# Best way to beat mech?



## morfangdakka (Dec 31, 2006)

I was in pretty major denial about the prevalence of mechanized lists. I had read on here about how so many people take mech, and how they dominate the game.

I went to a tournament this weekend and noticed an astounding number of fully mechanized armies, to the extent that I got very frustrated/annoyed. 

Anyway, I got to wondering as to what is the best strategy for each race to deal with the all-too-common mechanized lists. What are your opinions? 

Hopefully this will help many people with different armies deal with the mechanical monsters.


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## AAAAAAAAARRRGGHH (Apr 17, 2009)

Mech up yourself. Simple as that. Why would mech else be so popular if it couldn't be countered by more mech?

In the case you play Chaos Daemons (like me) or nids just bring plenty of antitank stuff. My mono Tzeentch list contains no unit that can't, in some way, open up transports. Just remember, against mech volume of fire beats heavy duty guns almost any day of the week. After all, what does it matter if you are certain you can trash that one tank you aim at if you'll let the rest of them run rampart? Not much really. 
Besides, mech is usually not very tough tanks and all you really need to do is stun them to make them much less useful. 
Like for orks, Lootas are beastly against mech. Plenty of shots, range and strength (7 is good enough for most transports if the volume is good) and they aren't really very expensive.


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## Cyklown (Feb 8, 2010)

As the person who beat me by just under two hours said, Lootas are the real trick. Lootas and playing the same game. 5th ed made transports amazing/neigh on important.

Take a horde of mid-strength weapons. Lootas do the trick nicely, since they basically are dudes with autocannons. Put them in Battlewagons for best results, with their range you'll be able to sit back and pound things into oblivion. If that doesn't work, camping them out in cover is the next best option.

Other options are Kans with rockit launchas and copters.

Just be aware that you'll need to be able to handle a flood of them, and with orks dealing with higher AV vehicles mean that ramming, and power klaws are, sadly a necessity.


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## Kirby (May 16, 2010)

First off, non-mech armies work. There are very viable armies without tanks (i.e. Tyranids, Bikers, Jumpers, Blood Rodeo, TWC, etc.) and there are very viable armies with a mixed-bag of units (i.e. Fast'N'Slow, Hybrid Tau, Thunderbubble, Infantry Blob IG, etc.). Just so that's out of the way...

Most foot lists are generally fast in some regard and can field many more models than a mech list which are combat oriented, so they are balanced up against each other (mech grabs the defense of mech + speed whilst armies like Bikers/Jumpers/TWC have the speed, mech dumping ability of melta and combat ability). What about more static foot lists though? Most of these suck but Loganwing and Tyranids who are all capable of firing somewhat on the move are very good armies (it helps they also have good defenses and are decent in combat). What they need to do is negate mech advantages which is done through suppression fire. 

Suppression fire minimises the advantages of mech by stopping them from shooting or moving. Tyranids/Loganwing/etc will never stop shooting until you kill the unit but suffer from mobility issues which suppression fire can fix. Whilst Loganwing is built around mass S8 and can bust a lot of tanks early, Tyranids are generally built around stopping tanks from moving and shooting until their MCs get into combat and wreck face. This concept should be applied to all of your lists unless it's running melta heavy (i.e. Jumpers) but still can deal with hordes.

There is no "deal with mech" tactic as the mobility options two mobile (read: doesn't have to be mechanised) armies provide are nearly limitless but if your army is capable of slowing or stopping mech with enough anti-tank or suppression fire, you have a lot more options available to you.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

Non Mech units work well. Look at Necs, Nids, Daemons have no Mech to Mech up. MCs and fast anti-mech units work very well against Mech armies. Kirby made some very good points.


