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.

So I've (barely) won 1 game with them and lost the other 5. Which is even worse than my Ultramarines. Usually I find myself getting horrifically outgunned, unable to counter tanks and my close combat units unable to match those of the opposition in close combat. I also feel like a lot of my units are basically just canon fodder sitting around waiting to die.

This is what I have:

HQ.

Eidolon with Jump Pack

Praetor with Paragon Blade, Iron Halo and Plasma Pistol.

Champion with Phoenix Spear, Refractor Field, Plasma Pistol and Jump Pack

Champion with twin power swords and refractor field.

Elites.

10 Phoenix Terminators with Sonic Shriekers (One shot wonder, really struggle to kill Kataphracts and FNP can forget about it)

10 Palatine Blades with Jump Packs and Phoenix Spears with Sonic Shriekers (Get shot to death, no means of deployment)

10 Tartaros Terminators with 9 Chainfists and a claw armed serg. (One shot wonder)

3 Contemptors with lascannons and chainfists (Variable success but huge points drain)

Troops.

10 Assault Marines with Power Fist (These just tend to bounce off whatever they assault)

10 Assault Marines with Power Fist

10 Tacticals with Fist and CCW (These basically stand there and die as my stuff comes on the board)

10 Tacticals with Fist and CCW

10 Tacticals with claw and CCW

10 Tacticals with power sword, plasma pistol and CCW

Fast Attack

3 Jetbikes, one with plasma cannon, sergent with power fist.

Storm Eagle (currently getting my mate to help build a second Storm Eagle. The Terminators go in these)

Heavy Support:

Kakaphoni squad (Kill themselves with overheating)

Skyhunter Squad 3 bikes serg with claw, 3 volkite culverins

Lord of War

Fulgrim (One shot wonder)



To summarize most of my games:

Vs Raven Guard - Got shot to pieces by fliers, seekers and drop pod troops

Vs Salamanders - He tanked his reserves roles and I won on objectives although his Firedrake unit of Doom pretty much solo'd my army.

Vs Salamanders - Ambush mission, got shredded by short range firepower and unable to kill his apothecary units or tanks.

Vs Iron Hands - Was a weird game, but basically got mauled by shooting, slowed by terrain and basically my army bounced off in the close combat.

Vs Dark Angels - So many tanks and a Glaive. Plus massive legion buffs in CC with swords and in challenges.

Vs Salamanders - Ambush mission, got shredded by short range firepower and unable to kill his apothecary units. Also got cheesed by an eternal warrior Praetor with a thunder hammer.

So basically:

1) How do I cross the board without getting shredded by shooting or tabled? Even one turn of shooting seems to knock whole units out of the fight.

2) How do I ensure that when my units hit they never lose their combats? There is nothing worse than seeing your supposedly dedicated CC units bounce off.

3) What is the most points efficient configuration of my collection?

4) Is there any unit I could get which would radically change any of this?

What is your typical points value? Things I seen work pretty well in my local meta are Javalins with multi-melta for fast anti-tank. I think you are very short on tanks, so a Spartan for your main leader/unit and maybe even a land raider phobos squadron. A unit of heavy support missile launchers led by a siege breaker is a good all around unit.

Also, what rite of war are you running. You could add a couple of special/combi weapons and make your tactical squads into outflanking sniper vets in rhinos.

 Ifurita wrote:
What is your typical points value? Things I seen work pretty well in my local meta are Javalins with multi-melta for fast anti-tank. I think you are very short on tanks, so a Spartan for your main leader/unit and maybe even a land raider phobos squadron. A unit of heavy support missile launchers led by a siege breaker is a good all around unit.

Also, what rite of war are you running. You could add a couple of special/combi weapons and make your tactical squads into outflanking sniper vets in rhinos.

3-4k

Usually Mara Skara. Have used the 3rd Company one before.

I was going to get a Spartan instead of the second Storm Eagle, but my mate convinced me that it didn't fit the armies theme and since I already had a Spartan in my Ultra army. Which is a heavily mechanized army with land raiders and heavy support squads. Still tends to get hammered like.

