Armored Battlegroup: Would you play against it?

[ColCorbane]

I'd play it, with my Armoured Battlegroup. You've just got to love tank battles.

Bring on Spearhead!

[Ugly74]

If you and your tanks are ever down this way ... bring it on! Id probably get my chaotic a$$ handed to me on a plate for the first couple of games ... but Im sure my lists can be adapted..

[Ebsolom Dhaark]

I'd love to play against this list in a dense, urban battlefield with my tricksy Eldar

[Paul]

I am proud to say that the Armored Battlegroup has seen a lot of action lately.

I am consciously running a fluffy list, not a hard one, so no crazies like slick loader. But it has been entertaining, and I actually have not won all that many games. Here's the list without upgrades:

Command Vanquisher, lascannon
LRBT
LRBT
Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons
LRBT with heavy bolter sponsons
LRBT with heavy bolter sponsons
LRBT with lascannon
LRBT with lascannon
LRD
LRD

It is exactly ten tanks, a full armored company, at 2000 points. It's the Concordian 1st, and I am too much of a fluffbunny to do anything fancier.

As I've said, it's seen a lot of action and has been fun (for both sides). I think the naysayers should give it a chance, if only because I try to play it by the fluff in various ways (Demolisher squadron linebreaker, for instance) instead of lining up on my board edge and unloading until someone falls over.

[SotonShades]

I've been playing Armoured Battlegroup lists for a while now and I love it, and so far so have all the opponants I've played against.

Whilst a wall of 10 Leman Russes with AV14 sounds horrendous, with the associated Battle/Demolisher Cannons, it's surprising how well most balanced lists are able to deal with them. This is especially true when a smart player uses terrain to get up close and personnal, something tanks don't like too much no matter how many flamers you place arround the hull.

I'm actually taking an AB list to a doubles tournament, and I've only got 750 points to play with. It still means our list has more loud guns and thick armour than anyone else is going to bring, but our combined list has it's weaknesses as well (model count being cheif amoung them) so I don't think anyone will be complaining too much.

[Koppenflak]

I routinely bring IA1 (and it's updated rules) to my local GW and throw down armoured battlegroups. If anyone does have an issue, I just point out the preface of the book which gives the "on-high" ruling that the book is "official" and does not actually need the opponent's permission to field.

This said...

I would never bring an AV14-heavy list on a spur of the moment without having let my opponent know before hand. The book might say it's all official, but it also stresses the point that if you wish to maintain pleasant social ties to your gaming group, you should be courteous about its use.

If I am playing an unannounced battlegroup, then I make sure that it's predominantly based on Armoured Fist squads (the six or so that would be possible) and try to keep the rest of the list balanced to a reasonable level of firepower. Yes, an uber list is all-powerful and quite possible, but just because you can doesn't mean you should.

...If you brought an Armoured Battlegroup against me though, I'd let you take as much AV14 as you liked. Then I'd bring as many Vanquishers as I could loaded with a mix of HE and AT rounds (see the ammunition section of the original book, if you have it...) and relish in the Kursk reenactment that we clearly would have going.

The book is made - and I quote - to 'enhance the game' and make it more enjoyable. Bottom line: if your opponent isn't enjoying himself, you haven't enhanced the game.

Remember folks - "Nuke Responsibly"!!

[Javin]

I have played against the 10 Russ list twice with my Ultramarines and crushed it twice. The list can do some serious damage but once you shake the vehicles they are useless. You only need to shake the vehicles that have LoS to most of your army. Once you get close, krak grenades and power fists can take out any number of vehicles. If you take meltas you can even do more damage.

[erwos]

I have played against the 10 Russ list twice with my Ultramarines and crushed it twice. The list can do some serious damage but once you shake the vehicles they are useless. You only need to shake the vehicles that have LoS to most of your army. Once you get close, krak grenades and power fists can take out any number of vehicles. If you take meltas you can even do more damage.

I agree. The only lists that the ABG is really brutal against are the ones that absolutely rely on long-range, non-melta shooting to do their armor penetration. Your typical assault army doesn't care whether it's hitting the AV10 on the back of a Chimera or the AV10/11 on the back of a Russ, but some guy spamming autocannons and lascannons for anti-tank is in for a bad day. (Incidentally, the new prevalence of autocannons and missile launchers is a very good reason to switch back to the Leman Russ as a heavy support unit.)

The 10 LR lists are actually at a huge disadvantage because you have to table your opponent in objectives games to win, and it's hard to see how someone would object to one of those (especially if you agreed on playing objectives beforehand). Much, much more worrisome are the lists that actually include armoured fists and can actually compete in those missions.

Of course, this assumes no slick loader usage. Someone with a list built around spamming slick loader (slick loader on a bunch of naked vehicles), well, that's something a reasonable person might object to.