There’s a rising trend in the game and it’s characters taking on the role of toppling enemy armor. Check out the latest 40k meta watch.
Keeping a close eye on the competitive 40k side of things, there’s been a solid increase in characters hunting down things like Knights and other scary vehicles. Breaking down the tactics behind it all, here is what is increasing in popularity across the board.
We’re Not Talking About Smash Captains
The infamous Smash Captain is the first character we saw rise up from the ranks. On a 100 (ish) point model, this guy was/is consistently able to take down three times his cost. Now with that said, the big hang-up is getting him in close enough to do damage. While he still has a role in Space Marine lists somewhere, his big problem was/is getting to things like a Castellan sitting on the other end of the map surrounded by a sea of Guardsmen.
In short, he’s a killing machine, but the lack of range hurts.
Meta Watch: Characters Are the New Anti-Armor Solution
With 40k’s meta never being more shooty, we’re seeing a growing trend, especially with the Imperial side of things. What we’re seeing is specially selected characters that are able to take anti-armor weaponry spammed within the ranks of other Marines. What this creates is a near-impossible target to bring down without Snipers while still giving the anti-armor punch every list needs.
After looking at lists from the 2020 LVO, some of the more popular examples are:
- The Chaplain Dreadnought with twin lascannon x3
- Iron Hands Mortis with two twin lascannons (1CP spent on March of the Ancients to make them a character).
Unpacking this a bit more, both of these units are T7 and come with just under the max wounds that would make them targettable. On top of that, because of their high-toughness, even Eliminators are only wounding them on a 5+, which is decent odds to be able to shrug off shots long enough to kill the enemy’s [insert big scary unit here].
And while you can only do the March of the Ancients Strat once, people are still using that in conjunction with the three Chaplain Dreads to give them a whopping ten lascannon shots a turn all while being untargettable AND filling vital battlefield roles (the HQ slot).
Overall this combo is massively resilient against reprisal, and the basic premise is being seen over and over again. That’s not to say the Chappy Dread won’t get dealt with in the future, it’s just an indicator of a strong/ broken mechanic to watch out for in games of 8th Edition.
With this rising trend popping up, how do you think armies without access to Snipers will deal with this? Will GW do something to fix the Chaplain Dread spam?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
