Alcyon's Revenants Chapter 2nd Co. (Primaris RG Successors)

[thewarriorhunter]

Nice write up. To your previous post yes I've always understood you could be above it and still have it if you're withing the 3" bubble. Also I do think your opponent bringing a tank to a game that small (not sure on points but model count makes me think it was ~750). When you wrap that many points up in one basket at that size game I find that there just aren't enough opportunities for you to be effective vs taking two squads that will have more board presence and most likely offer more utility.

[Alcyon]

I agree on the tank for sure, and you're right it was 750. The Invictor is really good and I'm happy to have it but I don't think transports are super useful on a 30x44" table even if a lot of armies might struggle with a T8 vehicle. I would probably play a   ton of boys in his position and maybe some Killa Kans or something but I've never fielded Orks myself so I wouldn't really know. The campaign armies don't seem to have a lot of anti-infantry so far, I should make sure I bring some Assault Cannons or something when we hit 1500pts.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Alcyon

[Alcyon]

Played my first ever 2000pt game today, on TTS since I don't have all the models yet (much less all painted)! I used it mostly as a testing ground for units I'm considering for the next few tiers of our crusade campaign, and to get a sense of what competitive play is like. We did Scorched Earth from the GT2020 book. My opponent played a Nihilakh dynasty Outrider detachment with the following list:

• Skorpekh Lord w/ Enduring Will WLT
• 2x Triarch Stalkers w/ Heat Ray
• 3x6 Canoptek Scarab Swarms (Indomitus version)
• 6x Canoptek Wraiths
• 2x5 Destroyers
• 2x Doomsday Arcs
• Doom Scythe

I ran my locked-in Crusade CT of Stealthy and Bolter Fusillades for the following Battalion:

• Gravis Chapter Master w/ Master of Ambush WLT
• Phobos Captain w/ Korvidari Bolts
• Primaris Lieutenant w/ Belliicos Bolt Rifle
• 2x5 Infiltrators
• 5x Veteran Intercessors w/ Power Fist
• Bladeguard Veterans
• Primaris Chief Apothecary w/ Father of the Future
• 5x Tartaros Terminators w/ Plasma Blaster, Reaper Autocannon, Grenade Harness, Chainfists all around
• Outriders
• 3x Centurion Devastators w/ Grav-Cannons & Missile Launchers
• Eliminators w/ Las Fusils
• 5x Hellblasters w/ Assault Plasma Incinerators
• Stormtalon w/ Lascannons
• Impulsor w/ Shield Dome, Ironhail Heavy Stubber

Initially I'd planned to put the Hellblasters in the Impulsor with the Lieutenant, but we had the long board edges as deployment zones so we started only 24" away and so there was no need to get them further up the board. We did have six objectives though so I figured it'd be good to have the Intercessors in there so they could move pretty far and pop out. I was also going to put the Terminators and Centurions in Strategic Reserves, but since this was full-on Matched Play I knew I wouldn't be able to bring them on turn 1 and I was worried they wouldn't get enough done if they missed a turn of shooting.

 

My secondaries were Engage On All Fronts (EOAF), Bring It Down and Cut Off The Head. It was my first time choosing them and I thought I'd have a leg up being able to target the Skorpekh Lord turn 2 for Surgical Strikes, and he had four vehicles as well. Engage On All Fronts seemed like a no-brainer between the Impulsor and the Stormtalon, and that turned out to be the only thing I was right about. He took EOAF, Assassinate (I had four characters) and the mission-specific Raze objective.

 

I started with only 6 CP because I'd gotten used to being spendy with relics and WLT from the crusade; I had an extra relic on top of Hero of the Chapter, Veteran Intercessors, Chief Apothecary and a Chapter Master. I also spent 2 CP on Stranglehold though I don't think it was really worth it; Necrons do use stratagems fairly often on turn 1 but going off on a 5+ is pretty bad. I think if you want this effect you should either plan for it by reducing your pre-game CP spend, or just run a Callidus. 

