What’s up guys, Will here back from a weekend full of gaming where we used the infamous Achilles Land Raider.
Myself and one of our regular customers, Big T, played in a doubles tournament on Saturday at GW Empire over in Bentwood, CA. Points were set at 1250pts each with a split force org. Forge world models with the “40k stamp” allowed.
We decided to test out the Achilles with a silly land raider rush style list to back it up. I ran Blood Angels and took a Librarian with Null Zone, and Gate of Infinity, 10 SS/TH Terminators, two 5 man Sniper Scout units, the Achilles, and a God Hammer Land Raider. Tim brought out a Chaplain, two 5 man SS/TH terminators, two 5 man Sniper Scout units, and 2 land raiders.
Despite how lame our lists were, we did pretty damn good at the event. We ended up winning the tournament in a final match against an Eldar, Space Wolve combo.
The Achilles land raider performed sub par, as it has in all but one game we’ve used it in so far. It didn’t do much for us until the last game, surviving the match and holding off the entire Elder and Space Wolve forces.
The first game we played the Achilles got immobilized on a piece of terrain 2nd turn. Luckily it was on the central objective. It ended up blowing up a monolith and staying out of line sight of everything else for the rest of the game, but honestly, was not worth it’s points in that game.
2nd game a Grey Knight player had a vindicar assassin and wow was that was bad news for the Achilles. I hadn’t realized it was Ap1. He took my Achilles Thunder fire cannon off first turn, then on the following turn blew it up. Not exactly earth shattering!
3rd game is where it shined. It took bucket loads of Melta and Lance Weapons to the face and kept on trucking. I sat it on the central objective with a squad of scouts inside winning us the game by literally a millimeter. If time had allowed us to go on another turn the game would have more then likely have been a tie, or even a swing in our opponent’s favor had the Achilles fallen.
Great event overall, it’s always fun to hit up a Doubles events for a fun day of gaming. The Achilles for what is it, is a pretty neat vehicle and I for sure want one for myself! But it really doesn’t do much other than not die.Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the subject, which is totally cool, but I just don’t think it is all that hot. For the points you can build a better list without it, IMO. We’ve played it in 6-7 games now, and it just isn’t as dominating as people make it sound on the internet. Plus, with the 6th ed rules of Hull Breach, it really isn’t that scary anymore (asuuming those rules are legit, of course).
Next week I’ll be back with my All Marine army.
Article was meant to say duel space marine armies. Not me playing blood angels haha.
It’ll be scary. It’ll be -2 on the damage chart (with the extra -1 for tank) Add some extra armor and it’ll be set.
Also, why didn’t you throw a siege shield on it? Always a great upgrade 🙂
I think the list would have to be built around it. And besides, those were al shots that your other Land Raiders didn’t have to absorbe 🙂 Use it as a target. People have to kill it. Let them. 🙂
Yeah, I don’t know why Will didn’t run a Siege Shield, maybe to keep it WYSIWYG?
With Hull Breach though, it won’t be nearly as scary in 6th ed (Assuming those rules are what we get, of course).
Reecius,
Thanx for the feedback on the unit in your tournament. However, it doesn’t seem like you should penalize the vehicle in the first game when the immobilization is a self-inflicted wound. Given that it really does need the Siege Shield if you plan on running it in terrain, which seems to make sense to me.
Having said all that, it doesn’t change your conclusion, one good game, one bad. So 50% chance of a positive effect. I’d be even more interesting to hear more about what happened in the other 4+ games and how it was used.
Am I interested in the Achilles? Yes, mostly because of the “cool” factor and that I primarily play in the 2000 – Apoc range of game.
Cheers,
* Here’s to hoping you write up a more in-depth article on this vehicle.
Hey Honda, thanks for the feedback. I actually didn’t write this article, Will did. But, I agree, he should have used the Siege Shield!
If you search through our Video Battle Reports you can see it in action. Here’s one example: https://www.frontlinegaming.org/2011/12/16/40k-video-battle-report-imperial-guard-vs-space-wolves-w-achilles-land-raider/
We like the Achilles because it looks awesome! It is very good, but not game changing the way a lot of folks like to make it out to be.
So…based on that battle report, the Achilles isn’t invincible. Seems like it ought to do better when it’s not the only hard target on the table and in fact, with another LR on the board, maybe a LRC full of nasty termies, you might be able to force the opponent to make some hard choices.
As it is, one LR of any type is probably going to get a lot of first turn love. It might have been interesting to see how it would have faired if it had been in reserve and used in more if a counter attack role.
Anyway, thanx for the info.
Cheers,
They actually had like 3-4 Land Raiders, and it still got smoked! Haha, but no worries, we’re happy to provide data for you all to use.
What counts is that it gots smoked instead of the other ones 🙂 They had to make some tough choices.
Yeah it was an AV14 spam list, and the Achilles STILL got dropped like a hot rock!
If it got dropped rather than the other ones that were spammed, than it made it’s points up. It ensured they did their job. 🙂
The Achilles is an absolute fire magnet, and it’s no surprise should it be the first one to blow up. The damage output, if somehow it was ignored in the first turn, is just plain silly.
Exactly, it is a vehicle that is highly resilient, but not invincible. The new Monolith in 6th ed rules is going to make it looks like a sissy!
I didnt actually write the army list. I had mentioned to my team mate what sort of silliness we should run. I told him the seige shield is a MUST upgrade for it. But he forgot or didnt have enough points.
It is a very cool tanks, and i want one for my self. Its pretty sick looking.
Why isnt a techmarine in this list……..
It’s not a serious list, it was just for fun.
That’s not a bad idea. Throw a Techmarine or a MotF on a bike so he can zip around to wherever he’s needed…