Evidence for Mortar Spam

Thanks to Admiral Drax for and admiral 'BIGGUP' on my continuing love of mortars. In response I've compiled the following analysis of where my love for mortars grew from...

This love affair starts way back here: 29th January 2009. At that stage I was in love with the Missile Launcher. Years of shooting down Eldar tanks and blowing up troops had me in love. However missile launchers have to fire direct, and against Pop-out crisis suits, they died badly. I end of losing 7 to 2 on killpoints ... back to the drawing board methinks.

Two months later I'm back with a different idea. Remember this is OLD codex times, pre release. I've got a solid bubble of leadership and I'm bedding in my heavy weapons (no instant kills here!). This time, on the 19th March 2009 I use ranged fire to hurt the opponent. For the first time I get an inkling of just how effective Mortars just might be ... as I start attacking Crisis Suits who are 'safe'. It was a solid victory.

New codex, new rules. And my mind got to reworking my list. The 30 RT era guardsmen got a makeover and were reborn as Mortar Spam. The 25th September 2009 is a crunch point for me. Mortars win me a game through constant attrition and holding their nerve under fire, they outgun Basalisks and hold the home objective. Mortars replace Basilisks in my affection.

Mortars now appear frequently in my lists(5th November 2009), and the comedy angle/risk of pinging my own guardsmen brings some genuinely funny moments - all too rare in 40k.

And on the 28th of October 2009, Light Infantry lives as 5 mortar teams take to the field and I propose the basics of what will become MORTAR MADNESS. Named after a concurrent meta-phase, The Leafblower Lite is born. In this case it blows serious holes in all manner of Saim Hann.

At the start of 2010, On the 15th January the tactic is set. The inclusion of 4 mortar teams in a 1000pt list proves decisive as Mortars and Multilasers see off Space Marine Bikers and Vendettas. This one gentlemen is quite a read. Only the crafty Chaos Space Marine combo, led by the ubiquitous Anarchic Anton manage to beat us in the final playoff, after we demolished Tau, Orks and all comers. (And mainly through duping my team mate, can't trust Chaos players - honest!)

And so now I've fielded Mortars in Apocalypse and many many many games. My game struggles not to operate around the 555pt Rough Rider plus MORTAR MADNESS platoon. Sometimes we take Autocannons, sometimes Launchers and sometimes Lascannons.

WE ALWAYS TAKE MORTARS.

BATREP - 1750pts Guard versus Eldar

Copyright Armandeo64 - check him out.

Mark C agreed to a match-up. As a mighty Guard player, he's been fielding other armies recently (and now owns even more armies than I!) He'd recently taken up using the old Eldar codex with a lot of focus on the Dire Avengers. As the 'local' Guardsman, he relished the chance to take on Guardsmen with his DA.

I haven't shot down any Eldar in quite a while (since Devilin quit 40k, in fact!), and subsequently I relished the chance to hurt dem pointy ear'd bastards...

Catachan List - 1750pts.

Straken's Command HQ with 2 Melta guns, Regimental Banner, Medic, Nork Deddog and a Chug (Chimera)

Guardsman Marbo

9 Ratlings

Infantry Platoon - HQ with Powerfist, 4 Grenade Launchers and a Chug. 4 squads with Missile Launchers, Flamers and Power Weapons and a Commissar with a power weapon. 10 Mortars and 2 Autocannons.

Harker's Veterans with Autocannon, 3 Sniper Rifles and Demolitions.

5 Rough Riders

2 Hellhounds with Heavy Bolters, Heavy Stubbers, smoke and extra armour.

Tactics: The Missile Launchers and Autocannons would start cracking open Wave Serpents as the Mortars could decimate the enemy. The use of grenade launchers, flamers and hellhounds highlight my XP of lance technology. Trying to build in some speed was also a priority.

Dire Avengers Eldar List

Dire Avenger Phoenix Lord

3 Dire Avenger units of 11, all with Exarch.

1 ten man Striking Scorpion Unit

3 Wave Serpents, one with Bright lance and most with Missile Launchers

1 Vyper with Missile Launcher

3 Fire Prisms

Mission and Deployment: Dawn of war and Annihilation really benefited the Eldar as I couldn't deploy my Ratlings, Mortars or anything useful. The Guard Horde massed up in cover , Straken held the board centre in his Chug and the Veterans when to cover on the right flank. The Eldar stayed in their two Wave Serpent way off on the right.

