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I'm supposed to be competing in a tournament in the next couple of weeks that allows no counts-as, and having only played non-competitive games before I'm not sure how to turn my models into a competitive army at 1500 points. The models I own are:

Any advice would be appreciated, the only armies I know I'll be facing are Chaos Space Marines and Space Marines. If this sort of thread belongs in Army Lists, then I'll get it moved.

Well, there's certainly a way to make a reasonable army out of the models you have. You don't have the models for the ultra-competitive Necron lists (No Nightscythes, no Wraiths), but you're still going to be able to take something, especially if you know you're facing a lot of power armor.

HQ-wise, all of those choices are great. The Destroyer Lord is really good with Wraiths, but since you don't really have any, it's less powerful. You could still maybe have him run with Destroyers, but Destroyers want to stay at range, so I may actually skip on the destroyer lord for now. You also miss out on Royal Court if you don't take an Overlord.

That means taking an Overlord. Just kit him out with everything (2+/3++, MSS, Warscythe). Although he's great buffing up a blob of 20 if you have a res orb, it's vulnerable to getting swept in combat.

Your troops are going to be a bit of a problem. Ideally you'd take either Nightscythes and min warriors, or Ghost Arks buffing blobs of warriors, but you don't have either. Thus, they'll be the weakest part of the list. You might still want a warrior blob (20 with Lord w/ Rez orb), but just be wary of getting swept, or just failing morale checks. Ld10 doesn't go as far as I'd like. A few min squads, or 10 man squads to hold objectives is good.

You have enough death marks for a large death and despair squad, but you don't have a nightscythe to get them around. Put a Veiltek with them then, do the standard thing. I probably would go close to 5 than 10 Deathmarks, as a larger unit means more likely to Mishap on the Veil use. You also increase the probability of overkill when you have that many of them. I'd run double Death and Despair but you don't have enough cryteks for that, or any Nightscythes.

Fast Attack is where you should max out. If you know you're facing a lot of power armor, then I'd actually take a lot of your Destroyers. They're actually as survivable as terminators against small arms fire, you just need to keep them away from heavy weapons and go after infantry. I might have a Heavy Destroyer team, but it all depends on how much anti-armor you have elsewhere in the list. Taking a ginormous scarab swarm or two doesn't hurt either. You don't have the Spyders for the farm, but Scarabs are cheap as chips. Take your pick of either 2 x max Destroyer squad with potential HDestroyers and 1 x Max Scarabs, or 2 x 9 Scarabs and 1 x Destroyer squad, no HDestroyers (you have a bunch of anti-vehicle with scarabs if you take 2 squads of them).

Heavy support is good here too. I'd skip on the monoliths, unless you want to do an AV14 skew list. It'd be funny, but monoliths are generally considered overpriced, with lackluster shooting. Take one if you really want the gate ability, but I'd skip them. I would, however, take the Doom Scythe and the Annihilation Barge. The doomsday Ark is nice, but you have to stand still for it to work, and that makes you quite vulnerable. The Barge gives you so much power for so little, it's wonderful, and the Doom Scythe, while being a bit vulnerable as the only flyer in your list, will do a ton of damage if not countered, and at 1500 a lot of people don't put many points in anti-air defenses.

So, to sum up, here's a potential list.

Overlord, 2+/3++, Warscythe, MSS, Res Orb.
Cryptek, Harbinger of Despair, Veil

2 x 10 Warriors
5 Warriors

5 Deathmarks

10 Scarabs
5 Destroyers
5 Destroyers

Annihilation Barge
Doom Scythe

I'd put the Overlord with one of the 10 man warriors. You can cut the res orb if you don't feel it's worth it and use the points elsewhere. Put the Veiltek with the Deathmarks. Use the scarabs as either anti-vehicle, jamming, or preventing assaults at more vulnerable things. Skirmish with Destroyers, and take out 3+ infantry with them. Remember that they have Preferred Enemy.

