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Author Topic: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex  (Read 7167 times)

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Offline The Unseenly Invincible

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Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« on: July 28, 2013, 02:10:46 AM »
I played a game recently against Angry Wraithknight Eldar, and squeaked a victory against them (my opponent ran 2 troops which I lawn-mowed over with my battlesuits, so, eh... learn 6th ed mission mechanics).

So question is, how to kill Wraithknight? This thread is dedicated to Wraithknight-killing strategies.

I'll share my own experiences (*cough* failures) against Wraithknights:

1. It's big, it's angry, and holy amphetamine parrot it's tough. Maybe my army wasn't tooled out to face this sort of opponent, but after the game I had a glace over the codex, and tau is lacking anything remotely reminding me of a missile launcher. Outside of seeker missiles (my Sky Ray was forced to save firing those at the Crimson Hunters - le sigh) and Heavy Rail Guns (who takes those, anyway?) and maybe fusion blasters, tau seem to lack a spammable S8+ AP>3 type of thing. So perhaps S8+ AP>3 isn't the answer?

2. I killed one of my opponent's 2 wraithknights by focus-firing my whole god damn army at it turn 1, and still managed to squeak the kill, mostly because I got a few SMS wounds here and there, and my opponent couldn't seem to pass his armour saves. But after turn 2, more tactical objectives/immediate threats to you winning the game show up, so I can't focus fire on the damn thing any more. So tactic no. 2 - focus firing is Not Reliable Enough.

3. Assault i.e. Onanger Gauntlet (joking).

4. What else?
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Offline Shas'La robo

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2013, 02:46:54 AM »
Puretide Engram commander (giving Monster Hunter) + 3 Plasma or Fusion suits is probably the best combo we can do.

So from my lists without changing anything I'd just re-task my anti-tank suits;
Quote
Commander: 226
- XV8-02, Shield generator, 2 Fusion blasters, Airbursting fragmentation projector, Onager gauntlet, Puretide engram neurochip, Neuroweb system jammer, 2 Shield drones
Crises Team: 210
- Shas'Vre, Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command & control node, Flamer, 2 Shield drones
- 2 Fusion blasters, Target lock
- 2 Fusion blasters, Target lock

So that would be 6 twin linked Fusion blasters, ignoring cover with monster hunter.


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Offline The Unseenly Invincible

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2013, 03:09:13 AM »
Puretide Engram commander (giving Monster Hunter)

Damn. I keep forgetting that thing exists.

3 Plasma

Plasma's bleh against the Wraithknight - while ignoring the armour, it still wounds on 6's (I used it my game).

So from my lists without changing anything I'd just re-task my anti-tank suits;
Quote
Commander: 226
- XV8-02, Shield generator, 2 Fusion blasters, Airbursting fragmentation projector, Onager gauntlet, Puretide engram neurochip, Neuroweb system jammer, 2 Shield drones
Crises Team: 210
- Shas'Vre, Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command & control node, Flamer, 2 Shield drones
- 2 Fusion blasters, Target lock
- 2 Fusion blasters, Target lock

So that would be 6 twin linked Fusion blasters, ignoring cover with monster hunter.

Damn. That's pretty expensive. 436 points for killing Wraithknights... well, if it floats your boat.
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Offline Locarno

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2013, 05:30:40 AM »
My biggest problem with fusion blasters - I don't advise getting that close to a jump monstrous creature.

Suggestions:
1) Kroot kindred with hunting rifles - your single best option for this
2) Masses of missiles. Yes. you only inflict a wound per 9 missile hits, but (as noted) that's not massively worse than plasma fire, and you can field a shedload more of it and pummel the thing from range. Plus monster hunter is not a bad option.
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Offline Wiggus

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2013, 05:47:56 AM »
Dont forget sniper drones i mean if your running an ethereal like i do having 3 shots each at 24" is pretty epic i run 6 drones 2 marksmen which is useful in many situations rather than making a dedicated anti wraithknight unit you just re purpose this one
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Offline Shas'La robo

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2013, 06:05:33 AM »
Puretide Engram commander (giving Monster Hunter)

Damn. I keep forgetting that thing exists.

3 Plasma

Plasma's bleh against the Wraithknight - while ignoring the armour, it still wounds on 6's (I used it my game).

So from my lists without changing anything I'd just re-task my anti-tank suits;
Quote
Commander: 226
- XV8-02, Shield generator, 2 Fusion blasters, Airbursting fragmentation projector, Onager gauntlet, Puretide engram neurochip, Neuroweb system jammer, 2 Shield drones
Crises Team: 210
- Shas'Vre, Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command & control node, Flamer, 2 Shield drones
- 2 Fusion blasters, Target lock
- 2 Fusion blasters, Target lock

So that would be 6 twin linked Fusion blasters, ignoring cover with monster hunter.

Damn. That's pretty expensive. 436 points for killing Wraithknights... well, if it floats your boat.

It isn't just for Wraithknights, can easily kill 1-3 tanks per turn as well. That unit almost by itself killed half of a 1500pt IG list, so isn't that shabby for its points.

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hug cover, shoot the big ones, and cripple the fast ones. if those cant be achieved, kill em all.  8)

Offline Wyddr

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2013, 12:34:17 PM »
Snipers and just snipers. I wouldn't waste *any* other firepower on it unless it was down to one or two wounds. If you have the Puretide Engram on your commander, just move your Commander into the sniping unit for a turn, get your Markerlight hits in to boost BS as high as possible, and then blast away.