Here's a list build discussion from Radio Free Isstvan, which is good just to listen through the list building rationale

https://soundcloud.com/theforgottenlegion30k/radio-free-isstvan-episode-44-listapalooza

The EC list discussion starts around the 3:00 mark

if speed is your problem, why not look towards some rhinos? Personally, I say either run larger tactical squads, or run them in rhinos. 10-man footsloggers tend to get mulched fairly quickly due to a lack of ATSKNF
Additionally, outside of power fists it looks like your list lacks any form of anti-tank? (3 lascannon shots is not really enough to do anything but tickle most tanks) A deredeo or some heavy support squads? maybe a few tanks of your own? Also a deredo would be a simple, effecive anti-air/anti-armour unit.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:

So basically:

1) How do I cross the board without getting shredded by shooting or tabled? Even one turn of shooting seems to knock whole units out of the fight.

2) How do I ensure that when my units hit they never lose their combats? There is nothing worse than seeing your supposedly dedicated CC units bounce off.

3) What is the most points efficient configuration of my collection?

4) Is there any unit I could get which would radically change any of this?

I'm new to 30k, but I've played a few games and watched a bunch more, so take it all with a grain of salt:

1) Transports, even rhinos are a godsend, though obviously raiders/spartans are better. Drop pods are another step up but limited access and finally the poor man's solution is apothecaries.
2) AP2 weapons, invulnerable save, FNP, chaplains, psychic buffs/debuffs, hitting before your opponent and/or swinging powerfists around are all good starts.
3) Dunno. You appear at first glance to have very little of what's considered "good" in 30k from what I can see and just a bunch of footslogging marines in a meta where every man and his dog needs to be able to remove marines and terminators by the handful.
4) A flare shielded, ceramite Spartan seems to do a pretty good job at dumping [assault unit of your choice] out where-ever they need to be as opposed to storm eagles who are only coming on turn 2 at the earliest (for most armies) and the contents are only charging turn 3 while everyone inside is very dead if the plane gets shot down since they all take a str10 ap2 no cover hit. Obviously if your opponent has got dedicated anti spartan, thne it doesn't work so well, but even if it gets popped turn 2, you're still 18" out of your DZ even if you go 2nd and can still assault.

Some things i like to run in my EC lists that you have and/or need to spend very little time/effort on building out of existing pieces:

Eidelon w/ 20 Assault Marines (power swords and a spear on the serg), an apothecary w/ jump pack, and a chaplain with a jump pack - it needs other scary targets, to help dilute the amount of hate it generates but it's pretty mobile and if you manage the spacing between models, it's not overly vulnerable to blasts along the way

A Storm Eagle full of whichever assault unit i feel like, though again, an apothecary/primus medicae is a good investment, as it's also where i tend to put my Legion Champ. I use the Maru Skara to put this into the center of their lines, so when i assault/remove something, i'll have plenty to assault next turn. If they try and remove that unit, it should require them to ignore the rest of my army which means my other threats have a free turn of beating on them

5 multi-melta Jetbikes - flank with them, hunting weaker side/rear armour and whatever was foolish enough not to buy ceremite

At 3k, all three of those are viable in the same list

Some additions to the army that you could consider:

Rhinos w/ pintle mounted multi-meltas for squads of 10 guys - yes, they just explode but they're a credible threat, force your regular opponents to consider spending heaps on Ceremite in every list they make and mean the squads inside will last an extra turn

Veterans - can outflank in a rhino with a lot of combi AP2

Seekers - a bunch of BS5 combi, again outflanking (Maru Skara) in either a rhino or landraider

A venator - i find mine to be hugely hit and miss but it's hits are things like one-shotting a spartan or deredo dread, so on average it's great. it also draws huge amounts of fire which saves your other key units

If you insist on using tactical squads, you need to either give them Rhinos as they are pointed up in your list, or compound them into units of 20 with an apothecary.

