Warhammer 40K Tabletop XIII: "Ironclads, Furiosos and Soul Grinders, oh my!"

[Renegade Paladin]

Well, there is that. But, the other thing is that AP2 is much more relevant now. See, once upon a time it used to be 'just' Terminators, Nob Bikers and Plague Marines you had to watch out for.

Now Sanguinary Guard are in the mix with their 2+ armour, the entire Dark Eldar army and Blood Angels all have FNP now (if they're doing it right) which is a pain in the arse to deal with, and now you've got the occasional unit of Musical Wounding FNP-bastards known as Paladins. And Terminators, Nobs and Plague Marines are still in the meta-game being jerks.

Still RP, if anyone was going to help me I would've thought it was going to be you. Unless my list was perfect on the first go?

Well, if you want my help. But I can't seem to win a game to save my life lately, so I don't know how much my advice is worth.

At any rate, with that stated, my thoughts:

Primaris Psyker - 70 Points

Sure. Cheap HQ, but with Guard that's sometimes the point. I've never tried one, as I don't have a model for it.

Veterans - 100 Points
x3 Meltaguns

Veterans - 100 Points
x3 Meltaguns

Best loadout there is in this metagame. I tend to put these in Chimeras, but I assume in this case they're going in:

Vendetta - 130 Points
Vendetta - 130 Points

Don't have models for these either, but three twin-linked lascannons on a fast skimmer for 130 points with meltavets in the back is never bad.

Leman Russ (x2) - 330 Points
Hull Lascannons

Ehhhhh... I've never gone for the lascannons myself, but then again, you're not fielding an infantry blob with them. So sure.

Leman Russ Executioner - 190 Points
Leman Russ Executioner - 190 Points
Total: 1240/1250

Your opponent will blow these up as rapidly as possible if he has infantry heavy enough to care about them. If he's anything like my opponents, he'll seize the initiative and do it immediately, or kill them right off as soon as they come out if you keep them in reserve. (My very expensive Demolisher with multimeltas tends to bite it to single krak missiles or lascannon shots to the side armor a lot the turn it comes out.)

I'm considering dropping the two Leman Russes for Colossi, so I can deal with infantry slightly better and possibly transferring the Lascannons to the Executioners, since unless I'm playing Tyranids or Mephiston, I'll probably never start with the Vendettas on the board.

So, needs more tanks. Except probably better tanks.

I've never used a Colossus because I don't have a model or the skill/wherewithal to convert one. Ignoring cover saves is quite tasty, though. I tend to use a Hellhound and/or Bane Wolf for that purpose, but having a mortar way in the back corner works with less risk to the vehicle, I'd imagine. (Barring, of course, the ubiquitous drop pod assault straight into the back line, remembering of course that the initiative is seized five out of six games, rather than not. )

The story of my latest loss, since my bitterness over it seems to be seeping in: It was a training game for some new people. I showed up at the game store for 40k night expecting to sit down to some terrain modeling, since there was nothing scheduled, but I got drafted to play. For some reason (probably the fact that the newbies involved had large, shiny, well-painted armies straight off of Ebay that they wanted to use most of) they wanted to learn in a 5000 point team game, 1250 per player. I didn't have a list ready at that points level with me, so I sat down and banged one out based around an older 1k point list. (Mistake #1.) The list I put together in a godawful hurry was as follows:

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Company Command Squad - 200
-Medi-pack, carapace armor
-Three plasma guns
-Chimera dedicated transport

Veteran Squad - 155
-Three meltaguns
-Chimera dedicated transport

Veteran Squad - 155
-Three meltaguns
-Chimera dedicated transport

Infantry Platoon - 225
-Platoon Command Squad
--Vox-caster
--Lascannon team
--Power fist
-Infantry Squad
--Lascannon team
--Power weapon
-Infantry Squad
--Vox-caster
--Lascannon team