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## Squeeking up on people (Jul 24, 2010)

Melta weapons work really well too, especially on bikes or in drop pods, other then then that it depends on the army,as an eldar player I rely on shuri cannons, pulse lasers and fire dragons


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## Uilleam (Nov 23, 2009)

I think every army has some way to deal with Mech. And lets be honest, armies that can't Mech up usually outnumber the ones that do by over 3 to 1for infantry. That means once those shiny pinatas are shattered landscape decorations all the treats that fall out will be readily eaten by the voracious horde waiting around (Like 20+ hormaguants...). :crazy:


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## Kirby (May 16, 2010)

Uilleam said:


> I think every army has some way to deal with Mech. And lets be honest, armies that can't Mech up usually outnumber the ones that do by over 3 to 1for infantry. That means once those shiny pinatas are shattered landscape decorations all the treats that fall out will be readily eaten by the voracious horde waiting around (Like 20+ hormaguants...). :crazy:


Yet most foot lists generally suffer horribly in comparison to mech. There are good foot lists (like Tyranids) but they have to make sure they cover the appropriate bases for 5th edition. I.e. anti-tank, suppression fire, mobility (particularly moving and shooting), etc.


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Basically, instead of gearing up your list so that it can handle Space Marines like in 4th edition, you want to write a list with a ton of anti-tank weapons. I've found that that's the secret to dealing with heavy mech armies - have a brutal amount of anti-tank firepower and suddenly it doesn't seem so bad.


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## Blue Liger (Apr 25, 2008)

Playing DE the thing I find most funniest about mech in 5th ed is that people said it's more prevalent now - yes in armies such as SM where it should have been ages ago though DE have had MECH lists really from day 1 of their codex with it being the most viable and easy option. As has been said the best way to bring it down is lots of mid S guns as most vehicles will be Transoprts.

On the topic of how DE deal with it pretty easy, all our transports come with Anti-mech guns as standard then our heavy support is mainly dedicated to dealing with Mech as is our FA and about 2/3 of our troop builds!


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## hippypancake (Jul 14, 2010)

Broodlords are a giant fuck you to most tanks you either A destroy it or B stun it until the carnifex comes up for the ultimate GTFO


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## Belthazor Aurellius (Jan 16, 2009)

From playing Black Templars, I can tell you, not every space marine force needs to be mechanized. I could take maybe one tank and a drop pod, and the rest of my army could slog it out, and I'd still have a good chance of winning (BT move towards the enemy when they're getting shot up).

I don't play BT anymore. Nor do I play DE anymore, or SoB (though I've played each enough to have learned a few tricks about them).

That said, I play Imperial Fist (vanilla, with almonds), and while I like to field a rhino, a razorback, a predator, a vindicator and a land raider in my bigger battles, I don't have to.

I've fought mech once with an all-infantry army of goldenrods. The key is to take meltaguns and missile launchers, then combat squad every squad (tactical, assault, devastator or veteran). And I sometimes take an Inquisitor just so I can have a continuous orbital bombardment for area-denial. :biggrin:

The point is, you utilize the weapons at your disposal. Most armies have some form of long-range anti-armor (missiles, dark lances, rail guns, etc) and can provide decent cover fire for their troops as they move towards objectives (tau carbines, sniper rifles, splinter/shuriken cannons). Some races don't have as much in long range anti-tank (Tyranids) but can tie down most armor until the big nasties arrive (carnifex, tyrant, etc).

My current list for non-mechanized space marines (the theory being, my force drop-podded in before the battle, and the strike cruiser was either destroyed or drawn off into battle before the thunderhawks could bring down the transports) includes an assault squad with 2 plasma pistols and a meltabomb/fist sergeant, a vanguard vet squad with two thunderhammers, two meltabombs and a relic blade (str6 still gets most transports) and two devastator squads, each 10 strong, each with 2 LC and 2 ML. I combat squad the assault squad and each of the dev squads, which gives me almost the entire battlefield covered by heavy weapons (4x4 table with deployment zones).

The only thing I've ever had to worry about with that list is the Imperial Guard's howitzers. Earthshakers make me want to take Land Raiders and Terminators.

Anywho. Hope this helped you get a feel for an army list idea that can counter mechanized.


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## unixknight (Jul 26, 2010)

I play Black Templars and I LOVE fighting mech armies. LOVE IT.

You just have to play to their weaknesses, and mech units do have them.

First, most mech units are designed around big guns. Lascannons, Missile Launchers, etc. These are big high strength weapons designed to blow up other tanks. Against a lot of infantry, it's like trying to kill a swarm of ants with a hammer. Yeah, every ant you hit is dead, but you won't hit them all before they're coming up your leg.

