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i have been researching diffrent builds of an ig army and so far the blobs look like the best way to go that suits my liking, only thing is i am not really that sure on how to play them
here are some of my ideas.

-Straken assault CCS footslogging with the army providing support with specialised equipment
-PCS's in chimeras with meltaguns to combat armour and provide some cover
-al rahem with 30 men outflanking along with 2 SW squads with meltas to attack the opponents heavy support etc.
-lord commissar in the middile to provide a exellent leader to spearhead assaults in footslogging blobs
-my idea is to have three platoons one of which is al rahems and the other two consist of thirty men sarge' with power weapons and an attached commisar
-priests to re roll hits

thats about it i would greatley appreciate comments as i am fairly new to the concept of blobs, thank you.

TBH I ran a platoon at Ardboyz and it did wonderfully.

I ran a PCS flamers chimera
4xInfantry squads 4xflamers 1x Commisar upgrade 5xPW

That said I also ran Creed, so he was able to grand his Furious Charge/Fearless Order.
Alot of the time I gave the Combined squad Scouts too ...
free 6" move woot

I'll be blunt, I don't like a partial reserve. It means you have less on the board and are starting the game weakened.

i like using al rahem with the rest of my army in small 20-30 man units with flamers and/or meltas, PWs, and a commie. I then take very low special weapons on my pcs, using them solely for orders, and take as many autocannon heavy weapon squads as i can, throwing in a few ML, maybe a lascannon team here and there. The amount of HWT you can get can give you a really powerful back lline while the blobs deal with taking objectives and killing any units not in tanks with their lasguns and PWs.

The heart of a power blob is survivability. 40 bodies with a lord commisar with stealth in cover. It takes a huge investment to deal with while the rest of the army does its thing. I don't like all power blobs because usually if an enemy can deal with 1 they can deal with 5. 1 or 2 though is a fearsome addition versus the right opponents

If you're looking to be more competitive, I'd think about dropping the chimeras. While they provide mobility, with points sunk into power blobs, you're only going to to be fielding 3 AV12 vehicles, in what looks like a 1500pt list.

I play mech guard, and know that at that point level, it's not unusual for me to lose that many tanks on the first turn, even after popping smoke.

If you're looking to pop tanks, I'd drop the chimeras and use the points to pick up some Stormtroopers with melta guns to deep strike behind enemy lines.

When I run blobs, I normally go full blown assault Guard. Hilarious and can really put some opponents on their back foot. Lacks long range anti-tank (longest range weapon is 24" when standing still), but has a lot bodies and no targets for high strength weapons. This how I run a blob:

3x Infantry Squad - 3x Power Weapon, 2x Meltabomb, 3x Melta Gun, Commissar, Power Weapon/265pts

And in the context of my list at 1500pts:

Company Command Squad -Straken, 3x Plasma Gun, Astropath/220pts
3x Ministorum Priest - Eviscerator/180pts <--------One for each blob

Marbo - /65pts

Platoon Command Squad - 3x Melta Gun, Al'Rahem/130pts
3x Infantry Squad - 3x Power Weapon, 2x Meltabomb, 3x Melta Gun, Commissar, Power Weapon/265pts

Platoon Command Squad - 3x Melta Gun/60pts
3x Infantry Squad - 3x Power Weapon, 2x Meltabomb, 3x Melta Gun, Commissar, Power Weapon/265pts

Platoon Command Squad - 4x Flamers/50pts
3x Infantry Squad - 3x Power Weapon, 2x Meltabomb, 3x Melta Gun, Commissar, Power Weapon/265pts

Very fun list. A nice paradigm shift from playing mech vets all the time.

Thatguyoverthere wrote:If you're looking to be more competitive, I'd think about dropping the chimeras. While they provide mobility, with points sunk into power blobs, you're only going to to be fielding 3 AV12 vehicles, in what looks like a 1500pt list.

I play mech guard, and know that at that point level, it's not unusual for me to lose that many tanks on the first turn, even after popping smoke.

If you're looking to pop tanks, I'd drop the chimeras and use the points to pick up some Stormtroopers with melta guns to deep strike behind enemy lines.

sorry for not telling you earlier i am thinking of a 2k list so i thought chimeras would be good also how do you reckon mixing LRBTS into powerblob list and instead of PCS's with meltas i can use this in my infantry blobs

3x Infantry Squad - 3x Power Weapon, 2x Meltabomb, 3x Melta Gun, Commissar, Power Weapon/265pts

But that leaves me with what to equip my PCS's i was thinking maybe a sqaud full of powerfists.

