Praetorian Light Cavalry

[Galron]

I had an idea bouncing around for awhile, thought I would give it a go since I have everything sitting around. Both of my almost or all infantry armies are pretty much unusable with the nerf to reinforcements. Conversely the changes to Born soldiers make this idea I had seem like it would be kind of fun and entertaining to throw down. I think it will be different than most guard armies since I dont use any of the crutch ubiquitous units so many people toss around in every frikkin list.

Regimental Enginseer- warlord

 

6x10 cadian shock troops- meltagun plasma gun, plasma pistol, power sword

Chimera x6 2x heavy bolters, HK, heavy stubber

 

3 Hellhounds

2 Hydras

Leman Russ Exterminator For the AP with twin plasma cannons and lascannon in hull. 

Rogal Dorn(had the model)

3 Scout sentinels with lascannons and hunter killers. 

2 Cyclops Demo vehicles

 

2k on the nose. I will keep the sentinels in a single unit simply so I can use the one use of reinforcements on them. I dont anticipate burning through CP quickly so it shouldnt be hard. Enginseer just runs behind the Rogal. Seems like a fun fast moving list. Most everything is lethal to vehicles and monsters. I might leave a pair of chimeras and squads in reserves on t1 and 2 just to get around the enemy rear lines. Theres alot of dakka in this list.  

 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

My only gripe is a light Cav regiment should be in tauroxes not chimeras lol

[CyderPirate]

Nice! 
You've got a great way to stack AP reduction/reduce saves on key targets  - fields of fire, hellhound (removes cover), and the exterminator - and volume of shots that could make that work well with the new detachment rule.  Maybe swap out the las on the scouts for autocannons for volume of fire and flexibility? 

Only gripe is that it's cavalry regiment with no cavalry! Where are the rough riders?! /s 

[Galron]

-Modern Cavalry has no cavalry hehe. Fast moving units scouting out and screening ahead of the heavier forces with only a small number of heavier units to support them. In theory capable of calling in artillery but well, we know thats not happening anymore lol. 

 

-Tauroxes are one of the dumbest looking models in 40k only beaten by Thunderwolf cavalry and chaos dinobots. 

 

-As to the AP reduction stacking, aside from the Exterminator I wasnt even thinking about it, but now that you mention it... I was going for both units I own with the theme of fast moving "light" armor even though for some weird reason hellhounds have a 2+ :)  I just didnt want to do the same old boring heavy leman russ/rogal dorn parking lot. 

[DemonGSides]

1 hour ago, Galron said:

In theory capable of calling in artillery but well, we know thats not happening anymore lol. 

 

Eh, Basilisks are still good for their ability to slow enemies down with their shots, and the Manticore can just reroll their coin flip so they're pretty good too.

 

The indirect changes just made it so you can't JUST spam artillery. They're still plenty useful in a guard list. Just no longer the de facto "Bring as much as possible", which is a good thing.

 

1 hour ago, Galron said:

Tauroxes are one of the dumbest looking models in 40k only beaten by Thunderwolf cavalry and chaos dinobots. 

 

No disagreements there. I do like the look some people have achieved with them as Half Tracks or even just full on wheeled transports.

[Harrowmaster]

On the taurox point, they do look great with wheels. This kit is from Zinge.

[DemonGSides]

I think I'd almost want it to be a six wheeler, but those definitely look better than the weird snow track design they currently have. I don't hate them the way some do, but they are definitely odd. I can see why they went that way ( IG = tracked vehicles), but it's just a lil weird b

[Harrowmaster]

There are six wheel kits on the market, I think Victoria miniatures does one. I like the Zinge one for the armoured windows.

[Galron]

Hmm MG gave me an idea that makes more sense than using Cadians. Use standard guard so I get a heavy weapon to shoot out of the back of the chimera. I have plenty enough autocannon or lascannon teams to throw one in every squad. Thinking lascannons due the preponderance of tanks this edition. That will be a 6 more lethal lascannons and plasmaguns vs monsters and vehicles. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

5 hours ago, Galron said:

Hmm MG gave me an idea that makes more sense than using Cadians. Use standard guard so I get a heavy weapon to shoot out of the back of the chimera. I have plenty enough autocannon or lascannon teams to throw one in every squad. Thinking lascannons due the preponderance of tanks this edition. That will be a 6 more lethal lascannons and plasmaguns vs monsters and vehicles. 

