Elysian Tactics - Commanders and the Lord Commissar
Elysian Tactics - Commanders and the Lord Commissar
Continuing my
series of tactics posts I will cover both the HQ choices for an Elysian Regiment,
and also the platoon commander as he fills a similar battlefield role.
First is the Lord Commissar. He costs 10 points more than the regular Lord Commissar,
but discounted slightly as his power sword is optional. I see him as not that useful in that Elysians have
less of an issue with morale than regular guard armies due to several factors. Primarily their increased leadership and the fact the nearby company and platoon officers grant morale rerolls without executing someone.
The Lord Commissar still has a few things
to offer though in that he confers his higher leadership to nearby units. The main use that I can see for him is as a melee character, with a Power fist and his WS
2+ he can do some damage. But I won’t be taking one. His cost is just too high
for what he does. I’d much rather just take another company commander.
Company
Commanders are the only other HQ choice, so with
Lord Commissars not being a good option I will be taking quite a few of these. Compared
to the regular Company commander they are 10 extra points for the Aerial drop
ability and the extra point of Leadership. They do lose the chainsword though.
Weapon options are similar but they lose access to the other power weapon
variants than the sword and also lose access to the shotgun. And they gain krak grenades.
With arming these guys, the best option
is to keep them cheap, especially for backfield commanders. Their main use is
to give out orders and they should be avoiding combat. I will cover the orders
later in this post. For company commanders that accompany the troops that drop
in, a useful investment can be a plasma pistol and/or a power fist. I don’t
really like power swords as despite having a good AP, the commanders are still
only strength 3 meaning you don’t wound your opponent very often, and the power fist
is only a few points more. Additionally as they don’t have a chainsword there is more incentive to give them
something to use in combat. When I get around to playtesting I will try both
options. With the power sword however, you can upgrade it to the Blade of
Conquest relic which if you have spare command points I feel will be a useful
option.
One of your backfield Company commanders
will usually be your warlord in a pure Elysian army. The best option for a
Warlord trait is the Grand strategist, none of the others really compare. It
also pairs well with Kurovs Aquilla, although the Laurels of Command can be
useful too. I often put these on different commanders as that way there is less
of a single target for your opponent.
Don’t forget the heroic intervention
rules either. If a nearby unit gets charged, and your CC is within 3” of an
enemy model he can do a free pile in movement. And if he wasn’t a target of the
charge your opponent is not eligible to strike at him. You don’t even need to
move him into combat. I highly recommend gaining a good understanding of the
rules in the assault phase. As guard players assault if often a foreign concept
to us, but it is essential to have an in depth understanding to make to most of
how it all works and counter assault heavy armies. This article here is a
pretty good summary. https://www.frontlinegaming.org/2017/10/07/assault-phase-tactics/
Platoon
commanders fulfil a very similar role to company
commanders, but are 10 points cheaper, lose 1 wound and 1 point of Leadership,
and only having one order. But they get Melta bombs for free. Almost always it
will be worth paying the extra for a Company commander over a Platoon
commander, but I am rather keen to see if I can get their Melta bombs into
play. Remember the extra order stratagem so if needed you can have these guys
issue 2 orders. The same points for Company commander weapon options hold here,
except a platoon commander will less often be a backfield commander, so a
plasma pistol and power fist/sword can often be considered.
Also Platoon commanders come from the
elites choice, and Elysians have so many excellent elite options this slot can
be quite crowded.
Orders
Elysians lose access to the Forwards, for
the Emperor and Fix Bayonets Orders.
But they gain Hold the Line and Move and
Fire orders instead.
First Rank Fire Second Rank Fire will be
one of the most used orders as it doubles your lasgun shots, allowing your
troopers to fire 4 shots each at half range, that’s up to 40 lasgun shots.
Take Aim is also very useful letting you
reroll hit rolls of 1. FRFSRF is more useful on lasgun squads, but this is the
order you use on your drop plasma squads to fire supercharges plasma without
half of them dying.
Get Back in the Fight is the one to use
after one of your squads gets in combat, as it allows you to withdraw and still
shoot, and you seldom want to keep your troops tied up in combat.
Move Move Move allows you to travel large
distances in a single turn, up to 24” but 17” on average if you advance with
both of your moves. Great for objective grabbing, and allows you to move after
an aerial drop.
Bring it Down is less useful as it is
mathematically the same as Take Aim. Usually only used if you already have
reroll 1s to hit from some other source.
Move and Fire is not that useful, but
could come into play if you need that bit of extra movement and still want to
shoot. A note about this order is that RAW it also changes all the grenades to
assault, allowing each trooper to throw 2 grenades as well as shooting his
weapon. This is obviously not as intended and I don’t play that way.
Hold the Line is probably the least
useful order as morale is not usually an issue. And if you do put this order on
a unit your opponent will probably just shoot someone else. I can see it coming
in handy maybe if you have a unit that is on an objective and you really want
them not to run away.
Summary
In general, out of the 3 choices about
you will usually only have Company commanders, and just enough of them to put
out the number of orders you need per turn. I plan to take a Brigade and a
Battalion so will probably have 5 or 6 of them. 2 cheap ones in the backfield
with one being the warlord, and the rest dropping in to order units as needed.
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