Your Phoenix Terminators need a transport and reliable charge. A Caestus Assault Ram can carry 8 of them and Fulgrim due to Termies not counting as Bulky when riding in it.

9 Palatine Blades and Eidolon could run in a Kharybdis Assault Claw.

I would lose the Kakophoni, they are sick looking models but you need reliable anti-tank. (Lascannon heavy support squad with a Master of Signal *this is actually fluffy, look up the Sun Killers*, Vindicator Squadron, Leviathan, take your pick)

Keep this post alive and let me know what you think, and forgive me if I sound blunt

*edited minor grammar corrections

My Emperor's Children experience is mostly theoretical with a little bit of practical. My main love is the Alpha Legion. So here is my hard-earned advice.

MSU is definitely not the way to go in 30k for the simple reason that you are punished for it, both by points and by army composition. Your tactical squads should be 20-man squads, with your power-fists on the sgts as politely "forgotten" until you feel comfortable converting them. Your assault marines should be a 20-man squad. Don't think of your assault marines as ACTUAL melee beatsticks. They're not and don't fool yourself otherwise. They are a tarpit. Remember that the strength of the Emperor's Children is their ability to gain extra initiative on the charge, best taken advantage of by your characters, not your tarpits. You toss an Apothecary in there with a jump pack and suddenly your 20 man squad is super hard to remove. You toss a chaplain in there (as simple as saying that your champion model "counts-as" a chaplain cause the Emperor's Children find them so inspiring...) and your 20-man assault marine squad is now Fearless with Hatred. Your power weapons are now hidden on Marines that can't be challenged out (they can be precision shot, but what can you do?).

The math for Hatred is pretty fascinating. It is generally assumed that every re-roll you get is effectively a bonus attack. So on average your Assault marines should have 3 attacks each on the charge (60 attacks), hitting half of them and getting 30 re-rolls as a result. So you actually get 90 attacks out of them, as well as a Hatred phoenix spear!

The Phoenix Terminators, despite their incredible statline, don't murder other terminators. They'll kill Tartaros and Indomitus, but they can barely touch cata without some kind of reliability thrown in. Again, chaplains are your best friend here, as those 30 attacks go from being 20 on-average hits, to 26 (or giving you an extra 10 free attacks, so about 3 terminator's worth). Remember to get the appropriate match-ups for the appropriate units. You want your tarpits to get thrown at your opponent's terminators, (especially with the hidden phoenix spear(s)), you want your terminators thrown at your opponent's power armor. It doesn't matter if he has powerfists, chainfists, or power weapons on his terminators, your poor assault marines are fearless and doomed. Your phoenix terminators can shrug off anything but the most dedicated close combat unit and probably murder them before they can swing. I reccomend proxying 5 of your assault marines as Palatine Blades, split them up into 2 squads, and only give them 5 spears. The front row gets mutilated, the back row might get to swing. 30k shooting is a completionist's game. Most people don't stop shooting at a squad until its dead.

Finally, anti-tank. You're using the Maru Skara. You get to choose the turn your out-flanking reserves show up. Take a Lightning with two anti-armor missiles and a phosphex launcher. You will be on the flank of the Spartan, so its flare shields mean nothing. You will pen (strength 9 armor bane, if my memory serves). A Rapier battery is pretty useful, but not OTT. The quad-launcher with shatter shells is nice for hullpoint stripping, phosphex shells are considered OP so contemplate if you want to go there. Finally my Alpha Legion generally make use of meltaguns, either on Vets or on a support squad. Again, you can guarantee the turn 2 outflank with them (the vets). Same thing with your dreadnoughts.

Eidolon is really, really cool but also really, really expensive. He needs the charge to do his business with that Thunderhammer (duh...). The thing, though, is that unless you have access to Hit and Run, 30k is NOT a quick game. Combats are rarely over in one, explosive turn. Eidolon will get tarpitted. Don't forget that concussive means that he and his challengee (should they survive) will be going simultaneously. If you find yourself getting out-charged, boarding shields on an independent character give you defensive grenades, so your opponent doesn't get attacks.

