Returning to the hobby - A Kasrkin army!

[Inquisitor lorr]

Hi all

 

My first post! I'm returning to the hobby after a break of over 10 years - so much has changed, some for the better and some for the worse. The disappearance of the Kasrkin definitely has to be one for the worse.

 

As such I've decided to right this wrong and started collecting a set of Kasrkin from eBay and intend to start a pure/majority Kasrkin army. I've yet to get back into the hobby fully or buy any of the rule books etc but I was hoping you lovely people would be able to give me a little guidance as to what I should be looking to include/numbers of special weapons etc to aim for to help me in my ebay purchases. I want a competitive army but it will probably be a little while until I get back into that side of the hobby and Kasrkin are tres expensive on eBay!

 

I currently have approximately 60 standard Kasrkin, 6 sergeants, 7 plasma, 5 melta, 6 flamers and 8 grenade launchers.

 

I'm looking to buy a few more sergeants to convert to officers and will likely include some armour.

 

In short - what do you think I should look out for in addition to the above to form a decent Kasrkin army (I refuse to refer to them as 'scions'...).

 

Cheers muchly

[lash144]

Welcome to the Guard!

 

That's already quite a formidable force you got there. Regarding weapon choices:

- get some more plasma. Dropping plasma stormtroopers is just insanely good this edition

- melta is also good, but quite expensive

- also take a look at the hotshot volley gun. It's a good anti infantry special weapon with a decent range (24" IIRC)

- also your standard hell guns are pretty potent :)

 

You will definitely neee some sort of transports, since you only can deepstrike half of your force and Scions are just too fragile for their points to let them walk up imo:

- they got their on special transport the Taurox prime, which is fast and a quite decent gunboat

- also consider maybe some kind of aircraft Valkyrie oder vendetta maybe (not a expert on flyers so I can't really give recommendations) to drop your melta guns in close

 

Tip: if you gonna buy some taurox consider getting the militarum tempestus starting collection. You get a nice discount on some scions + the Taurox any a commissar (which is kind of useless atm, but just saying^^).

 

If you gonna include some armour, I would recommend some Russes. They are pretty good this edition.

 

So have fun :)

Edited December 12, 2017 by lash144

[WarriorFish]

Welcome back to the hobby :D As lash said you're well set for a Stormie force, plasma is good this edition but melta hits hard in close range. Grenade launchers are less useful, but will help you get more squads on the table due to their reduced cost in comparison.

 

Supplementing with a standard Guard force would be good, as the Stormies would add some reach and mobility to a solid defensive line. Russes are good and offer solid fire power to any force :)

[Galron]

Air Support. If you want to go for a real Black Hawk Down approach, Have your Valks(which are much better than they were pre-codex) maybe carrying a squad of melta dudes so you can take advantage of the moving in close after getting out of the plane thing for that slightly better melta damage roll(TBH the few times I have gotten in close for double dice, I always roll 1 and two, even with a command dice reroll but oh well). Further some Vendettas and Punisher Vultures will help greatly being your gunships. I cant speak for the fighter jets as I haven't used them but I know they just got a price hike and being GWs rivalry with FW for some reason, they were probably hiked to a stupid level with no tangible reason why.

[duz_]

Welcome back!

 

Well Storm troopers (Scions) are their own force now so certainly a viable option! Lash has some good points.

 

As for rules and list building. The basic rules are free and you can download them direct from GW.

In terms of list building BattleScribe can help with that and they also offer some insight into unit rules. :tu:

 

Now less yapping and more pics! :D

Edited December 13, 2017 by duz_

[Tirak]

Vendettas are a waste of points. Valks tend to be underwhelming unless you have a very specific use in mind for them. Punisher Vultures are an excellent piece of equipment and I highly suggest taking them in pairs.

 

I use Air support as a core component of my army, and Chapter Approved has kicked us in the 'nads quite hard, but the Punisher Vulture is still as solid as its always been.

