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My aim here is to get a decent list (to begin with at 1000pts) with as many tanks as possible.
This is how it stands:
Primaris Psyker: 70
Veterans (w/ shotguns in chimera): 125
Veterans (in chimera): 125
Bane Wolf: 130
Leman Russ Eradicator (w/ sponson heavy bolters): 180
Leman Russ Punisher (w/ sponson heavy bolters): 200
Leman Russ Vanquisher (w/ lascannon): 170
Total: 1000

What do we think?

Sorry dude, but this list will be walked over by anyone who has any small idea of how to play the game.

The tanks just aren't going to work at this level, because you only have 20 T3 W1 troops, that are very easy to kill. The Punisher isn't even worth taking anyway, not ever. Drop the Bane Wolf, there are much better things to invest in.

Basically, just get as many Veteran Squads in Chimeras as possible, and give them 3x Melta and 3x Plasma, because they can fire out of the vehicle. Primaris Psyker is meh, I'd take CCS instead because it's one of the best HQ choices in the entire game. Also put the CCS in a Chimera, with 4x Plasma or 4x Melta.

Try to keep your tanks cheap. What don't you try this:

comissar
plasma vets, chimera
melta vets, chimera x 2
LRBT x 3

Barksdale wrote:Try to keep your tanks cheap. What don't you try this:

comissar
plasma vets, chimera
melta vets, chimera x 2
LRBT x 3

I'd still trade the Lord Commissar for a cheap plasma CCS.

This is meant to be a fun list to play...not necessarily uber-competitive. I would like to keep troops to a minimum.
What is wrong with the Russ variants like the punisher?

The plane-jane Russ is okay, not spectacular but okay. Battle Cannons can do awful things to most infantry units, if they hit them. Battle Cannons aren't great against armor.

Exterminators are kinda lame; autocannons are fine as long as they are cheap. They aren't cheap when they are stuck on a LR chassis.

I've no experience with the Punisher, but it is widely criticized, I guess the low AP is a big issue along with the low strength.

I've played a Demolisher due to model issues, it usually draws a great deal of fire which helps other things survive I guess. That's been pretty much it although it has on rare occasion performed well.

The LR to love is the Executioner. It's not great against vehicles, but it is magnificent against infantry.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, Russes aren't great against armor, they are best at dealing with Infantry.

Imperial Monkey wrote:This is meant to be a fun list to play...not necessarily uber-competitive. I would like to keep troops to a minimum.
What is wrong with the Russ variants like the punisher?

The Punisher will never hit anything and due to no AP will never hurt Meq, and the incredibly small number of shots that will hit will be too few to damage Geq's.

Dude, you like tanks, that's fine, but 20 Infantry in a Guard list is just asking to lose every time; even in friendly games. You don't have enough fire power and you don't have enough bodies; you'll face GK lists at 1k with more troops, and that is saying something.

Well, it's still very possible to win with 20 vets in a casual setting. The way that happens is with some versatility and diversity. That said, it was a good idea to field three different types of tanks, and I see that with the eradicator and punisher. If your fluff style will allow, try adding a Manticore or a Vendetta with a plasma CCS for some dynamicism in the place of the punisher. Ideally, you'd use your tanks to control fire lanes and prevent enemy movement, which is perfect for artillery bombardment and an outflanking strafe run. It wreaks havoc on casual players =D Good deployment is key for this strategy.

Imperial Monkey wrote:
Veterans (w/ shotguns in chimera): 125
Veterans (in chimera): 125

Even if you only change one thing; make sure that it's to give your Veterans a Lascannon and x3 Plasma- or Melta- guns.

Darkvoidof40k wrote:

Imperial Monkey wrote:
Veterans (w/ shotguns in chimera): 125
Veterans (in chimera): 125

Even if you only change one thing; make sure that it's to give your Veterans a Lascannon and x3 Plasma- or Melta- guns.

