Thursday 15 January 2015

OB Resistance Lists

Is that a sword through in the helmet, or a tiny head? Maybe one of those rare dwarf hosts.
Us here at OB have been thinking about Resistance lately. I'm not talking about the difficulty of trying to push a sofa with rubber feet on a wooden floor, or getting the money you lent your brother a year ago back, no, I mean the lovely new(ish) race for our lovely Dropzone Commander! Well, of course I obviously meant that, this is a Zone blog... Anyway, to the point.

While one of us has been doing his best to engineer his army to win games and learn all the tactical nuances of this awkward and tricksy army, the rest of us have simply been trying to figure out how to destroy between 20 – 30 ground units in a mere six turns (five really, when you think about it). Especially when those ground units that make it 3x harder for you to shoot at them. G'damn Freeriders G'damn.

Well this all led us to thinking about what we would take in our own lists, which led to us actually putting lists together. For those of you who allow your ears to enjoy our podcast (and for those of you who don't, shame on you. Your ears deserve it!) you will have heard us run through these already, but here are our lists in printed format:



The guns on the Raven are correct, Hawk Si has ruled it so!

You'll spot straight away that there are similarities that run through each one; Gun Wagons in a Kraken as a Standard choice for starters. It is possibly a by-product of the fact we play together so much that they are similar, or perhaps just a startling coincidence! As it happens I prefer MM and Edchopp's lists over mine (my first draft of a list is always lacking), but would rather play MM's.

One theme that runs through is the Cyclones. You can't have enough of these babies! Well, eight may be enough, but let us stay in the realm of sensible. We are all in firm agreement that most lists will fit between three and four in, and will act as your main source of AT. Another unit of note is the Crapriders- I mean Freewankers-I mean Crapwankers. Freeriders are, as it stands, just too good to overlook in an army. It pains me to advise these guys to people as I don't want to play any (ever), but they are brutal and so very difficult to remove. Each base kicks out the same damage level as a Caiman's main gun and are apparently as fast as an Athena going supersonic. That's right, they move as quickly as the most advanced gunfighter in the 27th century. Rant over.

What do you guys think? What would you change, and why? How are your lists beginning to shape up? Tell me, because I want to know!!

15 comments:

  1. Personaly, I would use 2 units of veterans, cause I like them. The rest is what I would also want to play.
    I was wondering: Are hannibals good for anything? In general a podcast about the status quo of MBT would be interesting for me. I think all of them are kind of not worth taking them at the moment.... which is a shame.

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  2. Hannibals are great for claiming focal points as they are hard to shift, and are also good for taking out Scourge and Resistance (and Shaltari skimmers at a push). Two tanks can shoot at four targets which is great against numerous and/or lightly armoured enemies.

    By MBT I'm going to assume you mean Main Battle Tank (I had to google that)? If so, that's a good idea, and may be coming to a podcast near you soon! I agree to a certain extent that the newer standard choices seem to be better, but as the game expands the originals are strangely becoming valid once more.

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    1. Good to know that my Hannibals can be used for something. Although, I think the advantages you talk about are favoring the Zhukov in comparison. ;-)
      Yes, I really meant Main Battle Tank. I am looking forward to the next podcast, whatever subject it covers.

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    2. Zhukovs are good for 'home' focal points, whereas Hannibals can be dropped in via Lifthawk further up the field. Horses for courses really!

      I'm glad your enjoying it, in 3.5 we will be talking gunships!

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    3. I just realized that they are not in a Lifthawk. It is a bit of a surprise for me.

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  3. They're great lists which would work well, IMHO.

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  4. I'm just Finalising my Invasion list now.......& I'm really considering running it without the drill!! Took it originally in my list but in all the games I've played It's either scattered into a position which turns out to be very difficult to get anything to, its just easier to get off the board edge or as in one game neither of us had any troops left so we were playing pass the parcel between vehicles (which couldn't go down a drill anyway)

    In my last game against scourge I just found myself wishing for more antitank so I'm going to try this list out over the weekend.......

    Resistance Standard Roster [1498/1500 pts]

    Warlord's HQ [480 pts]
    Alexander: M3 Alexander(Commander), AT-77 Lifthawk(+AA Cannon) [300 pts]
    Cyclones: 3x AH-16 Cyclone [180 pts]

    Vehicle Detachment [183 pts]
    Gun Wagons: 3x Gun Wagon, NT-1 Kraken [113 pts]
    Freeriders: 2x Freeriders [70 pts]

    Resistance Band [395 pts]
    Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters, AT-77 Lifthawk, 3x MT-90 Jackson [148 pts]
    ^ Sharing ^ Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters [48 pts]
    ^ Sharing ^ Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters [48 pts]
    Marine Force Recon: 2x Marine Force Recon, Raven A/S [151 pts]

    Rusted Fist [220 pts]
    Zhukovs: 2x M20 Zhukov, AT-77 Lifthawk(+AA Cannon) [220 pts]

    Infiltrators [140 pts]
    Freeriders: 2x Freeriders [70 pts]
    Freeriders: 2x Freeriders [70 pts]

    Fast Strikers [80 pts]
    Archangel Pathfinders: Archangel Pathfinder [80 pts]

    From my last list I've dropped the Drill and the AA from the infantry's Lifthawk and added in the 3rd squad of freeriders, gives me antitank and hopefully an edge in search / intel missions, as well as extracting objectives etc.

    Love to hear your thoughts as you guys pretty much said drills were a no brainer.

    Andy

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    1. If losing the drill works better for you then definitely go for it! We strongly recommend it because of the tactical edge it can give you. The obvious reason is for Objectives; place it next to a building and your troops can scamper down it care free with their objectives. If it scatters away, simply use your Jackson or Battlebus to drive your troops too it. You can deploy / embark twice within a turn, and if your transport is close enough to the building getting in it only counts as one of these moves. This means you can get troops through a Drill if it is within 9" of the center of a Jackson or Bus at the beginning of the turn- the Drill can't even scatter that far!

