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.
Hello everyone! After being away from 40k since 5th Edition, I finally broke and decided to get back into the hobby. I bought a few things and want to start small and eventually evolve into the larger point games. I’m running this list because I want something that will be fun and flavorful without getting me stomped out. This isn’t 500 points exactly, more like 441. Any advice would be appreciated.
Elites
-Command Squad [2 PL, 43pts]
Veteran w/ Medi-pack
Selections: Lasgun, Medi-pack
Veteran w/ Regimental Standard
Selections: Lasgun, Regimental Standard
Veteran Weapon Team
Selections: Mortar
Heavy Support
-Heavy Weapons Squad [3 PL, 45pts]
Heavy Weapon Team
Selections: Mortar
Heavy Weapon Team
Selections: Mortar
Heavy Weapon Team
Selections: Mortar
-Leman Russ Battle Tanks [10 PL, 159pts]
Leman Russ Battle Tank
Selections: Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Stubber, Plasma Cannons
What's the purpose of the command squad? Equipping them with both a mortar and a regimental standard is contradictory.
I would upgrade the LR to a tank commander since you have the points, that way it gets +1 BS and can give itself an order. You could also get a tank ace trait for it since you have the CP.
Speaking of warlord traits? What one do you want on your company commander? I would be partial to old grudges in these small point games, but the discipline one might be good if you drop the standard.
6 months ago, mortars were a guard staple, but not so much now with their recent point hike. I would look into autocannons to deal with multiwound models like primaris and custodes.
What models do you have now and what else are you planning to get?
Also, what about your relic? Most people take the CP regen one, but the infiltration dagger might be good to help out your scions.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/02/26 23:02:57
So it looks like you own 1 starter cadian box, 1 scion box, and 2 cadian 10 man troop and 1 cadian heavy weapon squad box.
This gives you 5 scions with (1 melta, 1 plasma, 1 grenade, 1 flamer, 1 hotshotvolleygun) and 39 cadians with 3 grenade and 3 flamer and 4 heavy weapon squad (4 of each weapon), as well as a leman russ with the options of battlecannon, gatling cannon, and that really long range gun nobody would ever even consider using. Also 1 commisar (might as well be a lord commisar) with a bolt or plasma pistol and a powersword.
If I am wrong and you haven't bought all this yet, I have a recommendation. 2 starter boxes, ... 1 scion tempestus, 1 imperial gaurd.
This gives you a 500 point army already, a battalion.
Spoiler:
1 lord commisar with powerfist and bolt pistoll .. steal the powerfist from the scions so your 4++ invuln, hits on a 2+ lord commisar can become a micro melee powerhouse.
1 psyker primaris. Ok, really not a psyker primaris, the other commisar model. Instead of giving him his normal weapon, use the command rod from the scion kit. Give him instead of a commisar head the head from one of the unused scions (they have an extra head each, either a spaceman helmety one or a guy in a beret hat. You are basically just cheating to save money here, a bit, but it gives your little army a psyk spell and deny each round. A good one for you will be probably smiting something, or a defense spell placed on the tank (aegis of the emperor) which then uses terrain carefully to squeak out an extra save point. That makes your little leman russ tank save on a 1+ (ok, really, a 2+ that ignores the first point of ap.) and its surprisingly hard to kill. Another strong option is malstrom (which you can pair wiht the bolt pistol relic on the lord commisar to give your army a limited anti-character sniping power.)
1 leman russ tank commander, with battle cannon, 2 plasma cannon, laser cannon, and stormbolter, and 1 shot hunter killer missle. Yep. All the toys! So far, this is a whopping 292 points!
1 transport that you can cleverly set up so you can reconfigure it as a taurox base (2 autocannon) or a taurox prime (2 autocannon and a turret weapon or missle launcher weapon) .. both can carry and use a storm bolter as well. In this case, you probably want it to be a base taurox, so you can load your gaurd unit safely into it on turn 1.
1 10 man gaurd troop choice armed with a grenade launcher, a mortar team,
our exposed infantry with something like 160 bolter shots on the first round.
