In the
list of loathing thread I was asked about
Doom Reavers, and since I don't really hate them enough to put them on the list, I think I'll just do a little speculating instead. Doom Reavers are easy to kill at range, but if you don't have any ranged options you're asking for a spanking.
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| Little girls with big swords! |
The Doom Reavers are a screen unit, and if you don't have a ranged answer to them they're one of the best screens in the game (
crazy damage, good MAT, reach, cannot be targeted by spells), so bring something with good old fashioned ranged attacks. You don't want any of them surviving turn two, so something like Nyss Hunters or some ranged solos will serve you well (
Dougal MacNaile will take down two by himself,
and three or four if he can aim).
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| A sexual Tyrannosaurus! |
Thinking back, I can only remember a single game where they gave me any real trouble, and that was against eVlad.
Blood Legacy and
Doom Reavers was a nasty surprise, and I guess Strakhov could do something similar with his feat, but in general you'll know where they are and how far they'll be moving, since their immunity to spells block them from most buffs in the game as well.
With a ranged game you can take down his screen and put up your own instead, so while you can't reliably take Doom Reavers down with magic, and sending in your own screen is unlikely to work, a good old fashioned hail of bullets will do just fine.
- Problem: Doom Reavers
- Solution: Hail of bullets!!
You have to be very careful not to let the Doom Reavers charge something important, as they will kill it with great certainty. Having just one of them charge, or walk, into a bunch of infantry is very bad news. Played a game not long ago (Coven vs eVlad). I thought myself safe as i popped Nightfall and had all my stuff just a little more than 8" away from his front line of Doom Reavers. The he popped his feat and used it on one of them. He then walked 9" and started swinging. He killed 5 black banes (including black bane him self) a pistol wraith and one of the WSC /: Lesson learned...
ReplyDeleteOne thing I often find myself doing is targeting something behind the Doom Reavers with magic sprays. If you can get off a good venom with a warwitch or one of the Deneghras that's pretty good. 6's to hit is acceptable and if they don't die from the dmg roll, they most likely will during your opponents next maintenance fase :) I often find that Biles only every kill them in the turn after they have engaged my stuff, but they are still good if you can get a purge off. A Bloat is another great solution.
ReplyDeleteThis monday I had a shattering experience, when I came to a club with Coven and faced eButcher with 4 squads of doom reavers. They completely massacred me.
ReplyDeleteThinking of that game retrospectively, I don't see any easy solution to this threat - 24 magic immune tough models with AD are a great pain to kill. The only solution I can think of is eDenny (feat granting extra round of shooting) with nyss hunters and 1-2 pistol wraiths. For eSkarre, Coven (casters I usually play) and Terminus (caster I want to own soon) I can not think of any reliable way to win. May be I can try bile purge iwth madelyn and darragh - but I'm not sure I would be able to kill enough.
I faced a T4 eButcher Doom Reaver list at the Danish Masters, so I know how intimidating it looks. Bile Thralls rape that list though, because it has little to no ranged capacity, so all you have to do is layer your way to victory. I'll go into a bit more detail later, since I need to get home first :)
ReplyDeleteA little more detail coming up: Tier eButcher has somewhere between 1 and 3 ranged attacks in total. The Doom Reavers have an eleven inch threat, which incidentally is exactly the same as Bile Thralls.
ReplyDeleteYou can basically just line up your Bile Thralls 12" away from him. Behind the Bile Thralls you have the heavy hitters ready to bash any heavies that dare advance, and if you have access to longer range shooting you can get to work on his forces.
He can't charge because you're out of range. If he runs in you can Ghost Walk your Bile Thralls out of melee and purge him, or if he just runs in a couple of models you can simply handle them with something else.
If he begins bringing multiple destroyers it can get problematic, but a couple of Leviathans will fix it. A list with access to Ghost Walk, Bile Thralls and Leviathans should be pretty much steamroll a T4 eButcher list.
This strategy is quite sound; however, the scenarios can make it complicated.
ReplyDeleteIn the game I mentioned we played a scenario with 3 flags in the middle of the table, one of which disappeared at the end of turn one. He ran all his doom reavers turn one - and with AD they were standing right on the flags. So I had to go on offensive to remove him from the flags because if I just waited I would surely loose by control points.
Nevertheless I will definitely try this when I'll face him next time. Thanks for the advice :)