Freeman deserves a medal for all his efforts writing this extensive guides or a crux exterminatus, maybe

After reading the Deathwing comments, I wonder how many of the broken skills are so due to badly worded cards. I mean, if you remember the terrain card "Hull Breach" from Marine Pack 1, it clearly says "slay 1 GS at this location" but later it was clarified it should have read "slay 1 GS at this terrain"…

Also, with the Adrenal GS, it says "if you roll a 0 when defending, the formations shifts…" but it should have been "if you roll a 0 when defending and the engaged SP dies, the formation shifts" or maybe "every time this GS rolls a 0, inmediately attacks again its engaged SP (if the a marine was slain, shift the formation before the extra attack)"

So probably the combo between the chaplain and the angel watch action (infinite reroll) is another not-sufficiently-tested "bug"

Anyway, excellent guide again, looking forward to reading the one about SP pack 1!!

Not to mention what happens if you get to draw both Chaplains: check out Sttuborn Devotion + Amor of Comptent.

Thank you but his was no guide at all, just some thoughts. And thanks again for the clarification on the Hull breach: where did you get it from? I've seen no official FAQ for the PoD expansions…

PS: I am preparing a post for the geek that shows in detail a typical game of mine, including SP1, Mission pack 1 and Tyranid deck (2 p. with a friend that plays better than me), if it's approved I'll let you know, maybe some of you are interested…

Freeman said:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/642068/official-answers-re-hull-breach-and-adrenal-genest

A FAQ for the expansion would be great indeed… I had very few questions about the basic set, and I needed almost no clarifications with the rules (just some practice), but with the expansions, I feel like if they were rushed into production with no extensive playtesting because there are a lot of obscure points…

Lets debate!

Is it better to keep support tokens for defense or offense?

Lets say you face 1 GS with a normal marine, you fail the attack roll (and you are not Calistarius) and only one token is available on the marine. Rerolling the attack gives you 50% chance of success, but rerolling the defense gives you a 84% chance of surviving.

BUT

If you keep the token for defense, that means one more GS will be alive next turn, potentially merging into a bigger swarm and/or flanking your marine buddies etc.

So as a rule of thumb… should every tokenized marine try to go for the kill, for the future wellbeing of the whole formation? Or it is always better to keep as many marines alive as possible?

I know there are lots of factors involved (for instance, if the endangered marine is the last remaining man of his team, or if you are facing an autokill 5 GS swarm…), but as a general rule…

Tokes for offense or defense?

PS I use them for defense every time unless facing a adrenal GS, broodlord or any other nasty creature

From the guide I am currently writing:

There is a lot of discussion going on on the internet about wheter support tokens should be spent defensively or offensively (on a side note, I fear this debate is pointless, since the decission cannot be taken on abstract terms: you need to specify which marine are we talking about, and in which specific situation, as discussed previously in our guide. For instance: is this marine the last one attacking? Wich marines may additionally fire at this swarm? Do these marines have support tokens? How many marines are you playing with? In which location are you playing? How many marines are left alive?, etc. There are so many factors to have in account that you cannot say "always yes" nor "always no", in abstract terms) […].

Freeman said:

You are absolutely right and all your points are very valid. Lets specify a little then:

-Last marine attacking this turn is brother Omnio. Location 1 (void lock), he facing the red terrain card. All other marines are still alive. He has 1 support token on him and is fighting 1 GS. He fails the attack roll. Does he spend the token to try to get the kill, or keep it for defense?

-You enter in the location 3 clean (no pursuing GS) and with all marines alive. Then you draw my favourite card (They are everywhere) Now almost every marine is engaged. Lets say each marine has a support token. You are probably going to use the use the most powerful attacks to eliminate the GS engaged with the most important marines (zael, calistarius, lorenzo…) The "vanilla guys" face 1 GS each. Lets say they have 1 support token each (unlikely, but just for the example). When planning your offense, do we plan to use most of those tokens for offense or defense?

aurax said:

Now we're talking

Example number 1: it is very important to know if this is a 12 marines game or a 6 marines game, for instance. In a 6 marine game, losing one marine is a very heavy loss (and even more in the Void Lock!), even for a vanilla one, because you can't get a lot of support tokens for Calistarius or the Zael (you have to distribute a little more between all the marines), and every shot counts. Due to the "Death Spiral effect", you are seriously hampering your victory chances is you lose one marine on the Void Lock. Let's imagine that this example is a 12 marines game.

