Draigo, Coteaz & the little people who die for them

We all love our heroes. Most of the time, we never get to live and act beside them.
We watch them from a distance and never interact.
In this 1850 army list, I intend to give 60 Imperial Guardsmen, everyday men like you (not I, lol) the opportunity to live and die beside their heroes.
The "Heroes" in question are of course, Grand Master Draigo and Inquisitor Coteaz.

So this is what I am thinking is a very strong, adaptable force. The purpose of this army is to push my Necron and Space Wolf armies to the limit and see what each can do. The 2013 UK GT Heats are approaching and whilst I am in good form having won my first 6th ed tournament, that doesn't really mean anything going into this.

What am I thinking then? Well, this is one of my first forays into Allied territory. I have already used a Deathwing/IG Allies army to push against Kabalite's Dark Eldar, which I think is tough as nails, but I think it's possible this is a tougher combo.

The gaps in 5th ed Draigo wing were home objective scoring and with the increased emphasis on objectives in 6th, this problem is exacerbated.
Many sites and myself included, view Allies as only necessary to plug gaps or to raise the game of an army in a certain aspect. Most often this is a weakness that could be exploited.

Imperial Guard allied into Draigowing allows Draigo and the boys to push forward without worrying about what's behind them. They can leave 60 men behind Defence Lines, manning the Quad Gun, in the daunting shadow of the venerable (not in game terms) Dreadnoughts of the Grey Knights.

The Allied block is:
Company Command Squad - Autocannon (vets man the Quad Gun)
Platoon Command - Autocannon
Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Flamer
Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Flamer
Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Flamer
Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Flamer
Infantry Platoon - Autocannon

Fortification: Aegis Defence Line - Quad Gun

Then we have the Grey Knight/Draigo core:

Draigo
Coteaz
10 Paladins, 4 Cannons, halberds and hammers.
Solodin - hammer
2 x Psyfleman Dreads

How do I see this 1850 force working then? Sixth brings a few nice tricks with it..



"Tricks"? Well, mainly just Coteaz and Divination
The best 100 point HQ model in the game (arguably) gets another boost in 6th, the ability to swap out his powers, keeping Hammerhand (it cannot be swapped out..weird?) but can get rid of Dark Excommunication and Sanctuary for the mighty Prescience and something else from either Divination or from another...Gate of Eternity might be nice lol!
Anyway, the real benefit is that he is a malleable choice for this army. He can either join the Paladins, providing them with Twin Linking on their guns and another 2+ save with 3W. He also grants Hammerhand and "I've been expecting you" possibly with rerolls too.. could be insane.
The other use is to place him in the IG platoon blob, making them stubborn and also providing the same benefits - with 10 S7 shots its nice to reroll those hits, especially against fliers - this would produce 3 snap shot hits..or against regular vehicles, will destroy whatever it shoots at bar an AV14 or perhaps a 4+ covered Av13. Decent. "I've been expecting you" against an infantry unit could be savage from 60 men.. Indeed the combination of Overwatch (with rerolls), auto hits from flamers and Hammerhand across the blob will make it a very tough unit in combat. Shame I couldn't get more points free for power weapons..

The only other "Trick" is using the IG FAQ regarding orders to work on Allied units - meaning if you do place Coteaz with the Blob, then we can still get rerolls on the Paladins from "Bring it Down" or reroll cover saves from "Fire on my target". Nice.

Anti air is given a nod in a few ways - Solodin holding the Quad Gun? Not a bad shout, but perhaps better is the CCS, manning the Quad Gun and using the reroll cover saves Order..
We have the Quad Gun, decent enough to take shots on one flier well.
Then we have the 2 Psyfldreads, rerolling 4 shots is decent enough, times two is strong. Combine these guys with a healthy 4+ coversave from the Aegis Defence Line and we see these guys as being quite tough - just as tough as in 5th, with the only negative really being Fortitude nerf (such that it is..who really cares? not me)..
On a seperate note, the dreads can come out swinging and protect the blob from assaults vs certain units. Not a bad use of this valuable resource. Situationally.
Our next anti air is the potentially twin linked Autocannon blob..
Then our final anti air is the 16 S7 psycannon shots, which with TL'ing could be pretty nasty.. thats about 5 hits on 6's with TL.. not immense..but good enough.
Not bad I think for anti flier.

These same tools can be applied against regular vehicles, only 7 threat vectors maximum though, but the Terminator blob can put serious hurt on vehicles, and be spread enough to realistically deal with 2.

Look Out Sir across Draigo, possibly Coteaz and the rest of the Paladin (all ch.) makes them still a force to be reckoned with, plenty of Halberds to go first ans smush power armour, but an increase in Hammer time to get through 2+ saves.


Think this is a tough army and one that I am pleased to own and be able to play. It will certainly help form a tough play testing Gauntlet for both my Necrons and Space Wolves. Very tough. But I still think it suffers from the same issues of any Deathstar list. But I am hopeful that this has the internal balance to not be unbalanced or one trick pony..I am going to play test against it over the next few days and report back...any of you guys been experimenting with this kind of army? Don't think it's tough enough to play against as a valid Gauntlet for 1850 and 6th?