Keeping Infantry Alive

[Coinlord]

With the reveal of the Stormwall, knowing that the Conquest has all AOE's, and that the Kraken is made for eating people all day long, i'm concerned. I run the full steelhead trinity and not a ton of jacks, so i'm asking for some tips on how to keep them from getting shredded turn 1.

Note: not a comlaint, i think the colossals are all great. Just looking for help.

[PG_Dino-Czar]

Turn 1 you'll be fine if you go second. Starting on turn 2 you'll lose... 3-4 guys a turn until models hit melee? Once you're in melee you face threshers from half of it's base, maybe a trample. Doesn't sound so bad, actually. Colossals are slow so you'll have the initiative, and they pre-deploy so you can pick your matchups.

Tactics will have to change against them, but I think infantry heavy lists will be alright.

[pRophaniti1978]

30 Halberdiers vs a Colossal? Might not work, but it's a chuckle.

[Coinlord]

Well, i might not charge the troops into the Colossal every time, since they have thresher, but the guns are my main concern. I mean, the stormwall alone could potentially drop 6 machine gun hits, two big guns (against my cav), and throw out a line of auto-hit auto-kills.

On second thought, would it just be better to get them in melee, hope to deal enough damage through the halb's CMA, the Riflemen's CRA, and the Cav's flank/charge? I mean, if it doesn't kill the thing, they're all pretty screwed next turn, but...

[jwai]

ARM debuffs would be pretty useful.

[canadianone]

Yeah, i think armor debuffs are going to be essential for mercs (p+s17 WOOT) to deal with these monsters. Also, prediction the trident on the galleon will be P+S 17.

[absent]

The longer you leave it up the more well placed zappy towers, so you will want it to get knocked out fast, it only has as much covering fire as a cyclone and it's a far larger model, so i wouldn't worry as much about that. I think a pair of nomads will do just fine against a collossal though, it's like 38 damage against it, if the game changes you need to change with it, it will go through phases where you get back to infantry coming in stronger.

I think damiano with steelhead cav will do fine against it's rat 6 and auto pow 10's to some degree. if the big guns kill 2 cav, and you get 3 to charge under his feat, with a steelhead running around the covering fire, you get about 50 damage on it, you are probably looking pretty good at that point.

I think kara sloan with it's 4-8 shots on her feat turn might tickle a little though.

[MagnustheJust]

Umm... What ^ said!!

[eKraye]

I think it will really come down to smart play.. I really wouldn't expect every game to involve a colossal but it will definitely be something to need to plan around. Though.. I think Mercs have untapped potential versus going infantry spam (though that's the most appealing aspect to me as a cygnar player)

[Aya]

Easy, shoot him with Taryn and then shoot the cast hiding behind the huge base.

Other than that I don't know. I honestly think it'll be a problem for us to just get our infantry up the table. All of these covering fire templates are going to just wreck all of our crappy low army infantry and most of our jacks are super pillow fisted I have no idea how we're going to deal with these things.

[PG_Norton]

Do you reckon arm locks will work?

[Robert Shepherd]

My plan is to just play legion for like the next twelve months.

*exits stage left*

[DocMerc]

I plan on hitting them with boosted Rockrams.
Critical devastation will be nice, So will molten metal.

[lastspartacus]

Good word there on Taryn. She will see more use with huge bases around.

[absent]

Just to reiterate, 2 covering fires is not "a bunch of covering fires" it's 2, and the model is 5" wide, and the covering fires might be 6" but that is hardly going to cover every angle. Also we have charging options that will live through the covering fire, damiano feated horgenhold or cav both will. or surefoot boomhowlers though they probably won't put a ton of damage on it. Those each have a good chance of blowing right through a couple cover fires. The cav in fact are 97%, the horgenhold 84%, and the boomers w/ surefoot are just 72%. if you don't have the elite infantry, then you will be able to spread out more and mitigate the covering fire that way.

The thing is good, sure, but there are always answers to problems on the tabletop or in list design.

[Drakeoss]

saddly theres a bit of a lacking of mercs in my gaming area to date theres one vet tho he plays mainly khador and me the new guy still to play my first game but almost there, as for these things the whole gaming area is a buzz about them and I know I'll be seeing several so have been thinking about how to deal with what I have and what we mercs have and this is what I've come up with Gorman with his rust for the -2ARM and his other tricks, Drake with a couple of nomads use Jackhammer to get some extra hits in and maybe after the first round of mellee (if there still there) use fail-safe to keep them in the firght, Kell Bailoch using his sniper and dual shots (not great but its damage), and Eiryss mage hunter doing her Death Bolt for a few extra points of damage and getting to choose where that damage is put

its basicly my plan for dealing this khador jacks since there are alot in my area just amped up a bit :P

[lastspartacus]

Now that I've seen what collossals can dish out against infantry, I want to tack "abandon hope all ye who enter here" on the entrance to this thread

[cannonball]

I plan on playing Pirates Life tier 4 and having a merc Colossal with SPD 7 1st turn and barreling into the Stormwall.

[Defenstrator]

Something else to note about the Stormwalls Covering Fire. Each Chain Gun is on one side, so it can only make the wall of death directly in fron of it. This means it will have to turn in awkward angles if it wants to do that. And if it wants to shoot both its big guns at something the other direction it can't.

[PG_Norton]

It will be very interest to see what the merc colossal craine will do. A driller with Gorten +5 str will give a colossal a run for there money in trying to break out of a weapon lock. The problem lies in getting the driller to the colossal, but until the rules are released it is all speculation.

[Robert Shepherd]

A driller with Gorten +5 str will give a colossal a run for there money in trying to break out of a weapon lock.

Strength of Granite is +4STR. And weapon locks with a Driller are probably a waste; if you've gotten the Driller into melee, just maker sure you've tuned it up as well and then rip two thirds of the grid off the damn thing.

[absent]

two thirds? Sog tune up driller against will probably kill it. I've killed a khador heavy and done 20 against another before.

[Robert Shepherd]

two thirds? Sog tune up driller against will probably kill it. I've killed a khador heavy and done 20 against another before.

Depends whether you've shot off arcane shield or not.

Either way, SOG + Tune Up + 3 FOC Driller = don't waste your time with fancy-schmancy weapon locks.

[absent]

Not sure if there is gold inside of colossal, but i'm willing to let my driller try and find out.

[Coinlord]

Great call on Taryn. Purchased.

[MagnustheJust]

The only flaw with Taryn is that you have to play Highborne to use her... I don't.

[Ger]

I may actually challenge some friends to 20 points vs collosal. No Warcasters on the field, simply allocate focus. See what kind of methods we can develop.