When making future purchases, contemplate the Angel's Wrath Rite of War... One of my absolute personal favorites for Emperor's Children. And pick up a Lightning, the synergy with Emperor's Children is amazing (don't be afraid to proxy any other 40k Imperium of Man jetplane as it, either... The Lightning is generally how most chassi of plane are represented in my group).

Good luck!

Hmm.

Yeah I'll definitely try blobbing the assault squad. I would definitely have more of these if they weren't resin only.

The only reason I take the tacticals is to prevent me being tabled before turn 2.

I am hoping plastic rhino's will be coming soon. Good shout on the multi melta.

I actually think the Emperors Children did use Chaplains because Lucius kills one on Istvaan. They definitely use Apothecaries because of Fabius. So I could get more apothecaries.

I know, I really wish I had bought a Spartan instead of another Eagle because I've had to actually give it to my mate to greenstuff together and its still broke at the front.

For starters, don't use Phoenix Terminators. They are horrifically overcosted and in no way worth it. You've also got to be careful in relation to unit upgrades - the Palatines are an excellent unit for example, but when you have all 10 with Phoenix Spears, you're losing a hell of a lot more points when they inevitably take casualties before they make it into combat, so I'd only run 50% of the unit with spears. Let the guys with sabres tank the shots, little things like that help a lot. Legion Champions are overcosted and useless, and Eidolon is superior to a Praetor so always use him.

Kakophoni are amazing. One of the people in my group runs EC, and he is an excellent player with some brutal lists. Only run them in 3rd Company - Relentless is a game changer - and always give them an Apothecary to alleviate 'gets hot'. Rhinos help but are optional. 2x10 or 3x10 of those, and you have your troops sorted, and they're able to outshoot any Legion's infantry. Augury Scanners on the apothecaries and you are able to deal with deep striking units short of Dreadnoughts. If I were you I'd stock up on Kakophoni and play 3rd Company Elite, but you can play EC effectively without them - just have to be smarter with your troops choices. A Deredeo and 3rd Company for example would have slaughtered that RG player.

The biggest weakness your list has is a complete lack of stellar assault transports (Dreadclaws, for example, are brilliant for jump pack-less Palatine Blades & Fulgrim) and no means of killing a Spartan equivalent. Consider Grav Rapiers (not fluffy, but extremely effective), Dreadnoughts with 2x grav guns (Contemptor Cortus are the best platform for this, and provide close-range support to your advancing units), Primaris Lightning strike fighters with Kraken Missiles (fragile but statistical best vehicle killers in the game, and pretty fluff and cool for EC), Laser Rapiers, Laser Vindicators, Javelin Speeders, Deredeo (I take one of these in every list as they're great against all flyers and any light-medium tanks) - you need to be able to kill an enemy Spartan or super heavy in a pinch. Add 2 of those options to any list, and you'll be fine in regards to AV. Make sure that your units are either in transports or are large enough (and preferably with apothecaries) to withstand pain/avoid breaking.

No plastic Deimos rhinos coming I'm afraid. Fulgrim is no one shot wonder - he's brilliant for his cost. Utterly lethal in cc, one of the best duelists and has enough attacks to butcher enemy units. Friend uses him in a Dreadclaw, either with Veterans kitted up to kill vehicles or Palatine Blades.

To summarise briefly in response to your points
1) Either use assault transports like Dreadclaws or ensure that you have enough rapid moving threats that your opponent cannot deal with them all at once
2) Ensure that they are getting to combat in one piece. Put valuable units in transports or ensure their survivability, pick your combats wisely
3) You need things that can kill tanks at range before you put together a viable list, transports too if you're going to run Tactical Squads, which I wouldn't do as EC. I'd run 3rd Company, but I'm a sucker for noise marines, ignore that if you're not a fan. As an Emperor's Children player, your only bonuses are essentially if you charge. So pick units that are going to get into a position to charge, like massed assault squads, and design a list that stops your opponent from killing them before they get into range.
4) AV units as stated above will help immensely

It's late, so my apologies for the rambling thoughts. EC are a strong Legion when played well, but as is appropriate for the lore, require a lot of planning to get the most out of their abilities. Plan in advance and make sure you have the tools to deal with dangerous lists (you should be able to go yep I can kill a super heavy, yep I can kill or at least minimise the impact of a Primarch, yep I can deal with deep striking lists...etc) and you'll be fine.