Company Command Squad -Straken, 3x Plasma Gun, Astropath/220pts
3x Ministorum Priest - Eviscerator/180pts <--------One for each blob

As for straken i am rethinking him as the board is so big im not sure that he may use his aura that much especially since i have to play conservativley with the CCS so it leaves me thinking that i am
paying 90 points for a simple space marine sargent. And devianID 50 men are just to bulky and dont give you a real oppertunity to blaze a way through your opponent multichare is possible but then again armoured troops are going to be very hard to destroy IMO if you want survieablity cover your men with conscripts.

dakka farta wrote:
But that leaves me with what to equip my PCS's i was thinking maybe a sqaud full of powerfists.

Run your PCS like a special weapon squad. Don't make them CC specialists, they're still a T3, 5-man squad. Give them mass flamers, meltas or plasma if you so choose. You can use them to enhance the melta hedge of your blobs or use 4x flamers to decimate a mob of boyz or 'gants.

And as for Straken, run him sandwiched between two blobs, or run him along the side of the board so he can meet up with Al's outflanking platoon. Plus he grants Counter-attack, which is pretty sweet. Granted, Creed is a good buy too for foot lists.

Blacksails wrote:

dakka farta wrote:
But that leaves me with what to equip my PCS's i was thinking maybe a sqaud full of powerfists.

Run your PCS like a special weapon squad. Don't make them CC specialists, they're still a T3, 5-man squad. Give them mass flamers, meltas or plasma if you so choose. You can use them to enhance the melta hedge of your blobs or use 4x flamers to decimate a mob of boyz or 'gants.

And as for Straken, run him sandwiched between two blobs, or run him along the side of the board so he can meet up with Al's outflanking platoon. Plus he grants Counter-attack, which is pretty sweet. Granted, Creed is a good buy too for foot lists.

thanks for the idea, but seeing that im playing 2k would chimeras be useful? also i was thinking that rough riders could support the blob would that be a good idea as the cavalry can charge units which might be out of range of my infantry.
on a side note i see you play mordians so do i , although my army is mixed and includes cadians, steel legion, mordians and catachans.

For what it's worth i've had good results arming the PCS with 4 grenade launchers and running them behind or intermingled with a blob.

Whoever im playing tends to ignore them concentrating on whittling down the blob, yet those 4 S6 krak grenades on the move (at 36") is like having an extra multilaser on the field. And are handy against AV10/11 if the opportunity presents itself.

Personally i don't feel comfortable investing points to give them plasma or melta with their BS3.

At 'ard boyz I played an IG player who brought 4 power blobs as his army. He had shriken in the middle of them, so they all had furious charge and counter assault. Combined with 4 power swords per squad, it made them dangerous to assault without overwhelming force. 2 of his squads had 4 LC, and combined with 'bring it down' they tore apart my vehicles.

The Achilles heel of a poweblob are templates, especially incinerators. A pair of purifiers can decimate a blob real fast. The other issue I encountered in my first tournament is that is takes time to set up two 50 man blobs on the table and move them. Other tables were literally on turn 3 by the time I was half way through turn one. Granted a lot of delay was probably due to my lack of organization, but 180 models to keep track of with essentially no spare table space to keep reserves makes it difficult to move at a fast pace.

Cursed Dice wrote:The Achilles heel of a poweblob are templates, especially incinerators. A pair of purifiers can decimate a blob real fast. The other issue I encountered in my first tournament is that is takes time to set up two 50 man blobs on the table and move them. Other tables were literally on turn 3 by the time I was half way through turn one. Granted a lot of delay was probably due to my lack of organization, but 180 models to keep track of with essentially no spare table space to keep reserves makes it difficult to move at a fast pace.

True the bane of blobs are templates. about the moving issue would you have any suggestions on how to speed it up?

Run alrahem and creed use creed special ablity to outflank one blob on one side and alrahems blob on the other side that will speed it up.

rovian wrote:Run alrahem and creed use creed special ablity to outflank one blob on one side and alrahems blob on the other side that will speed it up.

I... don't think it works that way.

