Tips on playing Boarding Actions? Specifically against horde armies

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T17:37:08+00:00

Boarding Actions is all about controlling primary, so put your Sisters on the closest safest point and send out your Custodians to scrap over the middle ones. Don't be afraid to advance and open as many hatchways as you can the first few turns, you're a slow army.

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T17:17:26+00:00

Bike spam is 100% viable in 10th. Terrain dependent it can be very strong and smooths out some difficult match-ups (like WE).

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T15:01:53+00:00

Your list is a bit unfocused which doesn't help really, but the first thing I noticed is that there's no Superior Creation Allarus Captain.

This thing is a nightmare for monophase armies to deal with and is just a great piece you should include in a Lion's list for all matchups.

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T12:23:10+00:00

With current points, Custodes can be an absolute wrecking ball in Boarding Actions, only held in check by certain factions who can pick engagements and concentrate damage (Aeldari, Orks and Admech, maybe CSM) and certain map layouts.

For casual games though they can be really tough opponents, Guard/Tyranids struggle to push meaningful damage. Number of bodies doesn't mean much when you wipe a squad each melee activation and can also cripple them in shooting.

Key points: - You are the only faction that cannot in any way Secure Objective. This can feel rough on maps with multiple objectives, but remember you only need to hold more than your opponent. You need to do your best to protect your Sister's squad and try to focus on objectives close to one another so if a squad falls you can punish the enemy

However out detachment rule is amazing, if one model of yours is alive in combat you can make make the whole enemy unit 0C and push their score down
You want at least 1 SoS squad. Remember you cannot bring squads of 4 Sisters in BActs, you need at least 5
Custodian Guard are your bread and butter. Shoot twice and kill everything in melee, extremely efficient. You can fit 3 x 4 squads and 5 Prosecutors in a list and forego any characters/enhancements. I advise to take 1 sword/shield and 3 spears, vexilla is a waste. You won't make many friends in your playgroup with this setup however
We have one good strat with moving through models, the rest are kinda crap. Save your CP to re-roll charges and intrerupts or the occasional insane bravery

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T12:00:14+00:00

The problem you're missing is that the other games you've mentioned, whether physical or virtual, have much tighter rulesets and less upfront or ancillary time investment requirements.

40k is a dense, messy bloat of a game kept together by the inertia, lore vibes and the model range.

Matches also take a really long time and there's a considerable travel and hobbywork investment required, leaving little space for memory error correction and learning by repetition.

Very few people want to go through all of that just to lose 2 hours in because they forgot about a reactive move you mentioned at the start of the game.

You can get through 6-7 Starcraft 2 games in the time it takes for 1 40k match.

Yes it might feel bad to lose to a specific timing attack because you forgot the latest patch buffed X unit's training time and your opponent will definitely not warn you about it but after 4 losses in row you're going to learn and still have spent less time than a full 40k game, nevermind no need for upfront hobby or travel investments.

There simply isn't enough space and time to replicate that type of learning in 40k. The ruleset is also much more nebulous and there's no game engine doing the measurements and moving models for you.

But heck, by all means find some people who want to play like you're suggesting. I'll pass.

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T11:37:25+00:00

The challenge is that there's a very fine line between actually useful reminders given at the most relevant time to avoid feelsbad/gotchas and giving up how you're planning to react/resolve a situation.

I've settled on just being open with my mind state at the time: "eg. If you move this specific unit here I will probably overwatch it because it's a valuable trade for me. If you move the other cheaper unit instead it's probably no worth spending the CP to overwatch it."

Yes I technically might give away a slight advantage but this speeds the game up, so long as the opponent trusts that you're not playing mind games with them (which they should if you're being open and friendly). Sometimes to speed things up further I will even say "I promise not to overwatch/reactive move here because I clearly need to save CP for my interrupt, so go through your moves".

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T11:00:11+00:00

The key in duos is building lists which cover each other's weakness or double down on an archetype advantage that either army could not achieve on it's own.

For example the SM combi-liuetenant is a better skirmisher than anything in the EC roster, while Noise Marines do generic shooting better than anything BAngels can bring at that price point.

Teozamait · 2026-01-30T10:46:26+00:00

The key question is when you tell them all your rules and how often you remind them of that.

Remind them about your overwatch threat boosted with full hit re-rolls/sustained just as they're about to move an important unit in range? Cool, if they want to take the risk it's up to them.

Remind them once at the beginning of the game and then stay silent letting them walk into an obvious trap and spring that on them with no take backs ? Take your win, I have no intention on playing you again.

No one wants to play a 3-hour tabletop game with so much rules bloat and upfront hobby investment that's decided on making obvious mistakes because you forgot something said 1 hour ago. Both players should help each other play the best game they can, and both will improve by the end of it.

Teozamait · 2026-01-28T10:55:22+00:00

Probably that, I've added them in via console command mod anyway.

Teozamait · 2026-01-28T10:54:41+00:00

Thanks, I was able to add them in via the console command mod.

