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Ok, there will be a 500 point tournament soon, but still requiring 2 troops and 1 HQ. And it got me thinking... what armies could make a decent 500 point list that can work feasably well at that points level... after doing some lists in my head it got me thinking... taking the minimal 2 troops and 1 HQ, most armies would not have enough points for more than one other unit, if they could afford one at all without seriously downgrading the troops and HQ. At such small points levels i think you'd really need your compulsary choices to be pulling their weight far more than they normally would be.

So I'm making a list, and intend to find out what list types could be viable, and which types simply look too fragile/small/underpowered to be effective, as in 500 points, one wrong move and you can loose the game if your opponent capitolizes on it... if anyone has a list type that i didn't put down (that could maybe work in 500)... feel free to let me know. Also, as i do not own every codex, i will need some input about lists for most of the armies.

Eventually i'll put a little descrition of the possibilities and possible tactics for each build.

Chaos Space Marines
-Chaos Glory
-Khorne
-Nurgle
-Slanesh
-Tzeentch

Daemons
-Chaos Glory
-Khorne
-Nurgle
-Slanesh
-Tzeentch

Dark Eldar
- Warriors/Wyches: 2x Haemonculus, 2x warriors/wyches, 2x raiders. Fast, FNP... but still fragile. Should be plenty of places to hide raiders in a 500 point game though.
-Wracks

Eldar
- Mech: Autarch and 2 DA units with 2 WS kitted out for S:6 spam. Can keep range and take down light vehicles and infantry, only problem would be high AV vehicles. An alternate list could be to ditch some upgrades on the serpents and squeeze in a GJB unit and replace one DA squad with FD.
- Jetbikes: Autarch+Shining spears can crush any infantry unit, a fusion gun and starlance stand a decent chance against tanks aswell. Throw in 2 min units of GJB for the troops and your relying on the spears to do the heavy lifting.
- Barrage: Guideseer, DA, GJB, reapers and a nightspinner. Guided reapers and the spinner perform barrage attacks to decimate and slow down infatry, tanks can be taken out by a lucky hit from the spinner or the seer can witchblade it when it comes close. The GJB can JSJ with the cannon also.
- MC spam: Avatar and 2xwraithlords, DA and GJB for troops. With 3 MC running for your lines you'll have a hard time bringing them all down, the avatar would most likely be a main concern but he will shrug off 50% of the wounds on him. Wraithsight may be an issue, but as long as the MC are taking hits and herding the opponent away from objectives the the GJB can do their thing.

Grey Knights
-GK heavy
-ST heavy

Imperial Guard
-Mechvets: CSS and 2xvets, all with 3x special weapons and all in chimeras. There are even enough points left over for vehicle upgrades on a sentinal. AV12 can be quite durable and there are a surprising amount of special weapons from these 3 units.
-Powerblobs: With some limited firepower support from CSS and PCS you can tool up two blob squads with power weapons, commissars and melta bombs, giving you 50+ bodies on the table. Many armies would have difficulty shifting that many bodies at 500 points, either from shooting, or assault.

Necrons
- Basic: 2x10 Warriors and a Lord with 40 points of goodies. With 0 long ranged fire support and only having one model who is decent in assault this list is gonig to suffer, either by taking casualties at range or simply getting caught up in an assault. With such a pre-set list, Necrons are extrememly limited in their options.

Orks
- Green tide: 2x30 boys and a cheap warboss. With no KFF and no transports its going to be a hard slog across the field... but with so many boys its hard to take down before they crash into your lines and rip you a new one.
- Speed freaks: With 2x11 boys mobz in trukks, with all the required wargear to be successfull and a KFF mek, this force can withstand some firepower due to the general lack of mass AT weapons available in 500 points coupled with the KFF save, and can get your boyz to where they need to be to get on with doing their thing. After this you should still have 100 points left over, if you skimmed a few points off your original units you should be able to get a third trukk mob, alternativly you could take some firesupport in the form of cannons or grethchin to hold objectives
-Nob Bikers: With a PK Warboss on bike, a unit of gretchin (minimal) and 4/5 nob bikers (taken as troops with a claw, painboy, waaagh! banner, boss pole, with wound allocation fun) this list can smash an enemy, at 500 points most armies will struggle to bring the bikers down before they hit your lines and start chewing through units. Just be wary of opponents deploying in ruins and staying off the ground floor, as you will have to resort to dakkaguns.

