Friday 17 June 2011

Part 3: The Core and "tuff enuff" troops choices...

Yesterday, we discussed “The Core” as put forward by MVB.
Lots of very small, squishy troops, held afloat by the lethality of all the toys we can buy after the cheap core is done.
I want to put in more MEQ bodies today.
This requires altering “The Core” a bit, not by a lot…just remove one Warrior Acolyte squad.
Remember from yesterday “The Core” at 1750 is:
Coteaz 100
5 x Warrior Acolytes (3) in Psybolt Razors @ 62points each = 310
3 x Psyflemen Dreads @135 each = 405
I’m proposing we drop one of the WA squad dropping the core to just 753 points. Not even half way through the points limit.
I want durable troops. Going back to Part 1 and wanted to include 2 x 10 man GKSS in Rhinos.
Lets work that out.
10 dudes, 2 Cannons, Hammer, Rhino 270 x 2 = 540
We’re maxed on troops now, but I want more MEQ bodies in this MEQ army…duh..
Elites are free slots currently:
6 Purifiers, 2 Cannons, 4 Halberds, Razor – Bolts is 222

We’ll take 2 of them I think and that should be close to us done for points..

Coteaz 100
2 x 5 man Purifiers, 2 Cannons, 3 Halberds, razorback – Bolts - 392
4 x Warrior Acolytes (3) in Psybolt Razors @ 62points each = 310
3 x Boltguns for 1 WA Squad
2 x 10 man Strike Squad, 2 Cannons, Hammer, Rhino = 540
3 x Psyflemen Dreads @135 each = 405
Actually, this puts us 50 points over, so I’ll drop the Purifiers down to 5 man squads with 3 Halberds, saving 52 points. (EDITED ABOVE LIST)

3 points spare…one squad of acolytes either gets another body or a boltgun each. Whoot. Your choice…

Pretty decent, we have 30 MEQ bodies, 3 mega-dreads, 6 troop choices - combat squadable to 8, 8 Av11 Hulls and 3 Av12 ones..loads of shooting at overlapping ranges, 60 S4 shots, 18 S6, 16 – 32 S7, 12 S8 …yeah, pretty decent.

The other choice for durable troops would be go with Terminators.
With the slightly reduced “Core” we could afford to grab a couple of really large Terminator units.
Again, dropping one set of WA’s from the core and we are at 753.
A 10 man Termie unit is 450 with just 2 Cannons and 8 Halberds, 2 Hammers
We’ll take 2 of them at 900 points.

Sweet…are you loving the options the core gives us yet or what?

Still 97 points to spend?
A TDA Malleus Inq, Psycannon, Hammer, 3 Skulls sets us back 89…
Throw in 8 Boltguns to 8 WA’s somewhere done.

As a comical aside, the boltguns proved their worth in a fantastic display on Wedsnesday game night, with 2 units getting out of the rides to rapid fire one SW Dreadnaught in the arse, and another 1 unit doing the same to another SW Dread, both damaged, the one unit immobilising, the 2 immobilising and suppressing the shooting…What fun!

Back to the army:
Coteaz 100
OMI – TDA, Cannon, Hammer, 3 Skulls
4 x Warrior Acolytes (3) in Psybolt Razors @ 62points each = 310
10 GK Terminators – 2 Psycannons, 8 Halberds, 2 Hammers
10 GK Terminators – 2 Psycannons, 8 Halberds, 2 Hammers
3 x Psyflemen Dreads @135 each = 405
Great fun… those badgers can combat squad, one unit with 2 Cannons and the other with an Inquisitor for single cannon action, the other 10 man can combat squad equally, providing a host of relentless psycannons, target saturation etc…of course in KP missions, they can stay together, with Inquisitors attached to deny KPs…

How about those Paladins though..we mentioned them briefly yesterday…there’s got to be a way of getting those boys in!!
Could just do a straight swap for the 2 x 10 man units for just one 10 man Paladin unit?
OR we could throw in a Grand Master with MC Halberd, Rad Grenades for 200
Then add:
2 x 5 Paladins, 2 MC Psycannons, 4 Halberds, 1 Hammer 335 x 2 = 670
That’s 870 spent.

More than likely (3+, 66.6%) the 2 Paladin units will go to scoring though Grand Strategy. Or scout upfield to put pressure on early.

We still have 127 points left. We could add 2 more WA squads in Psybacks? Why not hey… possibly 9 troop options then to score..6 flimsy, 2 (most likely) very tough to kill…what would you pick as a third scoring? A dread probably.

The best bit about the Paladins is they add more ranged fire support and they add some real clean up duty ability, they are quite mean in combat especially the group that gets the Rad Nades…

So that final list for now is:

Coteaz
Grand Master MC Halberd, Rad
5 Paladins – 2 MC PSycannons, 4 Halberds, 1 Hammer
5 Paladins – 2 MC PSycannons, 4 Halberds, 1 Hammer
6 Warrior Acolytes Squads (3 each), Psyback
3 Psyfledreads

To be fair, if we were taking this activity seriously, you’d put the Paladins as one squad, then with Grand Strategy we can combat squad, or not, after we have rolled up and assigned Strategy.. which ensures 8 troops always for those missions..


Anyway, I’m going to keep playing with “The Core” and see what ridiculousness I can com up with! !


Post more of your crazy thoughts below!! Next up for me, some MM Bunkers in Chimera…oh and as Killswitch mentioned in a comment, scrap the last WA squad and throw in Apothecary to Paladins for massive lolls!!

5 comments:

  1. Guess what list I like Ven ... gwan guess?

    Great series Ven - really hope to get some more, I really like the direction the whole thing has taken - building up to various lists that I'd really like to try. I'll certainly be doing either the terminator or Paladin list (I love the idea of a I7 S5 weap smashing some dark eldar ....).

    I ran something very similar to the GKSS list last week - though I had only 2 Aco squads and 4 GKSS MSU squads and 2 purifier squads - its not the best use of coteaz - and I thought about 4 cheap units and 2 big ones, but wanted to try razor spam.

    It moves away from the core, and like I say, it does not fully use Coteaz's henchmen ability, but he's a good HQ either which way.

    Coteaz
    5xAco (3xMG) Rhino - x2units
    5xGKSS - PsyC - Razor - x4units
    5xPurifier - PsyC x2 Hammer/halbx2 - x2units
    3xDreads

    Worked well, but I did face a very weak Chaos (heh) lists - I think I lost a single aco squad after it took out the vindicator. I torrented the oblits and demon prince off the table in T1 and T2 - but I think your version would have been much better. Plus there was a point where I had to charge an outflanking unit - and yes the GKSS suck in combat, but a 10 man unit would have done much better than the 5 man.

    Will make those Paladins this weekend (have 5 already) and need to work out what I want my henchmen to look like (might have to steal Atreides idea of Necrons and turn them into servitor type things)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Venerable Brother17 June 2011 at 18:22

    ooh...a use for my Necrons? Good shout! But I better not convert them all to henchmen...cause then I might have to buy things when that codex comes out...shudders...

    I personally really like the 20 GKT, OMI + Core. Alot of durability there...but I think using the Paladins is so much more fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah - either which way - relentless psycannons backed by stormbolters are pretty redonk.

    Also in KP missions or 2 objective (or even 3 objective) you don't grand strat the paladins as scoring - just give them re-roll to 1's on wounds - just plain silly then (whatever hits with the psycannon pretty much will wound)

    ReplyDelete
  4. In kps I agree.. but on objectives, unless its c&c, id do it. In c&c, id scout them...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting - especially if it was spearhead - thats pretty damn scary - as long as its not a thunderbubble esque list.

    ReplyDelete