Lascannons are so swingy.

 

definitely not as good against medium or heavy armor, but the autocannon is in general a lot less swingy and very good against light-medium vehicles depending on where you cut off between medium and heavy armor.

[Galron]

Ran my Light Cav list for several games over the weekend. One vs a tournament khorne army with all the named characters except Angron himself, and the other against 1k sons. I suppose inquisition is going to be after my force now for undue exposure to chaos despite having won. Maybe having Hector Rex in the same box as the troops might be a mitigating factor. The list did well but the shooting phase is painfully slow. I have some ideas to change out though I will list at the end. I changed my list a little from the OP list.

6 infantry squads plasma/lascannon (cant find my autocannons, lascannons worked fine anyway) powersword, plasma pistol

6 chimera twin heavy bolter, heavy stubber, ATGM

Leman Russ Exterminator plasma sponsons, lascannon, heavy stubber, ATGM

Rogal Dorn 3 extra heavy stubbers, multi-meltas, autocannons, oppressor, pulverizer ATGM

3 hellhounds + heavy flamer ATGM

2 Hydras heavy bolters, ATGM

2 armored sentinels lascannons ATGMs

2 individual scout sentinels lascannons ATGMs

Engineseer warlord(I would swap him out but cant think of anything useful for 60 points that will really benefit the army better)

 

Game one vs Khorne I am going to describe the named characters I dont know the names of. 1st time I have played any demon player besides Tzeentch

Belakor

Scarbrand

Skulltaker

Dog guy-the named khorne hound

Chariot of fire dude who gives lots of buffs

Bloodmaster

4x units of 10 bloodletters

2x 10 units of hounds

6 Blood crushers

 

We played short end to short end. I dont remember what the primary was but the mission was raise banners and we stayed very close on primary the entire game. He deployed pretty gamey and had most of his force either behind terrain or congo-lined into Belakor's Lone Op bubble. I divided my force up into three combat groups consisting of 2 chimeras, a hell hound and a sentinel squadron with my heavy force in the center and hydras on left and center since the right side had poor lines of sight. 

 

HIS T1: He got first turn and pushed his dogs forward in an attempt to get into my lines quickly. His two big deamons moved behind LOS blocking terrain so I had very few angles to hit either of them especially with Belakors 18" lone op ability. He failed his charges as my guys were not pushed all the way to the line. He raised banner on his home objective. My T1: I also raised banner on my home. I moved a few odds and ends forward. Right side hellhound drove way forward to try and slow down his blood crushers on the right side NML objective. I deployed infantry on the left side NML objective and declared both dogs as scout sentinel targets for the reroll 1s. All in all I managed to wipe both units of hounds, knock a unit of bloodletters that was just outside the Belakor bubble down to 2 guys and kill 2 blood crushers. I also charged the bloodcrushers with the hellhound to prevent them from charging me. I did one secondary but not bring it down. 

 

His T2: He moved Skarbrand and Belakor forward. Deepstruck two units of Bloodletters 6" away from my front lines and his now 3 man bloodletter unit started doing sabotage on the center objective. Belakor flamed the left side guard squad down to 2 guys and then charged into my hellhound and a chimera and knocked the hellhound down to one wound. Skarbrand charged the Rogal Dorn and despite the 4++ killed it instantly with its ridiculous 8 attacks at 6 damage a piece. The rightside bloodletters and skulltaker charged a scout sentinel and a chimera and killed the sentinel and damaged the chimera. The bloodcrushers managed to kill the hellhound. The Leftside Bloodletters who incidently took overwatch from my hellhound when they deepstruck in and were down to 4 dudes and bloodmaster failed their charge. MY T2: I took some hits but I wasnt out of the fight by a long shot. I deployed more infantry from the various chimeras to make up for having to move a chimera out of combat and losing the shots. Belakor was the remaining scout sentinel target. The center hellhound pushed forward onto the center objective ready to flame either the three man unit doing the sabotage or the bloodmasters unit depending on whether an infantry squad I had moved up finished off the three man or not. Turns out they did and the hellhound then finished off the bloodletters and did three wounds to the bloodmaster. In a blinding explosion of flashlights heavy bolters, lascannons, and a few hydra autocannons, Belakor went down to a lowly lasrifle in a hail Mary shot from a guardsman. On the other side the two other newly dismounted infantry squads wiped out the bloodletters with Skulltaker and did a couple wounds to him too. Even Skarbrand took some damage and was dropped down to 12 damage. I also charged the chariot thingy with the Hellhound in the center and didnt do much and took 5 damage in return while still holding the objective. To hold Skarbrand and Skulltaker in place, I charged Skarbrand with a chimera and a full infantry squad and skulltaker with an infantry squad. Skarbrand killed the chimera and Skully failed to wiped the infantry squad off him. I got Bring it down and Take no prisoners.