 Marshal Loss wrote:

Spoiler:

For starters, don't use Phoenix Terminators. They are horrifically overcosted and in no way worth it. You've also got to be careful in relation to unit upgrades - the Palatines are an excellent unit for example, but when you have all 10 with Phoenix Spears, you're losing a hell of a lot more points when they inevitably take casualties before they make it into combat, so I'd only run 50% of the unit with spears. Let the guys with sabres tank the shots, little things like that help a lot. Legion Champions are overcosted and useless, and Eidolon is superior to a Praetor so always use him.

Kakophoni are amazing. One of the people in my group runs EC, and he is an excellent player with some brutal lists. Only run them in 3rd Company - Relentless is a game changer - and always give them an Apothecary to alleviate 'gets hot'. Rhinos help but are optional. 2x10 or 3x10 of those, and you have your troops sorted, and they're able to outshoot any Legion's infantry. Augury Scanners on the apothecaries and you are able to deal with deep striking units short of Dreadnoughts. If I were you I'd stock up on Kakophoni and play 3rd Company Elite, but you can play EC effectively without them - just have to be smarter with your troops choices. A Deredeo and 3rd Company for example would have slaughtered that RG player.

The biggest weakness your list has is a complete lack of stellar assault transports (Dreadclaws, for example, are brilliant for jump pack-less Palatine Blades & Fulgrim) and no means of killing a Spartan equivalent. Consider Grav Rapiers (not fluffy, but extremely effective), Dreadnoughts with 2x grav guns (Contemptor Cortus are the best platform for this, and provide close-range support to your advancing units), Primaris Lightning strike fighters with Kraken Missiles (fragile but statistical best vehicle killers in the game, and pretty fluff and cool for EC), Laser Rapiers, Laser Vindicators, Javelin Speeders, Deredeo (I take one of these in every list as they're great against all flyers and any light-medium tanks) - you need to be able to kill an enemy Spartan or super heavy in a pinch. Add 2 of those options to any list, and you'll be fine in regards to AV. Make sure that your units are either in transports or are large enough (and preferably with apothecaries) to withstand pain/avoid breaking.

No plastic Deimos rhinos coming I'm afraid. Fulgrim is no one shot wonder - he's brilliant for his cost. Utterly lethal in cc, one of the best duelists and has enough attacks to butcher enemy units. Friend uses him in a Dreadclaw, either with Veterans kitted up to kill vehicles or Palatine Blades.

To summarise briefly in response to your points
1) Either use assault transports like Dreadclaws or ensure that you have enough rapid moving threats that your opponent cannot deal with them all at once
2) Ensure that they are getting to combat in one piece. Put valuable units in transports or ensure their survivability, pick your combats wisely
3) You need things that can kill tanks at range before you put together a viable list, transports too if you're going to run Tactical Squads, which I wouldn't do as EC. I'd run 3rd Company, but I'm a sucker for noise marines, ignore that if you're not a fan. As an Emperor's Children player, your only bonuses are essentially if you charge. So pick units that are going to get into a position to charge, like massed assault squads, and design a list that stops your opponent from killing them before they get into range.
4) AV units as stated above will help immensely

It's late, so my apologies for the rambling thoughts. EC are a strong Legion when played well, but as is appropriate for the lore, require a lot of planning to get the most out of their abilities. Plan in advance and make sure you have the tools to deal with dangerous lists (you should be able to go yep I can kill a super heavy, yep I can kill or at least minimise the impact of a Primarch, yep I can deal with deep striking lists...etc) and you'll be fine.

Would an apothecary be able to control the overheating? I mean its only going to keep one out of every three overheats up. I have lost half a squad to overheating more than once.