 

In deployment I arrayed my army pretty evenly across the back board edge, stashing things behind obscuring ruins as much as possible. I deployed the Eliminators into cover just in front of my DZ since they have Heavy weapons, and set up the Hellblasters, Phobos Captain and Lieutenant nearby in a little castle. I also used the Infiltrators stratagem to move the Terminators forward as much as possible (going down to 3 CP.) My Infiltrators set up on the two mid-board objectives and the Apothecary set up with the Centurions.

 

I won the roll-off and used MoA to get my Gravis Captain and Bladeguard right up in his face, preparing to charge a squad of Destroyers and one Triarch Stalker. The Infiltrators mostly moved back from their initial positions while staying on the objectives as much as possible since he had a ton of scarabs staring them down. I was pretty aggressive with the Outriders, moving them up pretty far to get a bead on the scarabs behind a building. I also moved up the Terminators and flew the Stormtalon into one of the opposing table quarters for Engage On All Fronts.

 

Shooting phase I fired off Orbital Bombardment with the potential of hitting two Scarab Swarms, his warlord, the Wraiths, a Triarch Stalker AND a Doomsday Ark but rolled poorly and did basically nothing, so that was rough sending me to 1 CP for turn 1. I managed to blow up that Triarch Stalker with the rest of my shooting for Bring It Down, and I cleaned up a bunch of Scarab bases and I think some Destroyers too. The shooting phase was pretty disappointing generally which was sad, I'm used to being mostly strong in the shooting phase; Lascannons are so poor against Quantum Shielding and everything save the Doom Scythe had it. The Centurions were really good with Gravitic Amplification but I had spaced a lot of my units away from my re-roll bubbles which was painful, especially having my CM so far up the board. I felt like I just really wanted more shots total.

 

The Bladeguard made their charge into the Destroyers, entering the fourth quarter for EOAF but the Gravis Captain failed his charge and took a bunch of wounds from the Heat Ray in overwatch. The Bladeguard managed to wipe out the one Destroyer squad and consolidate into the Triarch Stalker I think. 

 

His turn 1 he moved his Doom Scythe into one of my table quarters for EOAF and moved up all his combat stuff; the Triarch Stalker in combat fell back. His remaining Destroyers wiped my Terminators and he killed 2/3 Bladeguard. In combat his Wraiths killed one of my Infiltrator squads and he charged his Scarabs into a bunch of my infantry and the Outriders. I was surprised how much survived but sad to lose the Terminators before I got to see how they would perform. In retrospect I think it might've been stronger to deep-strike them, but given how middling their shooting can be, I think they need a Chaplain with Canticle of Hate to be worth taking and deep-striking so they can try and get onto an objective turn 2 (to score turn 3.) 

 

After that I don't remember a whole ton but there was a lot of trading off. I lost models from most squads and the entire second Infiltrator unit; I poured fire into Scarabs and Wraiths and Quantum Shielding to little avail. I made some dumb mistakes with positioning and forgetting to move my Stormtalon, which meant I gave up some critical VP too. Mostly it really hurt to be super low on CP for re-rolls and stratagems like False Flight, Rapid Fire and Gene-Wrought Might; I failed a lot of wound rolls with all my low strength close combat weapons.

Eventually was the bottom of turn 3 and I think I had only an Apothecary, 2 Outriders, my Phobos Captain, the 3 Eliminators, 4 Intercessors, the Impulsor and the Stormtalon left and I was pretty happy to concede against his Skorpekh Lord, Doomsday Arks and Scythe, fully regenerated Destroyer Squad and a couple of Wraiths. Big learning experience, wow, and lots to think about in list planning and considering how to approach competitive play. Takeaways:

