Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm trying to make a competitive list that can take most opponents. I know it is weak on AA but hopefully my shear amount of fire power can compensate. Let me know what you guys think.


HQ:
Commander Farsight (Warlord): With 7 Bodyguards:
3 Fire Knives (Plasma rifle, Missile pod): 3 Target locks
3 Helios (Plasma rifle, Fusion blaster): 3 Target locks
1 Support suit: Positional relay, Vectored retro thrusters, Drone controller, Iridium armor, Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command and control node, Puretide engram neurochip, Onager gauntlet, Neuroweb system jammer, 13 Gun drones= 855 points
Commander Shadowsun= 135 points
Elites:
Riptide: Ion accelerator, Twin-linked SMS, Early warning override, Stimulant injector= 225 points
Troops:
12 Fire Warriors: Shas’ui, Bonding knife ritual= 130 points
12 Fire Warriors: Shas’ui, Bonding knife ritual= 130 points
15 Kroot: Sniper rounds, 1 Kroot hound= 110 points
Fast Attack:
Pathfinder Team 1: Shas’ui: 7 Pulse carbines with markerlights, 3 Ion rifles, Blacksun filter, Bonding knife ritual= 161 points
Pathfinder Team 2: Shas’ui: 7 Pulse carbines with markerlights, 3 Rail rifles, Blacksun filter, Bonding knife ritual= 176 points
Heavy Support:

Fortification:
Aegis Defense Line: Comms Relay= 70 points

Total: 1992 points

I think its better to run suits with double weapons these days. I do 4 double plasma and 2 double fusion, but I see the utility of missile pods. Also I don't see why you would put iridium armor on the support suit, since you don't want to use it to soak wounds. I'd save the points and try to keep it alive though positioning.

I also never saw the utility of heavy weapons with pathfinders, I feel like those points would be better spent on something else.

One thought is to take the points from the pathfinder special weapons, iridium suit, and half your drones and use them for a second riptide.

In my defense I think that, while being more expensive, my bodyguards are more versatile and can handle more situations that they are put in. I even find missile pods are useful because of their assault 2 36 inch range that gives more, powerful shots down range. I actually don't see how making my most valuable support unit tougher to handle more situations is a bad thing.

As soon as I drop my units on the board I want them to be able to hold their own with higher strength weapons than normal. That is why I have my pathfinders with expensive heavy weapons is because I want them to be able to take down harder targets.

A couple things I am afraid of with this list is the ability to handle flyers and ignoring cover units. Other than that I don't think I should change this list that much due to its synergy. The only think I would think of adding would be a couple sky rays and/or missile broadsides.

The point I was trying to make was that by putting double of the same type of weapon on each suit you maximize efficiency. For example, let's say your bomb is in range of a rhino, a squad of TAC marines, and a land raider. Ideally you want the plasma to hit the TAC squad, the fusion to hit the lr, and the missiles to hit the rhino. With your current weapon configuration you can't do that, but if each suit has two of same type of weapon, you can.

My point about the armor is that usually people put the iridium suit out front to soak up fire, but you can't soak up fire with your support suit, because losing it would seriously cripple the bomb. However, I can see the point of putting armor on it just in case you get out of position or something.

As for the pathfinders. my point is their primary purpose will always be marker lights. You don't need to marker light things for the bomb, so you're going to be shooting markers for your fire warriors, and things fire warriors are going to be shooting at are not what you want to shoot rail rifles at.

As for missile pods, they're awesome, especially in the bomb with tank hunter. I struggle with whether to take them as well.

Anyways, it's just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

I wouldn't call this army competitive, but I would deem it semi-competitive. The difference being it would have no chance at placing amongst the top at a tournament, but you could definitely pull off some wins.

To make this list work, your units will have to really stick to their roles: riptide and the farsight bomb will go against high AV and TEQ targets.

You want those pathfinders providing marker support AND making use of their special weapons. To do this I'd form a buddy system - each pathfinder squad is accompanied by a FW team. PF team 1 shoots at a infantry target, FW team 1 follows up taking advantage of the marker lights.

I say this because you'll end up in situations where your rail pathfinders may only have a chimera to shoot at (you probably fail to destroy it will just rail rifles).... in that case your 176 points just spent 1 turn placing 3-4 markerlights on a transport - and then another unit will need to finish it off.

This list would be much more successful at the 1750 point level - I'd drop 1 helios suit, 1 fireknife and a pathfinder squad. Yes you lose some firepower, but your opponents will be much more in your league (less flyers).

Farsight bomb is not a competitive list. I have not seen it used in any major tournament nor have i seen it win a tournament.

Tau are really popular right now, and really good. You will probably be going up against a Tau army and they will most likely destroy you. Depending on where you put your pathfinders, they will most likely die very quickly. Conversely, your opponent could also go after your FWs. He probably won't bother with your Riptide. Now let's go to the turn your bomb drops. It's possible that this will be even worse for you if your opponent goes first. He'll get two turns to wipe out your FWs/PF. Then all he has to do is worry about the bomb.

Ok, so It's turn 2 (if they come in at all. 3+ required). They'll probably have a good turn of shooting, and then try to jet pack away. 2D6 jump is poo dick and will more often than not leave you in gakky positioning (average is 7in jump.) This means that you probably will not be able to take advantage of the +2 cover you hope to have for everyone.

I won't even get in to all the weapons and abilities that can strip you of that cover. I'll just point out the fact that you WILL have models that have different cover saves relative to the rest of the unit, and that will allow the enemy commander to focus fire those troops.

To recap: your 932 point army will be fighting a 2000 point army for at least a turn, maybe two if you get unlucky. Once your bomb is down, it will have to deal with multiple targets that might have target priority swapped to your bomb from the sheer fact that you have no other units left to really worry about. You also do not have anything that is really scary to prevent the enemy from just rushing what you do have (not your bomb) with their transports/assault troops. A riptide getting stuck in CC is a real possibility.

Your bomb might also not be able to reach all of the enemy units it needs to go after simply because the commander will have probably spread out his force. As i have said before, you will get more bang for you buck throwing in an Allied SM chapter with a Librarian using the GOI. However, i do not know if the codex change allows this to work the same way.

However, despite all of that, i see some changes you can make to make the list better, namely, taking out the pathfinders.

You lack any kind of serious AA capabilities, and your PF are in a weird position. RR, and Ion R are not that strong for taking out vehicles, and you do not need that many marker lights for this list. 1000 points of your army doesn't even need MLs (M3S & CnC). At best, you would be feeding your MLs to the riptide for his IA profile, and you'll have plenty left over.

Also keep in mind that your PF are not very strong and they'll have to withstand 2-3 Turns of 2000 points shooting at them. 5+ armor saves and 4+ cover saves will be the norm for them. They may not be worth keeping in this list. I would recommend replacing them with maybe a skyray so you have a decent answer to AA, as well as a decent platform for markerlights.

Edit: I typed this up in the quick reply. The paragraphs there are much smaller than i anticipated lol.