Trying for a fun Force in an ITC event

[Prot]

So right up front, even though this is an ITC event, I’m going for fun. I’m taking mostly stuff I like to play.

That said I am also looking towards my AdMech because they’re mostly completed. I kinda said I’d put them away until Knights. But here we are.

The point limit is 1750 and I’m more or less settled on my core starting with Cawl.

I just finished painting a squad of Destroyers but man my test games have been poor with them (I’m using Grav).

I want to get the Kastelans right... I’ve never used more than 2 but even at 1750 I just tested three and they just kinda were mediocre. I think I need 3 minimum, perhaps 4?

Do you guys think I need Psychic protection? I have not been see it and right now I have 3 Shield Captains on bikes to alleviate the obvious issues but they are super expensive, and still weak against psyke. Any experiences with this?

[Scurvydog]

Cawl and 3 shield captains already swallows a lot of points and is already soupy, what is the funner part? Compared to what?

 

For Cawl to make sense he needs a strong gunline to buff, but as for robots, if you get them to shoot twice and with rerolls thats 36 shots with str 6. Combined witj destroyers, elemination volley strat and cawl they become very deadly. Plasma for destroyers in this case.

 

You can use stratagems for psychic deny, for those critical ones, oterwise I do not find it overly critical.

[Prot]

Cawl and 3 shield captains already swallows a lot of points and is already soupy, what is the funner part? Compared to what?

For Cawl to make sense he needs a strong gunline to buff, but as for robots, if you get them to shoot twice and with rerolls thats 36 shots with str 6. Combined witj destroyers, elemination volley strat and cawl they become very deadly. Plasma for destroyers in this case.

You can use stratagems for psychic deny, for those critical ones, oterwise I do not find it overly critical.

Do you think AdMech is a strong player in ITC competitive tournaments? I don’t. I won’t be using Stygies. I’m using what I own. I like Cawl, I love the model. I wanted to redo my Custodes in time for the tournament, but at least I managed to finish 3 Custodes bikes. That’s my supreme command to help with the ever problematic mobility issue.

 

I’m pretty sure what I’d bring has never won an ITC event and probably never will.

 

I only have limited options and time. I want to bring some better painted stuff, and I just finished the Destroyers but they are magnetized!

 

I can paint a second Dune crawler up, and another Kastelan or two. I do have 10 Corpuscarri priests which can be fun... but I think vehicles are going to be a big problem for me. I just wanted to see if anyone thinks it’s worth doing anything about Psykers.

[Charlo]

Four bots is the sweet spot for me. Their biggest weakness however is being forced to move, as that -1 really hurts, even with Cawls re-rolls.

 

Deploy them in sight of something big and near the Destoryers for Elimination Volley to get your 3+ re-rolling to hit, 6's to wound causing additional Mortals on 72 at S6 AP-2. Elim Volley also means if you need to move you can and still have 4+ re-rolls to hit.

 

Your current issue though is that with just Cawl, Destoryers, 4 Bots and 3 Bike Captains you are left with sub 400 points to get the rest of the army in... Guessing you'll want a Battalion for the Ad Mech for a bit of CP, so that is minimum two squads of 5 rangers and an Enginseer, leaving you at max 225ish left to play with.

 

It's tough!

[Black Knight]

Dunecrawlers are still our best anti-tank, the only things that come close are fist Kastellan(S10) or Dragoons(S8 with Taser) but both of those have to reach the target, so Lucius or Stygies Stratagems are a boon. I'm hoping the Armigers will become a solid option soon with the price drop, if it turns out to be true.

 

If you were going to bring a Battalion the Ranger Arqeubus's could take a few hp off the occasional T7 unit but it would be the coup de grace.

 

You would have to take another faction for phykers as both your armies have none, but they do have ways to combat it in a lesser way. Another faction would just dilute your current armies even more, I think it would be better to take another Dune Crawler or so and grit your teeth. There are a lot more tanks about than phykers.

[Prot]

at 1750 I am having problems getting more than 3 Kastelans in the list, and I keep forgetting about their moving/shooting limitation. Wow... in a fair amount of armies that leaves them hitting on 6's. 

