Joining the fray of the badab campaign within my local store, I feel the need to motivate myself into doing an army blog of Mantis Warriors, as the chapter of my choice within the War. The following will record my progress in which I'll give a goal of....say two months to try and finish a decent army of 1750pts ready for battle and hopefully enough large force to take part in bigger games.
So, the general breakdown:
Why Mantis Warriors?
As one of the Ex-Guardians of the Maelstorm, they themselves uphold a reputation to behold guarding the second largest stable warpstorm in the galaxy. That and I've always wanted to create an army based on Stealth and Infiltration. The idea of sniper units taking the opponents out before they even notice, and coordinated lightning wars that rivals that of their White Scar predecessors (beleived to be) was something I'd love to have under my belt as an army to play with.
Fluff is found here:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mantis_Warriors
The Grand Plan
As much as I want to build a competitive list, but for such a characterful campaign, armies, and all that I refuse to wear my tournament hat and choose to leave it at home in lieu of a more characterful list. I'm talking about 50+ models that has infiltration capabilities and outflanking the side board to catch people unaware.
The Chosen Compulsory Units
Chief Librarian Ahazra Redth - Will be converted accordingly. He's the guy from
IA10 that gives EVERY footsloggers without dedicated transports Infiltration capability.
Captain Haraqsy - He'll lead the smaller forces for battles.
Master Khoisan Neoterra / Master Mantodea - The latter one is the
BoLS version in their Badab War playguide. Something
GW fails to publish for jeebus knows how long. He'll be represented in two models. One on foot and one on bike as a homage to both versions. Chapter Master.
Tranquility Veteran Unit - Within the Tranquility battlezone, the Mantis are engaged within brutal combat with the Carcharodons. The only thing that's keeping the Carcharodons late in taking over the battlezone are the expertise of these units. Armed with Stalker Pattern boltguns, they're snipers extraordinaire. In game terms, they count as Sternguard Veteran squad.
Assault Squads - I'll be damned if Hit and Run specialists did not opt for these units.
Landspeeder - In favor of their battle tactics, I chose to eschew heavy armor in favor of a more lightly armored sleeker units but still maintain the capability to carry anti-tank weaponary.
Bulk of the Army
Now, I'm confused between tactical marines and scout marines but I was thinking to have more scouts than tacticals so I can have room for the Tranquility Sternguards. For I'm planning a big 10man unit on them. Infiltrating Sternguards are sure to deal a can of whooparse on pretty much anything. However, thoughts and comments appreciated.
The Big Blueprint
That above gives me:
One Chief Librarian Ahazra for 1750pts games.
Two Master Neoterra models for 2000+ games. (Used according to preference)
One Captain Haraqsy for below 1750pts games.
10man Tranquility Sternguard unit.
20 Tactical Marines.
10man Scouts unit.
10man Assault unit.
3 Landspeeders.
One Rifleman dreadnought.
I know those aren't exactly 1750pts, but it's simply a general breakdown on what'll I use. So comments, input, feedbacks, and other stuff are highly appreciated. After all, I'm a returning gamer who's been out of touch for God knows how long x.X
And so it begins....