A mere 12 Kroot or so can force about 7 saves a round thusly supported, which ought to handle your wraithknight in a mere two turns or so without having to devote your entire army to it. Add in Sniper Drones (who don't really need ML support), a couple seeker missiles, and so on, and they seem quite able to be overcome.

Also of note, the OP won the game anyway, even with spending a whole turn shooting nothing but a Wraithknight and the enemy taking two wraithknights. If this doesn't demonstrate a weakness in the Wraithknight for its points, I don't know what does. Unseemly, how much damage did the WKs do, anyway? Do you *need* to kill them first thing, or can you let them lark about for a turn or two before bothering. My immediate instinct would be to not bother with them and focus on killing everything else. Now, if they're wiping a unit a turn or something, then that's a different story, but I'm not sure they can do that.

Offline The Unseenly Invincible

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2013, 04:09:49 AM »
Also of note, the OP won the game anyway, even with spending a whole turn shooting nothing but a Wraithknight and the enemy taking two wraithknights.

This was mostly due to the fact that my opponent was playing with 2 3 (OP was incorrect - he also had a jetbike squad) troops, and as we all know, eldar troops are more or less guardsmen, and, like guardsmen, they all die in droves. I snuck a alfa-striking Plasma/Burst Cannon unit behind enemy lines, which was more-or-less the game winner.

If this doesn't demonstrate a weakness in the Wraithknight for its points, I don't know what does. Unseemly, how much damage did the WKs do, anyway? Do you *need* to kill them first thing, or can you let them lark about for a turn or two before bothering. My immediate instinct would be to not bother with them and focus on killing everything else. Now, if they're wiping a unit a turn or something, then that's a different story, but I'm not sure they can do that.

Well, it depends. The Wraithknight has a dual equivalent-of-a-railgun cannon, and that can make things messy, but what I'm more worried about is assault (It's jump infantry, and my opponent used it aggressively). Even with support fire, overwatch barely scratches the thing, and tau being tau, well... dislike CC, I'll put plainly.

The game (as far as the wraithknights were concerned) went like this:

Turn 1: there wasn't anything else to shoot at, so I shot the wraithknight, and killed it.

Turn 2: I ignored the wraithknight as my opponent's reserves all spammed out of the sky and into my backrow. The wraithknight blew up a hammerhead.

Turn 3: The wraithknight blows up a devilfish, and then my firewarriors narrowly escape CC, as the wraithknight gets 2" on its assault move.

Turn 4+5: My opponent loses all his troops, and mostly due to that I squeak a 4-1 win against eldar (but just - 2 kroot held on an objective). The wraithknight ended up on 2 wounds, having eaten through 3 tanks and 2-3 infantry/battlesuit squads (or something like that - my recall isn't too great).
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2013, 09:03:24 AM »
That's a unit a turn, more or less. Ouch.

Well then, snipers. And, what's more, place the snipers in a spot where, if the Wraithknight wants to get them, he'll have to jump way out of his way and then waste a turn getting back into position to threaten the rest of your army. Kroot are great for this.

Offline The Unseenly Invincible

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2013, 02:35:49 AM »
And, what's more, place the snipers in a spot where, if the Wraithknight wants to get them, he'll have to jump way out of his way and then waste a turn getting back into position to threaten the rest of your army. Kroot are great for this.

Unfortunately, Eldar have other coverage against static outliers, mostly in form of warp spiders and jetbikes - best thing to do against eldar is to stay together and to fight together.
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: Wraithknight - holy cow how to kill that 9" spandex
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2013, 07:43:05 AM »
And, what's more, place the snipers in a spot where, if the Wraithknight wants to get them, he'll have to jump way out of his way and then waste a turn getting back into position to threaten the rest of your army. Kroot are great for this.

Unfortunately, Eldar have other coverage against static outliers, mostly in form of warp spiders and jetbikes - best thing to do against eldar is to stay together and to fight together.

I'm well aware of the Eldar's capabilities. I was working under the assumption you were moving to counter said fast elements, since they are the most dangerous thing the Eldar have. It has not been my experience against Eldar that sticking together gives you significant advantages over spreading out, assuming your units are still close enough to be able to cover each other. Actually, tossing one unit out of the way gives the Eldar an impetus to split up, which hurts them a lot more than it hurts you.

They Eldar only work if their entire army is working together. If you can find a way to keep their army from doing this (by, say, forcing one or two units to leave their central thrust for a few turns to deal with some cheap unit), your odds of beating them improve markedly.

All that said, if your opponent chooses not to engage the Kroot, that allows you to snipe away as long as you like. If your opponent moves a unit out of line to engage the Kroot, that makes it easier for your own mobile elements to destroy said unit. If your opponent moves the Wraithknight to eliminate the unit that threatens it (dumb move on your opponent's part, but still), the Wraithknight will do less damage to your army. Furthermore, if you are targeting his Warp Spiders and Jetbikes first anyway (which you ought to), ideally you will put them in a worse position to engage the Kroot in the first place.

Using Kroot as a diversion works fairly well in many instances. I recommend trying it. If it doesn't work, all they get to do then is snipe down a Wraithknight. win/win

 


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