Apoco Tactics....

[Anton]

Do they actually exist or is it a who rolls the most dice challange?

thoughts and comments gentlemen?

[Brother Shenton]

I think you have to have a wing it tactic becuase you never know whats going to happen but at the same time have a idea of what you want your force to acomplish,
take today for example my force was there to hold you up and take the fight to your side of the board, thats what i took that force for.

But yea it does go back to the 40k fundimental rule of make them roll more dice and there bound to fail at some point.

[Crigey]

Hmmmm, i enjoy playing Apoc with you guys - it's great fun and we have a good laugh. Apoc seems a bit silly to me. The good guys today had 10,000 points and you evil chaps had 9000 plus a load of Nurgle types in the sewers. There is so much firepower that nothing stands any chance at all if the other side decide to trash any particular unit - Ants Warhound and Coops Stomper are perfect examples. I really think we need to have a little think about house rules to reflect the backgroud material that we read in the novels.
Maybe restricting firepower like in 4th ed, you have to take a leadership test to avoid shooting at the closest target?
After 2 games of Apoc i reaches the conclussion that fielding Power armour Space Marines is a mistake as is using Rhino's, there are so many weapons that deny a save, it forces Marines to hug cover, Guard at 5pts a model do this job better! Today i wanted to use painted figures so i went with my Ultramarines but fielded scouts, Assault marines and Terminators, everything else was a vehicle and the whole army was Deep Strike capable. This is because if you end up going second you get shot to pieces.
Maybe if we bid how long it would take to deploy it would force teams to deploy less stuff on the table therefore reducie the firepower available to the team going first. We took ages deploying today, had we bid say 5 minutes to deploy it would have left a lot of stuff in reserve. Another bonus is that it would stop the units being shuffled in response to the latest enemy deployment. For exapmle i put a unit of Termies down, then saw Ant had his Warhound down within murder range so i moved them. We all do it and it ends up wasting time.

[Promise of Elysia]

There is a need for balance and as you have pointed out a stronger narrative, it was unfortunate that University obligation meant that I was unable to write a game for today but with the coming New Year and looser deadlines I will hopefully be able to come up with the goods.

The sides were unbalanced today as were the army composition, I know Apocalypse is meant to be all about fielding all your models in a mish mash of death delivering randomness.

I would be more than willing to write and run a game for you guys next year, the question is what do you guys want to see done?

[Iridium_Fire]

Terminators got moved after the enemies deployment??!! How did that happen??!!

[Brother Shenton]

They delployed first, the termies werent deployed yet.

[Iridium_Fire]

I was going on the following quote:

Another bonus is that it would stop the units being shuffled in response to the latest enemy deployment. For exapmle i put a unit of Termies down, then saw Ant had his Warhound down within murder range so i moved them. We all do it and it ends up wasting time.

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Maybe if we bid how long it would take to deploy it would force teams to deploy less stuff on the table therefore reducie the firepower available to the team going first. We took ages deploying today, had we bid say 5 minutes to deploy it would have left a lot of stuff in reserve.

If I remember correctly, isn't that meant to happen as part of the Apocalypse core rules?

[Suneokun]

The Apoc game on Sunday was 'unconventional' and fairly fluffy and that was it's charm. I thought Dave did a really good job of producing a 'weird' battle, but a good one.

I've got to agree with Crigey on the guardsmen. In the sewers, the termies went down quickly to the Orks and the Primaris Psyker ran. Then the horde of guard arrived with enough ablative 'stubborn' wounds to hold the central chamber and enough power weapons to cause considerable discomfort. Guardsmen are so cheap.

In APOC, you always have about 15 weapons to deploy against whatever opponent you have. Therefore a titan or a battletank will get battered. This is where reserves, range and indirect fire is essential. A titan has awesome weapons and can dominate a board, a barbed heirodule is well armed and tough (although it looks like a cow) ... but both are also big targets.

This is why using formations, indirect fire and long range is essential. A phalanx of Basilisks are cheap and can cause absolute bedlam with no target to target. Flyers are also overpowered in APOC as they can hit with impunity and destroy many targets while only facing (mainly) 6's to hit and glancing shots.

I'd be intrigued by taking a group of 6 Vanquisher battle tanks, they would dominate all other armour quite nicely.

TACTIC

The only tactic I would advise (and I do) is spread out your army. Decide to devide the armies into composite blocks (like armour or deep strike) or forces into defending geographical areas... this means that each commander can focus on one part of the overall battle and 'win' that bit. Meanwhile the General can try to take the long view and dominate it all.

It's not always possible, especially if Jack's in your team - cause he just does what he does (usually involving drop pods, tactical squads and all the 2nd turn reserves - nice!) Oh, and always plan for MeQ killer armies. That way you'll never be dissapointed.