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Hi, Im currently writing an all-comers list, with the idea of using BA's Baal Strike Force, Death Company and Grav Bikers to their full potential. The army is a rapid moving, in-your-face-quick list, as the intention is to bypass some of the large deadly template/volume attacks from shooty armies, and have enough bodies and attacks for horde armies. The tactic is to get right into the fight quickly, with not much held back in the early stages of the game.

Main 1849 Army is:

+HQ +(237) - a priest with each Bike Squad
Priest on bike, with Valour's edge (AP2-I) sword, MBs, Veritas Vitae, Combi-Grav
Priest on bike, with PS, MB, Combi-Grav

+ELITE+ 1020 (all Jump, with a hammer and PF for versatility)
10 DC, PF, TH (both with boltguns), 8 bolt pistols and chainsword
10 DC, PF, TH (both with boltguns), 8 bolt pistols and chainsword
10 DC, PF, TH (both with boltguns), 8 bolt pistols and chainsword
10 DC, PF, TH (both with boltguns), 8 bolt pistols and chainsword

+FAST+ 452 (each squad has 8 Bikes - 5 normal bikers, Sarge, Priest and Attack Bike)
5 Bikes, 2 Grav-guns, Sarge with Combi-Grav & MB, Attack Bike with MM - Priest giving them FNP
5 Bikes, 2 Grav-guns, Sarge with Combi-Grav & MB, Attack Bike with MM - Priest giving them FNP

+TROOP TAX+ 140
4 Scouts with Blades, and Sarge with Blade, MB and Combi-Melta
4 Scouts with Blades, and Sarge with Blade, MB and Combi-Melta

+1S and +1I on the charge with FNP for all but scouts.

Turn 1 - Unleash Hell and charge towards the enemy!

Toying with the idea of a few Melta Pistols on the DC, but the idea is to get in fast, so maybe not. I also could possibly replace a squad or two of DC with a slightly smaller squad of SG as they are lethal, but DC are just the sauce and I would probably then have to lose a Priest to them, from the bikers. Also toyed with the idea of Astorath for the re-rolls, but decided to spend his points on more DC, and having 2 priests on the bikes pays for itself nicely in FNP on them. Obviously AA is low, but as the intention is to get into the action quickly, this will be slightly negated. Any thoughts?

Quite a high body count (at 68 marines and I would imagine lining up against 4 squads of raging Death Company and a couple of squads of revving bikers all with red thirst and feeling no pain. Knowing that in a couple of turns you are going to be fighting all of them hand to hand would be quite a scary prospect...

Would appreciate any feedback

Thanks

Give 2 bikers per squad a grav gun. They're more important than the combi grav. I run my dc similarly. 7 guys with 2pfist and all with bolters for sure.

I run 1 Bike squad with 3 bikers with 2 grav, a Sergeant with combi grav, a mm attack bike, a priest with combi grav and warlord and nothing else, and a captain with articifer armor, storm shield, combigrav, and power fist. He takes a lot of wounds and i recommend trying it. T5,3w,2+3++fnp. He allows my bikes to cruise around and unload grav without too much concern for anything punking them before they wrecks house. And then he can split off from the squad and punch something with his fist.
I think it would be a fun list to play. I'm a believer in bare bones scouts because at the end of the day they usually don't kill much and my goal for them is survive to capture obj. They dont hold space well because it's only 5 fragile guys. That being said, the points i consider putting into them is cloaks for survivability. If they have melta bombs who is going to roll by casually with a tank? Might be wasted points. And the combi melta could be good, but usually 1 by itself is not worth much.

I'm interested to hear how 4 big dc squad do. The grav compliments them as they will destroy all troops, it might take a few turns for them to knock out many elites. Against other cc units, they might have trouble with only only 4 attacks at initiative1 once the charge is over. I now believe that BA gabe strong close range shooting, great mobility, and cc is only great at wiping or light infantry and standard meq. But it costs too much to get a squad that can really take out heavy cc opponents. And then trying to delivery them into cc is tough. I've begun focusing on overloading short ranged shooting and mobility with a side of dc to go bully light stuff and punch the occasional tank.

