Upcoming tournament - What do we have?

[Soups]

In early March, I am going to a 1850 GT style tournament, for the first time I might add. Over the many years since 2007, I have amassed much in power armor and vehicles. I've participated in quite a few 1 day tournaments, and one local 6th edition bonaza that attracted more than 10 people. So, I am no slouch and I hope that I know my codex inside and out.

However, local meta's being what they are, I have no clue what Tau and Eldar REALLY do, outside of the normal internet coaching. Neither do my local playing buddies. Not a single Ripetide spammer or an Eldar player even.

So, given a choice between army Bugs or army Blood Angels, I believe I have been given a sign, recently.

So, what Do BA do that lives against the dreaded Tau/TauDar/Eldar/random flyer spam? My limited understanding is Tau only have some Str 8 in 2 units, and Eldar have none, but lances? So, my rather large collection has 3 ways to go: Critical mass of power armor and Feel No Pain, Armor 13 wall, or a well rounded TAC list that is rather Blood Angely.

So, rather than clogging the first post with 3 lists, and potentially get yelled at for posting in the wrong area, I leave it to you, the Sons of Sanguinius to guide my hand.

List 1: Maximum Dudes! Maxed out troop slot. RAS marines, Tac squads, and DC and as much dakka i can afford in devs and bikes. Around 50-60 power armored bodies seems hard to kill, even harder with Priests trying to keep them alive. Pods are an option so I don't slog forever. Flyers? Screw the meta, I have Dudes!

List 2: The Wall! Triple Baal Preds and triple Preds/Vindicators. Troops as needed. Double Librarians. Why? Because we still get to pick powers, and I need that 5+ cover save! Suck it, plasma!

List 3: Full Blood Angel. A well rounded list that surprises no one who follows Mort and the others in the List forum. Mephiston, Corbs, DC, Pods, Frag-dreads and a Stormraven. Troops as desired, no idea if Tacs or RAS though.

Well, what has the "Best" chance of me having fun? Ha! Just kidding, I would have fun either way, but with those who have a meta that does have full cheese, will any of these 3 list ideas stand a chance?

[Bartali]

In addition to Riptides and Wave Serpents, you may also face re-rollable 2+(+) saves from Daemon Screamer Star and Eldar Seer Council, also Daemon FMC spam. Grav Bikers and Centurion Stars from Space Marines.

 

If it's your first time going into that enviroment, I'd just go with a list you know and have practiced, and don't be disheartened if (when) you loose. Learn from it and go to your next tournament stronger. 

 

If pushed I'd probably not recommend a TAC list as these can normally be taken apart by the top tourney builds. Mass AV13 will cause some lists problems, but others will be able to deal with them. 60 Jumpers with FNP is diffcult to remove for most armies, especially if you combat squad versus death star builds.

 

Probably option one then.

[Orogen]

Big problem with lots of power armor bodies is other marines just do it better- dark angels or ultras would probably be the way to go then. If you're using BA you really need to feature one or some combination of mephiston/Corbulo/ap1 blood strike/dreads/fast vehicles.

[Xenith]

BA are just a bit too expensive to spam power amour, with a priest, each squad is looking at being 70pts more expensive than marines.

 

Even then, things like fire prisms will remove chunks of squads, and you cannot spread out too much if you have tons of guys.

 

I'd go mixed bag.

 

AV13 wall, with an allied power field divination librarian may be fun.

 

A fragioso in a pod I'd say is too useful not to take, cover denying S6 couls get you first blood or clean an objective.

[Soups]

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

My concern right now, is if I do try an take a TAC list, I end up with way to many units that would disappear in a cloud of dice. (Un)Fortunatly for me, I am currently a Mono-army purist. I have seen, and can see how my army is the old man who doesn't have a clue. So, if i do use a SR for flyer defense, and get Mephiston for the choppy, that just 500 points of stuff I can't have.

 

Another concern is, I can't use anything super neato that can Blam stuff out of the air via Fortifications (No Escalation or Stronghold allowed. Only Aegis and Skypad). And it's all anecdotal, and local meta, but I did do OK using an all mooks list (quite often), but lately has been the same IG player (a hold over from 5th list. 3 manticores, 3 vendettas, vets in plasma chims). So, he is the only person actually going for the GT besides myself.

 

Unless I am mistaken, thanks to last fall's BRB change, flyers don't just auto-win for scoring and having dudes inside, unless you are lucky enough to have hover mode. So, my theory is, ignore they flyers: take whatever they give you, and punish the ground dudes who can actually win the game for your opponent.

 

I am really just going for the dark horse and throwing people off their game. The talk always seems to be "Can your list kill 60 power armored bodies?". But no one brings 60 power armored bodies. and not with FNP. And I don't think many people would be ready for 6 armor 13 vehicles. I can post a list I was thinking about for the all dudes one if interested.

[Khorneeq]

I've been trying AV13 wall lately and it worked quite well. With all the vehicles fast we are able to attack enemy where we want, but deep striking tau battle suits and demonettes horde found a way to crack my army open. As knife&fork said it's natural for spam list to play good versus one type of enemy and struggle against other. My vote is for version 1 or 2 but You have to choose yourself which of these two ;)

[Soups]

My lists on the list forums:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/285631-1850-blood-angels-a-tale-of-3-lists/

 

Thanks for the feedback so far.

[Bartali]

Big problem with lots of power armor bodies is other marines just do it better- dark angels or ultras would probably be the way to go then. If you're using BA you really need to feature one or some combination of mephiston/Corbulo/ap1 blood strike/dreads/fast vehicles.

 

SM/DA don't do it better, they do it different - they can't field sixty scoring jumpers with FNP.

[ThatOneMarshal]

Big problem with lots of power armor bodies is other marines just do it better- dark angels or ultras would probably be the way to go then. If you're using BA you really need to feature one or some combination of mephiston/Corbulo/ap1 blood strike/dreads/fast vehicles.

SM/DA don't do it better, they do it different - they can't field sixty scoring jumpers with FNP.

Dont forget mephiston