapons with the Tesla rule (any 6s to hit, even on snap shots, do 3 hits instead of 1). Combined with a fairly reasonable point cost for either means you should expect to see at least 4 barges in most Necron tournament armies.
• Necron Canoptek Wraiths. Str 6, T4, W2 3++ save Jump Infantry that come in squads of up to 6. Frequently you'll see 2-3 full units. These guys really excel when led by a Destroyer Lord with a 2+ armour save, who tanks most wounds and can Look Out Sir anything AP2, as well as granting Preferred Enemy (Everything) to the unit. This Necron tournament build is frequently known as "Wraithwing".
• Necron Night Scythes. Cheap flyers that can transport troops and drop them precisely while zooming, as well as having twin-linked Tesla Destructors too. It's easy to get 5-6 of these planes in a fairly small army. Variants of this list are often referred to as "Cron Air."
• Space Marine Tactical Squads. Yes, the humble Tactical Marine with his brand new Objective Secured ability and his trusty transport is on the march once more! This build revolves around at least 5 full Tactical Squads in Drop Pods or sometimes Rhinos. Each squad uses the Combat Squads ability to create 15 Objective Secured units (10 combat squads and 5 transports) spread across the board, all of which are pretty tricky to deal with. Chip Boyd from Torrent of Fire has a great series on his Drop Pod Salamanders list.
• Space Marine Bikes. As they can be made into Troops by a Captain or Chapter Master on a bike, Space Marine Bike squads are prime candidates for spamming, with 2 special weapons, a combi-weapon and a heavy weapon attack bike in each 5 man squad! Expect to see them as White Scars, with Khan as the Warlord to grant them all Scout, forming a very powerful alpha strike army (often with many Grav weapons). My friend Drew's White Scar list is a classic example.

So how do you counter a spam list like the ones above? Here's a few ideas to get started:

Design your list well. A good strategy starts with the models you bring. Unfortunately as spam lists are so prevalent it means you need to factor questions such as "How can I deal with 5 Wave Serpents/5 Necron Barges/50 Tactical Marines in a given game" into your list building. There's not much more to say here- spam armies are excellent at beating lists that don't have enough of the right tools.

Be extra careful with deployment. When you play against spam, your deployment needs to be absolutely on point. You need to ensure you protect whatever tools you have that can tackle their best units, and be willing to sacrifice any units that won't be of much use. When you deploy it's very important to measure threat ranges and be careful- you need to mitigate their firepower as much as possible early on while you try and thin out the spam.

Set up overlapping fields of focussed fire, and redundancy of firepower. When you set up shots, it's important to make sure than each of your units has multiple targets and each of their units can be targeted by several of yours. This way if you get lucky with some high damage early in the phase and take something down more easily than you expected, you can capitalise and get more shots on other targets. Similarly if you have some bad rolls, you can pick up the slack afterwards.

Target priority is always a big deal, but especially in these games. As most of their units will be similar, you might think it's easy to just shoot as many things as you can. This is a trap- you should try to kill whichever of their units is controlling more of the board, and see if they are relying on any key support units that you can quickly eliminate.

Mitigate their firepower as much as possible.  Most spam lists will be vehicle based, so don't shoot the next one until the first one is dead, or has Jinked. This is a simple rule but is one of the best ways to counter these lists. Against non-vehicles, try and use pinning and morale tests as much as possible, but it's still important to focus down units until they're either dead or no longer functional.

Well there you have it! Spam lists always make tough opponents, but if you play well and bear in mind these tips then hopefully it should be a bit easier to get a positive result from the game.
I hope you enjoyed the article, and that the series is proving useful. I'm going to wrap it up soon with an article on dealing with "Big Hitters"- Wraithknights, Riptides and Imperial Knights. I'll also cover the so-called "Pacific Rim" style builds too, with an Adamantine Lance formation of 3 Imperial Knights, allied with 2-3 Wraithknights or Riptides.

Thanks again for reading, and if you've got any more tips or ideas comment below!

SimonW

Road to the GT: Anti- Death Star Tactics

Hello, and welcome to the latest post from Back In The Box! Today I'll be talking about some of the popular army lists you're likely to encounter at a GT style event, and some tactics you can use to try and get the edge over your opponent!

So, what army lists are popular at tournaments at the moment? Naturally there's a wide variety, but many of the most "competitive" builds can be separated into 2 categories: Death Stars; or Spam. Here I'll be focusing on Death Stars, but I'll do a follow-up post about tackling Spam lists too.

