Boarding Parties

[jaxom]

Frater, what have you been considering or playing in Boarding Parties?

 

I'm currently thinking something along the lines of:

• 2x Bladeguard Veteran Squads
• 1x Bladeguard Ancient
• 2x Assault Intercessor Squads

It comes out at 455.

[INKS]

Love boarding parties! 

 

I play Daemons

Tranceweaver - Expert Breacher / Hysterical Frenzy
10 Daemonettes - banner/horn
Beast of Nurgle
3 Fiends
10 Flesh hounds

 

This gives me 7 units once they are split up.

[Cleon]

10 hours ago, jaxom said:

Frater, what have you been considering or playing in Boarding Parties?

 

I'm currently thinking something along the lines of:

• 2x Bladeguard Veteran Squads
• 1x Bladeguard Ancient
• 2x Assault Intercessor Squads

It comes out at 455.

Personally I prefer the Bladeguard style Captain over the Ancient as it gives another capable independent unit rather than a buffing unit. Otherwise a Tacticus Librarian running with one of the assault squads I think gives more utility than the ancient considering the aura needs to go round corners so loses coverage. 

[Karhedron]

I agree, I find the BG Ancient underwhelming. The Captain's buffs are not quite as good but are still decent and he packs a mean punch in his own right. I would almost be tempted to consider a Gravis Captain as he brings a lot of extra chonk for his extra 25 points.

[Jolemai]

I haven't looked into it yet, but the answer is "Firstborn" 

 

My ZM lists used to have Terminators and a Dreadnought, so something similar (if the latter can still be used), TDA HQ, Tacticals probably. Oh, and shotgun Scouts 

[WAR]

For my Gks I am planing all Termies and a libby. For Blood Angels I really like the Boarding patrol box with Gravis capt 2 assault intercessors and Heavy intercessor squad. Not sure if Death Company or Aggressors are better option for remaining points

[Xenith]

19 hours ago, jaxom said:

1x Bladeguard Ancient

 

I think that's possibly contender for the worst unit in the codex 

 

I'd go traditional and go terminators, especially with the huge point drop they got.

 

Otherwise, bladeguard, buffing captain, maybe aggressors?

[jaxom]

50 minutes ago, Xenith said:

 

I think that's possibly contender for the worst unit in the codex 

 

I'd go traditional and go terminators, especially with the huge point drop they got.

 

Otherwise, bladeguard, buffing captain, maybe aggressors?

Yeah, I think I'm masochistically looking for a reason to finally take the guy. I'd love to have Terminators, but this is for my Primaris successor chapter. The captain makes sense, I'll play around with points when I get home.

[Karhedron]

If you are looking to economise the Primaris Lt with Storm Shield, MC Power Sword and Neo-volkite is a very cost-effective option to lead the assault.

[jaxom]

I was messing around and points are always a bit awkward. The best fit I got so far was 

• 2x Bladeguard Veteran Squads
• 1x Gravis Captain
• 2x Assault Intercessor Squads

for 485 pts, 500 if the Captain is upgraded to Death Company, but that doesn't seem worth losing Rites of Battle.

[Vermintide]

I've been away from 40K for a while because 9th is just intolerably bloated, but I gotta say. This has tempted me back in for a bit. However- Beware these little caveats in the mustering rules that I have seen a lot of people missing...

 

- Can't take two of the same Elites choice.

- Can only take squads of 5 or 10, any units with an MSU under five must be MSU.

- 10 man units automatically get combat squad-ed at the game start (this is thus the only way to technically get two of the same elite squad, but it doesn't help with units like BGV, who can only ever be 1 unit of 3 guys).

 

Battlescribe doesn't warn you if you break theses restrictions, so it's easy not to notice. So sadly, a lot of the ideas that popped into my head at first are illegal (why can't I take 12 Aggressors and a Gravis Chapter Master?! C'mon!), and coming up with lists that fit these rules is often quite frustrating. I don't know why GW always gotta do it like this (see also: Kill Team) but hey. At first I was just going to sulk and just ignore those rules, buuut it's fun to try think around challenges like that isn't it, right? We have a few options.

 

The fluffy one for BA is taking a big brick of Terminators led by an upgraded Terminator HQ. If you do, though, you're literally only going to have 11 models, and you leave 50+ points on the table that you can't really fill with much else. However, you can make 500 points exactly with a Bladeguard Lieutenant, 3x Bladeguard Vets, and 10x Terminators.

 

You can also go ham on DC- They can't perform actions, but luckily, opening doors doesn't count. Death Company Captain, 10x Death Company Intercessors, and 10x Death Company Firstborn with a Thunder Hammer for each combat squad. 495pts.