 

Anti tank options are not so good for us with the price hike so I recommend going for Annihilator Russes in a Cadian Spearhead for some much needed piercing damage. I used to suggest Tbolts with Hellstrikes, but at 335 points now, you're better off with annihilators.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Tirak

[Inquisitor lorr]

Awesome - thanks everyone! Sounds like it's pretty unanimous that I need more plasma, some Leman Russes and some air support - I'll get looking!

 

I'm also considering a detachment of pure guard (Cadian) as a bit of a firebase, as suggested.

 

In the meantime I've managed to pick up another sergeant, 2 x plasma and 2 x meltas. I'm also going to add a few sentinel conversions that I made years ago which fit with the elite/black hawk down vibe.

 

I'll try and get a photo of the collection so far and get a couple of tester models up and running as soon as I can!

 

Cheers all.

[Inquisitor lorr]

The team so far (minus a few deliveries)...

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/5ULc9

 

(How do I embed the photo?)

 

Cheers

[lash144]

You can upload fotos to your Gallery (max 2mb per file) and then you can add them with clicking on "my media" (top row above the reply box).

[zero88]

I Know metal is hard to work with, but if you can try to convert those Grenade Launchers into Hot Shot Volley Guns. Unless you're going for fun, you'll never use a Kasrkin with a GL.

[Inquisitor lorr]

I Know metal is hard to work with, but if you can try to convert those Grenade Launchers into Hot Shot Volley Guns. Unless you're going for fun, you'll never use a Kasrkin with a GL.

I considered the same thing - definitely something I'll bear in mind but I think it's probably beyond my abilities at the mo! I bought a couple of the hotshot volley guns from the scions box and I'm going to try and simply add the barrel to the normal hellguns.

 

You can upload fotos to your Gallery (max 2mb per file) and then you can add them with clicking on "my media" (top row above the reply box).

Thanks - I'm still struggling a touch. I think it's because I'm on my mobile.

 

In the meantime, here is my guard 'Copter that I created about 13 years ago (that's scary!!) - I'm hoping to add a few of these to add to the black hawk down vibe and offer some deep strike protection. I think the scout sentinel rules work pretty well for these guys (based purely on what I've read on here).

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/Y6KeF

 

Cheers

[Tirak]

I'd love to hear how you made the Senticopter there!

[Inquisitor lorr]

I'd love to hear how you made the Senticopter there!

Well, it's over a decade since I built that one but I can certainly try to explain what I remember - from recollection the core is simply the main body of the armoured sentinel without the window armour and attached horizontally to the back of that is the exhaust/engine section (rather than vertically). I believe there may have been a small plasticard 'box' in between the core body and the exhaust to lengthen the body. The exhaust then formed the base of the tail around which plasticard was shaped. The rest of it is all plasticard or plastic rod.

 

This photo will hopefully give you a better idea/view of how it was constructed: https://imgur.com/gallery/lI3LO

 

Hope that helps! If/when I make another I'll be sure to take plenty of WIP photos!

[Major_Gilbear]

I Know metal is hard to work with, but if you can try to convert those Grenade Launchers into Hot Shot Volley Guns. Unless you're going for fun, you'll never use a Kasrkin with a GL.

I considered the same thing - definitely something I'll bear in mind but I think it's probably beyond my abilities at the mo! I bought a couple of the hotshot volley guns from the scions box and I'm going to try and simply add the barrel to the normal hellguns.

I suppose another option is to just use the GL "counts as" Volley guns.

 

If you no have actual GL in your lists, this should be pretty obvious and easy for everyone to remember - just be sure to tell your opponent before the start of the game.

 

This route has a few advantages for you:

 

1) With the current GW plan for balancing, you never know when GL might get an unexpected boost.

 

2) The models are OOP, and it seems a shame to chop them up.

 

3) It saves you the hassle of converting metal models that are holding guns to their chests.