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The list first, then some considerations:

1500 SAFH Guardsmen
Doctrines: Close Order Drill, Sharpshooters, Cameleoline, Drop Troops

HQ
Command Platoon: 441
Command Squad: Cameleoline, Junior Officer w/ Honorifica+Iron Discipline, 3 guardsman w/ lasgun, 1 vet w/ standard 91
Mortar Support Squad: 3 Mortar Teams, Cameleoline 90
AT Support Squad: 3 Lascannon Teams, Sharpshooters, Cameleoline 130
AT Support Squad: 3 Lascannon Teams, Sharpshooters, Cameleoline 130

Troops
37th Cadian Infantry 337
Command Squad: Cameleoline, Junior Officer w/ Iron Discipline+Bolter, 3 guardsmen with flamers 74
Infantry Squad: Heavy Bolter, Grenade Launcher, Cameleoline 88
Infantry Squad: Heavy Bolter, Grenade Launcher, Cameleoline 88
Infantry Squad: Heavy Bolter, Grenade Launcher, Cameleoline 88

364th Airborne 266
Command Squad: Cameleoline, Junior Officer w/ Iron Discipline, 3 guardsmen with Meltaguns 85
Infantry Squad: Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Cameleoline 93
Infantry Squad: Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Cameleoline 93

Fast Attack 132
Hellhound E.A., Smoke 123

Heavy Support 318
Basilisk- Indirect Fire, Improved Comms 145
Leman Russ Demolisher - hull HB, Sponson HB, E.A, Smoke 173


The general plan for this army:
This is primarily a shooty army who'll knock your socks off from across the board, hopefully before you can return the favor. I've added in some mobile, durable firepower in the form of tanks and some drop troop infantry for the purpose of claiming distant objectives. Rather than a small group of elite warriors like the Spaz Marines, I like to keep my guardsmen barebones. Give them just enough equipment to do their job, and nothing else. Then blanket the entire army in a 3+ cover for good measure .


-The basilisk and all infantry excluding the 'airborne' platoon sit on an objective, in cover, or both and blast the enemy's pants off. Meanwhile, the LR and HH push up 6" at a time, throwing fiery explodey death out 24".

-Meanwhile, I use the imp comms on the bassie to try and keep the airborne platoon in reserves, at least the two ML/GL squads. Wholeheartedly willing to throw away the melta command squad on a tank, they can be used as Ld for their infantry squads if needed.

-the airborne infantry is kitted out like it is because their job will be to drop in on an objective, and handle whatever threat is most opportune or vital. With their loadout they're not very expensive, and can address most threats. Either putting Mid-strength shots into rear armour or peppering infantry with several blasts. The idea is that through Imp. Comms They can show up late enough in the game (Turn 3/4 preferrably) that the Demolisher and Hellhound have arrived on the objective they're dropping in to take and thinned out resistance considerably.

-The other infantry command squad (with the triple flamers) can do one of two things. They can wait with the firebase as a sort of pre-emptive countercharge unit, or drop in and flame depending on the board and the opposing army.

-The command platoon is there to keep my shooty units from running like girls when the enemy shoots back.

-Mortar squad and Bassie sit far away, preferrably out of LOS (yeah right!), and rain death on virtually anyone. They'll often sit near my firebase as well, or I can seperate them to force the enemy to also split. These guys put out a whole lotta pinning, even forcing marines to hit the deck once in a while. S9 ordinance hitting side armour will ruin the day of Leman Russ, Chimeras and anything else with side armour issues as well. hell, I've seen a mortar squad immobilize a chimera: getting a 6 on 2 dice isn't all that hard with 3 shots. The mortars are obviously only there to wreak havoc on massed infantry.


Problems:

-Not enough meltas. One dropping melta squad (not even vets) feels very insufficient, though the 6 lascannons, demolisher and basilisk are all well-equipped for anything AV13>.

-The dropping infantry for point holding is conceptually very strong, but I'm not completely satisfied with their loadout. I'd feel much safer dropping some plasma Stormtroopers in with them, but the points aren't there for this list size.

-Those shooty infantry squads. From what I've seen, the las/plas squads of old are no longer worth their exorbitant cost, so I'm shying away from them. My list needed more anti-infantry, and HB infantry platoons can do the job. Question is, is there a better special weapon to pair with HB than grenades? I know many hate them, but they seem like the only reasonable anti-infantry special weapon besides flamers. HB/flamer would be ok, seems to me like most of the time I wouldn't even get to use the flamers though.

-Singles of any version of tank make me nervous. Points are the only thing stopping me from doubling up on both the hellhound demolisher. As they stand, I think their loadout will do nicely. At this point level, I think their survivability is acceptable as well.


Suggestions and criticisms welcomed.

for your "airborn" platoon I would sugest droping the missle lauchers and taking plasma guns, and finding the points for another squad. 20 guardsmen probly wont last to long.

The reason being, the turn you drop in you wont be able to fire the missle launcher, however the plasma gun could be fired. Also if you dont land close enough to you objective you will have to move towards it, thats two potential turns with that missle launcher not doing anything.

