Explorer 1's Journey to the Games Workshop GT Final

[Explorer1]

At the end of last year I qualified for the GW GT final in May. II qualified 9th in Heat 2 using Harlequins. However, I plan to take BA to the final (BA were my first love in 40k). Over the next 3 months I'm going to 3 smaller tournaments as practice. I'm not too bothered how well I do at these 3 tourneys, as long as I learn, refine my list, and improve my play ..... and that's where you good people come in. I'm looking for help with refining my list, improving my game play and generally "getting good".  I plan to post a tournament report here with some bat reps, and general thoughts on my games, list and tactics. I'm hoping you will all shine in with thoughts and advice.

 

This weekend is the first of the 3 practice tournaments - Dark Millennium 5,  the biggest tournament in Scotland  - a 50 man GT. I'm taking Blood Angles with allies, but I plan on taking a more pure BA list to the GT as I'm reliably informed that the March FAQ will severely restrict "soup" lists. 

 

Here's a link to the tournament facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/1945127339143900/

 

You can get the event pack and all the lists here.

 

My list is a serious "soup" list I'm afraid. 

 

Battalion Detachment (Imperium - Blood Angels) [756pts]

 

HQ1: Captain with Jump pack(93) Thunder hammer(21) = [114]

HQ2: Lemartes = [129]

 

 

ELITES1:15 Death Company with Jump Packs(300) 3 Thunder Hammers(3x16) 12 Boltguns(-) 12 Chainswords(-) = [348]

 

 

TROOP1: Scout Squad(5x11) 5 Boltguns(-) Scout Sergeant(-) Bolt Pistol(-) = [55]

TROOP2: Scout Squad(5x11) 5 Boltguns(-) Scout Sergeant(-) Bolt Pistol(-) = [55]

TROOP3: Scout Squad(5x11) 5 Boltguns(-) Scout Sergeant(-) Bolt Pistol(-) = [55]

 

 

Brigade Detachment (Imperium - Astra Militarum) [756pts] ++
HQ3:Company Commander(30) Chainsword(-) Las Pistol(-) = [30] - WARLORD Grand Strategist, Kurov's Aquila
HQ4: Tempestor Prime(40) Tempestus Command Rod(5) = [45]
HQ5: Tempestor Prime(40) Tempestus Command Rod(5) = [45]

 

 

ELITES1: Acolyte(8) Boltgun(-) = [8]

ELITES2: Acolyte(8) Boltgun(-) = [8]

ELITES3: Acolyte(8) Boltgun(-) = [8]

 

TROOP1: 5 Militarum Tempestus Scions(5x9=45) S Hot-shot Lasguns(2x1=2) 2 Plasma Guns(2x13=26) Tempestor Prime(-) Chainsword(-) Plasma Pistol(5) = [78]
TROOP2: 5 Militarum Tempestus Scions(5x9=45) S Hot-shot Lasguns(2x1=2) 2 Plasma Guns(2x13=26) Tempestor Prime(-) Chainsword(-) Plasma Pistol(5) = [78]

TROOP3: 5 Militarum Tempestus Scions(5x9=45) S Hot-shot Lasguns(2x1=2) 2 Plasma Guns(2x13=26) Tempestor Prime(-) Chainsword(-) Plasma Pistol(5) = [78]
TROOP4: 5 Militarum Tempestus Scions(5x9=45) S Hot-shot Lasguns(2x1=2) 2 Plasma Guns(2x13=26) Tempestor Prime(-) Chainsword(-) Plasma Pistol(5) = [78]

TROOP5: 5 Militarum Tempestus Scions(5x9=45) S Hot-shot Lasguns(2x1=2) 2 Plasma Guns(2x13=26) Tempestor Prime(-) Chainsword(-) Plasma Pistol(5) = [78]
TROOP6: 5 Militarum Tempestus Scions(5x9=45) S Hot-shot Lasguns(2x1=2) 2 Plasma Guns(2x13=26) Tempestor Prime(-) Chainsword(-) Plasma Pistol(5) = [78]

 

 

FAST1:Cyber Wolf(15) = [15]

FAST2:Cyber Wolf(15) = [15]

FAST3:Cyber Wolf(15) = [15]

 

 

HEAVY1:Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Heavy Weapon Teams(3x6=18) 3 Mortars(3x5=15) = [33]

