Zone Mortalis 1000pts Raven Guard

[Nomadic Thunder]

Zone Mortalis 1000pts Raven Guard

 

First post!! Please be gently with me….

 

Unsure on which legion I would use. I quite like the idea of a Raven Guard themed splinter force from a Nomadic Predation Fleet.

 

HQ:

Forgelord Consul: augury scanner, cortex controller, jump pack, lightning claws, rad grenades, refractor field and cyber familiar (185 pts)

 

Elites:

Contemptor Dreadnought: heavy flamer, plasma canon (195pt)

Destroyer Squad: (5 man) melta bombs, rad missile launcher, Sgt w/ artificer armour, power fist, 1x phosphex bomb (235pts)

 

Troops:

Legion tac support squad: 5 man flamers (100pts)

Legion tac support squad: 5 man flamers (100pts)

 

Heavy support:

Thallax cohort: 3x heavy chainblade, melta bombs, 1x phased-plasma fusil (185pts)

 

The idea is that the forgelord jumps around with the thallax unit giving them a buff in combat with the rad grenades and having a power claw attack for squishing hard things and the twin lightning claws for attacks on MEQ’s or weaker, I know he’s an expensive chap but thought that I could make a pretty deadly looking model with him. The thallax look like a robust unit with low rate of fire but strong shooting (hence the addition of the plasma fusil)

 

The two flamer squads would each team up with the destroyer squad and dreadnought for troops in confined spaces and large numbers. The dread would do what they do (I like the idea of plasma blasts in small spaces simply removing bodies from existence). The destroyers I also like the idea of in terms of scorched earth tactics of boarding a vessel and laying waste to the occupants….

 

The idea is based around a consul sent out into the void on an area denial mission on a vital supply route. They needed to be self-sufficient (hence the forge lord) and without support the thallax were an ideal to use as they can be replaced when required by captured enemy crewman/willing volunteers wishing to serve. The rest of the detachment were specialists in void combat and boarding actions.

 

I think the raven guard would be pretty good at this and their rules with infiltrating infantry would fit the bill I think…

 

Please feel free to comment, criticise and generally educate me on what will or won’t work, what is or isn’t worth taking. I’d welcome the input!

[Varyn]

Tactical support squads can't fulfill the compulsory troops requirement ("support squad" rule). So you'll have to take a unit of either breachers, assault marines or tactical marines.

 

Personally I think your HQ is a bit expensive for a 1k list, I'd drop the jump pack as he'll only be able to move as quick as the unit he joins (thallax are jetpack infantry, not jump infantry)

 

Destroyers are generally considered to be quite expensive and a bit weak. I would consider taking a unit of marksmen veterans and outflank them; maybe 5 with some combi flamers or plasma.

 

I would recommend taking a praevian with a unit of outflanking vorax, but the issue is that the praevian can't be your compulsory HQ, which means it's probably better suited to 1500+ points.

[Harrowmaster]

I would take a delegatus and use the ZM boarding assault force rite of war, that way breachers become even more durable (the limits of this row are just the generic ZM restrictions anyway)

[Nomadic Thunder]

thanks for the input guys!

with the tac support units i was under the impression that the compulory choices were 1 hq 1 elite for zone mortalis?

how do vorax compare to thallax? i think the thallax models look pretty cool and the idea with them was that in combat with the forge lords rad grenades a thallax would do instant death on T4 marines...

if i was using the raven guard legion astates rules would mor deythan be a better option than destroyers? i could take those instead of veterans?

[Nomadic Thunder]

delegatus are a toned down version of a preator, no?

i guess that could work if i swapped out the forge lord for a praevin and go for vorax instead of thallax...

[Varyn]

Yes the rad grenades would makes normal marines T3 and so your thallax would be S7 with their chainblades. The problem is that chainblades are only AP4, so marines will still get their 3+ armour save, the instant death would really only help you against multi wound marines, like praetors/centurions/special terminators. If you take the ferrox augment then you gain rending, which is better but still not great. Praetors and centurions will strike before thallax (unless using powerfists, power axe, thunderhammer etc), a praetor with a paragon blade could very quickly kill a unit of thallax.

 

There are 3 force organisation charts for zone mortalis; defender, combatant and attacker 

- Defender requires 1-2 HQ and 1-4 troops

- Combatant requies 1-2 HQ and 1-3 troops

- Attacker requires 12 HQ and 1-3 elite.

It's probably best to make your list legal for all 3 of the charts i.e. take 1-2 HQ and 1+ troop choice.

 

Yes a delegatus is basically a watered down praetor, cheaper points and gives access to rites of war, like the boarding assault rite of war Harrowmaster mentioned.

 

The vorax are monstrous creatures, so their melee attacks are S6 AP2 to begin with, plus you can take bio corrosive ammo to give them some ranged threat. They are more expensive than thallax though. Remember that if you decide to take a praevian with vorax you'd need to take another HQ to fill the force organisation requirement

 

mor deythan would be a solid choice too.