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About two months ago, the gaming club I'm a recent member of ran an HQ arena battle: your choice of HQ at 160 points or less, no named characters. It was an interesting concept that I introduced here for ideas on what Dakkites would bring, both to get an idea about what I would be up against, but also for ideas on what to bring.

The club's new challenge is a Troops Arena: 230 points of a single Troops unit, along with dedicated transports points permitting. Troops must be from the Troops section of the FOC and cannot be other units "counting as" troops as a result of another units abilities ala Logan and Wolfguard.

I know that about half the players are marines of some kind, either gray knights, wolves, blood angles, or imperial fists, but there's also at least one dedicated ork player and a pair of guard. I'm playing eldar and have been faced with a difficult choice because of the frailty of my units and their lack of a decisive punch, boiling it down to either:

1. 5 Dire Avengers, Exarch with twin Shuricats and Bladestorm, in a TL EML Waveserpent

or

2. 7 Guardian Jetbikes, 2 Shuricannons, Embolden Warlock with Spear


I'm favoring the jetbikes which I figure will be a bit more maneuverable than the serpent and pack some nice punch in mid-range with 6 S6 shots while I JSJ to hug cover. Unfortunately, getting close enough to shoot at 12" for the majority of my shots - even if I get a total of 16 shots - puts my little elves in double-tap range which is not where I want them to be. If only I could get a Farseer for the Fortune/Guide the unit would be pretty killer. I also can't afford taking Destructor unless I drop a bike.

The Avengers are also pretty solid at this point range as long as the serpent holds up. The TL EML can drop either templates on orks/IG or use the S8 on transports. I'm worried about the unit once it's out of it's armor though. At only 5 models, it's going to be easy to break.

What would you bring to this event? Any recommendations for me?

Shoota boyz x30, nob with klaw, armor, and bosspole - 220 points. Hard pressed to find a better troops choice than that!

IG Platoon with some lascannons and plasma to deal with your armoured stuff, methinks. The boyzpam would give it serious problems, but the rest should be okay.

Or mechvets with some IC attachements, if you're allowing those, as its only 225 with everything you can reasonably give it.

Nobody_Holme wrote:IG Platoon with some lascannons and plasma to deal with your armoured stuff, methinks. The boyzpam would give it serious problems, but the rest should be okay.

Or mechvets with some IC attachements, if you're allowing those, as its only 225 with everything you can reasonably give it.

Only if the IC's are upgrades for the unit itself; I don't have the IG codex so I don't know really. The rules here are a Troop unit only with a dedicated transport (if it has an option for it), no purchases from outside that single unit. For example, a unit of SM could have a veteran sergeant but a squad of grey hunters would not be able to have a Wolfguard. Neither could have a Chaplain/Wolfpriest since that's an HQ selection.

Who else? Any eldar? Marines? Tau?

10 chaos havocs with 4 missile launchers. it's 230 points exactly and make short work of any armor the enemy brings with krak missiles, and can drop frag missiles on the infantry, with plenty of bolters for backup.

-8 Iron Warriors CSM with heavy bolter
-1 Chaos Dreadnought with something

Only 1 Troops selection allowed. A single Troops selection that is capable of splitting into separate units (like a Guard Platoon or SM Combat Squads) may do so.

Children of Filth: that sounds like a pretty tough unit - very effective if you castle up making you opponent come to you.

20 kroot carnivore + 12 kroot hounds (all counts as one unit)

212 points (140 for kroot + 72 for hounds)

children of filth wrote:10 chaos havocs with 4 missile launchers. it's 230 points exactly and make short work of any armor the enemy brings with krak missiles, and can drop frag missiles on the infantry, with plenty of bolters for backup.

Not a Troops choice.

Gavin Thorne wrote:Children of Filth: that sounds like a pretty tough unit - very effective if you castle up making you opponent come to you.

Ignoring the fact that Havocs aren't Troops, of course.

A hefty Black Templars squad could do pretty well for itself - 10x Initiates w/1 Power-Fist and 5x Neophytes.