HEAVY2:Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Heavy Weapon Teams(3x6=18) 3 Mortars(3x5=15) = [33]

HEAVY3:Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Heavy Weapon Teams(3x6=18) 3 Mortars(3x5=15) = [33]

 

 

++ Supreme Command Detachment (Imperium - Adeptus Custodes) [488pts] ++

HQ6:Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike(150) Hurricane Bolter(10) Misericordia(4) = [164]

HQ7:Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike(150) Hurricane Bolter(10) Misericordia(4) = [164]

HQ8:Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike(150) Hurricane Bolter(10) = [160] 

 

Essentially I wanted a Guard Brigade for CP's and i thought that Scions best fit the Deep Striking theme of the BA element. The Shield Captains are a late addition (I was running Sang Guard, but was disappointed by their performance) because I just loved the models (not to mention them being stupid good for the points!!). 

 

My concerns are that, once down, the scions are very vulnerable, and immobile.  I don't think they will make the cut for the GT list, and I already have 15 Inceptors on my paint desk to try out at the next practice tournaments in March.

 

My first opponent (you can get the first round draw at the above link) is the Space Wolves player.

 

Wish me luck.

[Blackcadian]

Good luck! Sad to hear that soups will get restricted as I feel that that is one of the advantages we need to keep up with Eldar, Nids and probably soon Tau.

 

Keep us updated!

[Silverson]

Quick note at first glance only, on the scout squads it's probably better to switch the sargents bolt pistols to chainswords.

[Explorer1]

Well, the could have gone better......! 1-2 for day one. "sigh" playing a new army always sucks. Learning curves!

 

 I won the first game, but I would have had to try quite hard to have lost it. I then played on table 3 against Knights and stuff. Lost that one, although quite narrowly) I then played versus a bunch of Shield Captain and assassins ..... came third!

 

More detailed reports to come.

[Explorer1]

OK, a new day and Game 4's against Nids. 80 Genestealers, Swarmlord, Hive Tyrant, Trygon Prime and a couple of Biovornes. Killing all those 'stealers is gonna be tough.

[Silverson]

good luck mate, looking forward to reading the reports.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Well, the could have gone better......! 1-2 for day one. "sigh" playing a new army always sucks. Learning curves!

 

 I won the first game, but I would have had to try quite hard to have lost it. I then played on table 3 against Knights and stuff. Lost that one, although quite narrowly) I then played versus a bunch of Shield Captain and assassins ..... came third!

 

More detailed reports to come.

 

Grey Knights or Imperial Knights?

[Explorer1]

 

Well, the could have gone better......! 1-2 for day one. "sigh" playing a new army always sucks. Learning curves!

 

 I won the first game, but I would have had to try quite hard to have lost it. I then played on table 3 against Knights and stuff. Lost that one, although quite narrowly) I then played versus a bunch of Shield Captain and assassins ..... came third!

 

More detailed reports to come.

 

Grey Knights or Imperial Knights?

 

Imperial Knights

So, day 2 was better. 2-1, so 3-3 for the tournament, which was OK (was hoping for 4-2), but with a new army, I'll take that.

[Explorer1]

So, Game one of Dark Millennium.

 

Against a space wolves list - Nigel, Bjorn, 3 units of Grey Hunters, 2 packs of wolves, 3 packs of Wulven, 2 Dev Squads and a Plasma Obliterator. When I first saw the list (first round match ups were posted a few days before) I was pretty scared by the Plasma Obliterator, but after i read up on it, it wasn’t too scary - a few Thunder Hammers will sort that right out!! Can’t remember the mission, but it didn’t matter.

 

We set up, me with most stuff in reserve, my opponent with everything on the board, except the Wulven who were coming in from the board edge. I knew about that “trick” having fallen foul of it in the past. If you know about it it’s easy to counter by making sure there was no board edge they could come in from, other than your opponents own edge. With all the models in my army, and the Scouts infiltrating that was pretty easy.

 

My opponent got first turn and shot me. I think he brought in one unit of Wulven, but they were so far away, it didn’t matter much. In my turn I moved up and brough in some Scions to kill 2 packs of grey hunters that were screening the Plasma Obliterator. The Shield Captain's Hurricane Bolters and the Scions cleared away the screens, and I shot the unit of Wulven a bit. In my opponents turn he shot me a bit and brought in another unit of Wulven. I brought in more scions and the BA Captain. The scions killed stuff and the BA Captain and the Shield Captains assaulted the Plasma Obliterator and killed it. It was pretty much mopping up after that.

