War in the Caribbean VI Tournament Report

Hey everyone, Reecius here with my first 11th ed Warhammer 40K tournament report! I brought my Astra Militarum list out as Priority Assets and had a ton of fun as well as learned a lot.

As we all adjust to 11th ed, it has been a ton of fun to experiment with detachments and dispositions. I have really enjoyed the seemingly infinite combinations of strats, detachment rules, enhancements and missions/deployment combos we now have at our grubby paws!

I have actually been able to get quite a few games in as I have met and made friends with the local 40K community and everyone has been very positive on 11th ed so far. While the poor Guard certainly got smacked with the nerf stick in the points increases, it isn’t all bad. We have seen a variety of lists coming out and doing well so far in capable hands, despite the rather unimpressive 37% win rate overall.

Siege Regiment + Bridgehead Strike: Priority Assets

Here’s my list, it seems a bit wonky but I built it to play the missions after some reps and found it to be quite capable. I will explain the ins and outs after the list.

• Scion Command Squad (Warlord): Legacy Sidearm
  • Attached: 10 Scions
• Castellan: Flash Grenades
  • Attached: Cadian Command
  • Attached 20 Cadians
• Graves on foot
  • Attached: Krieg Command Squad: Stalwart’s Honors
  • Attached: Krieg x 20
• Lord Drier
  • Attached: 10 Death Riders
• Gaunt’s Ghosts
• Rogal Dorn Commander
• Sly Marbo
• Tech Priest
• Krieg Engineers
• Cadian Recon Squad
• Hellhound
• Leman Russ Exterminator
• Scout Sentinel

So one thing have found in 11th so far is that you really want to come into the game with a plan. Being familiar with not only the mission pairings but the maps will give you a massive advantage before any dice are rolled.

So, that is why I had the list I do despite it probably appearing a bit weird. Siege Regiment has some amazing enhancements and stratagems for 11th. Since the game tends to occur at closer range than in 10th, things like flamer (or any effective) overwatch, consolidation into units with melee, and faster action have been the experience for me. Staging areas are really close to objectives and the action tends to start turn 1. So, things like Flash Grenades making a unit immune to overwatch, and Stalwart’s Honors giving a unit of Krieg infantry effectively a game long 4+ really pay dividends as Guard need to out OC you to flip and hold objectives. In order to do that, they need warm bodies on the objective to make it through a turn. The Legacy Sidearm enhancement gives the Scion 2 extra Plasma Pistol shots for a meagre 10pts, and now that Hazardous Tests don’t kill the bearer of the weapon, it’s a no brainer for a unit that needs to kill what it shoots when it drops.

In regards to strats, Siege Regiment has some great ones IMO. Flare Burst was one I used very frequently as you can use it on a Rogal Dorn Commander. You have to get close to do it, but it makes the big guy hit like a truck, which combined with his re-roll of a wound roll and damage roll cranks up the reliability quite a bit.

Furious Fusillade is extremely powerful but comes up less often. It only works on Platoon units but if you have a fully kitted out Krieg squad, it is a LOT of firepower. I actually found myself using it most frequently with Pistols in ongoing combats. Your opponent thinks they are safe then you blast them with 8 Plasma Pistol shots, often with +1 to hit and wound! It surprises people. If you can get the full monty with a unit including the melta and plasma guns, it is pretty dang brutal.

Minefield is another one that, in the right circumstance, can deal a ton of damage. A unit with 10+ models is basically getting hit with the Grenade strat on the way in. In the right circumstances it can shift a fight in your odds, or deal some damage before picking up the remnants of a Platoon unit. Same with Callous Sacrifice, if you need a unit to shoot and they are engaged by just a few pesky models you shoot them out of combat and free your big blog to blast something.