 

His T3: His remaining Bloodletter squad closed on my center hellhound. Bloodmaster healed 2 wounds and moved onto the left objective only to lose 2 wounds to the hellhounds overwatch. Skull crushers pushed forward and assaulted a sacrificial chimera but didnt kill it. Hellhound in the center died. Bloodmaster killed the two remaining guys from the squad there and moved into combat with the scout sentinel who failed to hit it back. Belakor killed the squad he was in combat with. The Skulltaker dude once again failed to wipe the squad and I think took a damage. My T3: Everyone backed out of combat and everyone else opened fire. Skarbrand took most of my remaining army to take down. It was stupid how much firepower he tanked. I killed Bloodmaster and skulltaker with Born Soldier infantry squads in rapid fire fusillades. At this point he had 4 bloodcrushers who were tied up in close combat with a chimera, a single squad of bloodletters on his side of the center line, and a chariot thing. I still had 4 or 5 chimeras, a leman russ, 2 hydras, 2 armored sentinels, several squads of untouched infantry and a couple more remnants, and a badly damaged hellhound so we called it a win for me. 

 

The next night I played someone else in a more relaxing game. Now that I had more of a handle on my shooting it went a little faster, but I was still against a relatively unknown army to me. Dawn of war deployment. Raise flags again.

Magnus

3x10 squads of terminators

2 vortex beasts

2 squads of tzeenchagores(ot whatever they are called)

It was not a heavily optimized list but He showed me his tournament list and we looked at it compared to my list because he was there the night before being the drunken announcer from ESPN the Ocho and we both came to the conclusion that his tournament list would be wiped off the board turn 2 at the most because of how light it was.

 

Once again I divided up into three groups with fire support more in the center. He fielded a termy squad either end and center, gore squad on home behind terrain, and magnus in center ready to move forward. 

 

His T1: He got first turn and pushed forward. He managed to get a bead on a hydra(That did explode and hurt things around it for d3) and killed it with Magnus and did some minor damage to a hellhound on the left side with the terminators. Second beastigore unit moves onto the center. Not too impressive of an opening for him. MY T1: I get containment and bring it down as secondaries. Both are doable. I move up both flanks with my combat groups. Center hellhound towards the center. I target the left side terminators(stupidly) and Magnus with the Scout sentinels and bring all the guns I can to bear on him because I kept hearing how tough he was. Exterminator opens up and I get two hit and wounds with the autocannons, only one save. After that even the remaining hydra gets in on the act getting 3 wounds in and Magnus goes down despite two different rerolls and his -1D. This is before I even fire the Rogal Dorn at the right side Vortex beast since it was the only target I could see and it kills it with the final shot. The other vortex beast goes down to the two armored sentinels and a pair of chimeras with ATGMs. Unfortunately I only killed one terminator on the left side. On the right I killed several. In the center, the hellhound and the infantry with light weapons wiped the beastigore squad  while the heavier weapons fired at Magnus. I did charge the leftside hellhound into the terminators to try and slow them down. Yeah that didnt work. They popped it.

 

His T2: After his brutal losses on turn 1, his terminators arent ready to give in and they push forward to take all three center objectives. His shooting did some damage but didnt kill anything of note. He wiped the left side infantry squad and killed most of a squad on the right who failed their morale check. He did shoot up and kill the hellhound in the center. My T2: I get some secondaries that have me taking objectives and killing units so I target the left and right units of terminators with the scouts. Combined fire from everything on the left side of the table finally kills the last terminator there. Thats three chimeras, a leman russ, a rogal dorn, 2 squads of infantry 3 sentinels. On the other side, shooting is able to knock them down to 2 guys who I then charge with two chimeras and a squad of infantry. I dont kill anyone but I do far out OC the two remaining terminators for the objective. 