To find the points for that extra squad or two, you could cut out a lascanon team, and the mortar squad, mortars arent very good. With those points you could get two more squads with camo and plas guns, to beef up your airborn platoon.

just a quick thoguht, but if you want a SAFH then i would suggest dropping the cameleoline cloaks. you are buring up alot of points on that to get an additional +1 to cover that could instead be spent on alot more firepower and rounds going downrange. better to have more rounds taking out enemy troopers than worrying about a 4+ vs 3+ cover save in my opinion. Remember....the best defense is a good offense.

just a thought.

~Bart

no heavies in Drop take Plasma or Melta in Airbrone.
GL's are bad really bad.

I've revised the list, taking the bare-bones approach to heart.

1500 SAFH Guardsmen
Doctrines: Close Order Drill, Drop Troops, Veterans


HQ
16th Command Platoon: 256
Command Squad: Junior Officer w/ Honorifica+Iron Discipline, 3 guardsman w/ lasgun, 1 vet w/ standard 81
AI Support Squad: 3 Heavy Bolter Teams 80
AT Support Squad: 3 Autocannon Teams 95

Elite 150
Hardened Veterans- Serge and 4 vets w/ 3 meltaguns 75
Hardened Veterans- Serge and 4 vets w/ 3 meltaguns 75

Troops
37th Cadian Infantry 291
Command Squad: Junior Officer w/ Iron Discipline, 3 guardsmen with flamers, 1 w/ lasgun 63
Infantry Squad: Heavy Bolter, flamer 76
Infantry Squad: Heavy Bolter, flamer 76
Infantry Squad: Heavy Bolter, flamer 76
364th Airborne 233
Command Squad: Junior Officer w/ Iron Discipline, 3 guardsmen w/ flamers, 1 w/ lasgun 63
Infantry Squad: Autocannon, plasmagun 85
Infantry Squad: Autocannon, plasmagun 85

Fast Attack 240
Hellhound Extra Armour 120
Hellhound Extra Armour 120

Heavy Support 330
Leman Russ Demolisher - hull HB, Sponson HB 165
Leman Russ Demolisher - hull HB, Sponson HB 165

Some fundamental changes, and my reasoning:
-I dropped the lascannons mostly as an experimental thing, as autocannons have been shown to be consistently more effective in the AV12 and under range, which I'd like to confirm/deny on my own. Besides, double demolisher double melta drop-vets can handle any AV14 & 13 I'm going to encounter at 1500 points (probably just 1 land raider. very rarely a second.)

-added a second melta vet squad: the best way to ensure success is redundancy is the best way to ensure success.

-swapped out all GLs, mostly for flamers. Am I the only one who really desperately wants GLs to be good? something about the 'HLOOMP' sound of a grenade launcher, and the resulting slaughter is just so awesomes, they need to be better so I can bring them!

-swapped the basilisk out for a demolisher, more or less. Another unit I want so desperately to like. The demolisher cannon is better, having AV14/13 in the face of my enemy will alleviate a lot of the undue attention on my hellhounds,
and again. Redundancy. These two demolishers are quite capable of mashing fellow AV14s, particularly knocking off a gun or two until my vets can drop in and melt them.

-I left heavies in the drop troops because a single special weapon for 70 points is rediculous, scoring or not. Besides, conservative dropping/timing should keep them alive long enough to throw 6 S7 shots a turn into someone's rear armour or monsterous creatures. I would very much like to have improved comms in this army somewhere to get good control over my dropping meltas (don't want both at once) and my drop platoon (rolls as 1 unit for reserves, thank god), to time them properly. I'll probably cut some flamers somewhere, as this army has 9

The Defenestrator wrote: and my drop platoon (rolls as 1 unit for reserves, thank god)

Either I have a fundamental misunderstanding about how drop troops works, or you do here. I'm pretty sure (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) that you have to roll seperately for the command squad and each line squad. the whole platoon counts as one choice on the force organization chart, but thats about the only place it counts as a whole unit. anywhere else the book mentions a "unit" you have to apply that to individual squads in a guard army. or else you could give a whole guard platoon cameleoline for 10 points, or my whole command platoon with 2 fire support squads and 2 anti-tank squads the sharpshooter skill for only 10 points. sadly it doesn't work that way, and neither does drop troops. you will have to roll reserves roll for the command squad, then for the first line squad, then for the second line squad.

unless i'm gravely mistaken, but i don't think i am. and the reason i dont think i am is that i made the same mistake when i first used doctrines and was corrected by another player.

page 44, under "Infantry Platoons" (just above the statlines for infantry squads)

"Each Platoon counts as a single Troops choice in the Force Organization Chart when deploying, and is rolled for collectively when rolling for reserves. Otherwise they function as independent units."

I made sure of this fact beforehand, this army is virtually incapable of taking more than a single objective in my deployment zone without the use of improved comms to keep an entire platoon off-table until mid to late game.


you need to find, and physically strike, the player who corrected you when you were in fact correct.

wow, then i stand corrected....but then how in fact would this work since you place a model down in the spot where you want them, then start making a circle around that unit......so you're going to put ALL of your platoon in an ever growing circle around this one guy, or you roll once for the whole platton for your deep strike/reserve roll, then place each squad individually.

cuz i've been rolling for each squad and placing each one individually....and all my opponents have never said a word about it. lol.

or perhaps that was all part of their evil plan....hmmmmmmmm.

roll for platoon, if it comes in, then you place each squad independently and roll for each squad's scatter.

well spank me twice and call me Susan....thanks for correcting me.