The detachment rule I find to be sneaky good. On the first turn I often try to slow units down and while it is a bit random (you keep rolling until you slow 3 units or run out of units to roll for) when it works it is truly game altering. I will explain more in the games themselves, but hitting a key unit with -2 to move and charge has a massive impact on what your opponent plans to do with them. Striping cover is typically my turn 2 play, and from turn 3 on, you tend to be too close to one another to use anything else but giving three units -1 to be hit on demand is quite good, particularly with large infantry blobs that may not always make it into terrain and tanks that then can go wherever they want and still get the -1 to be hit.

I took Commissar Graves on foot and a Castellan in my blobs to keep them mobile. I have found in 11th edition is it neigh-impossible to avoid melee units using the 2″ engagement, pile-in and consolidate moves to tag things in combat. This detachment encourages you to use Platoon blobs and if they get stuck in melee with something they can’t really hurt, it sucks. So the Castellan letting you leave combat and shoot (plus sustained hits) and Graves letting you leave, shoot and charge was huge. It kept those units, my main scoring pieces, mobile and pumping out plasma. As stated above, since hazardous no longer kills the gunner, those units put out a surprising amount of firepower and with move, move, move! they are really quick, moving around the table securing objectives and having enough staying power to make it through a few turns before getting wiped.

As Commissars actually function as intended now, you never have to worry about the units not holding an objective or losing orders, making them incredibly reliable at holding key objectives for at least a turn or two.

The Leman Russ Exterminator is my favorite as I suck at rolling random shots, so knowing I get 8, and lowering the target save to me has been worth more than what the others offer. Twin Linked on top of it is icing on the cake. It and the Dorn where the main damage dealers. As the blobs move up to score points, I found they rarely got much attention unless I made a big mistake on positioning. The Tech-Priest I typically pass on but as I was playing Priority Assets, the ability to repair and buff the Dorn and also do an action on an objective while having Lone Op made him easily one of my best units. Priority Assets asks you to do a lot of actions so having an essentially invisible model there to do the action while also contributing to keeping the Dorn alive was extremely useful. The Hellhound I feel is just an auto-include this edition to help Guard focus down a unit that needs to be killed. That’s fine by me as the Hellhound is my favorite tank in the range so any excuse to use him!

Likewise, my main man, Marbo has been an absolute unit for me in 11th. Now that Precision is vastly improved, he frequently aces a character out of a unit but more importantly, he is super mobile, Lone Op, can infiltrate and does actions like a champion. He scored more points for me than anything else, tied only with Gaunt’s Ghosts as MVP utility unit. I don’t think the Ghosts require any explanation, they screen your home and teleport around scoring points. Absolute solid gold unit.

Scout Sentinels are all-star units, I got one almost as a laugh but every game I use one I love it. The re-rolls of 1 to hit are cool when you can use it, but the extreme mobility and the fact they have the Regiment keyword is just amazing. They are annoyingly hard to kill and run around the map scoring points. I love Recon Cadians as well. Not are the comically cheaper than regular Cadians (75pts, really GW?!) Finally, the Krieg Engineers were there to scout and toss mortals around, everyone knows them and loves them.

Game 1: Votann: Priority Assets Mirror

Hearthguard Covenant, Needgaard Oathbound

• Uthar
  • Attached: 10 Hearthguard
• Einhyr Champ
  • Attached: 10 Hearthguard
• Memny Strategist
  • Attached: Volkanite Steeljacks
• 10 Hearthguard Warriors
• Sagitaur
• Thunderkyn
• Hekaton x 2
• Pioneers
• Melee Steeljacks

I did not expect a Priority Assets mirror first turn and honestly, didn’t study the mission nearly as much as I did with Purge the Foe and Take and Hold. Also, this was my first time playing Votann, so it was a pleasant surprise both ways. My opponent was a super nice guy and we had a very fun game.

I think a lot of the mirror match missions are honestly the most fun! This one was really simple as far as Priority Asset missions go. We found going first in this mission is massively useful. Guard are very fast and they have loads of scouts/infiltrators. I was able to do the action on all 3 objectives in no-mans land earning a whopping 13 primary top of the turn!