• Korvidari Bolts were especially bad this game but I question their value at all on a Str 4 gun - if you're spending 1 CP on it, I think it's a lot of investment for something that usually only wounds on a 4+. In fact, how weak it is makes me reconsider the Phobos Captain at all. I have never found his deep-strike denial bubble useful so far and in fact it's sometimes actively bad when the unit he's buffing (usually Hellblasters) wants to Auspex Scan. I'm stuck with him now in the Crusade since he's accrued so much XP, but I don't know if he'll see a lot of play outside this campaign.
• I think you can stack enough buffs on one unit to make them quite tough, but trying to run and buff Bladeguard, Terminators and Centurions is a big CP investment and spreads you really thin. 2+/4+ isn't invincible by any means especially with only T4, and I really didn't like having a unit that was no good in shooting and only s5 in combat. I also didn't like forcing a turn 1 charge - supporting that kind of move puts the rest of your army in the open and closer than they want to be, I think. I would prefer to have good countercharge threats.
• Accordingly for the crusade it's really easy to get a 6+ FNP with the Grizzled Battle Honour, so I think I'm going to pivot to running a big squad of Aggressors, maybe with a Lieutenant with MoA. I feel kinda bad giving into the ubiquity of the unit but they're good for a reason. Having a ton of S4 shots would've been great against the Scarabs and can do ok against low numbers of T4 (marines) especially if I maybe DS a Phobos Lieutenant near them.
• Characters, stacking the bubbles is really strong and improves a gunline army a lot. However Smash characters require a lot of investment on their own and are much weaker in regular Matched Play than in crusade because of the reduced buff options. It's also clear why people run Bike Captains as the combination of mobility, T5 AND a Storm Shield is huge (the Gravis Captain's T5 but only a 4+ invuln was not strong enough for how aggressive I was with him.) I think my Smash character of choice for the Crusade is going to be an Outrider Chaplain now that we know the model is coming out October 10. I'll hold off on a CM for now since we suspect/know it's going to a points cost instead of CP, and maybe look to fold in Lieutenants in the meantime. 
• Infiltrators are good but I probably should've popped smoke instead of shooting with them on turn 1, and I think I should actually be running one big squad to increase their survivability as they try and hold an objective until they can get backup. If I design the list around holding two mid-board objectives, one can be the Aggressor bomb with MoA and the other can be Infiltrators with Invictor backup. 
• The Centurions were very strong and very resilient with their T5, 4w and 2+ though they still would've been helped by an invuln (though maybe AP>/=4 weapons are rarer outside Necrons?) I may even try running an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor to grant that and have a single psyker for missions like The Ritual. D3 damage weapons are pretty good against Quantum Shielding and I felt confident having chosen the Missile Launchers over the Hurricane Bolters. In the campaign I think it's pretty defensible to bring them on via Strategic Reserves just like I do with the Eradicators since they can arrive and fire on turn 1, and they really need the help to get in range with only a 4" move. If I can plan to have them arrive from a protected table edge near my Captain, Gravitic Amp will be awesome.
• The Las Fusil Eliminators were surprisingly disappointing though they were a little poorly suited to Quantum Shielding. Only having three shots is kind of rough for a unit that costs the same as Eradicators even if they are very thematic for Raven Guard. If I run these I think I'll stick to the Bolt Rifle version. I think among the most frustrating parts of running them is that their Camo Cloaks demand for them to be in cover, but that means they can rarely hold a backline objective. 
• The Impulsor was very resilient and really handy with such a long movement range! However it dumped its dudes very quickly and then went to camp a backline objective (which I had nothing better to stand on it with, which was frustrating.) The amount of terrain these days also makes moving it feel like bumper cars, and given that the Hellblasters seem to be in range pretty easily it felt a bit extraneous. Maybe it'll be useful for missions where we deploy in the short board edges but I might not bother bringing it otherwise; it's a fair chunk of points with the Shield Dome. I think I understand why it's so good in competitive play though, being able to provide obscuring cover to an infantry squad holding an objective is big.
• The Stormtalon was weird to play with - never used a flyer before - but really useful and I think almost singlehandedly makes EOAF a really strong option for my army. Beyond that it felt a bit nerfed by Quantum Shielding and especially by losing its Strafing Run +1 to hit against Scarabs with Fly. I think the latter ability really helps it justify itself being far away from re-roll bubbles otherwise. For the crusade though, its inability to hold objectives or perform actions for 185pts is rough and I don't know if it has enough guns to justify itself. I would rather take a dread, Whirlwind or Thunderfire to hold a backline objective.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Alcyon

