Carcharodons Astra: A Plog and Tactica

[varchilde]

Greetings Frater,

 

I'm a fairly long time member but infrequent poster to Bolter and Chainsword, and you'll find a few of my plogs littered around the various sub forums.  I'm embarking on a new project for 2018; the Carcharodons! This will be for my local club's summer tournament which has some quirky rules and missions (1250 points, single faction keyword, no Imperial or Chaos soup), and I'm hoping to build something both fluffy and effective.

 

According to the Badab War book, the Space Sharks are Raven Guard successors so I'm making this my home for the plog; I certainly intend to use the RG rules for the army.

 

Any way, every plog needs pictures, so here are a couple of shots from a few Sharks I painted a couple of years ago:

 

Tactical Marine:

 

The Red Brethren

 

And finally something new; a Librarian with an overriding desire to whack stuff with an Axe!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and I'll post both hobby updates, lists, cunning plans, etc. as the whim strikes!

[Stercus]

Looks promising. I like the almost grubby grey and the carcharodons are very cool.

[Race Bannon]

Welcome to the Ravenspire!

 

This is an excellent start and I look forward to seeing more ^_^

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're off to a good start.

[WAR]

Welcome to the home of sneaky marines!

 

Look forward to see your army expand and what you have in store.

[NiceGuyAdi]

Good to see some Carcharodons around here. And a Librarian with a pair of axes seems a very fitting start!

[duz_]

Long time no see Var!

 

Looking good! Check out shapeways for plenty of shark related shoulder pads to spruce things up! :D :tu:

[varchilde]

Cheers gang, and thanks for the encouraging words.  I've made some more progress this week so I'll grab some pics soon.

 

I've got some of the shapeways shoulder pads; you can just make one out on the Libby. I've got some better pics of the pads and the Mako Shark icons which I'll put on the update as well.

[Jacques Corbin]

Oh yeah! Go Carcharodons! What is your idea for a 1250pt list? Are you sure Raven Guard CT are the way to go? I would figure Black Templars, as both Chapters prefer to rip and tear. Our CT is not that great a help to a melee army. Although it is funny to start your jump pack on the table, and go "Na na na na-nah" as your opponent shoots at them at -1.

 

How will you deliver the Terminators? Teleport them in? 1250 points does not leave much room for a Landraider or Stormraven.

[varchilde]

Oh yeah! Go Carcharodons! What is your idea for a 1250pt list? Are you sure Raven Guard CT are the way to go? I would figure Black Templars, as both Chapters prefer to rip and tear. Our CT is not that great a help to a melee army. Although it is funny to start your jump pack on the table, and go "Na na na na-nah" as your opponent shoots at them at -1.

 

How will you deliver the Terminators? Teleport them in? 1250 points does not leave much room for a Landraider or Stormraven.

 

Good questions!  I'm going with the Raven Guard Chapter Tactics as the Carcharadons are nominally Raven Guard Successors (at least according to the Badab War book), and I'm trying to keep my list at least semi-fluffy. The idea behind the list is to represent one of the strike teams sent to sabotage the planetary generators on Badab Prime; so a sneaky infantry based infiltration force seems perfect!

 

Saying that the list is for a tournament so it needs to be effective! I'm prepared to sacrifice the fluff in terms of building a strong army.  My starter for 10 is:

 

Space Marine Battalion (6 CP)

Jump Pack Captain; Twin Claws

Jump Pack Librarian

3 units of Bolter Scouts

10 Vanguard Vets, Jump Packs, Twin Claws

6 Primaris Aggressors with Bolter Gauntlets

2 units of 5 Devs each with 4 Heavy Bolters

4 Company Vets with 3 Melta Guns

 

It's very mono-dimensional in it's set up at the moment, and will no doubt need tweaking as I play test and agonize over the choices (not considered Relics yet for example). The list is intended to exploit Strike from the Shadows; hence a large squad of Van Vets and the large squad of Aggressors. The melta vets are a utility unit to go hunt tanks from the Shadows if required. 

 

Scouts for cheap objective capping and setting up drop zones for the striking/dropping units.  The Libby is primarily there for support (Veil of Time, to a lesser degree Null Zone), and the Captain is there for the hit re-rolls and to get the assaulters in safely (no overwatch warlord trait). He could do worse than use the jump pack relic.

 

The Devestators are to cover the back field, and the heavy bolters provide some nice cheap fire power. The list is definitely lacking ranged anti-tank so that needs considering as well!

 

Phew! Lots to think about and play test!

 

Edit: Forgot to mention the Termies; in this iteration they don't make the cut; Strike from the Shadows and Veil of Time helps, but the Jump Pack mobility of the Vanguard Vets is more useful.

Edited December 26, 2017 by varchilde

[Jacques Corbin]

Well, for Vanguard Vets, especially with claws, is better with a Chaplain than a Captain, because Chappy let's you reroll all failed hit rolls in close combat, and he is cheaper.

 

For Company Vets, I went with 4 Plasma Guns and a Combi-Plasma, with 5 Chainswords. I will add Solaq, Captain with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol, and an Apothecary. That is 3CP to burn on SftS, but well worth it.

[duz_]

From experience if you're planning on using StfS you really want to try and squeeze out a brigade. At the very least double battalion. However if you go the latter or less dont plan on having CPs for much else and only use them when absolutely necessary.