For Priority Assets I think you really need to consider this mirror as that first turn advantage is monstrous. Not only did I get the points but now my opponent would have a harder time getting them himself as he had to get me off with one unit, then do the action with another. It does mean I am exposed to a counter-punch but so long as you can keep the pressure on it makes it hard for your opponent to catch up. Also as you can see in the map, Priority Assets has a few of these weird layouts where the middle is basically impassible terrain and you have to fight over it, it is odd, lol. Basically you need a strategy to go into the kill zone and flip that objective long enough to do the action. For me, Marbo was the absolute man as he and the Engineers camped it long enough for my Infantry Blob to move up and take their place.

To exacerbate this, I used the slow-down bombardment beginning of the turn and man, when it works it is crazy good. Making space Dwarves go to movement 3″ is brutal. Now, two of his key scoring units were unable to make it to the objective, and as you cannot advance and perform an action, he was stuck unable to really do much. It is not reliable, I have had turns where I missed on every unit with the bombardment, but when it works it is huge.

Turn 2 was similar with me piling on mountains of OC to the objectives, the Cadian squad unable to be overwatched can be played very agressively which is fun, I had them push onto his expansion to force him to deal with them.

As I said, I had not played Votann before and while I felt good early the little guys hit like an absolute truck once they get to you. I had a 40 point lead going into turn 3 having maxed the primary essentially, but once he got some steam I started picking up my units and we ended up with a win for Guard, 98 to 85. I find that once my big infantry blobs go down, I just lack the juice to actually stay in the fight, but they keep the heat off of my tanks that tend to do the heavy lifting in the damage department.

Great game with a super opponent. The priority mirror is probably going to be a high scoring game and we found even with the first turn advantage, you can score so many points a turn if the other player claps back hard enough by mid game, they can in turn rack up the points!

Guard Win: 97 to 84

Game 2: Thousand Sons: Purge the Foe

Hexwarp Thrallband and Ritual of Regeneration

• Exalted Sorcerer
  • Attached: 10 Rubric Marines with flamers
• Rhino
• Sorcerer: Empyric Obslaught
  • Attached: 5 Rubric Marines
• Sorcerer in Terminator Armor: Curse of Life
  • Attached: 10 Scarab Terminators
• Sorcerer in Terminator Armor
  • Attached: 10 Scarab Terminators
• Magnus

Yikes, this was going to be a tough one! Scarab Termies are hard enough to kill without them also regenerating. Throughout 10th in tournament play, I never beat Thousand Sons. They were my bane! So I was hoping my list built to score the mission would help offset the mismatch in stats. As I had assumed I would be facing Purge, I mentally prepared for this mission quite a bit.

So in my experience, this mission tends to favor the Priority Asset player as it forces the Purge player to come at you to stop you from racking up points on one of the central objectives and building an insurmountable lead on Primary.

This deployment is one of my favorites. While it does put you extremely close together, it allows the PA player to get a strong board presence early with their scoring units and leaves plenty of space for your damage dealing units to hang back.

I went first again and as my opponent had his Terminators in reserves I was able to establish a very strong board presence immediately, with units on every objective. This meant in my turn I would put up a huge score and my opponent had limited units to stop me with, an issue I think Purge players will have to deal with often. Once again, the first turn bombardment hit a key unit of Rubrics, slowing them down to the point where Magnus had to go back to speed them up with his aura so they could actually get to where they wanted to be.

Key moments were my un-overwatchable blob running past the Flamer Rubrics who cried dusty tears as they were unable to bar-b-que me, and Gaunt’s Ghosts up-downing into the backfield, forcing Magnus to go back and kill them or risk me picking up a huge 10 points for holding his home at end game. Purge players will really have to figure out how they manage this as often they will just sticky or keep a trivial unit in the back. It makes it relatively easy for a mobile army to put pressure on the expansion and home objectives and make the Purge player want to split up their few, very expensive units. Tzeentch may be better at Take and Hold honestly as once down, the Terminators are quite slow.

