Sebenko Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Our club's local Blazing Sun player is wanting to try out the new Dreadnought robot, and I'm struggling to work out how I'm supposed to win against the damn thing. He's planning on using it in a 1000 point naval game in conjunction with squids and terror ships, and will be running it equipped with rocket fists. What feasible way is there to kill it? (with a CoA fleet, in this case). Anything it can't catch and punch to death, it can blow away with rockets. Its points cost is such that half the field orders require bringing it down (and the others will probably end up with some of the fleet hiding while the robot does the work), it can't be boarded, and just about one squadron in my ORBAT can reliably crit the damn thing- which it won't care about, due to all its weapons being tertiary. There's a fair chance I'll end up facing it in a tournament, too, so I can't just refuse to play against it. So, how can I possibly stop it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thamoz Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Hmm... Stay with me here... Board control via Ptolemy mines. Even the robot dreads will try to go around rather than through these things. This will let you (up to a point) dictate its movement if you have enough impassable terrain on the board (most island I have seen have cliff faces luckily enough ). Energy artillery via fresnels and the Kepler/Aristotle combo to pick it apart if it tries to play rocket tag at rb3/4. Keeping a drone dive bomber squad back will let you punish it for killing one of your big ships... But won't be able to proactively stop it. Time flow fields to slow its movement (combined with the mines perhaps) to further try and control the thing. Hyperbius energy target painter to increase the chance of energy attacks crippling it. In general, pecking away at its Dr until it dies looks most promising. All these ideas are untested, some are very difficult to use and they may still prove ineffective. Plus a useful combination of them probably can't be had at 1000 points. Also they don't take into account the rest of the enemy fleet. At 1000 points it will dominate the game more than the normal dreads, so I am not sure I would try and kill it. Prize everything else the enemy has that is prizable. Zenos and thales, add in dirty teleport tricks too. The covenant can play really unfairly as I know you know play all the tricks and best him for the glory of penguins everywhere. Then write a battle report telling us how you did it... We all need to know! TurianBrandy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veldrain Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Using that thing in 1000 points? I'll leave the fleet option to people more familiar with the CoA but remember, all fleets have the last resort of a punch in the face. Given the situation I would call that tactic valid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunnahabhain Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 There are two questions here- beating the dread robots, and killing them. Beating them: Look at the force composition. If they're trying to stay balanced, they're not going to have room to add a carrier as that will take them to about 50% large and massive. Therefore a balanced fleet should have a significant SAS and activation advantage. Make best use of that If they do go for air cover, they're going to be very short or points for smalls and mediums. You've a 50% chance of getting one of those orders. If you absolutely have to kill one, at this low a points level it will be hard work. They have low AA, so once a few points of damage have been done, Dive bombers are very effective. If they CAP or (escort possible for some of them), it cuts into activations further. For the Covenant mines are a good idea, ignoring shields, rugged etc. In general, Thamoz is correct above! james TurianBrandy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benchpresser Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 I've proxied a couple fights with this thing myself on my EotBS fleet. I'll tell you right now.. it's biggest Achilles heels (relatively) are RB 4 and Torpedoes. Penguins have some of the best RB 4 firepower with Energy Turrets.... use it! Forget the CR... just start sniping at RB 4 and you'll start knocking off HP to lower the AA.. and move in. A squadron of Cleomedes and a squadron of Frensels will add up.. even the old Platos can snipe. I cannot stress this enough.... Torpedoes!!!! This is how mine got brought down. 2 squadrons of Diogenes' and that Squadron of Cleomedes' blew the legs out from under my robot. With the cruiser squadrons putting out 10 AD, and each Frigate group adding 9 AD of their own.. the Ayakashi's 3 CC were entirely worthless. TurianBrandy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerriano Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Take only fortifications to make it useless? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerriano Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Incidentally, that list really summarises all of my "Japanese are too strong" feelings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halosss Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Remember your up against rockets. Use the escorts to our advantage in this situation. Also if you don't mind not being liked take a bunker complex with the TP gen slap that sucker at 16 inches and paint anything at 40 inches (anything past main deployment) 16 ET fresnals hitting on 3+ along with immunity to rockets.... muahahahha. And it also only has 6 AA and 3 CC. Dive bombers and torpedo bombers will make short work of him after just one damage or so. Your opponent has to take another large to complete the core size requirements. This might be the regular BB if against japan, or squid, If hes playing the boarding rush with the cover of the dread... that's perfect. Just focus on the dread till something scary gets too close, cover your fresnals with an escorted aristotle and you should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Captain Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 Although the robots bring some firepower to the table, their real strenght is their boarding capability. At the same time they aren't that fast. I tried the Hochmeister once, but my opponent managed to avoid being boarded till the game ended. As with all dreadnoughts I would put some damage on them when possible to reduce the effectiveness of their weaponry, but focus on destroying the rest of your opponents fleet/army. Beating a dreadnought doesn't mean you have to destroy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerriano Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 Although the robots bring some firepower to the table, their real strenght is their boarding capability. At the same time they aren't that fast. I