My local 40k group is starting a league and I’m taking part. Over recent weeks, I’ve been running variations on a minimal guard battalion with an assortment of tanks, artillery, Scions, bullgryns, and Starstriders added on, and I’ve come up with some thoughts on what my list will be.
Whenever I’m working out whether the points cost of a unit is worth it, my question has become if I’d rather have the equivalent points value of standard infantry. Particularly as I’m usually running three artillery pieces, I need plenty of infantry to screen them before I even think about taking objectives. More than once, I’ve had to do a hurried redeployment as something gribbly starts coming towards one of those big hitters and, even if it works, it’s inefficient. Bullgryns are great, but three isn’t enough and, at 40 points a model, they start becoming expensive. The Elucidian Starstrides are a huge amount of fun, and potentially work as a sort of distraction carnifex because no-one’s seen them, but their best use is sitting on an objective and being really difficult to shift. The Valkyrie isn’t worth the points cost unless you’re doing an alpha strike; it doesn’t put out enough damage to warrant its inclusion, and it doesn’t add anything to the Scions’ deep strike ability except arriving on turn one.
Given the above, I’ve decided to run a brigade formation. Between the points spent on the extra troops and the fast attack choices needed to run a brigade, it means that I have to take one less ‘fun’ thing – the Valkyrie, bullgryns, Starstriders, etc. – but it means that I have a more coherent force and, crucially, lots of command points to spend each match.
The fast attack option I’m taking is three Armoured Sentinels. I ran them as a single unit in a battalion in my last game and, well, they’re tough little buggers. There’s a stratagem from Greater Good that allows particularly accurate shooting in the first round, allowing them to run up the battlefield and pop off a few shots, that was particularly good. However, it only applies to a single unit, and I’m having to run three units of one Sentinel. The ideal would be to have them in a single unit to maximise the effectiveness of the stratagem, perhaps with Rough Riders taking up the other two fast attack slots. However, I don’t have the Rough Riders built and I do have a second Leman Russ tank built.
That stratagem comes from the new Greater Good book. There’s another stratagem in there that, along with the Hammer of Sunderance from Vigilus Defiant, makes for a Leman Russ that kick out an enormous amount of damage – 6 shots instead of D6, and 3 damage instead of D3 damage. If the tank it’s on moves less than half speed, it fires twice, so that’s a potential thirty-six wounds flying out of the barrel. It does require a couple of CP a turn to use the stratagem, hence the attraction of the 12CP from the brigade detachment.
The other big change from Greater Good is custom regiments; instead of choosing a regiment that gives you a couple of bonuses, you can choose two bonuses from a list. Taking a custom regiment instead of one of the standard regiments isn’t a no-brainer; there are some really good options amongst the standard regiments that aren’t available from the custom list, and they also bring some unique stratagems and characters. However, the combination of longer rapid fire range for the infantry and healing wounds for the vehicles seems too good a combination to pass up for a mixed infantry and artillery brigade. There are also new regimental doctrines available for Scions.
The ‘fun’ bit I am including is a battalion of Scions. They don’t last long, but they provide mobility to what can be quite a static army and they can deliver a real punch when needed. I do just love the models and the flavour of them. I’ve reconfigured the squads a bit, and they’re not getting any vehicles. I hope it all works. The doctrine I’m taking gives them an extra six inches of range, and so an extra three inches of rapid fire range. That means they can deep strike and immediately be in rapid fire range.
Here is the list for what I’ve named Task Force Carabid. The Carabidae are the ground beetles, which includes bombardier beetles; it felt appropriate for the amount of artillery.
Task Force Carabid – Order of Battle
- 267th Neotian Saints Brigade
- Regimental Doctrine
- Disciplined Shooters (Rapid fire within 18”)
- Jury-rigged Repairs (Vehicles repair each turn)
- HQ [248pts]
- Tank Commander [188pts]: Battle Cannon [22pts], Emperor’s Fist, Heavy Bolter [8pts], Heavy Bolters [16pts], Relic (Emperor’s Fist): Hammer of Sunderance, Up-armoured, Warlord
- Company Commander [30pts]: Chainsword, Laspistol
- Company Commander [30pts]: Chainsword, Laspistol
- Troops [240pts]
- Infantry Squad [40pts]. 9x Guardsman [36pts]. Sergeant [4pts]: Laspistol
- Infantry Squad [40pts]. 9x Guardsman [36pts]. Sergeant [4pts]: Laspistol
- Infantry Squad [40pts]. 9x Guardsman [36pts]. Sergeant [4pts]: Laspistol
- Infantry Squad [40pts]. 9x Guardsman [36pts]. Sergeant [4pts]: Laspistol
- Infantry Squad [40pts]. 9x Guardsman [36pts]. Sergeant [4pts]: Laspistol
- Infantry Squad [40pts]. 9x Guardsman [36pts]. Sergeant [4pts]: Laspistol
- Elites [67pts]
- Astropath [21pts]: Telepathica Stave [6pts]
- Commissar [16pts]: Bolt pistol [1pts]
- Master of Ordnance [30pts]: Relic: Kurov’s Aquila
- Fast Attack [9 PL, 120pts]
- Armoured Sentinel [40pts]: Plasma Cannon [10pts]
- Armoured Sentinel [40pts]: Plasma Cannon [10pts]
- Armoured Sentinel [40pts]: Plasma Cannon [10pts]
- Heavy Support [491pts]
- Basilisk [108pts]: Heavy Bolter [8pts]
- Leman Russ Battle Tank [10 PL, 137pts]: Battle Cannon [22pts], Heavy Bolter [8pts]
- Manticore [8 PL, 133pts]: Heavy Bolter [8pts]
- Wyvern [6 PL, 113pts]: Heavy Bolter [8pts]
- Regimental Doctrine
- 43rd Iotan Dragons Battalion
- Regimental doctrine
- 43 Iotan Dragons: +6” to range of rapid fire weapons
- HQ
- Tempestor Prime [35pts]: Hot-shot Laspistol
- Tempestor Prime [35pts]: Hot-shot Laspistol
- Troops
- Militarum Tempestus Scions [114pts]. 5x Scion with Hot-shot lasgun [35pts]. 4x Scion with Plasma gun [72pts]. Tempestor [7pts]: Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol
- Militarum Tempestus Scions [114pts]. 5x Scion with Hot-shot lasgun [35pts]. 4x Scion with Plasma gun [72pts]. Tempestor [7pts]: Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol
- Militarum Tempestus Scions [3 PL, 35pts]. 4x Scion [28pts]. Tempestor [7pts]: Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol
- Regimental doctrine
1499 points
Command points
Battle-forged +3
Brigade +12
Battalion +5
Emperor’s Fist Tank Company -1
Tank Ace -1
Imperial Commander’s Armoury -1
Total 17