As a BT player, my favorite units are assault marines with meltabombs, Terminators with Tank Hunters, bike squads with all meltas and a multimelta (Oh yes you can when you're a Black Templar) and Crusader Squads with a heavy weapon. Any one of those is easily enough dealt with, put them together and the hunters become the hunted.

And there's nothing more beautiful than the look of horror on your opponent's face when your drop pods come in behind and amongst their beloved tanks and start spewing Dreadnoughts armed with multimeltas or Command Squads with meltas, powerfists, krak grenades, etc.

Admittedly some of these advantages are limited to the Black Templars since we're still using older rules for things like drop pods but it's just a matter of finding what works. If your opponent is dumping lots of points into tanks then you can easily leverage your lower point units to bring them down and after that, whatever they have left is just mop-up. 

If you really want to be sadistic and are playing certain Imperial forces, you can borrow units from other books like Witch Hunters. You haven't seen beauty until you've watched a unit of Sisters Repentia go to work on an enemy Land Raider. The Eviscerator was MADE for opening up tanks to get to the chewy center.


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## Belthazor Aurellius (Jan 16, 2009)

Unixknight. You make me reconsider switching from Black Templars to Imperial Fists... You make Black Templars look juicy and fun again.

Though, I'm still sticking with the Fists, just so I can play vanilla with almonds for a while...


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

There is 2 uses of a transport vehicle.

Cover - Transports provide mobile cover, this means that a unit must destroy the transport before the models inside can be hit. 

Mobility - Units in transports usually have somewhere in mind that they want to be or finish the game at. Trying to spot 'what unit will go where' is pretty important. Assault units will probably want to be in combat, and more than likely, as soon as possible. If you know a unit will try and reach you and engage, lure them into traps like dangerous terrain or spring them with meltaguns.

Powerfists and Meltaguns are the new bread and butter of troop layouts. General rule of thumb is that if a squad can have either, you take it. Fists are good against all but the hardest armour and melta can shoot through anything bar a monolith with ease.
If your army doesn't have access to those, then it probably has access to another form of melta weapon or has an equivilent. Or, in the case of orks, access to massive amounts of powerklaws.

Best anti armour gun? Easily goes to the Railgun. 

Monsterous creatures are fantastic ways of dealing with mech. However, the majority of MCs will be slow. So if you can put wings on it, then do it!


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## Widowmaker666 (Jul 30, 2008)

Orochi said:


> Best anti armour gun? Easily goes to the Railgun.


I would say it's definitely the Medusa with bastion-breaker shells. Strength 10 AP1 with 2D6 armour pen, where is your god?

But on topic, as a guard player who actually uses infantry platoons more often than mechvets i find that the autocannon will stop pretty much any transport dead. The Vendetta is basically designed to kill things like Landraiders. Of course there is always the incredibly over-used melta-mech-vet squads that seem to be standard in every imperial guard force (or atleast for the new players) 

For marines I've found the auto-las predator (autocannon with lascannon sponsons) is an amazing transport killer. Sternguard squads in drop pods all with combi-meltas open up armour like butter, combat squad them as soon as they come out of the pod and each combat squad will claim pretty much any tank (except for monoliths... fuckin monoliths)


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## Culler (Dec 27, 2007)

I find a combination of lootas and filling the board with bodies such that there is no place to retreat to works very well against mech armies. If they want to spend the whole game running their land raider 12" a turn there's not a lot Orks can do to counter that, but it works on just about everything else.


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## Stephen_Newman (Jul 14, 2009)

I think the best weapon to use in any situation is missile launchers. 

Most transports (land raiders and battlewagons excluded) tend to have an armour value of 12 or less. Strength 8 gives you a respectable chance of wounding armour. I presume you play orks since they are your favourite army. All boyz units can take rokkits and tankbustas are loaded with them. The BS is not great but in amassed amounts (Or twin linked if buggies/wartraks are used). Best of all is that missile launchers have the blast template option which can harm infantry.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

Widowmaker666 said:


> I would say it's definitely the Medusa with bastion-breaker shells. Strength 10 AP1 with 2D6 armour pen, where is your god?


It's a guess weapon.

You can make a Railgun hit at target Twinlinked and at BS5.

Theres my god


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