Please help me turn this betrayal into a crusade!

[Neophyte for your Ryghts]

Hello all. I hate to be that guy who first-time-posts a wall of text, but I really need some help.

 

I've picked up the Betrayal at Calth set and now I've got into the Black Templars, and can't get out!. I'm feeling the ZEAL, but I'm not seeing how best to run this box. The rules aren't spectacularly inspiring, and I've not had a SM army before.

 

Sitting back with some fauxdevi and using cataphractii to deep strike in for counter-assault is really appealing (although not terribly BT, in my opinion) ... Except my local meta is all troop heavy gun lines with heavies in support (IG, Tau). So I need ways to bring the fight to my opponents without being shot to pieces before I've made it across the board (familiar story, I know). I've Battlescribed this 100 different times, but don't have the budget to really expand much on the basic set, nor the points to include anything else without leaving behind a big chunk of the Calth set. Some ideas I've had are: using the BT upgrade set to turn marines into vanguard veterans / company veterans / lieutenants; getting dedicated transport. But the bottom line is, I want something reasonably cost effective (or neutral!) to turn my very vanilla looking marines into a hard-hitting, zealous BT crusade.

 

Challenge: create a 1k list effective against gun lines and might contribute well towards 1750 tournament standard (lists at this price point would be helpful too!)

 

Restrictions:

Must use Calth set. This includes: push-fit captain in caraphractii armour with combi-melta and chainfist; chaplain with plasma pistol; 3 X 10 marine squad with bolters and a single combi-weapon, missile launcher, heavy bolter, plasma, flamer and meltagun. No las, grav, multimelta or heavy plas. Good news is they have 2 powerfists and 1 lightning claw, power sword and chainsword. Finally, catapuractii termies with combibolter + chain/powerfist / lightning claw or twin lightning claws. One may take a heavy flamer.

 

Budget can extend to 1 x BT upgrade sprue and 1 x something cheap (a rhino? I initially thought drop pod, but that would mean I couldn't deep strike my 4" crawling Cataphractii...).

 

Modeling, magnetisation and WYSIWYG are important to me. So if you say chainsword blob, I'm gonna need to find a lot of chainswords and pistol arms to be happy fielding them :P

 

Also (see fluff, below) I won't be taking Primaris or neophytes, as I can't afford the models right now.

 

Fluff: a post-heresy crusade has been lost in the warp for a few thousand years, but now it's back in real space, itching to cleanse. It lacks new recruits, but makes up for this with ancient elite units, and ZEAL. Will expand as your suggestions come in!

 

Hope y'all able to help, seems to be a lot of knowledgeable folks on here. As a side note I've been really tempted by the heresy I've read on the space wolves thread ... Run crusaders as blood claws for the free charge attack with cataphractii as pack leaders (hello mixed unit wound allocation with their great saves!) or chaplain as wolf priest for that free heal, and even a detachment as Raven Guard in order to use their excellent stratagem to get to close turn 1. Is such heresy even possible, rules wise?

 

All advice very much appreciated.

Ryghts

[Michaelum]

If you have what you have, you might as well look at tactics more than list making since you don´t have much room to change it anyway.

[CantusMaximGloria]

Your Cataphractii terminators are pretty good if you equip them all with lightning claws since their native 4++ is going to mean they have the best durability as dual lightning claw terminators out of all types of terminators. Of course you're welcome to opt for one lightning claw and the combi-bolter as it would allow the the ability to harass any squad you fail to charge them at after deepstriking in while still having effective melee combat. 

 

As for the 30 marines I think your idea of getting a rhino and the BT upgrade sprue are a solid way of making them into something that isn't just bolters and bolter accessories. Although you won't have any heavy weapons which can hinder your ability to combat heavier armor. You could also look at getting either a Devastator, Sternguard Veteran or Vanguard Veteran box instead of the rhino/BT upgrade since that will afford you a huge selection of bits and 5 more warriors for your crusade.

