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Hi all, after some five years since playing me and a mate have decided to get back into 40k. The last edition I played was 5th, and it seems as though a LOT has changed.
I'm not 100% sure on how formations etc. actually work, and making anything outside of the classic FOC is outside my comfort zone, but the flame blade looks appealing to me (S5 flamers!) and I was hoping to get feedback on this list I threw together.

Flameblade Strike Force- 1498 Points

Battle Demi Company:

Vulkan He'stan- 190

Tactical Squad- 125pts w/ Combi melta, Meltagun and Drop pod
Tactical Squad- 125pts w/ Combi melta, Meltagun and Drop pod
Tactical Squad- 120pts w/ Combi flamer, Flamer and Drop Pod

Command Squad- 180pts w/ Apothecary, 4 Meltaguns and Drop pod
Ironclad Dreadnought- 155pts w/ Chainfist, Meltagun, Heavy flamer, Ironclad Assault Launchers and Drop pod

Assault Squad- 115pts w/ 2x Flamers, Jump packs, Power sword and Melta bombs on Sergeant

Devestator Squad- 185pts w/ 4x Lascannons and Rhino

Stormbringer Squadron:

Land Speeders- 180pts 3x Landspeeders w/ HF and MM
Scout squad- 123pts w/ Combi flamer, 3 bolters, Heavy bolter and Land speeder storm w/ MM

I don't want to be too competitive, but losing all the time isn't very fun either. My mate is picking up his old Tau army and I've heard they're a bit OP this edition. One thing I'm not sure about is outfitting the scouts- do I drop the heavy bolter and go for shotguns or is assaulting with them not worth it?


Cheers for any and all advice.

note: im not particularly knowledgeable on SM
However, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lj8a4WN2s this video is useful to watch in terms of the ironclad.
and otherwise looks good, but landspeeders arent particularly fluffy for salamanders though? still a good list though

It looks like a decent list.

The devs in their rhino seem a bit out of place. I might replace them with MMs/GCs in a pod and go full drop. The assault marines could also be podded to keep the number odd, but work fine as-is.

While I like the classic Tornado speeder for nostalgic reasons, I mostly go with TML/HB. Or double up your guns. Fast skimmers can move 12” and fire two guns at full efficiency these days. I’ve also found that squadroning more the two vehicles together can make getting everyone in range/shooting at the same target difficult. Especially with short ranged weapons.

While meltas and flamers are classic, you might want to look into getting some grav into your list. Giant monsters are on the loose, and it’s out best tool for taking them down. That said, spam enough melta and you can kill almost anything. It’s just that the big guys take a lot of shot to put down. Tau have the potential to field a lot of MC/GMCs in the big suits, so this might become an issue for you. If your friend is just getting back in, odds are he doesn’t have any of the mega suits yet, so you should be fine for now. But as he gets back up to speed, you might be facing waves of riptides/stormsurges/whatever else they have.

Scouts in the LSS can basically go with anything but sniper rifles and do just fine. The LSS is open topped, so you can do the drive-by bolter boat, shooting everyone. Or take advantage of the fact you can assault out of it, and go CC. Shotguns, either alone or mixed with either of the above, if you want a little bit of both. With the stormbringer formation and being able to deploy at 12”. I’d lean towards a CC loadout for them.

Hey, sorry for the late response! Thanks for the feedback. How effective would five shotgun scouts be versus Tau? I can't imagine them doing much other than mulching some firewarriors.
I was thinking the devastators could sit on a backfield objective with objective secured and function similar to how I used to run my old scout sniper squads (snipers look pretty bad this edition with no pinning).
Grav looks tempting however I might wait and see how much trouble I have without before throwing any in.
If I dropped a land speeder where else could the points best go?

Your scouts with shotguns should do fine vs. tau troops. And it’s not the firewarriors you should be gunning for. You have the speed to find and eliminate those irritating pathfinders that are boosting his army's BS and ignoring your cover. Take them out, and the rest of his army becomes a lot easier to deal with.

I might mix a few CC guys in with the shotguns, but that’s just me. I think 2 shotguns, 3 CC guys is probably a good mix. Make sure the shotgunners are up front when you get ready to charge, so they die first to overwatch.

The devs should work fine, I just don’t see the point of getting them a rhino for anything other then thematic reasons.

If you are dropping a speeder for points...

You could upgrade the dev’s rhino to a TLLC razorback. I don’t think it’s worth the points, but if you want to have them in a vehicle for theme, at least it would do something.
More Tac bodies. 5 men die pretty fast these days. More boots on the ground is always useful.
Evisorator on the assault squad. It’s a hidden powerfist, just in case something needs to be carved open.
Upgrade your scout sarge to a vet, and/or give him a power weapon.