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I'm playing a little tournament in Canterbury this weekend with my newly built Penal Legion IG - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/257179.page - and finally got enough finished to play my first two games with them yesterday. I'll explain what happened, and then I'm looking at suggestions to improve the list.

CCS (Commander with Power Weapon & Meltabombs, 4 Meltaguns, Astropath)
Chimera (Multilaser, Heavy Bolter)

Psyker Battle Squad (1 Overseer, 9 Psykers)
Chimera (Multilaser, Heavy Bolter)

Penal Legionnaires
Penal Legionnaires
Penal Legionnaires
Penal Legionnaires

Rough Riders (4 Lances, 1 Meltagun)

Hellhound
Hellhound


In the first game I played Kan Wall Grots/Orks and managed to scrape a win in Capture & Control. 6 Buggies, 9 Kans, Grots as Troops, Big Mek, KFF, Meganobz. My rending, outflanking Legionnaires proved very useful in capturing his home objectives and killing Kans in close combat. My PBS had trouble passing it's psychic tests and didn't do much. I found, near the end of the game, that Weaken Resolve was the much more useful power. I wasn't really able to stop his Kan Wall from getting to my objective, but I was able to scare away the Troops so he couldn't hold it.

In the next game I played Ultrasmurfs in Seize Ground (Captain, 5 Terminators, 2 TacSquads, 1 Rhino, Vindicator, Lascannon Dread) and was completely taken apart. My PBS had trouble hitting vehicles, my meltaguns got one turn of shooting off before being killed, generally not enough anti-tank. Any rending guys were eaten by basic Tac Squads. Volume of lasfire took down Termies in the end, and I managed to destroy the Vindicator with a rear end ram from a Fast Hellhound, but didn't perform well.

So, suggestions....? This is what I have available to swap

- Swap Hellhounds for Bane Wolves? Would up my AT firepower. To make up the Anti-Infantry loss I'd probably put Heavy Flamers on the Chimeras or as secondary weapons.
- I have a Veteran Squad with Demo charge and either 3 Melta, 3 Flamer or 3 Grenade Launcher. Could swap them for the PBS? Keep the Chimera for them?
- The Rough Riders need bigger groups to function. I have more models if I can find the points. Also, lose the Meltagun - you always run them anyway.
- Find 5 points to give commander a powerfist??
- PBS Template weapon is unreliable. Weaken Resolve is better. But i don't need a full squad to gain weaken resolve benefits, right? Could lose a few psykers to gain points?


What do people think???

Its not the banewolfs you want; Its the devildogs. Str8 ap 1 24" melta blast. Very useful. And yes, swaping those and adding in some heavy flamers on both chimeras. I like it.

You may not need/want to change both hellhounds > devildogs. Keep the psyker battle squads.. It adds a bit of interesting ranged firesupport & utility into a small game & your fine on troops.

As for the PBS.. You could scrimp & save but they are no worse than a basilisk in terms of firepower & accuracy and you would only save a few points. Unless you could field a third hellhound/devildog/Vendetta, I would not bother. Oh thats assuming you drop the rough riders, As I assume your not getting great mileage out of them?

yeah,
I think you were unlucky with the PBS in their chimera.
and if you think of the combo as a tank, there is very few other tanks in the game that can take a wreaked result and the gun gets out and walks!

Panic...

I'd drop the powersword and bombs from the commander - that unit's never going to win combats, and if 4 BiD meltaguns won't kill a tank, meltabombs are a pretty slim chance (aside from which, if you move your chimera and disembark, you can't assault anyway)

Using those spare 15 points, I'd switch one hellhound to a banewolf w/hull-mounted multimelta. I think that is a great tank, you have a chance to cripple any tank, and against MEQ you can move 12" and still fire both weapons.

Also, the CCS' chimera would definitely work better with a HF, not HB.

Thanks for all the comments.

- I REALLY like the idea of Chemcannon/Multimelta and being able to fire both at 12" move. I forgot about defensive weapons. Fantastic.
- Ok ok ok. I'll keep the psykers.
- I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT ORDERS!!! AGAIN!! Ok, Bring It Down changes things, but the Meltabombs were actually useful. That squad gets quite far forward, and got charged by walkers a few times. The meltabombs at least mean you can do something. Let's see if I can afford them still.

Right. New list. More comments please?

CCS (Commander with Meltabombs, 4 Meltaguns, Astropath)
Chimera (Multilaser, Heavy Flamer)

Psyker Battle Squad (1 Overseer, 9 Psykers)
Chimera (Multilaser, Heavy Flamer)

Penal Legionnaires
Penal Legionnaires
Penal Legionnaires
Penal Legionnaires

Rough Riders (5 Lances)

Banewolf (Hull Multimelta)
Banewolf (Hull Multimelta)

TOTAL 1010


The big question is, how do I lose ten points? Banewolf multimelta? CCS Meltagun? Or one of the psykers?

Oh, and regarding Rough Riders - they found a bit of use, as counterattacking units. They reduced all the Meganobz to 1 wound each in the first game and killed two terminators in the second, which for a 65pt unit isn't bad. Obviously they could be much better with a few more models though. If I swap them out, what's worth the 65pts???? It'd need to be something defensive, or that can stay at the back of the field... what about another PBS? A five man squad for casting Weaken Resolve at things? What about a Primaris Psyker? All these change my gameplan a bit, though...




.

If your using those riders and using them well, keep em. I can see that between the forty blood thirsty penals, 5 skulking riders might get ignored but be warned; In any bigger game or vs any decent shooty army.. They will get mulched very quickly by "spare" heavy bolter-like firepower.

But, looks good. May even steal just that!

PBS plus rough riders can be very scary - get a unit down to 25%, weaken resolve, then charge it. Also works with outflanking penals, of course. As for changes, I'd look at upping your number of rrs, of possible. Just thoughts!

Looks good, I'd drop a psyker to get the 10 points...