I have a death company, a sang guard, that bike squad, and then a tac ssquad in a pod, a fragnought in a pod, 2 melta assault squads in pods, and then astra militarum allies in 3 ba pods. A command squad with 4 melta and orders, and 2vet squads with3 melta and demo charge. It's nice alpha strike with solid ba options supporting and gaining position and threatening with decent cc and great grav shooting. This is my favorite 1850 list I've played. I crushed serpent spam last time I played it. Playing eldar and astra militarum this weekend. I think it'll be great against the astra militarum.

Cheers for the reply. Sorry, I did actually include 2 grav guns in each bike squad's points, that goes without saying! I am going to go bolt pistol and CCW for normal DC marines, as I don't intend to do much shooting with this list, but rather head straight into the enemy's face. I think 4 big squads of Death Company is scary, with each squad being able to put out enough damage to worry just about anything - jumping around at speed, over objects then hitting with 10 hammer of wraths, then 50 hits - 40 Strength 5, Initiative 5 attacks on the charge, and 10 s9 heavy hits (half concussive). Even in static combat, with all having FNP and lots of Initiative attacks and some S9/AP2, should be a handful for most enemies, especially as there will be another DC squad nearby with a grav biker squad in close support, as it's the intent to work fairly closely together as a large spread out kind of multi-deathstar.

It looks like it wouldnt be too bad, but I do think you are going to struggle against a gunline that has any combat support.


I think destroyer cult would be an abysmal matchup for you.


Needless to say, I really like it and I think you have the right idea when it comes to a rush assault list. My only suggestion would be dropping a squad of Deathco to pick up some more support. ]

Things that may prove useful, like a drop assault squad with 2 meltaguns and the sarge with 2 meltapistols.

I also have seen some big tournament lists that use mephiston, essentially their strategy is to drop him in as it adds a huge threat they need to deal with, it will help with your rush idea as he detracts fire. He can also help your list out with some biomancy, when one of your super assault squads gets into combat he can cast endurance etc on them.

The idea is to get stuck into combat very quickly, so the gunline cant shoot as much, as its targets will be occupied. If they have a bit of combat support, then the 6 heavy squads should make light of them fairly quickly, as I would assume most of the points would have been spent on their gunline itself rather than their support. With there being 6 large squads of wounds to sponge up 1 or 2 volleys, I would imagine a good amount of Marines will get through, and then its a case of strong assault troops versus vey weak shooty troops in assault. If you see my thinking?

I think 10 Jump Death Company with a couple of fists/hammers should be a match for most things, if not at least weakening them a fair bit. I think someone here MathHammered them against a heavy TWC setup and they came out favourably. So FOUR units of them in your face with 2 or 3 Grav Bikers squads in support should at least cause slight concern amongst Shooty lists, especially with them ALL being very mobile..

My first match up will be against Marines with a Knight, Land Raider and Sicaran and a Tiggy Cent Dev Grav Squad? Any suggestions how to best fight that set up with the above list?

You should look into the Fire Raptors Revelation Class Warhead battery for your blood angels list. Its give you anti air, anti ground, plus awesome DS ability.

Cheers I will do that, I just wanted a lot of bodies on the table to attack before the main air threats come in. I do have 3 Stormravens that I could possibly utilise

Thoughts on dropping a DC squad and replacing with 3 Pods.

Pod 1 - 5 man Assault - Meltacide (2 meltas/combi-melta)
Pod 2 - 5 man Troop (swapping Scouts) Heavy Flamer, and Sarge with 2 Hand Flamers and MB

Pod 3 - 5 man Troop (swapping Scouts) Heavy Flamer, and Sarge with 2 Hand Flamers and MB

Get the tiggy cents tied up in melee as soon as possible and never let them go. I don't believe gate of infinity works when locked in combat and with that threat tarpited you shouldn't have a problem isolating and destroying the remaining knight/tac squads.

