Final Blog Wars list - 1750 Elysians

Someone sent me this the other day, and it amused me so much that every reference to deep striking in today's post will be replaced with the term 'derp strike'.

I am using the Imperial Armour (Forge World) Elysian Airborne Regiments army list in the up-coming Blog Wars II event.  It is, in my opinion, the first time Forge World have ever produced a fairly costed and viable list, so I thought it would be fun to try it.  Today I'll give you some information on the army list, and explain my choices.  Hopefully most people attending will read this and have some idea of what they are facing on the day. 

Elysians don't have access to any tanks or armoured vehicles other than valkyries, vendettas, vultures, and Tauros scout cars and Sentinels.  Even the least astute amongst you will note that all these are pretty soft targets.  While they all hit hard, they cannot take the hurt at all.  Secondly, most Elysian infantry units are severely limited in their use of heavy weapons.  They can only take mortars, heavy bolters and missile launchers.  This discounts the usual autocannon spam, and since normal platoon squads cannot take a heavy weapon at all it makes for a quite different gaming experience.

Most of you are probably thinking, "well, if they cant take chimeras or autocannons, why the hell would I play them?"

This is a fair question, and it is answered with a quick look at the army-wide special rules.  Firstly, all Elysian units can derp strike.  This is what makes the army list work.  You can come down where you want, to a point, and get all that lovely melta and plasma in before the enemy has a chance to react.  Additionally, most units can take at least one demo charge (20 points, assault one, one shot, large blast, S8 AP2, 6" range), meaning enemy units will have to be very carefully spread out to avoid serious casualties.  The second rule is a nifty left-over from the previous imperial guard codex - Iron Discipline.  This means that all Elysian units within the command radius of an officer can attempt to regroup even if below 50% casualties.  While not game breaking, this is a damn good rule if applied carefully, and can often make the difference between victory and defeat.  Finally, all Elysian units can take valkyries (not vendettas) as dedicated transports.  While a fluffy option, I am of the opinion that this sucks donkey dick.  valkyries are too expensive, fragile, and don't hit hard enough.  Besides, you already have means of delivery, for free, in your ability to derp strike. 

A word on the reliability of reserve rolls.  The designers opted not to include any reserve manipulation, and while it sucks, I do understand why.  Having a single 30 point character upgrade who basically doubles the effectiveness of your entire army is probably not the best idea in a codex.  Regardless, as someone famous once said, quantity has a quality all of its own, and you can take a truly crazy amount of derp striking melta units, which goes some way towards making up for this deficiency.  Additonally, some Elysian units can take a homing beacon, which is a man portable piece of wargear given to a single squad member which allows units derp striking within 12" of the model to re-roll their first result.  At a cost of only 10 points, this is clearly a very good buy.  I have taken three, all on units which are likely to start on the table. 

So, onto my own list.  This army consists of models which I own.  Sadly I do not possess enough suitable heavy weapons (missile launchers) to be able to make teams of them.  Nor do I own any Sentinels, or you can be sure there would be at least six multi-melta armed ones in this list (yes they really can take derp striking Sentinels with multi-meltas, and some can be troops!).  I would also have liked to take some lascannon armed Tauros armoured cars.  These guys are great - fast low profile armour with twin linked guns - yes please.  Accordingly, they are pretty reliable at getting side shots and fragging tanks.  Again, though, I don't have the models.  Perhaps I will convert some if this army proves a success, since I would love to build some wheeled vehicles for a change.  Finally, I only have two vendettas.  While all Elysian units can take valkyries as transports, only having two is not actually a problem for me, since, as I stated above, I believe too many large fragile flyers in an army which can derp strike anyway is a recipe for disaster.

This is my final list:

Company Command Squad - missile launcher, medic, officer of the fleet, homing beacon, melta bomb - 140
The role of this squad is to sit near the back of the table, mess with reserve rolls, provide an anchor for objective sitters, rally fleeing troops and perhaps pick off the odd light armoured vehicle with a twin linked missile launcher.  In cover with FNP, it is not easy to shift. 

Storm Troopers - 5 men, 2 meltas - 105
Storm Troopers - 5 men, 2 meltas - 105
Unlike my usual list, these guys will usually derp strike.  Since they get a re-roll on their derp strike dice anyway, they are fairly reliable, and can threaten small power armoured squads as well. Most people hate 'em, I love 'em! 


Veterans - 3 meltas, demolitions - 140
Veterans - 3 meltas, demolitions - 140
My usual veteran squads, minus the autocannons and chimeras.  These boys hit hard, and scare the crap out of tanks and walkers everywhere with fist-fulls of meltabombs.  Now that they can derp strike i can be fairly sure of getting the first shot off, even if there is a risk of mishap. 
Veterans - 3 plasma guns, forward observers (gives the squad stealth and a homing beacon) - 155
Veterans - 3 grenade launchers, forward observers (as above)- 125
These two units are used as objective holders and as derp strike anchors.  Most of the time they will start on the board and go to ground for 2+ cover. 

Platoon Command Squad - melta bomb - 40
This unit will sit on objectives, or hide.  It sucks because Elysians cannot take more than one special weapon, and no heavy weapon, in their PCS's.  Shit, i know....
Infantry Squad - demo charge, meltagun - 90
Infantry Squad - demo charge, meltagun - 90
Infantry Squad - demo charge, meltagun - 90
Infantry Squad - demo charge, meltagun - 90
The normal line infantry.  These guys are there to piss people off and get in the way.  Good job really, because short of some good luck, that is all they will do.  With a melta a demo charge though, ignore them at your peril.  Note that they can be hilarious because you can still combine them into a monster 40 man derp striking squad of doom....or not.
Special Weapons Squad - 3 flamers - 50
Special Weapons Squad - 3 demo charges - 100
Fairly self explanatory, they come down, kill something, and then die.  At least that's the plan.  I just hope that one day I get to throw the three demo charges on a squad of 30 death company. 


Vendetta - heavy bolters - 140
Vendetta - heavy bolters - 140
Ah, the vendettas.  I admit that it is largely due to points that these guys are in here at all.  I simply do not own enough infantry to field a list full of them.  It isn't all bad of course, Vendettas are pretty sick, as we all know.  In this list i will probably reserve them with a squad inside and outflank, meaning they wont get shot to absolute shit immediately. 
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1750

This army comes to 113 men and two vehicles, with a goodly amount of special weapons and nine, one shot, AP2, large blasts with which to scare people.  While it may not be clever, it certainly is big, and so I'm just going to hold onto the aforementioned words of Josef Stalin over the coming weekend.