Monday 6 February 2012

Finally... Stargazer's come back to 40k.


Well it's been a while guys, what with uni and christmas etc it has been a bit mental but after a long break from 40k playing mainly Malifaux, I feel fresh and revitalised and ready to get rolling dice again! My personal goal is to make it to Blog Wars 3 after letting 2 Blog Wars slip by I feel I should start to represent and actually turn up to this one lol.

So I've been writing a few lists and settled on one I like that I feel will be relatively competitive. I started off with the Blood Angels codex but after having written a few lists I couldn't get one to fit the way i wanted to play so went back to the Vanilla codex (I know boo, hiss, why the fuck would you do that you idiot, etc.) and I have come up with something that I think I quite like.



So without further ado here's the list;

Cassius
Hestan
7 Sternguard w/3x Combi Melta (one on sarge), Combi-Flamer, Heavy Flamer, Powerfist (on Sarge) Transport: Rhino w/ HKM
Ironclad w/ Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, in Drop Pod x2
10 Tacts w/ Flamer, Missile Launcher Transport: Rhino w/ HKM x2
10 Tacts w/ Meltagun, Multi-Melta Transport: Rhino w/ HKM
5 Assault Marines in Drop Pod w/ 2x Plasma Pistols, Meltabombs

This comes in at 1740 so some points to squeeze some extras in. My only thoughts were potentially to drop Cassius and bring a unit of Sniper Scouts w/ Missile Launcher instead as well as give the Sergeants in the Tac squads Power Weaps.

Right lets dissect the list and give my rationale in taking the units.

Cassius:
This guys is just pretty cool and a nice alternative HQ choice. At T6 he's pretty tough and has FNP which when run with the Sternguard means I have a nice model with an Invulnerable and FNP to drop wounds onto (no Instant Death) without too much fear of losing a marine. He also makes the Sternguard half decent at counter charging if necessary with the re-roll hits and his power weapon.

Hestan:
I initially wasnt going to include this dude and was going to go for a cheaper librarian with Gate and a combi-melta (thoughts?) but after writing the list I realised with the amount of flamers and melta about it didn't really make sense not to include him.. Allied with him being hard as nails again he can run with the sternguard for a bit soaking up wounds and then potentially split from them to cause mayhem in the enemy lines.

Sternguard:
The job I had in mind for these boys is to get stuck in. They can really be thrown into the midfield and are equipped to take on almost anything with their special weapons and ammunition. With the characters in there as well they are a bit of a deathstar however they should be able to provide a good distraction while putting out the hurt while the rest of my army carries out its objectives.

Ironclads:
These guys are just straight up mean with AV 13 they actually need proper anti-tank to deal with them and 2 coming out of drop pods turn 1 into the middle of the enemy force was just too good to miss! A nice distraction with potential for tank hunting and tarpitting.

Tactical Squads:
These are pretty self explanatory objective grabbers and a bit of long range anti-tank. Standard really.

Assault Squad:
These was a bit of a curveball. I chose to put them in a Drop Pod cos hey it's free and also it gives me the magic odd number of Pods allowing me to drop both dreads turn 1. The assault squad itself is intended as a bit of a distraction able to pop light armour or heavily armed troops with the plasma and generally just be a pain, the more fire directed at them the less directed at my tac squads :)

So that's it really, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms all welcome. As said earlier I thought about dropping Cassius or to be honest Hestan to free up points elsewhere if needed.

Stargazer out.

14 comments:

  1. great to see you back! i quite like the list. I think that with a bit of practice and some tweaks it could be one of those strange ones which relly screws with peoples minds. It is a list that you need to be very aggressive with though, and get into midfield as soon as possible. in most cases i wouldnt bother combat squadding, instead just bomb up the centre.

    changes. If you can, change the tactical squads round to having 2 with Meltas and Multimeltas.

    Ssecond, I would be tempted to try and get a Land Raider in there to transport the sternguard, Cassius and Hestan.

    drop the assault marines and some HKMs, drop the sternguard rhino and give them a pod (which will drop empty most of the time), and do some other tweaks and see if you can find room for a crusader.

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  2. Yeah I was thinking it's just something a bit different to what seems to be commonplace. Yeah I would agree with the combat squadding just keep nice big units and try to control the midfield. Will definitely look into the multi-melta thing definitely makes sense and is only 5pts more.

    Yeah a Landie would be nice if not a bit of a fire magnet? (not that that's necessarily a bad thing..) Crusader or Redeemer? Or even Godhammer for the long range firepower, it's not like I need the capacity so why Crusader?

    Do you not think the HKMs are necessay then? I'm just thinking I'm lacking a bit in long range firepower (turn 1/2 mainly)

    So do you like the HQs? I wasn't sure obv need to playtest.. as I said in the post I did think of including a really cheap librarian for Gate to add manoeuvrability.. thoughts?

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  3. Raiders, while being fire magnets, are still pretty damn hard to destroy, and cause a lot of armies fits. i said a crusader because i believe it is the best of the three. it can fire a crazy number of guns due to bolters being defensive and it hs assault launchers. also, you need to get all your troops and transports to midfield as soon as possible. this is where the crusader excels. also, there is not a lot that 2 lascannons can do when sitting in midfield that an assault cannon and multimelta cant do better, especially when there are 6 twin linked bolters to back them up.

    the characters are interesting. we all know vulkan is good, and works in pretty much any army. Cassius i have no idea about to be honest. never seen him used and have no idea what he can do. However, given his defensive stats he could be very nasty in the same squad as Vulkan.

    i don't think the HKM's are necessary in an army like this. you are going to lose any long range firefights anyway so don't waste points trying to make up for something you cant help. you are strong in midfield so bolster that and make yourself better there instead.