Again, my Lone Op action monkeys were worth their weight in gold as the infantry blobs kept pressure on the objectives, allowing my tanks to blast away at the incredibly, annoyingly hard to kill Scarab Terminators.

The play of the game though was my Krieg infantry Heroically Intervening onto the central objective from behind cover to flip the objective in my opponent’s turn, thus earning me the 8 points bump in my turn to keep my lead. As with my first game, I was able to jump ahead in points early but as I lost assets he began catching up and I won a close one.

While it was a bloody game and we both had little left at the end, the difference in my ability to play my mission and win when in 10th I just got steam rolled by Thousand Sons and their AP 1,000,000, ignores cover shooting is testament to how important building to the mission is in 11th.

Another great opponent and fun game. This put me on top table for the final!

Guard Win: 97 to 84

Game 3: Chaos Space Marines: Take and Hold

Veterans of the Long War and Chaos Cabal

• Daemon Prince of Nurgle: Conduit of Chaos
• Huron
  • Attached 4 Chosen & Masters of the Maelstrom
• Chaos Lord
  • Attached: 5 Legionaries
• Warpsmith
• 2 x Predator Destructor
• Helbrute
• Defiler
• 5 Legionaries
• 5 Raptors
• 5 Red Corsairs Raiders
• Cultists

So this is a tough mission for Priority Assets in my experience. I regularly play against Take and Hold (Necrons) and Disruption (Sub Assault Nids) in my play group, so I have quite a bit of experience with this mission matchup and it is, IMO and at least for Guard, the hardest mission as the Take and Hold player can score the primary easier than the Priority Assets player, which I will explain why. However, first, we played on layout C which is the hardest map for me at least (I am sure some types of armies will love it) as moving to hold the Central Objectives means standing with your butt in the breeze in the wide open. Important to note in this mission, both players score their home for the mission.

As you can see, moving up to hold either of the Central Objectives means you are in the open. You can try and shimmy up to the dense terrain with a small unit to hide and hold but it is quite challenging unless you have a very small unit. Also, the long sort of diagonal piece of terrain touching the home objective has a dense piece in the middle so tanks cannot go through that part, meaning a Dorn really has trouble traversing side to side. Dawn of War deployments (as above, the traditional 12″ up on either side) allow for very easy flank attacks from ranged shooting units. In my practice games this match is a LOT easier on layouts A and B where the Central Objectives are split parallel to the deployment zones, meaning you have some cover between you and your opponent. In this layout, where the split is perpendicular to deployment it is just a shooting gallery.

My opponent was very good, he wins most of the local events, and he had an excellent strategy. He had a Predator on each flank, one side with Huron and Co. in a Rhino and the other with the Raiders and Lord+Legionaries to threaten the expansions. The defiler sat in the middle and due to the fact it can go over dense terrain (WHY?!?! lol) he didn’t have the same issues with mobility I did.

He got first turn which was rough, I have found with Priority Assets I typically want to go first to get board dominance and start scoring primaries immediately, forcing my opponent to come to me. With the big Guard blobs, I have so much OC on the objectives it is very hard to flip them for many armies, and I thus deny them a turn or two of scoring which gives me a big lead.

I had to dedicate a lot of forces to stop his pincer attack on either flank but I was successful in taking out the flank with the Predator and Huron’s unit, and managed to kill the Raiders and Legionaries on the other flank. The issue was the middle: if I stepped out to take the objective I get Defiled but if I do not, I can’t score as much. He smartly put his other unit of Legionaries and Raptors on the dense terrain in range to threaten the middle and trusted Hidden to keep them safe.

