Doubles again! IF 1250

[Scammel]

Hello everyone,

 

Doubles haven't yet been officially announced, but working on the assumption that they're going to take place in roughly the same timeframe as last year (late May) I'm putting together some early thoughts on another IF list. Folks were very helpful critiquing this list - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/354434-if-doubles-list-125k/ - last year, and we performed well, placing in the top third (with a little help from my teammate's Knights...). I haven't played any 30k since, but some learning points are still fresh:

 

- Bolters are great - BS5 bolters especially so! Not everything wears power armour and we faced a great many small units of Thallax that make for prime targets. I'm happy to take Tacticals this time around.

- Tank Hunter lascannons are also great, while my plasma cannons underperformed a bit. I almost always found myself wanting more than four of the former.

- Storm Shield Tartaros are ace, pure Deep Strike without good mitigation for the middle of the table is not.

 

With these and a few other learning points in mind, my latest list is thus:

 

- Master of Signal - Artificer armour and combat shield - 110pts

- Apothecary - Artificer armour - 55pts

- 3 Quad Mortars - Shatter shells - 210pts

- Tactical Squad - Artificer armour and power fist - 150pts

- Tactical Squad - Artificer armour and power fist - 150pts

- Rhino - 35pts

- Rhino - 35pts

- 10-man Heavy Support Squad - Lascannons - 435pts

- Aegis Defence Line - Ammo dump - 70pts

 

1250 points on the nose. Hopefully the intent of the list comes across quite strongly! I was struck by the sheer power of Knights last time around and BS5 lascannons re-rolling at most steps of the process seems a good way of addressing the issue.

 

At this point the list is still quite flexible - the mortars in particular are of a cost and role that they could easily be swapped out for, say, a Sicaran - so any feedback that doesn't completely overhaul the list is very welcome!

Edited January 27, 2020 by Scammel

[Bung]

Maybe you could reduce the heavy support squad to 8 models and upgrade the defense line to a bunker for more protection.

[Lautrec the Embraced]

Normally you are not allowed to take Master of Signal as a compulsory HQ choice ( he has Support Officer rule ). So unless there are some special 'doubles' rules allowing this, I'm afraid it's not legal.

 

Regardless, usually you don't want to have MoS in the close combat, so I'd rather slap Refractor Field on him. But since yours has a rather heavy cover in the form of Aegis, Combat shield is ok imo. Despite this not really being his theme, he still hits as hard as centurion in melee, so I'd probably give him a Power weapon. If anyone charges you, he might not turn the tide of battle but he will happily take some attackers with him.

[Scammel]

Normally you are not allowed to take Master of Signal as a compulsory HQ choice ( he has Support Officer rule ). So unless there are some special 'doubles' rules allowing this, I'm afraid it's not legal.

Dammmnnnnn you are right. Some re-thinking is required!

 

 

Maybe you could reduce the heavy support squad to 8 models and upgrade the defense line to a bunker for more protection.

I'm umming and ahhing over this - I could just make a straight swap of the ADL for the bunker. On the one hand, very few opponents even attempted to touch the bunker last time I used it, but on the other, it proved to be really quite restrictive in terms of firing arcs.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Scammel

[Scammel]

Revision! Since last time I've taken greater note of some of the nuttier tanks FW have put out in recent years, at the expense of character kit:

 

- Centurion - Naked(!) - 50pts

- Apothecary - 45pts

- Tactical Squad - Artificer armour and power fist - 150pts

- Tactical Squad - Artificer armour and power fist - 150pts

- Rhino - 35pts

- Rhino - 35pts

- 8-man Heavy Support Squad - Lascannons - 355pts

- Arquitor Bombard - 140pts

- Arcus Strike Tank - Skyspear missiles - 220pts

- Aegis Defence Line - Ammo dump - 70pts (wonderfully, the Arcus can benefit from the dump)

 

1250pts

 

It's a little frustrating that there aren't any compulsory HQ choices which mesh that well with IF shooting (a Siegebreaker seems ideal, until you realise that his Tank Hunters bonus is effectively wasted points). The Centurion is obviously the weakest link in the list, but if needs absolutely must he can just GTG behind the Aegis. 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Scammel

[Imren]

Barebones Centurion is a easy slay the warlord VP.

 

Judging by the list and not taking consideration to you other half of the doubles. Your list looks like you will play quite static and get cozy up behind the ADL with the HSS, medic and centurion with close-in defense of the arquitor and Arcus close by. You have a very defensive list and rely on a couple of rhinos with tacs to offensively venture out across the board and take objectives.

 

You will struggle against demons and lists with lots of jump packs, scimitars and javelins (fast lists like WS, EC and DA) that use terrain to their advantage (easily done against static gunlines) and get the charge despite your ADL. Then your 3+/5+++ HSS squad is done and the rest is easily picked apart. Your vehicles benefit from not moving and are vulnerable from the side and back. So outflanking fast units will (as mentioned before) be difficult for you.

[Scammel]

Much obliged! That is indeed the gameplan for the list, though you have very helpfully framed the issues it will face. We're formulating my partner's army this upcoming weekend; he'll be playing WE, so while he won't be bringing the absolute fastest units, it should have the CC vulnerabilities covered.

[Imren]

Ever considered a tartaros squad with storm shields Accompanied by a warmonger with AA armour, p.fist and digital weapons? This will give you a deep striking swiss army knife that can deal with a variety of problems (TEQs, vehicles, dreadnoughts etc).

 

That will of course mean you need to alter your list significantly and change the gameplan alot, but it will make your list a bit less predictable and versatile which is an important advantage in events/tournaments.

[Scammel]

Cheers again - my prior experience of storm shield Terminators is that they're quite unreliable as pure deep strikers, I think they reward a more all-in approach, where you can make the most use of a comms relay and a few scattered voxes. It's definitely something I want to try out in a larger list, but at this level you I don't think you get amazing returns on the investment required to bring them in safely and reliably. That said, I'm currently discussing the merits of a Caestus with my teammate, which might be able to afford a little less reliability with its speed.