What can you do to combat the hell pit abomination? Especially in lets say a 1000pt battle. Even in a higher point game. They are really tough if you ask me.
I feel your pain my main regular opponent takes one. Obviously in 1000pts there isn't much you can do but take salamanders which although unlikely to wound will come in handy with the rest of his army and has a chance of blowing off his unkillable rule. Also I reccomend giving Skink chief ruby ring with bound spell fireball as although not great once again knocks off his unkillable. Poisoned attacks work well, so much so that my opponent is just as likely to 13th my skinks skirmishers as my saurus, and once you've caused one flaming wound on it your fine. Do not ever charge saurus/cold ones into the hellpit. It will crush them and blow a hole in your battle line bigger than a comet of casandora. Flaming attacks are your best friend. Slann in 2k and higher are very usefull. Temple guard can just about square off against in as long as you get rid of unkillable first. A.steg with impact spear will cripple the damn thing but it is a 1 shot and pray wepon. If it goes down always prepare for it to either come back or release a million swarms. I guarentee the one time you are unprepared it will come back to life with all six wounds. And remember whatever your parents taught you, fire is your best friend.
at least we're not alone, most armies struggle with them. the banner for flaming attacks is cheap and useful. still suffer from going after the HPA though :/ obviously, anything you can do to take it down at range, either magic or shooting, is ideal. don't try and out-manover it, as it will always turn and get you. last time i fought one i took a couple of wounds off with a bolt thrower and then charged it with some saurus; lost quite a few saurus but at least i killed the thing! probably worth mentioning, if it's getting close, might as well charge it so it looses its impact hits. if you go for life, flesh to stone on a unit of saurus against it would be quite funny, as the HPA would need 6s to wound if you get the good version off a few ideas there for you, but like i said at the start, most armies struggle here.... good luck!
I played a game against skaven with a HPA I just assaulted with my steggie and my skink cheif had stegadon warspear (2d6 impact hits) so i thrashed it the combat lasted two turns with it Also, you should soften up the abomination with great bow, EOG or GB, allowing it to come closer, just to be assaulted by the steg with impact hits, stomp and normal attacks hope i helped
fortunately I didn't have to face it yet, as our skaven player is only starting to build his forces. I wonder if the hex spells from lore of Shadow would help to make it manageable by saurus in CC. or decrease it's I first with the hex and then put pit of shades on it? did someone try any of this yet? (of course assuming you have the big frog, which means you are at 1,5K at least...)
Pit of shades should work great on the hell pitt, when i took on DE once they wiped an entire saurus reg out is pit of shades the spell requiring the victim to roll an initiative check? HPA shouldnt have high initiative so sounds like a plan
IIRC Hellpit has I4, so Pit of Shades isnt that effective against it. Just use skinks, lot's of them.
that's why I said decrease it's I with the hex first (there are 2 in Shadows, 1 is signature spell, the other is #3 i think). then it should be fine.
One way i was thinking is taking a battle standard bearer with the Banner of Eternal Flame (The Flaming Banner) on a Cold One (For speed purposes) Give him the Helm of Command and sword of Sigil (I10 Sword) Light armour and Shield, Join a unit of 10 Chameleons (If thats allowed) that have deployed in your lines (As you dont want to get to close to them with there charges from the Doom Wheel and hellpit being so random moreover you not being allowed to respond) And just make it so you need 6's to hit (Moving, Long Range and Multiple Shots) which would cause auto wound with no regen save....... Oh thats making sure the storm banner is not in play I know its against the grain for some having the Chams deploy in you own lines but at least you get to square off agianst the hell pit. Also i take my BSB on a cold one so he can get to where the fighting is quickest. Any more suggestions as my regular opponent takes one also a doom wheel
you have to deploy chameleons after you deployed the rest of your army. that means you have to deploy them without the character, who then needs to join them. on top of it, i don't think a mounted char may join a unit of skirmishers on foot.