I nudged out Marbo to touch the tippy tip of the Central Objective to do the action, hoping I could rely on Lone Op to not get shot, but the Raptors countered, made the charge, used Pile-In and Consolidate to swing around Marbo (and importnatly off of the objective) and then touch an infantry blob, causing them to then fail their Battleshock in the next Fight Phase. Battleshock is huge this edition and things like Raptors are going to be amazing tech pieces. The Daemon Prince followed in, keeping me a bit pinned down in my deployment and stopping me from scoring as much as I could. Also, the Prince used Epic Challenge to precision Graves out of one of my Blobs, stopping them from being able to Fall Back, shoot and charge in my turn which was a big play as I could have slingshot off of him onto the objective in his turn, scoring a big 8 points in my turn. Graves also was my Battleshock mitigater, so that sucked, too!

We were essentially tied until turn 3 when the Defiler came out to play and did what Defiler’s do: killing anything they look at. In my counter punch I got him down to 4 wounds, and in turn 4 turn I overwatched him with the Dorn and put 5 wounds on him, he made 3 of 5, 5++ saves then CP re-rolled one fail to a success, keeping him alive on 1 wound. BRUTAL, lol. That cost me the game as I was denied a kill on the Central Objective, he picked up a hold more and the Defiler killed my Russ on the expansion denying me 4 points. In all, it was an 11 point swing and sealed the game for my opponent, 75 to 68. I flipped his home with Gaunt’s Ghosts in the bottom of 5 for a solid points bump to me but it was not enough.

Hilariously the slow-down barrage was very strong again, tagging units and making them unable to make charges, etc. Not amazing as I whiffed a few times but again, when it works it is massively impactful on the game. Baring that, striping cover or having cover on demand is also really useful.

Guard lose: 68 to 75

Some takeaways from that game: my opponent intelligently kept units off of the Center Objectives to deny me my “Kill a Unit on a Central Objective for 2 VP” almost the entire game. He focused on trying to Fight for the Expansions as to get 9 points all he has to do is control 3 objectives in his turn and two at the end of his Command Phase (including his Home Objective) which honestly is quite trivial to do. So long as even one turn you hold more objectives than your opponent 1 or 2 turns you will basically max Primary without having to risk much. For the PA player, you have to do the Action each turn, which is easy, and control one non-home objective, which is easy. Where the PA player has an uphill battle is to trigger the bonus they must control 3 objectives (including the Home Objective) and the T&H player only needs to hold 2. So all the T&H player has to do to outscore you on primary is hold their Home and Expansion objectives and flip you off of 1. It is IME the hardest game for PA. If they can do that and stay off of the Central Objectives by focusing on flanks, it is really hard to score for the PA side.

Having a plan in this edition will give you a MASSIVE boost. Like huge. Knowing what you need to do before the game starts means you will win more games than not no matter what army your opponent is playing. My opponent had a clear plan for how to play that mission and it worked. To be fair, had I killed that damned Defiler on the go turn, I would have won, but hey, it is at the end of the day a dice game.

The big mistake I think I made was being too scared of the Defiler. I should have pushed hard onto the objectives turn 1 to start racking up points, force the Defiler to poke his head out early and then counter punch with my Tanks. I just accept it will kill one thing but then be exposed, and I hope I have the juice to kill it on the clapback. Had I applied more pressure early, he would have had to commit all his assets to pushing me off the objectives or lose on scoring and then I just wait for the counter attack. As he had so many assets on the flanks, the middle was relatively weak (still scary but not strong enough to push all my Infantry off in a turn).

Guard Units: Winners and Losers

You notice I didn’t mention the Scion blob much? That’s because while they did tend to delete what they hit when the dropped, they are so stupidly overpriced that they traded down every game. 240pts for the unit is just absurd, lol. I nuked Hearthguard in my first game and while a good kill, still not even close to what they cost. The threat they provide is solid, and they unlocked Priority Assets for me, but if I use them at all I think 1-2 MSU units to come down and threaten the backfield are more than enough.

