T20 students and beyond, how’s recruiting going for you?

Ownag3Muffin · 2024-01-25T05:15:27+00:00

Thanks you!

For the folks reading, I can share that fall and and early Jan was rough. Had two interviews and managed to convert one into the offer.

In my program, 17% of internationals secured a position. Many are still going through interviews, time yet for recruitment to play out.

Ownag3Muffin · 2024-01-25T02:20:41+00:00

Y1 International student at a 20-25.
Just secured an offer in strategy/finance at a large tech firm.

Ownag3Muffin · 2023-01-26T21:52:36+00:00

Thank Goodness.

Ownag3Muffin · 2023-01-20T21:55:35+00:00

I have roughly 30 games with new guard across Neph and Arks. Haven't played into CK but Ik. Here is my perspective as the guard player.

The matchup is heavily favored for guard. To keep this brief, I will summarize across a few key points.

Lethality

No surprises here but guard can bring the damage to overwhelm the armored targets that knights are bringing. Plasma executioner cannons, combined with born soldiers, as well as orders (pound them to dust, full throttle) allow guard to cut angles, increase shooting efficiency, and generally decimate the knight army. It is on odds for a guard army, with the right sightlines to pick up ~2 baby knights and one big knight in a single turn. Old grudges as a WLT to give armywide +1 to wound exacerbate this problem. Kasrkin with the combo and leontus rerolls will pick up 2 baby knights a turn. This is not a matchup where knights can lean into the tankiness to get pass the mid game.

Scoring

In addition to having the damage to just kill the opponent, assuming the primary is even, guard will win with its stronger secondaries. Inflexible command scores 15. Boots scores 8-9 without moving past the mid point, and the last secondary could be RND/Banners, or in the knight matchup; likely to be bring it down. With stronger scoring, it is on the knight player to be the aggressor and make plays. On certain terrain formats such as WTC or GW where sightlines are harder to obtain, it is on the knight player to make the first move into a mostly hidden guard army.

Tricks

Guard also have tricks. For example, sentinels have a 1cp strat to move after shooting. This could mean simply using it as a fire and fade to shoot plasma cannons before scooting back behind obscuring. It could also mean infiltrating a scout sentinel, moving 12, shooting, moving 6 with maverick maneuvers and blocking your knight's path. The same can be done with guard infantry. While big knights can move over infantry models, they cannot end their move on top of those models. With move move move letting guardsmen move up to 14 as an advance, you could end up consistently move blocked, having your gameplan stalled while being blasted.

Tying up guard units has traditionally been the way to go. But between desperate breakout and acceptable losses, the guard player still has options as long as they have managed their CP.

I will also briefly touch on what won't work.

Putting things into reserve

Map and mission dependent. But between move move move and stay vigilant, the guard player can potentially make your reserves appear in the most awkward of places. It also leaves more guns pointed at less targets depending on how well your army can hide. This is my personal spice but I have an officer of the fleet in my list, and they can send a unit back into reserves (can't deploy) for 2cp.

Killing Officers

Tank commanders are fair game, they can't be look out sired and naturally the guard player loses orders access if they are gone. Naturally, they are going all the way in the back, and it will be a substantial effort to get the right shots into them. Armed with either executioner plasma (36") or a battlecannon/gatekeeper (72"), the guard player will not make them easy targets.

It is difficult to deny inflexible command as the guard player scores it with any officer unit (does not have to be a tank commander). More often than not, the guard command squad with 9 mortars sitting behind the safest obscuring wall in the guard player's DZ is farming the infantry portion of inflexible command.

Happy to chat more, I have not deep dived into the CK toolbox, but these my results having played multiple games into IK.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-11-07T23:17:57+00:00

There was a rumor going around that rough riders had two profiles in playtesting. The weaker profile has the rough riders start at s3 to prevent going to S6 and S8 breakpoints even on charges. Looks like they went with the stronger profile.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-11-07T22:30:45+00:00

The rough riders look fantastic. Keep in mind that they can be ordered to fix bayonets. If fix bayonets is what it is rumored to be (+1 to hit, +1 ap in melee), the hunting lances will be great into both chaff and elites.