Space marines in general
- Razor spam: Razorspam can be effective, but i think your looking at a 2 razorbacks in 500 points. And having two AV11 vechiles to rely on may be a problem.
- Termies: Librarian with 2x5 sniper/camo scouts and 5 assault terminators. Slow moving... hard to kill. Gate would increase your speed, but most armies could simply outrun you and take you down slowly.
- Techies MOF, TFC, vindicator and 2x scout units. This list can lay down some impressive firepower, and take alot of ranged punishment with 2x bolster ruins

Black Templars specific
- Horde EC + 15 marines split into 2 units. Both units having a MG + PF. durable, and able to move fast across the board with the BT being crazy n all... and running. All that 3+ armour could prove very durable in a small game.

Blood Angels specific
-DoA

Dark Angels specific
- Deathwing: Pure deathwing cannot be done at 500 points.
-Ravenwing:

Space Wolves specific
-TWC (eggs in one basket)
- Termie spam Logan with 2 3-man wolfguard (troops) choices all in termie armour. It will be very hard to get rid of these guys without several ap 1-2 weapons or a high RoF (both of whih will be hard to come by in 500), but on the downside it is also very slow, and you can easily stay out of range of them.
- Land Raider! SW can take a LR if you skimp on the HQ (battle leader) and troops choices, if the LR goes down early... then its pretty much game over as a literal handful of marines (depending on the size of the hand) will be all that is left.

Tau Empire
-Mech
- Fire Warrior gunline: You can fit in 3x9 FW units, with support from a Shas'el and 2 crisis suits. The suits can be geared to take out any vehicles or heavy infantry, leaving the FW units to bring their 30" S:5 weapons to bear.

Tyranids
-Swarm
- Warrior spam 2xprimes and 2xlarge warrior units. Hell of alot of wounds to take them down, and S:8+ weaponry wouldn't be in abundance. Being both decent with range and combat also makes these units hard to deal with.

Witch hunters
-Mech
-Infantry

I'd say the two most dominant armies are Orks and Tyranids. IG 3rd.

All these armies can access cheap enough units to be able to put down an almost unassailable amount of bodies on the table.

For Orks, a minor Kan Wall can work well as would a simple Horde.
Tyranids can do a wide variety, but IHMO i would expect an army with a Tervigon HQ to be best or one focussed around Genestealers.


I would say that Deathwing and Ravenwing are not good at these points and that Space Marine armies can take Razorspam or a very win big/lose big build with a Land Raider and minimal troops.

Think:

Wolf Guard Battle Leader.

5x Grey Hunters - Flamer - 75pts

5x Grey Hunters - Flamer - 75pts

Land Raider - Extra Armour - 265pts


Most of the army builds you've suggested seem to be the main builds for armies, even without a 500pts limit.

I took Orks to a 400 point combat patrol tournament not that long ago.

KFF Mek

2x:
11 Boyz
Nob
'eavy Armor
BP
Klaw
Trukk
Red Paint
Reinforced Ram

It actually worked amazingly well. No one could bring enough quantity of shots to punch through my KFF. People we're taking 1 or 2 Lascannons, Missile Launchers, or Dark Lances. The one buy who brought a Hydra never got paired up with me, and 2 opponents had no ranged anti-tank at all.

For the extra 100 points, you could bring a small unit of Gretchen as objective holders, and 3 separate units of Kannons with minimal crew.

It creates huge target priority issues, and the basic Ork boy is, point for point, the most cost effective troop in the game. At this point level, he far outshines other troop choices.

The only thing you could do for Necrons would be 2 warrior squads and a Lord with 40 points to spare for wargear...most likely a rez orb or destroyer body + warsycthe. In any case, it'd probably get steamrolled by most armies.

shealyr wrote:I took Orks to a 400 point combat patrol tournament not that long ago.

