Which Book for a Drop Troop Army

[Disciple of Caliban Sgt]

Ladies and Gents,

 

I am a bit of a dilemma here and could use your shrine of knowledge (see what I did there) for some help.

 

I have IA4 2nd Ed. and the AM codex and I am at a bit of a crossroads on what to use for a Drop Troop force. D-99 has WS4/BS4 vets with cool elites but seems a bit lacking everywhere else (snipers are awesome though). The regular AM book allows for greater options and flexibility but the Valk's eat up the Fast Attack choices.

 

So from a tactical aspect what would you folks likely run? My gaming group is fine with allies etc but we aren't power group by any means. Also I can barely follow all the allies CAD's and FOC changes etc and really think taking more than one ally for my army (especially one that doesn't make sense) would confuse not only my opponent but make it a lot harder for me to enjoy the game. The other thing is for fluff I can see IA4 and Tempests being proxied as Elysians. IA3 would be cool but I've already got a IA book and don't need to drop the money on a new one anytime soon.

 

Eventually I'll build up the army and have a ground force of AM tanks etc and hopefully have the option to run Air Cav or Ground supported by air.

 

So after a long ranting confusing post what I am asking is this: With your knowledge of Imperial Armour 4 2nd Edition and the AM or Tempest books which would you sue for an all Airborne force possibly with a few units using Infil?

 

Thanks DoC

[Cod]

Ok, well have you heard of the Militarum Tempestus Airborne Assault Formation? It uses 4 Valkyries with Scions and a Commissar. The Tempestus orders are pretty good! The formation would also combine easily with your future plans for AM ground troops later.

I guess it comes down to how much you want to use and/or spend on fliers. They are not that cheap really.

If you must use only one codex then I think AM does give you the better overall choices, ie combined air and ground troops. I have been looking at a force like that myself, based on a real world air mobile brigade which uses air to deliver the infantry, then mechanized support rolls in. So far the AM gives me the best options to make this a reality. But then I wasn't thinking of combining a codex and a dataslate formation

Out of interest have you seen the Valkyrie Sky Talon which can deliver tauros vehicles and drop sentinels? It's a really nice idea for a fully themed drop troop army.

[WarriorFish]

I think a mix of Guard and Scions could be good, give you the best of both worlds. As cod said the airborne assault formation is a pretty good way to run Scions if you've got the models. Elysians are cool and could do the air thing better but you'd make sacrifices as they can be fragile.

 

Generally when in doubt the Guard codex is the way to go. It is flexible and able to do most things to a degree plus it has more support in the long run, as well as giving you additional options if you want to branch out.