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The Green Baron: A Tactica

Submitted By: SKEETERGOD Date: March 10, 2011, 10:48:22 AM Views: 2332
Summary: Who the Green Baron is, and how to use him.

The Green Baron


The Green Baron is the only unit in the entire Ork list that works as an individual.  There is The Green Torpedo, but he is a lot more expensive points wise, and uses up a HQ slot, but this article is not about the green torpedo, it is about The Green Baron.

Photos courtesy of angel of death 007(click on picture for larger view):



For most things Orky, the more models you have the better; however, The Green Baron is the exception to this rule.  He is the exception in that he never runs away; he is either on the board or dead.  Twin-linked rokkits make him a good shot, and the saw makes anything which has a rear armor value of ten a nice juicy target.

So who is The Green Baron?

The Green Baron is a single Deffkopta equipped with rokkits and a buzz saw.  His mission is to destroy enemy armor, and harass enemy heavy support.  This is a job he does very well, as the twin-linked rokkits can punch through most armor, and in an assault, the saw counts as a Power Klaw, so any armor, except AV14, can be cut through with the saw.

How to use The Green Baron:

There are two main methods for using The Baron:
 
#1: Start him on the board and turbo boost during the scout move towards the enemy.  This tactic is called the alpha strike.  The turbo boost move gives the baron a very good cover save that will protect him from most enemy shooting, and gets him well within strike range to attack his preferred targets.  Following on from this, move The Green Baron, so that he can get stuck into enemy lines, shooting a tank, and, if it is not destroyed, assaulting it.  In assaults, you are striking against rear armor, so his buzz saw can usually cut through the armour, and destroy the vehicle.

#2: The other method is to start him in reserve, then come in behind your enemy and take out his heavy support.  With this you have a one in three chance of coming in from the wrong side of the board, but with his turbo boost move he can be in position to do his job soon enough.  Of course, there is a chance that the dice will hate you, and The Baron will not come in until the end of the game, in which case he is there for vengeance, and not to divert fire away from your other units.

#3: There is a third tactic, and that is to sacrifice the Green Baron by having him tie up heavy support squads for a turn, in order to allow your Boyz to either get closer to your opponent's army, or to get by the unit(s) The Baron has tied up, so that they can attack a different target.

I have occasionally sacrificed him by charging a Devastator squad to prevent the Marines from shooting at my Battle Wagon, and of course he died, but the assault forced the Devastators to relocate (due to their required pile in move) to the other side of the building, so that they did not have line of sight to my Battle Wagon. Being unable to move and fire with their heavy weapons, this meant that by the time they got back into position to be able to shoot at my Battle Wagon, it was too late.  Of course, this situation does not come up often, but it was worth a mention.

I am a great fan of the Green Baron, because for what he does, he is a great investment in terms of points.  If you are facing an opponent who has never faced the Baron before you are going to show him how devastating the Baron is.  He will take out many tanks and transports if left unmolested.  Once he has ravaged an enemy unit, he usually becomes a top priority target.

It all boils down to this: The Baron either is devastating to the enemy, or dies quickly.

To show how he gets used and performs in detail would take many pages, and since I do not want to write a book, I will tell you a few war stories to demonstrate the joys of The Green Baron.

Against an IG player, The Green Baron killed all three of his Earth Shakers and then took out a Leman Russ during the fourth and fifth turn.  The Imperial Guard player had made the mistake of lining up all his units along the back of the board, and had nothing that could shoot The Baron once I was behind him. The Baron has destroyed many an Imperial Guard template throwing vehicle, and is the most dreaded member of my Ork army when playing against Imperial Guard.

On the occasions when he does not do well, it is when Imperial Guard players who have previously suffered the ravages of The Baron target him relentlessly on the first turn until he is dead.  This is also good for the Orks, as a lot of fire has been directed at The Baron, and not into my Trukks, allowing my army to speed across the board and get stuck in unscathed.

Against Necrons, he is a great at eliminating Destroyers.  Against a standard squad of three to five Destroyers, The Green Baron will kill one with shooting, and then assault.  His toughness and save make him durable enough to survive the two to four Destroyer attacks, and then his buzz saw will kill one or two of the Destroyers, meaning that he will win the combat.  He can glance the Monolith, possibly immobilizing it, and with further hits, reduce its number of attacks.  He is also pretty good for harassing and wounding those pesky C'tans that Necron armies always seem to have hanging around.  A C'tan cannot join a squad, and so can be shot at all day long by The Green Baron.

Against Marines is when I usually start him in reserve, as usually they have more than enough weaponry which can bypass The Baron's save.  In one game, he destroyed two Vindicators and a shooty Dreadnought, which was enough to earn him more than another glory mark.  Against most Marines the rokkits cause instant death, so when an Independent Character ends up standing out in the open The Baron can shoot and kill it.  To have a Devastator or Long Fang squad turn around to take on The Baron will save a lot of Boyz and their Trukks, allowing them to get up close and personal with the opposition having suffered fewer losses.

