Elysian....anyone play pure armies?

[Time of madness]

Just curious if anyone plays pure or close to pure elysian armies? The venators with twin las seem like a good heavy hitting option and the rest of the army has some pretty good ways of dealing with most opponents.

 

Anyone have an effective 2000pt list they could share?

[Galron]

I play a mostly pure army. I use 2250 but I am sure you can cut whatever you want off, probably starting with the tauros with grenade launchers and maybe some taratulas.

off the top of my head I have 5 commanders, mostly with just plasma pistols, one has a fist as well because it looks cool.

2 Vultures with twin punishers

1 Valk with all the guns and rocket pods

4 command squads, 2 all melta, 2 all plasma

1 Vet Squad with 3 melta

2 drop sentinels with multimeltas(very inefficient)

1 Heavy Bolter heavy weapon squad

2 Missile launcher squads

3 infantry squads, 2 flamer, 1 grenade launcher

2 Venators with twin lascannon

6 tarantulas(cool till you need them to defend themselves in hand to hand)

3 Cyclops

2 tauros with grenade launchers(very inefficient)

2 sniper squads

 

reg gaurd

4 mortar squads

2 regular sentinels with heavy flamers

 

It does decent. Will out deepstrike tau. Monster armies give it issues. Elysians do great on an alpha strike, but once they start losing high strength weapons the start to go down hard. Unfortunately monster lists have the ability to weather the damage and strike back just as hard.

[micahwc]

Was looking at them yesterday. I think the deep striking heavy weapon squad with missile launchers seems to be a great asset. Deep strike them into cover where they can get a good fire lane and shoot things with the appropriate missile choice. Missile launchers are extremely useful this edition in my experience, as they are strong enough to hurt tough targets and are still good for hoards.

 

Sniper squads also seem like they would be extremely useful to field against most armies, as being able to target characters is very helpful. I'd use them the same way as the missile squads, put them somewhere in cover where they can fire all game long without having to move.

 

Personally, I think I would run a spearhead detachment and spam missiles for days.

 

Vultures are great anti-infantry and good distraction units, as they will draw a lot of firepower. Valkyries look awesome but are unfortunately not really all that useful, as you have much better ways to infiltrate units than Grav Chute Insertion, and you can bring heavy bolter squads for a lot less points. Although if you have the models and the points left over they will also make a good distraction as people like to shoot at flyers.

 

Command squads are basically scions since you can drop them wherever you want like scions, and they have good BS like scions, and they have the same weapon choices as scions. Scions are great and no one will argue that they are not great performers so far this edition, so using command squads like scions will probably work out well.

 

Tauros Venators look like good fast attack choices. Probably better than sentinels unless you are trying to fill the slots out as cheaply as possible.

 

If I were fielding a pure brigade I would probably bring 3 commanders, 3 command squads, 6 units of troops with missile launchers, 3 venators, and 3 heavy weapon squads with missile launchers; and then build from there based on what I felt I needed and what I felt I wanted because it was cool. Probably add two vultures with punishers. Add commisars and platoon commanders to taste, and then if I have enough points left add a spearhead detachment with heavy weapon squads equipped with missile launchers.

 

I would deploy all these by setting up a fire base with half my units, and then air dropping the other half. I would want to airdrop missile squads around the middle of the table where they can reach everywhere, and put them into cover to help them survive. I'd probably put some of the infantry squads in places that are more contested since they have ablative wounds for the missile launcher.

[Galron]

-Cant put heavy weapons in troop squads, just your normal one special.

-Command squads are better than scions in that all of them get special weapons.

 

Dropping heavy weapon squads is even better and I shotgun them around the board to make it hard for my opponent to concentrate on just one part. Officers have an order that turns all weapons into Assault weapons. So drop an officer and you now have the choice of re-rolling ones or treating them as assault and rolling 4+s. Also technically allows everyone to throw grenades since grenades turn into assault weapons.

 

Remember however, despite everything DSing, you still must have half your numbers of units on the table to being with. Its one reason I use a spearhead with 4 mortar squads in it plus their officer and 2 scout sentinels. Sentinels help push the anti-DS bubble out with their scout move. Cyclops hidden in terrain is another chunk of drops as is the Valkyrie and its squad and officer. The Vultures get their hard to hit on the first turn so they go all the way to the front of my deployment zone too to help shield the back line. After the first turn, units start piling in with all their heavy stuff and your rear line is almost forgotten and is free to drop ordinance the majority of the game. If they keep going for your deployment zone, ambushing Cyclops and missile squads on the other end of the table tend to make messes of them.

[BurntheHeretic]

Just curious Galron, what is your experience with the cyclops? Do they ever hit their targets or are they mostly a distraction that get blown up before they reach the enemy? I´ve been playing with the thought of including a couple but I´m not sure about their effectiveness...

[Halfpint100]

I've used 2 several times and they do well. 40points each and can be devastating. In game 1: 2 tact marines, 5 wounds off one rhino and 6 wounds off another from one and I used the other to finish off a flamer baal press.

Game 2: termy Chaplin and 2 terminators from one and the other took out 2 termies and 5 assault marines. Worth it for 40 points each!

[Galron]

Yeah same. I love mine. And them wasting shots to kill a simple 40 point models is great for the rest of the army that is a bit more squishy. But I have mine painted in a good camo scheme so on grey and brown boards they kind of blend in and no one notices them half the time. I had a stealth team move next to one I had behind terrain and drop their beacon off and then DS in a good sized crisis and drone unit. It simply drove out and boom. Killed all the drones, all the stealths, and one of the crisis, injuring another. Next game I played one killed a rhino, decimator engine, and a daemon prince, all who thought they would use the same building it was hiding in as cover.

[micahwc]

Thoughts on a special weapon squad with demo charges running out a Valkyrie with grav chute insertion? You can fit two squads in one Valkyrie, drop them 9" away from an enemy, and then walk and charge for 6d3 mortal wounds assuming you survive overwatch. Seems like it could put the hurt on something pretty bad.

[Galron]

I used a single demo charge on a storm surge and it did great. Never thought about a SWS with them. Be tempted to try it but that's such a specialized unit. Although with the changes to guard and further bandwagon gamers we might see a lot more vehicles on the board and thus more justification to use them. Demo charges are stupidly expensive though.

[BurntheHeretic]

Those Demolition vehicles sound promising! I will definitely include some in my future list. 

 

On the Demo charges... I thought they were S8, AP-3, D3? Did something change with the upcoming codex? 

[micahwc]

Sorry, Breacher Charges, not Demo Charges.  Breacher charges are roll a 4+ and do D3 mortal wounds to target in the fight phase. D6 wounds against monsters, buildings, and vehicles.

Edited October 2, 2017 by micahwc