December Detachment Review: Bridgehead Strike

It’s Guard day. Uh, save me, I know so little it’s crazy. With the side note of: We don’t really have an expert this week? We have Dyllyn who is, very, very good at the game but doesn’t go to events enough for me to validate that expertise. So if you go to events with guard (Within the last few months and do very well) and want to submit a list and thoughts, please reach out.

That being said, I really like this detachment as it stands. It’s all about Tempestus Scions so Deep Strike is the name of the game.

There are 2 detachment rules. They are as follows:

Only The Best lets you re-roll hit rolls of 1 with Infantry in ranged.

Fire Zone Purge gives Tempestus units +1 to wound on the turn they arrive from Deep Strike or disembark. A flat +1 to wound is so hot honestly, with very few hoops to jump through.

You also make your Scions Battleline and +1 OC if you have a Tempestus Officer as your Warlord. This means no Lord Solar, which might be a deal breaker, but there’s a work around with an enhancement we’ll see shortly.

Enhancement

The enhancements continue a small trend from the last few detachments where everything seems to be usable within the context of the detachment without asking for too many hoops. It’s just good rules.

Bombast-Class Vox-Array is 25 points and lets your Tempestus Officer order 3 regiment units instead of 1. Huge and helps with losing Lord Solar. S+

Priority-Drop Beacon is a 30 point turn 1 Deep Strike the bearers unit. Alpha strike strong. Note it does only go on a Tempestus Officer. This is very likely amazing, but it’s also only usable on Scions essentially. Good for a bad turn 1 secondary. Could be a crazy Establish Locus play? So…A?

Shroud Projector make your unit unable to be overwatched. Which sounds bad, but being able to disembark or Deep Strike point blank without being overwatched is pretty sick for 15 points. A

Advanced Augury is 15 points and is a 3 unit redeploy. We’ve talked about this a few times, this is S+, especially at that point cost.

Stratagems

The stratagems are pretty good, there’s some middling ones here, but some very, very strong ones as well which help push your secondary game to another level. The offensive ones are not unwelcome for what they are.

Bellicosa Drop is a 6″ Deep Strike. The army is all about Deep Strikes, and helps with secondary play when needed. For 1 CP it’s just a bargain in this army where Deep Strike is everywhere. A+

Firing Hot gives Tempestus or Kasrkin +1 Strength and AP to hot shot guns. Strength 4 AP 2 on the lasguns are not something to scoff at. Reminder you likely have +1 to wound, and can order yourself for +1 rapid fire. It’s really cool, very good stratagem. A

Fire and Relocate is advance and shoot. Not much to say past: It’s a shooting army which rarely sees assault weapons. B+

Servo-Designators lets you, after you hit an enemy unit, let your army ignore their cover. Deep Strike turn 1 their big threat, remove cover, unleash gods hatred. B+

Aerial Extraction is an end of fight phase, pick up a unit with Deep Strike (Or A Valkyrie?? Lol??) and put it back into reserves. They have to be out of engagement range. You should be maxing secondary scoring with this army, it’s pretty nuts. S+

On My Position is at the end of an opponents fight phase, and lets you pick a Regiment Infantry unit within engagement range. It’s a pretty insane Helldivers moment where you roll a D6 for each enemy unit engaged with you and deal D6 mortals on a 2+, then you take 3D3 mortals at the end. This is so funny but probably bad. C+, but S+++ for hilarious. For Super Earth, buddy.

List

Thanks to Dyllyn for stepping in to submit something when we needed it. He hasn’t really touched the Temepestus side of guard since early 9th edition but is likely one of the most competent guard players I know. There’s a lot of you out there who uh, shit the bed.