 

Rules wise your only restriction on multiple detachments is that your keywords (i.e. Imperium, Adeptus Astartes, Black Templars, etc) match within the detachment to gain any army wide tactic or stratagem use. So if you really wanted to you could run a Space Wolves Battalion detachment and a Raven Guard Vanguard Detachment provided you only have Space Wolves and Raven Guard models in their respective detachments. I, for example, have a Black Templars Battalion with 2 HQs, 3 Troops, and 2 Heavy Supports and an Imperial Fist Spearhead with 4 Heavy Supports and 1 HQ. This affords my Templars access to their chapter tactic and stratagem and my Imperial Fists to their chapter tactic and stratagem. Good luck in your crusade whether it flies our colors or that of another!

[Mordian Glory]

Greeting brother and welcome to the eternal crusade! 

 

The betrayal at Calth is a really good box and you should be able to make a passable space marine army out of it. But I think it is good to be honest and say that it wont be the most competitive and you are probably going to have to work hard for your victories. 

 

Have you considered buying second hand models? You can find some amazing deals online if you are willing to be patient and put some effort in to restoring them. 

 

If you dont like used models, you could just buy 2x packs of jump packs from GW for £10 and convert some of the basic marines into vanguard vets. 

From that box set i would recommend the following 1250pts list:

 

HQ

Captain in Cataphractii Armour: Storm Bolter and Power Fist (140pts)

Chaplain with jump pack: Plasma Pistol and Crozius. (97pts)

Lieutenant: Master crafted bolt gun and chainsword. (63pts)

 

Elites:

Contemptor Dreadnaught: Kheres Assault Cannon, storm bolter and dreadnaught close combat weapon (165pts)

Cataphractii Terminators: 5x Terminators each with a pair of lighting claws. (210pts) 

Vanguard Veterans: 3x vets with bolt pistol and chainsword, 3x vets power fist and plasma pistol. (165pts)

 

Troops:

Crusader Squad: 7x Initiates, 5x bolters, 1x plasma gun and 1x Heavy Bolter. Sword Brother with combi plasma and power sword. (138pts)

Crusader Squad: 7x Initiates, 5x bolters, 1x plasma gun and 1x Heavy Bolter. Sword Brother with combi plasma and power sword. (138pts)

Crusader Squad: 6x Initiates, 4x bolters, 1x plasma gun and 1x Missile Launcher. Sword Brother with combi plasma and power sword. (135pts)

 

So what I have done with the Calth box set and jump packs is convert 6 of the marines into vanguard vets, converted the chaplain to have a jump pack and turned 1 of the marines into a Lieutenant. 

 

My thinking with this list is to have the army splint into 2 parts: the first part is the deep striking choppy part. This will consist of the termies (who will reliably shred anything in close combat), the vanguard and the chaplain. The reason you want the chaplain in this part, and not the captain, is he provides rerolls to ALL misses but only in close combat. The idea is this force can deepstrike down together and just wreck face.

 

The 2nd part of the force is the shooty part. This is made up of the marines, the dread, the capt and the lieutenant. There job is pretty simple and is to castle up and hold objectives whilst laying down decent mid to long range fire power. The capt and Lt combo means you will be getting rerolls of 1 to hit and to wound in the shooting phase. 

 

Hope this helps :)

[TheOneTrueZon]

80% of my army is second hand from ebay or friends who are getting out (or horrible painters, bless their souls). It's more work, but as a kid who grew up in the Detroit area - I love nothing more than bringing something from the junkyard back to life. It means more time but if I paid full price for what I have now....

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

I know you don't want to buy a bunch of new/used models, but I think you'll need troop transport definitely. Rhinos are a great way to do this. They are relatively inexpensive in price at your LGS, and would allow whatever you decide to get in closer to gun lines quickly. 1-3 of them will eat into your overall points limit a bit, but the benefit is that you will have armored protection to get you up the board.

 

Trust me, I know the price tags are an issue. Look on ebay or other related sites for lower prices. Even if you DO buy new and assemble, you will not regret the investment in troop transportation.

 

On another note, steer away from drop pods for the time being. Stick to troop transports that can move.

[Neophyte for your Ryghts]

Hey all, thanks for the advice.

 

I had no idea GW did such cheap jump packs, that really opens up options.

 

Again, I was unaware of the second hand scene on eBay. There are some very good deals.

 

Given me loads of ideas and directions to try out - thanks!