[Alcyon]

Basically just using this as my own game diary now, don't know if anyone is finding these useful but I do at least. The crusade is a very different beast and has such big impacts on listbuilding.

 

Played our last 750pt game of the crusade today, doing the Sabotage mission against Thousand Sons. I brought the same list as before, Invictor, Phobos Captain, Veteran Intercessors w/ Power Fist, Eliminators w/ Bolt Sniper Rifles, Eradicators and Assault Hellblasters. He had:

• Daemon Prince 
• 10x Rubric Marines
• 5x Scarab Occult Terminators
• Mutilith Vortex Beast

I won the roll off and chose Defender, thinking that with only 4 slow-moving units it'd be hard for him to perform actions and so if I could manage some strong shooting turns I could cripple him and carry the game. The mission has a pretty odd deployment, the defender gets half the board and places the objectives and the attacker is 9" back from the centre and gets to choose who goes first. I didn't realize that last part much to my chagrin, I think I would've won if I'd gotten another shooting phase though who knows how he would've deployed.

 

I put the Invictor and Intercessors pretty far forward and hid the Hellblasters, Captain and Eradicator behind obscuring terrain fairly far back on the board. The Eliminators went into a sniper perch with a nice long line of sight. Almost all the terrain was Dense Cover but we only had a couple Obscuring pieces. He clumped his guys up right along the board edge planning to take first turn and fire off charges against my forward units - at this point I was already regretting things.

 

Turn 1 he lit up the only units he could see, I fired off Armour of Contempt on the Invictor which helped against all the psychic stuff but he's got Weakened Armour, so he took a handful of extra mortal wounds from the Terminators' missile launcher. His Daemon Prince flew forward and perched atop my terrain to fire psychic powers down onto my firebase, but he rolled poorly and didn't accomplish much. In the combat phases he charged into my Invictor, I overwatched to put some hurt in and then it took bunch of wounds, bracketing it but failing to kill it. 

 

My turn 1 the Eradicators smoked the Daemon Prince and I took down some Rubric Marines with the Intercessors and Hellblasters. I foolishly failed to overcharge (the Captain was right there too!) and so he got the buff for 1 damage weapons. Thanks to a generous prompt from my opponent I didn't forget to shoot the Invictor in combat and he dealt a pile of wounds to the Terminators. My Intercessors charged into the Vortex Beast and I fired off Gene-Wrought Might and Death to the Traitors but at the end of the day with only two guys besides the Sergeant they didn't do much and it probably wasn't worth it. In combat his Terminators failed to kill the Invictor (they only have a staff and power swords!) and I interrupted to try and do some damage to the Vortex Beast, but didn't roll especially well being bracketed. The Vortex Beast ended up killing the Invictor finally and he sadly didn't explode. 

 

His turn 2 he moved his Rubrics up and began sabotaging an objective, meanwhile his Terminators, now freed from combat, did the same on the other side of the board. I hadn't realized that the actions completed the same turn as you began them and so I was suddenly down 40 VP. His Vortex Beast killed the last Intercessor and consolidated towards me.

 

My turn 2 I reduced the Terminators to 1 guy and failed to deal much damage to the Vortex Beast, though I did pick off a few Rubrics. His turn 3, the Beast made it into combat with my Hellblasters and killed all but 1, their overwatch dealing a pittance. His Terminator moved to the third objective and smashed it for another 20 VP, so I was pretty much locked out of winning by that point despite earning Kill More several times with more to come.

