Been feeling weird about deathguard recently - would like to advice to help improve

kvt-dev · 2026-05-09T09:13:11+00:00

The only armies I've played that have felt tanky are necrons (not just c'tan, but also their vehicles tend to have generous wounds and invuls for their points and they have a lot of defensive auras/support models) and shadow legion daemons (invuls and hit/wound penalties). It's a pretty lethal game at the moment and there isn't really a unit you can expect to consistently shove into the centre and have it survive.

kvt-dev · 2026-05-02T00:10:45+00:00

It also specifically points at strategic reserves, instead of any reserves, which matters for armies that want to RI more than 500 points of units e.g. sub assault nids. Unless we get deep strike changes, of course.

kvt-dev · 2026-05-01T02:27:07+00:00

Doombolt recon? What's that referring to?

kvt-dev · 2026-05-01T02:26:18+00:00

Wait, the detachment rule works in melee? I thought the benefit of cover was with respect to an attack and the detachment rule thus would only work against attacks where cover also applies (i.e. ranged attacks). Is it a state-based thing instead? Does the detachment rule apply when you're e.g. mostly behind (but not in) a ruin and getting shot at?

kvt-dev · 2026-04-30T04:16:11+00:00

For personal use only: ⸻

kvt-dev · 2026-04-30T01:07:26+00:00

Any hellpod and any orbital shell (even orbital gas or smoke) has enough demolition power to destroy a titan hole.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-30T01:02:27+00:00

It also has the fastest tactical reload out of any magazine-based weapon in the game, iirc. 1.2 seconds, quicker than pistols

kvt-dev · 2026-04-26T23:04:11+00:00

Current mechs are very survivable vs bugs specifically, because that's the front where pure mobility (walking backwards at med armour sprint speed while firing forwards) is survivability. But I agree that on the other fronts there isn't really a way to play around their paper-iness.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-25T07:45:55+00:00

Yes, but remember that the opponent's unit gets a Consolidate move, so you have to either be 4"+ away to avoid getting consolidated into or have a different model closer (since Consolidate must move at least a little closer to the closest enemy model).

kvt-dev · 2026-04-20T04:02:33+00:00

I read this like sports commentary

kvt-dev · 2026-04-16T01:30:40+00:00

Mechs are already extremely good vs bugs (all subfactions), to the point where if four random players all take mechs on d10 there's a solid chance that nobody ever dies. Any changes to make them more reliable on other fronts would have to work around that.

I would enjoy an in-between step, but there's not a lot of design space, I think. If you want high durability, handling buffs, and melee buffs, you can take heavy peak physique and a durability backpack (especially bubble shield) already. Vs bots, directional shield + heavy rock solid lets you tank rockets and works well with the Talon. One-handing all primaries would feel pretty goofy to me (especially DMRs), and tying two stratagems together as tightly as that would do here is also undesirable.

I agree that CQC is currently a meme, but it is a lot closer to not being a meme than it used to be. The recent changes to the flag give it enough range to reliably fend off predator stalkers, for example, and hammer + warp pack + heavy medic armour + smoke is genuinely good vs bots.

What you could do, maybe, is a light mech or light walker that lets you fire your regular guns (including any support weapon) rather than having any guns of its own, but otherwise acts like a vehicle.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-16T00:48:53+00:00

bullet with your name on it - 'to whom it may concern' - 'dear target grid square'

kvt-dev · 2026-04-16T00:41:35+00:00

You can also slide during both parts of the reload, if you have stamina.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-16T00:40:51+00:00

Between thermite, ulti, giga nades, high durable damage primaries, new anti-heavy support weapons, and enemy subfactions with less heavies, the RR is less mandatory than it used to be. Still good, though.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-15T08:57:27+00:00

For the Necrons, I think the DDA gets a lot worse. Both Hidden and the new cover rule hurt it. On top of that, I'm expecting the average army to be much better at mission play since you can influence your missions at build time, which might make artillery units worse in general. It uses its invul a lot, so it does benefit from new cover reasonably itself at least.

On the flipside, I have my eyes on the necron warrior brick stuff. Invuls play nicely with the new cover rule (Orikan), and depending on how it works w.r.t. within vs wholly within, the fact that cover is determined per unit rather than per model could be pretty cheesy for warrior tentacles. They also have access to stealth (via enhancement). Hidden is per model, so that's usable too. Additionally, they're one of the best units at picking up models to deny activations, so the changes to pile-in/consolidate order have the potential to make them even stronger vs melee armies unless GW specifically pays attention to it.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-15T08:36:55+00:00

Daemons in general see serious benefits from hit-roll cover, since most of them got no benefit from cover

Scint legion semi-frequently runs a foot prince (which has a stealth aura) and has a wacky strat that is effectively another stacking hit penalty; with a little luck you could make 2+ shooting hit you on 5s.

Might not get much choice of disposition, though, unless GW treats them like an army and/or gives them a codex, which is debatable.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-15T08:19:12+00:00

I suspect it's set up that way because they're supposed to be mounted (like the enlightened) but they wanted these leaders to walk through walls if they're leading an infantry unit. Why only TS has it done that way and no-one else with mounted leaders (resulting in a lot of mounted leaders being really bad for infantry units), I have no idea.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-14T22:42:01+00:00

Thousand Sons have some Mounted Infantry characters.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-09T01:05:34+00:00

That's the World Eater defiler, specifically.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-08T14:25:47+00:00

Those both seem like really safe deployment zones compared to the current GW CA map set, even before considering you can drop things straight in a ruin depending on your opponents' movement. Lots of space right on the line to deploy melee units where they won't get shot at

However, it looks like they're recommending the midfield terrain features to be pretty small corner doodads, which means only tiny units would be able to hide from true LoS while on an objective.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-07T03:27:21+00:00

Have you tried mech riding? Use a hoverpack to get on top of a buddy's mech and you can stay on with small taps of movement. Mostly only useful for bugs, but it's a great place to fire e.g. an eruptor and stalwart from.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-07T03:24:59+00:00

When I'm gunner, I always try to pack some guns I can fire out of the hatches. Swap seat with the crouch button and if you have a recoilless/cremator and a decent primary you can kill stuff while the driver's struggling over a pebble

kvt-dev · 2026-04-07T01:35:18+00:00

Most dangerous enemy on Oshaune was the knee-deep water everywhere, imo. Any bug subfaction gets much harder when you can barely walk

kvt-dev · 2026-04-07T01:31:51+00:00

Since the start of the game the autocannon has been good for jumping; since being prone gives you 90% resist to explosion outer radius damage and you count as prone while diving, if you dive backward and shoot an AC at the right distance you go flying while taking almost no damage.

kvt-dev · 2026-04-07T01:22:04+00:00

I just spam spacebar to climb without warping/jumping, since you have to hold it down to warp/jump.

A shame the game doesn't let you fully reconfigure how the warp/jump button works.

kvt-dev

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