Ulix answer to alpha strikes

[Aegnor]

Hello piglovers.

Ulix is currently my only gremlin master and i love him. I mostly play summon + pigapult list but i also love the burt+gracie pair.

The main problem i have is that most of the people in my local meta are playing a lot of alphastrike lists. Most of them are outcast with a vik/tara player, a von schill/tara/jack daw player and a tara/lynch one. So i very often (almost everygame in fact) some variations of bury-alpha-strike with bloodwrecth, death marshal, scion of the void, emissary + any beater (vik of blood, bishop, killjoy and so on).

If i'm not very careful about my deployment and my first turn i can (and i often did) lose a lot of model/a key model (old major for example)/the pigapult (hello bishop and vik's mark of 'i don't care you die anyway') very early.

 

I would like to know if you have any tips or tactics to answer alpahstrike lists in general and outcasts one especially. I think big brain can be good to deny some triggers (whirlwind or bishop triggers) and help pig wp weakness but maybe you know of other interesting models.

I look forward to see your answers.

 

[Adran]

Ulix Pigs can project quite  long threat range, especially if you have hog whisperers. I've managed to get a war pig into the enemy deployment zone on turn 1 without any of the possible special tricks (like reactivate, or shot in the rear) that can make the threat even longer. 

Models like the Pigapult also have a very good chance of obliterating a Viks list with it not being able to do anything in retaliation. Go reckless, sacrifice a stuffed pig, throw it 24" from the pig right next to the Viks, and then shot it twice. you have a decent chance to hit a model that was outside of your threat range, and even if you don't then you ahve a chance to get lots of blast damage out there. 

Can I suggest you learn to deploy carefully and plan first turn moves if you see that your opponent has a a list that has that sort of threat. 

 

[the tick]

How much terrain do you usually have? As the previous poster said, take a hard look at your deployment in these matchups and, if possible, deploy fully behind cover.

It also occurs to me that this might be a place the Wild Boars might be a decent pick? You can deploy then forward, again in cover, spread out enough to prevent the Viks from killing all of them at once and still provide a screen to tie up the alpha strike hitters. Not sure if that's a true statement though?

[Ludvig]

Deploy between a couple of big LoS blockers but with free way ahead so they can't flank you easily but must come through a corridor. Gum up the entire place in front of you with piglets or something and voila: they can't charge anything meaningful because they are engaging your chaff. It mostly requires knowing their charge ranges, ml attack ranges and  how their bury tricks work so take a minute to check their cards if you don't know them by heart. Killjoy is very manageable if you have screened your important stuff with sacrifical models and since he(?) is on a 50mm base it's easy to block access to charge lanes. The pigapult is also a lot of fun against Viks. I've seen games lost turn 1.

[anumberone]

 I concur with most of the above and I'm also thinking Killjoy might be a good answer to potential alpha strikes even though Ulix is usually very tight on points. Sacrifice a charging piglet become a Killjoy in the middle of the enemy crew or in the face of opposing alpha striker. Needs some testing though and, like I said, Ulix needs pricey big pigs including Old Major to function.

[Ikiwith]

50 minutes ago, anumberone said:

 I concur with most of the above and I'm also thinking Killjoy might be a good answer to potential alpha strikes even though Ulix is usually very tight on points. Sacrifice a charging piglet become a Killjoy in the middle of the enemy crew or in the face of opposing alpha striker. Needs some testing though and, like I said, Ulix needs pricey big pigs including Old Major to function.

I think that Ulix can go with the sow as Alpha strike, charge 11 double positive flips if you charge from old Major and 3/5/6 is not a bad deal. I only have played against killjoy bomb once time (against Marcus) but I think that os not the best way with Ulix.

[anumberone]

7 hours ago, Ikiwith said:

I think that Ulix can go with the sow as Alpha strike, charge 11 double positive flips if you charge from old Major and 3/5/6 is not a bad deal. I only have played against killjoy bomb once time (against Marcus) but I think that os not the best way with Ulix.

 I agree the Sow is potentially very good as an alpha strike model, particularly with a hog whisperer giving him reactivate and Old Major potentially pushing him further up the board. I was thinking about situations that could make your opponent's alpha strike falter or divert.

A model like a Yasunori could come in and kill key models and dart around to see another fight outside of a Sow's range. Yas kills something in the way like a engaging piglet, Killjoy pops out, maybe Yas hits him a couple times, splashes black blood on himself and then Killjoy smacks the crap out of him. 

 Corner case, sure, but sometimes I think it could be easier than trying to set up a charge.