Bolt Throwers - single vs multi

[nyaos]

Playing a morathi campaign and occasionally using the pretty meh bolt thrower. For a while I've used this unit and not really had much success with either single or multi shot. What are your opinions on this unit and which shot type do you prefer against different units?

Obviously single would be best against monsters, but what about armored infantry? Cavalry?

[Chaoslink]

Only use one and only to pull the enemy to you. Its weak and should only be used when you absolutely need artillery of some form.

[Darbie]

It's weak against walls; i've had great success with them against massed infantry.

When I run a High Elf campaign, my army is typically 4 Bolt Thrower, 12 LSG/S, 2 Dragons, Lord, hero. And the Bolt Throwers get plenty of kills with multi shot against massed infantry.

[QuasiMOB]

single for walls and large monsters. multi for everything else.

[Wyvern]

Single shot is better in every situation except middish range vs infantry, or any range if you have your opponents infantry super blobbed.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Bolt Throwers are very good in scatter mode at annoying enemies with shields you don't want to shoot with your Darkshards.

A very good target for Bolt Throwers in scatter mode would be Lothern Sea Guards: they're not really that killy so you don't want to prioritize shooting them with Darkshards, when firing they stay in a nice easy-to-hit box, and they're shielded so shooting them with Darkshards is more of a waste.

Bad targets include almost anything that likes to move or anything you'd be better off shooting with Darkshards.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by QuasiMOB:

single for walls and large monsters. multi for everything else.

I second this.

Towers arent that sturdy and the multi-shot can take out a lot of infantry

[Toad]

They are excellent for sniping enemy arty such as warp cannon. They seem to destroy the models much more efficiently than other types of arty on single shot.

[Mountain King]

Originally posted by Toadvine:

They are excellent for sniping enemy arty such as warp cannon. They seem to destroy the models much more efficiently than other types of arty on single shot.

I think this is generally their best use. While they appear to be very effective on scattershot, with high accuracy resulting in good-looking hits on enemy units, they actually do quite poor damage. If you watch the enemy unit, you'll notice that most of the troops that got hit and knocked down just get right back up and back into formatiom. Aside from sniping arty, I would agree with Chaoslink that you should usually just have 1 to force the enemy to come to you. They aren't worth taking over most other units.

[alation13]

I go multi for normal battles and single for siege, unless I want to knock the enemy off their walls, then go multi and use your infantry/spearmen to climb the walls. 4 bolt thrower units on multi backed up by ranged units really disrupts the enemies before they reach your front line.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by Samael:

Originally posted by Toadvine:

They are excellent for sniping enemy arty such as warp cannon. They seem to destroy the models much more efficiently than other types of arty on single shot.

I think this is generally their best use. While they appear to be very effective on scattershot, with high accuracy resulting in good-looking hits on enemy units, they actually do quite poor damage. If you watch the enemy unit, you'll notice that most of the troops that got hit and knocked down just get right back up and back into formatiom. Aside from sniping arty, I would agree with Chaoslink that you should usually just have 1 to force the enemy to come to you. They aren't worth taking over most other units.

Their killing power is low but they do deal a lot of damage.

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Originally posted by Samael:

I think this is generally their best use. While they appear to be very effective on scattershot, with high accuracy resulting in good-looking hits on enemy units, they actually do quite poor damage. If you watch the enemy unit, you'll notice that most of the troops that got hit and knocked down just get right back up and back into formatiom. Aside from sniping arty, I would agree with Chaoslink that you should usually just have 1 to force the enemy to come to you. They aren't worth taking over most other units.

Their killing power is low but they do deal a lot of damage.

This. You'll notice a unit with half health but still be at like 85/90 units. What this means is the first volley or charge from a normal unit will cause so many kills it's quite funny.

It's also a way to negate the high elf mastery since it causes so much damage.

[nyaos]

Interesting takes. They're definitely more niche than regular artillery from other factions, you have to really micro what they are attacking and how for them to be effective.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Samael:

I think this is generally their best use. While they appear to be very effective on scattershot, with high accuracy resulting in good-looking hits on enemy units, they actually do quite poor damage. If you watch the enemy unit, you'll notice that most of the troops that got hit and knocked down just get right back up and back into formatiom. Aside from sniping arty, I would agree with Chaoslink that you should usually just have 1 to force the enemy to come to you. They aren't worth taking over most other units.

You do have to consider more than just killing power for effectiveness to be fair. They won't rack up the kills well and if that's what you're successfully doing, you're using these artillery poorly. Their multishot is there to spread damage over the entire unit so that they begin losing fights in melee early on.

However, other units can perform a similar role with less niche. Those units aren't hindered by low mobility and can perform other roles as well. Knocking out enemy artillery is often done better by flying units, even harpies (assuming DE get them, I think they do).

Either way, the bolt thrower itself should only be used to initiate an enemy charge or as a low tier alternative to units that perform the roles better. Both the DE and HE get this unit, and both have better alternatives then using it.

[Inardesco]

I really dont see flying units, especially single entity flying units reliable to take out artillery because of units glueing to each other and thus a single unit can defend the artillery unit whilst it walks away and your dragon/eagle is stuck in a melee blob.

You dont have that issue when you use bolt throwers to snipe their artillery.

[SamtheCossack]

Originally posted by Wyvern:

Single shot is better in every situation except middish range vs infantry, or any range if you have your opponents infantry super blobbed.

I very much disagree, in fact the opposite is true. Single rounds have a bonus vs. large, which is nice against large monsters, but mostly wasted against cavalry because the round would kill any model it hits anyway. Single shot is good for large monsters, walls, and artillery. Scattershot for everything else, including cavalry. Now cavalry isn't a good target in general, but after the infantry lines are engaged, it can be useful to target missile cavalry or something it if is hanging around.

Bolt Throwers are suprisingly good, despite looking pretty meh. They don't specialize as well as most other artillery, but what that means in practice is that the are consistently useful in almost every battle, while other artillery often winds up useless on some maps. The scattershot has a bonus vs. Infantry, and while it doesn't do a huge amount of killing (low damage per hit) it does a huge amount of damage spread across a lot of models, causing that unit to melt when anything else hits it. I find their sniping capabilities vs. large monsters to be pretty bad, anti-artillery is good though, if you can get it in range anyway.