Monday, October 16, 2017

Against the Grain - Alpha Legion: Omegon, John Cena Edition



We jump back in with a second head of the Hydra. This time around we're going to steer away from the Insurgency tactics and see how we can really exploit the Alpha Legion special rules with units from the CSM codex. All rules and names are the property of Games Workshop, INC.

In my last article, I tackled an 8th Edition version of the Alpha Legion Insurgency Force that swarms the board with small, elite fire teams and mobs of cultists. While this seemed like a really fun list to throw down with on Warhammer Wednesdays (followed of course by Heretical Happy Hour), my gut feeling is that it would be hard pressed in a competitive environment. With that in mind, we're going to put together a pure Alpha Legion list that can give you some nasty tricks for a tournament. The beauty of this list and the Alpha Legion will be tactical flexibility and offensive firepower.


Legion Tactics, Stratagems and Warlord Trait

So this is where the magic happens. Alpha Legion have two fantastic legion specific buffs that make them a real pain to deal with on the battlefield.

  1. I Am Alpharius - We'll start at the top with our Warlord, or in this case Warlords. This trait is largely unchanged from its 7th Edition counterpart. You nominate your Warlord and they randomly generate a trait from the CSM warlord traits. If your Warlord is ever killed, you may immediately choose a new Warlord from your Alpha Legion Characters and generate a new Warlord trait. Your opponent has to kill every Alpha Legion Character in your army to achieve Slay the Warlord. Very handy way of denying tertiary points to your opponent.
  2. Hidden in Plain Sight - This Legion trait is identical to the loyalist Raven Guard chapter tactic. Enemy units shooting at an Alpha Legion unit must subtract 1 from their to hit rolls when outside of 12". This is highly effective and frustrating for the enemy as it not only makes your heavy hitters harder to hit, but means that their high damage but unstable weaponry (plasma, ion, etc.) now is just as likely to hurt the bearer as it is their target. This also forces many armies to come to you and allows you to dictate where they can be effective.
  3. Forward Operatives - A stratagem available to Alpha Legion Infantry, for 1 CP you can place the unit in "concealed deployment." Immediately before the first game turn begins, the unit reveals itself and can be placed anywhere on the battlefield more than 9" away from enemy units. The important thing to remember here is that deployment does not count as a phase, so the restriction on using the same stratagem more than once in a phase does not apply here. Also, some Infiltration abilities (Ghostkeel and Stealth Teams for instance) won't allow you to set the unit up in the opponent's deployment zone. There is no such restriction here, which will force your opponent to deploy in a defensive position around their DZ lest they find themselves attacked from the rear.
  4. Tide of Traitors - This is a rule from last edition that got a bit of a makeover. Instead of rolling to see if a new unit spawns to replace the destroyed unit, use this stratagem to pick up any Cultist unit and place them anywhere on the board near a table edge and more than 9" away from an enemy unit. In an of itself, this is pretty strong as it allows for rapid redeployments, BUT it also returns the Cultist unit to its starting number of models. Pull this on a big mob of Cultists and you can really maximize the effect.
  5. Endless Cacophony - CSM stratagem that allows a Slaanesh marked unit to fire again at the end of the shooting phase.
  6. Veterans of the Long War - CSM stratagem that adds 1 to all wound rolls for a CSM unit until the end of the phase.

The List



Brigade
Chaos Lord w/ Jump Pack: Blade of the Hydra, Lightning Claw
Dark Apostle: Bolt Pistol, the Black Mace (Power Maul)
Exalted Champion: Chainaxe, Chainsword, Mark of Khorne, Talisman of Burning Blood
Sorceror w/ Jump Pack: Bolt Pistol, Force Sword, Prescience, Warptime (Death Hex is also a good option)

Cultists (21)
5x Cultists (10)

3x Khorne Berzerkers(10): Chainsword, Chainaxe, Icon of Wrath

2x Chaos Bikers (4): Bolt Pistol, Combi Bolter
Chaos Spawn: Mark of Khorne

2x Obliterators(3): Mark of Slaanesh
Havocs(5): 4 Plasma Guns, Champion w/ Combi-plasma

Now there's one important option that needs to be pointed out. There's a fantastic combo with the Changeling and Tzeentch Marked Obliterators which will be detailed below. In the interest of maintaining consistency with the Alpha Legion detachment, I've excluded that from the primary list tech. However, the following changes could be made to get some more crazy benefits.

Add in:
Supreme Command Detachment (Chaos)
Changeling
2x Malefic Lords


Exchange:
2x Chaos Bikers for 2x Chaos Spawn


Change:
2x Obliterators(3) Mark of Tzeentch

How it Works 

Just like the symbol of the Legion, this army is a Hydra with three heads. (The Havocs can go where needed, they fit well into any of these groups.)
  1. The first includes the 6 units of Cultists and the Fast Attack elements. These units will be deployed out on the field and are meant to spread the board early and sit on objectives. 
  2. The second head is the Berzerker block. 30 Berzerkers plus the Exalted Champion and Dark Apostle will be using the Forward Operatives stratagem to get 9.1" away from the soft underbelly of the enemy lines. This head will eat just about any infantry out there through sheer weight of attacks that are benefited by rerolls from the Champion and Apostle.
  3. The third head is the smallest, albeit no less potent, and is made up of the Obliterators and Lord with the Sorceror providing support. These will be held off the field in Tactical Reserves and either teleport onto the field or drop in with their jump packs.
By taking the Brigade, we're running a total of 12 Command Points which is a must have in this list as 4-5 will be used before the first round even begins, so let's start with deployment.
The Cultists, Bikers, Spawn, and at least one of the Characters (probably the Sorceror) will begin on the board to fulfill our mandatory 50% of units that start on the board. The second head will be using Forward Operatives and they will either be popping up very close to a soft spot in the line (if going first) or out of sight on a flank (if going second). The third head will be arriving by "deep strike" next to a unit that will require a bit more firepower to remove.