 

My turn 3 I used False Flight to fall back with the Hellblaster and moved all my squads out of the beast's blast radius (in case he exploded.) The Eradicators took him out and the Eliminators finished off the Rubrics. His turn 4 he moved his remaining guy up towards me and killed an Eliminator, dealing some wounds to a second, then the Eliminators finished off the final terminator.

 

This was really the first game where I threw the objectives out the window; I felt flustered coming in to play and hadn't spent enough time preparing for the mission, and it definitely showed. It was a pivotal error not to realize the attacker got to choose who took first turn and I should've studied the Vortex Beast's datasheet to know how powerful it was in CC.

 

I was too aggressive with my Intercessors and Invictor and lost them for not much in return; I should have focused my fire more to wipe out more units each turn for VP and also to reduce his ability to perform actions. I need more weight of fire (the new codex upgrade to Hellblasters will be big) and some more melee punch to contend with units like the Vortex Beast.

 

The Captain also underperformed this game - the relic bolter with only S4 has been much weaker against the last few armies I've played, and his re-roll aura is pretty much worthless now between Bolter Fusillades and the Veteran Warriors battle honour. It's a shame because he has an insane amount of XP but I think I may actually drop him from my OoB to open up the relics and battle-honour he has for another HQ. We'll see if there's a way to change datasheets with him in the new codex.

 

In the meantime I've ordered some Aggressors and plan to play the following list for next week's first 1000pt game using the Recon Patrol mission:

• Primaris Lieutenant w/ Bellicos relic
• Primaris Chief Apothecary w/ MoA, Healer's Aegis
• 5x Infiltrators w/ Helix Adept
• 7x Veteran Intercessors
• 3x Aggressors
• Invictor
• 3x Eradicators
• 5x Assault Hellblasters

I've also ordered a Primaris Psyker to paint up as an Inquisitor for the second mission, The Ritual - it seems strong as the defender to have a psychic warlord for the main objective, and as the attacker with Ordo Malleus he'll be another source of a 5+ invuln I can bring on from reserves beside a unit like Centurions.

[thewarriorhunter]

I like reading through these when I have time. I'm do similar in my threads because I think it's a great way to get thoughts out of my head. If someone else can learn from it even better.

[Alcyon]

That means a lot to hear! Thank you. 

 

After ordering the Primaris Psyker I had a sudden realization that the crusade reward for the mission is kind of wasted on a 60pt Inquisitor with one role, and further that the whole reason to take a psyker for the Ritual mission is so your Warlord can still shoot and fight outside the psychic phase. If the model doesn't have much to do in those phases the point is moot. It also turns out that performing actions turns off your auras, but an Apothecary's revival ability isn't an aura and should still work. I suppose the 5+ invulnerable aura offered by Healer's Aegis won't work either but it does make that model a good candidate for the Warlord in that mission if I run my HQ as a Lieutenant, since they both have Ld 8 (in crusade your Warlord is just whoever has the highest Ld, or you pick if it's a tie.)

 

I recently got a line on the HQ models from the Dark Imperium box so I'm excited to paint up the Auto Bolt Rifle Lt with the Bellicos relic weapon - it'll be him, the Apothecary, three Aggressors and a couple more Veteran Intercessors to paint for the 1k games.

[Alcyon]

Forgot to write up the Recon Patrol game so I'll do my best to cover what I remember before reporting on yesterday's Ritual mission against Astra Militarum. Since the new codex dropped and considering that many of my units already had 6+ FNPs from the Grizzled battle honour, I decided to skip painting an Apothecary and instead swapped in a second Infiltrator squad. My opponent's army was something like:

• Skorpekh Lord
• Overlord
• 20x Warriors
• 10x Warriors
• Ghost Ark
• Deathmarks
• Destroyers
• Scarabs

Unfortunately I misread the mission and thought I could perform the Recon Sweep action with multiple units a term, so I prioritized having more infantry on turn 1 planning to perform all the actions as early as possible. This was foolish because it meant one Infiltrator squad got wiped by his Skorpekh Lord almost immediately and the other was bogged down losing an objective to 20 ObSec Warriors for multiple turns.

