Needing some direction

[Dantay VI]

Hi guys,

 

I need help.

 

For years I have been a hobby-ist far more than a gamer, but I really would like to put together a decent army, which would not get laughed off the table should I play a game or 2.

 

My goal for 2021 is to find a gaming club I can join and actually learn how to play. For 40K I would like to go mainly with the Primaris, but I have a massive amount of Firstborn.

 

Theming my army around Ragnar. After crossing the rubicon, he is almost treated as an outcast by his fellow wolf lords, he smells different, so he is shunned to ward off maleficarum.

Feeling slighted, by his treatment, Ragnar believes his only path lies in reshaping his future and striking out on his own.

  

Ragnar invites all those from within the chapter who feel outcast to join him. Those who no longer wanted to follow his lead were given his blessing to depart for other great companies. Attracting a great many of the newly inducted Primaris and swathes of the Old legion to his side, he takes up the original colours of the 6th Legion and strikes out in to the sea of stars.

 

This new found great company is now by far the largest within the Fang. Many Jarls within the chapter view his actions with jealousy and dread, trying to forment a rift between Grimnar and Ragnar. Logan has taken a different view on the matter, seeing Ragnar as a bridge between te old and the new and has hopes that by uniting them both, he can start to heal the widening schism with in the chapter.

 

Swearing oaths of loyalty to the Wolves of Fenris and the Great Wolf, Ragnar departs the Fang with his mis-fits, ready to create a new and exciting saga.

 

I am a bit aimless when collecting, just getting units here and there, so if someone could help guide me, I would like to turn my mish-mash of troops into an army

 

So what do I have?

 

Ragnar

Haldor Icepelt

Shadowspear Phobos captain

Shadowspear Phobos Lt with grav chute

Shadowspear Phobos Librarian

Rune priest made from Bladeguard Ancient

Indomitus Chaplain

Indomitus Judiciar

Indomitus captain

Indomitus Lieutenant

Arjac Rockfist

Ulrik the slayer

Njal Sormcaller

 

Bladeguard veteran squad

 

Eliminators

Suppressors

Eradicators

 

Outrider squad

 

Assault Intercessor squad

Infiltrator squad

Incursor squad

 

12-15 Thunderwolf cavalry all armed differently

3-4 wolf priests

2-3 rune priests

2-4 iron priests

15 Blood claws

10 grey hunters

70 wolf guard terminators

A massive amount of Heresy stuff  I can run as any sort of troop choice and lots of tanks.

 

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

It looks like you have a great collection to choose from. I would consider blinging up a couple of thunder wolves to make a wolf lord and battle leader. Both are strong options and you'd still have enough for two five man thunderwolf squads. Do you have transports?

[Dark Shepherd]

TWC, bladeguard, eradicators, terminators all pretty meta right now

 

Outriders, Judiciars good for us

 

IMO you want solid/survivable troop choices. Looking at your options you need to take all the heavy shooting you can

 

Summary: heavy weapons and TWC should form the basis of your list

Edited November 1, 2020 by Dark Shepherd

[TiguriusX]

Your specific army doesn't matter until you get through that initial learning curve of becoming a competitive/competent player in your gaming club.

 

The old saying about how to get to Carnegie Hall is "practice practice practice" (Carnegie Hall is a historically famous concert hall in New York for those outside the US)

 

It doesn't matter if you win or lose early on.  Just get all the experience you can. 

 

Learn the different missions and deployments and unique secondary objectives

 

Learn the tricks different armies have

 

Experiment with different units you have an interest in

 

Don't take back mistakes you would in a casual game...make a mental note and keep grinding on 

 

Don't concede turn 2 or 3...see if you can pull out the win and learn how the late game plays out.

 

 

 

After a while you will have a better feel how YOU want to play 9th edition and the local meta of your gaming group

 

You will learn what units are working for you...what are not

 

That is when you make your non-embarrassing army and master it on the table

 

 

Good hunting!

[Dantay VI]

It looks like you have a great collection to choose from. I would consider blinging up a couple of thunder wolves to make a wolf lord and battle leader. Both are strong options and you'd still have enough for two five man thunderwolf squads. Do you have transports?

