Planetstrike: I struck a planet and I liked it!
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:19 am
Okay, for those out of the loop, GW has lately been making supplements for 40K that use the idea of "If we make a new Spess Mehrin, only Spess Mehrin players will buy it (less if it's a special chapter like Wolf Space Wolf Marines), other armies fare even worse due to not having ~60% of the market. If we make a random supplement then everyone has to buy it!"
Cities of Death was a bit of a flop - all they sold was a book with some missions and stratagems, a few pieces of terrain (ruins) and... that's it. Also it was geared towards small cityfight skirmishes, competing against Apocalypse (no chance there - Apocalypse is here to stay, and I approve of a game where I can win simply by having the most Superheavies).
Planetstrike, on the other hand, could be a winner. Release day was today, and saw:
-The rulebook
-Bastions (buildings/objectives, has heavy bolters and can have a quad-linked autocannon or a long-range las-cannon or even a battle cannon), more ruins (but impressive) and landing pads with shielding. Note that they're ideal size for a valkyrie and the recently disembarked troops, and only a month or two ago, valkyries came out.
-Groups of defensive walls (with automated weaponry)
-Coming out later, we might be able to expect laser grid networks, minefields, impenetrable fortresses and missile silos.
The rules are designed with larger games in mind - the Defenders get 1-3 HQ, 2-8 Troops, 0-3 Elite, 0-3 Fast Attack and 0-6 Heavy Support (note the recent IG codex that said "three Leman Russ tanks with 1 Heavy Support choice. Hint hint.") whereas the Attackers get 1-3 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-6 Elite, 0-6 Fast Attack and 0-3 Heavy Support (again, IG could take 18 valkyries or vendettas in their army. And 6 chimerae filled with storm troopers armed with AP3 guns).
It has six battles that are designed to be played in linked campaigns, and a whole heap of very cool stratagems - Dark Eldar can say "each round, all enemies gain a cumulative -1 to Ld, enjoy your -5 Ld on turn 5.", Imperial armies can say "everyone in this bastion, make an Armour Save. If you PASS, you die as you are fused into your armour. I'm looking at you, Chaos Terminators". All attackers come on via reserves (with improved Reserves rolls - 3+ on turn 1, 2+ thereafter), and anyone who Deep Strikes can assault on the turn they arrive. Also, before the first turn (but after the defenders deploy), there is the flamestrike phase: a number of large blast templates bombard the battlefield from low orbit.
So all in all, it's an exciting addition. We played a sort-of-panetstrike a week or two ago, and our team was victorious, and this time it was proper planetstrike, and as the attackers, we had a draw - if it weren't for the puny T-3 of Sisters (see: a Heroine can suffer Instant Death from a friggin Autocannon or Multilaser) we would have won, as I had a Canoness just touching an enemy bastion - seriously, her inferno pistol was leaning against the wall before she was killed by an auto-cannon. Still, even after they blew the landing pad (the other objective) up, it still counted and we had some people there, so it was a draw.
It's just a shame I could only bring 1,000 points - that was only an Immolator, a Rhino, a Repressor, 2 Canonesses, 2x10 Sisters, a Retributor squad (who never ended up firing) and 6 Celestians. In retrospect I should have dropped the Retributors for either Dominions or Repentias (to charge in and carve up the bastion). But it was fun. And making enemies hate Faith is always good ("Okay, I think I'll make my save invulnerable this turn.... okay this turn I'm going first in HtH... I think I'll have +2 S this turn...") So is flying a Jump Pack Canoness up onto a landing pad, right behind a Defiler, shooting them in the arse with an Inferno Pistol and making them explode.
Cities of Death was a bit of a flop - all they sold was a book with some missions and stratagems, a few pieces of terrain (ruins) and... that's it. Also it was geared towards small cityfight skirmishes, competing against Apocalypse (no chance there - Apocalypse is here to stay, and I approve of a game where I can win simply by having the most Superheavies).
Planetstrike, on the other hand, could be a winner. Release day was today, and saw:
-The rulebook
-Bastions (buildings/objectives, has heavy bolters and can have a quad-linked autocannon or a long-range las-cannon or even a battle cannon), more ruins (but impressive) and landing pads with shielding. Note that they're ideal size for a valkyrie and the recently disembarked troops, and only a month or two ago, valkyries came out.
-Groups of defensive walls (with automated weaponry)
-Coming out later, we might be able to expect laser grid networks, minefields, impenetrable fortresses and missile silos.
The rules are designed with larger games in mind - the Defenders get 1-3 HQ, 2-8 Troops, 0-3 Elite, 0-3 Fast Attack and 0-6 Heavy Support (note the recent IG codex that said "three Leman Russ tanks with 1 Heavy Support choice. Hint hint.") whereas the Attackers get 1-3 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-6 Elite, 0-6 Fast Attack and 0-3 Heavy Support (again, IG could take 18 valkyries or vendettas in their army. And 6 chimerae filled with storm troopers armed with AP3 guns).
It has six battles that are designed to be played in linked campaigns, and a whole heap of very cool stratagems - Dark Eldar can say "each round, all enemies gain a cumulative -1 to Ld, enjoy your -5 Ld on turn 5.", Imperial armies can say "everyone in this bastion, make an Armour Save. If you PASS, you die as you are fused into your armour. I'm looking at you, Chaos Terminators". All attackers come on via reserves (with improved Reserves rolls - 3+ on turn 1, 2+ thereafter), and anyone who Deep Strikes can assault on the turn they arrive. Also, before the first turn (but after the defenders deploy), there is the flamestrike phase: a number of large blast templates bombard the battlefield from low orbit.
So all in all, it's an exciting addition. We played a sort-of-panetstrike a week or two ago, and our team was victorious, and this time it was proper planetstrike, and as the attackers, we had a draw - if it weren't for the puny T-3 of Sisters (see: a Heroine can suffer Instant Death from a friggin Autocannon or Multilaser) we would have won, as I had a Canoness just touching an enemy bastion - seriously, her inferno pistol was leaning against the wall before she was killed by an auto-cannon. Still, even after they blew the landing pad (the other objective) up, it still counted and we had some people there, so it was a draw.
It's just a shame I could only bring 1,000 points - that was only an Immolator, a Rhino, a Repressor, 2 Canonesses, 2x10 Sisters, a Retributor squad (who never ended up firing) and 6 Celestians. In retrospect I should have dropped the Retributors for either Dominions or Repentias (to charge in and carve up the bastion). But it was fun. And making enemies hate Faith is always good ("Okay, I think I'll make my save invulnerable this turn.... okay this turn I'm going first in HtH... I think I'll have +2 S this turn...") So is flying a Jump Pack Canoness up onto a landing pad, right behind a Defiler, shooting them in the arse with an Inferno Pistol and making them explode.