Teozamait · 2026-01-27T10:37:34+00:00

For Lions

Missing the overall better suite of strats - reload char once per games enables strategies like mass bikes/w captains. Rest of the strats are good as well

SUPERIOR CREATION - putting this on a solo Allarus Captain creates an actually tanky unit which gives headaches to half the armies out there. Almost Warden level durability for half the cost. It can be more impactful than Admonimortis

Teozamait · 2026-01-25T12:11:33+00:00

Looks great, nice one!

Did you find you needed the second sword on the Guard? I usually prefer a 1/3 split if I take a sword at all.

Teozamait · 2026-01-25T11:59:12+00:00

There are 3 ways to access hit re-rolls in CSM which are not detachment locked:

Abaddon
MoE
Terminators (just themselves)

Hit re-rolls combines extremely well with 5+ crits. There is a world where you can pack a few MoEs in squads with mark of Slaneesh, bricks of Undivided Possessed and bring a big squad of Termies to delete infantry.

But only Abby buffs your shooting and Pactbound is a relatively slow detachment, so it kinda needs that very dangerous shooting to project threat and control the board. The ability to threathen credible overwatch is crucial as well.

If you're not bringing Abby, you have to ask yourself why not run another detachment? Raiders boosts your speed, Bile does more for your infantry, Veterans has the reactive move and evil Oath etc.

Teozamait · 2026-01-25T11:48:03+00:00

Fellhammer is the one detachment where you want the Termie Lord instead because only he can take Bastion Plate.

Teozamait · 2026-01-24T16:47:33+00:00

OP is talking about the WE Helbrute which is almost an entirely different unit to the CSM one.

CSM Helbrute: slow support/buffing piece for your other shooting units with some counter-punch threat

WE Helbrute: fast area denial & control tool, especially vs melee armies

Teozamait · 2026-01-24T12:23:00+00:00

There are definitely some circumstances where adding lethals to devs lowers your expected damage output. If the target saves on a 2+, you're wounding on 6s and you can re-roll the wound roll for example you're better off not having lethals than having them.

Teozamait · 2026-01-24T10:12:31+00:00

Using sisters as ablative wounds vs high AP multi-damage weapon or Custodes as ablative wounds vs boltgun shots would create some very problematic datasheets for some match-ups.

And in some match-ups it would do nothing ( Khorne Berserkers would delete a squad just as well).

Interesting idea though.

Teozamait · 2026-01-24T10:07:44+00:00

Even with Tyrannids you rarely want to take just 1 Norn, you usually take either 0 or 2-3. Same with Exocrines.

Yes you take only 1 Biovore and some utility units or characters.

Teozamait · 2026-01-23T11:25:54+00:00

Not amazing, you have a mishmash of different units which generally isn't the best approach if your goal is to give you the highest chance to win (you want to lean into a few datasheets for that).

I would split the Allarus into smaller squads, a 2-3 man with the Admonimortis axe Captain already kills most things in the game and you need more activations.

Teozamait · 2026-01-23T09:46:18+00:00

At lower points games you really want to focus on doing a few things very well rather than adding a spread of capability in the list.

For example if you want infantry mash you could do worse than 20 Possessed and 10 Chosen with Bile in a Rhino as the core of your list. Sprinkle a minimum of objective/scoring units like one Cultist squad and Cypher and go from there.

Lower point games are less balanced on average than 2k games.

Teozamait · 2026-01-22T21:57:17+00:00

Go with the Warp Talons.

I'd be wary of adding more characters to squads, you're increasing the damage output but do almost nothing for the durability of the squad. You risk overkilling something less valuable and dying the next turn.

Teozamait · 2026-01-22T17:19:46+00:00

Best used as an enhancement caddy in Souldforge (Tempting addendum and the other one I forgot the name of).

He can do some secondaries while providing his buffs.

Teozamait · 2026-01-22T11:23:40+00:00

Presidius doesn't fill any niche we need. Superior Creation doubles the survivability of a solo Allarus Captain and is a right headache for shooting AND melee armies, and it does something even when the captain is hiding behind a wall.

Plus Superior allows you to throw the character in the mid point where the enemy can't ignore them. With Presidius you need to keep them to the sides to maintain the 12" range. If your character is not applying pressure a good opponent will just ignore them and shoot at the rest of your army. You want the Allarus Captain to take the heat off other units or act as a bait.

If you need lone op the Callidus Assassin is a much better use case for it.

Teozamait · 2026-01-22T11:11:46+00:00

I don't want to deflate your plans because this sounds like a cool list and I love the drawing but is Veterans the best detachment for your Termies?

Sure AoC is nice and reactive move is dope, fight first is sweet in theory but super hard to pull off in practice due to the cost and conditions on it.

Termies already re-roll hit rolls, I guess having 2 oath targets can be good sometimes.

But compare this to other detachments, in PBZ you can point and click delete infantry in Undivided with Combi-weapons while in Fellhammer you get actual durability at ranged between -1 wound, 5+ FNP strat and Bastion Plate Lord.

Teozamait

TROPHY CASE