*Very* general army building advice.

[Yodhrin]

Ahoy. I'm beginning a project at the moment to put together a modest truescale BT army based on the style and, to a degree, content of the amazing 3rd Edition box art. While it is a fluff/art driven endeavour, I'd like it to be vaguely playable, so suggestions on what to add to round it out would be most welcome, in particular I'm trying to figure out what to take as Heavy Support to permit the Relic Leviathan that isn't a LR Crusader. Here's what I have planned so far in broad terms:

 

Fighting Company Eckart:

HQ
Castellan Eckart the Pious(Captain) - axe & combiflamer, not sure whether to try kitting him out or keep him cheap & cheerful.

Chaplain Gorgermand(Chaplain Dreadnought) - Inferno Cannon, DCCW, Heavy Flamer.

The Emperor's Champion

Sergeant Balain(Lieutenant) - PP & CCW.

 

ELITE
Nymandus, Warden of the Black Keep(Ironclad Dreadnought) - Hurricane, Chainfist, Melta.

Brother Lenhardt(Company Ancient) - no idea, chainsword I suppose?

Squad Edolus(Sword Bretheren Terminators) - traditiona "tactical" Terminators w/ SBs, not sure what heavy weapon to take, will be teleporting.

 

TROOPS
Squad Adhemar(Crusader Squad)

Squad Bohemond(Crusader Squad) - both Crusader squads will be 15+ in size with predominantly bolters but a few BP/CCW and maybe a shotgun or two in each. Bohemond gets double-plasma but beyond that not sure what extras to take.

 

FAST
Squad Gausbertus(Bike Squad) - four bikes and an attack bike, with a pair of meltaguns and a multimelta.

 

HEAVY
Alastor(Relic Leviathan) - double Storm Cannons, Heavy Flamers.

[Stemplar]

I love the inclusion of bikes.

 

Only point is, I believe our Castellan is what other (lesser) chapters call Lieutenant and our Marshall is the equivalent of their Captain.

[Yodhrin]

​In fluff terms, sure, but the Captain & Lieutenant rules are useful and I'm only going up to a single Fighting Company in scale.

[Marshal Wolfhart]

Welcome to the Eternal Crusade!

If we go fluffy as in what was allowed in the 4th dex, for HS you get predators and vindicators. The latter might just add up nicely with your leviathan, one to flush them out, the other to annihilate them in the open (thematically ofc, i know this doesn't work ingame :P)

Also if you wanna go matched play legal you'll need a third crusader squad for troops to fill a batallion detachment. Not necessary, you'll get along with vanguard and patrol detachments, but the cp help and a few extra bolters, maybe a heavy one, never hurt.

Considering gear for your crusaders i'd go with one long-mid range shooting on one to hold the backfield, while the other moves up for short range/melee.

For terminators i find myself picking the cyclone for the flexibility and not loosing the stormbolter.

I like that force of yours, especially the dreadnoughts. You can never have enough dreadnoughts. Now to the final point: Where are the pictures? :P

[Yodhrin]

​

​

Welcome to the Eternal Crusade!

If we go fluffy as in what was allowed in the 4th dex, for HS you get predators and vindicators. The latter might just add up nicely with your leviathan, one to flush them out, the other to annihilate them in the open (thematically ofc, i know this doesn't work ingame )

Also if you wanna go matched play legal you'll need a third crusader squad for troops to fill a batallion detachment. Not necessary, you'll get along with vanguard and patrol detachments, but the cp help and a few extra bolters, maybe a heavy one, never hurt.

Considering gear for your crusaders i'd go with one long-mid range shooting on one to hold the backfield, while the other moves up for short range/melee.

For terminators i find myself picking the cyclone for the flexibility and not loosing the stormbolter.

I like that force of yours, especially the dreadnoughts. You can never have enough dreadnoughts. Now to the final point: Where are the pictures?

​

​Hah, don't get your hopes up pal, my pace of progress is typically somewhere between "glacial" and "deep time" :D

​

​All I've got so far is an early WiP of Gorgermand:

​

​

​

​Arms & greaves are placeholders, and I've since refined the process on the legs a bit(I had two sets of Dread sprues lying around with only legs and lascannons left on them for some mad reason - I've no idea when I used up the rest or what for, lol). The Deathwatch WiP is for scale.

​

​I actually hadn't considered a Vindicator, but it makes perfect sense. It fits the theme(why wouldn't crusading techno-knights bring along a cannon to breach the enemy fortifications?), and from what I've read its role has changed thanks to the removal of templates to be more about big hits against single targets and small number elites which is a nice complement to the rest of the force - I need to force myself to stop thinking of things in terms of the old 3rdEd-onwards rules I'd dismissed it out of hand before because i thought "I have enough anti-horde" hah.

​

​I see your point about the third Troop, another relic of pre-8th thinking. I'll add a third smaller Crusader squad for camping - would you recommend keeping it cheap & cheerful with maybe just a Heavy weapon, or loading up with everything it can carry? I'm a bit wary of the latter on smaller units given the new Morale rules.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Small with longer range weapons?

[Firepower]

There is nothing I don't love about this. :tu:

 

Might I suggest lances for the bikes?

[Yodhrin]

There is nothing I don't love about this.

 

Might I suggest lances for the bikes?

 

I'll be keeping the bikes pretty vanilla except for the attack bike, which is there so I can model the gunner as a Neophyte(damnit GW, where are my mixed bike squads you petty gits :P), but only because I've already planned out the full Crusade in my head in the event I ever get this bit finished and want to expand and a unit of power lance/storm shield Company Vet Bikers is how I planned to depict the other unit of Sword Bretheren from the Marshal's household. Not that the idea was mine ofc, I pinched it off Pinterest, hah.