Against Eldar, The Green Baron can easily take down any Falcon or Fire Prism that may be out there shooting at your force, and once you are behind these tanks they are easy pickings. Their Holofields do give them a slight advantage when it comes to not getting destroyed, so when the rokkit fails to destroy them, make sure that you are in assault range to follow up.  In a few games, The Great Baron has destroyed every Wave Serpent and Falcon on the table, giving my Orks superior mobility, enabling them to win.  Most of the time, Eldar players will shoot everything they have at The Green Baron making it vitally important to turbo boost during the scout move.  Twice now I have had the Eldar shoot everything at The Baron only to have him survive because of his turbo boost cover save, with the additional bonus that the rest of my army took no damage at all.

Against the Tau, The Baron is a good Broadside and Crisis Suit killer, as he can shoot one, assault another, and kill the survivor via a sweeping advance.  It works that way most of the time, and even when it does not you still have them tied up in combat, meaning that they are not shooting at your other vehicles.  I have done this to the Tau so many times that I have lost count.  He is also great against their vehicles too.  Just stay away from Hammerheads, as the flechets will usually cause a wound on The Baron, but if you get within six inches, then the rokkits can fly unmolested against the rear armor of their tanks.  It has got to the stage now that unless I'm facing a new Tau player, they usually shoot at The Baron, ignoring all other Ork targets until The Baron is dead.  Again this allows the majority of my force to get up close and personal where the Tau do not like to fight.
 
Against Dark Eldar, he is great for eliminating transports, and having those Wyches and Warriors walk is a good thing for Orks.  The Dark Eldar players were arrogant and would ignore The Baron, focusing on their drive to get in close to the Boyz, so they often zoomed right past him, allowing him to get behind them without having to do anything but turbo boost during the scout move.  The baron would then lazily turn around and shoot down a Raider, leaving a bunch of dismounted Warriors in front of a Trukk filled with Boyz.  Great fun!  For a while, the Dark Eldar players continued to ignore The Baron, even though he destroyed three or four of their Raiders every game.  Now they start to target The Baron on the first turn, and again this allows the rest of my army to deal with the slippery Dark Eldar before they can assault.

I hardly ever play against another Ork player, but when I do The Green Baron is good at neutralising those pesky Kans and Dreads that are so prevalent where I play.  The Baron will usually only last one kill, so the trade off is important.  If I can eliminate a Dreadnought then my Baron has earned his points back, as usually, right after that, the Kans turn and shoot The Baron down.  Since I have only played a few games against other Orks, I cannot outline a strategy for using The Baron against them, except to say that he does what he does.

The one thing you want to avoid is charging The Baron into combat with infantry.  He is not a close combat expert; in fact, he is not even good at it.  Charging into infantry will only get The Baron killed.  Unless you are sacrificing him to make the enemy move away from your forces, or force them to use their pile in to draw them off an objective, or out of cover, then use your movement to stay far enough away to avoid close combat.

Of course, he is an Ork, and if there is a weakened infantry unit that does not have a Power Weapon in it, you can assault this squad to try to get the kill point.  It is always good to kick a unit when it is down, so rather than let that last lone trooper contest an objective, go ahead and use The Baron to take him out.

Another caveat to add is that you should never assault a Dreadnought.  Even though they are technically a vehicle, they will strike first and kill your Baron every time.  Use the Baron to get behind Dreadnoughts and shoot them in the rear armor, and avoid close combat with them.

Conclusion:

It is my (not so) humble opinion that the Green Baron is the best anti-tank unit that the Orks have.  He is cheap compared to other anti-tank units which the Orks can field, and he is fast.  He will, furthermore, be a high priority target for your opponent once you have used The Green Baron to great effect.  In this case, how many points are you willing to pay to prevent your army from being shot at on the first turn?  The threat of The Green Baron will make your opponents shoot at him until he is dead, instead of the rest of your army.  This allows the rest of your army to get up close and personal, just how we like it.

Skeetergod.

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Comments

angel of death 007
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May 4, 2011, 02:58:46 PM
A very nice article.  Thanks for sharing Skeetergod.

Though there might be other options for fast attack you need to keep in mind that the green baron has the ability to alpha strike.  

With warbuggies or rokkit koptas they are both only shooting options.  The green baron is both a shooting then assault option therefore giving two options in a turn rather than one (just shooting).  You could assault with regular koptas but they wouldn't do that much and the green baron has a better assault option.
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April 12, 2011, 09:09:14 PM
The problem I'm seeing with the Green Baron is that he is an easy, high target priority kill point, and furthermore uses up a Fast Attack slot which could be used to get a relatively large volume of suppression fire relatively cheaply through War Buggies (which also provide blocking) or Deff Koptas.



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