Only a couple of drop pods 3 Land raiders 2 rhinos 2 Spartans 2 Storm Eagles a Caestus assault ram and a Mastodon. Nothing primaris can go in I think.

 

I have Harald Deathwolf and old metal Canis, I could easily convert some up to be a wolf lord and leader also.

 

 

TWC, bladeguard, eradicators, terminators all pretty meta right now

 

Outriders, Judiciars good for us

 

IMO you want solid/survivable troop choices. Looking at your options you need to take all the heavy shooting you can

 

Summary: heavy weapons and TWC should form the basis of your list

 

Among my heresy guys, I do have a 5 man ML squad, 5 man autocannon squad, 5 man minigun squad, 5 man lascannon squad and 5 man volkite culverin squad.

 

I could proxy the volkites as plasma and the miniguns + autocannons as heavy bolters?

I can round that out with 2 predator executioners, a sicaran, a venator and an arcus

 

I was really infantry heavy, but my friend and I did apocalypse. He took eldar and basically it kicked my teeth in, so for a while I went vehicle crazy, especially for my 30K guys

 

This is all firstborn and quite a lot of infantry are in boxes

 

Edited November 1, 2020 by Dantay VI

[Dantay VI]

Your specific army doesn't matter until you get through that initial learning curve of becoming a competitive/competent player in your gaming club.

 

The old saying about how to get to Carnegie Hall is "practice practice practice" (Carnegie Hall is a historically famous concert hall in New York for those outside the US)

 

It doesn't matter if you win or lose early on.  Just get all the experience you can. 

 

Learn the different missions and deployments and unique secondary objectives

 

Learn the tricks different armies have

 

Experiment with different units you have an interest in

 

Don't take back mistakes you would in a casual game...make a mental note and keep grinding on 

 

Don't concede turn 2 or 3...see if you can pull out the win and learn how the late game plays out.

 

 

 

After a while you will have a better feel how YOU want to play 9th edition and the local meta of your gaming group

 

You will learn what units are working for you...what are not

 

That is when you make your non-embarrassing army and master it on the table

 

 

Good hunting!

 

 

I have played 2 crusade games against my best friend and his son.

 

I was up against a nurgle force and an ork army.

 

I won both, but not sure if they were going easy on me.

 

Game 1 I ran outriders, eradicators, 2 x 5 man intercessor squad and 1 x 5 man asssault intercessor squad, Chaplain and Captain

From memory he had 3 sqauds of 5 plague marines, a sorceror, some guy with a flame weapon which dealt horrific amounts of damage and a warlord plus blight crawler...

 

I found that I pushed the bikes to far forward too fast and they died, the terrain made it difficult to get my eradicators in where I wanted them and they almost smoked the blight crawler, before taking on most of the nurgle firepower and dying

I ran the chaplain up 1 side with the assault intercessors, while the standard intercessors stayed with the captain and advanced up the board

The assault guys and chaplain hit hard but died, however it allowed the intercessors to hit in a solid wave and mop up the last of the nurgle army

 

Second game

 

Outriders, Chaptermaster Judiciar 1 x 3 man blade guard squad, 2 x 5 man assault intercessors 1 x 3 man eliminator squad (standard rifles not the last ones) Rune Priest.

 

He had 2 x lootas, burna bommer, big mek, weird boy, war boss with nobs , 2 and 2 or 3 squads of boys

 

Highlights were: eliminators doing a number on the lootas, despite the big mek being nearby. Judiciar being a blender, but dying quite easy, the outriders surviving against warboss and nobs (had 1 bike left, and the warboss swung last 3 hits with the klaw and 3 saving throws with -3. Rolled a treble 6!!! then made the outrider a lone wolf. He won me the game, as it allowed me to get units repositioned and take out the boss and nobs.

 

The other thing that happened was him pulling off 3 stategems or whatever they are. 1 allowe d him to shoot/ attack twice, 1 let him throw all grenades and 1 amped the damage I think. Was scary, however the assault intercessors managed to weather it. It showed to me just how resilient 2 wound models really are, and took the "fear" of being more aggressive away.

