Watch Brothers are in such a weird place for the game. Like the GW army they're inspired by, they feel like they were a Firefight/Skirmish army first and foremost, and just get shoehorned into full size Grimdark Future because they can be. I hope they get more fleshed out and better balanced when OPR finally gets around to them and giving them their own unique models. Because generally when an OPR army gets unique models, it also gets rules revamp to match.
I feel like I had to. This was the first game we did where it just sucked all the fun out of it and we decided to stop it. So back to the drawing board with the list to find out what I could have done different with it.
My favorite thing about OPR is that even under competitive force organization rules, there are no penalties to building an army of two factions. Watch Brothers supporting Blessed Sisters is *good*
Watch Brothers are one of the about 4 armies in OPR I call "Soup Armies". Watch Brothers, Elven Jesters, Human Inquisition, and Titan Lords are all armies that have a really hard time standing on their own. But if you're willing to use them as a small support force to a larger army, whether that be their Prime counterparts, regular Battle Brothers, or a different army entirely like Human Defense Force then they work significantly better. You could even do something fairly interesting by combining them into a Battle Sisters list since Purge and Devout are the same keyword.
I have not played Watch Bros before but with extremely elite army, instead of spreading out too thin, you might need to do refused flank strategy, concentrate and dominate on one side of the field with your entire mobilized army and before loading them back up onto transports again and go to another side of the board and clean up the remaining enemies. This is still risky as provided that 1) you have a jump on the enemy so they can't shoot or assault the brothers inside the transport. 2) enemy is unaware of how many armored transport you're packing and unprepared for 3) the brothers have enough firepower that enemies can't retaliate and just sweep one unit after another. It's all a theory craft but it might work. Although considering would this be fun to play against? Probably not, because if it all goes according to plan, enemies dont get to attack you back at all and if the plan fails, you probably have nothing on the board by turn 2.
One of the fav units of mine is a Bike Captain with Special Ammo, attached to a doubled up bike squad with maximum bolters. So much cover ignoring, rending dakka that hit on 2s. You also have the speed to get into purge range for even more nasty results.
Another 2k point option (no force org) with more punch could be: x3 Watch Battle Brothers (6x Heavy CCW (A1, AP(1)) 4x Heavy Rifle (24", A1, AP(1)) 2x Plasma Rifle (24", A1, AP(4)) Combat Shield) x1 Watch Battle Brothers same as above but without shields. 3x Watch Battle Brothers (3x Heavy CCW (A1, AP(1)) 1x Storm Rifle (24", A3, AP(1)) 2x Plasma Rifle (24", A1, AP(4))) No heroes just squads. The 3 man can out put more damage cheaper than an attack apc, though they are weaker. Since your army is smaller I think you'd want to keep at distance and slowly move in for objectives. I think you'd want to max out to 6 man squads as much as you can.
I think with fewer models you have to keep a horde at distance and whittle them down with long range fire before getting in close.... otherwise you get overwhelmed, like the death by Ewok 😂
I play Watch Brothers because is the list were we have the special weapons like the Frag Cannon and Hvy Machinegun with Flamethrower, and the Captain with the Spear and Spear Rifle, so isnt a redudant list (in my opnion), for me, the "problem" is the War Veteran rule, not on the Purge rule, I know they´re going for a "Elite" Battle Brothers, but they dont have the Tough and numbers enough, squads o 3, even with 2+ in defense are squishy as hell, so the points for the +1 in attacks dont payoff. For me a good Revamp could be removing the War Veteran, as the old list with Watch Brothers and Watch Assault Brothers with 5 models, 150pts for 3 models without Tough is bad, dont matter the amout of damage they deal. All and all, awesome video! Love your BatReps!
