New To IG, Steel Legion Amoured Company Question

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Hey all first time posting on here :).

 

Im looking to collect a IG armoured company army and have decided to go with steel legion (gotta love those trench coats).

 

I have most of my list planned out but have about 200 points left over to get me to 1000pts.

 

If it helps so far my army comtains 2 punishers (one with pask), a Leman Russ Executioner and 2 squads of vets (one in a Chimera, the other has a lascannon).

 

Anyway was wondering what would work best both fluff wise and gaming wise, either a 2nd Leman Russ Extermator, a Manticore or a Deathstrike Missile (or even anything else i may of overlooked).

 

Many Thanks in advance.

[Frater Cornelius]

I can definitely recommend the Wyvern Battery, it is amazing for it's cost and mows infantry like nobodies business, very handy given the amount of armies that use dedicated scoring units and xenos running around. In addition to that you could get a leman russ exterminator for some transport opening. If you do, put the exterminator with pask punisher, because they fire at almost the same targets should the split fire order fail, and take the executioner as heavy support. The punisher without pask is useless IMO. Toss in a techpriest or two, I LOVE them so much. Think about is, drive 12 with chimera and then use power of the machine spirit so fire the heavy flamer into a unit, priceless. Or repair your leman russes and have their weapons fire on different targets and bypass ordnance, priceless. Alternatively, armoured sentinels with AC.

 

Here's what I would do: drop punisher, put extermiantor in hq squadron, keep executioner in heavy support, add a wyvern and then either a cheap LR variant like eradicator/another extermiantor OR another wyvern and 2 tech priests.

 

And give Pask a dozer, he needs to get close for his punisher and you can not afford him to crash on some random tree stump.

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Cheers for the tips, did have a look at the exterminator just not sure how useful it would be though (i usually play against marine armies with no armour or sometimes with a landraider or drop pods), if i was to use one any suggestions on what sponsoons to give it or is it better naked?  Have you had any experience using wyverns against marine armies? i really like the model just not sure about it only being strength 4 small blast.

 

Im also tempted following what you've said to drop the 2nd punisher completely (so either take the executioner or exterminator with pasks tank) and try to fit in some armoured sentinels (was thinking of putting plasma cannons on them to offset their poor BS).

 

Not sure on the dozer blade either, not a fan of the look of them and not sure if they would work fluff wise. (theming my tanks on ww2 Panzers) although if i do have a spare 5 points i may try it in a few games see how i get on.

 

Given me plenty to think about :)

[Frater Cornelius]

Yeah, Wyvern is only s4. But it has 2x 2 barrage shots, twin linked, shred, the amount of wound it can pile up will even hurt Marines. They will fail a 3+ eventually.

I play my Extermiantor with 3x heavy bolters (same as my Pask Punisher) to get more shots out of it to glance to death transports and annihilate anything with 4+. 3+ and better will again be pressured by the amount of wounds this causes, because its s7 twin linked and s5 with preferred enemy (if it's with Pask in the HQ squad). The Executioner is better naked since the main gun has 'Gets Hot' now. 3x plasma canon shots with av14 for 155 is a decent price if you ask me, no need for Plasma Sponsons. You can take HB if you feeling fancy, since it's the same range.

Plasma Canons is bad on sentinels, too expensive. The best way to off-set low BS on sentinels is a high number of shots, so AC or multilaser.

 

As for Landraider. Well, Pask can potentially glance him to death, or you can give your Veterans Meltas. And protect yourself from pods with smart positioning to prevent being in melta range or force pod to risk to mishap (beyond the board edge it happens).

[Rumour Control]

Hi, i play steel legion and have got back into them with the release of the new codex. Id certainly add sponsons to the exterminator as the main weapon is not ordnance, park it and let rip with 14 shots, its gonna hurt sombody, even terminators eventually.

 

The executioner is no as good now its weapon gets hot and you have to roll for every shot, mine managed to glance its self to death last time out.

 

I havent bought a wyvern yet but i intend to, its no griffon but its 10 pts cheaper so a bargain.

 

I have 10 sentinels and one shot weapons on BS3 isnt great unless you have a load of them, plasma cannons are awsome and now a lot cheaper.