A Death Star build normally focuses on using very powerful combinations of rules to create a single incredibly powerful unit that is both deadly and resilient. To qualify, it normally has to have a way to destroy at least 2 units per turn (multiple assault, split fire, etc), and a way to absorb any incoming damage (re-rolling saves, tanking characters, invisibility, etc). The lists will have some support elements too- often lots of small troop squads to claim objectives while the Death Star destroys your opponent, along with some hard hitting units to fill in any gaps with the remaining points.
Some common Death Stars at the moment are:

• Eldar Primary/Dark Eldar Allies "Beast Pack"
  -This is the most common Death Star in the current meta- essentially it's a large Beast Pack unit from the Dark Eldar codex consisting of at least 20 Khymerae (space dogs that move as beasts with 3 base attacks at Str 4 and a 4+ invulnerable save [4++ for short]), with some characters for support. These are almost always the same- Baron Sathonyx, for Hit and Run and a 2++ to tank wounds, and several Eldar psykers to either cast Fortune (re-roll failed saves), Invisibility (can only be targeted by Snap Shots or hit on 6s in melee), or both. One psyker holds a relic called the Shard of Anaris, making the unit fearless. It uses multiple assaults to attack many units at once, and with Hit and Run it can hide in combat effectively too.
• Eldar Primary/Dark Eldar Allies "Seer Council"
  -This involves 9-10 Eldar Warlocks on jetbikes, joined by Baron Sathonyx (from above) and 2 Eldar Farseers on jetbikes, one holding the Shard of Anaris again to grant Fearless. It relies on casting Fortune and then getting 2+ rerollable armour and cover saves from various warlock powers, as well as using the 2++ reroll from the Baron. Again it uses multiple assaults to attack many units at once, with more Warlock powers to debuff enemies and buff themselves, alongside hiding in combat too. It was a staple of 6th edition but it's less common now, as it relies on casting far more psychic powers than the Beast Pack, so with the psychic changes in 7th edition it's much less reliable.
• Eldar Primary/Dark Eldar Allies "Beast Council"
  -My favourite Death Star build currently just for the sheer audacity of it. Pioneered at the ETC by (I believe) Team Wales, this monstrosity contains a full Seer Council of jetbike Warlocks buffing themselves, and then also a full Beast Pack with 5 Spirit Seers, Baron Sathonyx and Eldrad Ulthran! It tries to cast Invisibility on the Beast pack, making them almost impossible to shoot, and then Fortune on the Seer Council to reroll 2+ saves (Eldrad joins the Beast pack and uses his 24" range Fortune on the Warlocks). It's very flexible, and extremely deadly. The Beasts can assault many units a turn, and the Warlocks can join in or bust tanks with str 9 singing spear shooting. The unit with the Baron (normally the Beast Pack) can also hide in combat. A common tactic with the Warlocks is to roll all their powers on summoning, creating new units of daemons and even turning some of the Eldar psykers into Lords of Change!
• Space Marines Primary/Grey Knights Allies (or vice versa) "Centurion Star"
  Not the most durable Deathstar out there, but it packs a huge punch. 5-6 Centurion devastators with Grav Cannons and Grav Amps, as well as an Omniscope to split fire. The characters are normally Draigo (if he's allowed) to always have Gate of Infinity, or a Grey Knights Librarian, and Tigurius of the Ultramarines for Prescience/Ignores Cover/Other Divination Nonsense. The unit then teleports around, shooting the daylights out of 1-2 units each turn. The unit relies heavily on a tanking character, such as Draigo or the Chapter Master from the Bikestar, to mitigate return firepower as well as the natural 2+ saves and Toughness 5 of the unit.
• Space Marines "Bikestar"
  This is what my opponent Drew used in this battle report. I won't go into as much detail here as I've already covered it- essentially it's a Chapter Master with a 2+/3++ save and Eternal Warrior to tank wounds, Khan to grant scout moves, and a command squad with either Grav Guns, Storm Shields or both. It can shoot pretty well, can jink for a 3+ cover save, and is fearsome in assault too. Plus with Hit and Run it's very hard to catch, hiding in combat for most of your turns.
• Tau "Farsight Bomb"
  Commander Farsight and 7 bodyguard suits, and either Shadowsun or a Commander, along with a whole bunch of gun drones. Someone in the unit holds wargear granting twin-linked, ignores cover, and a choice Monster Hunter/Tank Hunter/Stubborn for the unit as well as BS5 for the drones, and everyone else takes dual missile pods/dual plasma rifles/dual fusion blasters and target locks. As you may have guessed, it's plan is simply to shoot 3-4 units off the board each turn. It can Deep Strike without scattering, and delivers a crippling blow with the huge volume of firepower. However it isn't very maneuverable after it arrives and often isn't very resilient to return fire either.
• Astra Militarium Paskstar
  A fairly new list that emerged from the ETC, this Death Star is different to the others in that it's a vehicle squadron. It uses 3 Leman Russ Punishers, led by Knight Commander Pask, and drives across the board mowing down whatever it can reach. Due to his order the squadron gains the split fire rule, and as Pask has rending or pseudo- tank hunter the unit is quite flexible. It requires much more support than other Death Stars as it needs to be bubble wrapped by Conscripts to prevent enemies getting too close, and it also needs multiple psykers nearby, to cast Prescience for re-rolls to hit and Forewarning to get a 4++. Still, the firepower is fearsome, and not many armies have great solutions to 3 AV 14 Vehicles with 4++ saves that you have to deal with at long range.