[TiguriusX]

Is your gaming club going to be casual or hard core tournament style competition?

 

What points level will you be playing?  The meta changes at each point level

 

 

 

 

I have been facing non-stop 2000 point meta lists lately and it is brutal...hoping the full codex gets me back in the win column more consistently

 

Top lists are going to have mobility...the 1 thing our army lacks...

Falling behind in the primary objective category is my current issue

 

 

Harlequins

-Twilight path and general space elf trickery of skyweavers (haywire auto killing anything with vehicles basically if they have LOS) and starweavers (fusion pistols firing out the back after an advance 22" threat range)

-The army has speed and can kill whatever they want every single turn...quickly dominate the primary objective

-In addition the troupe melee (they avalanche you with tons of hits) they also have the insane yncarne and/or solitaire with blitz for melee support so they aren't push overs

 

 

AdMech

-Serberys raiders are just insane...low low price gets them a mobile (pregame scout move) and durable unit that can also pick off characters with ease...you can't charge them b/c for 2 CP they get to move away from the charge (it is a 12"+ move...)

-Then the bombers circle overhead while the belleros artillery piles on

 

 

 

The impulsor nerf (losing fly) took away my previous solution for that and I am still searching for my own new army build

 

 

 

Anyways...long winded point I was trying to make is that the make up of the gaming club you choose will be the biggest factor in the army you need to build to compete

 

Add in your personal play style or preference...the current SW meta is definitely thunderwolf cavalry but I personally don't like that so I am not following that trend

[Dark Shepherd]

You have too much to pick from

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

You definitely have everything you need lol. I do think you should keep getting crusade games in. I would use them to find what troop choice you favor, and also to see if you prefer TW or termies.

 

Harold and canis are both good options right now so I wouldn't worry about converting any of your TW.

[Dantay VI]

@ TiguriusX

 

I was considering selling off the Thunderwolf cavalry, I want to re-do them, thinking of using assault primaris marines running alongside the wolves on their bases

 

My problem, I think is too much stuff and dont know what to do with it.

 

Bladeguard, do they work best in 3 man or 5 man squads, same question for outriders?

 

When I have played 6th or 7th edition, I always held back and tried to shoot. I want to play more aggressively

 

As for gaming clubs, I have never attended one, the closest is about 30 minutes drive away. They are all shut down because of co-vid, so thats why I am looking to next year.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Dantay VI

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Outriders are limited to 3. Bladeguard do work better in bigger squads 4-5 but you should consider an impulsor if you that route.

[Dantay VI]

You have too much to pick from

 

I would advise against proxy/counts while you learn as its easier to keep track of and learn rules of you just directly use what you have eg eradicators, suppressors

 

Plus you have enough good stuff to choose from

 

You definitely have everything you need lol. I do think you should keep getting crusade games in. I would use them to find what troop choice you favor, and also to see if you prefer TW or termies.

 

Harold and canis are both good options right now so I wouldn't worry about converting any of your TW.

 

 

Thats part of the problem too much and not a clue what it does, just got stuff I like d the look of, so not a clue as to what works well together.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Yeah that's why I would stick with crusade and build up from your troops just to make things manageable.

[Dantay VI]

Outriders are limited to 3. Bladeguard do work better in bigger squads 4-5 but you should consider an impulsor if you that route.

 

excellent, saves me thinking of buying a box of them and converting one of them to chaplain.

 

Impulsors do look cool.

 

I had a weird idea of using the shadowspear stuff as the sneaky side of the army, while the indomitus patr was the in your face side of things to slam into the opponent, but no idea if or how to make that work. Also not sure if it would leave me weak on the troops side of things.

 

However only having 2 small games, I have no idea if it is at all playable, how I would like it in my head and how that would synergise with wolves.

 

Lol, in my head (for the primaris anyway), the Indomitus set is on the board, drawing the enemy forward , then the shadowspear models come in from the flanks etc and cut the enemy to ribbons, sowing confusion, the indomitus models advance up the board, hits like a brick and mops stuff up. I do not know if something like that would be achievable, or which units would be best in that kind of scenario.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Dantay VI