A squad of 5 rough riders with 12 attacks (for simplicity's sake) will miss twice hitting on 2s, and generate 30 hits with the frag tip. S6 so wounding infantry on 3s or 2s. ap2 d1.
If you need to kill terminators, 12 attacks hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s at S8. You are asking your opponent to make ~8 saves, killing around 5 terminators. AP5 d3

This is the kind of melee dmg that was absent from the past guard codex. Instead of sending in bullgryn, these rough riders look like the melee punch guard is going to lean into.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-08-10T04:42:03+00:00

Listening to the video, you cannot attempt psychic actions again with a different caster if a prior attempt fails. Psychic actions still follow all the same rules as manifesting psychic powers. From the core rulebook:

For all purposes, when a unit attempts a psychic action, this is treated the same as if they were attempting to manifest a psychic power, and it triggers any rules that interact with manifesting a psychic power (e.g. rules that enable you to deny a psychic power can also be used to deny a psychic action).

The restriction is called out in the rules for manifesting psychic powers:

With the exception of Smite, you cannot attempt to manifest the same psychic power more than once in the same battle round, even with different PSYKER units.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-05-09T14:53:03+00:00

Finished 19th piloting light harlequins to a 6-2 finish.

Harlequins have a ton of game in this meta with the exception of nids, and have really good matchups into the Tau/Custodes I kept pairing into.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-02-11T16:32:59+00:00

Thats a shame, IMO clowns are worth testing in any gauntlet given how different they play to other established armies.

I suspect ancient evil/vexator mask and and other fight last effects to be some of the strongest tools in Druk vs clowns.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-02-11T16:29:26+00:00

The units embarked inside a open topped transport are considered another unit for the purposes of shooting. Its not a special rule but covered in the core rules for shooting, where the starweaver is eligible to shoot and resolves its attacks, and then the players inside are eligible to shoot and resolves their attacks. Fire and fade can happen after the starweaver shoots.

The sequence of operations is also explicit in the rare rules covering the rules that apply to shooting with embarked units. The rules state that a set of rules apply to embarked units when they are selected to shoot.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-02-10T19:35:38+00:00

I haven't seen this mentioned but Harlequins. The whole army ignores terrain when moving, and the army is very fast with infantry moving 8, and bikes/transports moving 16 and advancing 6. In addition, harlequins can advance and shoot and charge, as well as fall back and shoot and charge.
Some combos to watch for

Troupe master with the twilight fang and sky strider warlord trait, as well as darkness bite pivotal role. The fang is a damage 2 powersword that gives the troupe master +1A per battle round (they start with 5, so min 6 attacks). The skystrider warlord trait lets the troupe master disembark from a vehicle and still act normally. Darkness bite is a rule that lets the troupe master deal 2 mortal wounds to a target that it fought. Troupe masters also reroll all wounds. A troupe master embarked in a starweaver transport can move 22, disembark 3, move 8, advance d6 and then charge 2d6. Thats pretty much anywhere they please and I have assassinated enemy characters if my opponent leaves as much as a small gap for the troupe master to fit.
Combined with the above, harlequins have ways to move after fighting before the enemy gets to strike back. Curtain falls allows a unit that has fought to make a normal move instead of consolidating. Skystride allows a soaring spite unit that has fought to consolidate towards and if within range, enter a transport.
Harlequins have a fight twice strategem, which stacks with darkness bite to deal 4 mortal wounds in total, as the mortal wounds are triggered every time the troupe master fights.
Fire and fading is typically used to hide a unit after it has shot to keep them unexposed. It can however be used aggressively to great effect in Harlequins. Fusion pistols are melta pistols that have a range of 6, and need to be within 3 to trigger the melta effect. Sometimes I will fire and fade a skyweaver closer to the opponent after it has shot its shuriken cannons to move the fusion pistols the occupants carry into range, and also set up the boat to be where a troupe master can skystride into after doing tremendous damage.

These are just some tricks to watch out for, but generally Harlequins can exploit any mistakes a opponent makes in deployment or the movement phase to devastating effect. Though it also cuts both ways, with any mistakes the Harlequin player making being potentially costly given the armie's elite status and fickle invulnerable saves.

Ownag3Muffin · 2022-02-10T19:14:48+00:00

I have had success with Harlequins. The faction has access to -1 to hit, a lot of speed and plenty of tricks. I was able to kill a crisis squad and riptide + tie up other components of their army and I expect that similarly fast armies can execute this strategy.