KFF Mek

2x:
11 Boyz
Nob
'eavy Armor
BP
Klaw
Trukk
Red Paint
Reinforced Ram

It actually worked amazingly well. No one could bring enough quantity of shots to punch through my KFF. People we're taking 1 or 2 Lascannons, Missile Launchers, or Dark Lances. The one buy who brought a Hydra never got paired up with me, and 2 opponents had no ranged anti-tank at all.

For the extra 100 points, you could bring a small unit of Gretchen as objective holders, and 3 separate units of Kannons with minimal crew.

It creates huge target priority issues, and the basic Ork boy is, point for point, the most cost effective troop in the game. At this point level, he far outshines other troop choices.

This. Ork boyz are IMHO the best troop choice in the game. I know they aren't stellar by themselves, but they have a lot of options, can be put into really large groups, and have a USR built in for free (furious charge). Really a great choice at any points level, if you ask me.

Put a few in for now, will get more going in later, input has been great so far guys =D

Librarian
2x5 Sniper Scouts w/ camo cloaks and a missile Launcher
5 Assault Terminators 2LC/3THSS

Deathwing: A pure deathwing list is impossible at 500 Points. (130 + 215 + 215 > 500)

Tau Gunline:

1x Shas'el- Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multitracker, Hard-Wired Drone Controller, Shield Drone - 102 Points

9x Fire Warriors - 90 Points
9x Fire Warriors - 90 Points
9x Fire Warriors - 90 Points

2x Crisis Suits w/ Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, and Multitrackers- 124 Points

90+90+90+102+124=496 Points

Edit: Maybe bring Meltaguns in place of one of the other Crisis Suit weapons in case of AV 13-14.

Imperial Guard

CCS, lascannon

PCS, autocannon
PIS, power weapon, meltabombs, commissar with power weapon
PIS, power weapon, meltabombs

PCS, autocannon
PIS, power weapon, meltabombs, commissar with power weapon
PIS, power weapon, meltabombs,

or...

CCS, 3x plasma, chimera with hull heavy flamer

Veterans, 3x melta, chimera with hull heavy flamer
Veterans, 3x melta, chimera with hull heavy flamer

Scout sentinel with autocannon

Because I like my Warriors, I would go with 2 Tyranid Primes and 2 big squads of Warriors. It would be a lot of wounds to deal with. And look really cool.

I'm with Matlov for a nid list. Warriors are great as long as the enemy doesn't have 30 lascannons or the like to hit ID with every wound. Plus sometimes it confuses the hell out of people when they try to assault shooty units and get slaughtered, and the look on their face is priceless.

Warriors may indeed be a quite good choice at 500pts. However, I'd still recommend a Tervigon as a HQ instead.

Green tide:

30 man Boyz w/ Nob + PF
30 Man Shoota Squad
Warboss w/ PF.

Mattlov wrote:Because I like my Warriors, I would go with 2 Tyranid Primes and 2 big squads of Warriors. It would be a lot of wounds to deal with. And look really cool.

How many warriors would that give you? Do you have a decent AT and AI output with the weapons options you have? Would a few missiles be a problem, yes, there wouldn't be many in 500 but depending on your model count it could be messy.

My 500 point SW list:
HQ
Logan Grimnar
Troops
Wolfguard
3 in terminator armour
Power fist

Wolfguard
3 in terminator armour
Twin Wolfclaws

Before adding any of my own ideas i'll see if anyone objects...

Autarch - bike, lance, mandiblasters, fusion gun
5 shining spears - exarch, starlance
3 GJB - shurican cannon
3 GJB - shurican cannon

498

shining spears + autarch should crush most infantry with ease, even if a few models are lost beforehand and at 500 points the return fire would be minimal

-----

Autarch - fusion gun
6 dire avengers
wave serpent, spirit stones, TL-scatter laser, shurican cannon
6 dire avengers
wave serpent, spirit stones, TL-scatter laser, shurican cannon

494

14 S6 shots to pop the 1 or 2 light vehicles and mow down infantry. with not much on the board you can easily stay safe by taking advantage of your speed and cover

---

Guideseer
5 dire avengers
3 GJB - shurican cannon
3 dark reapers, exarch, crashshot, tempest
nightspinner, holofields

498

spinner + guided reapers can take a heavy toll on infantry without being seen. High AV targets would be a problem, even if there is only 1 of them.