Unit by unit Game Synopsis

My shooting fail to kill any tanks, but neither did his. The Veterans assaulted a turbo'd Wave Serpent, got a kill point and were then chop'd up by the Phoenix Lord, Exarch and cronnies. I'd forgotten how filth these top level Eldar are. Straken attempted a melta shot on the Scorpion WaveSerpent, forgot he had orders and fluffed the shooting. A Dire Avenger unit then killed all the 'non-heroes' in the unit. Nork and Straken looked exposed. The Fire Prisms entered and shot a turret off Straken's Chug - the bloody cheek.

In my turn I shook the viper and turned missiles on the Pheonix Lord's squad, killing a couple. The Rough Riders and Straken/Nork charged the Scorpion WaveSerpent hoping in vain to pop it with a Plasma Pistol. This didn't happen and the Rough Riders wasted their lances, Straken and Nork fluffed their attacks and the tank dumped 10 Striking Scorpions, who chewed into the two units. The Rough Riders died badly (they really are designed for fighting Marines), while Straken and Nork formed a solid front. The combo of a majority T5 and all the 3+ and 4+ plus FNP kept the Scorpions at bay. In return both warriors were rolling 4+'s and 2 up on 8 attacks to kill. Nork kept them at bay while Straken went to work. And in two turns the Scorpions died.

Meanwhile, the Dire Avengers on the right flank all bebarked and shot up my horde as the Phoenix Lord and Cronies charged in. Then the Lord realised his mistake as four power weapon wielding sergeants and a commissar jumped on the bastards. Even with a 'defence' skill reducing the attacks to 10, I consistently killed them. Until only the Phoenix Lord was left, and he finally got dragged down in turn 5.

Meanwhile the 'supporting' WaveSerpent and Dire Avengers met Mr. Marbo. His Demolition charge destroyed the transport and killed a few, while a hellhound torched all but the Exarch and 2 Avengers. The Avengers then tried to shoot and combat this 'easy' kill point. Only for Marbo to make his 5 up, kill the two cronies and rout the Exarch. Kudos.

The foot slogging avengers spotted the mortars finally setting up and went to ground, right next to Straken's Chug which heavy flame'd them, supported by a exuberant hellhound. The ratlings killed the Exarch.

The Autocannon team setup up and killed the Vyper and then shook and destroyed one vehicle after another. So much so that little could shoot or attack. At the end of turn five, Mark had one Dire Avenger unit (pre-flaming death), 3 Fire Prisms and a Wave Serpent. By the end he had a single Fire Prism (shaken).

I'd lost 2 killpoints, he'd lost everything bar one skimmer.

Conclusion

Looking back I think Mark did have the toolkit to take me apart. I was very very lucky and he failed to destroy a single vehicle all game. That said, all the vehicles I'd bought were cheap. By focusing his attacks on my 'horde' and Hellhounds, I got away with an awful lot. Additionally, Mark was a good sport, charging his Scorpions in to Straken, when really I should have been gunned down in ignomy. As a 'unit' Marbo and Straken are lethal as one provides the durability while the other just kills stuff, however for future I'd focus on taking just a couple of meltaguns along - as all the bodies around these two are just cannon fodder.

Marbo surviving was a turn up, and he played a blinder. If mark had concentrated his S9 blast on the HWT's, killpoints would have racked up. The ratlings would have been chow down for any of his units, while the Scorpions could have chewed up the horde nicely, although I doubt they would have survived a couple of turned against so many power weapons. The problem was that outside a vehicle, the hellhounds were death to any dire avenger - so he couldn't get out until the tanks were neutered. But he didn't have to neuter them with destruction.

On discussion after the game, I suggested that Star-Engines would have given him more options and we agreed that he was probably in too much of a Space Marine headset to play the Eldar to their strengths. All in all I liked Mark's army, but it needed to play more tactically and use its speed to manage the engagement. After all, he could easily have tripped me into one flank, have boosted to the other side, focussed all his firepower on the other flank and chalked up five killpoints, re-embarked and then come hard at the HWT's netting him easy points.

The guard codex does have a lot of advantages though, when even a fluffy list (does anything with Marbo in it count) can make some stupid mistakes and pull off a near massacre. A very forgiving codex, and not a fair reflection on Mark's list or use of it.