What is the best way to kill the knight?

 Nostromo 69 wrote:
Cheers I will do that, I just wanted a lot of bodies on the table to attack before the main air threats come in. I do have 3 Stormravens that I could possibly utilise

Thoughts on dropping a DC squad and replacing with 3 Pods.

Pod 1 - 5 man Assault - Meltacide (2 meltas/combi-melta)
Pod 2 - 5 man Troop (swapping Scouts) Heavy Flamer, and Sarge with 2 Hand Flamers and MB

Pod 3 - 5 man Troop (swapping Scouts) Heavy Flamer, and Sarge with 2 Hand Flamers and MB

The fire raptors sheet is on FW for free btw. Def wil change your game plan entirely if you have 3 ravens + allies w/ raptor

From a shooting/gunline players perspective this would be an interesting test for my tau. My sniper spam list would probably give you a run for your money with turn 2 being just plain brutal, but should you make it into melee my whole list would just plain melt.

My necrons though would be much tougher for you, lychgard could hold and probably win against 2 units of DC and the remaining destroyer cult would just rip through marines, I'd definately play test against a bunch of different builds so you know exactly what your list can and cannot do.

Yeah just read their "experimental" rules. I dont think I will be buying one just yet. If I start to add pods and a Raven or two, then I wont have points for 4 big DC squads


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Epartalis wrote:
From a shooting/gunline players perspective this would be an interesting test for my tau. My sniper spam list would probably give you a run for your money with turn 2 being just plain brutal, but should you make it into melee my whole list would just plain melt.

My necrons though would be much tougher for you, lychgard could hold and probably win against 2 units of DC and the remaining destroyer cult would just rip through marines, I'd definately play test against a bunch of different builds so you know exactly what your list can and cannot do.

As a necron player, with your main list being played, what BA set-up would you pick to give you the most problems? Always interesting to hear from the other perspective

Epartalis wrote:
From a shooting/gunline players perspective this would be an interesting test for my tau. My sniper spam list would probably give you a run for your money with turn 2 being just plain brutal, but should you make it into melee my whole list would just plain melt.

My necrons though would be much tougher for you, lychgard could hold and probably win against 2 units of DC and the remaining destroyer cult would just rip through marines, I'd definately play test against a bunch of different builds so you know exactly what your list can and cannot do.

How does Tau hold up against heldrakes w/o remoras? Just curious, it seems like the only way is a skyray. Similar with crons, only the night scythes can bring other flies down.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Btw my 1,000th post. I am now a Frenzied Juggernaut.

Tau have plenty of ways to deal with a heldrake. HBC Riptide with ECPA, Broadsides with HYMP and EWO. Buffcommander with dual MP crisis suits. Skyrays.

Well since drakes got nerfed and chaos space marines aren't the most competitive codex out there I haven't had to face 2 or even 3 in a long time but if I can't use remoras(which I find skyrays work better for everything except flyrants) as stated the high yeild Missle pods put out plenty of twin linked shots to get hits and being part of the firebase support cadre gives tank hunter. How do I deal with it? Classic tau, I rely on 48 s7 twin linked shots to shoot fliers down. Sometimes I change out Sniper drones for skyrays, depends on who I'm playing really.

As for what blood angles setup could give me a serious headache?

As tau anything that has serious chance of getting into assualt turn 2 is very frustrating. My broadsides are slow and so with running a firebase almost every game my lists are, at the core, pretty immobile. Your setup is manageable but does have a ton of boots on the ground. My list excels at volume of Fire but only has 1 unit of 3 crisis suits and 6 fusions to take care of ag13-14 and the single riptide. Once those units are dead heavy vehicles are industructable.

Let me think on it after work. I have a bachelor party this weekend with friends so might be next week for a proper response