Here's my 500 point contribution

Farseer
guide


Dire avenger x 5
Wave serpent
scatter lasers

Jetbike guardians x 3

Fire dragons x 5
Wave serpent
Twin linked shuriken cannons

Farseer in one of the serpents depending on what your opponent fields. fire dragons if they are playing mech/MC and DA if they are playing troops.
Reserve the jbs for late game objective gathering

Dok wrote:Here's my 500 point contribution

Farseer
guide


Dire avenger x 5
Wave serpent
scatter lasers

Jetbike guardians x 3

Fire dragons x 5
Wave serpent
Twin linked shuriken cannons

Farseer in one of the serpents depending on what your opponent fields. fire dragons if they are playing mech/MC and DA if they are playing troops.
Reserve the jbs for late game objective gathering

Odd... on the bus home i made pretty much the same list but with an Autarch w/ fusion gun...

Here's another one i thought up...

Avatar
5x DA
3x GJB - shurican cannon
Wraithlord - shurican cannon
Wraithlord - shurican cannon

Prob wouldn't do TOO well... but it'd be a laugh...

You can check my sig for an article which made a 500 & 1000 Pt list for each 40k Race.

Dark Eldar:

Haemonculus
9x Warriors/Wyches
Raider

add wargear to taste until you get to 250pts.

Then take another of them

Hey here is an interesting idea for Black Templars.


Marshal w/ Storm Shield and Power Weapon = 140 pts.
Terminator Command Squad, 3x people, 2x Assault Cannons, Tank Hunters = 169 pts.

Crusaders, 5x people, Lascannon = 95 pts.

Crusaders, 5x people, Lascannon = 95 pts.

Total is 499.


Tank hunting assault cannons will shred the light vehicles and put out some wounds on whatever is left. You can put some wounds on the SS and not worry if you fail them as you have 3 wounds on your Marshal. 24" and move and shoot means you can dance around outside of assault range, then move closer to mop up whatever is left. Then you have some supporting fire from the two Las Crusader Squads. The army wide LD 10 helps to offset the Target priority tests you need to take.

BT terminator CS consist of 1 sergeant + 3 guys I believe, so you're one termie short

BT Horde would work better at 500, plus the EC (although not compulsory at that point level, is a must IMHO)

The Emperor's Champion w/Accept Any challenge (140 Points)

8 x Marines w/Bolt Pistols + Close Combat Weapons Points
1 x Marine w/Meltagun
1 x Marine w/Power Fist + Bolt Pistol
Total = 185

7 x Marines w/Bolt Pistols + Close Combat Weapons Points
1 x Marine w/Meltagun
1 x Marine w/Power Fist + Bolt Pistol
Total = 169

Total 494 Points, with some anti tank and anti dread in case of trouble,

Vindicator. 115
Thunder fire cannon. 100
6 scouts snipers. 88
6 scouts CC weapons melta bombs. 93
Master of the forge because he is cool and can repair your tank ;D. 100

496.

you have:
Anti tank
Anti infantry

bolster some ruins x2 for your tank and scouts.

The Imperial Guard have a lot of decent choices at 500 points.

Company Command Squad

Veteran Squad x2

Vendetta

Vendetta

450 points, leaving 50 for any wargear. Comes with enough anti-tank to blast anything that'll show up at 500 points off the map and can buy a number of excellent anti-infantry measures with those leftover 50 points.

Alternately:

Company Command Squad, Lascannon

Veteran Squad with Lascannon, x2

Leman Russ Executioner with Plasma Sponsons

450 points again. The executioner can pulp infantry (five S7 AP2 blasts) and pop light armor, the vets and command squad can hurt heavy armor, with Bring It Down. Still 50 points leftover to spend elsewhere.

Dark Eldar I'm having a bit of trouble with. They've got some good options, but they're also so fragile that you generally need good bit of redundancy...