Marbo & Friends. The man, the myth, the legend. For 55 points I would take 3 Marbos if I could. Running around scoring points while Lone Op, and the ability to move twice in a turn means he is insanely fast. Just hit him with Move, Move, Move and you can get him wherever you want, really. Absolute all-star unit, particularly for any disposition where you want to do actions as well as for secondaries. In a pinch, with how much better Precision is now, he can snipe a character out of a unit as well. Gaunt’s Ghosts and the Scout Sentinel were also, as always, legends. I don’t think any Guard player needs me to explain how valuable these units are. Screen your home, and dance around scoring points.

Drier and Deathriders: I think you have to take a unit like this in 11th ed. With the big points reduction, the full unit comes in at 185 and while it can be hard to move them sometimes, the ability to deliver a mobile, hard-hitting unit where you need it is critical. While I continue to roll way below average on the unit, assuming you have dice that actually roll 6’s, they will do about 9ish mortals on the charge which often can finish off a key unit so long as you can soften it up a bit in the shooting phase. Plus these guys can toss Grenades as well on the way in for an average of 12 mortals. And if you really need to spike up, use the Frag Lances and it can potentially be a lot more damage (or a lot less as well, lol). Plus, with their Reactive Move you can set up some sick Heroic Interventions or be generally tricksy. Also, Drier’s 3 Orders no longer feel wasted due to the Cadian Recon squad’s Vox Relay. So for me, this is an auto-include unit, typically reserve it and Rapid Ingress where needed. The fact that you can increase their OC and Drier gets back up on a 2+ means the unit continues to participate in the game typically until the end, picking up points and being annoying after the initial charge. The only downside is if they do not kill what they hit, they lose a lot of punch in a sustained combat.

Tech-Priest Enginseer was amazing for Priority Assets, specifically. As he can heal and buff a tank in the command phase, then do an action in the shooting phase, he along with Marbo and Gaunt’s Ghosts were my main points scoring pieces. This freed up my other units to focus on fighting. When I was able to pull it off, he would stand on an objective and do the action next to a tank to have Lone Op. Also, if I needed the Ghosts to jump somewhere for points, he could stand on my home to ensure I kept some buffer against deep strikers.

Tanks the big dogs do the heavy lifting of dealing damage for Guard as always, but man the Dorn commander is so stupidly expensive, lol. Being able to re-roll hits vis Flare Burst if a unit was in 12″ was HUGE and actually came up all the time as the game tends to play much closer together. I am considering swapping he and the Exterminator for two LRBTs or one LRBT and a Vanquisher to save points. As the stock Russ’ rule to re-roll hits against units on objectives comes up a lot more than it did, and AP -1 is infinitely better than it used to be, I think the increased reliability and points savings would fill the same roll. I just need someone to give them orders which is always an annoying issue to solve for Guard.

So, I experimented with my boy, Yarrick in a subsequent practice game and I have to say, I think it may be the right play. His reactive ability is bananas good and he can give out orders to Squadron units. The downside is it basically wipes out the points savings from the Dorn, lol. I am on the fence, I will play some more to figure out if it is worth it or not. However, the counter-charge specifically is potentially game winning but when you put him in a Krieg Blob, with Command Squad (so he can issue orders to the tanks) and then an Ogryn Bodyguard or Nork to protect you from precision, the unit is so stupidly expensive I am not sure it makes sense? The other downside is Yarrick, despite being a Commissar, does not have the Commissar rule allowing him to auto-pass Battleshock. Why? No one knows. If his unit gets Battleshocked (which hapenned in my game, failing it twice) it can cost you the game as that is your primary objective holding unit. You NEED those Blobs to stay in the OC game to do what you paid for them to do.

Infantry Blobs were solid. As is a theme here, they are heinously overpriced right now, but if you were to run just 20 Krieg with a Commissar, 175pts (plus the no overwatch and +1 save enhancements which IMO are essential) you are talking about a much more reasonable investment for a unit that absolutely will flip an objective when you need it. Plus, they have modest regeneration ability and can actually kill stuff with the Krieg +1 to hti and wound buffs. I am currently debating going all in on a Yarrick super Blob which costs as much as an Imperial Knight (Lol) but has a lot of flexibility and reactive moves, or, just a few of the cheaper blobs.