Yeah, I am sort of putting the EC on the backburner until we get the big Emperor Children release where I am expecting loads of chaosified mark 4 noise marines. Then I'll probably get 20 extra Kakophoni and run full third company.

Definitely leaning towards a Deredeo and Sicaran Venator.

It looks like, given your squad selection and Legion, you're really missing a lot of transports - specifically Assault Transports.

Emperor's Children want to be in assault, and without gathering a lot of firepower. The Storm Eagle is great, but it isn't enough.

I'd consider Land Raiders, Dreadclaws or Spartans. Units like the Palatine Blades or Phoenix Terminators can be really good if you point them at the right thing, but you need something to deliver them (and ideally enough of them all at once that your enemy can't just pick off your one assault unit).

I'd also combine some of the 10-man squads into 20-man squads (particularly the assault squads) and consider some Apothecaries - there's no reason to run lots of small units if you're not mechanised. A jump Chaplain might be good in the Assault squad.

 ArbitorIan wrote:
It looks like, given your squad selection and Legion, you're really missing a lot of transports - specifically Assault Transports.

Emperor's Children want to be in assault, and without gathering a lot of firepower. The Storm Eagle is great, but it isn't enough.

I'd consider Land Raiders, Dreadclaws or Spartans. Units like the Palatine Blades or Phoenix Terminators can be really good if you point them at the right thing, but you need something to deliver them (and ideally enough of them all at once that your enemy can't just pick off your one assault unit).

I'd also combine some of the 10-man squads into 20-man squads (particularly the assault squads) and consider some Apothecaries - there's no reason to run lots of small units if you're not mechanised. A jump Chaplain might be good in the Assault squad.

The reason I went with MSU is that normally with my Ultramarine army I ran 3 blobs of 20 tacticals. My general experience is that these usually only ever served as cannonfodder and it was extremely easy for the player to delete them in a single turn. So my reasoning with the EC was that splitting the squads up would force my opponent to split his fire and prevent me being tabled with much more of my army off the table. I am aware of the cost saving, but functionally tactical blobs tend to be 260 points of dead weight and I'd rather spend a little more for peace of mind on being tabled. Ideally I wouldn't take any troops as I don't think any of them can pull their weight for the points you spend.

I've avoided mechanization because I have a fully mechanized Ultramarine army with six land raiders, a laser vindicator, 3 plasma preds, Deredeo and a Spartan. So I was reluctant to buy a load of tanks for my Emperors Children. Plus when I have rolled with that force it tends to get smashed and then the contents bounce off whatever they assault.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
The reason I went with MSU is that normally with my Ultramarine army I ran 3 blobs of 20 tacticals. My general experience is that these usually only ever served as cannonfodder and it was extremely easy for the player to delete them in a single turn. So my reasoning with the EC was that splitting the squads up would force my opponent to split his fire and prevent me being tabled with much more of my army off the table. I am aware of the cost saving, but functionally tactical blobs tend to be 260 points of dead weight and I'd rather spend a little more for peace of mind on being tabled. Ideally I wouldn't take any troops as I don't think any of them can pull their weight for the points you spend.

I've avoided mechanization because I have a fully mechanized Ultramarine army with six land raiders, a laser vindicator, 3 plasma preds, Deredeo and a Spartan. So I was reluctant to buy a load of tanks for my Emperors Children. Plus when I have rolled with that force it tends to get smashed and then the contents bounce off whatever they assault.

Makes sense that you don't want to make the same army twice - i'd still consider it for the assault marines though!

If your other army is all tanks, then why not go with flyers and other flying transports for the EC? Dreadclaws would allow you to get right in their face without having to wait until late in the game, and RoW like the Maru Skara positively benefit the idea of overwhelming enemies with close-in reserves.

Or, of course, you could run it as a Orbital Assault list with a mixture of regular pods and dread claws and avoid tanks altogether (though it's a lot more Pods to buy).

Either way, I really don't think that your selection of units would work as footsloggers!