tried the Hochmeister once, but my opponent managed to avoid being boarded till the game ended. As with all dreadnoughts I would put some damage on them when possible to reduce the effectiveness of their weaponry, but focus on destroying the rest of your opponents fleet/army. Beating a dreadnought doesn't mean you have to destroy it. If it's more than 300pts in a 1k game you're likely going to have to confront it. Unless you pick a lucky objective, that means killing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Captain Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 True, dreadnoughts tend to disrupt the game at small battles. Missed the part about being it a 1000pnt. game. Still I would focus first on taking out much of the other units and avoid the robot. You should out activate your opponent. Use cover if available. The biggest problem will ofcourse be keeping units that have enough AD to have reasonable chance of damaging the robot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veldrain Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 It's difficult enough to hide from massive size models in the first place. Massives that are standing on elevated terrain make hiding pretty much laughable. Lerriano 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebenko Posted November 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2015 So, I gave it some thought. I already know his list, because he was proud of how horrible it was. Essentially, it will be entirely composed of an escorted Dreadbot, Ika squid, Zarigani and Yurei. In the face of such unbridled... unfunnery, I decided to do something I've never done before... go full drone spam. I have taken a leaf out of the Covenant book- We can misuse science better than everyone. Or more accurately, we can abuse fleet building rules better than everyone. 31 carrier points of terror. Sure, the list has flaws, but it only has to beat one list. Bear in mind that this list is restricted by what I actually own. Pericles Fleet Carrier | 170 Hippasus Battlecruiser | 120 2x Kepler Drone Launchers | 190 4x Diogenes Frigates | 100 3x Galen Escorts | 60 (Attached to Epicurus) Epicurus Sky Fortress | 180 Epicurus Sky Fortress | 180 Epicurus is escorted as it can't hide from rockets. Everything else can hide behind terrain, as most of his weapons are rockets which cannot indirect fire. Hippasus is to add some bulk to the medium section, block LoS with teleport portals and provide support for drones. I don't expect this list to be fun, but I expect it to put the damn robot in its place- the bottom of the sea! GreenOakSteve and TurianBrandy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presidente Posted November 26, 2015 Report Share Posted November 26, 2015 I would go with that, the weakness of the dread robots in 1k is going to be dive bombers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nazduruk_Bugzappa Posted November 26, 2015 Report Share Posted November 26, 2015 I would go with that, the weakness of the dread robots in 1k is going to be dive bombers.Something my 3 Saratogas and 2 Savannahs would excel at. GreenOakSteve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presidente Posted November 26, 2015 Report Share Posted November 26, 2015 At the same time, carrier spam saddens me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire@Will Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Sometimes the only way to beat 'em is to join 'em! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
likeAsir Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Not faced a megarobot yet an was sure Drachenfutter would bring one last week. He hadn't and brought up a very interesting point: For the price of one you can get two larges. Also they need contact to actually board/smash so can be slowed down by mediums an heavy destroyers getting up in their faces and getting "locked" in with them using squadron with 0 min move. I had a hilarious tourney game where I barricaded in a Metzger on land. Recently got raj too and looking forward to using timeflow gen to slow one of those bad boys down while blasting it! Lerriano 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presidente Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Harder to do when they have a 360 movement and a high ir, could cause multiple collisions just by slightly turning around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veldrain Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Sometimes the only way to beat 'em is to join 'em! That same disgusting game design is what has caused 40K to simply disappear locally. As one player who had been playing since rouge trader said watching the last tournament. "It's not even 40K anymore. It is just two kids in a sandbox whacking tonka trucks together screaming 'Mine's bigger I win'". Sky Captain and Kapitan Montag 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veldrain Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Not faced a megarobot yet an was sure Drachenfutter would bring one last week. He hadn't and brought up a very interesting point: For the price of one you can get two larges. Also they need contact to actually board/smash so can be slowed down by mediums an heavy destroyers getting up in their faces and getting "locked" in with them using squadron with 0 min move. I had a hilarious tourney game where I barricaded in a Metzger on land. Recently got raj too and looking forward to using timeflow gen to slow one of those bad boys down while blasting it! Of the three we have seen the stats for they all have builds for effective firepower out to at least RB2. Getting into boarding range is just a bonus at this point. With 360 movement the Coeus really never has to leave RB3, or even really move except to line up the (T) PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thamoz Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Not getting into smashing range with the Coeus would be a bit of a waste though, it is rather good at it afterall! Hubcap 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Nobody Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 If he goes with rockets bring your own robot Dred. If he goes with Hand weapon, just keep away from it. And torp. the blank out of it. Nicius 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebenko Posted December 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 Well, the game is tomorrow. Wish me luck, and I'll tell you how infuriated my opponent gets (because he always does when playing me). If he goes with rockets bring your own robot Dred. You say that like I'm going to start liking the bloody things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nazduruk_Bugzappa Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 I'd find something with a high AA value to "run interference" and force a boarding action to get past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
