Imperial Knights - no tournament love?

I must have more time on my hands at work these days - two posts in the same... year!

The ETC is currently voting to include or don't include super heavies. Or whether to ban entirely or make an exception for iKnights.

The UK GT is finalising its rules for 2015/16 season and a combined 400 points can be spent on Forgeworld and Superheavies combined.. So it looks like a max of 1 iKnight or Wraithknight.

The question is, do UK tournies follow suit?

The ETC has a tremendous ripple effect on tournaments and in whether the casual tournament player knows it or acknowledges it, the decisions made on this high play level influence what they see on the tabletop.

If you don't think the ETC has an impact, the UK Indy GT certainly does - dropping to 1500, no Maelstrom cards - just a select combined mission pack, and a 400 point cap on FW and Superheavies.

Wow.

I am going to try and get back on the the UK scene a bit more this year, hit the GT qualifiers and then hopefully qualify for the Final next year. I am confident that if I read the meta right I can more than qualify, but the question today is:

Is this the right direction for UK play?

Are iKnights THAT hard to kill/dominant in the game for a tournament player? In the era where GW are allowing us to play with our toy soldiers in almost any way we see fit (ASIDE: remember when you played 40k as a little kid and you just made it up as you went along, confident that your imagination would guide you right for FUN... this is it, but with rules to guide us now that we are more advanced mentally - or not!!) is it right to buck this trend, to rebel against the tide of new releases?

If this is the direction our game is heading - Epic but on a heroic scale (which I for one, am not against!) then shouldn't the UK scene be trying to roll with the punches rather than hit back against an opponent that simply can't feel the blows?

Obnoxious List Building 3: TauDar 1850

As discussed yesterday, it's time to see what some of the tougher builds are in the ever-changing 40k environment right now.
There were a couple of key components that made an "Obnoxious" build - one that you feel you really will struggle to get the upper hand with. These were:
Hyper-Mobile
Hyper-Resilient
Long Range Effective
This on top of the other components of a competitive army make for a truly obnoxious (read: unpleasant wanker) army.
Today, we will discuss TauDar.
Tau Primary and Eldar Allied.
We go this way around because the Tau have some excellent and points efficient units and frankly, we only want a couple of components from the Eldar.

After the jump, I'll break it down into the 3 distinct areas and discuss why and how I feel this list is ....Obnoxious.

Obnoxious List Building and the "Meta" Situation

'Sup guys - been real busy of late...being a teacher is SUCH a hard life...take the last fortnight for example. I've been forced to spend 3 days in Disneyland, Paris so the kids can study the relevance of the Disney business model, primarily focussed on its marketing activities and strategic decision making tools.... or perhaps... answering the critical question - "Just how many times can Mr H ride Space Mountain in an hour? Discuss".
I've then had to suffer for a week of Half Term Hols... marking a few papers here and there whilst generally painting the shit out of my toy soldiers.
I love my job. Genuinely.

But that is not what you are here to read, except to scowl at this gleeful mother fucker. Just enjoy the fact that you probs earn more....after all, I am on holiday for a 1/4 of the year and my well above national average pay reflects that... Plus the Paris half week, plus the Munich half week, plus the week Ski Trip in Italy...all in term time... oh and one year I went to Ghana, Africa in term time too... all of which I never pay for...in any way. Thanks tax payer.
I fucking love my job.

Ah, I'm an obnoxious prick aren't I?
And that brings me around to the point of the article (nicely done right? lol)....
Obnoxious lists.

I love them too... OED says 'obnoxious' is simply 'extremely unpleasant'...in 40k terms, I view this as lists that we all expect to play at some point in a tournament and don't really look forward to it all that much.

In current 40k, what are these lists?
A few months ago it was pure Tau, then a couple of Deathstars came home to roost from the ETC in summer, then it became Eldar Serpent Spam,  then TauDar, then a greater proliferation of Deathstars and a resurgence of "Alpha Strike"-esque armies; not as powerful or crippling as the true alpha strike armies of the Imperial Guard under old school Vendetta/Vet bastards, but strong first strike capable armies.

So where are we now as a community? What are the obnoxious lists that we all expect to face off against?

White Scars and Space Wolves - White Wolves 1500

...Until now! 

Strike whilst the iron is hot the phrase goes... White Scars are the sexiest thing to come out of Codex: Space Marines and we all know it by now.

If you don't or are unsure - they are.

Graviton guns (whilst generally a bit shitty on the majority of platforms - I agree with 3++'s Sir Biscuit on this one) are superb on the relentless biker chassis. The major range and mobility drawbacks of the Salvo weapon are mitigated completely they get to rock the meta in a big way.

Scout, Hit and Run, +1 Jink, +1S HoW, auto pass Dangerous Terrain plus cheaper bikers than Ravenwing AND cheaper HQ unlock than Ravenwing means these fuckers are here to stay and they are here to mess you up.

This article really is all about the meta. 

Let's consider a few months back and we all 'oohed' and 'aahed' at the Ravenwing Dakka Banner build with their sexy debuff grenades and such like... the Dakka Banner Wing build did what people needed it to at the time (and it still does dependent on how fast your meta environment moves) and that was to remove the vast swathes of infantry clogging up our delightful 6'x4's.