Yeah but he can still join them once its your first turn so the joining is not invalid? Well take him on foot then
the point is after you join them, the unit can not move anymore in that phase (OK, you can move the unit and then join it). Anyway, the unit's move will be limited to 4, after he joins. not a good idea IMO. rather use a skink chief and give him the ring which shoots fireballs, plus the staff of lost sun. what would be the helm of command and the gold sigil sword good for anyway?
Ok so basically you say you cant move them then you cay you can move them if you move the Chams first so your contradicting yourself there as the key phrase is 'can', they can move and regardless of distance they would be able to move and with placing the unit etc while the hell pit approaches will give you plenty of time to line the action up. Secondly the sword gives you I 10 so that means your going to strike first making it a guaranteed attack where as the fireball ring you mentioned you have to roll for which gives your opponent a chance to stop. On a side note Chams are I4 so they would strike at same time (After impact hits of course). Instead of 'trying' to find faults why not take the said suggestive tactic and think about the possabilitits of using it. I know the devastation that a hell pit can cause so im talking from experience and you have to keep trying out different stuff to deal or weaken it once it gets into charge range. Open your mind ..... try something against the grain
Man he isn't bashing your idea. Stop nerd raging. He is throwing his opinion out their and making valid points. How about you open your mind to some criticism with out taking offense to it. And he is right the fact is that chamos have to be in 12" to shoot at the thing and the HBA has a 360 degree charge arc. All he has to do is pivot towards you roll 3D6 and your in combat. Any HBA is gonna gun for that BSB with extra VPs. To top it all off your BSB isn't even legal. He can either have a magic standard or magic items not either or. So people picking at others ideas is not a bad thing. We are all wrong sometimes.
Found something that works today. Recently my Skink priest has been taking either the rod of storm or ruby ring with a flying cloak. Used a fireball to take off 1 wound a sallie took another and then i Pinned it down in combat long enough to comet of casandora it at str8 and it died. Remember that once you have took 1 flaming wound open the gates of hell and unleash all of your high str attack whatever the source and it dies just like anything else as long as you treat it as a threat. At worst it will grind you down but that means you forgot flaming attacks or high str attacks. It is a pain but treat it in the same way as a steam tank or dragon and frankly if it keeps bothering you add more fire and bring a chief with steg war spear and ancient steg. It will die.
Oh, you want to take the chams and the character to CC with the hellpit? well, i am really not that open minded, you are right. good luck then and let us know how it worked concerning the join and move, the full explanation is: you place the hero, then the chams, in the move phase, you have to move the chams first, but only so, that the hero with his move, (which is shorter) will be able to join them after his move.
I had my Skink Priest with the Ruby Ring of Ruin used on it the first turn and took off a wound. The rest were done by massed Blow pipes from my skinks (3 x 10 units...I was taking no chances). Poison is POWERFUL! But try to get that flaming wound on it by either magical means or perhaps a salamander before you kill it to make sure it stays down otherwise you've got a less than 50% chance it'll stay down.
36 skinks double tapping and hitting on 6's kill the HPA, statstically, in 1 round of shooting. thats the key, now.. you can try to get 36 skinks in range in one turn or work with less and keep shooting at it. i have 20 skirmishers in all my lists, and usually 5-6 chameleons. you want to keep them near the HPA and dance arround it, if you are lucky he turns and charges them wich means you lose a unit of skinks and he loses 1-2 turns with his HPA depending on the distance it is from the main battle line. i wouldn't suggest any other way. lore of fire is great against it, but no so good agaisnt hte rest of the skaven, and if you lose life, you buff the units in combat with felsh to stone anyway, so thats not exactly a tactic against it, its the usual tactic, and i should work. both flesh to stone and shield of thorns. if you do go for fire, cast flaming sword on skinks and ignore its regen, and istead of 72 shots you'll only needd 36, thats arround 18 skinks.