Thanks for the video! I'm glad to see you playing the rebels again. I wonder if the watch brothers were just too separated to support each other. I had a trouble telling, but it seemed like each 3 man unit tried taking on 30ish rebels and couldn't support with counter charges, etc. It's hard with a bunch of elite units and no chaff. Did you try to replay the match up later?
it's kind of a bummer that Watch Brothers kinda sucked against a "horde" kind of army, considering that they sorta supposed to be a specialized army that fights against the worst xeno threats (I'm looking at you, Hive). The gunship is fine in a 3000+ army as a tank killer, but at 2000 points you probably just need more boots on the ground. Less Deadly, more Blast and/or A3+ weapons (machine gun kinda things) to handle the numbers they're facing.
This almost feels like that meme Regular battle bro "wow I wasn't expecting to see special forces here" Watch brother (looks around and into the woods) "well if you guys could some teddy bears with sticks we wouldn't have to be here" lmao XD
So here is an option for 2k points: 2x Watch Captain Brother (1x CCW (A1) 1x Master Stalker Rifle (24", A2, AP(1), Sniper) 1x Jetpack) 2x Watch Battle Brothers (6x Shotgun (12", A2, AP(1)) 6x Energy Hammer (A1, Blast(3)) + 2x Watch Attack APC (1x Twin Heavy Flamer (12", A2, AP(1), Blast(3), Reliable) 2x Watch Vanguard (6x Heavy CCWs (A2, AP(1)) 6x Flamer Pistol (6", A1, Blast(3), Reliable) Since all Watch Brothers have War Veteran, if playing with Advanced Rules, they should always Assault to get max use of shooting and close combat with hitting on 3s. I added the Captains to be by themselves with a Sniper to fly around and grab objectives and take out Upgrades or weapons in units. This list at least I think would be good vs the Rebel list but isn't for anti tank. But like I said, I think where Watch Brothers excels is with the Assault rule.
Watch Brothers are in such a weird place for the game. Like the GW army they're inspired by, they feel like they were a Firefight/Skirmish army first and foremost, and just get shoehorned into full size Grimdark Future because they can be.
I hope they get more fleshed out and better balanced when OPR finally gets around to them and giving them their own unique models. Because generally when an OPR army gets unique models, it also gets rules revamp to match.
I like how you went back and redid the list. That was a cool thing you did!!!! You always impress me Buddy!!!!!! Those 1's REALLY HURT!!!!!!!
I feel like I had to. This was the first game we did where it just sucked all the fun out of it and we decided to stop it. So back to the drawing board with the list to find out what I could have done different with it.
My favorite thing about OPR is that even under competitive force organization rules, there are no penalties to building an army of two factions. Watch Brothers supporting Blessed Sisters is *good*
Watch Brothers are one of the about 4 armies in OPR I call "Soup Armies". Watch Brothers, Elven Jesters, Human Inquisition, and Titan Lords are all armies that have a really hard time standing on their own.
But if you're willing to use them as a small support force to a larger army, whether that be their Prime counterparts, regular Battle Brothers, or a different army entirely like Human Defense Force then they work significantly better. You could even do something fairly interesting by combining them into a Battle Sisters list since Purge and Devout are the same keyword.
I have not played Watch Bros before but with extremely elite army, instead of spreading out too thin, you might need to do refused flank strategy, concentrate and dominate on one side of the field with your entire mobilized army and before loading them back up onto transports again and go to another side of the board and clean up the remaining enemies. This is still risky as provided that 1) you have a jump on the enemy so they can't shoot or assault the brothers inside the transport. 2) enemy is unaware of how many armored transport you're packing and unprepared for 3) the brothers have enough firepower that enemies can't retaliate and just sweep one unit after another.
It's all a theory craft but it might work. Although considering would this be fun to play against? Probably not, because if it all goes according to plan, enemies dont get to attack you back at all and if the plan fails, you probably have nothing on the board by turn 2.
One of the fav units of mine is a Bike Captain with Special Ammo, attached to a doubled up bike squad with maximum bolters.
So much cover ignoring, rending dakka that hit on 2s.
You also have the speed to get into purge range for even more nasty results.