 

Good call on the Arquebus' I have 2 in the list and they're something I often forget to target vehicles with.

 

It looks like I'll leave Psykers out of the equation. If I want to keep my Custodes bikes in, and use Cawl, I'm going to be strapped for points right there. Honestly if anything the Destroyers on the fence. I find they just die so easily and don't typically do a heck of a lot. Plasma feels very underwhelming without supercharging and it's so dangerous and penal to a multiwound model that only hits on 4's.

 

I won't have a lot of feet on the ground so I have to be pretty efficient with my shooting phase.

[Vel'Cona]

-1 for using the word "funner" :P

 

+1 for wanting to use what you have and make it work!

 

I vote for 4 as the best unit size for Kastelans.  As for Psychic Defense, it's hard to say.  With Smite spam taking a powder it may not be as necessary, but using Auxiliary Detachments to slide an Inquisitor or suchlike in there is much less painful now that we farm +5 CP per Battalion, esp. with how cheap we can do so (Enginseers and Rangers = easy CP).

[Black Knight]

I always try to take the Destroyers to spice up the troops and I use the Elimination Volley as the excuse but if you can replace them with some Rangers and add another Dunecrawler or Robot then in a tournament that will help you.  A Bot or Dunecrawler over 4-5 turns rather than the Destroyers should be better than the one emergency turn where you use the strategem so you can to move the Bots and still shoot reasonably. Not to mention the higher toughness of the vehicles.

[Prot]

-1 for using the word "funner" :P

 

+1 for wanting to use what you have and make it work!

 

I vote for 4 as the best unit size for Kastelans.  As for Psychic Defense, it's hard to say.  With Smite spam taking a powder it may not be as necessary, but using Auxiliary Detachments to slide an Inquisitor or suchlike in there is much less painful now that we farm +5 CP per Battalion, esp. with how cheap we can do so (Enginseers and Rangers = easy CP).

 

 

Sorry.... let’s try Fun-ish!

 

Seriously though I think at this point I’m going to ignore the Psyker end of it and I know I will pay dearly for that with some of the locals, but whatever. It’s 1750.

 

 

 

I always try to take the Destroyers to spice up the troops and I use the Elimination Volley as the excuse but if you can replace them with some Rangers and add another Dunecrawler or Robot then in a tournament that will help you.  A Bot or Dunecrawler over 4-5 turns rather than the Destroyers should be better than the one emergency turn where you use the strategem so you can to move the Bots and still shoot reasonably. Not to mention the higher toughness of the vehicles.

I think that sounds reasonable. Perhaps I need to rethink the Deastroyers because I’d like to keep Custodes in the mix. I literally just finished painting them.

[synthaside]

Greyfax was a the deny MVP in many of my games ,  if you can afford her, and are bringing an imperium supreme command detachment for the custodes , i would.

[Stray]

I have a Greyfax who is assembled but otherwise unpainted/unprimed. I don't need her, so she can be free to a good home if she's of use to anyone in need?

[Prot]

Okay crazy thought of the week. I only have to paint one model within 7days for this list:

 

Mars Battalion

2 x enginesser (purely for double fixing Knights)

2 x 5 Vanguard

1 x 5 Rangers includes 2 Arquebus’

 

Supreme Command

3x Shield Captains on bicycles

 

Super heavy detachment:

2 melta Lance Armigers

1 Crusader Knight dual battle cannon, missile pod, Avenger Gatling

 

12 CPs for double repairs, rotate shields, Victor of Blood Games. Etc etc.

 

Just too ludicrous? Or so crazy it might work?

[Stray]

Okay crazy thought of the week. I only have to paint one model within 7days for this list:

 

Mars Battalion

2 x enginesser (purely for double fixing Knights)

2 x 5 Vanguard

1 x 5 Rangers includes 2 Arquebus’

 

Supreme Command

3x Shield Captains on bicycles

 

Super heavy detachment:

2 melta Lance Armigers

1 Crusader Knight dual battle cannon, missile pod, Avenger Gatling

 

12 CPs for double repairs, rotate shields, Victor of Blood Games. Etc etc.

 

Just too ludicrous? Or so crazy it might work?

