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I was curious what I could do with the options in IA1se, specifically the artillery. The following list is themed "Shock and Awe"

IA seems to be getting more widely accepted around my FLGS, especially IA written with 6th Ed rules. I wouldn't mind scratch building some of these units, but I'd want to make sure the list was fairly optimized before I put in the effort.

While I would be happy to have a conversation about Competitive Play vs WAAC vs TFG via PM, please keep it off this thread.
You might also want to read http://www.sirlin.net/articles/playing-to-win-part-1.html

I'm looking for constructive criticism towards making the list as good as possible, hopefully a TACs list. I want to minimize it's weaknesses.
I would be especially interested in hearing from any IG player that runs a similar list. What do you have trouble with?

Total Roster Cost: 1999

Elite: Heavy Mortar Battery (150 pts)
3 Heavy Mortar Battery
9 Guardsmen

2x Elite: Hades Breaching Drill (2x 110 pts)
1 Hades Breaching Drill
9 Assault Squad + Flamer x2
1 Veteran Sergeant

HQ: Lord Commissar (85 pts)
+ Melta Bombs + Power Axe)

Troops: Infantry Platoon (714 pts)
1 Infantry Platoon
4 Platoon Command Squad + Flamer x3 + Heavy Flamer (Vendetta 1)
1 Platoon Commander
9 Infantry Squad + Flamer x1
1 Sergeant + Power Axe
9 Infantry Squad + Flamer x1
1 Sergeant + Power Axe
9 Infantry Squad + Flamer x1
1 Sergeant
2 Sabre Weapons Battery + TL Lascannon x2
4 Crew
2 Sabre Weapons Battery + TL Lascannon x2
4 Crew
1 Sabre Weapons Battery + TL Lascannon x1
2 Crew
1 Sabre Weapons Battery + TL Lascannon x1
2 Crew
1 Sabre Weapons Battery + TL Lascannon x1
2 Crew
Special Weapons Squad + Flamer x3 (Vendetta 2)
Special Weapons Squad + Flamer x3 (Vendetta 3)

Troops: Veteran Squad (165 pts)
9 Veteran Squad + Heavy Flamer + Meltagun x2
Gunnery Sergeant Harker

Aegis Defence Lines (1#, 50 pts)

3x Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (3x 130 pts)
1 Vendetta

3x Heavy Support: Heavy Artillery Carriage Battery (IA) (3 x 75 pts)
1 Heavy Artillery Carriage Battery
4 Guardsmen

That's ...
13 Artillery (3 of them Heavy)
16 TL LC all with Skyfire and 7 with Interceptor
6 Barrage Big Blasts
a 31-man tarpit combined IS unit
4 highly mobile scoring units
6 other scoring units
2 small blast Melta Rams
16 Flamers
2 Heavy Flamers.

It's not as much Melta or Plasma as I usually run, but there's far more LasCannons than usual, so I'm not too worried. I could take out the Heavy Flamers and modify some of the weapons choices.

I'm really enjoying the idea of T7 W2(or 4) Artillery. No more Shaken or Stunned wasted turns. No more death by a single Metla shot.
I considered condensing the Sabre units into 3-2-2 instead of 2-2-1-1, but that's 20 vs 22 Kill Points - not much of a difference. This way, if my lines are breached, fewer are tied up in CC, and I can split fire more flexibly.

The Interceptor on the Sabres gives me a chance vs Flyers, Swooping MCs, DSing Dreadnoughts, etc
Specifically, the chance to kill them before they can do anything

I'm not worried about Gunline, Mechanized, Flyers or Hybrid builds. Also, anything that reserves a lot is going to have difficult choice when bringing units on the table.
Dedicated CC builds with high model count, especially those with enhanced mobility, are my current nightmare scenario. DPA with 4+ pods turn 1. GKs Henchmen in Land raiders and/or StormRavens, etc

Thanks, let me know what you think

Good luck finding someone to play against unless you are part of an apoc army. Fighting massed artillery just makes people angry as it completely swiss cheeses nearly all armies.

Many people fear forgeworld because they don't get to use it in a tourney setting and from my understanding sabre plateforms are just a more potent heavy weapons squads for guard. The other guy will just get rolled off the table honestly.

 BunkerBob wrote:
Good luck finding someone to play against unless you are part of an apoc army.

I think you misunderstand the situation. I have local players who want to freely use and and all IA units in casual games. I'm not pushing for this, I'm being pushed

Fighting massed artillery just makes people angry as it completely swiss cheeses nearly all armies.

Good to hear. What are the armies not included in "nearly all"?

Personally, I would try to get more basic infantry to delay the enemy from hitting your artillery. As it stands, you only have a single platoon of 30 men. I would want to have two platoons if it was me, probably of 40 men each. That is mainly because I like to take a decent amount of infantry when I go with platoons. Guard infantry are supposed to be the masters of attrition, for which you need a decent number of them. A CCS with a standard would make a decent centre too, as they can dish out orders to the artillery and have an officer of the fleet, which would help spread out interceptor fire over several turns. As for how to pay for these units, I have no idea. Maybe drop Harker and a vendetta, and cut down to 6 sabres.

Your problems are that this list is anything but casual and you will probably be rolled by a pod list or a deep strike list. Anything else that can not get into CC on turn one is generally considered written off when you have that much arty dropping down.

I have been considering running Cotaez and a Strike Squad in my list like this to counter deep strikers and Drop Pods. They can also operate as a solid counter charge unit and if you want to you can deep strike the 2x Psycannons in to take out vital assets or score back field objectives or get line breaker.