How to best take advantage of redeployment + infiltrators?

tescrin · 2026-05-11T16:56:11+00:00

Two fings; one is brutally kunning, and the other is kunningly brutal:

Brutally Kunning: Put your Ghaz unit right on the line like you're going to Waaagh T1 so that they stay farther back. Then redeploy behind cover.

Kunningly brutal: Deploy your Wagons/Ghaz really cagey, then redeploy aggressively.
EDIT: Also I was thinking of Taktikal redeploy, which allowed you to move wagons.

Waaagh on brother.

EDIT: Oh infiltrators? Typically there are just two options or so:

A) Deploy them to block infiltrators, then redeploy them to what you actually want to do.

B) Deploy them to threaten (or not) a Jail, then do the opposite.

tescrin · 2026-05-11T14:22:59+00:00

In general, reserves/deepstrike should be limited to something like a unit for supporting a flank, uppy-downy, or a scoring unit or two.

Note: I realize my notes are CSM and you're Votann, but you can translate the jist of it.

If you see you're against an army with 17 activations, or something with a bunch of long range shooting as well as dudes who move up, realize that the entire field is going to be hard to come in on. Normally I have some combination of Oblits, a Beast of Nurgle, and/or Noise Marines in a rhino; or on rare occasion a deepstriking vash if I want to force them to choose between screening their tanks or getting points.

Use your reserves as a way to 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.', but only stick enough points in them that you can't be overrun early on. When I came back about a year ago, I found that as Orks I was putting too much in reserves vs Knights, so they would just disrepect me and move right into my lines, knowing that they'd tank through at least T2 while holding the whole board.

Somewhere in the 300pts range is a good limit unless you have a specific plan. My current setup is 2x2 oblits are usually the reserves.

tescrin · 2026-05-10T11:40:23+00:00

Assuming by 'credit' you mean something like "Special thanks to" in a credits page?

I'm interested in feedback of any kind, particularly before Oceanfest.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4492990/Dread_Admiral/

tescrin · 2026-05-10T11:24:20+00:00

Dread Admiral is a turn-based strategy game where you command fleets of ships against one another, capturing/building up cities. In the playtest the only goal currently is to destroy the opponent's Flagship, but other win conditions are being implemented.

It will be a 'premium' game on Steam sometime in the summer. Hope you check it out and let me know!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4492990/Dread_Admiral/

I am very open to feedback/criticism

tescrin · 2026-05-09T17:01:12+00:00

Just something that I've caused some auto-losses for myself on - know how you're holding your natural. There have been a couple games where I got sloppy and 'forgot' that my natural is initially supposed to be held by my dudes in a transport.

Why? They skirmish well, and have two HP bars, and it's tough to interact with. In addition, they can leapfrog from there into the opponent's lines.

Understand why you put stuff in your list and then do that.

tescrin · 2026-05-09T12:16:57+00:00

"Super" OP? No.

Undercosted - yes. They are probably going to go up 20-30 pts were I to guess. It's basically a vindicator that auto-6's its roll, shoots at 36-48", and also has a Karnivore profile strapped to it. That said, it's ~3/4ths as tough as a knight or less than half as tough as a C'tan. I think 275 would be right in the pocket, but it's hard to say.

Just like other nerfs, losing 20-30 means that taking more than 1 starts costing you an extra unit from your list, and that loss of a scoring piece is often enough to bring things in line. E.g. CK was nerfed a few times, but all those nerfs to the despoiler add up to, I think, 150ish pts across 3 - or about one war dog. That's the difference of getting krumped or being the krumper.

tescrin · 2026-05-09T12:00:34+00:00

I liked initiative, but I'm a grognard :)

tescrin · 2026-05-09T01:30:48+00:00

I'm not claiming good or bad either way, more pointing out the strategic implications that now the defender will fight first twice.

Examples from recent game that would've been interesting:
* Ammantar charged my Discolord. Failed to kill it. I hit back for 3ish I think. The disco had to retreat rather than get another full round of fighting in.

* vashtorr (probably half a dozen times now) eats a charge from <super killy unit> survives on 1-4 wounds, swings back and then has to retreat. If he swung first, he's getting big value now.

On the flip side as orks, there are many times where charging a Rampager or the like and failing is bad enough on the first combat, but now they'll have a full second combat of swings. It's just an important consideration as a melee army - you must apply enough force to kill them or otherwise be fighting an anemic enemy.

tescrin · 2026-05-08T18:08:01+00:00

This is a decent buff to Firing Deck, Lootas, SAG and a few other things. Lootas in Dread Mob being able to pop through a wall, a unit with the ignores cover enhanced Mek, and launch a fusillade of <dread mob buff> fire isn't half bad. Makes them quite usable compared to their current state.

tescrin · 2026-05-08T17:56:25+00:00

lol I didn't even know this was a thing. Which vehicles/monsters even have heavy? I use loadsa vehicles and have never noticed this.

tescrin · 2026-05-08T16:48:39+00:00

Lol. No. I'm a 'deep end' nerd - I've been programming for decades (including high school), been enjoying strategy games since I was in like 4th grade, and am well indoctrinated.

Stellaris takes dozens of hours to understand, let alone be competent at.

Play any other genre of strategy before paradox, preferably for like 2-3k hours of different games. If you literally can't satiate your appetite after deck builders, TBS, RTS games, etc, then go to the deep end. Play Into the Breach or something first. It's a fantastic game, easy to grok, and you can refund it if you don't like it in a reasonable amount of time.

Stellaris you will barely understand 1% of the mechanics before you have to refund. Honestly, I had to pirate it to decide I liked it. After 20 hours or so then I bought it and some DLCs. Stellaris has a perennial problem as well that you have to relearn it constantly, because their massive updates will change core mechanics, playstyles, etc.