 

We call it after this. There isnt much he can do as next turn he might kill another tank and I will just blast the center terminator squad into oblivion with my remaining forces who are now freed up to do so. I knew I had this one once Magnus and the Vortex beasts were taken care of. I think if he would have thunder runned my center with all the big stuff it might have come out different, but spreading out like he did made it easy for my different battlegroups to pick him apart.  

 

As for things I would change. I am thinking to drop the two Hydras. As cool as they look, I am really not that impressed with their firepower. Despite having four autocannons, they only get 4 shots instead of 8 which would make them somewhat competitive. Yeah they are pretty cheap but I think dropping the two of them makes an easy replacement for another Leman Russ Exterminator which I really like. -1ap lasrifles are pretty funny. That would give me some nice AP buffing on either side. I dont feel the Rogal Dorn really fits the theme but I am keeping it for now as its firepower is pretty impressive and it can be the "command" tank of the recon force and it is pretty cool looking. I am also swapping out one basic infantry squad for a Cadian infantry squad just so I can sticky the home objective and move on. It was kind of a pain having to remember to keep something there. What I did was have the engineseer sit in their chimera while they sat on the objective and then had him get out after the game started.

 

Edited September 3 by Galron

[Marshall Bretton]

So I'll start with saying your army, your rules lol, but technically this would be armoured infantry. Light cav would probably be mounted in tauros and tauros venator type vehicles or maybe sentinels. Light cav is a reconnaissance capability.

 

That being said, it sounds like the structure really works for you on the battlefield and you did some serious chaos purging! I think you have a really good combined arms mix and I might have to borrow some ideas off you.

 

I'd love to see some pics of your army

[Galron]

I modelled it off of US armored Cav using bradleys and M1a1 tanks. If I had the time I would actually go find some STL files and 3d print Bradley turrets for the chimeras. Saw it done decades ago with someone using a Tamiya model kit. I'm only allowed 6 squads of chimera troops though instead of 8 but for a game that's plenty, especially since I only have 3 tanks instead of 4 for a proper platoon. If I was to change something besides what I have already posted, it would be to drop the Rogal Dorn and add a Leman Russ Vanquisher and another scout sentinel and a Commissar for strategic reserving behind enemy lines and doing actions as needed. I know Vanquishers arent too exciting, but I figure with the scout bonus, it would mitigate some of the 4+ pain. Right now I am keeping the Rogal. 

 

As for pics I almost took pics during the games. LOL Everytime I was about to unlock the phone and pull it out, someone asked me something unrelated and distracted me. It really was a big parking lot though. Especially on the short edge deployment, it was really hard to split my battle groups up but then again on the other side of the coin, there was no way for two turns anyone was deep striking in my rear lines either. 

[Galron]

PLayed a ridiculously competitive player with a nidzilla force today. I played the same list I have been, just swapped out the two Hydras for another Exterminator. I dont know bug names so I will try and be as descriptive as possible.

He had two Hive tyrants, one with the 5+++ and 4+++ enhancement.

3 Brain bugs that give the -1 to hit in 6" and a book's worht of special other rules

3 of the really big gun bugs

3 Pyrovores he used in the rear for objective holders

6 zooanthropes

1 super zooanthrope that gives the others +1 to hit and other things

2 of the super lictors

His rules were ridiculous. He had lethals across the board vs vehicles both melee and shooting, +1 attack, multiple battle shocks and bonuses from battle shocks. I am lost how Nids are not top of the meta in the hands of someone who plays one that once or twice an edition.

 

We played Supply Drop with the assigned terrain from the tabletop app from goonhammer. The left then center leaving the right objectives would be the things left at the end. Mission rule was the one where you can bring in 200 points of battleline on turn one from strat reserves on the stair step long board edge deployment. I will add a pic at some point as I did remember to take a couple before my turn 1 started. He apparently forget that the right side objective was the one that would stay on the board and set up heavily on the left. He kind of did the same thing I did and had three main groups with a hive tyrant on the left and center groups. Super lictor on the right and center. Pyrovore in left right and center.  Zoo mob in center. Brain and gun bug teams in left right and center.