 

Also manticores are awsome, nodbody likes strength 10 raining down on them, should sort land raiders out no problem. 

[T0MMY]

Regarding the executioner "gets hot", are you rolling a D6 for each time it fires or each individual shot (i.e. the "to hit" roll or each of the "Heavy 3" shots)? I assumed it was the former (i.e one roll a turn) rather than the latter (3 rolls) as this would definitely increase the chances of it blowing up.

 

I was thinking of running scout sentinels so that I could bring them on as reserves from the side and either snipe at armour (lascannons) or scare troops (heavy flamers). Armoured sentinels are more steel legion looking though I guess.

 

How can Pask glance a land raider -The punisher cannon  is S5 so can't glance armour 14? I'm giving my tank commander a lascannon & multimeltas!

[Rumour Control]

I assumed it was the former, firing the weapon, but its the latter, every shot fired, think its under the gets hot rule.

 

Id probably go for autocannons on the scout sentinels vs side armour if you outflank.

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Pasks Punisher cannon gets rending so with some very lucky rolls he can reach armour 14 (5+6+3 = 14).

 

Based off what ive seen in the post i put in the army list section (hello again Tommy and Immersturm) i think i will leave sentinels until i increase the size of my army (probably 1500pts).

 

@ Rumour Control its good to see that theres another steel legion player out there :)

[librisrouge]

The Steel Legion has historically been big with artillery (with close crew compartments.) With that in mind, consider Basilisks, Deathstrikes (used en masse during the Third War), and Manticores.

[T0MMY]

Ah of course, rending for Pask. Still gotta be lucky even to glance AV14 (6+3+5) though!

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Hi Librisrouge definately wanting to include a deathstrike or manticore eventually (love the idea of taking a nuke to a gun fight ), probably only add deathstrike at higher points games though, although if i tweak my list can include a manticore at 1000pts, i love the forgeworld model of the basilisk just not a big fan of its rules though, minimum range of 36" seems daft (unless im reading it wrong).

@ Tommy aye it would be unlikely to work but hilarious if it did

[Rumour Control]

I haven't used the deathstrike in the new codex yet, I may write a list later if I get time. Nice to see they have made it the 10" template and not random. The only two things I can think of are don't fire it at squads in ruins, unless they are all on the top level, which they should never be and hopefully when fired you will be able to place the template (as far as I'm aware it counts as a miss if the template can't be placed) I may be wrong.

 

I'm gonna try my basilisks in my next game, 2 and a manticore. The FW one is so cool and I'm temped to sell 6 of mine to have 3 of those! As regards the range, you used to be able to fire directly so it wasn't such a issue but in 6th ed I'm not sure, I've checked the rule but can't find anything that says you can.

 

@ Sounds like thunder: Yeah I do love my steel legion just a little bit. I missed the original GW worldwide campaign in August-September 2000 due to family reasons but when I came back into it I loved them.

[librisrouge]

Remember, minimum range just means you don't benefit from BS anymore. Basilisk away!

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Hmmm in that case i may be tempted to add a basilisk in then (why does forgeworld have to tease me with awesome looking models then make them too expensive for me to afford :( ).

 

Im planning on buying the manticore/deathstrike kit and magnetizing the hell out of it so i can use either one :)

 

had a proxy game against my mates drop pod space wolf army, should of seen the look on his face when he saw the size of the deathstrike template, unfortunately he destroyed it before it had chance to fire :(

[Rumour Control]

That's exactly the same way my artillery gets destroyed! Space wolves in drop pods!... And to be honest, there isn't a lot you can do to stop them, parking everything together is good but this leads to other problems. Hellhound and its variants and sentinels with heavy flamers are good at tidying up the landing area. Failing that, plasma gun them into the middle of next week with infantry.