 

Learning points - Screening and board control are really important in 8th. Being able to block board edges with scouts and “chaff” units neutralised the Wulven as a real threat (TBH, my opponent would have been better deploying them on the board, and forcing me to deal with them). Also the Commander with Khurov’s Aquila and Grand Strategist, is so good I don't expect it to survive the March FAQ. I started the game with 16CPs, and, despite spending liberally, ended the game with 11!! Finally, in asssault, Wulven are horrendous!! The ability to attack again once they die, even if they have already attacked, makes taking them out in assault a suicide mission. 

 

Game 2 soon.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on your victory!

[Explorer1]

Game 2

 

Of course a big win in game 1 launches you up the tabels, so Game 2 I found myself with a nose bleed on table 3, versus an interesting Imperium list. 2 Knights, 2 Lehman Russ Commanders, some guardsmen, an assassin (the assasulty one), and the most annoying unit in the game right now, St Celestine!! I’m sure there was other stuff, but they were the highlights. 

 

Now, I’ve played this list before at the club (my opponent is an “irregular” attender) so I kinda knew what it did. The key is killing the Knights, but that’s easier said that done, because while you’re focusing on doing that (and getting past the guard screen) the assassin and the Saint are harassing your backfield. Long and short of it .... I killed the knights (Thunder Hammers are “the bollocks!!), but I didn’t do it fast enough. My opponent was a master at screening his knights and denying me effective places to deep strike. A loss, but a relatively narrow one.

 

Learning points - I need to rethink my screen killing game. For an army that relies largely on deep striking killy stuff in close, and charging - having a place to land is really important. I need to be more aggressive with my scouts during deployment and get them right up in my opponent's grill, to push back their screens, and then get more effective at killing the screen, before bringing in my Killy stuff (more thoughts on that to follow).

 

I also found that I mostly didn't want Thunder Hammers in my 15 man DC unit. Rather I wanted them in a different unit. I wanted the Chainsword DC to kill stuff that I didn't need Thunder Hammers to kill, and save the Thunder Hammers for the stuff I really needed them for - e.g. I wanted the Chainsword DC to come down and clear the screens, and then, next turn, once the screens were cleared, have the Thunder Hammers come down and kill the Knights. 

[Explorer1]

 

Game 3

 

So, back down to mid table obscurity!! Against a kinda similar list to mine, in that he had BA characters, cyber wolves Shield Captains (5 of them!) and guard. Long story short .... I came 3rd!!

 

The difficulty again were screens - my opponent played it really clever and kept all his Killy stuff behind a line of guardsmen and cyber wolves and slowly pushed it out across the board, while harassing my backfield with assassins. After the game, we discussed what I could have done differently - we concluded I should have played my Death Company more aggressively, spread them along the whole length of his screen, and taken it all out on turn one. The problem was, I was running 3 Thunder Hammers in that unit and felt I needed them for the Shield Captains, so didnt’ want to “throw them away” on screen killing. 

 

Learning points - again, if I’m going to use the Death Company as screen clearance (which they are very good at) maybe it’s not a good idea to have Thunder Hammers in the unit that would be “wasted” on those screens. 

[Explorer1]

Game 4

 

The draw was posted up in the evening of day one, and it had me up against Tyranids (80 Genestealers!!), so I spent some time reading the Tyranid Codex and working out what I was going to do about that. However, in the morning I found there had been a drop out, and the draw was changed, putting me up against Death Guard. To be honest I was pretty pleased about that, because I wanted to practice against Death Guard, as I’ve never played them before (and I hear they’re real nasty!!)

 

His list had some characters, that I never really understood, 2 Demons Princes, 3 Bloat Drones, 2 Plage Crawlers, a Predators and 3 units of Plague Marines. I assumed his battle plan would be to shove the Bloat Drones and the Demon Princes down my throat, and blast me with his tanks ..... which was pretty much what happened. But I screened off the board, leaving the Princes and Drones nothing much to do in turn one, and then pounded all 5 of them with Plasma, Shield Captains and Death Company ..... and bounced off! They are unbelievably durable. I killed them eventually, but it took 4 units of Scions, the Death Company, and all three Shield Captains, over three rounds of combat to finish them off. After that, it was a matter of clearing up (easier said than done - those Plage Burst Crawlers are nasty).