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  4. Sound advice, time to do some points fiddling methinks. Cheers Andy :)

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  5. Ok dropped, HKMs, Assault Squad, Heavy Flamers on the Ironclads, 1 Sternguard, Combi Flamer on Sternguard, 1 Combi Melta from Sternguard, Powerfist changed to Lightning Claw, Added Melta Tac squad.

    Still can't afford the Multi Melta on the Crusader though..

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  6. Awesome to see you back in the game brother. Is this the same list you sent to me the other day?
    I have to admit that I am not a fan of the double characters.. I know you used to love it with Seth and Corbulo.. but I think there are just too many points sunk into these two.
    The list is obscure, left field whatever you want to call it, but I am not sure that makes it strong.
    Not enough scoring units for definate.
    No fire support at all.
    Whilst the extra point of armour is very useful on the Ironclads, they will just be dropping into the middle of the enemy army.. and therefore into their melta range.
    I'd suggest changing these to regular dreads with MM, HF. That'll save a few points.
    Don't think Sternguard want to be in combat tbh. Drop these to 5 man squad.

    Not quite sure what you are going for?

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  7. Similar although that was a BA list. Ok so drop down to normal dreads maybe, so you don't think 3 full size tac squads are enough scoring? How many would you suggest?

    What kind of fire support? Anti Tank or infantry? If infantry maybe a couple of Dakka Preds, The Land Raider is a bit dual purpose in that respect as well..

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  8. Sorry bud, didn't see the "x2" after the HKM on the tac squad..
    Think that is ok.. I think I'd run them with Melta, Combi Melta, ML so you can CS and leave a ML to provide fire support. If you did this x3 and changed the Sternies and Ass Squad over to another full tact squad, you can push 4 scoring units in 4 rhino's forward...all double melta, and leave 4 ML scoring units in the back for scoring and fire support (albeit very limited)
    The Dreads could then push up into the midfield with the rhinos and provide melta support as well as serious tarpit/speed bump action vs certain units.
    Cassius becomes more attack bikes? Or Dakka Preds?

    Don't know, think there is a lot that can be done with Vanilla marines..

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  9. I think if your going to double char, something like Pedro and Vulkan is a good stand - reason being (if memory serves) Pedro makes the stern's scoring as a global ability opposed to chapter tactics?

    Vulkan is dirty.

    Like Ven says there is no real fire base. Now it doesn't need to be the typical "sit in the corners and fire away" - but just something that can help get rid of mech/open up cans while your army moves forward. Even Land Raiders could fill this roll imo.

    I actually think you should do this as BA's - you clearly want characters, and that is the book of them. Its a falacy that you _HAVE_ to take ASM as troops in BA's - they can take tacticals perfectly fine, in fact paired with FNP they are just dirty, plus the ASM are now scoring.

    Not sure if its because you want to use Vulkan (understandable) et al .. though.

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  11. Only problem with the BA is Rhino's are really pricey at 50 pts! hence why I felt Vanilla was the way forward.. I like the Sternguard personally and think they are a very flexible unit.

    For an objective camper unit I could possibly bring some sniper scouts with ML @ 100pts w/camo cloaks.. not bad for just sitting there allowing the tacs to push forward.

    If I were to take a crusader then I would try to just push the midfield hard with Melta etc and then hopefully dictate from there?

    I just don't really see the point in making a "firebase" when it's going to be a bit half hearted why not just build the list to do what it's going to be good at? I can still have some MLs to sit in the back field if necessary but with 2 podding multi-meltas a crusader w/multi melta and ass cannon plus the tacs w/ multi-meltas/meltas and sternies I don't think I'll need that kind of fire support so much and if so maybe free up the points for a Typhoon rather than the ML's in the tacs?

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    Replies
    1. with scouts always take Telion and not camo cloaks. he give the entire unit stealth and the ML can use his BS, making it quite a nice little scoring light anti-tank unit. probably a good idea with this list as well. as it is much better value than the tactical squad. allows you to beef up the sternguard a bit and take back some of those upgrades as well.

      my main advise is to play and see how it works. just because the internet says this wont be super-efficient doesn't mean it wont win with reasonable consistency.

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  12. Oh I forgot to add - firebase has more than one interpretation - it doesnt have to be "sit on the back table edge and plink away" but just quite literally a base of fire that is hard to shift or not high priority that can open up tins for your other units (the midfield pushers) to get into (the likes of Vulkan and your ASM for example).

    couple of suggestions suggestions from me (opposed to raiders!)

    - drop dreads (mm + dccw variety) - quite nice and support your ironclad pretty well). Can only take 1 atm, master of the forge instead of the 2nd char might be decent.
    - bikers (both standard and MM AB's), cheap, speedy, can hide behind your tanks!

    I think Andy is right, get a couple of games in and start to shape it. Have the idea of what you want to do. Your weakness will be dealing with mech at range, so look at that during the games.

    As for the BA's - 50 point rhinos are expensive, but they are fast (12" and top hatch baby!, 18" and contest bitches, seriously won more games that I should have with that, feels like your marinELDAR). Maybe get a game in with them as BA's and see what you think.

    Scouts are always a cheap and solid way to get a scorer. No one ever shoots at them, they aren't terrible (even without Telion) and with their cant see me pants on in cover, they are silly.

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    Replies
    1. Actually going more "in" on the drop pod route could be quite dirty, especially with the reliability that Vulkan brings with his twin linking.

      If you do go down this route, I also like homers on 1 of the drop pods!

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