march10k

With the increased points cost of a field ordnance battery, a direct comparison between the lascannon and the heavy lascannon gets more interesting. I don't think there's any question that the heavy lascannon was the way to go before the points hike. But now, you get your choice of six lascannons or two heavy lascannons for exactly the same price. I'm driving on with my project to paint four heavy lascannons, in part because T14, but also because I have been running two autocannon HWS to great effect, but what do you guys think? four S14 shots or six S12 shots? There isn't a lot out there that's T12-14, but when you do run into something like that, not wounding on a 5 is really, really nice! I'm just slightly disappointed that the AP and D are the same. AP being the same is probably fair, but it would be nice if the heavy lascannon did slightly more damage. Even 2d3+1 would be enough, but I'd like to see D6+3.

I have a couple of primes, and VM wheel kits for two more. I know characters can take them, but I loathe stormtroopers (and adore kasrkin), so they sit. I'm the opposite. 9 Chimeras, although I currently only field 4. Many editions ago, I modeled my guard on the U.S. Army, where in exercises (and combat), tank and infantry companies would partner by swapping one of their three platoons. So I ran 2x4 chimeras with 2 platoon command squads and 6 line squads, plus 2 squadrons of 2 russes, a chimera for the company command squad, and enough points left over for a pair of griffons (heavy battalions had a platoon of four tracked heavy mortars and it wasn't uncommon to temporarily attach a pair of them to a company). Turned out to be an effective tournament list. This was in the age of the leafblower, and I suppose that that's more or less what my list was, but I didn't call it that, Mine was the "parking lot." I took it to Adepticon with a display board that looked like a motor pool with the troops in formation in an adjacent gravel lot.

I agree about the vanquisher. The vanquisher is nearly as bad now as it was back in 8th. A single shot that hits on 3s and wounds on 3s? That's just terrible. I find that heavy tanks in general in 10th are very hard to kill, including being impotent against one another! The best solution is probably a couple of heavy lascannon batteries, if you can keep them alive. I'm currently building my first one. I would say park them in an ADL with good fields of fire and support them with orders. Maybe Creed inside a chimera? You'll definitely want to get some scout sentinels for their special rule and to maximize the utility of reinforcements. You'd get the most points value out of reinforcements by taking squadrons of 3, but given that they're not that easy to kill and that the special rule is the main reason for taking them, I think 2 is the right number. I'm also seriously considering fielding my shadowsword. It's hyper-specialized and not going to accomplish much if there are no high-T targets for the volcano cannon to address, but I do see the meta shifting in favor of models with T10 and better, and it's now I think the cheapest variant. Your stormlord is pretty cheap, too, and will always have good targets, but it also doesn't really provide any niche capability. But it is easily worth a pair of russes, so why not? Consider hellhounds. They're annoyingly tough and the special rule is almost as good as the scout sentinel one. In fact, in combination, they can be electric. Kasrkin are decent, but excessively expensive. To make them worthwhile, I'll hurl them at the enemy and when they die, I'll resurrect them into strategic reserves to walk on the enemy's board edge and blow the token guard force off of a deep objective. I like to give them a castellan so they can have two orders active. Take aim is always on, but depending on the situation, the second one might be move move move or FRFSRF. Obviously, they lose his support when they go into phase 2. You probably want some troops with OC2. Two schools of thought. One is take squads of 20 and just eat the attrition. The other is squads of 10 with transports to get them on the objective alive. If you go that route, you have to decide between Chimeras and Tauroxes. Chimeras cost more, but they're tougher and add dakka. Tauroxes are cheaper and faster. Probably the two best types of squads are vanilla and Cadian. Both have decent special rules, although my Cadians' sticky objectives haven't come into play for me yet. Probably the more important question is whether you want a heavy weapon in the squad. I've gone with Cadians in Chimeras. Apparently, IG artillery is pretty powerful right now, but I don't use it, so I can't add anything of value there. In fact, the only indirect I own (besides some old metal cadian mortars) is a pair of griffons. I was excited to see them get a datasheet, but disappointed in the bitterly mediocre stats, although the special rule isn't bad.

Ah. I favor autocannons for that work (been playing more guard lately).