 

Remember that in the case of 'double fixing Knights', a vehicle can only be the target of 'Master of machines' once per turn. So you can only get the repair benefit of a single Engineseer, not both, on say your Crusader. I don't know if this changes anything for you?

 

To break it down some more, at base an Engineseer can at best repair a single wound on a Knight. You can use the strat to do so twice, but RAW not from two Engineseers, just the one who makes the initial repair. So we're at two wounds total repaired. If you made an Engineseer your Warlord, you could also give him the Necromechanic trait, which then allows him to repair 2 wounds at base, and then presumably 4 total with the strat.

 

TL:DR Depending on what your intentions were, the second Engineseer might be redundant unfortunately. :/

[Gaz1858]

Its a nice list and only having to paint one model is a bonus (unless its the Iknight lol)

 

Compact Force that should be easy to wield and take Objectives with the speed of your units. 

 

Is Mars the right choice for Forge World? Would Stygies (for some -1 to hit benefit) or Lucius (for late game drop down of Objectives) be a better choice?

 

Also who is the Warlord? If Admech guy then the +1 to repair means you can regain 4 wounds per turn on your IKnight with the Stratagem

[hermanista]

My proposed GT list is very similar, although I know that the Knight codex may give me the CP generation/regen I need for a list to work that it may well change by December when I head to Heat 3.

 

But basically

 

Well think I've got the basis of my *I'm a massive bender/GT list*

 

Guard battalion

Commander, boltgun, Warlord, Brilliant strategist

Commander, boltgun, Kurovs aquila

Infantry squad, mortar

Infantry squad, mortar

Infantry squad.

 

Super heavy detachment

2x Armiger, meltagun

Crusader with battlecannon, avenger, rocketpod

 

Supreme command detachment

3x jetbike shield captains.

 

So I lose the ability to repair knights, but I get 12 CP to start, 5+ regain a CP and 5+ regain a CP when the enemy uses a stray.

 

Which for me is the preferred option.

 

Plus slightly more boots on the ground.

[Charlo]

I like it.

 

It's a nice level of bigger targets that are fairly effective at fighting lot's of opponents.

 

Armigers + Captains on bikes can ride together for hilarious target priority.

[Prot]

Its a nice list and only having to paint one model is a bonus (unless its the Iknight lol)

 

Compact Force that should be easy to wield and take Objectives with the speed of your units. 

 

Is Mars the right choice for Forge World? Would Stygies (for some -1 to hit benefit) or Lucius (for late game drop down of Objectives) be a better choice?

 

Also who is the Warlord? If Admech guy then the +1 to repair means you can regain 4 wounds per turn on your IKnight with the Stratagem

 

Mars probably is a poor choices, it's just how they are painted (red cloaks,etc).

 

Warlord is a tough choice for sure. Right now I'm sitting at 2 wounds a turn, but the 4 sure would be nice. If I make him my warlord I'm almost assuredly going to give up WL kill every game. I was thinking about the WL Necromechanic trait, however the Shield Captain would get 5+ FnP or Impregnable mind for my only psychic denial, plus the relic bike which is huge. I don't blow any command points on that and therefore can easily give him Victor of the Blood games as well. He becomes pretty darn beefy with all of that...

 

OR I shoot for 4 wound repairs on a Knight and hope my WL doesn't get annihilated.

 

 

 

I like it.

 

It's a nice level of bigger targets that are fairly effective at fighting lot's of opponents.

 

Armigers + Captains on bikes can ride together for hilarious target priority.

 

Yea, my thinking was the Armigers can move a good clip, while they're ahead, opponents can't target the Brother Captains.

 

The list has serious issues, but the idea is I get a lot of different match up types with bikes shooting low level crud, the Armigers are good on hard targets, and the ol' Crusade Knight is a good all arounder.

[Gaz1858]

Well by taking Admech as Warlord you are going from 2 regained wounds a turn to 4. Not a huuuuge gain if you feel that the beefy captain will be a much better option.

 

can you switch the Missile Pod in order to make the Vanguards rangers with 2 x Arquebus? Thats pretty much the only change I can see as right now the Vanguard are a bit useless whereas with Arquebus your admech portion becomes serious Character Hunters.