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MiniAPOC - Battle Report, 4000pts

Squeezing a 4000pt doubles game into a Spearhead deployment is fun, but I was air-dropped in as a last minute replacement last night over at a friends house... no piccies I'm afraid - but dynamic dialogue anyhow!

Team Rhubarb - (me and MarkC, rolling with the Tau and the Space Marines)

Za Tau... baby!

• Shas'O with Air Fragmenty Boomgun, plasma and Missile Pod
• 2 squads of 2 Crisis suits, kitted up with largely missile pods, flamers and burst cannons. 2 plasma rifles and a Shas'O Air Frag Projector special. All with targetting arrays, All units have an escort of 2 gundrones.
• 5 Stealthers with 5 gundrones
• 4 x 9 Fire Warriors with a Sergeant each.
• Kroot Horde of 20 kroot and 10 kroot hounds.
• 5 Pathfinders with a Devilfish
• Piranha (say it like Darla from 'finding Nemo' for full effect) with Fusion (meltagun)Blaster
• 2 Broadsides with Targetters and 2 Shield Drones
• 2 SkyRays with Smart Missile Systems

All vehicles have Targetting Arrays (5pts), Disruption Pod (5pts) and Multitrackers (10pts)

Za Smurfs ... bluey?

• 2 Biker Scout Squads (5ish)
• 4 Biker Squads (5ish)
• 1 Command Biker Squad (7ish)
• 10 Assault Marines

Team Custard - Necrons and D-Eldar (played by Hutch and t'Mark, another Mark)

Neccies

• Destroyer Lord with Res Ord, Scythe and stuff (ok I never really saw him)
• 2 huge squads of Neccies (20)
• Unit of Destroyers (3)
• Immortals (5)
• Flayed Ones (10)
• Monolith with everything ...

D-Eldar

• 2 x AV11 multi darklance tanks (Ravagers?)
• 2 x Av10 transports (Raiders?)
• 6 Jetbikers
• 2 x D-Eldar Warrior Units
• 2 x large Evil Beast units, with warp beasts and razorwings
• Incubi unit with death weaponry
• Some mad-ass chosen dudes sporting S8 plasma guns, Eeeek!

Deployment

Table quarters and annihilation - Great! I set up my Tau behind a veritable wall of Smurf bikers. The pathfinders and the Broadsides get the high ground while the firewarriors sit in their transports and the SkyRays get their markerlights warmed up!

The Kroot horde infiltrate into the right flank building, filling all 4 stories with their smelly bodies, the Stealth team go out on the far left, deep behind enemy lines and looking to disrupt the enemies movement.

Game Highlights

First turn, They start, stealing initiative on a 4+! but Marks cunning scout move with his bikes mean that they can't get the shots and combat they want. They spend a frustrating turn killing a few Marine scouts and thanks to E-Eldar/Necron firepower (scary but VERY short ranged), I'm left unmarked.

Marks entire army races off into the wild blue yonder, intent on murder (hence I'm a little hazy on his army really). I focus on what I do best. 4 markerlights hit the Monolith, giving me a 2+ rerollable to hit and ignoring the 4+ cover save he should have. 2 shots later and the Broadsides have paid for themselves.

To follow up, the Pathfinder light up the AV11 Raider thingie and ping it with a couple of seeker missiles, only to fail. A Crisis Suit team does a duck and cover and blows it to bits with four missiles from the missile pods.

The Necron Swarms are looking threatening, until the Shas'O detachs and drops a S4 big blast causing 14 wounds into their midst! At the end of the shooting only 4 of 9 bases remain. Ignoring cover saves and dropping a template on swarms ... finger licking good! The Stealthers sneak forward and unleash serious firepower on a warbeast horde, but they only kill a couple. They retreat to the corner.

Marks Smurf Bikers make short work of the Beast Swarm on the right and consolidate towards the Necrons.

Turn 2: The Stealthers get charged by the Swarm of nine Scabbie thingies. 4 rounds of combat will result in a final ignoble death of the Stealthers ... ho hum. The Flayed ones flank and come in behind a SkyRay, stunning it. Nothing much else happens to my forces, so I wander off and make TEA.

