Here's my take on Captain Gunnbjorn. He has to be one of the least loved and under-represented casters for our faction. Why? Well because he doesn't have a stupid overpowered theme list or any particular synergy with troll melee troops. That and his feat is somewhat on the weak side. So why do I take him? Well, for one he looks bad ass. Two, when people don't see something, they usually don't know how to counter it. He can use that to his advantage....some, a good player will know what his limitations are and push them. I think he works just fine. His ability to give out snipe to some pretty hearty ranged units (croak raiders) and his spell guided fire which gives boosted attack and damage rolls to his battle group, makes him straight deadly in a fire fight. His feat, like I mentioned, is not really the greatest in the world compared to the others. It's not bad either, just has to be used defensively. It gives friendly faction models cover, immunity to knockdown and blast damage. Used correctly and your guys will be +4 DEF and won't get knocked down if they have to make (and pass) a tough check. He really does have a hard time cracking heavy armor though. If you're facing down a gargantuan or a colossal or hell, anything from Khador, it's going to be an uphill battle. Also, since he doesn't really have much in the way of melee, when you get closed in on, it's pretty much done. Proper positioning and good use of snipe should make short work of anything that can really hurt you before they can touch you.
I posted this the other day, but here's the list I'm building toward:
Captain Gunnbjorn
Runebearer
Dozer and Smigg
Dire Troll Bomber
Troll Impaler
Dhunian Knot
2x Max Croak Raiders
2x Feral Geist
2x Northkin Fire Eaters
It's just a straight up shoot the shit out of people list. The Fire Eaters are there to help with stealth, the geists are there since I had extra points and didn't know what else to put in there. They may come in handy every know and then, but I don't expect a lot of return out of them. The croaks are monsters under snipe and can easily take an armor 18 heavy with one unit of them. ARM 20, gets a little sketchy though.
Once anybody knows he cannot melee and if they can survive a few rounds of ranged attacks you could be in for a hurtin'.
ReplyDeleteFire Eaters are fun, but don't mesh well with him.
Explosivo or Snipe almost make Burrowers worth a look. Almost.....
Look for anything to shore up those extra points. Feralgeist are situational at best and useless vs. non Hordes.
Maybe Janissa to throw up another wall?
The dual pistol solo highwayman with snipe/ guided fire might be useable?
I'd love to throw Janissa in the list, but she's 3 points and I only have 2 leftover with no easy way to cut out another one. I figure I can always take over one of my own beasts if I can't theirs. I do have a unit of burrowers, but damn if that RAT and MAT 4 isn't shitty. The fire eaters don't really have a synergy with him, that's true. They're there to spot remove problems.
ReplyDeleteBurrowers in range of Guided Fire would work, but hamstrings them a bit.
ReplyDeleteTheir RAT is alright when you factor in 6-10 POW 14 Explosivo templates. Good for a chunk of board crowd control/high DEF low ARM/solos/stealth targets.
Highway Men with Snipe would be descent as well especially with their CRA.
Two small units of Croak Hunters instead of two full would free up a few points to play with.
Try dumping the ghosts and the rune bearer to try Janissa a few games. An extra wall for cover or better yet for obstruction to slow the enemy advance; could be crucial for another round of shooting before the eventual melee in this game.
Good luck and hope they don't have lots of bodies, fast/teleporty/or are tough enough to shrug off a round or two of shooting or can drop line o' sight blocking to neuter your shooting for a turn or two.
Can't use guided fire on them. It's a battlegroup only spell. Highwaymen with snipe is good, but Croaks are better. It's sad that I have to do the 40k allies thing with Hordes to cover weaknesses. I might dump try dumping the geists and the bearer since Janissa is a pretty good model.
DeleteCroaks are good, and are internet darlings right now. I get that. Troll weakness? How dare you speak of the Hordes version of Space Marines like that!
DeleteHighway dudes- snipe and CRA are scary. Hell, just snipe and the amount of shots down field are scary for clearing out models or plinking the crap out of something.
I would pass on Scattergunners, pyg snipers, thumper crew, battle wagon and sluggers unless you really like the models.
Janissa’s wall and slide guys around spells are great for board control shenanigans. She might/might not work for you, but I hate her for what she can do!
If you are only using the Impaler for an extra snipe animus you could dump him, cut croaks to 2 min size, drop ferals to free up some points. The rune bearer is probably just cycling another snipe for you right since he can’t do much else with Gunbjorns spell list. He isn’t a “must” for Gunbjorn and could free up another point too.
Hell maybe try alten ashley to get another gun. He ruins warbeasts on the advance and can affect them sooner than feralgeists. He is no slouch against solos either.
Plus your list is shooty. Get more shooty!
Farrow Brigands with their dig in and prayer of fearless/tough might not be bad either. They don’t block line while dug in so feel free to put guys behind to shoot through them. Dig in +cover + aim + snipe+ fearless and tough prayer = better than troll shooting while still troll tough and with POW 12 guns.
Just spit balling ideas you may or may not have considered.
I really, really want to like sluggers. I just know I'd end up painting them green and pretending they're orks.
Deletethey look like big shootas more than anything else.
DeleteDude all troll RAT is like 4-5.
ReplyDeleteWait Burrowers come up during Maint phase if previously buried. Right?
They could take aim/not move and be RAT 6.
Plus a lot of fun rear arc shots and some board control for those unwary of them.