^Most definitely lol

Just thought I'd make a similar list to illustrate my points:


HQ: 150 Points

CCS with 3x Plasma guns and Chimera: 165 Points

Elites:


Troops: 365 Points

Veteran squad with 5x Shotguns, 3x Meltaguns, Lascannon HWS and Chimera: 175 Points

Veteran squad with 3x Plasma guns, Lascannon and Chimera: 190 Points

Fast Attack: 130 Points

Vendetta Gunship: 130 Points


Heavy Support: 355 Points
LRBT with Lascannon: 165 Points
LR Executioner with sponson Plasma guns: 190 Points

1000 Points exactly.
9 Kill Points.
6 Plasma guns
3 Meltaguns
6 Lascannons
5 Plasma cannons (Executioner cannon + x2 Plasma Cannons)
3 Multilasers
4 Heavy Bolters
6 Lasguns
5 Shotguns

Got a lot of firepower for 1k, and very little will stand up to it. There's two less Tanks but the addition of a skimmer, and another Chimera. So it's the same number of Kill Points, but much stronger.

Your math is a bit off darkvoid but I wont point out the small stuff, most of what you are saying Is 100% true.
I agree the only Hq to run in a mech is the CCS w/ plasma or melta.

As for the troops everything you take must be bare bones + chimera + special weapons . that’s all you really need, I’ve used a HWS with las and auto cannons on my plasma vets (I don’t feel they mix well with you melta, they need to be moving)

vendetta is a must.

I like the LR, if you want to play the punisher it can be done, the best build (and only) is with 3 HB, 1 HS and pask. With this set up you have a good chance to land 20 shots. And you get a str of 6 on those rhinos. But its very high in points and I don’t recommend it for competitive play.

I only run my LR exe nowadays, the LRBT is good but I’ve found that its just not enough umph for me. If you are looking for other heavies check out the manticore. And I really thing shotguns are pointless in an IG list, the las gun is better in all respects

Leman russ are epic but you need to take enough but still have a load of infantry as they will get masacred in closecombat or getin shot at. + dont start with stupid amount of tanks until you have 1000 points of infantry
(try a platoon with 3 mortars and 40 guys that will own anythink

I thought it was off slightly, but I don't care enough to correct it. Quick math 'n' that.

Okay, so reviewed list...
CCS (w/ vox melta (x3) bolt pistol and chimera): 152
Veterans (W/plasma (x3), bolt pistol and chimera): 177
Veterans (w/ autocannon and bastonne and chimera): 135
Veterans (w/ shotguns, flamers (x3) and chimera): 145
Bane wolf: 130
Leman russ vanquished (w/ lascannon and heavy stubber): 180
Armoured sentinel (w/ plasma cannon): 75
Total: 994

More infantry as suggested, although no-one has yet mentioned the vanquisher... Thoughts on it...

Vanquisher isn't worth it, and that Armoured Sentinel will never, ever be worth it. I have a PC Armoured Sentinel. In every game I've ever used it, it's hardly killed any enemies and always exploded and killed 6 or 7 Guardsmen.

To be honest, this new list is worse than the last one. Perhaps slightly better, considering the inclusion of special weapons. But otherwise, it's still terrible. No offense, I mean that only in a constructive way.

How is a vanquisher terrible? It's effectively a tank that can fire two lascannons firing while on the move...

Imperial Monkey wrote:How is a vanquisher terrible? It's effectively a tank that can fire two lascannons firing while on the move...

Therefore it can kill a maximum of 2 Infantry units a turn, and you're either going to face at this points level so few vehicles that it will never make its points back or so many that it won't be able to kill enough and will fall to AT fire quickly.

IG is already very good at killing tanks, If you are looking at a vanquisher buy a vendetta. Its cheaper and much better at the job.

And I wouldn’t go as far as saying its worse then your first list, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. And if you want a sentinel run a scout with AC and out flank it. (or LC w/e)

I love the bane wolf, so I cant say anything bad about that,

Ok your vets, there are some very important rules you need to use when fielding them, only buy plasma and melt, and if you put a HWS in one make shore they have 3 special weapons as well. Use them as point fillers. Flamers re a waste of a good BS, put HF on the front of all your chimers and you wont need to worry about hords.