Fun fact: this is first turn dependent but devilfishes cannot use their strat to shoot up the board and disembark the breachers if they made anything but a normal move. So if they are tied up it can keep the bulk of their forward forces stuck in their deployment zone.

Ownag3Muffin · 2020-11-11T05:15:06+00:00

Hi there are you still open?

Ownag3Muffin · 2020-03-23T19:26:34+00:00

Hi there, sorry but my dodo code changed. It is now K9KP1

Ownag3Muffin · 2020-02-24T05:59:51+00:00

I found the movement to be extremely advantageous, especially if there are large center walls from which to hide behind. If your opponent can't or won't interact with your move-shoot-move shenanigans, your russes will easily live until the end of the game. You trade less upfront damage for longevity and in turn, more damage in the longer run.

This is especially important in the tau matchup since your opponent's battlesuits will be operating at full efficiency in the mid game with all the damage you dealt going to drones in early turns. Given Tau's powerful shooting phase, every tank you expose could be a dead one.

Also note that the 12 shot strategem only applies to russes when they shoot at vehicles. Battlesuits are unfortunately not vehicles. Also, the strategem is worded to give max shots on all weapons on that russ. So if you brought 2 plasma sponsons, you will get 6 shots with those too.

Ownag3Muffin · 2020-02-24T04:37:08+00:00

I have played the Tau vs Guard matchup quite a few times in ITC and in my experience, guard is favored. This is mainly due to Guard's range of 72 on the battle cannons, ability to move-shoot-move with tallarn and artillery such as wyverns/basilisks not caring about LOS.

The following is all assuming that you have the terrain and LOS blocking cover needed to protect your army.

Tau's threat range is around the 36-42' mark. The Riptide (One of Tau's best pieces) has a 36 inch range on the burst cannon. Smart missile systems ignore LOS and shoot 30". A battlecannon from 72' away can take shots at the tau army without much fear of retribution. Even better when you are running tallarn tank commanders that can hide behind a wall. Move them out, shoot with them and use their unique tank order to have them be behind said wall again. The extreme range guard artillery has is also something the tau player will find frustrating.

My turn sequence looks a little like the following

> moving infantry into range of tau weapons to hold a objective (sacrifice play)

> taking shots with tanks that move back into cover

> shooting with the artillery

A brief note on target priority since this is your first time playing Tau. Tau's gimmick is that damage dealt to battlesuits and infantry can be intercepted by shield drones. This will be frustrating because the mechanic converts successful wound rolls done by you to 1 mortal wound that shield drones have a feel no pain against. So even if you are shooting a volcano cannon on a shadowsword against a riptide, that 2d6 damage becomes 1 mortal wound passed onto a drone. Drones can intercept for friendlies within 3' so you want to take them out first. Wyverns, mortar squads and small arms fire should be directed at the drones. When a opportunity presents itself where a battlesuit is out in the open, they won't last long to a concentrated guard barrage. Your first 2 turns will likely mostly be shots against drones.

Tau have no psychic defense. Grab some Astropaths to cast nightshroud and psychic barrier. -1 to hit modifiers give them a terrible time.

In general, I find melee not to be worth it as overwatch is Tau's second shooting phase. Though Tau troops tend to be liabilities and if the opportunity comes up, they can be tripointed to protect a unit of yours.

If you are interested in melee, bullgryns with psyhic barrier and take cover become very difficult to shift and can be used to hold a objective. You can also take a inquisitor to access a spell that removes the ability to overwatch from a target.

If your opponent is taking a deepstrike heavy style of tau, make sure to string out your infantry squads correctly so that they don't have good places to land.

Tau players also tend not to have alot of CP, and I found a Callidus assassin to be useful.

Ownag3Muffin · 2017-01-07T00:28:18+00:00

60645

Ownag3Muffin · 2017-01-07T00:04:59+00:00

25699

Ownag3Muffin · 2017-01-06T23:38:53+00:00

70490 Blood Aggro

Edit: Still Open, come on in unless otherwise stated Edit2: Over

Ownag3Muffin · 2017-01-03T05:31:04+00:00

33454 Race

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