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So I'm looking at my next army, and realizing that I really want to do Imperial Fists (yellow is pretty and the fluff is cool), and I also really want to use Scions (the models are amazing).
Do you guys have any tips for the broad strokes of such an army? I'm thinking 3-4 squads of deep striking Scions with melta/plasma, led by a Deathwatch squad (Sternguard) and supported by the crushing might of the Imperial Fists. The Marines would have a few scoring units of combat squading Tactical squads, and some heavy firepower in the form of Centurions, Dreadnoughts and artillery.

I love the idea of this army, and I will be building it in some form, but I don't have that much knowledge of the Space Marines or the Scions (having only played Eldar). So I'm asking for advice from the experts on Dakka

My first tip if you're gonna use IF is to switch to the Sentinels of Terra supplement. Unless you absolutely wanted to use a relic from the regular SM codex, the supplement is better overall: you retain the tank hunting abilities of devastators and centurions, you're able to take dev centurions as Elites, keeping your heavies open and now all your bolters/bolt-pistols/heavy-bolters/storm-bolters are twin-linked at half-range.

Some units that really shine:

-Lysander, one of the best beatsticks in the game for a "bargain" price
-Librarian: they have access to a relic that makes them generate an extra warp charge (pseudo lvl3 psyker) and rerolls failed psychic tests
-Bolter scouts in LSS, infiltrate/scout and mobility with twin-linked bolters
-Naked tactical marines, in rhinos or pods these guys do alright at mowing down weak units
-devastators, these guys are great with Tank Hunter, quad lascannon is my favorite setup, quad flakk ML does actually ok with Tank Hunter, combat squad them and put the bolter half on a quad gun
-dev centurions, see notes on regular devastators, the grav version doesn't get any particular buff since it already gets rerolls, taking them as Elites is a perk

As far as Scions, they're cool but didn't seem "game changing" to me, I would use regular IG and take the Scions as Elites while still having access, to the meat-and-potatoes of the Guard. Wyverns are the tits. Cheap Psykers to boost your units and load up your warp charge pool. And probably the best combat tank in the game: the Paskisher.

Hope this helps guide your selection.

PS. Sternguards special ammo does not benefit from the bolter drill rule.

If you use the Sentinels of Terra supplement then IF are actually a pretty great army.

Some of their strengths are;
*Scout Squads w/Bolters
You can get a lot of them for relatively cheap and they deal decent damage with decent durability. Their alpha strike is nasty. However they don't fit in well with Scions who need to DS in turn 2 or later.
*Drop Pod TAC squad
Good scoring and decent damage. Spamming them can ensure you score objectives. Plasma and melta tend to work best. Again this is an alpha strike strategy and thus scions might have difficulty fitting in.
*Tank Hunter Devastator Squads w/ lascannons
Very nasty anti tank but due to their fragility they are more of an alpha strike unit. Try to get a bunker with void shield or something to get them a quad gun, give them better LoS, and to protect them.
*Tank Hunter Devastator Centurions w/ lascannons, missile launcher, and omni scope
These are incredible in either a reserves list or an alpha stike list. Their 2+ armour save, 50mm bases, and T5 W2 is the secret sauce that lets them take most of the ignore cover weapons shots and still survive. The omni scope is great to attach a libby with bones to buff ML and let them fire a quadd gun on a ADL. They make a great unit to put in the corners of the board in a reserves based list. Thus they work well with scions.


What do scions have to offer?
*Scion units are some pretty good sources of DS plasma.
*Scion command squads are extremely effective with 4x plama and the TL or preferred enemy orders they can put the hurt on a target. The orders are actually very useful in this codex but are more situational.

In terms of how to combine these two forces it would depend on how much scion you want mixed in with your sentinels. The scion airborne formation could fit really well here but then it is essentially a scion army with IF attachments.

That's some great advice guys, thanks a lot! I'll Be back with a more thoughtful reply later

A few comments:

Half the reason I'm doing this list is because I want Scions. So I want to make them work as best as I can. I won't be using any other AM units except Primaris Psykers to keep the "Scion strike force" feel.

A 1500 list I cobbled together trying to take your advice into account, probably really bad:

Lysander
10 Tacs in Rhino
10 Tacs in Rhino
5 Scouts w Camo Cloaks
5 Sternguard in Drop Pod
6 Devastators w 4 Las Cannons
6 Devastators w 4 Missile Launchers + flak

Primaris Psyker lvl 2
Comissar
Scion Command 4x plasma
Scions 2x plasma

The reason I have the Sternguard in there is because I'm building a Deathwatch squad for counts-as Sternguard. Really want to have them lead the DS:ing Scions.

Please comment and tell me what I can do

A Primaris Psyker isn't an HQ choice on paper. It doesn't count as a Mandatory choice and isn't part of the Militarum Tempestus faction, so can only be included with an Astra Militarum detachment. Unless this is Unbound in which case, never mind.

You're right, thought the Comissar counted as an AM HQ!

Posted an attempt at a list here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/617768.page#7254089