The four unit scabbie swarmie thing I dlew up charges my fire warriors ... WS2, I2 S3 fightoff is embarressing in the extreme, but all the flapping hands goes his way, but my Shas'ui holds it together. He has many more attacks and 3 wounds each - and I have marginally better armour.

Ha, I'm back! Broadsides, all crisis suits, 9 firewarriors, 2 Smart Missile Systems, a Transport and the Smart Missile Systems on the Broadsides ALL target the Flayed ones and kill. 8 out of 10 (shouldn't that be cats?), ironically 8 out of 10 flayed ones WWB in my face - boo.

The Kroot make their first mighty move through cover roll and manage to throw 72 attacks at a 9 unit Necron horde. Cover save my ass - the Krooty muller them ... yeah! He takes 21 wounds after armour saves, and then gets kyboshed by the 21 fearless saving throws he has to take against the 2 remaining bases. The Shas'O has other problems, his move-fire-assault move jetpack thingie, back into cover kills all his gundrones ... must get new ones.

Mark's Bikers jump the D-Eldar Incubi and Lord and die tragically (but not without turning the Necron Lord into a tube of toothpaste using a powerfist - how graphic!), the rest of the bikers decide that eating Necron units is funny and get on with their job.

At this point the score is like "PURE WIN FOR THE MARINES AND TAU" - like 8-2.

Turn 3: Revenge of the Green Eyed Man/Robots...

Ok, looking good. But now we're in range and stuff gets nasty. First up, the beasts on the far left attack some bikes, but it turns out this is the command squad and its peachy. I couple of 'uber-marines' die and the beasts flee - but not far.

The D-Eldar also unleash S8 uber-plasma death on said command squad as the 'chosen' and Necron immortals in the centre get in on the game. The Destroyers blow up one of my devilfish - boo. The Flayers (all 8, fecking WBB rolls), charge the fire warriors and the warriors hold them (why can't these damned tau learn how to die properly), protecting the flayers.

They also shoot up my Piranha, which has been turbo-boosting a screen for the firewarriors on the left. Speaking of which, those FW's lose their combat to the scabs and run... ho hum.

5 incubi make a break for my pathfinders.

MY TURN! Broadsides target another AV11 Ravager (is that right?) and pop it open, S10 AP1 - yummy! The Markerlight sail into the Incubi and 2 seeker missiles make pulp of them. One is gutted by a Broadside shot (damn 1's) while 2 teams of crisis suits, a SkyRay SMS and the Shas'O manage to pulp the remaining Incubi.

The Kroot make another 'mighty' 6 inch MTC roll and assault a 6 man jetbike squad that's supporting the Flayed ones ... the Jetbikes get 1 attack each and kill 1 kroot. Unfortunately for them, 29 Kroot and kroot hounds then eat them. Mark's Assault marines valiantly come to the defence of the dying fire warriors as the devilfish moves away - denying a killpoint.

TURN 4: Last turn.

The D-Eldar and Necron have very little left. It all comes down to how much damage Marks command and other bikers have done in the DEldar and Necron backfield. Killing Destroyers and all sorts. The Terminators arrive and save the command squads, although catching those damned Beasts at I7 is tough work.

The Flayed Ones massacre the Assault Marines (eh?), I then 'bravely' charge my Kroot in, 84 attacks are stymied by the Flayed Ones 'SCARY FACE' roll. The Kroot fluff their Ld7 test and have to hit the neccies on a six. Not good, but doable. Awful rolling later and every save is passed. The Necrons kill 5 kroot in reply and suddenly I've got to roll a double 1 to not run ... with a sense of the inevitable the kroot are caught and massacred. Doh!

In any case, everybody attacked everybody else and the game ended with us winning by about 8 killpoints. The Broadsides were dependable and the SkyRays were just pure dirt against the D-Eldar.

Conclusion

Sometimes, going wappy with 4000pts on a 6' x 4' board just works. Tau are a great support army (like Guard) and work in great synergy with Space Marines and other 'attack' armies. In fact, for the most part we could play two separate games. On reflection, the Kroot were on for being 'man of the match', before being pipped by a unit of 10 lowly flanking slayers. Who killed a firewarrior squad, 28 kroot and an assault marines squad and managed more killpoints against me than the rest of two entire 2000 pt armies... (but mainly because I had a lot of bikes to hide behind).

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