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Hello,

After I finish up with my Salamander's Tanks, and my Dark Eldar, I will be making a Hawk Lords army (Please no comments on the colors.).

However, looking at the extremely small amount of fluff they have, has showed me that they dislike Drop Pods (Not exactly a strong point of BA), and LOVE Thunderhawks, and Blood Angels have a similar ship called (As most of you know) the Stormraven. I would be using the Storm Raven as a Thunderhawk model once it comes out.

Furthermore, they Blood Angels can take Assault Marines as troops, which the Hawk Lords would seem to love. However, it appears they like Scouts too, and from what I've seen Blood Angels Assault Squads kick the Scouts butt for the Troops slot.

So...

Pros (To using the BA Codex):
-Stormravens
-Assault Squads as troops
-Close Combat Oriented
-Fast, and "Jumpy" if played that way

Cons (To using the BA Codex):
-Scouts are a no-no
-Special Characters are lacking (No Shrike/Telion)
-Red Thirst, it would be hard to think of a fluffy reason for this

So, what do you Dakkites think?

You can still take Scouts... they just won't be as good as Assault squads.
Dunno about the red thirst... The Hawk Lords are tribal fellows yes? Maybe the company is recruited predominantly from a tribe know for berserker rages during battle...

Do you think I could still give other Competitive Armies a run for their money with Scouts and Assault Marines?

IIRC there is nothing stating they are tribal, their armor certainly does not, however, there is nothing that says they aren't so it is quite possible to do. I would like to keep them more "Nobel" in a way, but I can compromise.

Picture of a marine:

Right then noble... maybe the entire company has sworn a warrior oath which they take incredibly seriously.
Scouts and Assault squads? Probably not the most competetive you can get but it'll be pretty strong if you do it right...
Also i really do like the Hawk Lords... mainly 'cos they're purple.

Would you suggest an all out rush with scouts and assault marines alike? Or scouts sitting back getting objectives?

That sounds very viable, I like it, Ill need to think of some fluff to go along with it, but that shouldn't be too hard!

Finally someone who likes them too, although purple isn't my favorite color, I love marines in them. they look stunning if done right IMHO.

If I decided to make a Hawk Lords army, I would actually use the Black Templar Codex, it adds some flavour other than blood or vanilla, while adding some closecombat prowess and special rules. Keep in mind that thunderhawks are used "outside" the battlefield alot, one of the ways assault squads are said to deep strike is by jumping out of low flying Thunderhawks, also its not to hard to imagine them deploying from their thunderhawks long before the enemy reaches the battlefield. Not everything need to be represented in the army list, its all about imagination.

Hmm, thats an interesting approach to it. I would certainly think about using that codex, but I just don't want to have to mix up Tactical Squads with Scouts like they have.

I'm going to give their Codex a look though, thank you for your opinion.

Just take whichever codex creep marine book came out last and run with it until the next one like everyone else. Once they're on the table it doesn't matter because the color is the only real difference between them anyway. Nobody else will have a hard time accepting it, it's way too common.

At the very least you're better than the half-assembled masses of Grey Plastic Marines that never even bother to pick up a paint brush.

I'd rather not jump on the bandwagon .

Wolves don't seem like a logical choice, believe me, I'm not playing BA because of how competitive they can be. (As you can see by me wanting to use scouts)

I would use the whole "lost company" aspect to explain away the red thirst. Maybe something really bad happened to the 7th company on that mission that has made them go on a repentant crusade; minor geneseed mutation, witnessing daemonic manifestation or some kind of minor heresy by a member would be reason to cut of contact and try to redeem themselves in battle.

The red thirst could then be explained as fervent zeal to redeem themselves or an aspect of exposure to mutation/corruption. Only very minor transgressions are required for marines to go a bit mad and repenty somtimes.

That sounds pretty cool, almost like a rage that overcomes them to redeem their chapter sounds about right.

Trickstick wrote:The red thirst could then be explained as fervent zeal to redeem themselves or an aspect of exposure to mutation/corruption. Only very minor transgressions are required for marines to go a bit mad and repenty somtimes.

This sounds pretty spot on.

Of course if you wanted to be silly you could always dub it the "purple rage" and have your men rage against their chapter master's aesthetic choices
But that's just silly

Haha I think I may have to skip that!

Wow, the new Stormraven model, its like a short fat thing, I think some conversions will be necessary!

Any other opinions?

Got some big plans there Revacky.

Librarian, Priest or three, Assault Marines, Devastators w/ ML, Scouts w/ SR.

If you think you can survive without either the Red Thirst or Combat Tactics, use the BA codex and just "forget" to roll for Red Thirst.

I think Camo Cloak Sniper Scouts are the perfect compliment for Assault Marines. While one is perfect for hunkering down and holding rear objectives, the other excels at kicking the enemy off of theirs.

I would definitely include Scouts, and I think they make fine scoring units. Either Camo Cloak snipers hiding in the back, or CCW-armed guys Outflanking to threaten or take far away objectives or enemy tanks near the table edge. Outflankers are always a great complement to an assault army because they give your opponent less space to hide in or retreat to the corners.

Hey thanks for all the opinions everyone, I'm still planning on these guys, I just have decided to finish my Dark Eldar and Salamanders fully before I start these guys.

I'm probably leaning towards the Blood Angels Codex right now, I like the idea of using some CCW Scouts to pressure the other player. Then use some Sniper Scouts for objective holders.

Again, thanks for all the opinions, I appreciate it.