      It is also useful for claiming and contesting focal points, because getting rid of it takes a turn to do. Lastly, never discount luck. If you stick a unit or two of Freeriders in it and get it out of reserves in the first turn, you can get in a central building in turn 1!

      I like your list. The only problem you may have is if all your Jackson's are destroyed you will have to use your Freeriders to extract objectives, which in turn means they are not providing much needed AT. If you had a drill however, this may not be an issue...

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  5. Really like that 2 of 3 list have the Alexander instead of the Thunderstorm.

    I can't decide if I'm going with a cv4 commander or a cv3 commander and a drill in my list...

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    1. I think the thunderstorm is better, but it costs a lot of money and is difficult to manoever.

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    2. I used a Thunderstorm during play testing, and agree with Astmeister. It is devastating, but if you stick as much as 1 Prowler in the street it can't move over it... I like it though, great for Focal Points and area control.

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  6. Interesting that all of your lists include Drills, but very little that can come out of them. Sure, the Freeriders can go down them, but why bother? If the Freeriders are your main source of AT (besides the Cyclones), then they're probably not going to be loitering next to the entrance of a building waiting for the Infantry within to finally find an objective and pass it out to them, are they? ;-)

    I've played about 8 or so games with my Resistance so far, and as I don't yet have any Technicals (and just got my Drill), I haven't made any lists up with a Drill in it. Just did up about a dozen 1,500 points lists tonight to ponder over and decide what to run against a new opponent this Saturday. He's either going to be running PHR or Shaltari. Against Shaltari, the Zhukovs are not so hot, as you only get 1 AA shot, which can be saved against with either a P5+ or, more likely, a P4+. So vs Shaltari I'm going to take 2 BGs of 3 Gun Wagons in a Kraken and 1 squad of 2x Freeriders. Thems some pretty good AA right there, and they can take shots at skimmers if they need to.

    I really, really like the Cyclones. In my last game I took 2 squads of 2x of them, and found that to be pretty effective, even vs Phobos. The trick with Cyclones is to remember that their Hornet's Nest barrage shot is IF, so having the Freeriders forward and engaging tanks and walkers is a good way to also have them in positions to spot for the Cyclones. Once the Phobos were neutralized, I was able to move in closer and use the Cyclones' Beowulf missiles, which are nasty!

    Personally, I like the Hannibals. They definitely need a Lifthawk with their 18" R(c) guns, but they're a good AT platform. Zhukovs, I think, also need a Lifthawk, but maybe that's just my style; I'll have to see about not bringing one one of these times and see if they ever get to shoot at anything...

    Also, I like taking the AA Cannon upgrade on the Lifthawks. Sure, it's 4+ Ac, but vs Starsprite Drones, every little bit helps. In my first game with Resistance I reaction fired against a Shaltari Warspear FM, and brought it down Turn 1. That was epic!

    I'll post up some of my standard and new lists on the Hawk Forum soon, and you guys can comment on them there... I've had pretty good success with my Resistance so far, but find that they really start to come into their own in larger games, like 1,800 and higher. I'm not a tournament player like you guys, but I might be able to stretch a trip to a far off country for a formal 2-day tournament this September (!) and so should probably start playing more 1,500 point games to iron out the wrinkles in my tourney worthiness... LOL!

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    1. I just commented our reasons for the drills in our lists in a separate comment, so have a look through that. They are far more multi-purpose than people think! Also Freeriders should only be coming out of Drills and not down them, the Drill is there for the regular infantry.

      I'm in concurrence with you in regards to the AA on the Lifthawk- I lost a unit of Destroyers to Lifthawk reaction fire. I was not a happy host.

      We don't often play large game so it would be interesting to see how that would go. Maybe we'll play some 2000 pointers soon, HmmMmm...

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    2. Yeah, I'm going to revisit some of my new Resistance lists in the morning and see where it makes sense to add a Drill, as opposed to other "fillers" I'd put in like a lone Cyclone or yet another squad of Freeriders.

      I've always thought that having Freeriders come out of a Drill was a waste of their potential, since they Move 16" and can get pretty deep into the enemy's territory pretty quickly, and since the Drill starts in Reserves, but I'll give it another look. Certainly having other Infantry having an escape hatch might be beneficial, and there is the "luck factor", as you mentioned above, where the Drill can pop up Turn 1. I suppose that starting one squad of Freeriders might be worth the gamble...

      Larger point games are a hoot! I like 1,800 as a level that lets you bring quite a bit more of your collection than you're used to at 1,500 and still keeps the game at Clash level, and doesn't take too much longer; but getting up to Battle level can be truly liberating in terms of opening up that 7th BG and having more squads in all your BGs being able to flesh out the points. Just be prepared to spend an appropriate amount of additional time playing the game, as especially the first two Turns will take a lot longer than you're used to. But after that, attrition starts to kick in like usual, and the Turns will go progressively faster, like you're used to.

      I'm looking forward to having some time to listen to your podcasts. I've heard nothing but good things about them, but I just never find myself in a situation where I can put them on and listen, as my commute to work takes about 2 minutes to walk downstairs, get some caffe and shuffle to the home office. LOL! Also, I've been doing all my hobbling at my FLGS a, and there's always something interesting to listen to there while I work on stuff. But I want to use my airbrush more, especially on my Resistance, so there will be a time when I'll be in the hobby room half of my home office working away, and I'll be able to pop on some OB podcasts and listen while I labor lovingly over my favorite minis. 8^D

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    3. Clarification: I suppose that starting one unit of Freeriders in Reserve might be worth the gamble...

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