1 5 man scion squad armed with 2 hotshotvolleyguns
1 5 man scion squad armed with the base weapons (hotshotlasgun x4, 1 hotshotlaspistol)
That's 500 points exactly. But this tiny army lets you play around with literally everything the gaurd can do. Transports, deepstrike, indirect fire, direct fire, it has a decent melee character (something 500 points of gaurd often entirely lacks). Give the lord commisar warlord status, with the trait "voice of ocmmand" (he can order either scion or gaurd) and give him his bolt pistol as a free relic sniper pistol. So you can snipe a bit, too. Give the psyker primaris the deathmask of oleanus (this merely makes him harder to kill by snipers, but if he ends up needing to hit things with his staff in melee, he has an invuln shield too, which will surprise the hell out of your opponents.) Start the gaurd unit in the transport, the leman russ on the board in the corner, and the two scion squads in deepstrike.
I know its not exactly the army you were considering, but it picks up extra capabilities in the form of a decent melee character, a decent psyker character. That "psyker primaris" is also something you can later say "oh, he is my astropath, not a psyker primaris" in other games. That lord commisar can also be run as a slightly cheaper elite slot commisar.
Expansion for this littlel army is also fairly easy. You already have an extra 50ish points just by saying "that's a taurox prime, not a taurox!" and slapping a turret weapon on it. That allows you to split the army into two groups, one of them scion (a patrol with lord commisar, 2 5 man squads, and a taurox with 20 shot gatling cannon, for example) and use the tempestes regimental doctrines. Perhaps ap-1 on that taurox, giving a lackluster gatling cannon some penetration? Perhaps the doctrine where scions getting out of their taurox prime gain +1 to hit?
Its not hard to add in 2 gaurd squads (the gaurd is back up to a battalion) and a second scion starter box (giving you a tempestor prime (with powerfist) for the scions, and a third 5 man squad, AND a command squad. A second taurox prime is optional, and would put you around 748 or around 870 if present or not. 748 would work in an expansion game pretty well, and 870 is one company commander and 2 gaurd squads (each with a heavy weapon from that original starter box, one an autocannon, one a missle launcher) shy of bringing the gaurd side back up to a second battalion, at 999 points. All you need really do is buy a trio of 40 mm bases to be able to field 4 of your gaurdsmen as 2 extra heavy weapon squads.
Spoiler:
company commander (warlord with trait, free relic aquila to generate extra cp)
tank commander (tank ace) .. I would probably make him harder to kill with master of mechanics. -1 cp psyker primaris
gaurd squad 10 man with missle launcher
gaurd squad 10 man with autocannon
gaurd squad 10 man with grenade launcher and mortar
tempest prime with powerfist and deathmask of oleanus (warlord trait -1 cp, extra relic -1 cp. an excellent warlord trait for him is old grudges)
lord commisar with powerfist and bolt pistol
5 man scion squad with 2 meltagun, 1 plasma pistol
5 man scion squad with 2 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol
5 man scion squad with 2 hotshotvolleygun
4 man scion command squad with 4 plasma gun
1 taurox prime with gatling cannon and 2 hotshotvolleygun and stormbolter (some tiny magnets and a bit of creativity can let you swap autocannon for hsvg on these, going from taurox primes to tauroxes as you desire)
1 taurox prime with gatling launcher and 2 hotshotvolleygun and stormbolter.
If I haven't screwed up the maths entirely, this leaves you around 998? You probably want to doublecheck the maths and change a few weapons on the tanks to get to 1000, Its not half bad for a "3 starter boxes and a bad attitude" list (well, ok, and 2 gaurd squad boxes).
Anyway, that is my suggestion .. a nice little list that grows into letting you try a bit of everything. The scions side benefits greatly from buying thigns that let you run special weapons "evenly" in squads -- ie, 2 hotshotvolleyguns for a squad that fires from longer range, or 2 meltas and a plasma for a squad that drops in very close and fires at a tank. With only 5 scion sprue, you get only an odd number of the specials, which means your scions end up with a squad that has 1 special weapon only, or a mix of two with differeing purposes and ranges. That's why I htink the starter box is a good one -- its not much more than 2 squads of 5 scions, but you get commisars and taurox light armor as well.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2020/02/28 08:48:21
Only in Death does Duty end 
3rd Company 
Bravo Two Seven "Ironhides" 