Points in favor of and against speding the token to reroll the attack: the red terrain card will spawn almost for sure new genestealers in front of Omnio. If he is not next to a marine with heavy firepower that can attack the next round, you don't want to add one more genestealer to the next spawn (although it could be even worse). If, on the other side, he is next to, say Calistarius or Lorenzo, I wouldn't spend the token attacking again. Are there more genestealers nearby? If you have firepower next to you, but it will be required at some other spot, don't count on them. Being at the Void Lock is a fact that suggest playing conservatively (specially if it's the first or second round), but on the other hand, having 12 marines, it's not the worst tragedy in the world if you lose one of the vanillas like Omnio. Personally, I wouldn't reroll the attack, due to being in the Void Lock and in front of the red terrain. But if we were at the Chapel of the Fury of Baal, Omnio didn't have in front of him any terrain, and there were other genestealers around, I would reroll the attack for sure.

Example number 2: it's impossible to answer, because you can't plan which tokens are going to be used and which not in advance, you can just plan which orders and more or less the average cost of the orders in tokens. In other words, if Leon landed his three shots and saved some of the vanillas, of course they are going to use the token to reroll their attacks. Others won't have this choice because probably you can't attack with every team you got, so supporting and place additional tokens on them would be a wise decision. In other words, you'll have to take the decision one after another, beginning with Deino and finishing with Goriel. If the first ones begin to miss, I would reroll and use the latters to save them in case they could hit on their first shot. In other words, you are never confronted with the choice of firing again or keeping the token for every vanilla at the same time. Seeing what the first ones do conditions your next choices (and let's not forget that there are also the Star marines, some of them may save several vanillas). You can't end your turn with the formation full of genestealers, especially in front or next to terrain cards, so if the first attacks miss you'll have to take some risks. If, on the other hand, the first attacks hit, you may save your next support tokens and play defensively, leaving a couple of genestealers alive.

But, to give an answer, if I had the choice of shooting again or keeping the token at location number 3, with every marine alive, depending on where are the rest of the marines, I would reroll the attack for Deino (if Lorenzo hadn't hit or he is to shoot later, I could get the support back), Valencio, Omnio (unless Zael is in danger), Scipio (unless Calistarius is in danger and Noctis (worth rerolling because of his good %, above average), and keep the counter for Goriel (you need him alive above all, he can bring here another marine later or he can use it later on Defensive Stance). Except I wouldn't shoot the genestealers I'm facing with the vanilla marines if I had other choices (but that's another story)

[Edit: message posted twice. Any moderator… How do I delete this post? Thanks]

I need to read the strategy guide again. I played a game last night using the dream team of flamer, Librarian, and Cyclonic missle launcher. I thought this would be great because the missle launcher is like the yellow team's furious charge, only with range and no chance of dying. However, I still find the game tough to beat if you play a straight game (as in no cheating or phantom support tickets, or acts of the Emperor). I am sure that there is a rhythm that you can follow which is really efficient, but it still eludes me.

If you want to take a detailed look of how I use to play, check this out: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/811312/death-angel-an-example

Or if you prefer, open a new thread or mail me and explain in detail how did you play, I will give you some more tips. Maybe you just had bad luck, it happens sometimes (I remeber one game a long time ago in which I didn't score one single hit with my vanilla marines nor Calistarius . I managed to the 4th location only to lose there in a very close game).

peterstepon said:

Also, no defensive team at all… Why don't you try again adding Lorenzo?

I agree with Freeman, for Solo Play the dream team combination would be probably flamer (Zael) + psychic (Calistarius) + sword (Lorenzo)

The Cyclone Launcher is great but more unreliable than other attacks because it cannot be rerolled. Sooner or later you will roll a 0 and then you will be facing a complicated defense roll. Anyway, the brown team is still one of the strongest of them all, and the “double token” support action in a 6 marine game is awesome.

Calistarius and Zael can cover each other´s back, and because of their great offense power, you can guarantee that almost any major spawn will be wipped off. Because you will have a small formation, the flamer will be able to reach almost all spawns if combined with the move action from other team.

If there are GS surviving, use the Strategize to move the swarms at your convenience and put them in front of Lorenzo with his counterattack. This allows you to kill GS both in offense and defense.

For desperate situations you have the power field from Calistarius + blue team Intimidation (the “blocked” GS can still be intimidated) Also, if you attack with the blue team and one of the teammembers has a Token, you can almost be sure you will get the token back, so use it to kill xenos.

Maybe there is some small details in the rules that you overlooked? I remember in my first games I used to move the GS individually based on their movement symbols, till I realize I should move the whole swarms, and that every GS card can only be moved once per turn. This allowed me to select my kills accordingly to the expected (o desired) swarms potential movements.

Good luck! And don't forget to pray to the Emperor every time you roll the die, maybe that will do the trick!

mmmh about Target Lock rerolls

http://www.buzzbox.com/news/2012-03-06/ffg:space/?clusterId=9199490

I'll take Brady Sadler's word concerning the Target Lock. It makes the Orange team a bit less powerful but they are still great.