 

I kept a two chimera team with a hell hound in reserves as I wanted some moving space. Maybe on second thought I should have brought them for the T1 mass fire but my T1 did ok.  So I had a hellhound/2chimera group on the left side. Two Chimeras, a scout sentinel, and an exterminator on the right and the RG, both Armored sentinels, and a hellhound in the center and the scout sentinel dead center.

 

He got first turn. T1: His shooting really didnt do a lot this round. He moved everything forward and took all three center objectives with multiple units each. I think the center had a gun bug, brain bug, super lictor, and a hive tyrant. Right Objective had super Lictor, brain and gun bug. Left had pyro, brain and gun bug. He killed my hellhound in the center with mass fire and it exploded doing some damage. He charged my scout sentinel with his super lictor and got it down to two wounds. He got Containment and cleanse I think. My T1: I got Assassinate and something where I had to take the center. Well the center one wasnt going to happen. So I push things forward on the sides, get some firing lanes in the center clear. My scout sents target his brain bug on the right and the left side hive tyrant. My left side hell hound drove max forward to get his pyrovore in range. The scout sentinel fell back out of combat onto the left objective. Exterminators lit up the hive tyrant and the right side brain bug and both fell to a bunch of firepower. The right side super lictor took a full squads worth of infantry fire and a chimera to the face and took a single damage and got charged by a chimera. The left side pyro took 2 damage from the hell hound. I also managed to kill the right side gun bug and dropped the left side gun bug to 3 wounds remaining. I managed to capture the right side objective and contest the left side. SOme charges killed one of my left chimeras and the squad disembarked behind a wall and he seemingly forgot about them for the round.

 

His T2: He started rocking things this round. He pushed forward with his remaining hive tyrant and center brain bug. Held back on the left. Was tied up on the right. Didnt use the zoos very effectively I think. Held the center with a gun bug. He popped his shadow of the warp and it got both exterminators and a couple chimeras. His shooting cleared both Exterminators. His charges got his brain bug in combat with my RD, his center Super Lictor in combat on the left with the scout sentinel along with his gun bug. No damage oddly enough on the RD. His Tyrant failed the charge leaving it in the open. The sentinel of course didnt survive. MY T2: I brought in my reserves, dumped all my infantry on the right side, left combat on with the right side lictor and drove as far into his territory as I could. The super lictor now had three squads of infantry in rapid fire range of it. The other three chimeras including one with a squad moved to get the hive tyrant in LOS. I moved the left side Hellhound out of combat and moved the last chimera there up to the objective. So with my remaining scout sentinel I scouted the hive tyrant and both armored sentinels failed. The combined fire of three other chimeras and missile from a hellhound dropped the hive tyrant to 2 wounds. The RG fired its non-blast weapons into close combat and dropped the brain bug to 2 wounds. But since tyranids are broken and do not bracket like every other 10+ wound model in the game they are just as strong at 1 wound as they are at 14. All three squads of infantry and a hellhound unload on the super lictor, and the final shot left out of all three squads was a lascannon and it manages to finish it. I attempt a charge with my Armored sentinels to try and free up my RD and even use Tank shock and roll 8 dice and do not roll a single 5+. (this is starting to be the norm), they do no damage in combat either and one takes enough damage to go down to 1 wound from the brain bug. I charge my chimera on the left into the gun bug hoping to tie it up a little. Oh my infantry on the left did manage to rapid fire the remaining three wounds off the pyrovore there. Once again, with the lascannon at the end.