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Thankfully in my game all the drop pods that arrived first turn scattered off the table and when they eventually turned up they got roasted by the banewolf :) unfortunately my ig got decimated, only won because i was using eldar allies and was able to grab an objective at the end using my jetbikes

[Warhead01]

One way to protect your army from droop pods would be Platoons and conscripts. Your vets army will remain vulnerable to droppods in most cases. Other then vengeance weapons battery with quad lascannons.  Conscripts could be placed to block droppods, keeping them from being in optimal melta range. You could build a platoon of 1 platoon command and two infantry squads mounted in transports and any number of conscripts on foot.  Vet armies don't seem like they have any staying power. With platoons you could set up a large area of multiple conscript blocs leaving part of your army in reserve, if you like, to protect them from the enemy. Catching a droppoding force flat footed when a fresh portion of your army arrives. 

But it's just a thought. 

[WarriorFish]

Infantry escorts are a must as uber says, it makes life much harder for them and allows you to suitably punish them when they do. Of course nothing beats a Banewolf welcoming committee when Marines arrive - hide it away in your lines and give your opponent some hard decisions :)

[Sounds Like Thunder]

I am liking the idea of a few blob squads to protect my lines, thinking for conscripts may use cadians and replace the heads with gas mask heads (buying 50+ steel legion models would end up very expensive :p ).

 

thanfully it is very rarely that i play against pure drop pod armies, my mates space wolves is usually a wolf heavy list, and my other mates blood angels only has 1 drop pod in.

 

Will definately add the bane wolf once over 1000pts, they may be short ranged but boy are they devistating if they get a chance to fire :)

[WarriorFish]

The trick with the Banewolf is to be fully aware of it's target priority. Make your opponent's life difficult by hiding it in ambush to protect other valuable assets (it's a Fast vehicle, so it still has some range) and/or forcing him to choose between what to attack or dilute his strength by going for both. A unit is always more than it's damage output, especially in a combined arms approach that Guard can do more easily than most :)

[Sounds Like Thunder]

was thinking on using my banewolf to protect my artillery (either manticore or deathstrike still cant decide) can also use it as a late game objective graber if playing that mission and it somehow survives that long :p

 

my more immediate decision though is what tank to put with pasks punisher, either an executioner or a exterminator, still cant make up my mind

[WarriorFish]

With some trooper support it'd do a good job I reckon. As for the Russ my vote would be Exterminator, meshes more with Pask should you need them to concentrate fire :)

[Sounds Like Thunder]

true only thing that puts me off with the exterminator is only having armour 10 on rear (shouldnt be an issue though if i position them right), trying to think of a good way of representing guardsmen and conscripts, dont want to use steel legion models as already using them for veterans (plus would be expensive as hell) thinking of doing like i said with the cadians and swapping the heads but that could cause issues in my local gw :/ plus got no idea where to even start looking for gas masked heads.

Also wondering if armoured sentinels are worth using, they fit in with steel legion but not sure if there worth the points, especially with only side armour 10 and 2 hull points

[WarriorFish]

RA10 is normal, don't worry about that. You could GS some gas masks for the conscripts, it shouldn't be hard even if you're a novice sculptor? You could modify their helmets, it can make a surprising different to how they look for example removing the aquila or the "ear" bits.

Armoured Sentinels are almost a must for the Steel Legion as they're famed for their Sentinel use. The Armoured ones are better now extra armour is no longer mandatory so they're not a bad deal - take them to support pushes with Chimera support as it helps saturate medium armour and gives you extra mobile heavy guns. It will be a good fit as Chimeras should not be lacking in a Steel Legion list

[Sounds Like Thunder]

Will have to have a go at green stuffing some gas masks (never used the stuff before so could be interesting).

 

Was planning on adding a unit of 3 but not sure what weapons to give them, i'm thinking either plasma cannons (to offset the poor bs) or multi laser/ autocannon (number of high strength shots). I'm leaning more towards plasma cannons atm, mainly because i almost always play some form of marine army, although 50pts each does get expensive.

 

Sentinels would only be added at over 1000pts though, my current 1000pts im working towards is:

 

pask, punisher, heavy bolters, lascannon        240

 

exterminator, heavy bolters 150

 

10 veterans, 2x plasma gun         90

 

chimera 65

 

10 veterans, missile launcher     75

 

manticore 170

 

executioner 155

 

total 945

 

leaves me 55pts, would be tempted to throw a single sentinel in but worried it would be too easy to kill, otherwise might upgrade both veterans squads with grenadiers which leaves 25pts left.