 

Great, game against a fun opponent, and learned a lot about Nurgle units (more to come on that).

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on your victory over Mortarion's degenerate sons.

[Explorer1]

Congratulations on your victory over Mortarion's degenerate sons.

Ah well, dont get too excited! Spoiler alert, but Game 6 didn’t go quite so well!!

[Explorer1]

Game 5

 

Against Ad Mech - Robots, Cawl, Grav Kataphrons, 2 Dune Crawlers, and some other stuff. Now, I’ve heard about the Robots, and know they have horrendous fire power, assisted by Cawl’s re-rolls - but if they turn on the mega shooting, they can never move again. The key must be to tie them up in combat. So that was my plan. 

 

My opponent really didn't have any screens for his Robots - the only thing he could have used was a unit of Electro Priest, buy for some reason he put them in reserve and planned to infiltrate them after deployment. He also deployed his robots on the line (we were playing Hammer and Anvil so he may have been worried about range). What I thought he was planning to do, was deploy the Electro Priests as a screen by infiltrating them in, outside his deployment zone, but in front of the Robots. So I pushed up my scouts to restrict his ability to do that. 

 

My opponent got first turn, and by god those robots are horrendous. At the end of his shooting phase I think the only think I had on the board was my Warlord (who was hiding) a Cyber Wolf and the Shield Captains. Everything else had been blasted off the board. But, IMHO, he had made a mistake. Rather than bring the priests in to screen the ‘bots, he had pushed them forward to assault my scouts.... leaving just enough room for the Death Company to come down 9” away from the ‘bots.

 

And down they came along with some Scions. It was a high risk strategy - if I had missed the charge (not likely, but possible) it would have been all over. But the DC made the charge, as did Captain JumpSmash and Lemartes.  I killed some bots, and then managed to consolidate into the Kataphrons and one of the Dune Crawlers. Having brough the other one down to a few wounds with Scion Plasma, there wasn’t much to shot at me next turn.

 

After the DC, JumpSmash and Lemartes got into the ‘bots, it was pretty much all over. 

 

Learning points - the Ad MEch ‘bots have horrendous fire power, but they are easily countered. Again, the importance of screens. If my opponent had screeen his bots more effectively, it would have ben a totally different game.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on a hard won victory.

[brother_b]

 

Game 5

 

Against Ad Mech - Robots, Cawl, Grav Kataphrons, 2 Dune Crawlers, and some other stuff. Now, I’ve heard about the Robots, and know they have horrendous fire power, assisted by Cawl’s re-rolls - but if they turn on the mega shooting, they can never move again. The key must be to tie them up in combat. So that was my plan. 

 

My opponent really didn't have any screens for his Robots - the only thing he could have used was a unit of Electro Priest, buy for some reason he put them in reserve and planned to infiltrate them after deployment. He also deployed his robots on the line (we were playing Hammer and Anvil so he may have been worried about range). What I thought he was planning to do, was deploy the Electro Priests as a screen by infiltrating them in, outside his deployment zone, but in front of the Robots. So I pushed up my scouts to restrict his ability to do that. 

 

My opponent got first turn, and by god those robots are horrendous. At the end of his shooting phase I think the only think I had on the board was my Warlord (who was hiding) a Cyber Wolf and the Shield Captains. Everything else had been blasted off the board. But, IMHO, he had made a mistake. Rather than bring the priests in to screen the ‘bots, he had pushed them forward to assault my scouts.... leaving just enough room for the Death Company to come down 9” away from the ‘bots.

 

And down they came along with some Scions. It was a high risk strategy - if I had missed the charge (not likely, but possible) it would have been all over. But the DC made the charge, as did Captain JumpSmash and Lemartes.  I killed some bots, and then managed to consolidate into the Kataphrons and one of the Dune Crawlers. Having brough the other one down to a few wounds with Scion Plasma, there wasn’t much to shot at me next turn.

 

After the DC, JumpSmash and Lemartes got into the ‘bots, it was pretty much all over. 

 

Learning points - the Ad MEch ‘bots have horrendous fire power, but they are easily countered. Again, the importance of screens. If my opponent had screeen his bots more effectively, it would have ben a totally different game.