 

His T3: He gave up on the right.  Hive tyrant moves towards the armored sentinels for a charge. Zoos move forward and get a good deal of shots all over. They shoot through the hive tyrant into combat and kill the armored sentinel. Kill all but 2 guys from the squad on the left and kill the chimera in combat with the gun bug with those crazy lances they have. He charges the disembarked squad with the gun bug. The two man squad with brain bug and super lictor. Armored sentinel with the hive tyrant. Center gun bug drops a chimera to 1 wound. Hive tyrant drops the sentinel to 1 wound. Gun bug charge kills all but the weapon team. The two man squad goes poof. His brain bug wifs his attacks however and the RD manages to run over the brain bugs foot and does 1 damage. My T3: The chimera on a mission goes around terrain and goes point blank into a pyrovore holding his home objective. Cadian squad jumps onto the right objective and cleanses. The other two squads board chimeras and head to the left. the RD pulls out of combat max speed. The scout sentinel moves left and sees the hive tyrant standing in the open now next to the 1 wound brain bug. All three chimeras get into positions where they have multiple targets in case of overkill. One kills the hive tyrant, one kills the brain bug, one fires from downtown and gets a lucky born soldier lascannon from the top hatch into the 3 wound gun bug. Hell hound on the left kills the super lictor there. The chimera on the right unloads on the pyro on his home objective and does 1 wound. It charges and does a tank shock, rolls 10 dice and gets.... not a single 5+ but at least I am now out OCing him for his home. I charged his gun bug with a chimera in the center.

 

He calls it at this point though. I have the right side very firmly held. He has the left with a brain bug and an untouched squad of zoos. The left objective is going away this turn though and the center next turn. In the center he had an untouched gun bug and another gun bug. I had an untouched rogal dorn, two hell hounds, 4 chimeras and their squads and a couple sentinels. So one more round would have seen the center go boom and get swarmed with my guys.

 

Questions:

Torrent weapons can be used to shoot vehicles or monsters in combat with each other, just not blast?

Overwatch strat, can it be used if a model is in combat?

Because GW is ridiculously horrible about its FAQs and making things easy to find, what is the ruling on free use of strats? Two hive tyrants, can they both use their ability, can only one? Is it -1CP cost now? What kind of restrictions? I tried to google the FAQ and I find crap from 2023 and before and no clue what the most current stuff is and when you are inside a store, you dont always have the best reception to spend 10 minutes searching and waiting for a page to download. GW needs to number things clearly. FAQ 10E.Month.year first page on the top.

Edited September 8 by Galron

[Focslain]

Ok, first the questions:

 

1) Yes Torrent weapons can be fired into melee by vehicles and monsters, in fact it’s one of the best defenses since it does require to-hit rolls and there for not effected by the -1 to hit.

 

2) Had to look this up, gut said no, but RAW it is allowed as long as the unit shooting would be able to shoot in the shooting phase. This means BIg Guns Never Tire does allow vehicle/monsters to shoot and as a knight player I’m tucking this in my sleeve.

 

3) So WIll of the Hive Mind can only be used once per turn regardless of how many Tyrants you have, It’s actually in written in the rule. The balance dataslate has the change from 0CP to the -1CP which gets weird in the app cause both the FAQ and the Dataslate wordings are under the core rules section and the same heading.

 

Also good work on the game. nidzilla is not an easy army to face if your not prepared for it.

[Galron]

It was a fun game. I won because he for some reason concentrated his heavier forces on the side where the objective disappeared first and he put lighter units on the other end despite verbally acknowledging this objective thing when he placed his first drop. Very odd and out of character for him to lose sight of the ball. I have been playing him for years and rarely can pull a win despite knowing what and how he plays every time(for the most part).  Him putting his "lighter" (if you can call a brain and giant gun bug, light) stuff on the right side enabled me to clear or neutralize it quickly. I was able to just keep him busy by feeding the stuff on the left units and chimeras or he would lose that objective until it vanished. I still need to figure out how to speed up my shooting phase. I take way too long but there are so many moving parts and priorities. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

 

It was a fun game. I won because he for some reason concentrated his heavier forces on the side where the objective disappeared first and he put lighter units on the other end despite verbally acknowledging this objective thing when he placed his first drop. Very odd and out of character for him to lose sight of the ball. I have been playing him for years and rarely can pull a win despite knowing what and how he plays every time(for the most part).  Him putting his "lighter" (if you can call a brain and giant gun bug, light) stuff on the right side enabled me to clear or neutralize it quickly. I was able to just keep him busy by feeding the stuff on the left units and chimeras or he would lose that objective until it vanished. I still need to figure out how to speed up my shooting phase. I take way too long but there are so many moving parts and priorities. 

He might have been hoping to out number your heavies and lure them to that side, while planning to completely outnumber/OC you on the other side to hold those objectives.