Best gunline we could field

[Archibald]

Hey guys,

i would love to play a gunline army so i'd like to know hoe such an armylist would look like.

Tempest eye? Kharadron Overlords? Irondrakes? Freeguild? Sisters of the Watch?

Personally i would love to see an Ironclad in such a list, but i am not shure if it would fit into a list.

So please unlook the secrets of gunlining for me.😄

[NinthMusketeer]

When it comes to CoS gunline you have a lot of ways of slicing things based on your individual preferences, however those options can dwindle quite quickly if you need to face off against stronger armies. Can you give us any idea as to your local meta; what armies you are likely to play against and (if possible) what sort of builds they run?

[Archibald]

3 hours ago, NinthMusketeer said:

When it comes to CoS gunline you have a lot of ways of slicing things based on your individual preferences, however those options can dwindle quite quickly if you need to face off against stronger armies. Can you give us any idea as to your local meta; what armies you are likely to play against and (if possible) what sort of builds they run?

Of course i can.

So mainly we play in a 1500p CTL league an my local Warhammer store. And we play on 2x2 boards.

My friend plays either Ironjaws (Mawcrusher, Goregrunter, Ironsunz, Ironfist batallion) or Fyreslayers with Gotrek.

Then there are Sylvaneth, OBR wirh catapults, Starcast, Fyreslayers with lots of Heartguard Berserkers, more OBR, Blades of Khorne with nearly just Bloodthirsters, legion of Sacrament, Daugthers of Khaine with Witchaelves spam. So you can see that close combat is king here and i have big doubts that a gunline could hold up to that. Because of that i have started a KO army to move and shoot myself to victory. Because of COVID-19 i can't test them out and i still would love to field a gunline.🥰

Edited June 10, 2020 by Archibald

[readercolin]

Realistically, this is going to depend upon what you mean by a gunline army.

Are you looking for an army that does its primary damage from ranged weapons?  Are you looking for an army that is 100% guns?

If you are looking for primary ranged damage, you can look to do the standard tempest eye (hawk eyed)/hallowheart list, which has at its core a Hurricanum, 20 irondrakes, 2 runelords, and 10 longbeards.  This is 870 points, and gives you irondrakes that can hit on a 2+, re-rolling 1's with a command point, wound on a 2+, re-rolling 1's because of the longbeards, potentially have -3 rend, and deal ~40 damage before saves.  Normally I would recommend a soulscream bridge, but you might not need that at smaller point levels - but it is still something to consider.  You also have another 630 points to invest on additional screening and objective capturing.  The idea with this force is to basically sit the irondrakes near the center of the field and proceed to shoot off huge chunks of your opponents army each turn.  Taking a look at a 1500 point ironjaws list, it looks like a force like that is going to be running at ~100ish wounds with a 4+ save.  If you can screen your drakes for a 2 turns, you should be able to shoot most of his army off the field.  Note, fyreslayers are going to be similar.

The advantage of this force is that you can output a lot of damage, and it is all concentrated, so it takes buffs a little better.  While arguments can be made to run Sisters of the watch, the biggest benefit of irondrakes is the ability to give them -3 rend, which will consistently go through even ossiarch bonereapers armor.  Additionally, with good screening it will be hard to get in melee with the irondrakes, and they have a 3+ save vs shooting, so they are pretty resilient in the shooting war.

If you are looking for a pure gunline army though, you are going to want to look at either Handgunners of Sisters of the Watch.  Both of these have an ability that you are interested in - stand and shoot.  This means that they will get a shot off even if they get charged.  Without buffs, 20 sisters will outshoot 30 handgunners (320 points vs 300) by a fairly significant margin.  However, once you start buffing, the handgunners get to be a bit better, and they also lose less when it comes time for them to stand and shoot.  Here, if you want a pure gunline, I would go with the handgunners, and I would look to run them as MSU in Hammerhall.

