Beating the Valkyrie Scout Rush...

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Comments like this:

"Anonymous said...

Sorry could you elaborate further for the stupid among us?

Are we trying to block a skimmer's movement? If not are we relying on the guard player attacking the scouts with the valkyries? Because I don't see that happening either."

And this:

"I, too, await Stelek's counter to outflanking."

And this:

"You probably refer to them lining up against board edges a la your Kroot..."

Seriously make me EMO.

So let's talk about it.

Let's start with the outflanking defense with Kroot.

First of all, why would you line your board edge with any infiltrating unit to prevent Chimeras or Valks from coming on?

The Chimeras can tank shock on, and the Valks can fly over.

Totally pointless, and not something I'd ever do.

I would however put my Kroot 9" in from the board edge if you are outflanking your Valks (and not your Chimeras, because you probably can't). That's 9" in but 4" deep, with the next units just over 3" away from the Kroot.

I'd put the rest of my army in the middle of the board, and use my central position to defeat you.

I went over this a while ago, did you guys just forget?

You can think having slight control over your random entry time and point is a good thing, but I still think it's shitty because my experience tells me it is.

You run into any Chaos Chosen outflanking lately? Yeah, me either. The units so fucking great, nobody is running it!

Sure IG can make the forces show up reliably and are almost capable of putting them on the table side they want, but so what?

I can stop you from deploying your meltaguns within 6" range of my vehicles, and with armies like this one, I have no reason not to run my Crisis/Broadside Suits in the middle of the board because you can't hurt me with anything but 2 squadrons of vehicles (which will hurt, and then be blown to bits--unless your AV12 vehicles just live forever against Tau Rail Rifles, then stop cheating with your big dice ya douche).

See, I've stopped your entire army in one fell swoop.

You think you can deploy your shit near me if you start on the board?

Let's think about that, using the Tau as an example--the most extreme one, btw.

I layer my 34 infiltrators 2" apart and in maximum spread in front of my army. You think you can come anywhere near me when you move? You can't. If you are hiding off the line and counting on your 24" move to get in range, as you likely are (and should be) then my infiltrators might not be 18" away from visible enemies but might be 16" or 14". That pushes you back even more, since it reduces your 6" scout move by a like amount.

Note: I could give a flying fuck if you scout move around when I'm going first--because I am going to light the fuck out of your Valks if they are in the freaking open on turn 1.

See, when YOU are going first I will refuse flank you, as I should. I'll just figure out where your Chimeras are all lined up, and setup to one side. There's not one fucking thing you can do about that either--the Valks and their cargo (if any) are on their own against a proper counter deployment.

How do I make the refused flank defense work with one unit of infiltrators? Easy. I line up 10 guys across how much board?

10" bases + 2" between each base = Your math sucks if you think I can't cover my entire fucking army frontage with 1 unit, ya? 30". What, you can't figure out that a unit 6" in from one board edge stops your Valkyries from moving up the side and in a huge 'no you can't go here' zone all the way out to the other side?

Go ahead, call it a wasted KP. Did I just get you to commit your Valks to NOT alpha striking me?

So I can gun them down before they can get to me?

Let's do some more math, so everyone can see how things really work and not just in mathhammer land.

I'm deployed 18" in from my board edge (you can't stop me without infiltrators of your own, you know) but could deployed as much as 24" in (that's 12" from you, so you can't scout forward). Let's not even talk about table quarters, where I can be so far from you even turboboosting you probably you can't hit a damn thing.

We are going to do the infiltrators deploy 6" in front of my army, for a total deployment area of 18". I'll subnote what happens when you put the infiltrators 12" in (because somehow they are out of line of sight, very unlikely unless you play at fail stores with 3' x 1' hills in the middle of the fucking table).

18" deploy means you get a 6" scout move.

Since we are now 0.1" over 12" away from each other, that means to stop you getting to me with short range Meltagun shots; I only need to deploy on my normal deployment line and you can't hit me with short range shots if you move normally.

Remember you have to stay an inch away from me, so the Valk is on the other side of the 18" away from my board edge infiltrators. That's 7" from my vehicles. Do I like meltagun shots at 7-12"? Nope, still dangerous. Definitely not the 'boom' that short range shots are, and since that negates your alpha strike--I will take it, and then of course proceed to move up and alpha strike YOU.

Subnote: If deployed 12" in, the Valks cannot get the Veterans into meltagun range without going fast and zooming over the infiltrators and get NO scout move forward (might get one sideways, and good for you--my army is over HERE). That negates all of the Valk fire, and puts a big 1 turn gap between your leading elements and your following elements which your opponent should take advantage of (and crush your face). I'll talk more about moving fast and the perils thereof down below.

Note that moving this fast (to get in range) means the Helicopters can only fire 1 weapon because they went over 6". So for the Vendetta they are not able to fire triple lascannons, which is important. The Valkyrie is less affected but does lose heavy bolter fire which is 12 S5 shots lost. Both are crucial for these vehicles because 1 twin-linked lascannon and 2 templates (which miss a lot) are not very good for anti-tank or anti-infantry duty, respectively.

So I eat one weapon from the valks and the vets are at long range with their meltas?

I ACCEPT.

I will take whatever I have left (that you didn't manage to take out), and crush your scout units with it.

Now let's talk about your Valks moving flat out, and how that works.

Well first off, Valks moving flat out have 2 problems.

1) They can't land in difficult terrain. You can be foolish if you want to, but when you roll a 1 and blow up your 140 point vehicle...you'll feel pretty stupid. If you have 6 and your opponent has 'filled' all the open areas with troops but left you landing grounds in the trees...don't thank him.

2) They can't shoot, and at point blank range...all it takes is a THREE, not a FOUR, to kill you with a melta weapon--you have a cover save because you are EASY to destroy. On a glance five you still die. Yeah, and your cover save is still only 4+. So half the meltashots that go through, have a very high probability of penetrating you AND killing you. Yeah, not a fun happy place to be.

Second, squads do not fucking want to deep strike out of a Helicopter moving flat out.

You scatter 2/3 of the time. When you land on me or your clusterfuck of Helicopters and guys getting out and scattering all over the place...you just lost that unit.

Roll a 1 to immobilize and those guys are in deep shit.

The defense works fine.

You can think it doesn't all you want, just like all the guys who thought they could deep strike their drop pods on a properly setup army did.

Poof to their army, and poof to the Valk rush army. They are very similar in play style.

Both are defended against in almost the same way--with infiltrators 'pushing' the other guy into very dangerous drops or forcing out-of-place drops.

Who cares if you kill one unit when I've negated your entire armies first turn alpha strike, and your army is a glass hammer?

Thanks for reading all this way...