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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:51 pm
Posts: 127
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Here was my take on S-H, given my battle with the Space Wolves:
Let me start off by saying that I really liked the 13-stand Wind Rider formations (Chieftan and 5 Jetbikes, plus 6 Jetbikes upgrade, plus the Farseer on a Jetbike). I did not take the Shining Spears upgrade for these units; my next Epic purchase, however, will remedy that. (More on that later.) These formations could take 5 hits (6 blast markers) and they STILL weren't broken. THAT is tough. Add the Shining Spears adds three more stands.
How I Used the Wind Rider Hosts
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1. Setup so that you have one Wind Rider host within 50 cm of a target and another Wind Rider host within 85 cm of the same target. (Obviously, you aren't going to be doing this on turn one, unless your opponent makes a serious blunder in rushing towards you.)
2. Advance the farther unit up to within 15cm of a target and fire the Vypers. Sure, you need 6's to hit, but you add a blast marker and that will become critical in the next step. The key is to get as many stands within 15 cms of the target as possible. Get up to 5 cm if you have to, in order to cram them all in.
3. Retain the initiative and move the closer unit to engage the target. Note: NO units have to get in base-to-base contact with the enemy; you only have to get within 15 cm. However, to get the extra attacks with the Chieftain or Farseer, or with the lance of the Shining Spears, you have to be in Close Combat.
During the assault, if your units are fresh, you will have roughly 10 4+ firefight rolls, 12+ 5+ firefight rolls, and 5 4+ close combat rolls against the target. On average, that is 11.5 hits or about 5 unsaved hits (if Space Marines). You, on the other hand, are going to be at a 4+ save and he is unlikely to get many hits against you at all. If it is, say, a Tactical SM squad, he is at 6 4+ and 3 5+ (if I recall correctly), so about 4 hits and 2 being kills.
4. At the end of the assault, you both roll 2D6 and take the highest, plus add the modifiers. You will be +5 for kills, +1 because he started with a Blast marker (see step 2 above), +1 for outnumbered, +1 for outnumbered x 2, and if the Chieftain is still alive, +1 for Inspiring Leader. You will be at a base +9! He will be somewhere around +2, unless he got a lot of kills and you failed those saves. For every point you are above him, you kill another stand -- with NO saving throw! In this example, you are now +7, so you can see that you are going to put a serious hurting on him.
5. When Wind Riders consolidate after a victory, they move 35 cm -- not the standard 5 cm -- in any direction. So you move them back into cover. That unit will now be the further unit for the next wave assault.
Note that you don't need to use just two units, you can use any number that you feel you can cram into that 15cm range. Just keep repeating step 2 as often as you can. 
This strategy took out a full Landspeeder formation and a full Terminator formation (neither of which had started with any blast markers) for me, so I was pleased (given my bad start).
It is also possible to use the consolidation move to "roll up the flank". Unit A1 moves and shoots enemy B1. Unit A2 engages enemy unit B1 and destroys it. Unit A2 moves to consolidate within 15 cm of enemy unit B2. Unit A3 engages enemy unit B2 and destroys it, etc. But, admittedly, you really have to have your ducks lined up for that.
Where I Got Whacked
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When skimmers attack, they can choose whether the combat will be firefight or close combat. I made the mistake of choosing close combat with the Terminators, not realizing that: a) they get an extra if they are in close combat, and b) their weapons' hits grant no armor saves. Had I known that, my results against the Terminators would probably not have resulted in my Wind Riders breaking.
My Saim-Hann Strategy
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Early Saim-Hann moves are not to get potshots in with the Vypers, but to move into covered positions from where you can launch assaults. The Jetbikes are the killers, not the Vypers (see Wind Rider Host Composition below for more explanation).
When faced with a relatively low mobility, infantry-heavy force like the Space Marines, it is important to lure them out to a flank and then make a triple move to the opposite flank. They cannot recover from the attack re-direction easily. (Just make sure that the flank you lure them to is the right one -- the one with fewer objectives.)
Wind Rider Host Composition
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Basically, I was going with what I had, but now I have an idea on how I want to flesh things out. As the emphasis is on assault with this army composition, using 1 Chieftain, 1 Farseer, 8 Jetbikes, 3 Vypers, and 3 Shining Spears seems optimal. This is a 16 stand formation that will be hard to break. Of course, the formation is also 500 points.
I think only three Vypers are needed, as you are really only going for the automatic 1 blast (everything else is gravy). The real killing power of this list is not the 5+ 30 cm Scatter Laser of the Vypers, but the 4+ firefight value of the Jetbikes. So maximizing on the Jetbikes, yet still leaving yourself enough of a cushion to continue giving 1 blast for shooting at the enemy with your Vypers, seems the way to go.
If you can go base-to-base with a stand and safely do close combat rather than firefight -- this would be against units that aren't dangerous in close combat (unlike Terminators, which are extremely dangerous in close combat) -- then you should do so with the Chieftain, Farseer, and Shining Spears, as they have far better close combat skills. The one thing to note, however, is that hits are allocated from the front, for assault, so you are definitely placing them in harms way. However, it is not a foregone conclusion that they will die. Hits must be allocated evenly, so they cannot get a second hit until every stands gets a hit allocated. That means if you have two full units (32 stands) engaged or supporting, you cannot get a second hit on the Chieftain until the 33rd hit! 
Summary
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1. The Saim-Hann army should be played as a light cavalry, assault-oriented, HORDE army. You can try and make it into something else (by buying Aspects, Guardians, Falcons, etc.), but the core units are these large formations of killer light cavalry.
2. The sole purpose of firing with these formations is to produce a single blast marker, which grants you +1 in assault resolution. Any other result is just gravy. Trying for a better result in favor of assault is not cost-effective.
3. The Dark Eldar are right when they say: "Speed is my Armor." The best saving throw is the one you don't have to take because you have moved out of range of his shooting. Lure the slow troops to the woods or flank and then zoom well out of their range. If you were able to get them to commit on turn 2 before your unit moved, you may have gained a significant advantage from which they might not recover.
4. Always know how to win the game.  I admit that I had no clue. I knew that I needed objectives, but I did not know it was specific objectives, in combination, along with other factors. I might have won turn 3 had I known how scoring worked. (Admittedly, I STILL don't know how scoring works!)
In my game, the Falcons performed miserably, mostly because they collected a blast marker from being shot at, but could never rally and shake them. (It did not help that they missed an activation and gained a blast marker that way too.) The last two rallies (turn 2 and 3) they rolled 1's and became ineffective shooters. The 2+ initiative makes a difference.
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), so I think that is pretty good.
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