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Author Topic: The Dire Avenger shrine and the return of "Serpent of Shuriken"  (Read 777 times)

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Offline Fenris

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The Serpent of shuriken was originally a copy of Tau's Fish of fury, and revolved around shooting under their transports, to not give away coversaves to the opponent while gaining cover saves themselves, with the Dire Avenger shrine and battle focus the Avengers can just move back and forth behind their transport instead of shooting under it.
Here is how it could be employed:

10x Dire Avengers, Exarch
+ Wave serpent, shuriken cannon.
10x Dire Avengers
+ Wave serpent, shuriken cannon.
10x Dire Avengers
+ Wave serpent, shuriken cannon.
790p

The idea is to go second, and first turn all serpents will jink from any incoming fire since you will likely be moving the serpent flat-out into position. The serpents then need to survive without jinking turn 2, if they do, they will be able to release a powerful beta strike, by moving the serpents only 6" you can both release the Avengers and fire all 3 guns. The avengers can then also use their ability to fire extra shots. Combined this would results in 18+6D6 ~= 39 S6 shots, 9 of them twin-linked. so 28 hits. That's 3.11 HP on 3 AV11 vehicles, statistically.
The Avengers then provides another 90 S4 shots. (not counting the exarch's higher BS) this is 75 hits.
That's a dead 50 man blob of guardsmen,22 MEQ or 12.5 TEQ.

A similar thing can be done by using a falcon cloud strike formation like this:
6x Dire Avengers, Exarch
+Falcon, lance.
6x Dire Avengers
+Falcon, lance.
6x Dire Avengers
+Falcon, lance.
634p

That's 6 S8 hits that penetrates all normal armour and has potential to explode vehicles.
And the Avengers will put out 45 hits (not counting the exarch's higher BS), that's 30 Guardmen in bodybags. The cons with the falcon cloudstrike is that the falcons need to be rolled for, and they can't split fire. However they can be guided, sticking a farseer in there with guide and prescience may make it even better.

Thoughts?
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Offline The Reborn

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Re: The Dire Avenger shrine and the return of "Serpent of Shuriken"
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2015, 06:23:39 AM »
As a tactic it has its uses I think.  It's something I might employ, but not hinge a battle plan on because too much can go wrong when your opponent hits back.  There are too many ifs and maybe's....

Will your tanks survive being shot at as they jink turn 1? Tau in particular can remove your cover save and shoot the amphetamine parrot out of your tanks....

When your troops jump out of the transports, will they cause enough damage to counterbalance being shot-up themselves and possibly being assaulted too?

For me, this tactic has merit, but not as THE main part of a battleplan....too much can go wrong.

Happy gaming. :)


Offline Cavalier

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Re: The Dire Avenger shrine and the return of "Serpent of Shuriken"
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2015, 06:46:02 AM »
I think it can totally work and will be devastating if it does. The trick is finding the right target and accomplishing that on Turn 2 can difficult.

I wouldn't bank everything on not jinking turn 2 either... the Wave Serpents firing at full efficiency is probably the least important maneuver to pull off. As getting the Avengers where they want to be takes priority.

That being said I think you nailed it with the "beta" strike whether it happens on turn 2 or 3. You can truly eradicate your opponents infantry core with this formation and I'd imagine this being a devastating tactic against armies like Tyranids. Against IG it could be very difficult as you'll have to avoid "ignore cover" orders. That being said I've managed it many times in the past with only 2 units of Avengers and keeping them around deep into the game before disembarking and doing their work.

I think the Avenger shrine was sort of lost in the all the sound and fury surrounding the bikes, but I think its a SUPER solid formation and anyone inclined to play will be easily rewarded provided they have experience using Avengers offensively as opposed to DAVU.
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Offline Rx8Speed

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Re: The Dire Avenger shrine and the return of "Serpent of Shuriken"
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2015, 11:35:43 AM »
Wow sweet! I'm thinking of including a DA shrine now as part of my Ulthwe army (using 'black guardians' as dire avengers) combined with a windrider host.

If you go flat out turn 1 then you could probably risk the wave serpent dying by not jinking in turn 2 since you can deploy the dire avengers behind the wreck. There's usually not a high chance of it exploding due to the serpent shield. However if the ws is facing certain doom then jinking is probably a good idea because you'll at least get some more movement for the DAs and a couple s6 hits

 


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