 

 

Captain, we need backup! My Hellblasters had few good targets and spent most of the game trying to blast down his obstinate Ghost Ark.

 

The Eradicators did manage to kill off his Skorpekh Lord and the Aggressors, Invictor and Rapid Firing Intercessors took care of most of his infantry, but it came down to the wire. I wasn't able to get a squad into his DZ that survived long enough to perform the final action (to score 45 VP!) but I did manage to deny him a lot and in the end it came down to paint points, which he took. Could've been a victory I think had I read the actions more closely and brought more guns on turn 1.
 

 

The other day I played another 1k game against Astra Militarum this time, we did The Ritual and it was my first game with the new codex. I brought:

• Terminator Librarian (warlord) w/ Null Zone, Psychic Fortress, MoA (didn't matter with the DZs given)
• Primaris Lt w/ Bellicos Bolt Rifle
• 5x Infiltrators w/ Helix Adept
• 5x Intercessors w/ ABR, Power Fist
• 3x Flamestorm Aggressors
• 3x Eradicators
• 5x Hellblasters
• Invictor

I forget what army traits my opponent had but I think it was a custom setup. He had:

• Demolisher Tank Commander
• Battle Cannon Tank Commander, Old Grudges, Plasma Cannon Sponsons
• Company Commander
• 3x Infantry Squads
• 2x Special Weapon Squads w/ 3x Plasma Guns
• 2x Full Payload Manticores

I won the rolloff for attacker/defender and took the latter, as the DZ for the attacker is only 10" deep on the minimum table size and I figured it'd be harder for him to move up the board and take out my HQ. Infiltrators, Intercessors and the bookie held the backline and ritual site while everyone else deployed behind obscuring cover as close to the midboard as I could get.
 

 

Won the roll-off for first turn, moved my Aggressors and Eradicators up with the Infiltrator strat to get range on one of his Tank Commanders and to engineer a turn 1 charge into his infantry screen. Aggressors slagged a bunch of guardsmen and made it into combat immediately, the Eradicators blew up the BC Tank Commander, which dealt a fistful of mortals to his tightly packed DZ, and then charged some infantry to try and protect themselves from Manticore reprisal. Bit silly in retrospect as they simply killed the last few guardsmen with their fists. Meanwhile on the other side of the board my Invictor melted a ton of infantry himself and made it into combat with the Demolisher Commander, locking it up and doing a ton of wounds. The Hellblasters put a ton of wounds on one of the Manticores but failed to quite kill it. I got my Psychic Ritual off of course (WC3).

 

 

His turn 1 one of his Manticores wiped out my Eradicators; I neglected to use Transhuman on them figuring the Aggressors were more valuable, and I did some napkin math that made me feel comfortable with the odds. Obviously, the dice gods punished me severely. He fell back with the Demolisher and moved his guardsmen up to screen it, while his other Manticore's missiles took down one Aggressor I think and his Plasma Gunners started pummelling my Invictor.

 

My turn 2 I earned 20 VP for hold 2, hold more and performed another Psychic Ritual for a total of 40 VP to 0. The Hellblasters blew up the damaged Manticore and the Invictor's guns pasted his infantry screen into strawberry jam. My remaining Aggressors wiped up another guard squad then blew up the second Manticore with their Power Fists. The Invictor, his path clear, charged the Demolisher and carved it into pieces. At this point he had 0 VP and the only things left on the board were his Company Commander and a handful of guardsmen, so he conceded. It was not a pretty sight.

 

 

Getting turn 1 charges off is pretty huge and it's tough that a lot of the crusade missions facilitate it so easily. The Guard codex is just so underpowered compared to ours with so few weapons over AP 2/3. I think I would be playing a lot of Bullgryns right now with a Priest and probably zero Russes, maybe a Chimera with Plasma in it to seize objectives and flame stuff. 

