Newbie Army List Help! Son's of Medusa (pics)

[Bubblegum]

Hi Guys
Sally here, Ive actually started a personal project and I really need your help. Ive never played 40k I'm actually coming from a Fantasy background but here in the studio we are having a little bit of fun and doing a 'tale of X gamers'

So firstly I have little to no idea about whats hot and whats not in 40K. :S

I have currently these 10 bad boys:


http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q663/bubblegumgaming/SONS1_zps5a5a1bd4.jpg


5 termies, an attack bike and a land raider redeemer housed under my desk. The problem is whilst I'm alright with a paintbrush I'm certainly clueless when it comes to 40k gaming. I know you guys know your stuff and don't want to go an invest heaps of time into models that may be pretty much useless in the game. A big part of Fantasy gaming for me is keeping with the fluff and giving my armies character so I've read up on the Son's and to my knowledge they're very into the machine god. Do any of you already have a Son's List? how do you find them? did you build your list round fluff or solely competitive play?
Would you take a master of the forge? How do they fair?

I'm pretty lost here, not only being the only girl in the studio I'm also the only one who doesn't have a clue when it comes to 40K :S eek!
Would be awesome to rock up to games night having at least some idea.

Thanks guys! Any help will greatly be appreciated!

[Aqui]

Welcome to Bolter and Chainsword, and to the X Legion! ^_^

 

I'm still relatively new to actually playing 40k (after a twenty year hiatus, you could say I'm...rusty :lol: ).  I will say those are some excellent Sons of Medusa ^_^

 

BassWave, Deux Ex Ferrum and Bannus (amongst others) will be along in a bit.  They'll certainly be able to steer you towards solid tactics ^_^

[Daemon2027]

Stunning models. Can't really help with the list I'm afraid.

[ShadowSong7007]

Well you can't go wrong with the standard 2 troops and a an HQ to start with. Since fluff is important for you then I personally would say to go with a Forge Father (Techmarine) as your HQ. Dreadnaughts are always fun plus their are numerous way to outfit the dreadnaughts for any purpose you may need (anti-armor, anti-infantry etc.)

[Bubblegum]

Thanks Aquilanus and Demon for the kind words.
Much appreciated feedback Shadowsong. Think I definetly wanna go for Forge Father. Are they colour specific like chaplains? or can I go anywhere with it?

I love Dreads and anything that will keep my model count down I am game for :)

Can I ask what the standard pts cost of a typical game of 40k is? I'm guessing were not looking at 2400pts like fantasy lol!

O.O

[Ravenfeld]

Aquilanus, on 01 Apr 2013 - 12:20, said:

Welcome to Bolter and Chainsword, and to the X Legion!

I'm still relatively new to actually playing 40k (after a twenty year hiatus, you could say I'm...rusty ). I will say those are some excellent Sons of Medusa

BassWave, Deux Ex Ferrum and Bannus (amongst others) will be along in a bit. They'll certainly be able to steer you towards solid tactics

I suppose I am classified as part of the "others" category. Hehe.

Those are some glorious Son's of Medusa brother, they definitely are amongst the best I've seen. So we know you won't have any trouble with the brush! So onto the components of your force. First off, is there a specific amount of points your looking to shoot for? Most standard games range from 1500 - 2000 points.

As a son of Mannus and a descendent of the Iron Hands you definitely want to look at some specific unit choices for the sake of Fluff. Masters of the Forge are an excellent place to start, in fact the Sons of Medusa special character (Vayland Cal) from IA:9 or 10 is actually a MotF that sits on a terminator base and comes with some solid rules while being a beast in the fight. If you want a more conventional MotF there is nothing wrong with that, they are cheap and bring a decent amount of oomph to assault or, if you should desire it, you can keep them backfield with tanks behind an aegis defense line and have them man the gun while repairing your vehicles. Another note is that the MotF would allow you to field up to 6 Dreadnaughts, by no means mandatory, but if you like Dreads that is a solid option.

Ironclad Dreads and Thunderfire Cannons are another two very notable options that provide very specific functions on the battlefield. A pair of drop podding Ironclads can cause mayhem in the enemies deployment zone while a single (or pair) of Tfires can ruin hordes of infantry or even MEQ if you have some luck!

Terminators are always good, however I am not 100% positive whether the Son's share their progenitors lack of TDA (I assume so) in which case if you do field them it should be in small quantities. A single 5 man squad in a Raider would be fine, especially if you add in a character such as a TDA Librarian or Captain to add some oomph to the unit. How do you feel about using special characters?