 Totalwar1402 wrote:

 Marshal Loss wrote:

Spoiler:

For starters, don't use Phoenix Terminators. They are horrifically overcosted and in no way worth it. You've also got to be careful in relation to unit upgrades - the Palatines are an excellent unit for example, but when you have all 10 with Phoenix Spears, you're losing a hell of a lot more points when they inevitably take casualties before they make it into combat, so I'd only run 50% of the unit with spears. Let the guys with sabres tank the shots, little things like that help a lot. Legion Champions are overcosted and useless, and Eidolon is superior to a Praetor so always use him.

Kakophoni are amazing. One of the people in my group runs EC, and he is an excellent player with some brutal lists. Only run them in 3rd Company - Relentless is a game changer - and always give them an Apothecary to alleviate 'gets hot'. Rhinos help but are optional. 2x10 or 3x10 of those, and you have your troops sorted, and they're able to outshoot any Legion's infantry. Augury Scanners on the apothecaries and you are able to deal with deep striking units short of Dreadnoughts. If I were you I'd stock up on Kakophoni and play 3rd Company Elite, but you can play EC effectively without them - just have to be smarter with your troops choices. A Deredeo and 3rd Company for example would have slaughtered that RG player.

The biggest weakness your list has is a complete lack of stellar assault transports (Dreadclaws, for example, are brilliant for jump pack-less Palatine Blades & Fulgrim) and no means of killing a Spartan equivalent. Consider Grav Rapiers (not fluffy, but extremely effective), Dreadnoughts with 2x grav guns (Contemptor Cortus are the best platform for this, and provide close-range support to your advancing units), Primaris Lightning strike fighters with Kraken Missiles (fragile but statistical best vehicle killers in the game, and pretty fluff and cool for EC), Laser Rapiers, Laser Vindicators, Javelin Speeders, Deredeo (I take one of these in every list as they're great against all flyers and any light-medium tanks) - you need to be able to kill an enemy Spartan or super heavy in a pinch. Add 2 of those options to any list, and you'll be fine in regards to AV. Make sure that your units are either in transports or are large enough (and preferably with apothecaries) to withstand pain/avoid breaking.

No plastic Deimos rhinos coming I'm afraid. Fulgrim is no one shot wonder - he's brilliant for his cost. Utterly lethal in cc, one of the best duelists and has enough attacks to butcher enemy units. Friend uses him in a Dreadclaw, either with Veterans kitted up to kill vehicles or Palatine Blades.

To summarise briefly in response to your points
1) Either use assault transports like Dreadclaws or ensure that you have enough rapid moving threats that your opponent cannot deal with them all at once
2) Ensure that they are getting to combat in one piece. Put valuable units in transports or ensure their survivability, pick your combats wisely
3) You need things that can kill tanks at range before you put together a viable list, transports too if you're going to run Tactical Squads, which I wouldn't do as EC. I'd run 3rd Company, but I'm a sucker for noise marines, ignore that if you're not a fan. As an Emperor's Children player, your only bonuses are essentially if you charge. So pick units that are going to get into a position to charge, like massed assault squads, and design a list that stops your opponent from killing them before they get into range.
4) AV units as stated above will help immensely

It's late, so my apologies for the rambling thoughts. EC are a strong Legion when played well, but as is appropriate for the lore, require a lot of planning to get the most out of their abilities. Plan in advance and make sure you have the tools to deal with dangerous lists (you should be able to go yep I can kill a super heavy, yep I can kill or at least minimise the impact of a Primarch, yep I can deal with deep striking lists...etc) and you'll be fine.

Would an apothecary be able to control the overheating? I mean its only going to keep one out of every three overheats up. I have lost half a squad to overheating more than once.

Yeah, I am sort of putting the EC on the backburner until we get the big Emperor Children release where I am expecting loads of chaosified mark 4 noise marines. Then I'll probably get 20 extra Kakophoni and run full third company.

Definitely leaning towards a Deredeo and Sicaran Venator.

It's worth it. Everything you can do to keep the squad firing is a worthy investment on those guys.