Why wouldnt it work?
Costly as hell and not that great but still possible

Well, the entire platoon must outflank... oh, I think I get it. Was rovian saying Al'rahem's platoon (consisting of Al'rahem's squad and one blob) outflanks on one side and DIFFERENT platoon uses Creed to outflank it's one blob?

If so, I misread. I took it the first time as though if you had two blobs in Al'rahem's platoon, you could outflank Al'rahem's squad and one blob on one side, and then somehow use Creed to outflank the other blob from the same platoon onto the other side. Hence my confusion.

If it's the first scenario, then it works just fine and I need to read twice before responding.

I run my Powerblobs as such:

PIS, Meltagun, Power Weapon
PIS, Meltagun, Power Weapon
PIS, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Commissar w/ Power Weapon.

It's important to remember that even with Straken hanging around, the blob is *not* a powerful assault unit. It's much more effective when used to tie up expensive units and Incoming! repeatedly to lock down an objective.

Another thought is to customize blobs based on role. Having those PW sergeantscomissar also armed with meltabombs now makes you really nasty vs vehicles. Walkers are tough to deal with, no doubt about it- but many other vehicles are vulnerable.

Also keep in mind Frag grenades count as Str 4 vs vehicles. That means that you can rattle most transports and if you have enough guys, surround the exit points completely in the event you manage to immobilize it.

Priests might be worth it in these roles since they can take an eviscerator, and rerolling grenade hits is useful since you'll only get one shot at it a turn.

Thanks for the help guys after all your help im finaly getting the hang out of it here's my powerblob layout.

Priest,
PIS, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Meltabombs
PIS, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Meltabombs
PIS, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Commissar w/ Power Weapon, Meltabombs.

i took Jerjare's idea of Meltabombs as i can imagine dreadnoughts assaulting my blobs and wreaking havoc, aswell as that it can be killer to tanks especially squadrons as i could lay down 3 melta shots and then charge in with 3 meltabombs with the priests re roll ability.

i was just thinking do HWT's work with blobs?

I use HWT as HWT units rather then in the blob themselves. Since you can get those units for really cheap and have 5 per a plattoon they can lay down some nice supporting fire. Within the blobs im not too keen on them since you really want your blobs to claim objectives and be moving about rather than stationary.

The large bases can be useful for dragging more guardsmen into combat though.

You'll see two schools on the use of heavy weapons in squads. Those who love them, and those who hate them. I hate them. My blobs move, every turn. If they don't, its to FRFSRF a mob of Gants or Ork Boyz if the situation calls for it. Therefore spending points on the heavy weapons is just wasted.

If I use heavy weapons, I use them in their own squads, tailored around a CCS with a standard and a heavy weapon to issue orders and (hopefully) keep them fleeing.

I subscribe to the school of assault blobs, influenced by Ailaros' battle reports. Priests are nice (though expensive), and Ogryn are equally good for supporting assault blobs or screening them for cover saves.

The other problem with heavy weapons squads is that in all foot list, the enemies anti-tank weapons will likely be shot at the squads to insta-gib them and make them run on T1-T2. I just stick to all blobs, all the time.

Chrysis wrote:The large bases can be useful for dragging more guardsmen into combat though.

Confusing as you don't want HWT's in Close Combat, and HWT's cannot combine squads with the others ... soo ...

HWT's can be taken in basic Infantry Squads, so can be included in blob squads. Getting them into Base Contact when they are in a blob squad much improves your chances of getting the rest of the blob in the magic 2". Of course, if your blob isn't very big they aren't going to add much on that front, but a 50 man blob could benefit greatly from the 5 large bases increasing the combat area.

Blacksails wrote:You'll see two schools on the use of heavy weapons in squads. Those who love them, and those who hate them. I hate them. My blobs move, every turn. If they don't, its to FRFSRF a mob of Gants or Ork Boyz if the situation calls for it. Therefore spending points on the heavy weapons is just wasted.

If I use heavy weapons, I use them in their own squads, tailored around a CCS with a standard and a heavy weapon to issue orders and (hopefully) keep them fleeing.

I subscribe to the school of assault blobs, influenced by Ailaros' battle reports. Priests are nice (though expensive), and Ogryn are equally good for supporting assault blobs or screening them for cover saves.

