The Unofficial Alpha Legionaire's Tactical Primer

[IhateSpaceMarines]

Did all your units have infiltrate ? i generally prefer not using daemons in alpha legion.....doesn't really suit it....anyway did you deply like your anti tank stuff near the wraithlord ? if you deployed everything according to your plan then things should have gone pretty well.....give your daemon prince something like Daemonic Speed or Daemonic Flight so he can move over and kill the D-cannon or wraith lord .....and those annoying psykers :D

[tigergibby]

Hi

 

i have just come back to my AL after using my Worldeaters for about 12 months.

 

Have your lists changed now that we are playing 4th edition as opposed to 3rd?

 

Are cultists still worth taking now that you cannot screen?

are Obliterators worth 70pts. each now they can be targeted.

 

In my opinion neither of the above are worth taking. Cultists maybe.

 

My current list for 4th edition is as follows (please remember this is a tourny list)

 

Deamon prince - stature,speed,resilience,dreadaxe,sorcerer,wind of chaos,aura,furious charge and mutation.

 

Lieutenant - sorcerer,wind of chaos,speed infiltrate and lightening claws.

 

marines x 6 bolters and lascannon

marines x 6 bolters and lascannon

marines x 6 bolters and lascannon

marines x 6 bolters and heavy bolter

marines x 7 bolt pistols, ccw, furious charge, infiltrate

asp champ. bolt pistol, power weapon strength, armour, mutation infiltrate and furious charge.

 

Havocs x 6 2 autocannon, 2 heavy bolter, infiltrate

Havocs x 6 2 lascannon, 2 missile launcher, infiltrate, tank hunter.

Defiler indirect fire.

 

 

Skullcollector

[Ezeckial]

last week i had a 1500 point game against dark eldar in a take and hold mission, i will post up the details soon.....

[Akrim]

This was the list I used vs the Ulthwé:

 

Demon Prince (Dreadaxe, D.Stat,Ess,Flight,Armour,FC,SpikyBs)

10 Marines (plasma,autocannon)

20 Cultists (Assassins,MoU,champ,Icon)

20 Cultists (Assassins,MoU,champ,Icon)

7 Bloodletters

6 Havocs (2xlascan,1xmissle, infiltrate)

5 Terminators (Reaper,combflamer,2xpf,1xchainf,2xpw)

 

The Demon Prince got autokilled by those damn Wraithlord powerfists.

It was an escalation map so the Avatar, Wraithlords, and Banshees/W.Serpent didnt come in till the end. My infantry got freakin shelled to death by the D-Cannon battery. It was a cleanse mission so that meant table quaters. As a result infiltration kind of worked against me as I got pinned back far into my quarter.

I think it pays to have a unit or two in Alpha Legion that can't infiltrate to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately he got first deployment and first infiltrator deployment and threw his Rangers in a spot which forced me to deploy really far away.

 

How do you kill those damn wraithlords tho? I think Im going to take more Marines and give each squad dual plasmas.

 

I dont think Obliterators are fluffy for the Alpha Legion list. They're big,loud and clunky. Would they really have a place in a list of stealth troops?

 

Any other tactical advice would be great.

 

Akrim

~Serpent Company~

[Disnox]

Missile launchers are the best way to kill wraithlords i used to play Ulthwé and the thing that would kill my wraithlords faster then anything else were havoc/dev squads with 4 ML

[Md Larkin]

Things ive discovered (these things also lead to not to many people wanting to play me) Take speed on a none stature lord with infiltrate. I think it is stupid to throw away the advantage of the "free" ( I know it is not actualy free) skill. If the Lord is solo he can move through terrain and then fleet of foot so that is a potential 24" charge. Raptors work extremely well with infiltrate, although they start off the board in escilation even with the infiltrate skill. Havocs should have auto cannons, tank hunter and infiltrate, this unit is just scary. I use 2 units of marines each 9 strong. One is for close combat-Pf, 2 melta. The other is shooting bolter and plasma guns. I normaly put my marines behind a wall of cultists and move them forward and charge. My raptors and lord infiltrate and are in assault on the first turn (unless escliation, then no raptors). I find no use for deamons and to make the list effective most if not all of your army should be on the table at the begining of every game. In escilation try to seize the enemies deployment zone.

[IhateSpaceMarines]

Give your DP d.rune......even though its expensive and well i'm not too fond of cultists but i would drop one and the blood letters in exchange for a csm squad and maybe some fast attack like raptors or bikes so u can get to that D-Cannon and D-molish it :D

[Akrim]

Oops, I knew I forgot something that list above also had a unit of Raptors:

-6 Raptors (FC,MoU,infiltrate, Champ w/pw & D.Strength)

 

Unfortunately the lousy buggers didnt show up until Turn 4 just in time to get mowed down by a Wraithlord and Banshees. By that time alot of my stuff was already dead... :D

 

My Demon Prince has had a terrible string of bad luck lately, getting nailed by lascannons, D-cannons and the like and then rolling 1s & 2s to hit in combat. I think hes cursed... :) :cuss :cuss

 

I think im going to try a non-stature lord so he can use my infantry for cover en route to hand-to-hand. Bloodletters arent much different than Terminators, unreliable reserve units.

