Emperors children 3k Maru skara. Assault of ancients

[Theredknight]

Ok, so I have been thinking about squeezing something interesting into a Maru skara list and decided balls out on it.

The list is as follows

The anvil-

 

Eidolon

 

Champ, boarding shield, arty armour, void shield harness. P.spear. Shrieker.

 

20man Tac squad w ccw sarge arty arm power fist

Vexilla

 

20man Tac squad w ccw sarge arty arm, power fist, vexilla.

2x apothecaries art arm, pwr sword.

 

Tac support squad x10, volkite calivers, sarge bolter and augury scanner.

 

Deredeo, autocannons, missile.

 

2x dakka preds, hb sponsons, hb pintles. Arm ceremite. Dozer

 

Vindi las destroyer, dozer.

 

The hammer

 

Contemptor talon

1 contemptor dccw and grav guns

1 contemptor twin kheres

 

Legion Dread talon 1

Dread 2 mm and mg

Dread 2 flame storm cannon, hvy flamer

Dread 3 2x tl autocannons

 

Legion dread talon 2

Dread 1 dccw 2x grav guns

Dread 2 dccw 2x grav guns.

 

Plan is simple anvil units stay on board take the heat t1 and move up where they can, dish out some pain and knock out armour if they can. Deredeo in central position.

T2, outflank the ancients.

 

Things i could change:

Flamestorm dread for a more ranged load out. Maybe talon 2 could have a dual

Autocannons and flamestorm into dccw and gravs?

 

I imagine flanking the grav guns will be in 18" threat range of vehicles. There should be enough shooty things to shred armour and men.

And then get a t3 charge in with dreads and hopefully the tacticals have moved up a little.

 

Another option is shaping taking out for Tarvitz and a command squad with mb, 2 pf and 3 pwr weapons and dropping few tacticals and changing a few things about. Similar body count, but better in combat and can accept/issue challenges., maybe a couple of combat ahields in there.

I still get Maru and iv never actually tried tarvitz out tbh.

 

What you think?

[Failbaddon]

Hi, just my 2 cents. This is mostly from my experience as a Sons Of Horus/Raven Guard player against Emperor's Children:

 

1. Try to take more FA and Elites, preferably Jetbikes & Contemptors. You're on the right track, but I find that with the Maru Skara, it becomes too easy to counter if you have <4 FA/Elite choices, because your opponent has a good idea on what's outflanking and what isn't. An example would be an EC player I recently played with my SoH. He had 2 Contemptor Talons and a unit of Jetbikes with a Praetor and Champion. Since these were the only FA/Elite choices, I instantly knew which units were outflanking. All I had to do was adjust my tactics a little bit, keeping my 2 units of Reavers in their Dreadclaws for an extra turn and deep striking Horus and his Justaerin turn 3 instead of turn 2. His shooty Dreads got some orbital bombardments from my Damocles and Master of Signals and got locked up in combat with my Reavers and his Jetbikes got a S10, AP1, Lance, Twin-Linked bombardment from Horus and then a blob of Justaerin charging them and I was easily able to win. By contrast, another EC player fields Fulgrim with Phoenix Guard in a Spartan, 2 units of Dreads and 2 units of Jetbikes, making it much harder for me to be able to tell were outflanking. To make matters worse, he started Fulgrim on the board with the Phoenix Guard, but put them into reserves and Outflanked them, since he chose the Master Tactician warlord trait for Fulgrim and I was thrashed several times before I managed to get the hang of how his list worked. This is what I find is another weakness of the Maru Skara: it can completely take your opponent by surprise, but after a couple of games, they'll likely have a good idea on how to counter it. Even though I am not an EC player, my advice would be to take at least 4 FA/Elite choices and change which units are outflanking every couple of games.

 

2. Tarvitz only really seems worth it if you're wanting to do a fluffy Loyalist EC list or if you're fighting traitor EC. If you're wanting to do a loyalist EC list, I would recommend a Praetor and Rylanor.

[Theredknight]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I see what you mean with the number of choices, I don't really take the same list anyway so it'd be a surprise list, im trailing it tonight against a blood angel jump pack list, so will see how it plays out! Don't think he takes much armour, so might flank the 3 dread unit or start all on the table!

 

The fa models I have are

6 jetbikes

2 javelins.

2 attack bikes

Dreadclaw.

 

I'm not sure which elites would go well with my anvil without soaking fire. Iv sort of used them all up with dreads!

 

Tarvitz is a cheap access to row, and better than a delegatus if he's in a Tac squad I might be able to get stubborn off. Plus the power weapon command squad will likely destroy most things there, and they will have mb in case of enemy contemptor or opportunity arnour target.

 

Depending on opponent and terrain I could start the contemptors on the board, and just flank the legion dreads. That way it's likely il get a t2/3 charge off as the legion dreads will likely destroy any arnour my vindi doesn't.

 

If he wants to keep most his army off the board for that long then Itl be a close to tabling. As he wont have the weight of fire to thin me out before I crash into combat.

[Theredknight]

So I tried this list out vs a mainly jump pack blood angel army last night.

 

I won, but only by tabling him t5 with the outflanking dreads. I was getting stomped by objectives while he drew challenge for vp etc.

Everything else was dead though.

 

Things Iv learned from this:

 

Tarvitz is definately a sub par character, his sniper rifle is situational at best, if his precision shot was on 4+ might have improved it.

 

He sucks in a challenge! He couldn't even best a i1 sarge, he got fisted to death for failing like he deserved.

His charnabal broadsword is wishing for some ap2 or even 3. Hoping for a rend on a few dice is awful now. Plus a fnp save is easy to come by nowadays.

Counter attack is ok, I got 1 more wound out of it than without. Bottom line? Either go cheap delegatus for row, or choose eidolon/kitted praetor.

He is my lynchpin with this legion, and the only good thing besides the models in the whole army!

 

The anvil units could have benefited from fearless, as I rolled terribly and failed both rolls for my leadership.

 

We played length ways, so I had plenty of space to flank, if it was the other way, I'm not so sure Id have been in range.

It was a fun list to play, and I will probably do it again. The look of fear as I moved on all my dreads from the side was priceless. Bye bye plas preds etc.

My newer list includes a unit of vets and a change up of the dreadnought make up.

It also gives me the opportunity for them to wonder what is flanking and when!