 

 

Bots can change protocol with a datasmith nearby (happens the next battle round I believe). That's something to remember. Obviously, if he uses the stratagem to switch them then yes, they're stuck. 

 

Good report, nice victory. Cheers!

Edited March 5, 2018 by brother_b

[CaptainHelion]

It's good to see if you can multicharge the Datasmith and the Bots for that reason. Compared, he's really squishy

[Explorer1]

He didn’t have a data smith, so used the strategem.

 

How does it work with the data smith? So I charge in, when does he switch, and when does it take effect?

[Kallas]

Datasmith would allow them to change modes at the end of their turn if they're close together; the Stratagem lets them change at the end of any phase but cannot change for the rest of the battle (meaning they cannot move at all, if they are put into the double shot protocol).

[Explorer1]

Game 6

 

So after 2 big wins I was up among the tops tabels again and of course came across one of the horrors that lurk there. Death Guard, but this time with Epidemius, a huge blob of Plague Bearers, 2 units of the Flys, some other characters, some Nurglings and 5 Plague Burst Crawlers.

 

But most importantly - 2 of the Nurgle trees that make the whole list tick, allowing anything within 7” to fall back and still shoot or charge, and everthing to advance and shoot with no penalty.

 

So, my opponent deployed everything, using the nurglings to create some board control to stop my deep strikers. He also wrapped his Burst Crawlers in a double wrapping of plague bearers and Flys. However, I managed to use scouts to create some space on the right .... and I got first turn for the first time all tournament! 

 

So I tried to kill some Nurglings with 3 shield captains, 9 mortars 2 units of scouts and a unit of Scions ..... and failed! I then charge the death company into his screens ..... and bounced off! He jumped the flys over the plague bearers and started to take objectives and shoot a bit. I charged all 3 shield captains into a unit of flys .... and did 3 wounds!  You get the picture. 

 

Again, not being able to clear the Nurglings quickly didn’t help, and bouncing off the screens was a problem. To be fair I made a stupid mistake and forgot to trail a model back to Lemartes to get his re-roll to hit in assault buff. I might have killed more of the screen, but ultimately I doubt it would have made much of a difference. To be honest, of the three games I lost, this was the one where I doubt I could have done much else. It’s a rock hard list.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

My condolences. Well, lesson learned.

[Explorer1]

List Review

 

My list for Dark Millenium was 

 

Blood Angles Battalion

 

Lemartes

Captain JumpSmash

 

5 Scouts

5 Scouts

5 Scouts

 

15 Death Company with 3 Thunder Hammers

 

Guard Brigade

 

Company Commander (the CP Miner)

Tempestor Prime

Tempestor Prime

 

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

 

Cyber Wolf 

Cyber Wolf

Cyber Wolf

 

Acolyte

Acolyte

Acolyte

 

Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars

Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars

Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars

 

Supreme Command Detachment

 

Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter

Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter

Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter

 

The strongest feature of the list were its Command Points. The list started with 16. Every time I spend a CP, on a 5+ I regained it. Every time my opponent used a Strategem, on a 5+ I “steal” a CP. Every game I spend 5 CPs pre-game - 3 to give 2 Shield Captain a 3++, 1 to make Captain JumpSmash a Death Company Captain, and 1 to give him the Angels Wings relic. I would usually spend 4 on Descent of Angels, using it twice, 2 on Red Ramapage, again using it twice, and usually 6 on Honour the Chapter, again, using it twice, either on JumpSmash and/or Lemartes. Occasionally I would use 2 CP’s to stop the big DC unit from failing moral. Combine that with other miscellaneous uses (e.g. re-rolls, On Wings of Fire etc), and I used a ton of CPs every game. In only one game did I run out of CP’s. I usually ended the game with around 6 CP’s left, and in one game I had 11 left at the end!

 

Which of course begs the question, assuming I have the CP Miner, do I really need 16 CP’s, or to put it another way, do I need the Guard Brigade?

 

I suspect the answer is “no”, so in the next iteration of the list I might drop the Brigade. 

 

There were a number of other things that weren’t quite right.

