Following on from Aaron’s article last week on Big Waaagh stacks, this week, his gaze shifts to the Man-skewers of the Kruleboyz.
Kruleboyz, and more specifically Man-Skewer Bolt-Boyz, have had a critical weakness since launch.
Man-Skewers feature two shooting profiles on their warscroll, Aimed shot and Hasty shot. Aimed shot has a range of 24″, but unfortunately cannot be used if the unit has moved. What’s a Bolt-Boy to do if the opponent simply hangs out 24.1″ away? Cry? No, a true Swampboss is never bothered by nonsense like “playing fair” and “good and honest fighting”. Instead we are going to abuse poorly worded terrain rules in a proper Mork-y way.
Defensible terrain, also known as Garrisons, allows you to enter instead of a move action if you’re wholly within 6″ of the terrain. What’s important about this is that it does not count as moving. That means you still get to shoot a full 24″. Additionally, your range can be drawn from any point of the terrain piece, so all 9 of those big yellers bolt Boyz can draw from a 1mm point on the corner of a building. If the building is 6″ long, counting the hop in, you have extended your range by 10-12″ farther than your opponent expected.
Even better, hopping out doesn’t count as a move action either. When you leave a garrison, you only have to be within 6″, not wholly, meaning your range is further extended by 7″. Opponents hoping to hang outside your range can find themselves under heavy fire they didn’t expect and too far away to punish it.
This technique is excellent for sniping away supporting characters. The aimed shot is not exactly high damage, but it’s accurate and consistent, making it the perfect tool to pop 5-6 wound wizards and buff pieces. It’s also a great way to have your Bolt Boyz manoeuvre to contest objectives without giving up entire turns of shooting.
Finally, there is another big advantage to holding up in a den of destro sneakyness. Unleash hell can be drawn from any point setting up disgustingly powerful anti charge fire, and your Boyz are -1 to hit and +1 save while in that garrison. On top of that, you can exit a garrison even if tagged in combat and still shoot as it was neither a retreat nor a move. This really makes aggression into your juicy bits a lot less rewarding and much more heavily punished than it otherwise would be.
So get out there and pretend it’s 2006, flip some houses and rain green death on your enemies.
This is definitely a gotcha moment, unfortunately. Unless your opponent is very clear on those rules, or you explain the possibility beforehand, you’re going to spend some time going through the rule books after you do this and it’s likely to leave a bad taste. I’m obviously not saying don’t do it but definitely have that conversation pre-game.
Yeah it can be. But its also core rules. It’s just like when you use a bridge or teleport a unit. It doesn’t count as moving.
Defensible terrain has a ton of bizarre and non-intuitive interactions and this article more than anything is serving to make the community at large more aware of it.
I agree but as you say it is definitely not commonly understood, if it was then you wouldn’t have written the article. I’m just saying – have the pre-game conversation about it or if may be a bad experience for one or both of the players.