Musings on 2000+500pt league at local GW

[Xenith]

So my local GW is having a league, where you have a 2000pt fixed army, but then a 500pt bench that you can swap out for 500pts of your main army at some point.

 

It doesn't really make perfect sense, but hey.

 

The purpose of this thread is to pull together some thoughts on making a competitive BA army. Normally I wouldn't do such a thing, but with 2000pts fixed through the league, I want the army to be good.

 

My standard 1500pts-ish list is:

125 Librarian, jump pack, power axe (prescience)

95 Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, power sword

105 Corbulo

 

250 10 Assault marines, 2 melta, powerfist, infernus

185 10 tacticals, plasma gun, plasma cannon,

185 10 tacticals, flamer, heavy bolter, power weapon

200 5 Death company, jump packs, power fist

 

100 2Attack bikes, MM

100 2Attack bikes, MM

 

130 5 Devs 4 ML

 

1475

 

There's an overreliance on tacs, and not much in the way of hammer units. I've been able to shoot most opponents into the ground before mopping up with the rest - Corbulo + 2tac squads is pretty mean.

 

Taking this army to 2000pts is the goal. The 500pt thing to cover my ass is interesting, but I see it as a pointless gimmick that will not see much use, unless they rework the mechanic.

 

I can add any infantry unit from C: BA, A crusader, a few rhinos, or tactical terminators. No Baals, preds, vindis or Ravens to my name, unfortunately.

 

What would work? Upping the librarian to Mephy, for one, to make another hammer unit (+125pts), maybe bulking out the DC?

 

Vanguard and Sanguard are options to consider. Van with a powerfist and few meltabombs and packs for backfield disruption, Sanguard with 5xpp, 2 axes, 3 swords could be interesting. Alternatively, I could get 8xBikers, and stick an attack bike with them, maybe a bike priest also.

 

So:

 

250 Mephiston

95 Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, power sword

105 Corbulo

 

250 10 Assault marines, 2 melta, powerfist, infernus

185 10 tacticals, plasma gun, plasma cannon,

185 10 tacticals, flamer, heavy bolter, power weapon

305 8 Death company, jump packs, 1xpower fist

 

150 3Attack bikes, MM

285 8 bikes, attack bike, MM, serge, claw, 2xmeltagun

 

130 5 Devs 4 ML

 

 

1940

Leaving me some room for other stuff, maybe a rhino?

 

How doest this look?

[EzekyleVIII]

In my lamenters list I had an assault termie squad and a dc dread with talons and mag grapple all stuffed into a raven. I had tons of fun with that little line up, if u could find something like that on ebay or someone willing to part with theirs?

[Xenith]

First game is this Thursday, I also don't own the assault terms, or claw dread :lol:

 

I am strongly considering getting a raven, though. It can dominate the skies.

[Xenith]

So I played a warm up game for the league at 200pts, and heres what happened:

 

Mission - The Relic (great...), diagonal deployment.

 

My opponent: Deathwing.

 

The Lists:

250 Mephiston (Enfeeble, warp speed)

95 Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, power sword

105 Corbulo

230 10 Terminators, 1xCyclone

235 10 Assault marines, 2 melta, powerfist

185 10 tacticals, plasma gun, plasma cannon,

185 10 tacticals, flamer, heavy bolter, power weapon

200 5 Death company, jump packs, 1xpower fist

100 2Attack bikes, MM

100 2Attack bikes, MM

130 5 Devs 4 ML

2000

 

Vs

 

Belial (TH/SS)

Librarian (presience)

5 Deathwing command, apoc, banner, all TH/SS

5x Deathing termies, all SB+PF, 1 cyclone/squad, 2 sergeants had TH/SS

Storm Eagle

 

Deathwing Rolled table edge, I won the roll for first turn and elected to go second. Terrain was pretty good and I figured I could avoid a lot of fire 1st turn.

 

Deployment

DW:Command squad (!) and eagle kept in reserve

25 termies deploy in a line (my left to right, squads 1 to 5), clustered around the objective, 2 units as close as they can get, just over 6" away.

 

BA: The termies and corbulo deploy in area terrain between 2 pieces of LOS blocking terrain, 8" or so from the objective, ~15" away from the deathwing, trying to avoid a T1 assault. assault marines deploy to their right, half behind LOS blocking, the Tacticals all combat squad and scatter in my backfield, devvies are in my back right corner. Mephiston is among the termie horde.

 

I had hoped to jump the ASM 12" onto the objective in my turn, then shield the asm with the termies, then get the hell out of there. This didnt quite work...

