Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Why Demonhunters to Adepticon?


There are several reasons why someone would take Demonhunters to the Adepticon Championships.
  • ·         They fit in a small army transport. When you are flying across the country you want to keep your army in a transport you can bring and store in carry-on luggage. You do this because if the airline loses your checked baggage it is not too much of a problem, but if they lose your army it is. Also you do not know how or what the baggage handlers or TSA are doing with your models or how they are treating them when they are out of your sight. You do not want to spend half a day in your hotel room trying to re-assemble your army. 
  • ·         You not only want to fight good, but look good. For paint scoring Adepticon has this huge check list of not only how well your army is painted, but how it is converted, and how your display board looks. I have a good idea for a paint scheme with a lot of conversions (yes, with metal models) and an X-Board from Battlefoam to display my army and I am going to jazz it up with that terrain SM statue that they have, and some pillars and try to get a good painting score for once!
  • ·         I have played a lot with my Demonhunters so I know their tactics and how they play.

The problem with Demonhunters is that you have to win games and that is not their forte. That is only a small hurdle right? Especially since this year Adepticon has put an emphasis on winning this year with their W/L/T format, and the armies that go 4-0 are going to the second round on day #2.

So you need to build a Demonhunters list that can take out the heavy hitters. So how do you do that?Well if that was easy to answer someone would have done it by now!

But I have some ideas...

As everyone knows, it is hard to win with Demonhunters or people would not be saying that they are one of the worst codexes in the game. They have a lot of huge hurdles to cross to do what most armies can do normally. For example, they get a 25 point fearless marine with a stormbolter that any 15 point CSM or SW can beat up in assault. Not only are they over-priced but the power level has greatly passed them by (now that I think about it the power level was never passed, they never had it to begin with). With the new 5th edition codexes you have ICs running around with huge WS, BS and initiative, and then you have the GK Grandmaster with his average stats that most Vanilla ICs get standard. Also the GK terminators use to be the bee’s knees, but now they are living in a world where they have to go up against thunderhammer-stormshield terminators and they are going to be in a world of hurt. 

Then we can talk about the points they need to unlock certain units! You need to buy a GK IC just to get GKs. Then you need to buy an Inquisitor if you want to get Assassins and Mystics, and some of the other Inq zoo crew. Then if you want IG, you have to take 2 DH troop choices to get one unit, and then to get the IG FA and HS slots you have to take 2 IG troop selections! Then at that point you end up looking more like a badly built IG army than a DH army. So you end up paying a premium for some bad units just to get some good toys that are not all that good to begin with.   

What the Demonhunters do well.
  • They can take Land Raiders. Them and everyone else, but this helps them with their lack of anti-tank, and to get the terminators where they need to go. Also in the current meta-game there is not too much (I hope) that can hurt them anymore and some protection from Long Fangs.
  • Throwing lead downrange Although they do not have a lot of pure anti-tank, they can shoot a ton of strength 6, 5 and 4 shots. They can pack in the psycanons in and do a number on light armor, hordes and even marines. Armor 12+ gives them some troubles, but everything else they can do a good job on.
  •  See, but not be seen. They do have shrouding which is the poorman's night fight, so combined with cover saves, they can diminish the amount of firepower that is being returned. If you are 30+" away, they have a 50% chance that they can't see you. This should help with IG and Long Fangs and gaining local fire supremacy (I hope).
So hopefully these things can help them be successful.

Now on to my preliminary Adepticon Championship list:

HQ
Grey Knight Grand Master w/Master Crafted Weapon, Psychic Hood, Psycannon
A guy that can do OK in assault. The one thing he has going for him is that he has the old school force weapon that can kill anybody.

Elite
1 Terminator Bother-Captain w/Psycannon
1 Terminator w/Psycannon
1 Terminator w/Thunderhammer/Stormshield (very crappy version)
1 Terminator
This is my counter assault unit that handles the heavy hitters. A bunch of strength 6 powerweapons striking at INT should do something to someone. Also they have 6 strength 6 shots that they can move and shoot 36”, and they are pretty good at an softening up targets with shooting prior to charging if they have to.

Troops
4 Grey Knights
2 Grey Knights w/Psycannons
1 Justicar

4 Grey Knights
2 Grey Knights w/Psycannons
1 Justicar
More strength 6 shooting (12 Shots) and 10 at strength 4 at 24". Also they get to use shrouding to try to keep them alive from any long distance shooting. The stormbolters for mid-range shooting and anti-horde, and strength 6 in assault is just a bonus.

Imperial Guard Platoon
Jr Officer
4 Command Squad w/4 Flamers
Chimera w/Multi-laser/Heavy Bolter
This is just a fire-and-forget unit. Anything comes close and they drive up and unleash 4 flamers on something.

6 Imperial Guardsmen
1 Plasma Gunner
2 Heavy Weapon Gunners w/Lascannon
1 Sergeant
Chimera w/Multi-laser/Heavy Bolter

6 Imperial Guardsmen
1 Melta Gunner
2 Heavy Weapon Gunners w/Lascannon
1 Sergeant
Chimera w/Multi-laser/Heavy Bolter
Some cheap cannon fodder. Some chimeras to throw some lead downrange, a lascannon for back-up anti-tank, and of course some lasguns to illuminate any infantry that gets close.

Heavy Support
Land Raider w/Extra Army
Land Raider
The heart of my anti-tank. Hopefully tough to take down because if I lose them I am in a lot of trouble,

So let’s break down the heavy weapons:

 So let’s total it up
6 Strength 9 shots (Not too good. They can shoot at 6 different targets though, 4 are TL, and 2 are at BS 3)
30 Strength 6 shots (good light vehicle, anti-non-vehicle shooting)
15 Strength 5 shots (Some more 36” shooting)

Will it be enough to win? I will find out on Feb 19th when I take it to an RTT in Orange Co. CA against some good players to see what it can do.





4 comments:

  1. I was going to ask about the new codex, but if you're playing this month... Any you haven't finished painting...

    Ah good luck. ;-)

    Oh the Rogue Trader Tournament is the 19th. Is the new Codex a non-possibility? What about FAQs I thought they did one for this army which changed some things... Has that been ruled out by Adepticon, I know they have their own FAQ or set of approved army lists, or something...

    Where are the pics?

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  2. I will take some pics later while I work on it for Adepticon.

    The new codex will not be out until at least April, and any codex needs to be out for at least 1 month before most tournaments will let you use it. So that means that I am going to be using the old codex.

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  3. While the Heavy Bolters offer some long range shooting. While you do have 4 flamers, a Heavy Flamer or two would be very nice against horde-based lists.

    Also, by not buying a retinue for the Grand Master and instead buying a squad as an elite choice, your HQ can't be picked out in close-combat. Plus, it is a bit easier to put attacks on things with your Grand Master. Though you do get an extra psycannon this way. I guess it is a personal opinion.

    Overall, I like the list, though.

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  4. I like Heavy Bolters on my Chimeras. I know that a lot of people like the Heavy Flamer, but I like reaching out an touching people at 36". There are just not that many horde armies out there anymore (even orks are going to a more elite build it seems like)and even then you have several turns of shooting the heavy bolters as they advance and you should get about the same amount of kills as you do with a flamer.

    It just seems like there is a lot of crap like lootas and long fangs and DE vehicles that you are better off with the 36" range. Even though my army is mostly shooting, is not like IG where if they are on you you are in trouble because I have some units that can counter assault. Also I do not have the raw firepower and numbers that IG have that they can lose those shots.

    I will test out the list though and see if I need those heavy flamers.

    ReplyDelete