The Berzerkers will be benefiting from the rerolls to charge distance, to hit and to wound granted to them by the nearby Characters and their Icon of Wrath. These guys remove any pretense of ranged warfare and are focused solely on engaging as many enemy units as possible in hand to hand combat. Remember they get to fight twice and will be swinging with 3 attacks each because of the chainsword. These three units should be able to rout entire flanks of Infantry with relative ease. The caveat to these guys is that if you're going second, they need to be deployed somewhere either out of sight or in cover. Marine equivalents are still susceptible to small arms fire so don't let these guys get caught out in the open.



The Obliterators will be dropping in with the Lord to get them rerolls on their shooting. Now these guys are where you can diverge the list a bit. You're going to want to drop them in around 24" of the target so that they can gain the benefits from Hidden in Plain Sight, this will be the same for both lists. In my primary list, I've given them Mark of Slaanesh so that they can take advantage of the Endless Cacophony and get a second shooting attack. The great thing is that this is used at the end of your shooting phase, so you'll be able to time it for when you rolled well on your weapon profiles. Those rolls stay in affect until the end of the phase so you won't have to reroll them. In conjunction with this, after rolling those good stats you can use Veterans of the Long War to get a +1 to wound. This could potentially lead to wounding Knights and other large targets on a 2+ with high AP and Damage. Pair these guys with a Death Hex Sorceror and you'll melt through whatever they target.

Finally, we'll return to the not so glamorous (but still important) portion of the army. Quick math shows there are 71 Cultists in this list. These units will serve a variety of roles; primarily area denial, objective duty, and ablative wounds for our more expensive units. Tide of Traitors will make these units invaluable for these latter two jobs as we'll be able to move them to quadrants of the board to grab objectives or achieve linebreaker. They can also redeploy to support and surround the Obliterators when they arrive. The great part of the stratagem is that your opponent is forced to kill your Cultists to the last man or risk wasting all that shooting on a 60 point unit that will just reappear elsewhere.

Between these three blocks of units, you're covered for both an Alpha or Beta Strike and should be able to wreak havoc from 3 levels. The Havocs and Bikers weren't even discussed but these are your Swiss Army Knife, they can go where you need them to be to solve problems that inevitably arise.

 The Alternative

 

The alternative list includes the Changeling specifically to be paired up with the Obliterators. As they're Daemons of Tzeentch (with the Mark), they'll benefit from the -1 to hit aura provided by this tricky scion of Tzeentch. Combine smart positioning with this and these guys will be forcing a -2 to hit penalty on opponents while putting out a withering hail of return fire. Wrap some Cultists around them to keep up the buffer and they'll be exceedingly difficult to remove.

 Pros and Cons



Starting with the Good. When this list goes first, it's going to hit really, really hard. Between the Berzerkers and Obliterators, there's a very good chance of turning two flanks at once and allowing your Cultists to spend a few turns babysitting objectives and denying reserves from deploying. Alpha Legion armies rarely give up Slay the Warlord and that is still true here as there are 4 Characters to take on the mantle of Alpharius. Hidden in Plain Sight will help protect some of the more fragile units while Tide of Traitors will let you quickly reposition units of Cultists to grab objectives or protect more valuable units. Top to bottom, you have anti-infantry, you have anti-tank, you have board presence, you have speed. Lots of Pros in this list.

 Negatives. One of the major pillars of this army's strategy revolves around the Berzerkers getting into combat on Turn 1. As this list uses a Brigade, the odds of getting that +1 to go first aren't too good. Now there are ways to mitigate this disadvantage, Forward Operatives gives you good leeway with where to deploy so if you lose the roll off and fail to seize the initiative then the Angry Marines can just be deployed in a building or behind some terrain piece since they'll still be benefiting from Hidden in Plain Sight. Just remember that these guys will likely be priority one for your opponent, so don't help them out by leaving your Berzerkers in the open. Second, there becomes an issue with "accounting" in this list. This army uses a lot of Command Points, almost half of which will be burned pregame for deployment. There should be roughly 7 CP left for the entire game, unfortunately several of the nastier combos are going to be eating up 2-3 at a time. Rationing is a must, don't pop stratagems just because you can. Make sure that it's needed in the context of the game you're playing right then and there. Don't find yourself in a situation where you need to use Tide of Traitors and are sitting on 1 CP.

In conclusion, I'm still building my Alpha Legion fore but I should have all the required pieces for this now so hopefully I can provide some BatReps soon. Consulting with Chaos Lords Mark Perry (currently the top player in the ITC South) and Doug Kus (Nurgle extraordinaire) brought me to what you see above. This seems to be a brutal list on paper so I can't wait to see what it does on the tabletop.

So what do you think, did I get it right? Do you like this list and think it could perform competitively? Where in the world IS Carmen San Diego?
Hail Hydra

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