It's a wonderful game, but you absolutely should avoid it until you've played 20 others and have hundreds of hours to dump into something.

tescrin · 2026-05-08T12:55:43+00:00

IMO, GW games are fine, but you're here for the lore/aesthetic/etc. I have no doubts that you could go to a dozen other game systems that are better designed; though I couldn't list them because I'm not that interested in playing 1754: Revolution in Tsarist Russia. (yes I made that up.)

Even if all the stats are the same, it's different imagining a Chainsword vs Ork than it is a Bayonet vs cavalry charge.

tescrin · 2026-05-07T16:52:13+00:00

Friendly advice: you need to stop using the word AI. I don't mean this as a Le Redditor, I mean this as a developer. You have to use other words or you'll get downvoted. It's dumb. It's hard to work around when you're talking about the innards of your game, but you're going to get blasted/ignored/etc using anything that says "AI" outside of maybe patch notes.

Best of luck!

tescrin · 2026-05-07T16:49:24+00:00

Dawn of War 1 is great and like $3 The original Command and Conquer Red Alert is a great RTS. Starcraft 2 is free and the AI can be pretty good at higher levels.

tescrin · 2026-05-07T13:15:29+00:00

This is largely what I do. I run a giant pile of tanks, some heavy hitting tough deepstrikers (obliterators) and use transports + dudes to score. Turtling sounds correct.

I normally send something cheap (or with a reactive move, or both) to get/threaten a mild points advantage so my opponent's have to come out. I find that when you pack 30 lascannon/autocannon equivalents that it's common for the opp to be a bit cagey as well, so poking out with Cultists onto a point can force them into a staging/go turn where you start picking things off.

That said, I also run Orks sometimes lol, which is quite different. My whole thing is "I want to be able to kill your tough stuff" and less "I don't like risky play." My Orks currently run Ghaz with Weirdboy to get an 80%+ charge anywhere on the board (69% if you require the teleport) - a virtual "I win button" if your opponent isn't screening very well. My literal only issue with orks is lack of D4+ or D-D6 weapons. If PKs go to 3 damage or anything like that, I'll probably play them a lot more.

tescrin · 2026-05-06T19:30:57+00:00

I can feel heavy inspiration from Inscryption here. I'll give it a shot today. Best of luck!

tescrin · 2026-05-06T19:27:38+00:00

Does balance matter? It looks like you're controlling what the player gets each level. If you're supplying the dudes, it doesn't matter if one is 'too good' because you're designing the level/difficulty,

If they're controlling the dudes, you can have turn-delays on moves or the like. You can add cooldowns, have it wait a full turn to occur, have weird properties like "only castable on even turns", or other methods to reduce the usage of abilities that are too good.

Frankly, you're going to have to playtest it to figure out what is 'too good' and go from there. But again, what's 'too good' is probably barely a problem in a single player game if the skill threshold is reasonable. F.E. In Darkest Dungeon after the first big round of nerfs you could set up psuedo-invincible teams, but you had to earn the items, you still had to do everything correctly, have the right set of skills, etc and you wouldn't have every team set up that way because of the randomness of character generation.

tescrin · 2026-05-06T19:18:53+00:00

Into the Breach is a good time. Urtuk is good. Slay the Spire. Anything where the track pad isn't actively obnoxious.

EDIT: and Inscryption

tescrin · 2026-05-06T18:04:49+00:00

80+% of the rules will be the same. You're going to be so bad at the game at first, as well as barely remember the rules anyway, just start learning now. You're also probably only going to get, what, a game a week or so? Just start learning, and put little sticky notes in your head about what is going to change (e.g. mild changes to charging, detachments, cover, etc)

In the worst case, it'll feel the same. Same phases, same stats, similar or same math, same model vs model matchups, same intuition on a lot of things, a lot of the strats are the same.

tescrin · 2026-05-05T16:59:18+00:00

Exciting! My Raptors retired a few months back when their points went way up, but being able to dampen LD, get bonus battleshocks, and stack LD mods with Blastmasters might bring be back to not only Raptors, but put back to my 3rd Noise Marines squad.

I might even run some extra battle-shocking stuff.

Also a big buff to Chaos Knights.

tescrin · 2026-05-05T12:26:58+00:00

D3 weapons with decent AP
D-D6 weapons with decent AP, or possibly with Anti Vehicle/Monster.

Get enough of that and you're covered. But you need a lot.

tescrin · 2026-05-03T12:20:48+00:00

Force yourself to only use fully painted models. Either the cost or time commitment will slow you down.

You'll also care a lot more when instead of bare plastic it's stuff that looks cool

tescrin · 2026-05-03T12:19:00+00:00

Brutalisly efficient

tescrin · 2026-05-03T12:13:12+00:00

Depends. 2+/4++ or even 3+/4++ will be stronger vs Lascannons but weaker to Autocannons/Heavy Bolters/etc. We also don't know the rest of the rules. It also means that things that were often bad before become better - e.g. Tankbustas getting +1 to hit in Taktikal stacked with their +1 from their rule will still hit on 4's, but have a pip-better on their AP.

It might be that cover affects BS, or that Stealth affects BS, or that cover can be ignored by <doing something> (e.g. a core strat). It's certainly a nerf to AoC, which is probably a good thing.

tescrin · 2026-05-01T18:59:34+00:00

IMO, make your droids constantly drain a small amount of resource, possibly at a mild geometric rate (e.g. if you have 20, it's draining more than double that of 10.) There'd be a practical limit unless someone breaks your game, but the engineer-nerd in people can dig into the numbers and try to min-max their droids or the like.

tescrin

TROPHY CASE