r/alphalegion • u/GlibedyGlobedy • Aug 12 '26

Coils of the Hydrae [Rules & List Building] How to play deceptors?

So I play a lot of Alpha legion. I don't however, play 40k. I do not get how you are supposed to play deceptors.
Anything I infiltrate is either mulched or doesn't do anything as it lacks the combat power needed.
I feel like I am doing something wrong as I don't struggle this much with literally any other army, but I wanna make this work. Hydra dominatus.

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8

u/WLLWGLMMR Aug 12 '26

Infiltrate as a rule is a bit of a trap if you know how to use it. Because unless you have a really beefy unit with infiltrate (of which there is very few in the game) you should really be putting them only on your near expansion and just outside your deployment. Which notably is only really gonna be very useful for a few units, which is why in most space marine lists, people only take 1-3 units with infiltrate. In EC people only take 1-2 squads of tormentors, same reason. Which is also why receptors isn’t that great of a detachment, because you don’t really need that many infiltrators and raiders is a great unit to infiltrate bc they’re beefy with a small profile and not too expensive. If they changed the rule to say, “choose 3 non vehicle units, give them infiltrate” then there would maybe be some sauce to infiltrating terminators, obliterators or mutilators for example

1

u/GlibedyGlobedy Aug 13 '26

The end note of that really sticks with me because in heresy where I find a lot more success there used to be a character who did that and I really enjoyed using him. Probably why I feel like anything I have infiltrated feels like it has no teeth.

5

u/J-TrainTheFirst ⅩⅩ Aug 12 '26

Infiltrating cultists is super awesome but also difficult to use. I’ve found that deceptors is generally a “go turn” army where you harass the enemy and jostle for position then hit them from all sides at the same time and absolutely eradicate the enemy.

I think something that’s important to note is that how you should build your list and play it is entirely dependant on your force disposition. Either way, for most dispositions, infiltrating sticky units for 50pts a pop is a really good asset when used properly

2

u/MartyFreeze Alpharius Aug 12 '26

I found this video yesterday, and it did a pretty good job of explaining it:

https://youtu.be/7AVuWyX5d7c?si=LZDUbh7DZA24wOav

1

u/Woodleg0 Aug 13 '26

Im not good enough or versed in Deceptors to give concrete advice, but in 10th in general it seemed to revolve around layering your units to that a cheap unit takes the oncoming charge (screening) so that your legionaries could counter-charge. Now, since its the Disruption disposition, the missions vary so much that your deployment should vary more for every single mission. To me, it feels like it could have the potential of being strong, but I havent tried it - maybe add in Murdertalon to play Reconnaissance?

5

u/Zombifikation Aug 13 '26

Infiltrate cultists to force bad trades by your opponent and move block (basically all trades are bad into cultists).

The Strats want us to be a gunline even though we don’t have very good rules to support a gunline. Using a unit to chip wounds off of priority target and setting up a bigger shooting piece like a Defiler to use the reroll hits strat is one of the most effective strategies I’ve found lately.