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Hi dakka, here's my 2k list to build towards, I've started this army to enjoy it being as they look and sound so cool. I wanted this list to have limited vehicles (so just the raven and dread). Everything else in there are things I think will be fun but still put up a fight, looking for any thoughts or advice on tactics for it?

I have sang guard and death co and want to try bikes and vindicators at some point, and I realise I'm missing priests - but this is just a starter army and I will look to rotate those in soon. So on to the list:

HQ

Librarian (divination)

TROOPS

Assault Squad x10 (x2 melta guns)
Assault Squad x10 (x2 flamers)
Scout squad x5 (sniper rifles)

ELITES

Terminator x5 (th/ss)
Furioso Dreadnought (blood talons, heavy flamer)
Sternguard x10 (x5 combi plasma, x5 combi melta)
Drop pod

FAST ATTACK

Attack Bikes x3 (multi-melta)

HEAVY

Storm Raven (ac/mm, hurricane bolters)
Devastator squad x5 (x3 plasma cannon, x1 multimelta)
Devastator squad x5 (x3 plasma cannon, x1 multimelta)

FORTIFICATION

Ageis Defense Line

= 2000 points.


The devs, scouts and Libby will form a fire base and scouts camp on any home objectives.
The sternguard will drop in and combat squad between melta and plasma.
The raven takes in the dread and termies (I know its eggs in one basket but I'm ok with that).
Not sure how to work the assault squads.

There's so much plasma due to the amount of terminators I face, and I love plasma cannons for those and hordes. I know its common to use flamers or melta on assault squads as they're assault but I also have the multimeltas and melta sternguard.

As I said this is trying to fit in everything I want to use and a viable army.

Thanks for any help and advice!

Adam

Edit: updated the list by cutting down the devastators squads and changing the weaponry on the assault and sternguard squads. I've managed to add multi melta bikes and an Ageis defense line to protect the devs. I think it's a much stronger list already so please keep the advice coming!

Honestly I'd ditch the devestator squad. If you look around the forums you'll find plenty of articles talking about them. For the price they just don't carry enough water to warrant the point expenditure.

With the Stern guard, I'd equip them all with combi-weps and mix it up 5/5 anti-tank/anti-infantry. They are also a great squad to drop with the liby if you want to go combi-plas. No one benefits more from divination then Sternguard, its absolutley amazing how much havoc they can wreck.

I'd suggest dropping the dev's in favor of 5 more stern in a pod with 5 combi-meltas. Do a second squad with liby in a pod (thats 10 men, so pods full for BA) and give them all combi-plas. Give the Liby base divination power, then null zone or GOI.

If you can fit a third pod in the list somewhere so that two will drop first round you'd be good. Hell, for the price of those devs you should get 2 extra 5 man Sternguard squads, all combi, and have points to spare. Do the third squad all combi-melta, or all combi-flamer.

Thus if you get 3 Stern squads with 3 pods between them drop the Liby-plasma squad and either the meltas or flamer as situation dictates. For the third squad deploy them in the SR with the dread, and leave the pod empty. That way you get all three squads on the board first round and can later drop an empty pod to block LOS or deny movement to your enemy.

Main thing with Sternguard is to not lose their special ammo, you paid for it, use it if you can. Combi-weps preserve this power and are cheap as hell (5pts), so overall I'd skip the special weapons.

Hope that helps

If I'm putting in a sternguard squad that can't be combat squadded, I always use melta. That way, I can threaten anything I need to.

BA librarians can't get null zone. Or GOI. However, you might want to consider shield of sangunius. Divination is awesome, but you can't use it the turn your pod drops. However, shield of sanguinius is cast on your opponent's shooting phase, so you CAN use that one. I like 8 sternguard with corbs and a libby or Tycho myself.

Skip specials and heavies on the Sternguard. After you use the combi weapons, the hellfire or ignores cover save ammo are $$$$$.

Change the furioso to a fragnought with a blood fist. Blood talons are incredibly overrated and the triple template goodness of the fragnought is insane in the right cases. And you will guaranteed get to shoot, whereas blender dreads have a horrible tendency to get melta to the face before they can assault. Leave blender dreads at home. There is no good way to deliver them. Do the math on a fragnought w/magna grapple vs terminators. It's pretty good against them, imo.

Dump the devastators, go mobile. Get MM attack bikes. Get a biker sanguinary priest. Get a spare sanguinary for your two assault squads. That's a whole lot of FNP loving for your enemy. Give all sanguinary priests power axes in squads with sergeants, as the sergeant can suck up the challenge and the priest can hack away with the AP 2 axe.

Dump the plasma out of the assault squads. Plasma is rapid fire, a no no for assault teams. Get meltaguns in one squad, flamers in the other.

Dump the scouts. Use points from this and the other devastators to get a drop pod tactical squad with combi plasma on the sarge and a plasma gun in the unit and a plasma cannon.

This set up will give you three pods to mix and match. Need to kill some tank and troops in cover? Send in the sternguard and the fragnought. Want to put the hurt on monstrous creatures? Send in the tactical squad with the plasma and the sternguard together.

Dump the AC off the stormraven. Get the lascannon. The AC is epic fail vs high priority targets such as Vendetta and Helldrake. To hell with ACs in general imo. Even my terminators get heavy flamers now. Speaking of terminators, get some locator beacons on those pods, change the terminators to shooty terminators and equip with said heavy flamer. Get them within range of a sanguinary priest and they are almost as good as TH/SS vs S7 and lower, plus they shoot! And flame!

Thanks for the detailed replies!

Having considered this I've adapted my list a bit, I won't post it again yet as I'm still considering changes.

I want to keep some devs I think from a personal playing perspective but I understand your points, so...

If I drop the extra bodies on the dev squads, change the plasma in assault squads to melta and flamers, and drop the plasma guns for combis on the sternguard... I can then get a 3 man assault bike squad with multimelta with points to spare.

I'd like to add a fragnought in pod in addition to talons dread on the raven (I've modeled this already so want to use it, until I buy bits for frag arms atleast!). I also want to include preists but don't want to lose the dread, terms or sternguard to fit them in.

What about assault terminators with thunderhammers and stormshield and death company? The give a great assault support.

Ive got the assault termies, considering dropping the plasma sternguard for death co though...

I think the sternguard have more utility than death co. This list already has two full ASM squad. The sternguard equipped with combi meltas are guaranteed to come in and make someone's day miserable.

TH/SS terminators serve a very similar role to the DC, but are much better off if they get assaulted/counterassaulted.

Recent faq changed the div drop pod issue its been faq'd to state reserves and blessings happen simultaneously so divination on the drop is nice.
Dev squads are still good for BA if you run straight 4 ML for 130pts behind a aegis with a priest or Corbulo is a nice base to divert threat

You still can't cast divination on the turn you drop in. Benedictions must be cast at the *start* of that libby's movement phase, when the libby is not on the board. The ruling allows one to cast benedictions from a librarian already on the board to a unit coming in on a drop pod.

You can, however, still use shield of sanguinius on your opponent's turn. That's what I do with my drop pod libbies.

BTW, it turns out my mathhammer was wrong about the AC vs AV 12. It is counterintuitive, but I guess you should keep that.

I want to keep some form of devastator squad, but shall I send my Libby in with the sternguard then? When I get to my codex I'll edit the list to what I'm thinking now - smaller dev squads, add in attack bikes, change some of the weaponry.

Updated my list in original post, think its looking much stronger so thanks, please keep the advice coming!

Any thoughts on whether it's worth dropping the sternguard down to 5 combi melta and using the 150pts on a second librarian epistolary with prescience for the sternguard and smite from biomancy?
Or death co?