 

Scions

 

In theory, having 30 deep striking plasma shots is amazing. However, I was underwhelmed by the Scions. Even re-rolling 1’s from the Tempestor Prime’s Orders, I found myself more often frustrated by the Scions, than impressed by them. Often I would need to commit 3 units plus the Prime to inflicting enough damage to be worth while, and once committed their utility was usually done. Usually they were killed next turn as a “high priority target”. With T 3 and a 4++ save it’s not hard to do. However, often I just found myself out of position to do anything else. Once they’re down, they’re pretty immobile. 

 

I’m wondering whether Plasma Inceptors might be an alternative. Two units of Scions cost 156pts, and kick out 10 plasma shots at 12”. Three Inceptors will on average kick out 12 plasma shots, at 18”, and cost 177pts. For that extra 21pts I get T5, a 3+ Save, a 10” move and the ability to reposition with On Wings of Fire. Not a bad deal. The down side of cours is the random number of shots 6d3. There will be some turns when I roll a handful of 1’s - but rolling 6 dice should even things out. 

 

Cyber Wolves and Acolytes

 

The only thing these units added to the list was a way to fill out the Brigade cheaply. But more than that they irritated me. It just didn’t feel right to have 3 random wolves and 3 random guys with Bolters hanging around. If I don’t need the Brigade, I would ditch them in a moment.

 

Death Company

 

Don’t get me wrong, i love the DC, the number of attacks they can throw out is staggering. It was the load out I found awkward. Often I found that either the Thunder Hammers weren’t needed, or I wanted more of them - or to put it another way, the target you point the DC at, either needed more Thunder Hammers or more Chainswords. 

 

I suspect the answer is to have 2 units. One of 15 DC, with nothing but Chainswords for clearing screens and low to medium toughness models, and another unit to kill Big Scary Things (BSTs). This might be DC with Hammers, but it could be Sanguinary Guard or Vanguard Vets with Hammers and Storm Shileds. Further thought required.

 

Shield Captain

 

I’ll be honest here up front - my objection to Shield Captain is more “philosophical” than real - it just didn’t feel right pasting 3 of them into a BA and Guard army. They were a late addition. I had been running Sanguinary Guard, but was disappointed by their performance (too few attacks, and random damage). I had come to the conclusion that, to make SG work, you had to run too much support (an Ancient with the Relic Banner to give them a 5++ “feel no pain”, and a Libby with Unleash Rage to give them another attack), and I loved the Dawneagle models. 

 

The Shield Captain bring 2 big things to the army - torrent of fire via their Hurricane Bolters, and resilience. Interestingly, what they dont bring is combat punch. Five attacks at s6 and (most tellingly) d3 damage just doesn’t cut it in a BA army! Three Thunder Hammer Jump Captains are way more scary in assault. 

 

 

Mortars

 

It’s not that they're bad - 3d6, s4 shots, at 48”, which ignore line of sight for 33pts, is pretty good! And add in how they can zone out your backfield and it’s even more compelling. However, they problem is they hit on 4s! Even re-rolling 1’s from the Commander’s orders they are still pretty rubbish. To work I think they need to be in a pure Cadian detachment, so they re-roll all misses. 

 

 

Future Direction

 

To try and address some of these issues I’m going to change up the list for my next GT at the end of March. I think Inceptors might be the answer!!

 

The plan is to drop the Guard Brigade to see if the list works with fewer Command Points. I’ll still take a Guard Spearhead Detachment to give the Mortars another chance as pure Cadians to, increase their accuracy. I’ll replace the rest of the Brigade with 2 units of 3 plasma Inceptors, to replace the Scions, and one unit of 6 bolter Inceptors to replace the Shield Captain’s torrent of fire. I’ll also take the Thunder Hammers out of the 15 man DC unit, and take a second assault unit to hunt BSTs. Not sure yet what. 

 

Further thought to follow.

[Panda_Saurus_Rex]

So I have been running 15 DC with all bolter/chainsword and 10 SG with 5 fists and 5 swords. I point the DC at chaff and light armor and the SG at Big Scary Things. I don't normally run an Ancient but with my Smashwings nearby giving them re-rolls to hit, the SG unit can delete whatever it is that needs to die.

 

I'll run a Libby to give them the +1 attack but even if it doesn't go off that is 20 attacks that have a high likelihood of hitting and wounding. Anything short of a Primarch or Super-Heavy I tend to outright kill and even then, if it isn't dead it's been severely crippled.