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Heading back to university, I came to a realization I cannot be transporting a list that includes 5 Valkyrie-platform flyers, a Vulture, and upwards of 50 guardsmen several states away in a car. Wanting to keep fresh and keep my gaming up, I decided I need to pick up a smaller, more easily transported army. I come to you, Dakka, asking for help.

My criteria:
1000-1500 points
Competitive (I hate HATE losing. More than I hate crying babies and barking dogs when I'm sleeping.)
Low model count
1-3 Larger-than-infantry models MAX

My Crippling Racism:
Fine with anything Imperial (Except IG or BA)
Won't be very into Tyranids, Dark Eldar, or Orks
Eldar or Necrons would be cool
Rather not do GK, unless there are truly no other options.

So there we have it; I'd really like to get your guys' input as I go back relatively soon.

Thanks so much!,
-TheCaptain

Even though you would prefer not to do it, GK is the best option for low model count and VERY competitive. 1 Land raider + 2 Psy-riflemen dreads would be more than enough to handle your vehicle requirements. But an alternative would also be Dark Angel Deathwing army. Most rumors are pointing to DA getting an update soon and your army is nothing but terminators with no vehicles (or very few). I don't play DA so I don't know all the fine details but I heard they are competitive and have a very low model count.

1500 is pretty much the lower limit of where Draigowing could work. There's Deathwing. Terminators and land speeders are pretty compact. 75 point typhoons and storm shields protecting scoring cyclones.

Is Eldar or Necrons plausible?

Edit: And by that I mean will I be able to wreck face with them and keep them in a box the size of a battleforce?

Crons are generally really competitive, though I don't know how many models you would need.(I don't know specifics about the army.)

Eldar can be compettitive, but you would need more vehicles.

I made an 1850 point Necron/Ork list that had(this is a list I actually used not one I created as an example):

20x immortals
2x Doom Scythes
1x Doomsday Ark
1x Imotekh
1x Zandrekh
2x Cryptek
1x Skyshield landing pad
1x Deff Dread
1x Big Mek
12x Lootas

So a grand total of 41 models (27 Necron, 14 Ork)

I know you don't want to play Orks but switching out the aprox 380 points of Orks for necron would leave you with a lower model count in most cases. You can definatly be competitive with necrons and if you use a mechanized Necron force you can definitely have a nasty force with very few models.

What about Eldar or Necrons in the 500-750 point range?

Viable unmechanized?

Wait for the DA codex?

Or maybe Chaos?

Since DA will certainly have Deathwing, and since GW is going to pushing it heavily why not start that now?

GK, Deathwing or Loganwing are your best bets.

TheCaptain wrote:What about Eldar/Necrons in the 500-750 point range?

Viable unmechanized?

Eldar working with Necrons?

Seeing as they can't be allies at all, no.

If you wanted low model count Necrons, run Immortals and wraiths with lords in barges. Should be low-ish.

Dark Angels. its basically just terminators and land speeders. And theyre supposed to be getting updated soon.

TheCaptain wrote:What about Eldar/Necrons in the 500-750 point range?

Viable unmechanized?

20 Guardians, 5 Dire Avengers, a Wave Serpent and a War Walker (Whats in the battleforce) is around 500 points. They're fairly good as long as its against a foot slog army pretty much. But Guardians only have 12" on their catapults, Dire Avengers 18" on theirs so a lot of other armies will be hitting you before you hit them. Guardian's saves aren't too fantastic at 5+ or with a Warlock a 5+ cover save, they do get to take a heavy weapon though which you may fire at normal BS even if you move. War Walkers are fairly cheap though for what they can carry, well I think they're quite fantastically priced really, either twin linked heavy weapons or a choice of 2 different ones. The Battleforce units fit in the box fairly well too.

Happygrunt wrote:

TheCaptain wrote:What about Eldar/Necrons in the 500-750 point range?

Viable unmechanized?

Eldar working with Necrons?

Seeing as they can't be allies at all, no.

If you wanted low model count Necrons, run Immortals and wraiths with lords in barges. Should be low-ish.

Haha, meant Eldar or Necrons

TheCaptain wrote:

Happygrunt wrote:

TheCaptain wrote:What about Eldar/Necrons in the 500-750 point range?

Viable unmechanized?

Eldar working with Necrons?

Seeing as they can't be allies at all, no.

If you wanted low model count Necrons, run Immortals and wraiths with lords in barges. Should be low-ish.

Haha, meant Eldar or Necrons

Good, because if you weren't I was going to have to slap you.

Have the battleforce boxes gotten smaller in size since 3rd edition? If not then I can tell you for sure you can fit a good bit of eldar in a box that size. In my box in the closet I have 40 wraithguard, 4 wraithlords, an avatar, about a dozen assorted farseers and warlocks, a squad of every aspect except singing spears (either 8 strong or max, whichever is less), 8 harlequins, 2 support batteries, a falcon and a fire prism.

If I can fit all that in a box that size then surely you can fit a viable army in there. You just have to be creative with layering your models. I take a bath towel and fold it in between each layer but an old fleece blancket or sweater thats been cut up could work too.

One caveat, most of the models mentioned above are metal, I don't know how plastic or resin will hold up to that treatment. I can assure you that the box will be lighter than mine however.

My 500pt Eldar force (for combat patrol games, where you don't have to have an HQ, but also can't have models with more then 2 wounds- so no Wraithlords) is, off the top of my head:

-10 Dire Avengers with Exarch
-3x jetbikes, incl. w/ 1 Shuriken cannon
-Viper with Missile launcher
-3x Dark Reapers
-5 howling Banshees w/Exarch


Sometimes I drop the Viper and bits and pieces of other things to take a Wave Serpent with twin-starcannons for transport/light tank duty, and/or swap the Banshees for the other Aspect Warriors that cost 16pts apiece.

Is the Zandrekh-Obyron combo viable at all in a low-model 1000 points list?

Good old space marines are prettycheap money wise, and they can be just a fun to play army or competitive.

I'd hold out for CSM. Very soon they're going to have the newest codex and, much more importantly, they're going to have the first codex AFTER 6th ed came out, which means they will be the most in tune with the current rules set.

Like CSM has always been, you're probably going to have a lot of options for low model count armies.

And it's basically anti-GK, what more could you want?

Anything mostly infantry- even armies like guard or orks will transport well, because infantry models pack well in foam. Its tanks you need to watch out for- they are hard to travel with efficiently.

Also you could look into malifaux- you can fit a full sized crew and all your gaming supplies in a gameboy case or similar

Yeah, but he's looking for a 1500 point 40k army. The scope of malifaux is much more buying a couple of minis for your D&D characters. Not quite the same.