Commissar Graves is amazing, honestly. Auto-pass morale in a 12″ aura, hits pretty hard but critically: fall back, shoot and charge is massive. As I have said, in 11th, melee units ping-ponging around, tagging everything is extremely difficult to stop so you need a way to get around that. She and the Castellan allowing my units to remain mobile was critical to making the overall plan work. I think you could run her with just a unit of 20 Kreig and get a lot of mileage, you just have to be very warry of Precision attacks as Guard really suffer to that.

Cadian Recon are fantastic for the points, plus are sweet models. I am considering taking another unit. The ability to project a screen, or score on an objective top of turn is amazing, plus as stated, their Vox Relay is surprisingly useful.

Plans for the Future

So while our poor Guard have an eye-wateringly bad win rate of 37% right now, I felt very confident that I could win any matchup by playing to the mission. Guard need some points cuts lol, that is a fact but outside of the things we cannot control, focusing on the mission is where you win. Guard can still out OC anyone, are fast and hey, what’s not to love about playing in a universe of monsters with regular humans armed with nothing but a pair of brass ones and faith in the Emperor?

Priority Assets is a great disposition for Guard. It in effect wants you to lock down a section of the board, do actions and have enough mobility to score secondaries, fight battles on the flank and threaten the opponent’s home. Guard check all those boxes. Is Siege Regiment the best choice for that? I am not sure, but so far in quite a few games, what the detachment offers I have really enjoyed using. Grizzled Company may be better at Priority Assets depending on your playstyle.

Disruption is the disposition Siege Regiment comes with and after really studying the missions, I am coming around on it. I have played Disruption as and against Take and Hold and I can say I think Disruption has a pretty easy match there. The hard one for Disruption is into Purge the Foe. As most Purge armies have under 10 units, typically 6-8, it is REALLY hard to score primary for the Disruption player but, for the same reason it is REALLY hard for the Purge player to score much on Primary into Disruption as most of their points come from holding objectives in that match and you should be able to stop them from scoring pretty easy if all they have is a few big, low OC units. If you deny them a first turn kill, and focus on flipping their objectives you will win primary pretty easily (assuming they don’t just wipe you out, lol). The other benefit is it would let me take the Abhuman Auxiliary detachment as I love using Ogryn/Bullgryn/Ratlings. All of those units I have found to be quite good in 11th, and your Commissars getting access to Take Aim and a 4+++ helps loads in mitigating their fragility.

Baneblades look really appealing now. The fact that they can move around the battlefield more freely, and they hit like a dang truck, plus some can deliver an entire blob squad where you want them makes me consider it. For less than the cost of a Dorn+Russ you get comrpable firepower that only needs 1 Order. Hit them with the 4++ from the Enginseer and they are quite formidable. The downside of course is all your eggs in one basket but it is certainly worth looking at.

Closing Thoughts

Thanks for baring with me to this point, quite an info-dump here but I have to say I have been loving 11th so far. There are some kinks to work out for sure but generally I think it is a fantastic direction for 40K. There are so many combos you can come up with, it feels like a list writer’s dream come true and we haven’t even seen the Codexs yet. If the Ork preview was anything to go off of, we will have more options than we know what to do with for our favorite factions. Now, back to the laboratory to cook up some more combos in preparation for the next event!

Reece Robbins President

Co-founder of Frontline Gaming, and creator of the ITC, Reece Robbins has been a pillar of the tabletop community for over two decades. From developing Blood Throne to launching industry-leading hobby products and major events like the LVO, his career is defined by innovation and a lifelong passion for gaming since the 80s. Today, he remains a very active community organizer and business leader dedicated to the growth of the hobby.

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