Note: In this article, I frequently refer to "tanking wounds" or a "tank character", etc. This means using the "closest model first" wound allocation rules to allow a character with a significantly better save/more wounds/both than the rest of the unit to absorb firepower that would annihilate his squadmates by simply standing at the front. A tank should have Eternal Warrior too, so that there's no way for him to suffer Instant Death and leave the unit vulnerable.
I also refer to "hiding in combat". This involves using the Hit and Run rule selectively, so that you launch an assault in your own turn, stay locked in combat for your opponent's turn (so you can't be shot), and then Hit and Run away at the end of their turn to escape combat, and be free to act as normal in your own turn again.

While the above lists are all very difficult match-ups to play against, it doesn't mean they can't be beaten. Here are some of the best ways to go about it:

Avoid them. There's a very good article on Torrent of Fire by Justin Cook about using MSU (Multiple Small Unit) tactics against Death Stars. Essentially, if you spread your forces and stick to the corners and edges of the board, you can mitigate the Death Star's ability to kill multiple units quickly and force them to spend valuable time crossing the board trying to get to you (and crucially, not doing anything in the mean time).

Play the mission. You can't beat it in a straight fight, but can you hold more objectives at the end of Turn 5? Can you achieve more TacOs than them? Good placement of objectives also helps here- spread them out as much as you can, so that the Star can't threaten more than 2-3 at once, allowing you to draw or even win the mission. This isn't possible in Kill Points games, and if you're playing Kill Points against a Death Star then you have my sympathy- they're very, very hard to beat at Kill Points. Just try to get as many points from the game as you can, and drink beer.

Kill what you can, when you can. Normally, the Death Star will be about 1/3 to 1/2 of your opponent's points, tied up in an unkillable block of nastiness. However, this means that all of your army can focus on eliminating their support units, not worrying about killing anything else! Destroy any small troop squads when you get the chance, stopping your opponent from claiming objectives. Kill his fire support if you get the chance, using your numerical superiority to gun them down efficiently. However, the caveat "when you can" definitely applies. You need to keep moving away from the Death Star with most of your army, and occasionally sacrifice something to it when there's nowhere else to go. Try and make sure that, when you sacrifice something, it will only be able to kill that unit. Transports with units inside are excellent here- he will often have to waste a turn killing the transport, and then another turn killing the unit too! If you just line up and try to out-shoot your opponent, he will, to put it bluntly, move across the board and kill your whole army.

Take your chances. Many of these Death Stars rely heavily on psychic powers or careful positioning. If your opponent fails a psychic power or makes a mistake in positioning, it may create an opening for you to either kill off some of the key models from the unit, reduce its numbers, or even destroy it entirely.

Go first. While this sounds obvious, it's often forgotten. A jetbike Warlock council without any psychic powers up is as durable as 10 tactical marines. A naked beast pack just becomes 30 T3 models with 4++. Bonuses to seize the initiative are excellent here- Coteaz with his re-roll, or the Strategic Warlord Trait granting +1, or even Asdrubael Vect/Imotekh the Stormlord getting a 4+! Remember than most of these bonuses stack too.

Deploy well. Again, this sounds obvious, but this is one of the times you should definitely spread out in deployment. Additionally, you'll almost certainly be deploying second if your opponent gets any say in it, so use this to your advantage and counter-deploy, using your tape measure to stay out of their threat range. Remember though that you'll almost always be trying to seize, so ensure that if needs be you can move Turn 1 to shoot their Death Star while it's vulnerable.

So there you have it, my best anti- Death Star tactics. Even if you do all of the above, victory isn't guaranteed, but at least you've got a fighting chance against some of the most frustrating armies to play against. Next time I'll be writing about another most style of tournament build- spam!

Until then, thanks once again for reading, and as always any comments or ideas are welcome below.

SimonW