[The Return of LeeStar!]

Okay this tactic (I played elimaination) worked twice for me and ill go over it and the units I used.

The board was mainly with cover this is handy but not key.
(heres my units without to much detail and the red ones are the one needed most)
The units I had was:
HQ
1-=I= Lord
2-GK GM
Elite
3-Vindicare
4-=I=
5-6 GK terminators
Troops
6-5 IST
7-5 IST
Fast attack
8-5 GK
9-5 GK
10-5 GK
H.support
11-Gk dread
12-5 man GKP
13-Orbital strike

Okay it doesnt matter how you delploy your units as long as the ones in red are set up the way I say or the plan doesnt work.


I set up like this leaving the red units to be placed in other postions. The orbital strike must be set up so it can take out anything in the red area.


Now the idea is FEAR the orbital strike sends the enemy running up the field (where my vindicator pics people off) the dread is used to pick off tanks etc but the main idea is that the GK are deepstriked to take out the spread out units.
ONLY DEEPSTRIKE WHEN YOUR SURE YOU CAN WIPE THEM ALL OUT OR YOUR BE BLOWN TO PIECES


Try it and tell me if this also works for you

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Well, first of all this isn't new. Orbital strikes have been used to flush things since their invention in the codex several years ago. And deep striking upon weak spread out elements has always been around as a staple means to not just come into the game piecemeal. Combining them, simply makes sense.

A few things though:

- Vindicar Assassin is up close; very close. His stealfield will be limited and near non-existant at that range. His weapons, while potent, are not perfect. He would easily be locked in assault on turn one--before the Orbital strike and Deep Striking elements in your list even arrive. A transport, unit of fast moving infantry or a tank can easily move up, and unload on him. Then he's dead. So what purpose does this serve? This requires first turn advantage, and even then, it will only help 50% of the time, on first turn (he wounds on a 4+ only). That's not worth the 100+ points.

- Orbital strike begins on turn two, if you roll it in reserves. This is only a 50% chance. If you fail it, it comes in on turn three. Typically by turn two or three, most of these units that would be targets are going to be gone. Also, the strike is only scary and fearful to players who don't know what it is, and have never seen it. Also, it requires a very large piece of area terrain to be in the middle of his deployment zone so that you can actually effect him. You can only place within your terrain piece that you targeted. Your opponent can simply stay away from that terrain, and relatively ignore your strike. Strikes are good at denying a single piece of terrain, but they do not flush a rabbit from it's hole when there's other holes all around. And the accuracy is less than what an Ork can accomplish with a slugga. It's just the reality of the Strike.

- All of this is based on the flushing of units, due to the strike to move away. Then as they come into your firepower (which is extremely limited: Vindicar and a Dreadnought do not give you superior firepower to cripple things as they come to you), you later would drop Knights on their heads to finish them off. This doesn't work though. Your strike comes turn two. So do the knights possibly. And they may all come on turn three. Or worse, you may get the knights before the strike.

- You don't control deep strike nor reserves. It happens turn two, on a 4+. Everything in reserves is subject to it, and once you roll it in, it's in--no holding back. You cannot control the Orbital Strike, nor the Knights. Without control, you rely on pure luck to have them arrive in order. Your order requires: (1) the strike to happen first. (2) Your units to cripple the fleeing units running from said strike. (3) Your knights to arrive after this, in order to pick off the stranded and spread out units. Frankly, this simply will not happen. It will be turn 3 or 4 before it's all set in motion and by then, it's too late. The rest of the army is small, non-resilient and subject to being shot and assaulted as well. Your strike doesn't move around the board, and if he's not near it, it's not doing anything. So basing everything off things that are in reserves and things that deep strike at random, is not going to work reliably at all.

- Resilience is a problem. This all works of the premise that the opponent is helpless and cannot destroy your attacking ranged units. Your units are actually relatively easy to kill. A dreadnought blows up fast. Storm Troopers get hosed by ranged weapons quickly. Knights simply park somewhere and don't really have enough reach to really do something. And even then, their cost prohibits a model count that keeps them in the game long after they're targeted. This whole army could be eliminated from the board, before turn two even arrived, in terms of key elements.

- The opponent's army also strongly plays in this. If you're facing a skimmer/tank army, this does not work. If you're facing a horde infantry army, this does not work. If you're facing a monstrous creature and/or terminator class army, this does not work. So what does it work against? Someone with bare infantry who sits in one place. Someone who will flee from cover, instead of just moving a tiny bit away, and easily avoiding it. This requires a lot of weak elements to be in your opponent's disadvantage which honestly cannot be expected of them.

Sorry to say, but I don't see this working as a reliable combination.
If it's working for you, on a regular basis, I'd have to see it for myself. Because things don't add up in terms of reserves here as a "tactic."

Regardless of what I think though, the effort and images are nice and the whole thing is interesting, so +1!

Cheers!