Dealing with Colossals

Trying to put together lists just now for the casters I haven't used and I'm remembering why I haven't used them. Not sure I'm going to be able to stick to my resolution to bring two new casters (especially since I can't fit the Stormwall into Threemos list at 35 points). Might try one new caster and one old favourite I haven't played for a while or two old favourites... I gave Rhyas a crack against Uli, lost that game although Rhyas was not completely without hope. I didn't get to try the dodgy 19-22" assassination bullshit that list can theoretically pull but I'm not convinced it will work if I do get to try it out.

Anyway some thoughts on dealing with colossals since someone seems to be playing one a fair bit lately.

1. Ignore it. The colossal has super high ARM and a bijillion damage boxes, your opponents warcaster has significantly less damage boxes and much crappier ARM. Lets start with the obvious stuff too, as it will kill those pesky mechanics that tend to follow colossals around as well. Ashes to ashes, eruption of spines, chain lightning, electro-leap, the colossal is easy to hit and the mechanics need to be in 5" if they want to repair it. Haley1 needs to be near the colossal for the additional dodgy bullshit she has. Other warcasters will often use it as a screen which is where stuff that lets you shoot through it like it isn't there comes in handy.  Ghost shot, foxhole, shadow fire, phantom seeker (mage hunter strike force = bullshit, just saying), birds eye, Nonokrion Brand and awareness all let you shoot right through it. Backlash and feedback let you attack the colossal and do damage to the caster, you won't kill the colossal but it may be a way to assassinate an unwary caster. Most warjacks simply don't have enough damage boxes to live long enough for this trick to work, colossals do.

2. Minimise it. Again not trying to kill the model just take it out of the game. When 20 points of your opponents army can't do anything you can use that to get a pretty good advantage over them. So how do you do that? Gorman is the obvious choice (black oil) but expect a shield guarding Bokur to dive in front and take the hit (while yelling NOOOOOOOO!) (according to another recent ruling you can still shield guard black oil). There are other ways to do it too. Crippling grasp hurts colossals a lot. Blight Field stops you from allocating them any focus. Pistol Wraiths can hold them in place as can shadow bind. Anything that prevents forcing or allocating focus is going to hit them hard (remember they can't be disrupted), they really need focus/fury to function. Also don't underestimate the power of the jam. Particularly on colossals that need to fight in order to make their points (Mountain King, Woldwrath, Krakken and maybe the Judicator and Conquest), put some cheap infantry in their way and they will really struggle to get to the targets they need to get to. While someone like Terminus should be quite afraid of colossals his army will also have a horde of cheap troops with tough who can ensure a colossal never gets near him.

3. Kill it. The swing at 35 points when you lose an 18-20 point model is huge. Most of the time losing a colossal means losing the game. At 50 points it's not as bad but it still hurts. So how do you kill one? Well first off you need something that I probably should have talked about for the other two catagories too: upkeep removal. Whenever someone takes a Colossal they will almost certainly be looking at spells and abilities their caster has that can make it awesome. A lot of these will be upkeep spells. Arcane Shield is an upkeep spell, Hot Shot (Bart - Mercs) is an upkeep, spiny growth is an animus, Death Ward is an upkeep, Hand of Fate, Superiority, Infernal Machine... You really need to get the defensive upkeeps off a colossal before you try to kill it and if you can force your opponent to recast their offensive upkeeps you cause activation order difficulties and deplete their resources. Purification is ideal for this but there is also epic Eiryss, hex blast, unbinding, blood weavers, Chasten, The Blood Hag and Gravus. Next you should be looking to debuff it, with colossals debuffs are generally preferred to buffs as you will generally need more than one model or unit to kill it, in addition to debuffing spells (parasite and crippling grasp being the two best) Gorman again rates a mention (rust) but also look out for Aiyana and Holt, Ragman and the Black Frost Shard. Failing that force wide buffs also work really well so feats like the Butchers feat, Ossyan (who will shoot your colossal dead). If you can't do that then buffs are the next thing in line, buff up your own models and send them in, obviously strength/melee damage buffs are ideal. What models should you use to kill a colossal? Well if you are Menoth or Ossyan you can just shoot them to death and you should but everyone else you are generally looking to piece trade something worth a lot less than a colossal. Even a troll heavy with rage and the krielstone strength buff will still struggle to bring down an ARM 19 colossal by itself let alone one with ARM buffs. An enraged Bronzeback can (P+S is one lower but it has 2-3 extra attacks) or if you don't want to send in two heavies then you need some shooting. If you can scratch it up put 20 odd damage on it first then go in to trash it you can generally do it with one model. You also need to be looking at delivery, how are you going to get your colossal killer to the colossal it needs to kill. Haley1 brings a lot of denial, no charging, two templates with pow 12 and she can stop you from casting any spells on the colossal. Haley2 and Broadsides Bart have their feat and your opponent is likely to jam or try and alpha strike anything that can take out their colossal so you need to think about that too. Beasts/Jacks are generally preferable as there are more ways to stop infantry than beasts jacks. You are never going to get infantry to the stormwall with the POW 12 templates it can drop every round. You want a caster that can add threat range to your beasts and you want to make sure your list can clear a troop jam.

All factions have the tricks both to kill colossals or to otherwise deal with them. I don't think every caster can kill a colossal but I do think most can deal with them in some way. There are clearly some stand outs, I have seen a Deneghra1 have a unit of sea dogs shoot a conquest dead (Parasite + Feat + Rust = ARM 13 conquest). Absylonia has blight field so your colossal never gets any focus and a damage buff (once she has the Archangel too she will become much more popular edit: Oh, the optimism of my youth). Butcher, Sorsha2, Ossyan and Carver can pump out the damage (and quagmire is a pain for colossals too).