Now we have three things smashing the bejeezus out of us:
1) Riptides - not so utterly death dealing as a right PITA and contesting/line breaking wonderfully, that said they have some excellent solutions to armour and infantry alike as well as suitably smushing heldrakes on intercept...
2) Wraithknights - the Eldar construct that everyone hated and many still do. T8 and mobility keeps it alive and the 240 point stock build has some very useful applications in plugging gaps in...
3) Wave Serpent spam. Ignores cover, mega range, holo fields being pretty decent and av12 making it slightly harder for the S7 Tau spammers (yup, include me in that field lol)

The solution? Fast moving,massed shots, wound on 2/3's (for 1. and 2. respectively) AP2 bullshit. Oh and did we mention that per troop unit they will be spamming out 6 shots that on a 6 immobilise and strip a hull point from a vehicle? sweet. Now, this is not hugely game changing.. but there are other elements that bring this in. Context first - if you are planning on using this as an Anti-Meta tool, well it IS a big thing vs Serpents.. because it keeps the troops away from objectives and FORCES them out.. DAVU sure don't survive too well with snarling Scars around.. Next, Cover has been a real pain for most people when dealing with Serpent spam - primarily around the misinterpreted/whatevs 3+ fortification save from legs of Skyshields - this leads to cray cray saves on Wave Serpents with holofields and then BOOM they throw out their own ignores cover shit. PITA.
Now those tough big models... they drop like a rock to Grav weaponry. AP2 en masse and without the drawbacks of plasma..

But is this the future for ALL marines? I'm sure it isn't.. but remember when you all bought those Ravenwing Dark Vengeance models cause you really wanted a bike army? ...Yeah, I did that too :) Natch.

So whats a guy to do when we see these lovely new rules.......

1500 Battlefield Birmingham coming up and I for one was very unsure about what to run...I have another contender now! D'oh!

Khan - Moondrakken 

Command Squad - Bikes, 4 Meltaguns (I know this could be grav spam as well, but I like results...) 

5 Bikes - 2 GravMotherfuckers 

5 Bikes - 2 GravMotherfuckers 

5 Bikes - 2 GravMotherfuckers 

5 Bikes - 2 GravMotherfuckers 

2 Attack Bikes - 2 Multimeltas 

2 Attack Bikes - 2 Multimeltas 

Rune Priest - Bike, Runic Armour, Jaws (Grav's other beauty....concussive), LL, Chooser (can't fuck up the scout moves with Infiltrate)

Rune Priest - Bike, Runic, Jaws, Murderous

5 Grey Hunters - Flamer (cause shit son, you can't forget about the anti infantry amirite? lol) 

So the idea is we scout forward if going first and gang rape riptides and wraithknights - two major forces on the tournament scene at the minute, we also (again, in the same context) move up and melta 3 wave serpents.

Any low Init targets such as Broadies, Rips, Nid MCs, FMCs after they've been grounded and Concussed... they drop down Dual Jaws holes and the bikers move on and rape another section of the army.
Genghis Khan style baby, hit and run... expose the critical success areas in the enemy army, the areas of gravity and smite that shit.

Now.....

This is all well and good.....

But what about the massed armies without Grav-target rich environments? wounds on saves is no fucking good against those shitty 5/6+ saves...funny that the gun that destroys Wraithknights means less than a lasgun to the humble Termagant. Granted you are bricking it at Ap2... but that's what cover is for!

Now, you are rocking a Screamer Council... now what do we do? Sure, the Rune Priests stand a damn good chance of stopping the crucial stuff (i.e. Forewarning...well, every power is crucial in that list) but they can be sniped and shot off the board, because I assure you the Council has the firepower and the speed to remove the models they need.. and where are these Priests going to be? In the Command Squad at BEST, in Troop units at WORST (for the White Wolves player)..then it satisfies two roles for the Council player.

Same goes for the Dan Sackett style DE/Eldar Beast packs or the Demon army with all FMCs...or the Seer Council Eldar with 4++/rerollable...or the Kroot heavy Tau army (more Kroot Snipers coming your way soon)...

And of course.. As if the Dark Reaper Starshot unit wasn't coming out to play enough to kill off Wraithknights... (watch it rape a Wraithknight or Wave Serpent a turn with the Tau Buff Commander tanking saves up front..) now it'll be all over the place as it really will be a truly excellent meta counter.

Ignores Jink saves, S5, 2 shot AP3 sounds MADE to rape bikes.
Add in S8 ignore Jink FU-Holofields and say good bye to a Serpent per turn or a Wraithknight.
Whack it behind an Aegis with a Fast Shot Exarch and Lascannon and watch it the 2 TL, Tank Hunting shots smash into your Heldrake or Vendetta..

Granted this unit is extremely expensive for what it is.. But it is not SO expensive as to prohibit use.

So once again.. this article asks the question - the meta is shifting once again, with the speed that most of us on the tournament scene are gradually adjusting to, what will you do to counter the new White Wolves? 

Bear in mind I've just knocked this out in reference to Battlefield Birmingham and I've not even built and army that includes everything it needs... for example, the 1-- pt Thunderfire Cannon is an excellent addition here as well as the Storm Talons.. but this is what I'd like and enjoy to run and I also believe it has a place in the current environment.