DaR wrote:
Tastyfish wrote:
No one else in favour of a First Strike EWO Ion-equipped Riptide - contrasted against the AA Heavy Burst Cannon Riptide then?
Has to be one of the most game changing units after the Helldrake in the current 40K meta IMO.
I think part of my problem is that I don't really associate First Strike with 40k's Interceptor rule. I associate it with excessively high Initiative and/or surprising modes of attack/maneuver (ie, things that cause unexpected attacks on the opponent, like Warp Spider's suddenly jumping from in front to behind you). It's also an Assault only rule, which means it doesn't trigger if a unit comes near but does not actually engage an assault. A terminator unit can teleport on, use their shooting attacks and then supporting fire into an assault against the Riptides and First Strike would never be relevant at all, while EWO/Interceptor very much would be in that case.
If I were to try and model what EWO/Interceptor does in 40k in the Epic rules, I'd probably try letting an unactivated Riptide formation make an initiative test to become "on Overwatch" out of order, in response to an opponent's activation within some radius of them. In practice, I suspect that would be horribly hard to balance, as it pretty massively violates a lot of the core Epic principles around formation activations.
I see it as more as there being two different sorts of fighting - if the terminators are teleporting a little distance away and shooting, then that's what overwatch is for. At that range it's more controlled firing, backed up with the various 'off camera' support elements - recon data from orbital ships and satellites alongside more conventional methods like spotters and getting a good vantage point based off your maps, so that you can make the most of your firing opportunity.
However in a fire fight, everything's happening too quickly to rely on outside assistance and the units are acting independantly. This is what the Early Warning Override is for, keeping the Riptide's support AI's abreast of what's happening elsewhere so that it never gets surprised. By the time you get into close proximity, it's has been waiting for you and is just as ready to fire as if you were a few km away.
Plus if the terminators are teleporting and then lending supporting fire in an assault (by another unit), the Riptide will be using it's EWO and the terminators may end up with some blast markers on them anyway.