 

Marine heavy it is...

 

Akrim

~Serpent Company~

[The Rose Princes]

First, I'm not a true AL.... I have a concept army that i play that is a newly fallen SM chapter... they don't know they're corrupt yet, so the only deamoic thing i use on them is Deamonic Strength and MoCU.... everything else is just vet skills and weapons, but I use the AL rules because I love you guys!!!

 

Anyway, I go for the Minimalist Tactics: 5-6 squads of h-h based infiltrating basic troops, max out to 20 if large games. Then, 10 infiltraing Havocs. My final touch is endless squads of 6 infiltrating Chosen with 4 bolters 1 melta and 1 flamer... they all count as one Elite Choice and I usually get three squads of them... more for larger games.

 

I try to saturate the table in marines.... they are the best basic troop in the game, so why not just have more of them? I usually get about 60 or so marines on the table in 2000 point game.

 

The point is, with AL, the point cost of Infiltrate is so low that you can just run amuck with it and not pay our the put for something everyone else has.... but at much more of a price! Those are my tactics.

[Zaltys]

Ihatespacemarines,

 

No, I didn't bother showing the pistols. All I did was slap on a few CSM bolt pistol holsters (they could be ANY pistol really). I mean, there isn't a single plastic boxed set that has a full set of laspistols anyway, so its a waste.

 

Anybody got any suggestions for a colour scheme?

[IhateSpaceMarines]

Ah I see zaltys....I've always thought of what to use has the pistols on the cultists...

 

 

heres what i've come up with

 

Simple: paint the skin white then wash it with blue, then repaint the skin with white leaving the deep bits blue (chaotic look) then for the armour do what ever colours your army scheme is .

 

A bit complicated: paint the skin white then wash it with blue, then highlight with white and put some tattoes of chaos on their faces. For the armour if they got clothy robe things with folds, start with midnight blue undercoat then highlight the higher bits with regalblue or enchanted blue, then to the points put some white. For the metal bits drybrush them with chain mail then highlight the points with mithiril silver. then on their armour/clothes paint some symbols of chaos

 

There ! thats just a suggestion....i have a good idea how this would look like on the battle field and i'd say it would be pretty alright :mellow: gives a good dedicated to alpha legion feel to it...

[Iron Warrior w/ Servo Arm]

Well, the members of Index Astartes has contributed to the AL's guide. Check the section out for some information if that is what yo guys need. It's in my sig. Hope it helps.

[Zaltys]

Problem I had when painting some test models was this:

 

Storm Blue is no longer available, Regal is too dark and Enchanted is too Bright. How do you guys paint your armour? I tried:

 

Chaos Black

Regal Blue

Dark Green ink wash

Highlight with Regal Blue/Goblin Green

Highlight with Goblin Green

[IhateSpaceMarines]

I think that regal blue is alright for highlighting and its not dark.....have midnight blue armour and then highlight with regal blue.....and apply a few coats if it doesn't work.....but if u look from a distance the model will usually look pretty awesome

[Ezeckial]

goblin green base coat

apply watery blue ink

wash with enchanted blue/dark angels green/ water

hightlight with a blue/green depending on how it comes out as it is an unpredicatable method

 

that uasaully works for me

[Bloodwave]

Since my AL army is not operative yet ( well , is already legal , but I don

[Akrim]

This may draw alot of flame but I cant say Im singing praises of the infiltrate heavy lists as most of you do... the way I see it, infiltrate can be a double-edged sword.

 

On one hand, yes you forego mechanized transport for cheap.

However, if your entire army infiltrates you run the risk of being pinned far back into your deployment zone. For example, last game I had vs Night Lords, I lost the roll to deploy infiltrators, he put his Raptors in the main terrain piece in the center of the board, I placed a unit on one flank, he did the same on the other flank next, the result was the majority of my army being forced back further than the deployment line!

Then theres also the 1/3 chance infiltrate is not used and you have wasted all those points on infiltrating marines.

 

After having some great initial success with Alpha Legion Im really struggling with them right now...especially v.s. Marine armies...

 

What, in your opinion, are good units to have in terms of Marine/tank killing power?

(as a side note- I dont use vehicles or obliterators for fluff reasons. Bikes w/dual meltas are the only "vehicle-ish" unit I use.)

 

Akrim

~Serpent Company~

[General Malaise]

-just a word on infiltrate and Matching up - for the tactica section. and in response you don't really need to be that close to his units for infiltrate to work --

 

in a recent battle against loyalists, he was fully deployed and I had only deployed a single unit - my dread (heavy) - center of board at edge of deployment zone - just to be sure that I would push back any infiltrators he had if he got to place them first.