One more thing, almost all named characters are not very good in a mech list.

With bastonne though, he can issue an order to his squad each turn to bring down a tank or gun down x unit, which would prove kinda handy... I can understand needing to change out the vanquisher.

As komosunder just said, there are other units in the codex that do the same job far better and for a cheaper cost too. Primarily, the Vendetta.

Imperial Monkey wrote:With bastonne though, he can issue an order to his squad each turn to bring down a tank or gun down x unit, which would prove kinda handy... I can understand needing to change out the vanquisher.

I agree he has a very good ability, but with 2 problems, is it really worth 60 points to put him in a unit, and two you cant issue orders to units in a transport (even if it’s the same unit giving the order). So to use his ability you will need to melta drop the unit, pop a tank, and then watch them get gunned down. Unless some one puts there tank in a very bad place the previous turn, you are only going to use that 60 points once a game at best. And with this in mind I would say this is a very expensive suicide unit. And even though I think they are a waist of points, ST would be better suited for the job.

But I do agree, that order can be very nice to have when the situations arise to use it. And I have run platoons in a mech list just to get them in some lists. In the long run it isn’t necessary.

Darkvoidof40k wrote:Vanquisher isn't worth it, and that Armoured Sentinel will never, ever be worth it. I have a PC Armoured Sentinel. In every game I've ever used it, it's hardly killed any enemies and always exploded and killed 6 or 7 Guardsmen.

To be honest, this new list is worse than the last one. Perhaps slightly better, considering the inclusion of special weapons. But otherwise, it's still terrible. No offense, I mean that only in a constructive way.

I wouldn't say that Sentinels arent worth it. Again, like many things in the Imperial Guard, placement is key. Having a squadron of scout sentinels outflanking (especially if you field an astropath to ensure they show up where you want them) can make a big difference in the game. outflanking with Lascannons to open up on rear armor, or heavy flamers for non-MEQ infantry. As far as the vanquisher is concerned, though, I kind of have to agree. There are stronger Leman Russ variants out there and another outflanking Vendetta will wreak plenty of havoc on vehicles. The strength of the IG isn't the tanks, or the Vendettas, or the Plasma, or the Chimeras or Basilisks; it's the collusion of all of these forces put together in order to create multiple firing lanes and lay several different rounds into the enemy simultaneously.

That can be said about any army; it's called synergy.

I never said that Sentinels are entirely useless; everything has its place. But Armoured Sentinels rarely have use; but I would highly recommend Scout Sentinels just because of their theoretical success alone, not to mention their reputation.

Ah I see lol.

SoliderSnake wrote: The strength of the IG isn't the tanks, or the Vendettas, or the Plasma, or the Chimeras or Basilisks; it's the collusion of all of these forces put together in order to create multiple firing lanes and lay several different rounds into the enemy simultaneously.

So very true

So this past weekend I played a friend who has an Eldar Army, at 1500 points. I fielded two outflanking sentinels with lascannons, storm troopers with melta, a vendetta with my CCS w/plasma. The game was almost unfair lol. I formed a pincer attack that caught him completely off guard as he raced his tanks with star engines over to my side of the board. overall, I'd say I'm happy with Sentinels. They may not do much, but they can cause some damage for a small price. =D

Coming at it from a slightly different angle from the above IG players, I found your list interesting for the precise reason that its different from the identikit lists you see all the time on forums and on the tabletop.

I think you should stick with the original list because its different and interesting. My tuppence.

cheers troy, I'm glad that I have a supporter for casual gaming out there.
Some people may like this, but I really don't like people saying that "this isn't worth taking" or "that list will never work" partially because most of them have never run a list with every possible option in it...and secondly because it ruins the fun of the game...
Thanks for the input from everyone, but I will use this list, and as the points get bigger add in more troops...

I always ask people who don't change their list at all, what was the point of posting if you aren't even going to take into account peoples advice?