Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Howdy All.

I'm hitting up a tournament Saturday, 1300 points, no special characters. Though playing for 10-12 years, this will be my first tournament. As such, if you folks could critique my list, I would be appreciative.

I don't know anything more about the tourney, aside from the fact that there will be at least some Space Marines, Tau, Witchunters, and more Marines. There is a 'nid player, Orc player, and Necrno player presence as well, and might be another Eldar player in there as well.

I have pretty much anything available, model-wise, so don't worry about that aspect.


Farseer, RoW, RoW, SStones, Doom, Fortune
Wraithguardx10, Warlock with (Embolden? Enhance? Conceal?)
DAx10, Exarch, Shimmershield & PW, Defend, Bladestorm
Bansheesx10, Exarch w/ Execution, Warshout & Acrobatic
Scorpsx10, Exarch w/ Claw, Stakler, Shadowstrike


I have 174 points left over. I was thinking of either a WL and Vibrocannon, or a unit of Guardians and a Vibrocannon. I could fit an Avatar in, which would be fun, or possibly a nearly naked Prism and something else.

I'm a little worried about my mobility, since I generally play with a bit more mobility in my list, but I thought that it might be fun to run the Wraithguard unit of hard-hitting nastiness.

The general idea of my list is typical Hammer-Anvil. I don't have a lot of ranged Anti-tank, and I'm worried about this turning into a slug-fest list.

Suggestions?

Thanks a lot all!

You got kind of an eclectic mix here. The only over arcing theme is that its all on foot. While this can work, you may need a bit more work here (or some swapping) to make it function properly.

Lets start with the wriathguard since they are likely to form the core of your army. The 10 man squad with the warlock is a good start. The warlock must (and I really mean must) have conceal. It really takes the edge off of the anti tank weapons that are going to be pointed at them (since you don’t have any actual tanks for them to shoot at). Next put he farseer with them for some fortune goodness and the unit will be rock hard.

The dire avengers are set up as a tar pit unit (something you may not really need with the wraithguard leading the way, but it couldn’t hurt) and they can provide backup for the wraithguard.

I’m not sure that foot slogging banshees are a good idea. Even if they are trudging up behind the wraithguard, they are just too frail to really survive the trip in tact. You would probably be better served with a unit of harlequins to provide hand to hand support for the wraithguard since they can’t really be shot at. If you do decide to keep the banshees, I would ditch the exarch powers. The chances of you being assaulted (rather than doing the assaulting) are slim to none, so acrobatic isn’t useful to you. Warshout is also not that great since it only works on the first round of combat and the enemy has to fail a leadership test for it to work. There is only a 27% chance of that if they are leadership 8 and 16% if they are leadership 9 (and most things are). This is, of course, also assuming they are not fearless. So save yourself the points and spend them else where.

Scorpions might be a better choice for backing up the wraithguard than the banshees. Their 3+ armor will help them out a lot more against the small arms fire that’s going to be coming in than the 4+ armor (or cover) that the banshees have to rely on. And any smart player is going to focus his small arms fire on the units behind the wraithguard since they are going to simply be too difficult to kill to bother with. To this end though, you’ll want to ditch the infiltration power. You’ll want the scorpions running up behind the wraithguard, not in front of them. This is, of course, assuming that you don’t swap the banshees out for harlequins. If you do that, then the scorpions can be put towards a different role all together.

There are a couple of ways you can go with your leftover points. The two places your army is lacking are long range shooting and mobility. You can make up for these in a couple of ways (particularly if you drop the 3 exarch powers I mentioned earlier).
Fire prisim:
Pros: anti tank and anti infantry, tough, fast
Cons: would be your only vehicle and thus subject to all of your opponent’s anti tank firepower.

Dreadnaught:
Pros: long range fire power, hand to hand ability, very tough
Cons: target for anti tank weapons, slow

Wave serpent for your banshees:
Pros: protect your banshees and allow them to be a mobile response force
Cons: only target for enemy anti tank firepower.

Dark Reapers:
Pros: Lost of anti troop fire power at long range, exarch ignores cover saves
Cons: immobile

Thanks for the reply, Phoenix.

I didn't theme the army, I just decided that it might be fun to bring the guard, and built it around that. I was attempting to avoid splitting my forces while trying to have mutually supportive roles.

Instead of conceal, I was considering Enhance to make them more of an issue in HtH, and screening them with some other unit (Guardians, maybe?). I want them to have some sort in Inv save, unless I have a tank or other juicy target that can draw the fire.

Yes, my DA are set up that way, both for a bit of extra close range punch and as a nice Pit if I get innundated and don't want the WG to take the charge, if possible. Also, I'd want to avoid multiple combat including the wraithguard and my DAs, since the enemy could just concentrate on the DAs and combat Res could screw me.

I can see your point with Acrobatic and Warshout, similarly with Shadowstalker if the Scorps don't Infiltrate or Outflank.

Now, my additional points have been bumped up to 204. I'm going to avoid the Dark Reapers, since the rest of my force is designed to be mobile, at least somewhat.

I've been thinking about this for an hour or two on and off now. I may get a kitted falcon and give the scorps infiltrate back. This still doesn't address footslogging banshees though. I could also put them in a serpent with TL BL, SE, VE, and SS's and give the Scorps infiltrate back. I'm not sure where else I'd put the 20 points, except maybe giving the farseer Guide or Mind War- all 3 choices giving me additional tactical flexibility.

banik wrote:Instead of conceal, I was considering Enhance to make them more of an issue in HtH, and screening them with some other unit (Guardians, maybe?). I want them to have some sort in Inv save, unless I have a tank or other juicy target that can draw the fire.

While enhance would make them a bit more powerful in hand to hand, it still doesn't make them good. Some quick math hammer for comparison:
First round, Marines charge wraithguard (10 man squads of each).
Marines kill .56 wraithguard
Wraithguard kill 1.1 marine

First round, Marines charge wraithguard with enhance (10 man squads of each)
Marines kill .47 wraithguard
Wraithguard kill 1.48 marines

So you can see the difference is trivial. Having a 5+ cover save all the time is significantly more useful.

As far as screening the wraithguard with another unit, you have to be crazy to try it. Whatever the screening unit is, its going to get shot to pieces very very quickly and then you're left with your wraithguard vulnerable. You're much better off screening your soft units with tough ones than screening tough ones with soft ones.

Yes, my DA are set up that way, both for a bit of extra close range punch and as a nice Pit if I get inundated and don't want the WG to take the charge, if possible. Also, I'd want to avoid multiple combat including the wraithguard and my DAs, since the enemy could just concentrate on the DAs and combat Res could screw me.

You don't need to worry about combat res screwing you. The wraithguard are fearless so they'll never run (although they could take a few hits due to the avengers dyeing, but that's not a big deal). All in all, having both units in the fight will only help you. In the beginning though, you're probably better off having the wraithguard take the change than the dire avengers. The only exception to this is if the enemy has a power fist. If they do, then put the avengers out there to suck it up.

I may get a kitted falcon and give the scorps infiltrate back. This still doesn't address footslogging banshees though. I could also put them in a serpent with TL BL, SE, VE, and SS's and give the Scorps infiltrate back. I'm not sure where else I'd put the 20 points, except maybe giving the farseer Guide or Mind War- all 3 choices giving me additional tactical flexibility.

Going with the serpent is probably the best route if you are dead set against dark reapers. With the last 20 points, there isn't much you can do with it, so at that point; dropping it back into the farseer is as good a choice as any I suppose.