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After getting spanked twice in a row, I've changed my list up quite a bit, and have dropped HWTs altogether for Russes. Behold...


CCS - Straken, Chimera - 200

PCS - 4 Meltaguns - 70
PIS - Commissar with Power Weapon, Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 115
PIS - Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 70
PIS - Commissar with Power Weapon, Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 115
PIS - Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 70

PCS - 4 Meltaguns - 70
PIS - Commissar with Power Weapon, Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 115
PIS - Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 70
PIS - Commissar with Power Weapon, Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 115
PIS - Sergeant with Power Weapon, Meltagun - 70

Leman Russ Squadron - 2 Punishers, - 360

Leman Russ Squadron - 2 Exterminators - 300

Total: 1740


Gameplan: The various command squads pop transports, or ding scary things. The Punishers dumps bullets into anything that comes close to me, and the Exterminators are their for anti-transports and some anti-infantry if needed. The blobs, of course, just blob around and do their stuff.

Criticism welcome!

The power-blobs look okay to me, though I'd maybe opt for only three of them instead of four. Why does Straken have a lascannon? He needs to be up close to give the infantry squads the bonuses. A pair of lascannons in the PCSs won't do much of anything, I'd swap for special weapons (4 Grenade Launchers maybe).

Straken could probably use a chimera, The PCS as well. Drop a punisher and you will have the points for it.

Honestly the punishers are kinda crap units and with sponsons are completely static. I'd swap for demolishers with heavy flamers and advance along with the infantry. Exterminators can also be useful, but I don't know if they fit in this particular list....at least not two of them. A pair of Demolishers and an Exterminator would be okay (never take sponsons). Maybe swap the numbers if that's the route you want to go.

I have to agree, you don't want Straken Static, though if he is in a Chimera he is not attacking in CC. Adding some body guards, Carapace armor, and a Regimental Standard will give the unit some meat, staying power, and punch. The standard works really well with Stubborn too, giving you a re-roll if you do fail, though the commissars will kill a power weapon in the blob if you fail. You only get one re-roll, so I am unsure how the mechanics for this will work out.

Obviously, if you can choose, use the Standard re-roll first. If you fail that, I would assume the Commissar's rule kicks in, killing a sergeant for another roll. The other way it can work is that the Commissar kills a sergeant first, you roll, and if you fail that roll you then get the standard re-roll. Worse comes to worse you don't get the standard at all for the blobs. You may want to look into this to get a ruling from your local group on the order.

I would suggest no special weapons then for the CCS, as you probably want to make them all las-pistols and CCWs. But if you don't care about those extra attacks in CC, meltaguns are assault weapons...

Also, yeah, those two lascannons are BS 3, so two shots will probably do little and Straken will not be around for 'Bring it Down!'. Upgrading them to flamer or melta units to support your blobs as they advance and to give you that extra layer of anti-armor protection or to burn units out of cover would probably be of better use.

I understand your thoughts behind the sponsons on the Punishers, giving you 29 shots. I say go for it, but I think you will only need one or put them solo. 58 shots on one target feels like overkill, even though they are getting full armor saves for the most part. Still, Lumbering Behemoth means your firing a weapon plus the turret weapon when you move 6"... most just make that the hull mounted weapon.

But I think you want to keep the Exterminators moving to support your blobs, so I would ditch the sponsons. Use the points to better equipt your PCS and CCS.

Hope this gives you some food for thought!

BlkTom wrote:I have to agree, you don't want Straken Static, though if he is in a Chimera he is not attacking in CC.

Who cares? You want him alive as long as possible and CC is not the place to do it. Plus the chimera gives him a few extra inches of range for his aura and orders. He's a support unit, not a beatstick. One S6 power weapon dude......yay.....the rest of the squad is still just guardsmen and he still counts at T3 until its him and one guy left.

Adding some body guards, Carapace armor, and a Regimental Standard will give the unit some meat, staying power, and punch. The standard works really well with Stubborn too, giving you a re-roll if you do fail, though the commissars will kill a power weapon in the blob if you fail.

But the squad gets really pricey.....and is still easy to kill and shoot of the board.

But I think you want to keep the Exterminators moving to support your blobs, so I would ditch the sponsons. Use the points to better equipt your PCS and CCS.

I'm starting to lean this way as well. The list is severely lacking in ranged anti-transport and I'm not seeing a better way than exterminators right now. Anti-Tank and anti-infantry is being covered by the blobs right now. Can be further reinforced by the PCS units (meltaguns, flamers, grenade launchers are all valid, though I'd go on the side of GLs)

Thanks for the help guys. A couple points:

Static PCS - I agree, an odd setup. Unfortunately 4x special weapon PCS' tend to just get shot to quickly. With Lascannons, they can sit back and actually do something, while drawing a bit of fire away from the blobs.

Straken - I have run him multiple ways, and am really at a loss. I think I will just put him in a Chimera and leave it at that; anything that is really trying to assault Straken will probably be able to rip his balls off easily, as he isn't exactly Abaddon in combat.

Punishers and sponsons - Good idea about the sponsons, but I really think Punishers are not as bad as everyone says they are; they are only there to provide anti-infantry support so the blobs can either stand back or move in for the kill without having to FRF!SRF! and forgoe assault.

I'll update the list with some changes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
At this point, I'd have to try it before any more tweaking, as I can't decide what else to do with it. 4 Meltas + 4 Melta PCS' seem a bit much though.

Well, the PCS is BS 3, so out of those 4 Melta your probably only hitting with 2. You now have two more rolls you could feeb out on. Rolling a 2-6 on AV 14 really sucks and rolling a 1-3 on the vehicle damage chart can take the wind out of your sails as well.

Also, if someone DSs in Terminators, you do have a 12" range... any hits are probably going to be kills.

Wish I could come up with 60pts to get Straken's CCS plasmaguns or 3 plasma and a standard. If you still have 10 points, give them something... I hate myself for saying this, but even Grenade Launchers are better than nothing. And GLs blow IMO.

Yes. Yes, they do blow. But I have never run Straken without blowing 250+ points on his CS, so I'd like to try it cheap for now.

Gotcha.

Then I suggest with that last 10 points, upgrading two of your Commissars (one in each blob) from power weapons to power fists. This way incase you run into a high toughness creature, a walker, or even a vehicle, you have /something/ and have two swings per Commissar, 3 if you charge. And Str 7 on the Charge if Straken is close enough.

Other than that, I think it just comes down to playing and seeing how to tweak it from there. Good luck!

BlkTom wrote:Gotcha.

Then I suggest with that last 10 points, upgrading two of your Commissars (one in each blob) from power weapons to power fists. This way incase you run into a high toughness creature, a walker, or even a vehicle, you have /something/ and have two swings per Commissar, 3 if you charge. And Str 7 on the Charge if Straken is close enough.

Other than that, I think it just comes down to playing and seeing how to tweak it from there. Good luck!

Commissars can take power fists in infantry squads? My IG codex does not say so...I only see a power weapon here.

Yup, commissars in infantry squads cannot take powerfists

Hence, why Death Korp is so awesomesauce.

Normal IG cannot, sadly.

I think this may be a list where you actually consider grenade launchers in at least one of the PCS squads. You have no templates, and it would nice to have at least some weapon to take advantage of bunched up hordes. You've got a ton of meltaguns already, and frankly, nothing in your army is desperately afraid of any tank the Exterminators won't put down fairly easily. You may consider not squadroning the exterminators, just so they can target a different light armor unit each turn.

Nope... your right, I was looking at the PCS listing instead of the PIS listing. Sorry.