We had a "tournament" this weekend, which was sadly with only 3 players. (This was the first Epic tournament I've run in years, and I hope the lack of players were due to the fact that it was daytime on a friday and during a convention Epic's status as the number 2 game of several players really hurt us - at least 2 people were off playing Warmahordes and 40k)

But anyways, one of the guys that did show was playing AMTL, with a Reaver, a Warlord and five Warhounds. I was playing Necrons, the last guy was playing Eldar (heavy on falcons and guardians, because that's what he's got). The titans crushed us - I had a shot at winning in turn 3, but that was just because I had sacrificed units to get the titans out of position, I hadn't killed a single one.

I'm obviously clueless about how to take on an all-titan list with a non-tailored list, but how can you do it? To me they seem to be very resistant to both shooting and assaults, and they've got a ton of firepower. Being out-activated isn't that big a problem when you remove 2-3 formations per turn just by shooting. Assaults and ganging up were also hard as they moved together in about two groups, ensuring lots of mutual support.

So what's the trick?

Usually you can concentrate on the smaller titans and take out the warhounds which really cripples what AMTL can do. I'm guessing he had two packs and a single? You really shouldn't see titans taking out two or thee formations per turn. Do you have any battle reports and his list that we can look over to see what happened?

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-Vaaish

Knock out the light stuff first to cripple his activations, then concentrate on one target at a time.
Breaking Titans, if you can keep them broken, is often more effective than killing them. They're quite vulnerable to anything that adds a lot of blast markers, light large barrages or disrupt weapons, as that'll cause them to break quickly.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

A good trick against an all-titan army is to keep them moving. Basically if you force them to always double to be able to get a shot at you then their firepower will be greatly reduced. It will also stagger their lines, even if momentarily, which will allow you to gang up. But yeah, if you have never faced something like that before it can get tricky.

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He was using massed plasma, so any infantry I had were toast if they peeked out of the portals. Maybe it's because 'crons are so firefight heavy? The warbarque went down to the Reaver on the first activation with crappy saving throws, but that happens. (9 shots, 5 hits with double/cover, failed 3 out of 5 saves). My necron army lacks ranged firepower apart from the 2 pylons, that was partially the problem - but against other armies I don't think I need much, scary infantry formations can be shot to pieces by destroyers and armoured formations are usually vulnerable to assaults from the warriors. Titans, not so much.

I tried a CC assault with one warrior formation to bypass the void shields, but that didn't work very well either. Worse attacks, those who couldn't reach CC wasted their attacks on the void shields, and the reaver in support ensured I lost the assault. Probably a bad idea, but losing 4 hits to void shields seemed an even surer way to lose.

I didn't see the Eldar game, but he reported that the warhounds had no problem attacking and breaking the falcons even though he did his best to hide them, and the guardians in wave serpents were crippled by fire from the reaver and warlord.

The list was Warlord with Plasma Destructor, Plasma Cannon and (I think) 2 Plasma Blastguns, Reaver with 3 Plasma Cannons, and five standard config Warhounds, 2 packs of 2 and a single. Carapace Multilasers, Leaders for all and a Supreme Commander on the warlord.

An army with 5 activations?

Just kill a few Warhounds and he should be almost totally unable to direct the flow of the battle. Any "all comers" list should be able to knacker a couple of Warhounds.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

I guess I need more shooting in my Necron army. Obelisks perhaps. Maybe a warrior formation assaulting the warhound packs with support from another warrior phalanx and maybe the monoliths.

Although I have to say that a Warlord parked on the objectives can direct the flow of the battle just fine by itself!

What's worrying me is the complete domination it had. Killing most of our armies without losses. I didn't think I was that bad at this game...I'm hoping to hold another tournament after summer (hopefully with NetEA lists if the website is up then), given that most of the players there would be facing AMTL for the first time (and not be that experienced with Epic in general) I'm worried about an encore performance, and what effect that would have on my community-building efforts.

What did your Pylons do? Nothing?

Also, remember that Reavers don't have Thick Rear Armour.

That means they're incredibly vulnerable to armies that can Teleport to catch them in Crossfire, like Necrons.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

One of my Pylons stripped two void shields (warhound with one shield - one damage, shield regens. Next turn, one damage, shield regens..) The other was kept back and nearly managed to capture 2 objectives in turn 3, but a warhound pack wiped out my screening flayed ones with sustained fire so the singleton could contest one of them.

I'm thinking that I made two mistakes, one was to hold back too much of my army on turn one (maybe deploy the destroyers and have one warrior phalanx garrison the tomb complex and then move offboard at least). The other was too little AT fire.

The problem with setting up the crossfire would be that my formations would have been in the open for both the Reaver and the Warlord if I want crossfire on the Reaver, and that is a dead formation for each of them (9/11 2+MW shot each). And how dangerous are the necrons in a crossfire, really? Even a full heavy destroyer formation would do 2 points of damage to the reaver, with crossfire, all shields down, and the reaver not blowing them to smithereens first.

Have you tried popping Destroyers out of a Monolith to hit things with their (massive, IIRC) AT firepower?

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Well, that's still 4 BMs in total so some extra effort from another fm and you're there in terms of breaking the thing.

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Aye, and a Reaver that's lost 2DC is a prime target for a Pylon...

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Well, against specifically ATML, the Nightbringer would have been a huge help. Teleport him in right next to a 2 Warhoud FM. If you get the initiative you should be able to severly hurt them. If not, your opponent will have to do something about it first. Advancing one of your phalanx's from a Monolith, shooting at a Warhound, then retaining and engaging with another Phalanx on the same Warhound. You could also attempt to set up two phalanx's to support an assault by your Flayed Ones.

Not sure what your formations look like but that should give you enough to take one down or at least put a serious hurting on it. Sounds like you got poor TK rolls on your Pylons as well. You could hold them back and risk the teleport in to get optimum LOS on the Warhounds as well.

Basically, it comes down to concentrating your efforts to take out the Warhounds and reduce his activations either through destruction or breaking his FM's.

A full heavy destroyer fm has 6 AT3+ attacks, which is 20/9 hits with crossfire, on sustained and no shields. The no shields part would require, say, an obelisk phalanx on sustain fire (which could also provide crossfire). This seems doable with Necrons if I teleport them into position, roll no BMs and then win initiative. More likely I lose initiative, get some blast markers and both formations break before I get a go, unless this is turn 2 and I have sacrificed enough troops to make both titans blow their plasma shots last turn (in which case I can get the warhounds to come killl my forces). The risk vs reward seems out of whack to me.

I can probably beat them with some practice and maybe some more shooting, but I'm still worried that it will crush everyone the first time they play it...