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Take;

One large 3-5 blob squadded infantry platoon with some heavy weapons to fit need and tase.

Add 3-6 chimeras with weapons to fit need and taste.

A Infantry supporting CCS

Mix well and serve and repeat as nessicary

Assuming the chimera is a useful and cost effective vehicle in its own right and making use of the killpoint reducing "Combined squad" rule to turn one infantry platoon into a 2KP group not inuding vehicles.

Thoughts?

The problem with this is you are paying points for a bunch of transport tanks that won't be transporting anything.
And if you split up the platoon to put them in the Chimeras then you might as well use Vets.

If you mean to do something else with this please explain I'm always down to learn something new.

Veterans cost alot more especially with firepower upgrades.

I was suggesting using the Chimera as a 55pt tank to shoot stuff, equipped with either the h.bolter & multilaser or dual heavy flamer (or a mix there-of) with a supporting foot-infantry core. Compared to using chimera's to transport shooty infantry to within close ranges of the enemy to unleash havoc with the more powerful short-ranged weapons.

KP/Points wise its not all that bad and I think the firepower of a chimera within its own right is pretty good. Ofcource you'll need a few additional elements to the army (melta/devil dogs/medusas/executioners etc).

Transport wise; Atleast one of those chimera's can be bought for the PCS which are fairly useless on foot. There's a scoring chimera right there & ofcource you can always peel off some infantry squads into chimeras as and when.

In terms of Infantry platoon blob compasition; 3x h.bolter/Autocannon squads with a commissar combined with 2x lascannon squads (or a similiar ratio) with the former cover shielding the latter, you can also deploy the lascannon crews so that 50%+ of the 20man lascannon squad are covered by the 30man autocannon/h.bolter squad whilst the 3 lascannon models are out in the open with an unrestricted frontal field of fire.

All-in-all its roughly 690pts for a full 5man platoon with 5 chimeras. If you use two infantry platoons but only field 3 chimeras per platoon that may allow you to field a strong/worthy amount of chimeras aswell as saving enough points for other elements of the army.

You can also throw a bunch of heavy weapon squads into your chimeras for added protection.
They cannot start in the dedicated transport, so you lose a turn of shooting by having the squad run into the armored tank -- but you get a nice candy shell around your squishy heavy weapon squads!

Don't forget, 3 heavy weapons can all fire out of that chimera as it has 5 fire points.

considering that a chimera has more firepower than 55 points of guarsman can, is AV 12 from the front, and can tank shock objectives, there is absolutely nothing wrong with simply buying chimeras for chimeras' sake. I think they're good with multilaser, pintle stubber, and hull heavy flamer, to give them a multi-role goodness.

labmouse42 wrote:You can also throw a bunch of heavy weapon squads into your chimeras for added protection.
They cannot start in the dedicated transport, so you lose a turn of shooting by having the squad run into the armored tank -- but you get a nice candy shell around your squishy heavy weapon squads!

Don't forget, 3 heavy weapons can all fire out of that chimera as it has 5 fire points.

I do hte same with a vet suqad, Harker Heavy bolter and 3 grenade launchers. its a 290 point squad in total but deals alot of nasty buisness.

I don't know, 290 ponts for that?

Sure they are a scoring unit, but I don't think the threat is as high as it should be for something priced like that.

My 7 Cents.

While outflanking chimera with four heavy bolters and a couple meltaguns does seem like a nice amount of firepower, you pay a premium for the chimera for the cost of having to outflank costing you the use of two heavy bolters (/etc) and forces you to outflank.

Harker shines when he has the option to simply infiltrate and provides his squad with free MEQ cover saves.

As for the chimera/platoon usage, the idea is to keep the cost of the infantry squads (Not veterans) down to a minimum.

considering that a chimera has more firepower than 55 points of guarsman can, is AV 12 from the front, and can tank shock objectives, there is absolutely nothing wrong with simply buying chimeras for chimeras' sake. I think they're good with multilaser, pintle stubber, and hull heavy flamer, to give them a multi-role goodness.