[varchilde]

From experience if you're planning on using StfS you really want to try and squeeze out a brigade. At the very least double battalion. However if you go the latter or less dont plan on having CPs for much else and only use them when absolutely necessary.

 

That's really good advice, and I think if I were to expand the army beyond the tournament baseline, a second detachment would be the way to go; however at 1250 points I think a single battalion is probably the realistic choice. I'll have to have a tinker and see if I squeeze more units in, but of course it's a balancing act between maximising the number of squads and giving them some toys.  10 twin claw Vets might be a tad excessive seen under that light!

[varchilde]

Update time! I've found some hobby time over the festive period and made some inroads into this project. I'll take you through the pictures as I've worked on stuff chronologically.

 

First up are some Sector Mechanicus bases; I fancy using scenic bases rather than the usual texture paint, so I've painted a full box of bases so there should be something on hand for when the models are finished and need sticking to something!

 

32 mm bases:

 

40mm bases:

 

60mm bases:

 

Next up are some shots of the Pop Goes the Monkey 3D bits and pieces.

 

Shoulder Pads (Left side, Gen 7), including one I painted up to see the detail more clearly

 

Mako Shark Icons to stick on GW shoulder pads. These are good for regular marines and the Primaris boys.

 

Then there are the actual models themselves. 

 

Librarian Choppy is mainly built from the Vanguard kit with a couple of extra bits (Deathwatch Helmet and Devestator Sarge axe), and a couple of minor conversions.

 

 

Then there are 3 units of bolter scouts. That kit is really showing it's age now :(  

Sarges have bolters and chainswords; minor chop and stick to replace bolt pistols with bolters.

 

 

Then there are the Scouts themselves. The heads are from Pig Iron Productions, and have been in my bits box for ages; good to finally find a use for them (after I decided they looked a bit silly on Cadians). No self respecting shark goes to battle without a blade so they've all got knives left over from my Cadian 82nd bits.

 

 

  

Next in line are the Vanguard Vets and I still need to build the last couple of squad members. Whilst more lightning claws is tempting I'm considering a couple of Thunder Hammers; I smashed up some wraith guard with Daemon Hammer armed Grey Knight Termies in a game last week, and that S8 D3 solves a lot of problems!

 

 

 

And finally the first bunch of Aggressors. Nice kit but a bit limited in posability. The Mako Shark Icons fitted really well to the shoulder pads; much easier than twatting about with decals.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to read; I'm enjoying working on this little force!

[WAR]

nice start and love the pig iron heads on scouts

[duz_]

Looking great! Scouts indeed are in a sorry state. I was just thinking that the other day as I want to buy another bolter squad and was thinking what alternatives there might be out there.

 

The icons for the aggressors look great. I just bought a bunch of "raven ace" ones for the Gravis armoured primaris and reivers seeing as they have non standard shoulder pads.

[WAR]

duz, mad robot miniatures has some nice heads...... and I need more bolter scouts too....and more scout bikes....

[varchilde]

Looking great! Scouts indeed are in a sorry state. I was just thinking that the other day as I want to buy another bolter squad and was thinking what alternatives there might be out there.

 

I've done some scout conversions for my Lightbringers marines; bolter arms on camo cloaked sniper scout bodies, and some models using the scouts from the landspeeder storm kit. I can post up a couple of pics (next weekend now - back to work tomorrow), if there is any interest.

[Race Bannon]

Who could not be interested in pics?!

[varchilde]

Who could not be interested in pics?!

 

The Lightbringer Scouts infiltrated in front of the camera and demanded their pictures be taken, so here are a few snaps. Not the greatest quality pics but hopefully you can get the idea.

 

None of these conversions are particularly complicated or innovative but I quite like them.

 

First up: Bolter arms on Sniper Scout Bodies

 

 

Led by Sgt "Call Me Telion"

 

The next two are made from some of the passengers in the Landspeeder Storm kit.

Reloading guy:

 

And sitting around guy:

 

 

Finally here's a Sarge armed with a Power Axe he "found" near some Space Wolves. 

 

[Race Bannon]

Dat.  Axe.

 

:tu:

[varchilde]

Hi guys, still thinking about list building and I'm torn! duz had it right when he mentioned how Stratagem/CP hungry a Space Marine list can be. My initial reaction was at 1250 points I probably couldn't get to double battalion but with a bit of back of fag packet maths, it is possible.

 

Consider something like: 

Battalion 1, Cap, Libby, 3 squads of scouts

Battalion 2, 2 Lts, 3 squads of scouts

 

Puts you around 700 points(ish), leaving 500ish for the fun stuff which I really want to run (the Van Vets and Aggressors).

 

It just seems a bit off kilter as lists go; a lot of HQs, and a lot of fairly flimsy troops; in 7th ed and earlier I'd typically only run a single HQ, so this is right on the edge of my comfort zone. 

 

I feel some proxying and play tests coming on!

[duz_]

Yeh this edition there is a lot more HQs floating around.

I general run 2 captains (or sub for shrike) and 2x single LTs for a double battalion. Kit them so a pair of them are off with the forward stuff and the 2nd pair are cheap and cheery supporting the rear gunline.

[Race Bannon]

Multi-HQ seems off to me.

[Claws and Effect]

Multi-HQ seems off to me.

Perfectly fluffy if you do it right.

 

Captain or Shrike, LT or 2, Chaplain, Librarian, Techmarine.

 

Got enough there to do several detachments, and it encompasses the actual command structure of a Company.