Themed combat patrol (fun project)

[TheForgottenAngel]

Hello guardsmen!

 

I've been a long time can of astartes but being in the military I've always loved the guard. I was thinking of doing a fun themed combat patrol army based around veterans. I'm a complete novice when it comes to IG. I love the FW Tauros and Tauros Venator models and want to field them in this list regardless of how good/bad they are. What are the essentials for a 500pt list fielding those? Do I go lascannons or keep them stock?

[Warhawk Shizu]

 

First of all, welcome out of your power armour^^

With a new Imperial Guard book in the pipeline I would wait a little with building a list
(quite possibly the new storm troopers/Tempestus Scion thingies could be
something to base your army of?) But that aside as a Drop Trooper player I can
give some comments on the Tauros and perhaps on the Drop Troopers in general
(if you are interested in going that route).

 

The Tauros Rapid Assault Vehicle, being priced around the same as a scout sentinel, at
least once kitted out, is in my opinion a pretty decent vehicle so long as you
keep its role in mind.

 

Rules and special rules: The Tauros is as flimsy as they get and mine has more than once been blasted
to pieces by bolters. It is however fast, so with flat out it can get pretty
darn far, and with its terrain special rule it can safely move combat speed through
terrain as well. Furthermore it has a 4+ save against immobilised which helps
every now and then (especially against those pesky move through cover tests).
It also has the option of fitting the unique Tauros Grenade Launcher, which… is
just a grenade launcher firing two shots =P

 

Role: The Tauros is not going to rip big chunks of points out of your enemies, its role
is mainly support, flank clearing and weapon delivery. All of which is does
pretty well.  
 

Whether with a GL and a HFlamer it is a useful support vehicle for advancing
units or even tanks, flaming or blasting light infantry out of the way,
responding to light deep strikers etc.
 

My favoured role for the Tauros is zooming up a lightly held flank, skipping
from cover to cover, and attacking lighter units like IG, Eldar Rangers/Tau
Pathfinders/Firewarriors, Scouts etc etc. A squadron of 2-3, especially withHflamer,
can be quite potent, starting with a scout move, then a 24 inch flat out rush,
then 12 inch and flame time^^ It also applies pressure and adds to target
saturation as you surely don’t want to waste time killing it, yet if you don’t
then the flamer can easily kill the majority of medium to light infantry units.
The grenade launcher, while not as good at killing troops, also allows you to
take annoying pot shots at the rear of tanks. My little grenade buggy has taken
out a few heavy tanks in its time, amongst them a predator that arrogantly
ignored it =P

 

The Venetor: This baby is a little more expensive but bring multi-las or lascannons
to the table, and twin-linked ones at that. Unlike the normal Tauros I feel
this fellow does best hanging back, preferably in cover, while giving fairly
accurate lascannon support. Alternatively you can now mix them into a unit of
normal Tauros, preferably with grenade launchers and the venetor with a
multi-las, adding yet more high strength potshots to that rear shooting project
XD
 

Options and upgrades: For me the main upgrade that sticks out for both of these vehicles
are the camo-net. This is very useful for keeping the little buggers alive in
turn one, and for Venetors even more so as they can expect to remain stationary
more.
Smoke launchers are also useful since they allow you to bring the cover with
you, and you will need it. Though I find that with cleaver use of cover it can
usually be skipped.
HK missile… keep the little things cheap, skip this^^

 

 

So there you are, hope that made some sense.

As for a list, as said, wait and see. Though a interesting option for a small
veteran force could be FW drop troopers. Load up on buggies and veterans, led
by a commissar, and there you go^^

 

Edit: Sorry about the odd formating... dunno what happened there.

[*Furyou Miko]

Warhawk pretty much hit the nail on the head. :) I love Tauros and Tauros Vs. They're arguably better than Sentinels - they move faster, and in an Elysian list they're a lot cheaper with a Flamer sentinel coming in at more than a whole infantry squad with the same weapon.

 

I'm not sure if they're available to regular Guard armies, but you'll want to use them with the regular Gaurd codex if you can, in Kill Team at least - Elysians pay a premium for Deep Strike on everything, which they can't use in KT games.

[hendrik]

their rules can be found in IA volume 1;second edition

[*Furyou Miko]

In IA1 Se can they still take double Hunter-Killers on the Venator? That was something that annoyed me in IA3SE.

[hendrik]

negative, only 1

[*Furyou Miko]

Shame, the model ships with double HKs.

[Honda]

I would agree with the above comments, other than state that my preference for the Tauros is the GL. I prefer to keep them farther from harm's way because of their fragility. Regarding the Venator, I follow my standard IG philosophy, which is "everything counts in large amounts." I.e. I would rather have the 3 twin linked S6 shots vs. the one twin linked S9 shot. As the Venator is not intended to be my main anti-tank asset, that has worked for me. My main AT assets are Vendettas, supplemented by drop MM Sentinels.

 

In KT, I think I'd still go with the TL-multilaser.

 

This is an just shooting an arrow in the dark, but in the IA8 book, there is an HQ choice that rides a Venator, which might be fun. I don't know how closely your group is going to hold you to KT. It would be fun to field a "Rat Patrol" force, although it would be small and quite fragile.