7th Ed. Supporting those stupid, fear causing Cold Ones

[The_Curly_One]

Hey all.

Had an other noob question. I've been looking at a flanking unit of COR for a 1850 list. My question is what units are good to use as support for the COR? I have seen too many 2+ saves failed when an unsupported unit takes a butt load of fire. I also don't want them to fail a stupidity test when I need them for an important flank charge. If anyone has any good tactics/support for the COR please fill me in.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Erazoender]

More Cold Ones?

I've found skinks good at weathering down the enemy, but they never continue their job... they shoot a volly, shoot a volly at short range, and then they die.

Terradon? Steagadon?

I'm just throwing suggestions. But a Stegadon DOES cause terror....

 

[The_Curly_One]

My original idea was to deploy Terridons in front of the COR, and have the Terridons drop rocks on the support unit on the flank to make it easier for the COR to break that unit and give them control of the flank. I wanted to hear of people's tactics that have worked. But those ideas have crossed my mind, and skinks do die rather horrible death when the enemy gets too close.

 

[asrodrig]

With the Cold Blooded rule, you'll probably find that Stupidity is less of a problem than you think it is.

 

[The_Curly_One]

Yea, I understand that cold blooded helps a lot with stupidity, but it doesn't get rid on it. Stupidity wasn't a major concern for me anyway. My major concern is getting the buggers shot to death. Can anyone offer any advise about that?

 

[Barotok]

With some math I found posted by sammy on another forum, you can expect you COC to fail a stupidity test only about 28% of the time (unless my math is way off). That's a lot more than I like to rely on when I'm gazing at a tantalizing enemy flank only to find that I'm going to be wandering 3" forward and stopping to smell the flowers.

As far as Curly's question, I've struggled with the answer to that for a while. The only thing in the army that can keep up with COC are Terradons, and they make for an expensive shooting screen. Using terrain to screen is situational and you can't rely on it. Skinks can be used, but you don't maximize your speed. When dealing with heavy shooting, the tactic I've had the most success is (which is uncertain at best) is to run them up the board full speed and hope that they get into combat before their numbers drop below the acceptable level.

 

[strewart]

Cold ones are waaay too expensive to need support of their own, especially if they are support. Really if you are facing heavy enough shooting down the flank to decimate your cold one unit then it is probably a good thing, because far less shooting will be coming at the bulk of your army. As a fairly fast unit you can also afford to hold them back a bit and hide them until your fast things have gone forward and held up or destroyed warmachines that are buzzing around.

Beyond that... You can increase the size of the unit. I run 8 dragon princes in my HE army with 2 at the back, the full unit rarely reaches combat but they almost always reach combat with 5-6 models still left to hit very hard. Remember you only need 3 cold ones to have US 6 and negate ranks, plus do a couple of wounds, and if a flanking force doing that doesn't break through you are stuffed anyway...

If you really do want something to back up the cold ones, I would probably just take a unit of 10 ranked skinks and run them behind the COs. If the COs get destroyed or brought down to 2 models (good for chasing the offending warmachines) you still have a flanking unit, even if it isn't anywhere near as hard.

 

[The_Curly_One]

Thanks for the advice guys.

About the Terridons: I wasn't going to use them as a screen per-say. They would have simply dropped their rocks on the opponent's flank unit as they went war machine hunting. At most they would have screened the COR for a turn of shooting, mostly because for some reason gun-lines seem to fear flying cav.

The advice you guys gave was great (as usual), but I think I'm just going to have to sit down and play test a few combos with the CORs. I know I've read it somewhere on this forum, but Theoryhammer only gets you so far.

 

[Dumbledore]

With some math I found posted by sammy on another forum, you can expect you COC to fail a stupidity test only about 28% of the time (unless my math is way off).

I'm pretty sure that is way off. I did the math (I do a maths degree) and if i remember correctly it's a 23/216 chance of failing (ie ~10%). They should be reliable but do add a luck dependent aspect to your army nonetheless.

 

[Corbechev]

With the Cold Blooded rule, you'll probably find that Stupidity is less of a problem than you think it is.

Yeah in a tournament of 3 games, I find I fail it at least once, so 1 in 18 turns, which really isn't that bad.