Codex Blood Angels 1500 points.
HQ: Librarian on a bike: 133 points. There are very few choices in any space marine codex that are as versatile as the librarian. He will be with one of my bike squads in hopes of getting a quick vehicle kill with the blood lance, or take a unit off the board with fear the darkness.
Troops: Assault Squad with 2 flamers and melta bombs x4: 195x4= 780 points. 40 assault marines running around a table is a headache in itself, now imagine those catching one unit under 4 flame templates from two different squads and things start to get a little vicious. I decided not to kit out my sergeants with special weapons like a normally do because I am planning on multiple assault squads to do the damage for me. At full strength 2 assault squads if placed properly could get 20 strength 4 attacks at initiative 10 followed by 40 base attacks. Charging one unit with two of these is key to winning combats quickly and efficiently. They also have melta bombs and krak grenades to knock out vehicles. Plus having 4 scoring choices in 6th edition can be very handy, 8 if I ever felt the need to combat squad them.
Fast Attack: Bike Squad x2, one with melta bombs: 120+125=245 points. These guys are designed to be a carrier for my librarian so he can use his abilities and a bit of beef to support my assault squads. They also become a very annoying scoring unit in mission 4, the scouring. At 5 bikes a squad they are very tough to push off an objective at toughness 5. They can also do a respectable job shooting with their twin linked bolters or assaulting with their extra hammer of wrath attack.
Heavy Support: Devastator Squad x2: 170+170= 340 points. I am essentially using these guys as tactical marines. No weapon upgrades for them, just 10 guys in each squad with a bolter. If big guns never tire is rolled these fellas just chill in my back field and hold an objective and rapid fire anything that gets close to them. They can still support their assault oriented brethren by picking off anything that their flamers don't get. In capture the relic missions these guys will sit in front of that objective and riddle anyone silly enough to grab the relic with bolt rounds while the speedsters surround the rest of the army bashing it it pieces to claim the relic later in the game.
I have never ran a horde army before and tipping the scale at a hefty 71 power armored marines this is as close as I am ever going to get in a 1500 point game. I think it has resiliency in numbers to take a beating and enough power to bash through an opponent in close combat, or simply out maneuver a foe that could beat them such as lightning claw terminators. Objectives can be easily held in any mission. Flyers is the obvious weak point but I really don't think they will be able to make that big of a dent in this army unless it is spammed in crazy proportions. Thanks for reading this and have an Emperor blessed day!
Nice list, love the heavy emphasis on bodies. Very interesting to use devastators as Tactical Marines. The only weakness I do see is with flyers as you stated but what about range 72" weapon platforms like Battle Cannons or Rail Guns? Are you planning on having your Assault Marines dead with that sort of threat?
ReplyDeleteThose low AP value large blast templates are always going to be an issue. My assault marines will be able to get to those vehicles eventually to slap melta-bombs on them but my primary anti-vehicle is with my bike squads. They can move 12 inches turn 1 and hopefully get a Blood Lance, length 4d6 str8 ap1, off on a vehicle or turbo-boost them another 12 inches for a total of 24 inches to get into effective range in turn 2. I will also be praying to the Emperor throughout the game hoping the scatter dice is in my favor.
DeleteSorry, I meant to say ("DEAL" with that sort of threat?) not dead, my bad. And its always good to pray, whether it be the Dark Gods or the Corps Go...i mean Emperor 😈. Anyways, how do you think this "improvised" swarm army will deal with an actual swarm army? Thus is a lot of armor 3 so that's in tour favor big time but I would love to see this contend with a very heavy Gaunt army backed up by Tervigons.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a few reads to get that you meant "deal," haha. With this list I would take on a guant swarm in a heartbeat. Thanks to the "Swarm" rule which I believe gaunts have, any unsaved wound is multiplied by two if caused by a template weapon. Those flamers will be getting their work in for sure in that case. I could deal with the big beasty with massed bolt fire or try and get lucky with a force weapon wound and insta kill it!
DeleteNo Gaunts don't have that rule, really only things like Ripper Swarms and Necron Scarabs have the Swarm rule. If Gaunts had this rule then Orks would too and especially Guard Platoons and even Cultists. The only real safe way to tell if something has the Swarm special rule is if its like 3 or more models on a single 40mm Base...this might put a damper on your plans against actual swarm armies if you relied on this.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. It's not something I really was relying on to stop the horde of gribblies. Two flamers in a squad will do more than enough damage to them. So two flamers, 8 bolt pistol shots could do a lot of damage to a squad. Then follow it up with a charge, hammer of wrath plus normal attacks and I believe that should be one overly dead squad of bugs.
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