Dyllyn’s Wild Ride

Anyone wanna play Helldivers II? There’s a cool new update we can try out. (1980 points)

Astra Militarum
Strike Force (2000 points)
Bridgehead Strike

CHARACTERS

Gaunt’s Ghosts (110 points)
• 1x Ibram Gaunt
• 1x Bolt Pistol
1x Gaunt’s chainsword
• 1x Colm Corbec
• 1x Corbec’s hot-shot lascarbine
1x Straight silver knife
• 1x Elim Rawne
• 1x Rawne’s lascarbine
1x Straight silver knife
• 1x Hlaine Larkin
• 1x Larkin’s long-las
1x Straight silver knife
• 1x ’Try Again’ Bragg
• 1x Bragg’s autocannon
1x Straight silver knife
• 1x Oan Mkoll
• 1x Lascarbine
1x Mkoll’s straight silver knife

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (95 points)
• 1x Tempestor Prime
• Warlord
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Tempestus dagger
• Enhancement: Bombast-Class Vox-Array
• 4x Tempestus Scion
• 4x Close combat weapon
2x Hot-shot lasgun
2x Hot-shot laspistol
1x Hot-shot volley gun
1x Master Vox
1x Medi-pack
1x Regimental Standard

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (85 points)
• 1x Tempestor Prime
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Tempestus dagger
• Enhancement: Shroud Projector
• 4x Tempestus Scion
• 4x Close combat weapon
2x Hot-shot lasgun
2x Hot-shot laspistol
1x Hot-shot volley gun
1x Master Vox
1x Medi-pack
1x Regimental Standard

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (85 points)
• 1x Tempestor Prime
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Tempestus dagger
• Enhancement: Advance Augury
• 4x Tempestus Scion
• 4x Close combat weapon
2x Hot-shot lasgun
2x Hot-shot laspistol
1x Hot-shot volley gun
1x Master Vox
1x Medi-pack
1x Regimental Standard

BATTLELINE

Tempestus Scions (120 points)
• 1x Tempestor
• 1x Chainsword
1x Plasma pistol
• 9x Tempestus Scion
• 9x Close combat weapon
7x Hot-shot lasgun
2x Hot-shot volley gun

Tempestus Scions (60 points)
• 1x Tempestor
• 1x Chainsword
1x Plasma pistol
• 4x Tempestus Scion
• 4x Close combat weapon
2x Hot-shot lasgun
1x Hot-shot volley gun
1x Plasma gun

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Taurox Prime (90 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Storm bolter
1x Taurox battle cannon
1x Twin autocannon

OTHER DATASHEETS

Hellhound (125 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Hunter-killer missile
1x Inferno cannon
1x Multi-melta

Tempestus Aquilons (110 points)
• 1x Tempestor Aquilon
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Hot-shot lascarbine
1x Sentry flamer
• 8x Tempestus Aquilon
• 8x Close combat weapon
8x Hot-shot lascarbine
• 1x Gunfighter
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Hot-shot lascarbine

Tempestus Aquilons (110 points)
• 1x Tempestor Aquilon
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Hot-shot lascarbine
1x Sentry flamer
• 8x Tempestus Aquilon
• 8x Close combat weapon
7x Hot-shot lascarbine
1x Melta carbine
• 1x Gunfighter
• 1x Close combat weapon
2x Hot-shot laspistol

“I’d rather play Combined Regiment.”

Final Thoughts

I think the detachment is really fun, but the unit selection and synergies kind of bring it down. Tanks are some of the best things in the army and you’re told to essentially take none.

The character attachments are super limited as well so getting that Tenpestus Officer keyword can be a pain. One of the greatest pain points is the new Aquilons not having a leader unit, so they miss out on the turn 1 Deep Strike.

Either way, this looks like a lot of fun, and if I ever get dragged into playing Guard, this is what I’d pick up.

Someone has to fight those Termanids.

Anyways, tomorrows the big day I’ve been dreading. All four Daemon detachments are being released and I’m not looking forward to writing about a faction which consistently bad touches me. That being said, I have a lot of Daemon players to call on to help lessen the work.

It’s going to be real exciting, or real disappointing so buckle up.

Be safe everyone. Drink water.