Hellhound - 130

Leman Russ Battle Tank - 190
-Heavy bolter sponsons
-Camo netting

Leman Russ Demolisher - 195
-Multimelta sponsons

Everyone else played Codex Marines. I was partnered with one of the new players, while the other side was two others, one of whom had a few games under his belt and was inclined to be enthusiastically wrong about how cover rules work. The other side had a Land Raider Redeemer and was generally meched up more than I was, which is highly unusual in my metagame, to the point of actually being a game changer for me from here on out if they stick around. (Right after another game changer, at that, namely the fact that everyone builds to beat me and is generally successful at it since I rolled into the metagame with the first meched-up army and proceeded to steamroll most of it thanks to people bringing enough anti-armor to deal with the occasional Razorback, not a mechanized infantry company escorted by a tank platoon.)

We roll for scenario and come up with Capture and Control in spearhead deployment. (Crap. Hate spearhead.) I keep both meltavet Chimeras and the Demolisher in reserve so that they can come in somewhere useful later rather than jamming up the parking lot that is our deployment zone.

They seize initiative. A Dreadnought drop pods in on our objective and proceeds to multimelta my battle tank, but rolls snake eyes for penetration. Everything goes downhill from there as the Redeemer full of Assault Termies rushes forward flanked by Rhinos and a las-plas Razorback. This actually brings the Redeemer in assault range of my ally's CCW/plasma cannon Dreadnought, which he deployed as far forward as possible, having no drop pods. A lascannon shoots the Hellhound's inferno cannon off. Our turn comes up. My ally moves his Dreadnought to assault the Land Raider while my battle tank trundles away from the enemy Dreadnought. My platoon then fails to receive orders, and fires on the Land Raider. At this point things get screwy, as the Land Raider's owner insists that the Dreadnought obscures 50% of his vehicle, even though the lascannons can clearly see it. He claims this doesn't matter, because some of the Guardsmen with lasguns are behind the Dreadnought - even though they aren't firing models, as there's no point firing a lasgun at a Land Raider. (And it's arguable whether the Dreadnought covered half of the damn thing anyway.) I rightfully blew it up, but he claims a cover save and was inclined to argue about it until I had to leave for work if necessary, so I let him have it just to get the game moving and he made the saves. My battle tank shoots a combat squad in the back, kills everyone except the guy with the lascannon, but he fails his Morale check and runs off the table anyway. The Dreadnought assaults the Land Raider, gets a shaken result on it.

Turn two. They drop some Terminators in our backfield from reserve. Joy. Land Raider drives away from the Dreadnought, proceeds to blast my platoon out of cover with a Flamestorm cannon thanks to its bloody machine spirit. It's hard to kill all of a two squad blob with one template, though, so the lascannons and sergeants survive, and the sergeants hold the squad together so they don't break. The enemy Dreadnought blows my battle tank to kingdom come in assault. Our turn comes up. A meltavet squad and the Demolisher come in. Lascannons fail to phase the Redeemer again, my vaunted plasma command squad kills all of one Terminator with two Gets Hot! results (carapace armor saves both gunners, however), the meltavets open fire on the Land Raider from outside melta range and do nothing, and the Demolisher blows up a wayward Rhino. My ally's second Dreadnought, a rifleman, shoots the enemy Dread in the back and blows it up, expanding the crater started by my battle tank. The first Dreadnought assaults the Land Raider again, again to no significant effect.

Turn three. They deep strike more Terminators, this time in their backfield between my Demolisher and their objective. They move the occupants of the Rhino my Demolisher had blown up to assault with their power fist, but a single krak missile hits the side of the tank and proceeds to roll boxcars for penetration and damage result before they get the chance, an occurrence that is far more commonplace than it has any right to be. The Redeemer flames some more of my platoon to death, and disgorges some Assault Terminators, three Hammernators and two with lightning claws, who proceed to multiassault the Chimera full of meltavets and two Rhinos my ally had cleverly parked nearby, destroying them all. Our turn comes up. My last meltavet squad comes in, but at this point it's getting close to time for me to leave for work, so I give it up.

An interesting note: The scatter dice never rolled anything but a direct hit all game. Deep strikers went exactly where they meant to, and templates hit exactly where they were aimed. Every time.