The other problem with heavy weapons squads is that in all foot list, the enemies anti-tank weapons will likely be shot at the squads to insta-gib them and make them run on T1-T2. I just stick to all blobs, all the time.

okay thanks for the help guys i have decided to ditch HWS and go for artillery eg. basilisks, hydras and griffons so with the idea of a infantry heavy force being supported by artillery i have made my list which is based around aliaros' many lists. and on a side note how do you feel about rough riders as appose to ogryns?

HQ (475 pts)

Command Squad (110 pts)
Straken (Melichor)
3x Guardsman (w/ meltaguns)
Astropath

Lord Commissar (95 pts) carapace armor, power fist

Priest with eviscerator (60 pts)
Priest with eviscerator (60 pts)
Priest with eviscerator (60 pts)

ELITES (115 pts)

Stormtroopers (115 pts)
5 stormtroopers
2x plasma guns

TROOPS (915 pts)

Infantry Platoon (490 pts)

Command Squad (130 pts)
Rhamael Theleos (Al'Rahem)
3x Guardsmen (with meltaguns)

Squad 1 (110 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Commissar (with power weapon, bolt pistol)

Squad 2 (70 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Guardsman (w/ flamer)

Squad 3 (110 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Commissar (with power weapon, bolt pistol)

Squad 4 (70 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Guardsman (w/ flamer)


Infantry Platoon (425 pts)

Command Squad (65 pts)
Junior Officer with LP+CCW, meltabombs
3x Guardsmen (with meltaguns)
Guardsman (with LP+CCW)

Squad 1 (110 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Commissar (with power weapon, bolt pistol)

Squad 2 (70 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Guardsman (w/ flamer)

Squad 3 (110 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Commissar (with power weapon, bolt pistol)

Squad 4 (70 pts)
Sergeant with LP+power weapon, meltabombs
Guardsman (w/ flamer)

HEAVY SUPPORT (350)

Hydra (75 pts)

Basilisk (125pts)

Leman Russ Battle Tank ( 150pts)

TOTAL (1850pts)

the only thing i am afraid of is not having enough troops when the game starts and how to play it when al rahem has not arrived.

Just my opinion, but at 1850, i think 2 hydras would be worth it.
you could go 2 hydras and a manticore. leaves you 40 points to play with.

alarmingrick wrote:Just my opinion, but at 1850, i think 2 hydras would be worth it.
you could go 2 hydras and a manticore. leaves you 40 points to play with.

That was what i was thinking but i dont have the models so i have to stick with the artillery i have, but thanks for the suggestion though

alarmingrick wrote:Just my opinion, but at 1850, i think 2 hydras would be worth it.
you could go 2 hydras and a manticore. leaves you 40 points to play with.

I second this. I understand not having the models, but once you have the cash to spend, go grab a manticore! They're beautiful models too!

*EDIT* Who are you running the Lord with?

Further editing...I prefer Ogryn over Rough Riders, to answer your question. Rough Riders aren't terrible, and they're certainly a fun unit to use, but unless you hit an expensive unit with minimal invuln saves, you're not gonna deal a whole lot of damage. S5 I5 power weapons seem like a good thing, but with WS3, your losing half your attacks off the bat, then you fold to a light breeze. At least they're cheap.

Ogryn have staying power, with a good shooting attack and can lay a beat down in CC. Lack of individual model customization leaves you losing models before you'd like to. I like 'em and they work well with foot blobs.

Blacksails wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:Just my opinion, but at 1850, i think 2 hydras would be worth it.
you could go 2 hydras and a manticore. leaves you 40 points to play with.

I second this. I understand not having the models, but once you have the cash to spend, go grab a manticore! They're beautiful models too!

*EDIT* Who are you running the Lord with?

Further editing...I prefer Ogryn over Rough Riders, to answer your question. Rough Riders aren't terrible, and they're certainly a fun unit to use, but unless you hit an expensive unit with minimal invuln saves, you're not gonna deal a whole lot of damage. S5 I5 power weapons seem like a good thing, but with WS3, your losing half your attacks off the bat, then you fold to a light breeze. At least they're cheap.

Ogryn have staying power, with a good shooting attack and can lay a beat down in CC. Lack of individual model customization leaves you losing models before you'd like to. I like 'em and they work well with foot blobs.

I finally talked myself into buying Ogryns, now i just have to field them!
but seriously, i've been thinking if you do go with the Ogryns, i'd give them a Chimera. and that might not be
the best for your list. again, IMHO.