Just an idea, but with the models given maybe a C'tan isn't the worst idea. The slow warriors could make a decent bubble wrap for him seeing as they won't be doing much else. Again, not ultra competitive, but it could make the list more fun and give it some answers to MCs. Not that it doesn't have plenty of those already, but IMHO it would be fun.

Deathmarks and despairtek are a must. I absolutely love that unit and find room for it on all of my lists.

The DLord also works with scarabs. Nothing like wraiths but blobs of scarab attacks with preferred enemy is better than nothing. Trying to think outside the box here.

Also: the monoliths aren't so bad when they're teleporting warriors around. If you don't do the C'Tan (no hard feelings there) I've seen that concept work before. It really helps with the mobility issues on your list of not having ghost arks or night scythes. Plus if they port around the same spot as the D&D squad it could be an interestingly annoying problem for your opponent to have. Especially if you tie up his counter attack with scarabs.

@Thariinye: That seems like a pretty dang solid list, though I think I'd take the res orb off and possibly throw on a Tachyon Arrow, although in my experience that can be very hit or miss (literally). But a res orb on 10 warriors isn't massively worth it imo. Due to the kind and benevolent rule designers, a res orb wouldn't save them from sweeping advance, so not much point (Last time I fought CSM a Helbrute sweeping advanced 17 warriors and a Lord. I was not happy.). I really like the idea of a DLord with the Scarabs, but I don't know where I'd take the points from to justify it, so I don't think I'd do that.

However, I would mention that my Doom Scythe isn't actually glued together, the parts just fit together well enough that I haven't bothered yet. I still have the Wormhole Generator parts, all I'd need to do is construct that and then swap between them, so I could potentially have a Night Scythe, which could go with the 5 man warrior squad to free up 75 points, which coupled with the 30 from the Res Orb I might be able to do something with that?

So, I'm actually still leaning towards saying that you should be using it as a Doom scythe for now, simply because one night scythe is a lot less threatening than one doom scythe. The traditional use for night scythes is as a semi or complete airforce that does a lot of damage and then drops off warriors turn 5 to seize objectives. You'd either be transporting a 5-strong warrior squad, or replacing the Veil on the Veiltek. Without multiple, your single nightscythe is going to be less impactful than it could be. You also lose any access to anything above S7 if you don't have it, and don't add in Heavy Destroyers. It would free up points for you to add a kitted out DLord (2+/MSS,maybe Res orb) to the scarabs, if you also got rid of the 3++ on your Overlord, and maybe MSS.

Here's a different version if you do want to use your flyer as a night scythe:

Overlord w/ 2++, Warscythe (goes in the Night scythe) (Warlord)
Destroyer Lord w/ 2++, MSS
Cryptek w/ Despair, Veil

5 Deathmarks

5 Warriors
5 Warriors in Night scythe
10 Warriors

10 Scarabs
5 Destroyers
2 Destroyers, 3 Heavy Destroyers

Annihilation Barge

I agree that the Doom Scythe would be better. Now I'm thinking something more along the lines of:

Overlord w/ GoF + MSS (10 Warriors)
Destroyer Lord w/ MSS + SW (10 Scarabs)
Cryptek w/ HoD + VoD (5 Deathmarks)

10 Warriors
10 Warriors

5 Deathmarks

10 Scarabs
5 Destroyers
5 Destroyers

Annihilation Barge
Doom Scythe

Well, the army is a bit light on troops. A smart opponent will target your Warriors asap. If you face CSM, they enemy may field one or two Helldrakes which are a pain for MEQ units.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, the army is a bit light on troops. A smart opponent will target your Warriors asap. If you face CSM, they enemy may field one or two Helldrakes which are a pain for MEQ units.

I happen to know that the CSM player doesn't own any Heldrakes, he says he "hates them". I understand disliking them since they're a tad overpowered, but seems nonsensical not to get any to me. However, works out well for me: No Heldrakes. I agree it's light on troops, but since I only have Warriors it's a little tricky, they're just too fragile to be of any real competent use against MEQ armies in my experience. I'd rather focus on taking a couple of objectives and killing anything that gets near other ones than actively try and capture as many as possible.