A Tycho hypothetical

[SCCOJake]

Hello all, I am working on fine tuning a BA army list and I think I have the bulk of it fleshed out: Librarian w/ jump pack, 2x Assault squads w/ priests, tactical squad in rhino, DC w/ Reclusiarch in a storm raven with a dread tacked on and two Baal Preds (this is all at 2000 points) Overall I like my list, I don't expect to change a whole lot with it at the moment.

 

However, I do like to add a little spice and flavor to my armies (or I would if I could ever finish one!) that being said I was considering alternative options for my HQ slot, it might take some reworking of points/wargear etc but hopefully nothing major or at worst it will be an option for higher or lower points value games.

 

What I was considering was running a 'counts as' Captain Tycho (not DC Tycho) with an Honor Guard, possibly equipped with Storm Bolters, maybe a company or chapter banner and possibly mounting the whole thing in a razorback.

 

This might not sound at all practical considering the list, or maybe it’s a fantastic idea, I’m not sure. What I was hoping to hear was some opinions on this from some more experienced players. I realize that the list I'm giving you is not complete and it does not give the points cost for each selection, but as I recall I have some were in the area of 150-200 ish points depending on how I adjust the list. of course I can't remember how much Tycho costs and with an honor guard that might put me well in the red for 2000 points, so I would like you to focus less on how to fit it into the army as is and more on how the unit could be beneficial/detrimental ways to make it better or if I should just scrap the whole idea and maybe do it simply as a display and never use it on the board.

 

I appreciate anyone taking a look at this; remember it's just an idea to add a little flavor to the army not meant to be some kind of amazing tournament winning set up.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

I might suggest exchanging the Reclusiarch for Lemartes.

[Brother Nathan]

tychos a hard nut to place anywhere. he does combat but dosent excell at it. he does shooing well, but a sternguard has greater volume of fir to do it better. if i was to stik him somewhere it would either be in a tactical squad so make use of his firepower, a sternguard squad with a few combi melta and a powerfist, or a assault squad in a veichle with a melta gun. cool model and nice rules but his lack of specialisation makes him hard to playeffectively for his points cost. wher as seth only is good at battering stuff, as is meph, lemartes, astro, the sanguinator. dante works differently to the rest in a different way altogether again too. saying that tycho isnt bad but you may have a lot of tweeking to make him fit effectively in a list...

[SCCOJake]

@ igotsmeakabob!!: I would be happy to swap the Reclus for Lemartes but my DC is going w/o Jump packs and so I'm not sure I can stick him in like that... maybe im wrong? Idk I havent seen anything on the subject.

 

@ Brother Natian: I relaize he is tricky to get into any list, and perhaps he wont be any better in this one than any thing else I come up with. Still I like his backstory, his look, and his rules seem to be more in line with what a SM captain should be anyway (rights of battle and all that) as I said, he is not ment to be a 'win the game' button for me (although I'm not trying to make a 'lose the game' button either) just something to make it a different sort of list.

 

I suppose my other idea would be to include an honor guard for the librarian w/ jump packs... this seems less plausable with my points use so far, i think this would come out to something like 160+ points for just the unit and jump packs. And that just does not seem wise when I can just stick the Libby in an assault squad of combat squad the tactical and stick him on one of them.

 

I guess I just liked the idea of a unit dedicated to protecting the HQ.

[prenelf]

I have never used tycho but i have the idea in my head he would work great with a sternguard unit seen as they will all be able to use special issue ammunition so he would add firepower to the unit and he is also ok in CC. I have never used him or for that matter a sternguard unit but i will some day and i will put them in cover and unload on any fool to come within 30" of them

[prenelf]

i think he would work great with a sternguard unit i have never used it but the fact then they can all use special issue ammunition and tycho is grand in CC so its that extra punch in the unit, i would put them in some good cover and unload on fool that came within 30" of me

[igotsmeakabob!!]

@ igotsmeakabob!!: I would be happy to swap the Reclus for Lemartes but my DC is going w/o Jump packs and so I'm not sure I can stick him in like that... maybe im wrong? Idk I havent seen anything on the subject.

 

Lemartes and 8-10 Death Co. in a Storm Raven are one of my favorite units to run. The SR can transport both Jump Infantry and normal Infantry, it isn't a problem to take DC with Lemmy, people just don't do it unless they're in a SR (since you can't put a jump pack in a Rhino).

[Lord Captain Sam]

A Tychothetical!

[SCCOJake]

Hmmm, a lot of support for the Tycho + Sternguard idea, I was looking at the unit entry for Sternguard and I have to say I was not all that impressed. Don't get me wrong, it does not look like a BAD unit, I just don’t really see what it adds for its points value. I understand that they have all the special ammo types, but looking at those it seems like you get one that ignores cover saves, a short range one that is sort of better against armor but you might as well have a plasmagun, a long range round that is very slightly better at AP, and the poison round. All very nice, but none of which seem to be all that impressive and it almost looks like it’s a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none kind of thing and while all are superior to the regular bolter they don’t fill me with confidence. Again, not BAD, just does not seem like its going to be worth the points.

 

Now, I also took a look at the honor guard again... now this may seem like exactly the same thing (jack-of-all-trades...) but it would have better results in assaults. What I mean is that the Sanguinary Novite gives the unit the FnP and Furious Charge abilities, combined with a storm bolter (which, as I understand it can shoot twice at the full range of a bolter with the same stats and still assault) seems like it would be fairly impressive. Of course Tycho has a bolter and so can’t get that same deal but if you are shooting something 24" away you aren’t assaulting it anyway. All of this for around the same cost as the Sternguard squad.

 

Now, I'm no math wiz, I haven’t played very much of this game and I'm not into the whole metagame-powerlist building, especially for this option as it would be pure fluffiness, but it still seems like either choice is a good choice... if you don’t mind sinking 300 points into your HQ. It would just depend on if you want to have it be assaultier or shootier.

[shatter]

I like sternguard for being able to be DS via SR alongside regular DoA units. Other codexes are kinda limited to pods and their turn 1 deployment.

 

I like the heavy flamer upgrade for this purpose as they can disembark and shoot the turn their stormraven ride deepstrikes. Why heavy flamer? Because it can kill AV 10/11 and it's an assault weapon ie. transports. After the SR has shot at 1-2 targets, the flamer can kill the spilled infantry and still hit the rest of the parking lot with no cover saves for infantry or vehicles. In an aberrant moment, multiple rhinos can be destroyed by the Stormraven, a furioso magnafrag and sternguard. This I have done.

 

If one wanted to pull the stops a bit and go for SRs and Sternguard + DoA elements, I think Tycho is a nice, cheap and useful HQ that increases their specific ability.. err, I mean he makes the unit be even more sternguard than a normal sternguard and yet with a bit of BA assault flair.

If they survive to the following turn, they can repeat the shoot phase and then tycho's dead mans hand rules will come into play. It's a great anti-parking-lot reserve roll.

[SCCOJake]

interesting annaylisis there shatter. Since my goal right now is just to get to a playable 2000 point list I probably will just drop this whole tycho thing for now, but this does give me lots of ideas for alternative builds. I would like to have an entire company of Blood Angels in the future with support elements from the 1st and 10th Companies, so having a Tycho HQ list would work at some point using his rules to represent the captain of my chosen company.

 

It seems like everyone agrees that he should be paired with the SG, so maybe ill make some models that could represent either the SG or HG and see how each plays.