Baron Sathonyx

Hellions, 8

Hellions, 9, Helliarch with Stunclaw

Ravager

497 points. 36 18" poisoned (4+) shots, two of which are taken at BS6. 52 S4 attacks on the charge, 5 S6, all at I6. Combat drugs on everything but the Baron and Ravager. Unfortunately, only the Baron's squad would have assault grenades unless you drop the stunclaw and another Hellion, or two more Hellions (which would also let you take a Flickerfield on the Ravager, with 5 points leftover), for a phantasm grenade launcher on the Helliarch.

or

Baron Sathonyx

Hellions, 7
Hellions, 8, Helliarch with Stunclaw and PGL

Ravager, Flickerfield

495 points. Solves the previous grenade problem, but reduces damage output by 4 poisoned attacks and 6 S4 melee attacks, as well as cutting off two wounds. Probably slightly better for it.

Here's my 500 Pt wolves list. It kinda beats some face:

1 Rune priest (Living Lightning, Tempest Wrath) - 100
1 Rune priest (Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane) - 100
5 Grey Hunters (Laz/Plaz Razorback, Flamer) - 150
5 Grey Hunters (Laz/Plaz Razorback, Flamer) - 150

2 troops w/ flamers
2 Laz/Plaz backs
2 Rune priests w/ D6 autocannons & Power weps

What's not to like?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

GamzaTheChaos wrote:
bolster some ruins x2 for your tank and scouts.

Won't help your tanks. It only affects cover saves, which are only taken against wounds. Your tank & TFC would still only benefit from a 4+ obscured.

Blood angels:

Reclusiarch - 130

9*Death Company - 180
Rhino - 50

Death Company Dreadnought (heavy flamer, blood talons) - 135

Dead'ard and dead killy. Just don't expect to do much other than kill.

Orks could also go with a 'mek lite' list. Battlewagon, KFF mek, and 19 boyz to ride with him leaves about 180 points left to play with. For that you could stick in a pair of Deffdreads, (one would be Mek troop choice), a Warboss and footslogging mob, heck, another Battlewagon with a small troop in it, decked out with a Deffrolla! BW w/ Rolla is only 110, so either a 10 man Boyz squad (with enough left over for a nob w/pk and boarding plank), or 18 Gretchin with 2 runtherds w/ grot prods. Heck, whittle down the number of boyz a little (or turn everything into Gretchin) and you could have TWO BW w/Deffrollaz, both covered by a KFF, with some bells and whistles. That'd be frightening against an enemy at 500, I think.

I'd take my trusty chaos marines. In a competitive environment, I'd take a Prince, because at this points level it should mop the floor with anything else.
This list brings a relatively fast MC to the table, plus plenty of special weapons to deal with elites on FNP T4(5) troops, downside of course is the supremely low model count and relative lack of antihorde(could sub flamers for the plasma though). This list feels powergamey, but in reality swaps mobility for durability:

Daemon Prince, Wings

6x Plague Marine, Champ with Fist, 2x Meltaguns
5x Plague Marine, 2x Plasmagun

496

And for a more fluffy spin, more mobile and thus IMO better all around due to mech:

Chaos sorcerer with Warptime, Meltabombs

7x CSM with a Flamer with Chaos Glory in a Rhino
10x CSM with 2x Meltagun with Chaos Glory in a Rhino

500

Either of these lists should be fine taking on someone silly enough to use a land raider at such a points level. Viva la Melta!

Here is a solid 500 point tyranid list (read: cheesy)

HQ - Tervigon - Catalyst - 175
Troop - Tervigon - Catalyst, Toxin sacs - 185
Troop - 10x Termagants, Fleshborers - 50
Elite - Doom of Malan'Tai - 90

500 points with the ability to generate 2 additional units a turn (until you roll doubles), as well as siphon souls with the doom (march him behind a tervigon for cover). Your AT is the 2d6 pen rolls on s5 for tervigons, and if the doom gets to s6 or higher with soul leech he can assault/cataclysm any armor on the table.

Gotta make a quick run across the board for it to work , though.