Another 2k point option (no force org) with more punch could be:
x3 Watch Battle Brothers (6x Heavy CCW (A1, AP(1)) 4x Heavy Rifle (24", A1, AP(1)) 2x Plasma Rifle (24", A1, AP(4)) Combat Shield)
x1 Watch Battle Brothers same as above but without shields.
3x Watch Battle Brothers (3x Heavy CCW (A1, AP(1)) 1x Storm Rifle (24", A3, AP(1)) 2x Plasma Rifle (24", A1, AP(4)))
No heroes just squads. The 3 man can out put more damage cheaper than an attack apc, though they are weaker. Since your army is smaller I think you'd want to keep at distance and slowly move in for objectives.
I think you'd want to max out to 6 man squads as much as you can.
I think with fewer models you have to keep a horde at distance and whittle them down with long range fire before getting in close.... otherwise you get overwhelmed, like the death by Ewok 😂
we were joking that"They are only ewoks" and "I bet thats what the stormtroopers on Endor thought too."
Rebels showing that Quantity has its own Quality
I play Watch Brothers because is the list were we have the special weapons like the Frag Cannon and Hvy Machinegun with Flamethrower, and the Captain with the Spear and Spear Rifle, so isnt a redudant list (in my opnion), for me, the "problem" is the War Veteran rule, not on the Purge rule, I know they´re going for a "Elite" Battle Brothers, but they dont have the Tough and numbers enough, squads o 3, even with 2+ in defense are squishy as hell, so the points for the +1 in attacks dont payoff. For me a good Revamp could be removing the War Veteran, as the old list with Watch Brothers and Watch Assault Brothers with 5 models, 150pts for 3 models without Tough is bad, dont matter the amout of damage they deal. All and all, awesome video! Love your BatReps!
Thanks for the video! I'm glad to see you playing the rebels again. I wonder if the watch brothers were just too separated to support each other. I had a trouble telling, but it seemed like each 3 man unit tried taking on 30ish rebels and couldn't support with counter charges, etc. It's hard with a bunch of elite units and no chaff. Did you try to replay the match up later?
I did rerack and game it out later to much the same result
it's kind of a bummer that Watch Brothers kinda sucked against a "horde" kind of army, considering that they sorta supposed to be a specialized army that fights against the worst xeno threats (I'm looking at you, Hive). The gunship is fine in a 3000+ army as a tank killer, but at 2000 points you probably just need more boots on the ground. Less Deadly, more Blast and/or A3+ weapons (machine gun kinda things) to handle the numbers they're facing.
This almost feels like that meme
Regular battle bro "wow I wasn't expecting to see special forces here"
Watch brother (looks around and into the woods) "well if you guys could some teddy bears with sticks we wouldn't have to be here" lmao XD
Nice stuff bud I feel like an army of these guys would be just a big kill team ha also a great way to get an army done fast 😜
Attack of the Trash Pandas
So here is an option for 2k points:
2x Watch Captain Brother (1x CCW (A1) 1x Master Stalker Rifle (24", A2, AP(1), Sniper) 1x Jetpack)
2x Watch Battle Brothers (6x Shotgun (12", A2, AP(1)) 6x Energy Hammer (A1, Blast(3))
+
2x Watch Attack APC (1x Twin Heavy Flamer (12", A2, AP(1), Blast(3), Reliable)
2x Watch Vanguard (6x Heavy CCWs (A2, AP(1)) 6x Flamer Pistol (6", A1, Blast(3), Reliable)
Since all Watch Brothers have War Veteran, if playing with Advanced Rules, they should always Assault to get max use of shooting and close combat with hitting on 3s. I added the Captains to be by themselves with a Sniper to fly around and grab objectives and take out Upgrades or weapons in units. This list at least I think would be good vs the Rebel list but isn't for anti tank.
But like I said, I think where Watch Brothers excels is with the Assault rule.
I'm watching brother
Oh boy those little ew-- I mean drop bears are mean little fellas.
That structure in the middle. Is is just one of those carboard packaging things painted grey? It looks pretty good.
Yeah, looks like one of those inserts you get in like TV or Space Heater packaging.