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I’ve got 3 armies at the moment each designed to provide a different gameplay style that makes each fun to play with. But for my fourth army I’m after something new, which is an elite army with a very small model count. Something that could be transported in a pair of sandwich boxes instead of a full sized games workshop case.

In regards to what codex to use I was first looking at Deathwing but then a Nob biker army at the GT finals got my attention.

So I’m now curious to know what other effective elites armies (with a small number of models) exist in 40k that I can choose to play instead of deathwing and nob bikers?

I'm not sure what you mean by "effective." I mean, if you want pure low-man, extremely-competitive armies you pretty much nailed it with nob bikers. Two nasty crews of amazingly difficult to kill units that while they're wrapped up in close combat can't be shot at... I'd say they're better than Deathwing, but maybe it's just the Deathwing players that I've faced that did the list poorly, who knows.

Daemonhunters are extremely low-numbered but can still be effective. Very difficult to actually win tournaments due to not being amazingly overpowered for their points, but can still prove to be effective and fun. Personally, I just like the fluff behind armies taking Inquisitorial Catholics to the extreme (see also: Menoth).

Seer council on bikes or in falcons/wave serpents. With a fast-skimmer vehicle, theyve got effective engagement ranges as bikers, not as good as jetbikes with thier assault move - until you add in star engines. Thier weaker out-of-transport & the transport can be blown up (but with re-rollable cover saves and wave-serpent/falcon special rules.. its a pretty tough cookie).

Ofcourse they can all be mounted on bikes instead. Good, more expensive, has its own weaknesses.

check out this daemonhunters list Deadshane1 used in a local tourny:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/232203.page

its 29(!!!) guys plus 3 Land Raiders at 1850 points. 5 of those guys being stormtroops to hold an objective and nothing more.

deamon hunters all the way

Any other army suggestions, are there any tank heavy list I could perhaps use?

Also regarding Deathwing, do they get a 3+ or 4+ save regarding their storm sheilds?

Nidzilla.

Saying what armies you currently have may be useful so we know to avoid suggesting them.

EDIT: from you sig im guessing iron hands, chaos and?

Xen.

All of them? Just do not forget to include some Troop.

Proiteus wrote:

Also regarding Deathwing, do they get a 3+ or 4+ save regarding their storm sheilds?

They use their codex's older 4+ Stormshields.

I myself have been toying around with making a Deathwing army. Mainly because A) Terminator squads are hella cheap on eBay and B) carrying 27 minis for a 1500 point tourny army would be nice.

Pure Grey Knights/Land Raider spam is a small army that is still rather solid.

Nob Bikes is a very tiny army.

Eldar Jetseer Councils.

nob bikers ARE a small army but dammit they really can pack a punch.

Chaos Space Marines can be built to be competitive with very few models. Plague Marines eat up points quickly as do Obliterator's and Demon Princes.

/\/\/\ this is true.

My current Lash list is 41 models, and it could easily be les than that and still be quite effective.

No matter what happens though, it will still be bland and boring to play. Basically, I hate my army. I refuse to start a new one until I finish it though and progress is slow :(

Iyanden Wraithguard army with Eldrad/Yriel and Wraithlords. Its tough as nails and you can add a Seer Council to Eldrad to make it really hard. Don't underestimate the power of this army ... I love my Iyanden and I field thirty models at 1500 points

Please don't play Nob bikers. I could give that list to my sister who knows nothing about 40k and she could win a game.

Jetseer lists are touch as nails and at most you need 8 warlocks and a single Farseer. Three warlocks take Destructor, one with Enhance, and one with Embolden. Farseer has Doom and Fortune. Eats up a lot of points and will allow for a low model count army. felixcat mentioned Iyanden and is correct. However, I like to run a theme army when I play them and technically have five "living" models in the army, the warlocks. Two full squads on foot with conceal, two squads in transports, and a couple wraithlords and a Farseer.

Nidzilla is low models, but isn't as effective as it was in 4th Edition since you can shoot the genestealers. Sure they get cover, but you're losing your punch on the way in. At least this is my impression of Nidzilla.

Well, the number of such lists is rather small:
Nidzilla,
double-lash CSM,
Jetseer Council,
mech Eldar,
Iyanden Eldar,
Daemon Hunters,
MC Daemons.

Xenith wrote:Saying what armies you currently have may be useful so we know to avoid suggesting them.

Xen.

My 3 Armies are...

Tzeentch Daemons
Mech Death Guard
Balanced Imperial Guard

So far Deathwing seem the best suited, the only problem I have with them is the fact they can be so easily brought down with lots of small arms fire, all i need to do is roll 5 1s and the squads dead?

How about a jump back Blood Angels army with a death company squad leading the charge?

blood angels are ok but jump infrantry hav to be played tacticaly for them to work but death gaurd always kill me until they meet abaddon

i run an 1850 list that has 42 on-foot models and 4 vehicles
space wolves
2 units of blood claws
1 unit of grey hunters
1 unit of wolf scouts
2 independant characters
1 wolf guard pack leader for the scouts
1 rhino
1 venerable dreadnoght
2 land raiders
won my last tourney with them


deployment is usually the just the 4 vehicles, sometimes i start everything in reserve

There are quite a few codex SM armies that seem to be at least decent and boast smal model counts. The inclusion of multiple Land Raiders, Biker Commands, Termie Assault Squads, etc seem to take up piles of points and contribute to small model count while retaining a fair amount of power.

A full on bike army would probably only run you 30-35 models and be pretty good in 5th edition.

A White Scar army works for me. 24 bikers, 3 attack bikes, 4 LS tornados. Thats with Khan, Chap and cmd squad.

RB

Well, the 13 th Company is an elite army.
The codex is freely available.

Just about any army can be made elite lol...

BTW Bashing Nob Bikerz for being then suggesting a jetcouncil is hypocritical lol. Nob Bikerz are easier to kill then a jetcouncil.

Grey Knights are the winners. They are EXTREMELY Elite and normally field a very low number of troops.

EzeKK wrote:J
Grey Knights are the winners. They are EXTREMELY Elite and normally field a very low number of troops.

Really?
Consider an inquisitional army led by Inquisitors, Guardsmen, and Landraiders.
This Stelek-style army is definitely hard to take down.

Heres something thats both nasty and small a deamon army with at least 3X5 Bloodcrusher units each for the same cost as a terminator!

Don't worry about the cost as I'll most likely convert giant khrone warriors to represent them

Deathwing + LRC spam...