Thursday, June 9, 2011

Haemonculi, Grotesques, and Webway Deployment


I have been discussing in the past how I field my Haemonculi alongside my Grotesque detachment over the last few months. Well today I am going to expand on the unit composition and deployment of the webways.

To catch people up, I field a unit of 3 Grotesques. Upgrades include one liquifier, and an abberation upgrade with scissorhands. What this does is give you 3 models, each with different weapons etc, in order to take advantage of wound allocation.

The scissorhands on the abberation makes him a beast on the charge with 7 attacks on I5 (3 pain tokens with the two haemonculi additions). Since these are poison, and his strength is 6 on the charge, he automatically wounds on a 3+ with re-rolls if the toughness of the victim is 6 or less.

To this unit I add 2 Haemonculi, one ancient and standard. The standard takes advantage of a shattershard and webway portal. If you do not yet know what or how a shattershard works, follow the link. Secrets of the Shattershard Revealed

The Ancient Haemonculi carries an agonizer (he has increased initiative, attacks and Weapon Skill). He also wields a Casket of Flensing and Webway Portal. The casket gives you a decent chance at doing some serious damage to a unit that is trying to stay out of assault range late game, and you are able to take advantage of the higher Ballistic Skill. 2d6 shots with random AP and hits on a 2+.

Now I also add Vect to this unit, as it is a great way to get him up to midfield without him taking any damage. This gives the whole unit 6 models that take advantage of wound allocation, is fearless with its 3 pain tokens, and is able to deploy two webways round 1 that are practically 12" apart. Vect typically leaves the unit and pushes into the enemy somewhere round 2. (your raiders need to be gone at this point, as losing a shadowshield to an exploding raider is foolish)

Webway deployment is as follows. Raider moves forward 12" and turn sideways. Deploy the length of the Raider with one haemonculi on each end. That keeps the Grotesques in the center of the unit line alongside Vect, and maximizes the distance for both webway deployments. If someone foolishly does try to come in and block, there are two portals that they have to deal with. Not to mention all the death that will follow.

Note that if an army is very fast (like all bikes). I will throw my ramming raiders into a V Shape to protect a webway, tank shocking my way into scouts or infiltraters that are in my way.

Give yourself maximum distance between models and you now have two webways that can support each other and give you great table access from the center of the board. This is how I move my 3 Talos on the table, alongside any other fast attack options that I have put into reserve.