Shadowsword all the way. With all four sponsons. Because "have that removed!" Seriously, I think people are going to bank on how tough tanks are this edition. I certainly am, I'm parking my dakka-Dorn 18" from two objectives with an enginseer crouched behind it and just daring my opponent to approach. 29 anti-infantry shots behind an unkillable hull kind of dictates the flow of the game. At the same time, I struggle to cope with anything over T10, at least until I get a heavy lascannon battery or two painted.

For most of the last 25 years, I've preferred greenwing, as well, although they've rarely been competitive. Now, just 5 years after I finish the 5th company, they're to be relegated to the dustbin of history. Pretty sad. As long as they're still legal, however, I can't see devastators ever being bad. In 9th, I was running two dev squads huddled around Azzy in the upper floos of a ruin (when available), and they rocked! Yep, I'm bringing my mechanized deathwing back in 10th, as well. The only problem is fixed squad size. I'm able to attach two characters to one squad and one to another to waste somewhat less space in the crusaders, but, as is usually the case with pure deathwing, you have soooo many points left over. So I'm not going pure. I'm taking a darkshroud to stealth the tanks on turn one, and have just enough left over after that to take a 5 man devastator squad for additional lascannons (one of my land raiders has godhammers). Even if it's a forgery, that's never been relevant. It's always been about the symbolism.

That's true. But it's also irrelevant in a game where a space marine should really be worth a regiment of guard.

If you don't mind me asking, what is melta good against? It sure isn't tanks with its no shots and no strength. AP and damage are fine, but you're going to whiff. Really? I ran one in 9th and am planning to run one in 10th. In 9th, it shrouded two dev squads huddled around Azzy in the upper floor of a ruin. In 10th, I'm going to try to bring back my mechanized Deathwing, and stealthing a couple-three land raiders on turn one in case I'm going 2nd sure sounds like a good investment. I'm looking forward to/hoping for some awesome new kits for Ravenwing in the new codex. Not just black outriders and invaders with an upgrade sprue, but RW-specific unique units like the Darkshroud and Dark Talon. Like, the attack bike was a bike with a sidecar. Can we get a trike to replace it, one that can join an outrider squadron?

Primaris ravenwing will have to be a priority. Deathwing can be an upgrade kit for the new termie kits. But with firstborn bikers and land speeders going the way of the dodo, we will need some new ravenwing kits, ideally ones that smurfs don't get (think Darkshroud). Mechanics-wise, obviously multiple task forces will be a thing. With the return of the Lion, the hunt for the Fallen will have to change somewhat. The whole "keep it secret from the Imperium" thing is gone, there will be no exterminatus now that the Lion is there to vouch for the loyalty of the legion, but there are still Fallen out there in need of the Lion's judgment. So I don't see much scope for a "hunt the fallen" type of inner circle task force where the ravenwing finds em and the deathwing finishes them while keeping most of the legion in the dark. I'd like to see the legion reformed. It makes perfect sense for all of the Unforgiven to be gathered under the Lion, and weren't the legions splintered into chapters and capped in size after Girlyman's first stint as Regent? If he gets to reestablish the Realm of Ultramar, the Lion gets his legion back. Since I never really built up more Ravenwing forces than I needed to support my Deathwing (~8 assorted bikes, 4 landspeeders, a Dark Talon, and a Darkshroud), I would probably take the next codex as an opportunity to go nuts on building a force of "new Ravenwing."

Which means it has to say in unbreakable lines that it can be reduced to 0... although there are people out there with flexible morals who will insist that if it doesn't say it can't go below 1, it can go to 0, which would eliminate any need for the rules commentary, but logic irrelevant to such cheese miners.

I used them to bubble wrap DDAs in 9th, haven't played Necrons in 10th yet.

Is it normal to bring a superheavy now?

I mean, I'd not turn down a points cut, but I'm running 4+ chimeras every time out. Ten Cadians in a Chimmy for 150 seems pretty reasonable to me.

OOM?

I'm just not seeing how sisters are playable in this edition. I also play guard, and my impression is that russes are hard to kill, but mostly harmless, while Dorns are impossible to kill and capable of hosing infantry off of 2-3 different objectives without moving an inch, if properly placed. Nevertheless, an army that lacks any tools to deal with heavily armored vehicles is doomed in 10th. The worst part is what they've done to melta. Oh, it's AP-4 and does a fair number of wounds? That'd be fine if it wounded on 3+ or even 4+. My eyes can only roll so hard!