 

In the end I made a nice well rounded list that I think should cover a lot of situations. Librarian in Terminator Armour, 5x Assault Intercessors, 5x TH/SS Assault Terminators, and 5x Hellblasters w/ Assault Plasma. I think stuff like psychic powers always feel way more valuable in small games like this; and a unit like Hellblasters which are pretty meh in the full scale game, would be terrifying if left in a good overwatch position.

 

Also, using non-HQ characters didn't even occur to me, but that's something to think about when I'm bored at work tomorrow I guess.

[Cleon]

Oh, I'd missed the only one of an elite rule too.... I guess my main list will be using combat squads of Assault Terminators.

 

What has been tempting me is swapping in a Judiciar to give one of the units protection against something like Genestealers running round the corner and getting the drop on them. 

 

Re-working the above, my Primaris version looks like:

Judiciar OR Gravis Captain (I liked the Bladeguard Captain for the visuals when it was two squads of Bladeguard, but with the Aggressors the Gravis Captains better stats win out)

3 Bladeguard

3 Aggressors (probably start by trying the flamers)

5 Assault Intercessors

5 Assault Intercessors

 

Comes to 440 or 470 depending on character.

[jaxom]

That last 40-50 points is a conundrum. Too bad we can’t take, like, 3? scouts.

[INKS]

I've got a BA list and I am kind of stuck on it. 500 points is TOUGH.

 

Death Company Captain in Gravis Armor

-Warlord and Powerfist

 

5 Assault Intercessors - sgt with Plasma Pistol and Thunder Hammer

 

3 Aggressors with auto boltstorm gauntlets -- note: flamers might be better here?

 

5 Death Company - all with power sword and inferno pistols

 

5 Vanguard Vets - all with Grav-pistols and Power swords -sgt has Relic blade

 

Here is the modeling problem: Where in the heck am I getting all those Grave Pistols and Inferno Pistols??? Ebay I guess but it's going to cost me a small fortune. So before I go spending said fortune, any feedback would really help out., Thanks.

[Cleon]

If you are buying the force new, there's two inferno pistols in the Death Company box and a single grav pistol in the Vanguard box, so that's three pistols sorted if you mix the boxes or four pistols if you build them both from Death company bits.

 

Personally I'm not convinced that there isn't scope to mix in some of the plasma pistols, both for variety of models and ease of acquisition, and I keep looking at the hand flamer and thinking it should be worthwhile - if you end up against a force with more weaker 5 man teams, being able to put a bunch of S3 hits on two different targets might help control objectives. 

[INKS]

1 grav pistol, oof. well that is going to be  tough. I guess it's going to take a long time to collect enough of them. frustrating, but I guess I'll have to use other options even if it's less effective. that is just a feels bad.

 

Otherwise the list looks good? I guess it's hard to judge.

Edited January 27, 2023 by INKS

[Cleon]

I think it does generally look good. I've only played one game of boarding action and I'm not sure we got all the rules right, but if we did then claiming a sticky objective is very powerful, so for most forces I'd be leaning to obsec troops, but as we understand it the Space marine sticky objective rule that was added as part of arks of omen applies in boarding actions so Marines are freer to use more elites.

 

Personally I don't intend to build any new squads kitted out purely for boarding actions, but I do have a fair number of differently armed Death company to pick from (although not as many as I thought once I discounted the jump pack guys) and I love Terminators too much to have a Firstborn force doing boarding actions without them.

[INKS]

so good news, I guess I can't have a death company commander? this saves me 15 points and gives me 20 points to spend.

I added 2 T Hammers to the death company squad. 

 

Boarding Actions is where it's at for me right now. I do plan on working towards a larger force but for now this is a lot more fun

that being said. My boarding action list looks nothing like my 2k list. I guess that is problematic sort of.

[Cleon]

I'm waiting to see how local interest sustains, if it holds into spring/summer then I might start looking to hook out some bits and pieces that I've not finished and building them with Boarding Actions in mind, but as for now I'm just pulling models from my existing force.

 

My next list to try is:

Mephiston (the new model is just better so I don't mind having him in a list that otherwise looks firstborn)

5 Death Company

5 Vanguard

5 Assault Terminators (probably 3 hammers, 2 claws, but they are the same price)

 

It leaves me 10 points to spend on upgrades that still cost points, so 1 Thunderhammer between the Death Company and Vanguard squads or a Power Fist each and the rest are whichever models I want to pull out.

[INKS]

I think that is a pretty smart move. I am starting out so for now it's easier for me to build towards it.