Malifaux registration is off to a roaring start for 2014, and with good reason! There are "bad things happening" every single day and night of NOVA with regard to this particularly excellent game.
Coupled w/ inputs from the Malifaux leads, we've been working through the terrain concepts for this year's 26 tables, with swamp/Gremlin hoocheville, badlands, desert, frosty, and grassy plains themes in the works.
I laid a couple of the early concepts - Badlands and Frosty - out for our regular Malifaux Mondays this week .... Obviously the tabletops themselves at NOVA will match the themes ...
 |
| Badlands Theme in Progress |
 |
| Frozen Tundra Theme in Progress, some inspiration from Certs on the Infinity Team |
Something I started playing with about a month ago and have become increasingly enamored with is the concept of working your way around deathstars and eventually knightbuilds by leveraging MSU - most especially highly deployable/redeployable MSU.
What you do not want to do is have a mostly static or "I have to either deploy or come on standard reserves" force if you do this, because many of the common deathstars these days have split fire, and multi-assault capabilites that they are readily willing to use due to their extreme durability.
There are 2 in particular that have seen a lot of use; one is Eldar primarily, with Tau allies, and the other is Farsight/Tau, built to help Justin Cook of Team America work through a similar concept that he's been mulling.
Can you tell me why these work? I'll do a follow-up article with vassal screenshots to explain how these have been used to beat the snot out of common Jetstar, Centstar, Screamerstar, etc., lists, even on Kill Points (yup!).
(p) Eldar / (a) Tau MSU List
Baharroth - 195
Shadowsun - 135
5 Striking Scorpions - 85
5 Striking Scorpions - 85
5 Striking Scorpions - 85
Crisis Suit w/ Fusion Gun, Burst Cannon, 2 Gun Drones - 71
3 Guardian Jetbikes w/ Shuriken Cannon - 61
3 Guardian Jetbikes w/ Shuriken Cannon - 61
3 Guardian Jetbikes w/ Shuriken Cannon - 61
3 Guardian Jetbikes w/ Shuriken Cannon - 61
3 Guardian Jetbikes w/ Shuriken Cannon - 61
3 Guardian Jetbikes w/ Shuriken Cannon - 61
10 Kroot w/ Kroot Hound - 65
6 Swooping Hawks - 96
6 Swooping Hawks - 96
6 Swooping Hawks - 96
4 Pathfinders - 44
Devilfish Dedicated Transport w/ SMS, 2 Seekers - 106
Skyray - 115
War Walker w/ Scatter Laser, Bright Lance - 70
War Walker w/ Scatter Laser, Bright Lance - 70
War Walker w/ Scatter Laser, Bright Lance - 70
___________________________________________________
(p) Farsight / (a) Tau MSU List
Codex: Farsight - Primary Detachment
Commander (85) w/ 2 Fusion Blasters (30), Warscaper Drone (35), Vectored Retro-Thruster (5) - 155
3 x Crisis Suits (66) w/ Bonding Knives (3), 2 x Flamers Each (30) - 99
Crisis Suit (22) w/ Bonding Knife (1), 2 x Missile Pods (30) - 53
Crisis Suit (22) w/ Bonding Knife (1), 2 x Missile Pods (30) - 53
Crisis Suit (22) w/ Bonding Knife (1), 2 x Missile Pods (30) - 53
Crisis Suit (22) w/ Bonding Knife (1), 2 x Missile Pods (30) - 53
Crisis Suit (22) w/ Bonding Knife (1), 2 x Missile Pods (30) - 53
4 x Pathfinders (44) w/ Devilfish Dedicated Transport (80), SMS Upgrade (10), 2 x Seeker Missiles (16) - 150
4 x Pathfinders (44) w/ Devilfish Dedicated Transport (80), SMS Upgrade (10), 2 x Seeker Missiles (16) - 150
4 x Pathfinders (44) w/ Devilfish Dedicated Transport (80), SMS Upgrade (10), 2 x Seeker Missiles (16) - 150
Skyray Missile Gunship (115) w/ Black Sun Filter (1) - 116
Skyray Missile Gunship (115) w/ Black Sun Filter (1) - 116
Skyray Missile Gunship (115) w/ Black Sun Filter (1) - 116
Codex: Tau - Allied Detachment
Commander Shadowsun - 135
Crisis Suit (22) w/ Bonding Knife (1), 2 x Missile Pods (30) - 53
10 x Kroot Carnivores (60) w/ Kroot Hound (5) - 65
4 x Pathfinders (44) w/ Devilfish Dedicated Transport (80), SMS Upgrade (10), 2 x Seeker Missiles (16) - 150
Skyray Missile Gunship (115) w/ Black Sun Filter (1) - 116
Total Points - 1836 (aka you have points to play with)
Let's see who can figure out the details and nuance of how this works, and why it works (hint: it's not just to have lots of threats ... there are a few keys to many of the unit choices and other things that is critical to the way it all works)
The second list seems tailor-made to kill SeerCouncils and Screamerstars.