The main thing is coupling your theme with what you like. I wouldn't prioritize fast attack units, instead I would focus on elite and heavy support as that strikes me as more SoM (Sons of Medusa) than anything else. I know that Devastators are very fluffy for your guys, but they are slightly over-costed in their current incarnation, that being said they can do very well behind an aegis. But how about you tell me what units appeal to you cosmetically and we can see where we can go with it? There is no "right" answer when it comes to Space Marines so long as you get the basics covered and you have a cohesive plan! That's the beauty of C:SM really.

From a thematic stand point Bionics are important for making your lads be true to their genes, the flesh is weak after all. So acquiring some bits would be ideal to get that aspect across. You can use the ones found on Puppetswar, Maxmini, Forge World, Anvil Industries, and even the Iron Hand set from GW if you should desire.

Edit: After thought.

[Bannus]

Those are some nice looking SoM you have there - great paintjob!

 

As for 40K armies - typical armies are 1500-1850 points....depending on area.

 

I would start with the manditory 1 HQ (Master of the Forge or Captain would be appropriate for SoM) and two Troops (Tactical Squads).

 

As for high-demand units: Librarians, Sternguard, Bikes, Predators, Thunderfire Cannons, Vindicators and for Flyers: Stormraven.

 

Fluffy units would be: Techmarines and Dreadnoughts

 

As you already have them handy, I would start with the Termines, Attack Bike and Redeemer as soon as you have your second Troops unit and HQ assembled and painted.

 

For the Forge Father (Iron Thane), we haven't seen one to know the color, but two possible color schemes would be: Same as normal SoM - except with red shoulderpads. All Black (as described for Vaylund Cal - but we don't know if this is 'typical' or not as he is the only one we have any exposure to). I would go with the all-black if I were to guess.

[IronFather84]

I have a Sons of Medusa army myself. I run the Master of the Forge as my HQ. Fluff is important to me as well. Sons of Medusa have an elected council and are as likely to be led by Iron Fathers as they are Captains or Librarians. He isn't a bad choice either. 2+ saves are nice. He can also bolster defenses which can come in handy. Vaylund is an amazing choice. He is a techmarine with WS5 S5 T6 and give FnP to all dec squads modeled with bionics and makes your army fearless. He is a little more expensive but worth every point. I try to go troop heavy on my list and run lots of troops and favor dev squads over vehicles. As stated Thunderfire cannons are a great choice. I run two in my army. They are also manned by techmarines so it fits fluff. I run several ironclads in my army. As stated earlier dropping some of them in on your oppenent can ruin their day. IF you take the MotF you can free up some force org slots to play around with.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

That's for the shout out, Aquilanus! Unfortunately, everyone got here first.... I'm also going to go easy on the technical terms because you are a self-described noob to the game, and the last thing we want to do is confuse you.

That being said, I'm going to echo the call for the use of Vaylund Cal, the Sons of Medusa character from Forge World's book Imperial Armor 10: Badab War Part 2. He is obvious a fluffy choice as an HQ, but he also has some very powerful abilities. He himself is a beast, being both extremely hard to kill and hitting like a freight train. He also makes your entire army Fearless, meaning they will never ever run away from a fight. And lastly, he can make Devastator Squads -- a Heavy Support choice that can take large amount of heavy weapons -- even harder to kill by giving them an ability called Feel No Pain.

All told, he makes for a viable choice to lead an all-infantry or infantry-heavy force. Taking multiple squads of Devastators that are harder than normal to kill and refuse to run gives you an extremely stout backfield, and the army-wide Fearless ability means that the units that are moving forward will never move backwards unless you want them to).

[Ravenfeld]

I should also mention that Vayland Cal has no model, so it really allows you to get creative with your modelling! Just remember that he should be on a 40mm base to represent his mass of bionic awesomeness.

[BassWave]

Seems I'm late to the party haha Tactica wise, everybody else has already said it, so let me skip to commenting on those beautiful models. Your painting is gorgeous! However, there is no where near enough bionics on them!! Maxmini, puppets war, and anvil industry all have great conversion bits to make your dudes more robotic. Check out the Iron Hands topic in my sig to see all the bits necessary for any son of Manus (conveniently all in the first page )

Oh and here is a wip pic of my counts as Vaylund Cal. Its a third party model that practically is Ferrus Manus. However he fits the Vaylund Cal rules very well as he not only has all the wargear listed, but he also comes on a terminator sized base!