Hey everyone, Novastar sent in a guest editorial on Lords of War for us. But, reader beware, Novastar writes for an adult audience and doesn’t pull his punches. -ed
Super heavies: Quit bitching or go make me a sandwich, either way please stop complaining. Novastar has stated to me that he didn’t intend for this statement to come across as sexist and that he was writing in a particular style with the aim to be funny, not to insult. -ed
Hey Gang NovaStar here to give you some (un)sage advice about tackling your opponent’s point sinks. First I want to let everyone know it’s okay: 40k isn’t broken. In fact, Super Heavies being put into normal games is an intentional fix by games workshop to help shift the meta. What!?! How dare you say it’s not just about the money? Well, it is about the money to some extent but Games Workshop also runs really big, in-house tournaments and events at Warhammer world and when the designers see an imbalanced list or units running amok they really do listen and try to change things. The big GTs said no to Lords of War and look what happened: the next super heavy isn’t a Lord of War.
Anyway, enough of my fan boy shield, lol. Every army has multiple tools to tackle super heavies and pretty reliable tools too, so here is a list of units from each codex that can deal with the new bully on the block and thank god he moved into town because it was tiring seeing all those cheese-dick 2++ zero skill armies out there. Now this list is going to have units that you as a player may or may not own or seen being played because they are deemed bad in today’s game but guess what tomorrow is here and new(old) weapons need to be ready.
I must preface this with that Flyers and Flying Monsters are the bane of almost all super heavies and when they explode are not affected by the blast as long as they are not hovering or swooping.
- First up is Adepta Sor….Sisters of Battle, ok if you can’t figure out how to kill a vehicle from a land speeder to a super heavy with an army that can spam Melta weapons like 2++ at a GT then I can’t help you, Sisters armies can also bring exorcist tanks everybody loves D6 Krak Missiles =0
- Blood Angels: Drop pods….oh you want more? Okay using the decent of angel rule BA can accurately drop plenty of melta toting jump infantry where ever you need it, they also can Transport Furioso and Death Company dreads in storm ravens; all three of those options are great against supers.
- Chaos deamons; Anything with the word Slaanesh in its alignment will put the fear in enemy vehicles your favorite word will be REND lol, With a plethora of Flying Monstrous Creatures in the army vector striking or rear army shooting Supers will go BOOM real quick
- Chaos Space marines: Helldrake yep it like the coca cola of 40k because you will see one everywhere, obliterators are amazing against supers, a beat stick chaos lord on a fast mount, flying daemon princes, mauler fiends, take huron black heart and infiltrate d3 anti-tank units and alpha strike, Abbadon will put the smack down on well just about everything.
- Dark Angels: drop pods, Deathwing squads Deep striking for rear penetration, Ravenwing black knights with plasma talon and rending corvis hammers, flank the sides most supers have good front armor but then okay-mediocre side and rear armor
- Dark Eldar: dark lance spam woot woot, anything with a blaster, wych squads with haywire grenades, scourges with haywire blasters, the void raven bomber with strength 9 lances! Talos can smash in combat.
- Eldar: damn space elves and their lance lasers, Fire dragons in a wave serpent, warp spiders deep striking for strength 7 rending shots, swooping hawks with haywire grenades, dcannons/dscythes wraith knights, elder have the tools to take on any opponent
- Grey Knights: storm ravens with multi melta and psybolt ammo will make super heavies and lots of other units cry tears, mind strike missiles are also an amazing counter to psyker death stars, psycannons are great being strength 7 and rending,
- Imperial Guard: Vendetta gunships + melta vets , most of the ordnance weapons are good against super heavies, pask on a vanquisher
- Imperial Knights: just think of rock em sock em robots and you get the pictue
- Necrons: your basic troop choice of warriors loves fighting vehicles, try a 20 man unit firing at any vehicle now give em tank hunter with zanderak
- Orks: orks are tricky but they still can win, have to get side and rear armor shots with your dakka jets, the blitz bomber isn’t horrible, nob bikers w/ power claw will beat the crap out of super heavies, sure you will lose one or two before you strike, you can alos tie up super heavy walkers with a 30 man boyz squad since they are fearless
- Space Marines: drop pods, storm ravens, grav weapons, sterngaurd, las canon dev squads, space marines have a great ability to take out supers no prob
- Space wolves: drop pod (all flavor of good marines get these great vehicles to bring in melta units) thunder wolf cav are beat sticks and are rending, long fangs
- Tau Empire: rip tides, anything with a fusion blaster, rail rifles ( yes broadsides can take other things besides missiles) hammer heads( remember these strength 10 ap1 guys)
- Farsight bomb laughs at super heavies
- Tyranids: all those flying monsters vector striking (you killed my tank I’m going home) swarm the super walkers with 30 man gaunt squads and add more to the fray with a tervigon, ( ya that knight got his points back lol) charge a super heavy with a 3 man brood of carnifexs and watch just the hammer of wraths do work, hello gene stealers what you still exist? Warp blasting zoanthropes yes please.
Now I’m not saying that these units will give you an auto win, but nothing in the game should be and we see what happens when those units/combos are allowed: it’s not fun. 40k is a rock, paper, scissor game and super heavies are the rock to 2++ and guess what gang, every codex has a paper to take out that rock, and you have a much better chance to take on a super heavy then you do a 2++ death star
And everyone who plays the 2++ stars, are you really having fun playing your Mike Tyson list vs your opponents Helen Keller list? Really, are you? You’re the reason super heavies are a necessity.
Disclaimer: not all super heavies are created equal there some that are just meteorically insane, use common sense and remember games are supposed to be fun: even tournaments are supposed to be fun competition, not a game of whack our opponent over the head with a beat stick