If you are buying them as a tank rather than for a transportation role, I would recommend instead considering paying 10pts more than what you described and buying a Hydra.

Two twin-linked autocannons that ignore SMF and have 72' range plus a HB/HF for 75pts and that fact that 3 take up a single HS slot make it one of the best light tanks in the game.

I hope that vet squad for 290pts was a typo, and it was supposed to be 190 (which still is a lot for such a low damage output squad). You could of course reach 290 if you threw all doctrines on that squad and used 10 pts to beef up the chimera with something, but that would be really dumb - also wouldn't say that you make good use of Harker when you just use him as a chimera-priced heavy bolter, why not just buy another chimera then?

Matt-ShadowLord wrote:

considering that a chimera has more firepower than 55 points of guarsman can, is AV 12 from the front, and can tank shock objectives, there is absolutely nothing wrong with simply buying chimeras for chimeras' sake. I think they're good with multilaser, pintle stubber, and hull heavy flamer, to give them a multi-role goodness.

If you are buying them as a tank rather than for a transportation role, I would recommend instead considering paying 10pts more than what you described and buying a Hydra.

Two twin-linked autocannons that ignore SMF and have 72' range plus a HB/HF for 75pts and that fact that 3 take up a single HS slot make it one of the best light tanks in the game.

True.

I use a 50 strong blob of infantry frequently and have had great results with it. I give them a commissar or Yarrick, no heavy weapons and power weapons and melta bombs on the sarges.

The squad annihilate things in HTH, shoots very well especially with FRFSRF, plus it is very hard to shift. Just make sure to stick the commissar in the middle so he can't be killed in combat. I have killed Kharn with an 8 man squad of bezerkers in combat with this set up and did so with ease.

With Al rahem, you can even outflank the little boogers, which really brings the pain.

It is a fun and surprisingly effective unit in my experience.

Reecius wrote:I use a 50 strong blob of infantry frequently and have had great results with it. I give them a commissar or Yarrick, no heavy weapons and power weapons and melta bombs on the sarges.

The squad annihilate things in HTH, shoots very well especially with FRFSRF, plus it is very hard to shift. Just make sure to stick the commissar in the middle so he can't be killed in combat. I have killed Kharn with an 8 man squad of bezerkers in combat with this set up and did so with ease.

With Al rahem, you can even outflank the little boogers, which really brings the pain.

It is a fun and surprisingly effective unit in my experience.

This thread isnt so much about the specifics of using large blobbed platoons as close-combat killers but yes.. I can imagine.

A few points to note though; A standard commissar is a squad upgrade and cannot be a target (as IC can be) in close-combat, they will only be lost if you assign wounds to them; so if you recieve enough wounds to be forced to do so.
Commissar Yarrick is powerful but his fearless ability can be a liability because guardsmen are easy to kill and are likewise easy to fall to no-retreat! wounds. Stubborn with LD9 re-rollable is more useful (although it will cost you powerweapon equipped sgts.) but he does essentially count as a priest plus he is a killer in CC.
Personally, i'd use a standard large 50man blob squad with a priest in the rear, one standard commissar with a p.wep and 5 more sgt. power weapons, along with some flamers and one or two sqauds upgraded with krak grenades and theen combine the whole lot with a Furious charge giver.

You are right, I meant a commissar lord for the ld 10, not the regular commisar. I have bad luck with Ld tests, so I throw Yarrick in there often for fearless as the reroll to hit makes huge difference when you throw that many dice.

And yes, the furious charge makes a tremendous impact. The sheer amount of statistical averages you throw with that squad means you result in the average more often than not which means most of what they shoot or charge is dead meat.

I prefer sarges with m.bombs, p.weapons and 5 m.guns as it gives the squad teeth to take on anything.

As for a big mob of Chimeras yeah, they rock. I didn't think anyone would question that. For the points it is a great tank and with a wall of front armor 12 you can really stay in the game much longer. The more tanks you have the better. 2 tanks is 4 times as effective as 1.

I am not too keen on anything more than 20 for a shooting squad though myself. I find that the shots are wasted. The ablative wounds though are nice.