Looking forward to finishing the models I've got in play and adding on an Impulsor, Outriders and the Bike Chaplain for 1500pts. I figure with the bigger board size I'll need more mobility to play to the missions.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Alcyon

[Alcyon]

Phew, been ages since I posted an update. Back at the end of October my Crusade standings were 5-3 with the following results:

• Sweep & Clear - loss v. Necrons
• Supply Drop - win v. Tau
• Assassinate - win v. Blood Angels
• Supply Cache - win v. Orks
• The Relic - win v. Death Guard
• Sabotage - loss v. Thousand Sons
• Recon Patrol - loss v. Necrons
• The Ritual - win v. Astra Militarum

After having started 4-1, things continued to slide:

• Behind Enemy Lines - loss to Necrons
• Supplies From Above - loss to Sisters of Battle
• Narrow the Search - loss to Custodes
• Cut Off the Head - loss to Necrons

Playing on TTS at the 1500pt/2k level because of COVID restrictions is really taxing and I started to tilt more than I had a good time. I was really regretting parts of my army list that I couldn't change (Terminator Librarian, Hellblasters) and overall I felt like I'd built an Ultramarines army that I was trying to play with RG rules. I wasn't alone and the Crusade campaign ended up tapering off without the last few games being played. I am glad to have finished (tabletop ready) almost 1300pts of models so I thought I'd post them up here for posterity. 

 

 

The mars texture paint chips really badly, especially if you only use primer under it. I might have to totally rebase some of them or at least re-apply the paint and seal them with matte varnish.

Next steps include a Redemptor, which is mostly painted and needs details and basing, as well as 5 more Intercessors, a couple more Aggressors, 5 Vanguard Veterans and a Captain in Gravis Armour, plus a jump Chaplain. I have the Indomitus box too but I'm thinking of saving those for a future BA project. Honestly feeling a little burned out on Space Marines and so I picked up the Tau battleforce last month; been playing some 500pt games with them online and really enjoying it so I might just paint those for a while.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job.

[Alcyon]

Lil' update - we started up a new Crusade Escalation Campaign running from 500pts to 1250, keeping it all Combat Patrol and Incursion (switching at 1k instead of 501pts and not doing any Strike Force despite being over 1000.) I moved to using Tactical Withdrawal and Whirlwind of Rage, and both have been quite strong - way better than my last setup. Heroes so far are Vanguard Veterans, who I finally caved to buying after initially wanting to be fully Primaris. Jump packs are just too good.

 

I'm currently 3-0 and #1 in the crusade (of ~26 players) with 250 total VP, so it's going pretty well. At 500pts tabling happens so often that the Angels of Death agenda is very good, and so I have a big pile of XP and upgrades now. My 500pt list is:

• Chaplain w/ Jump Pack, Relic Crozius, Swift & Deadly WLT, Frenzon Injector (+1 Attack on the charge, re-roll advance & charges), Deadly Charge (+1 Attack on the charge)
• 5 Vanguards, 2 with TH+SS, 2 with 2xLCs, Sergeant w/ Relic Blade, Weapon Enhancements (+1 Str & Dmg), Bladesman's Honour (+1 WS)
• 5 Intercessors w/ Auto Bolt Rifles, Fleet of Foot (+1 to Move, Advance & Charge)
• 3 Eradicators w/ Melta Rifles, Marksman's Honours (+1 BS), Grizzled (6+++)

My OoB's also got a Primaris Librarian (for Psychic Fortress and Null Zone), 5 Boltstorm Aggressors w/ Grizzled, a Gravis Cpt. and maxed out Vanguard and Eradicator squads. We've got a guy writing fluff for the setting so I've been working on writing out my own fluff for the army, I'll make another thread for that.

[Alcyon]

Here's the fluff thread link, BTW. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/369154-battle-archives-of-the-shadowhawks-2nd-co-crusade-fluff/