How to handle the "Air-Cav" IG armies

[minigun762]

I'd like to mention that IG Mech right now with Chimeras w/ Vets, 3x Vendettas, 2x Manticores and 3x Leman Russes is impossibly hard for non-tailored Marines to beat (all Marines, not just CSM).

 

And thats the "balanced" version of IG mechanized.

I say balanced because its not just skimmer spamming and instead you are up against multiple AV targets that can all smash apart a Rhino or Land Raider and enough ordnance and shots to render the squads inside ineffective.

 

The only downsides I can see are 1) a general lack of scoring units and 2) the disadvantages associated with vehicle squadrons but this army has more then enough firepower to simply annihilate the opponent, which reduces the impact of few scoring units and those same troops are located in transports.

 

Our best bet is probably some variation on the standard Chaos list, replace Lash Princes with Nurgle/Tzeentch ones.

 

Berserkers might be subbed out since they're overkill against IG (but that means you need even less to make it into combat to sweep them). Plague Marines are questionable, they're great against Multi-Lasers, Lasguns and Heavy Bolters that are fairly common in IG armies but die just like anything else to Battle Cannons and Lascannons to the face. Its probably a wash compared to using normal CSMs.

Noise Marines and Thousand Sons are still overkill on infantry and less then awesome against tanks.

 

Termicide can work against the squadrons, you might get lucky and fry 2+ vehicles with one squad. Against the Skimmers though, its a cat/mouse game of who comes in from reserve last.

 

Vindicators are too short ranged to engage effectively.

Predators/Havocks/Obliterators are all valid choices due to the long range firepower they can add.

Defilers are probably my personal choice, as I think the only chance Chaos has is in getting into HtH combat and a Fleeting walker with 4-6 S10 attacks on the charge is sure to wreck some armor.

 

I've seen talk about Raptors and Bikers and while I agree with the idea, I'm not sure where you'd pull the points for those units. Typically we can get similar results by using our troop squads in Rhinos and they are scoring.

[HERO]

Hey Mini,

 

Nice post. But I'd like to mention that the things I mentioned above: 3x Vendettas, 3x Leman Russ and 2x Manticores are only a little bit over half of the armies' total points (in a 1750 game). He still has a lot of points for at least 3 Chimeras with Vets with Meltaguns and a Platoon squad (in Chim) to give orders.

 

The reason why I think the list above is hard to beat with Marines is because they can seriously put out an insane amount of firepower that can destroy both vehicles and infantry squads. So many high S weapons and templates that make us wonder why we ever chose Marines.

 

For Space Wolves, my Long Fangs (each with 5x ML) in cover do a good job dealing with their for the first couple of turns. My Rune Priest helps as well. For Chaos, I'm not seeing many options. Our best anti-armor is of course and Termicide is very hit and miss vs. them. The sadder part is that IG has pretty handy ways of dealing with Oblits and Lash Princes are ineffective vs. all mech Guard. I don't really count on Defilers because AV12 is just bad vs. Guard.

 

Your best bet is to get as many troops as you can and close the gap ASAP. Everything else just loses.