 

TURN 1:

Belial and command (DWC) DWAssault waay out to my right, in a clear area in his deployment. They seem to be out of the game. Deathwing advance ~6" toward the objective, and all clump together (mistake). He then decides to put all firepower into my assault squad that the furthest away DW can see, and the remainder into my termies - 5 squads shooting sees 5 dead assault marines (lucky) - He was shooting through his own units a lot.

 

I need to thin him down. Meph casts enfeeble on the unit nearest the objective (DW3), doesnt bother casting warp speed (mistake). Termies cautiously advance, tac squads move up, plasma cannon combat stays put.

 

MM attack bikes flank left to draw a clear bead to his furthest left terminator squad (DW1). 4MM and 4TL boltguns wipe out 3 termies from the left squad.

 

Terminators open up on enfeebled DW3, due to clustering, 2 frag missiles get 10 hits (!) and the storm bolters on T4 get 18 wounds total. He fails one save.

 

Plasma cannon goes in the same place (DW3) hits a few, and various shooting leave DW3 withonly one model left. Managed to kill 2 cyclones.

 

Kill totals T1: 5ASM/7terminators (Things were looking up)

 

 

T2: Stormeagle arrives. DW 1-5 advances, the sole survivor of DW3 takes the objective, DW2 move towards my termies, DW4 Moves towards Meph. DW1-3 shoot the termies, kill 3. DW4+5 shoot meph and do nothing. Storm eagle shoots 2TLLC and TLMM at meph, and takes a wound, due to cover and FNP.

 

DW2 charges my termies, mutually assured powerfist destruction. I wipe them, and only have a single termie and Corbs left from that unit. DW4 charges meph (didnt think he could have, but rolled high enough on the charge to curve around the termies), meph challenged, serge refused, meph's sword did 4 wounds, bounced off TDA, then got splatted by fists. DW4 consolidate around the objective termie.

 

I lost 9 termies and Meph in one turn. Damn.

 

+++More to come+++

[Bradley Powers]

I run a unit of 5-6 Sternguard with Combi Weapons (usually 5 Combi-Plasma, 1 Combi-Melta) and Meltabombs with Corbulo, and it's a unit that has done sooo many good things for me. I keep Corbulo in the front eating wounds, and the unit is capable of putting out something to hurt just about everybody. It's also no slouch in combat, if I need to delay my opponent's dedicated assault units, MCs or the like, or to take on weaker opponents. I think it'd be worth considering it as an option in your 2k list, as it has a ton of survivability and tactical flexibility.

 

The other unit that I'm a huge fan of, is the Death Company. I've been known to run 5 with Jump packs, either with or without Lemartes, and they run around and cause loads of damage, and eat up the firepower that might otherwise be going into my more important units. Plus, when you get 5 Death Company, you get a DC Dread with Talons for a looow low price of 125 points.... But act fast, as this offer is sure to sell out soon ;)

[Xenith]

BA2 The sole remaining termie goes after the single termie with the objective, Corbulo goes to front the combat squad with heavy bolter, FNP bubbling all my marines. my shooting kills all but 1 or 2 of DW4. Devvies have nothing to shoot so pot shot 4 kraks at the eagle. And all miss.

 

Combat, the DC pounce on the remaining members of DW1, killing both and losing one marine in return, then consolidate into terrain close to the objective. My sole termie charges his objective termie and they both fail to do anything, the rest of my power armour hangs back.

 

T3/4:

DW3/4 Eagle turns and moves toward the devs, DWC and DW5 move toward the objective. Limited shooting at my DC, who pass all their cover. Storm eagle nukes the devs. DW4 charge the lone termie and wipe him, the lone termie kills the one with the objective. DWC try to charge the DC, through terrain and 8" away, they fail. Interestingly, the relic is now dropped, and as you can only pick it up in the movement phase...

 

BA3/4 DC move toward DWC, Attack bikes move to where the DC were to get pot shots, and the librarian is the closest model to them, everything moves up, as the store will be closing soon. Shooting takes out most of DW5, drops one model from DWC due to FNP, Storm shields. I charge in the attack bikes, death Co, and few combat squads, DW5 wiped, no damage to DWC, they splat a lot of things.

 

Game called.

 

Technically, noone had the objective, I had first blood and linebreaker, opponent had slay the warlord. But all I had left were 4 bikes, and around 20 tac marines. I could have skirted around and thinned him down, but I said that at game end he was more likely to have to relic. I doubted all my fire could bring him down, especially with the storm eagle floating about.

 

A close one, I learned that I need some anti aircraft, and that my tactics are sound, just termies are hard to crack. May swap the second tac squad for another plasma death squad.

 

Cheers, Bradley, how do you get the Sternguard into the thick of it? I've been considering getting a pod to put T1 pressure on my opponents.