Signals from the Frontline #438 How to Defeat Battle Company

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Show Notes

Date

6-6-16

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Rant Session

Tactics Corner

• Defeating Battle Company: Battle Company armies function well for several reasons.
  1. They are resilient due to being numerous, 3+ saves and ATSKNF. Battle Companies have lots and lots of bodies, tons of transports, near immunity to morale and good saving throws. This makes them a tough army as they can absorb a ton of casualties and still function.
  2. Battle Companies excel at winning objective missions due to to much ObSec. Nearly every unit in the army has the Objective Secured rule, granting them an enormous advantage.
  3. Battle Companies can pack big firepower in Grav Cannons, Melta Guns, etc.
• The keys to defeating Space Marine Battle Company armies lay in understanding target priority.
  • If playing Rhino/Razorback spam Battle Company, the key is to take away their mobility. With the transports dead, the Marines are fairly easy to deal with, particularly if they rely on Grav and Melta weapons to do the heavy lifting.
    • Remember the range bands of the Battle Company’s weapons. Measure from the hatches on the Rhinos and note precisely how far they can possibly shoot and stay 0.1″ outside of that range until you are ready to strike.
    • If possible, try to force a flank, and eat up the Battle Company from one end to the other. They take up a huge footprint on the tabletop. If you have a greater concentration of force in a smaller footprint, you can establish local firepower superiority which means in a given physical space, you pack more punch than the Marines do, giving you the advantage so long as you can maintain that spacial advantage.
    • If possible, dictate when your opponent uses his Doctrines. They’re very powerful and if you can dangle a bait unit to try and get them to pop one of those valuable doctrines at the wrong time for them, that is to your advantage.
  • If you have easy access to an Inquisitor with Servo Skulls, or have infiltrating/Scout units that can stop the Battle Company Scout Move (assuming they’re playing White Scars) that can be huge for mitigating their brutal alpha strike.
  • Focus on completely destroying units, if even a single Marine escapes from a battered and hides, he can go on to win the game by jumping on an objective.
  • If facing Drop Pod Battle Company, deployment and reserves are the critical tactics to use against them. Present only units that can either take the punch of the initial drop, or that you can afford to lose. You have to accept a certain amount of casualties, then its all about the counter punch.
    • If you can trade units in your favor, go for it. Give them a transport vehicle, but take a squad or two and a drop pod in return.
    • Once the Marines are on the ground, its relatively way to avoid them. Spread out and move away and you can often leave them in the dust and out of range to do anything.
    • Castling in the corner works well to present a very limited front to the enemy, reducing the amount of targets they can engage and keeping many units out of melta/grav range.
  • Both types of Battle Companies hate melee. This is usually the best way to take them out. If you have decent melee units, get in there and beat them up in combat. If facing White Scars, multi assault where possible to increase the odds of one unit failing their Hit and Run, keeping you safely locked in combat.
    • If the Battle Company player has a powerful melee unit on the table such as a Bike Command Squad with character support, etc., focus all of you ranged assets on destroying it. That is your number 1 target priority.
    • If facing an assault oriented Drop Pod army, castling is a poor choice as it reduces your escape routes and allows your opponent to engage multiple targets at once. In this instance, you want to spread out.
  • If they’re rocking the Librarius Conclave, these are high priority, right after taking out mobility. If they’re on Bikes, as they often are, they become target priority #1, and will often be in a melee unit which conincides with the above commentary on assault units.
  • Often the will take the 10th Company auxiliary formation. Do not underestimate the little Scouts! They are incredibly useful for getting in the way, flanking and harassing your army. Its easy to discount them but do so at your peril, they can often be the critical unit that assaults your valuable shooting units and disrupts them, or simply gets in the way of one of your units and causes you to lose the game. Mentally note how you will deal with them.
  • Lastly, alsways stay cool! Fighting Battle Company feels like an insurmountable battle until it isn’t. What typically happens is that you will be overwhelmed, then you hit that point of critical mass and the Battle Company falls apart and loses its teeth.

Rules Lawyer

Completed Commissions

List Review

Hey there Frontline,

I have a Tau FSE ITC list I would like your opinion on. I am still fairly new to the ITC rule type and have had problems winning the maelstrom objectives running Tau. I am willing to look at model options not currently in the list, however I am worried about bringing Stormsurges due to them potentially giving up maelstrom points when I am already having problems there. Here is the list:

CAD (FSE)

• Farsight                                                          165
• 3 Crisis w/bonding,6xfusion                           159
• 1 Crisis w/bonding,2xion                                  53
• 1 Crisis w/bonding,2xburst                              43
• 1 Crisis w/bonding,2xflamer                            33
• 1 Crisis w/bonding,2xflamer                            33
• Y’vahra w/early warning override                   235
• Y’vahra w/early warning override                   235
• Void Shield Generator x3                                 100

1056

Riptide Wing

• Riptide w/ion,sms,early warning override      190
• Riptide w/ion,sms,early warning override      190
• Riptide w/ion,sms,early warning override      190

570

Drone Net

• 4 Gun Drones                                                        56
• 4 Marker Drones                                                56
• 4 Marker Drones                                                56
• 4 Marker Drones                                                56

224

1850

I have played a couple games with this list with success, however one thing I have read online is that Y’vahras should run with stims to increase the survivability (though I am not sure where I would cut 70 points from). I have played it as mostly a beta strike list, with all the crisis suits in reserve and the rest within the void shield, Y’vahras can snag far objectives or leap into the fray turn 2 when the reserves start to arrive.

I would greatly appreciate any help and input you could give, thanks in advance.