Thursday, November 6, 2014

Militarum Tempestus Tactis: With Forge Worlds Blessing


So with the blessings of Forge World I have been thinking on the units that I would take with a Scion army, with Imperial Armor filing in for some support and providing some interesting options.  Having the ability to take the same FW units that the IG can helps out so much in filling some of the scion army gaps.

First off it fills the AA gap that scions have in the form of flyers.  For me I'll be taking the Avenger Strike fighter, as I just love how it looks and it has solid weapons.  Its not the best AA platform but can cause flyers stress, and if you can get them to jink you reduce their firepower.  Vultures are another top choice for similar reasons.  Both will cost you almost exactly the same when kitted out.  The Sky talon is another interesting choice, if you don't use valkyries a lot for transporting squads, this gives you almost the same firepower of a valk at a discounted price.  The lightning is the cheapest dedicated air fighter, but honestly I think the vulture and avenger can do the job and fill other roles better if you aren't facing any flyers.  The Thunderbolt is the most reliable air killer, but most expensive.  Its a solid choice and can still do well against ground targets.  Its a very solid AA choice.

Other units that this now opens up in my mind that can help the scions out are salamanders, tauros, rapier batteries, cyclops, and even some of the artillery platforms.  The salamanders are good, they are cheaper than tauroxes and bring good firepower, plus are fast enough to keep up with the infantry.  Tauros fill the same role as well, though I like their aesthetic in the scion army better than the salamander.  I would take the heavy flamer or multi laser venator upgrade. 

The rapier batteries are an interesting choice as they bring needed long range anti tank weapons into the army.  They are 40pts per model and can take an additional guardsman for 6pts.  They have the artillery profile for T7 2Ws with 3+ save and the laser destroyer array is 36" S9 AP2 Ordnance twin linked.  Three of those are pretty cheap and easy to hide, and ordnance means your having a high chance of penning armor.  The Cyclops is another interesting choice.  They are 30pts and act as infantry and have a controller, they act separately from the controller but if they get 48" apart the cyclops can't move.  You can detonate it in your assault phase, whether it is in combat or not (it can assault).  When it detonates its basically a basilisk shot ( S9 AP3 Large Blast Ordnance) place the blast marker over it and kill whats underneath.  Its slower as it counts as infantry, but a unit of three of these is cheap and can shore up a flank from their simple threat of being there.  Hide them out of line of sight in a ruin or other terrain on your flank and jump out when anyone gets too close.

There are hydra platforms at 50pts and manticore platforms (sky eagle) at 100pts, but personally I would take a flyer and double that as my AA.  Another interesting option is tarantula sentry guns, which are super cheap at 15pts for the TL heavy bolter one and 35 for the TL lascannon.  They are artillery and have T6 2Ws and 3+.  You decide which mode they are in at the start of the game.  Point defense lets them shoot at targets in a 90 deg arc up to 36" and sentry mode is 18" but 360 deg.  They will shoot at the nearest unit based on weapon.  Lascannon will shoot at nearest vehicle or MC, and heavy bolter at nearest non vehicle target in line of sight.  They are really cheap and are a nice fire and forget flank cover.

For me, there are some fun little stuff that I want to play around with, especially the cyclops, prob won't be amazing but would def be a fun little to use.  I'll have to do a list up and see how it works out.  Then play around with it and see how it does.  Hope this gives some ideas

GG

9 comments:

  1. Thank you! Interesting reading and as I'm new to the guard, extremely helpful ;-) Been starting a small force and am excited to know I'm getting a Valk & Vendetta for xmas. With this updated info being able to take FW units without needing to crack that ally slot, even more options open up. I also love the look of the Avenger, and am wondering if I should also add a couple of Tauros Venators to fill that last FA choice. Just when I thought my list building was complete too!

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    1. Depends what you are going for. Venators are a bit pricey, I would stick with the multilaser verson. The standard version with heavy flamer is good too, its pretty cheap and very fast esp with the ability to outflank. They are good but it depends how you want them to fit in your list. The salamander is another good fast choice.

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  2. This was a good read with some very good points, this is off the topic but have you seen the new Forge World imperial guard models? The Solar Auxilia they look very steam punk to me but they look good. I like the Vultures withe the two punishers on there if nothing else it look sweet. Keep the stuff coming and happy gaming.

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    1. I have seen them, Honestly waiting to see more. They don't look bad, but not my favorite aesthetic. Want to see more of them though

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  3. You actually gave me an idea. I was always struggling to find a good use for cyclops vehicles, but reading through your thoughts I realized just how great counter-attack unit they are. Especially against the drop pod marines or other deep striking units.

    This can be a really good tactic for the gunline IG as well. Just take a team of 3 cyclops, detach all of them, hide operators and spread cyclops around the gunline. When the enemy comes close blow them up. Next time they will be less likely to get that close. Literally for 90 points you have either a distraction unit, as enemy must kill all of them before they do their job, or they are a good protecting unit that makes your opponent stay back...

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    1. Honestly I can't think of a better unit for the pts that can disrupt the enemies plans. Hide them behind a ruin on a flank and bam! you have some super cheap flank security. Facing some assault units like khorne dogs, spread them out up front behind terrain, they get close and even if they are invisible you can still hit them as its not a shooting attack, they just blow up.

      Facing a deepstriking army, hide them around and wait for the strike, then they pop out and blow them up. Hell they can be transported, you can fit three in a chimera (they are very bulky.

      Also since there explosion is not a shooting attack, nor an assault, you can move, run then explode.

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    2. Blah, they are extremely bulky so count as 5 models, so only fit two in a chimera

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    3. Wait, but the cool thing is that you don't have to assault to blow them up...

      So you can fit two in a chimera and move them 6 and disembark 6 and run D6 and then blow them up.. Awesome!

      Another great thing is to disembark from the fortification using hatches (put the hatch 12" away and disembark further 6" and run d6" and blow up...

      Also having vehicles tank shocking units to make them less spread out to blow them up easier is a viable option!

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    4. Nope, they just blow up in your assault phase. If they are in assault, they can blow up in your opponents phase. Since they blow at I step 10, even if they get charged, they are going to blow up the unit charging them.

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