In Hammerhall, you can run 12 units of handgunners, 2 generals, and a wizard (or 13 units of handgunners and 2 generals).  These can all be buffed (3 at a time - 4 CP's needed to buff everything) by the generals to have a 2+/2+ profile, and you have 12 chances to get an extra CP on a 6 from the banners, as well as another 50% chance from the Adjutant.  This also gets you 12 long rifles with a 30" range, which is enough to snipe important support characters off the board (note, long rifles don't suffer from "look out sir").  But running them as MSU, you also get the ability to position them in screening layers, forcing your opponents to spend all their attacks on a single screen before they can get to the next unit.  An individual unit that has been buffed by a general will deal an average of 7.6 damage before saves, or ~5 damage to a 4+ save while at range, and then another 6.1 damage before saves, or ~4 damage to a 4+ save when they stand and shoot. 

Is a pure gunline army good?  Ehhh... probably not.  But this is the best that I can come up with to give you a chance against all the melee heavy armies out there.

[NinthMusketeer]

"2x2 Boards" means... 2v2 team games? 2x2 meters? Sorry to respond with another question but this could be quite relevant to the response.

Preliminary response though; with that lineup against you any CoS army will be fighting an uphill battle. That is a strong meta and not one that favors a more average battletome. However CoS does have its own cheese to bring to the table and is not entirely helpless.

[Archibald]

2 hours ago, NinthMusketeer said:

"2x2 Boards" means... 2v2 team games? 2x2 meters? Sorry to respond with another question but this could be quite relevant to the response.

Preliminary response though; with that lineup against you any CoS army will be fighting an uphill battle. That is a strong meta and not one that favors a more average battletome. However CoS does have its own cheese to bring to the table and is not entirely helpless.

It means 2 GW-standardboards. Which makes it a 48x48 inch table.

[NinthMusketeer]

Alright, after a good deal of thinking this is what I have come up with:

Greywater Fastness - This city has a number of benefits that help gun lines, especially handgunners which is a unit well suited for dealing with your meta.

Freeguild General (General: Drillmaster Trait) - He stands in the midst of the handgunners and gives out his awesome command ability plus a very useful aura buff from his command trait. 

Runelord (Adjutant) - Stands near the general to generate extra CP, a great unbinder, and hands out buffs.

Hurricanum w/Battlemage - Insanely good support aura, excellent MW output, and a wizard with nice warscroll spells.

Cogsmith - Required for the battalion and useful for buffing the war machines within it. Be sure to equip him with the grudge-raker and a free hand as that is the best loadout.

Freeguild Handgunners x20

Freeguild Handgunners x30 - Why not crossbows? Based on your local meta, you need the rend. Additionally, stand and shoot is a powerful ability essentially giving the unit an extra shooting phase should the enemy charge you, which they will. One unit is 20-man so it can be the honored retinue for the general and to save board space for fitting the units into buff auras.

Longbeards x30 (Shields) or Ironbreakers x30 - These guys line up right in front of the handgunners, close enough so that if the enemy charges them they will come within 3" of the handgunners and thus trigger stand & shoot. Beyond that they take it to the face with their 3+ save and protect the gun line behind them. Longbeards cost less points and have a handy ability to unbind endless spells during your hero phase, Ironbreakers have an extra attack.

2x or 3x Helstorm Rocket Battery - Your handgunners have mid-range shooting so you need something that can go long to make this gunline work, and with 33" range these can be deployed behind other units yet still be well within range turn one. Firing at a single target and being in range of the hurricanum & cogmaster/general means they will be hitting on 3s, re-roll 1s. One of them can even hit on 2s thanks to the Rune of Unfaltering Aim buff.

Greywater Artillery Company - This includes the cogsmith and rocket batteries. Reduces deployment drops, nets an extra CP, and an extra artifact, but mainly it plays well into the overall army strategy...

 

This army wants to play cautiously and defensively early on. Your opponent will probably pull ahead in victory points the first two rounds, but the idea is to shoot him up so badly that you can regain ground in the second half. The battalion and handgunners (via stand & shoot) help you frontload the bulk of your shooting to earlier in the game--important against melee armies since they will overwhelm you if you cannot damage them badly in the early-game. The above leaves a decent chunk of points left over for you to play around with. I would recommend some fast support elements to seize objectives and/or endless spells that aid in movement or debuffs (McRib Bridge and Yin-Yang Orbs come to mind).