 

I was staring down from my right to left on a 6 ft edge

templars squad of 15 with champion,

dread with assault cannon,

vindicator,

crusader with templars squad and Marshall

chaplain on bike and 5 bike support squad,

5 man assault w/jp,

5 man assualt with Jp

and whirlwind

 

my dread was almost directly across from the chaplain and the rest of the bikes -- armed with plasma cannon

 

I chose a 20 man cultist unit, with LT (tooled, and with gift of chaos) to face the champ and his squad

 

I chose my 8 man 4 ML devs/tank hunters to face the dread and vindicator

 

I chose my 10 man marines with 2 melta and Pfist to face vindicator and crusader

 

I also placed my 18 man cultist with meltabombs and other LT (same outfit as other) to support against the crusader

 

I put my 10 man marines with pwep and 2 plasma opposite the bikes

 

and my 5 man raptors with 2 melta, pfist and flamer, my 10 man marines with

pfist, and 2 flamers and my ten man bolter squad (no specials) in rhino opposite the two assault squads and whirlie.

 

by being able to choose weapons and units that would have the most effect against what they faced - I think this game was won in the set up stage. ANd that is our most significant advantage.

 

(with 20/20 hindsight the raptors would have also been in the middle against the armor and the devs would have set up further away from the dread - lesson learned) but I think you see the point -- our tactics allow you to pick mission specific weaponry (anti-tank, anti infantry) and deploy it where it will do the most good -- there really is no need for watered down multiple use units when your whole army deploys after your opponent's army.

[Akrim]

Thats a good arguement Malaise, deploying last does allow you to position your troops in the best tactical positions. But you definitely need to have at least that one non-infiltrating unit to give you that bubble to deploy in, should you loose the deployment roll.

 

Akrim

~Serpent Company~

[Zaltys]

btw, did some more work on the cultists on monday. I converted a few with lead pipes as weapons, used some guitar wire to tech them up, and used pieces of cardboard to look like signs.

 

Basically, some cultists have cardboard signs strapped to them saying stuff like "Will kill for food" and "The End is Nigh".

 

I'm planning to give a few some afro hairstyles, and platform shoes. Just to make them look odd and random, like an angry mob dressed in rag-tag clothing.

 

I gave a few cultists garottes, made from piano wire drilled through the Chaos Warrior hands, and one of them a pair of nun-chuks, made by bending said wire through Chaos warrior weapon handles.

 

Overall, they look pretty good.

 

I got a digital camera today, so I might send some pictures once I'm finished modelling.

[KP13]

An excellent source for pistols: the "old" (and I do mean old!) Space Marine Close Combat Sprue. (I cannot find it online, so sadly, I think it is gone)

 

No idea if it is still available, but it has a wealth of pistols on it!

 

Each Sprue contained:

 

1 Power Axe

1 Power Sword (there used to be a difference! Remember the "parry" rule? Remember being annoyed facing models with two swords? Ha!)

1 Power Fist

1 Bolt Pistol

1 Laspistol

1 Autopistol

1 Hand Flamer

 

Now that was a sprue! No idea why GW got rid of it! Well, maybe I have some idea...

 

I've been playing 40k since just before 2nd edition (since 1992? Ouch!). Apparently, sometime in the dark past I really stocked up on these things. Going through an old bits box I came across about 15 of them! That's a lot of pistols! Even the hand flamers can be used, with only a little bit of work...

 

It totally changed my plans (and saved me serious money!) from using Necromunda figs to going with the plastic Cadians, plus conversions.

 

I prefer the Cadians for that well drilled, militaristic look. Crack troops, trained by the AL, with the odd loony throw in. With the right paint job and some minor conversions, I think it will look good...

[Akrim]

I did up 40 cultists for my Alpha Legion, by the end I had used all my pistol bitz, so I took an ordinary IG lasgun, cut off the business end of the gun right down to the ammo clip part. I then reattached just the muzzle part of the gun to it.

 

I looks cool, sort of like a little submachine gun or carbine.

 

Akrim

~Serpent Company~

[Iron_Warrior]

I've done something with my AL CSM's that I find to be quite fluffy but unique at the same time. Because they infiltrate, I decided to accent their close combat ability by equpping them with BP's and CCW's. I deemed that the chainswords provided on the fists would be too loud and unwieldy for soldiers with a history of stealth and sneakyness like the AL, so I chopped the chainswords off from the arms where they meet the hand and removed the handguard/brass knuckle pieces but left the lower handle, and then put those knives on the bottom of the sprue to good use, cutting off the handle and gluing the hilts carefully where the chainswords once were. It's a simple but time consuming conversion when you're doing it for all of your troopers, but it gives a very different feel to them. I think they look equally if not more threatening, and by far more appropriate.

 

My entire army will be armed with blades of some sort or another, each with notches and grooves similar to those found on the CSM sprues to help unify it.

 

I also utilize the loincloth/grenade/holster bitz found on the sprues to add to the survival-ness and self-reliance idea that I've interpreted from them.

[Inquisitor Kravin]

5 Terminators (2xpf, 1xchainf, 1xReaper, 2x pw, 1x combi-flamer, Icon of Undivided)

Can you do this? I thought that in the AL rules it stated that cultists are the only unit that may carry an icon.

[Akrim]

Cultists are the only ones who can use Demon summoning Icons.

The Icon of Undivided makes all units w/ MoCU within 6' of the banner fearless.

 

And with the way I roll LD checks... :tu:

 

Akrim

~Serpent Company~