Bloodtoofs Realmgate Shenganigans

[PlasticCraic]

I’ve written this post on the assumption that people will be using the actual rules on the Baleful Realmgate warscroll.  I expect this to be the case because it’s part of your army (as a warscroll battalion you have paid points for it), like a Balewind Vortex or Wyldwood.

 

 I originally saw the Realmgate in this battalion as an annoying extra thing to buy, and there mainly for lore reasons.  If anything, placing the Realmgate deep in enemy territory potentially gives your opponent a free shot at movement shenanigans, so it was even a drawback to the battalion.

 

 Why should we pay for a potential buff to the opposing army?  Well, maybe there is a way to work this to our advantage.

The first key factor is that it must be placed “Within” enemy territory, not “Wholly Within”.  FAQ (page 2) is explicit that you can be “within” by a toenail (so for example the MBMK’s pie plate base can be “within” 3” of an objective to capture it).

 

The Baleful Realmgate is a little over 5” long diagonally, so you can be a hair’s breadth “Within” enemy territory, and 5.01” within your own.

 

You need to be less than 6” away from the Realmgate at the start of your Movement Phase to teleport through it.  This means its range stretches 11.01” into your territory.  With your hero phase moves, this is a very achievable target on 5 of the 6 new Matched Play battleplans.

 

The first two require you to be 9” away from enemy, so you can actually set up multiple units within teleport range, and be guaranteed to have the choice of moving one of them.

 

Duality of Death has smaller deployment zones, putting it (almost) out of reach.  You could theoretically reach it if you pop a couple of Mighty Destroyers on the same unit, and roll high on the Ironfist move (keeping a tail back to within 6” your heroes while moving the front-most models closer to the Realmgate each time).  This one you won’t get much mileage from, and is probably best ignored.

 

The other 3 battleplans require a 12” distance from your enemy’s deployment zone.  So even a 1” Ironfist move gets you within 6”, and again you are guaranteed the teleport move on one unit if you want it.

 

In terms of good Hero Phase book keeping, you will want to make sure you put any buffs on them (Warchanter, Mystic Shield) before you move them out of range.  Similarly, if you want to call a Mighty Waagh (now viable with the +2 to Bravery), do so before moving them, while they are within range.  You can buff them up, safe in the knowledge that you cannot fail to get in suitable range.

 

Another point to bear in mind is that you will probably want to use your Mighty Destroyers rolls to get a Weirdnob Shaman up in range of the Realmgate, to help with safe passage.

 

The obvious play is to deep strike a big unit of Brutes (maybe even a Maw Krusha if you get the WNS up there in range!), and cause havoc.  Taking down a TLA before it gets its command ability or mystic shield off?  Don’t mind if I do!

 

There are however a couple of other advantages, since this is a set up and not a move (FAQ page 2):

 

-          You do not have to keep 3” away from the enemy.  You can go right into base to base if you wish

-          There might still be an advantage to taking the charge: with +2” you cannot fail, but might get better board position, and trigger Destructive Bulk

-          This does NOT count as a retreat move, even if you started within 3” of enemy models.  So you can zip across the board, and still shoot and charge

-          It’s also another way to get into Wyldwoods without charging

-          You could hit an objective early on Scorched Earth

 

Overall, I like this because it makes Ironjawz much less predictable – currently we always come forward in a wave, whereas being able to deep strike gives opponent much more to think about defensively.

 

What does everyone think about this?  To me it looks like a pretty big bonus to the Bloodtoofs battalion.

[Sangfroid]

Really interesting post, a couple of things to remember with the realmgate you have to have ALL models in the unit within 6" of the realmgate so small units or a Mawkrusha is more likely to get turn one. 

You cannot go closer than 3" of the enemy on the teleport because it says "counts as their movement for the movement phase" therefore the overriding 3" rule will apply

you also have to roll 2 scenery dice (or equivalent) at the start of each battle round a double result makes the gate unusable for that round so you could get unlucky if planning your strategy around the teleport. 

Mighty waagh (or waagh) is rolled for at the start of the combat phase for units in range not hero phase so while declared then potentially the units are then out of range 

also realmgate only allows you 1 teleport per player turn. 

However it's a great idea and even if you only place one gate on the table could prove to be really useful, (personally I'd probably talk to my opponent and agree before game  if the second gate is normal scenery or a realmgate but the formation one is used as a realmgate)  it will prove useful in all the scenarios well spotted!

[Peter]

Thanks Sangfroid, I'm glad you found it interesting - and thanks for tidying up a couple of factual errors there.

 

I've only played Ironjawz a couple of times (as you can probably tell!), and I hadn't realised they had to be near him in the combat phase for the Mighty Waaagh - that's worse than I thought as an ability, it makes it very difficult to plan your movement etc when you don't know whether you've rolled low enough yet (unless you can guarantee that you'll have 6+ in range).

[Peter]

You are also right about it not being open for business on a double- although at least you know this before you lay the buffs down. 

[Peter]

Having get all of the unit within 6" is important, I'll have a measure up later to see exactly what roll you need to get 10 Brutes in, with and without a 6" booster from Mighty Destroyers

[Peter]

I guess another use of it is in Starstrike - you can afford to set up pretty lop sided, with most of your army on the same side as the Realmgate, knowing you have the quick route across the board if it lands unfavorably. 

[Sangfroid]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

I guess another use of it is in Starstrike - you can afford to set up pretty lop sided, with most of your army on the same side as the Realmgate, knowing you have the quick route across the board if it lands unfavorably. 

Excellent idea for this scenario! 

Its also useful for a turn 2 or later use if your opponent is not expecting it your unit of brutes or whatever seems out of the game and then boom it's bashing time ;-)

[Peter]

Closely followed by smashing time 

I love how that ability has no maximum range. 

[PlasticCraic]

On 9/4/2017 at 5:16 PM, Sangfroid said:

You cannot go closer than 3" of the enemy on the teleport because it says "counts as their movement for the movement phase" therefore the overriding 3" rule will apply

I know this reply was a while ago, so sorry for the delayed response, but there are a few similar rules I've been reading recently where this would come up, so I wanted to clarify.

If I recall correctly, this was at the heart of a big debate a few months back, as regards a Stormcast batallion...essentially if it is a set up, and also "counts as your movement for the movement phase" (so it's both), what takes precedence?

From your reply it sounds like the outcome was that the "counts as their movement" part overrides the set up part, so you cannot move within 3".

Do we have a rules or FAQ reference that we can tie this back to please?  Not because I disagree with you, but purely because I can see this coming up quite often with opponents playing various factions, so it would be good to be able to refer people to something concrete.  

[Sangfroid]

No worries @PlasticCraic always best to have the correct FAQ r day if you need to discuss it with an opponent:-) 

basically this applies to anything that says “as it it were the movement phase” or “counts as their move for the movement phase”. Sadly the wording on the “Vanguard wing” stormcast battalion says “instead of moving....” RAI it’s the same thing but some players have interpreted that as it’s not a movement so follows the “set up rules” which is you can set up inside of 3” so be wary of the sce player popping into b2b contact and if you have left gaps in your lines thru your units as long as the liberators can maintain 1” coherency. GW has not come out to stop this so maybe it’s is RAI but would seem strange considering clan Skyre have this as a special abilty but have to take d6 mortal wounds to do so, but time will tell if we see a FAQ update (legs, fingers eyes crossed) 

 

[svnvaldez]

I hope GW is aware of Vanguard Wing... I played it last week with 3 stacked lanterns and IP on the teleporting Libs