Something in a Chimera or Razorback with more ranged shooty inside would do well. No idea how those point out, but it should be more than enough.

I'm thinking this might be the only time Boyz should take rokkits.

28 boyz, 2x rokkit launchas, nob with PK/BP. 228 points

They need the rokkits to break the inevitable rhino...either that or they need to be 'ard boyz (will be hard to find cover out there I'd think)

MinMax wrote:

Gavin Thorne wrote:Children of Filth: that sounds like a pretty tough unit - very effective if you castle up making you opponent come to you.

Ignoring the fact that Havocs aren't Troops, of course.

A hefty Black Templars squad could do pretty well for itself - 10x Initiates w/1 Power-Fist and 5x Neophytes.

Does it show that I'm not a Chaos player?


What about this:

6x Grey Hunters w/ Plasma, Powerfist, Wolf Standard, and MotW in a Las/Plas Razorback - that's under 200 and packs a nice punch.

-Platoon Command Squad w/ 3 grenade launchers and a vox caster
-Platoon Squad w/ autocannon, vox caster, and a grenade launcher (combines with other)
-Platoon Squad w/ autocannon and a grenade launcher (combines with other)
-Special Weapon Squad w/ 3 grenade launchers

Comes out to 230 exactly.

20 Dark Eldar Warriors
2 Dark Lances
2 Shredders
Sybarite w/ Agoniser

226 points.

Ten players showed for the Troops Arena, divided into teams of two:

My 7 Eldar Jetbikes with Embolden/Spear Warlock and 2 Cannons alongside a unit of Guardian Defenders with Shuriken Cannon, Destructor Warlock in a Wave Serpent w/ TL Shuricannon and the extra cannon.

Chaos Marine squad with Melta, Flamer, Icon/Mark that give I5 paired with a fairly large squad of Daemonettes.

Grey Hunter squad with all the gubbins in a deathwind drop pod alongside a ML/Melta tactical squad (Imp Fists) with HB Razorback.

Two Imperial Guard Vets in Chimeras: one with triple melta, one with flamer/grenade launchers

A 26-strong boyz mob with sluggas, choppas, and a PK Nob allied with a unit of 10? genestealers with toxin sacs and scything talons.


We played for victory points, each model worth it's point value to the team that killed it. My team ended up winning the fight by taking out the stealers and the orks by turn two (at the expense of the defender squad) and almost all of the chaos marines after turn 3 before my jetbikes got wasted by the razorback's heavy bolter. Very fun game, I recommend giving it a try if you like having fast and furious battles.

We have that HQ arena here at our club to. But this sounds interesting.

What will the board be like? Will it be barren? Or city fight? Either way I think Jetbikes may be your best bet.

20 Noise Marines all with sonic blasters and the blast master.
Ratatatatatat boom!

Take the wave serpent. In a game with that small of a point value nothing is going to take it down. You might as well take guardians and upgrade the serpent.



This is what I would run:


11 Storm Guardians @ 225 pts ((p.39 & p.64 Eldar); Fleet; Close Combat Weapon; Shuriken Pistol; Flamer x2)
1 Wave Serpent ((pp.45 & 63 Eldar); Energy Field; TL Shuriken Catapults; TL Starcannons)

Total Roster Cost: 225


You have all game to dodge and pick off MEQ, and if you have any transport troubles WS ram really well. If you face orc or another hoard army 2 mobile flamers is great.

I would have taken a 10 man GH squad with 2xmelta, one mark of wolfen and one power fist.

However, I think this really would come down to the troop choice that could take the best transport.

The table was a pretty standard 4x6 with one peice of terrain set by each of the five teams. My partner's wave serpent lasted the entire game, losing only it's TL Shuricannon and while I urged him to ram one of the Chimeras, he opted to continue shooting instead. By my math it ended up giving us the same amount of victory points - or close enough to it anyway.

I had thought about taking stormies too, Clthomps, but had just finished converting and painting my exodite "bike" squad. They were still very effective, making back almost double their points before getting reduced to 3 by the melta gunner in the chaos marines squad and then finished off by the razorback's heavy bolter.