ReplyDeleteSeeker missiles will instant kill anything in the deathstars, plus the heavy markerlight support means you'll be guiding a lot of those missiles to ignore their insane cover saves. Even the amount of SMS will be a pain since those ignore cover as well.
Landing markerlight hits should be cake with all the BS4 markerlights and pathfinder teams.
The high number of missile pods works against WaveSerpeants (since you often need to glance them to death anyways) and can also drown Wraith constructs in saves.
I'm assuming Shadowsun and the Commander are intended for backfield harass and removing heavy vehicles or monstrous creatures. Not sure on those yet.
That terrain is going to look pretty awesometastic when it's done. It looks like it's climable too, which gives the board an interesting 3 dimensional tactical element!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting lists. I would like to hear more about the tau/tau list, and am very curious about how well it would do, especially in dealing with the inevitable (they are already showing up in my local scene) knight titans.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog, and thanks for posting!
Forgot to leave my thoughts!!!
DeleteI am guessing the many units can spread out, mitigating the poor BS of the tau suits with all the markerlights.
The deathstar/knight titan can only kill so many enemy units a turn, and with this they get many smaller multiple threats in different directions (especially helpful with the knight....but even his side armor is hard to crack with a missile pod).
The warscaper drone? So you can outflank the commander and get him where you want him?
Nice mobile list, reminds me of old tau (I played tau competitively in 5th...yes, I was that one guy...) ah, vehicle multitracker, how I miss thee....
Small point, you need to buy a drone for the commander to become the warscaper drone (you have the points plus 2 to spare).
ReplyDeleteI'll take a stab. In a way you re trying to out deck chair the other guy by bringing a ton of deck chairs. With all of those scoring units (and the support) having alternate deployment options, mobility and redployablity and 3-4 times more scoring units (not only from troops but from the 4-8 FA and Heavy units) you can win by going after troops and being slippery enough to make it difficult for the deathstar to really react to your force in full. Seems like the inverse to controlling the center, of sorts. I am sure there's more to it and more that would be brought out with vassal.
ReplyDeleteeither way its interesting. Had similar non-eldau thoughts myself with marines. Something like Defranza's troll list he posted on ToF taken to more of an extreme.
It looks like both lists use fast moving and deep striking units to get on multiple sides olith a knight. Who cares about the 4++ when he has to choose 1 of 4 facings, and youcan be in 2 or 3 of those facings at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing seems to apply against deathstars, being able to get around them would help to pick out the weak points, like tiggy/loth in a centurion star, or the warlock with protect.
I am also searching for a way to beat all death stars without using a deathstar.
ReplyDeleteThe edge MSU idea is very good (at least on paper). However I am a bit doubtful whenever the 2 lists will work due to the very limited threat against the 2+/2++ save (I know that you are surposed to avoid the 2+ save models but avoiding them altogether is not vialble).
Eg against Ovesa Star where the Ovesa Star joins a solo crisis suit and grabs a center objective, while the 2-3 other Riptides park on 2-3 other objectives. Yes the rest of the Ovesa troops and support will die, but so will most if not all of MSU troops on the 1-2 remaining objectives resulting in a small win to Ovesa or draw or small win for the Eldar MSU (due to the jetbikes). If a 3 objective game it is nearly an auto win for Ovesa.
Against Seer Star, either of the lists can't really hurt the council (so long as joined up). Council and rest of council army focuses on clearing one half of the table and once jetbikes arrive (kept off with Scryers) join baron and farseers to them if one unit if only one arrive - if 2 or more bike units arrive, split the chars up accordingly and join one unit each and hold center plus objectives in the "safe" zone. Send locks in to harrash and contest remaining objectives. Result a win for seer council.
Both of the above can of cause be refined for the MSU and star armies and my conclusion is that there need more AV 2 fire power in both lists as the stars + 2+ support are too mobile and powerful to be ignored, eg a deep striking crisis suit with 2 plasma guns that ignores cover and hits on 2+ (due to extensive marker lights) have a good chance of killing the protect lock (if only one) opening up for the seeker missiles in the next turn.
One minor thing, for the Tau/Tau list you have to buy the Bonding Knife Ritual for the 3 Primary Detachment squads of Pathfinders as well, since every unit that has the option has to take it in a Farsight Enclaves detachment.
ReplyDeleteAnd as mentioned above, you have to buy a drone before you can upgrade it to a Warscaper Drone.