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Brigade, (all Catachans)
kommands
Straken Iron hand
Company commander with powerfist
lord commisar with boltpistol and powerfist
elites
ministerium priest
platoon commander with powerfist
platoon commander with powerfist
ogrynbodygaurd with bruteshield and bullygrun plate and bullygrun maul
ogrynbodygaurd with bruteshield and bullygrun plate and bullygrun maul
sgt harkness
command squad with 4 flamers
troops
regular gaurd squad 10 man with 1 flamer and 1 power axe on the sgt.
regular gaurd squad 10 man with 1 flamer and 1 power axe on the sgt.
regular gaurd squad 10 man with 1 flamer and 1 power axe on the sgt.
regular gaurd squad 10 man with 1 flamer and 1 power axe on the sgt.
regular gaurd squad 10 man with 1 flamer and 1 power axe on the sgt.
regular gaurd squad 10 man with 1 flamer and 1 power axe on the sgt.
fast attacks
scout sentinal with heavy flamer
scout sentinal with heavy flamer
scout sentinal with heavy flamer
heavy support
basilisk
manticore
manticore

Undetachment item
inquisitor malleus with combimelta and chainsword, -1 cp for extra psi power and -1 to wound relic.

vangaurd detachment with -3 cp, in ninth. l (scions, lambda lions doctrine)
tempest prime (-1 cp for extra warlord trait. relic of lambda lions) (he grants a 5++ shield and a reroll 1 to lambdas). Wargear plasma pistol
psyker primaris
troops
5 man scions squad with 2 plasma and 1 plasma pistol
elites
3 astropaths
scion command squad with 4 plasma rifles
valkryie with 2 mrp and 2 hb and 1 lascannon (-1 countermeasures)

So I would start with 6 command points.

The plan with this is of course to whip the valkyrie around the board with psykers and comma nd squad in it, allowing (potentially) a nice local threat to the enemy somewhere they least expect it.

smite, smite, malstrom, castigate, psychic pursuit (blam with meltagun sniper) and if I spend for an extra relic, the commisar gets to snipe 3 times with his 4/-1/2 pistol range 12, as well.
That would be staritng with 6 points, though, kind of low.

Anyway.

Its a classic gaurd blob with some artillery and a flyer. I really don't know how 9th is gonna fit together, but figure a board with lots of stuff on it to block line of sight, catachans may have a smidge of an edge digging the enemy out of cover with boot and sword, flamer, and basilisk fire.

I like the synergy of the Catachan + flamer combo. You know how you are going to use these guard squads, and theyre equipped well for that purpose. Throw bodies around and make them deal with you.

Sentinels are great in a brigade, too. they didnt go up in points, and flamers got better, so i like that (not like we have much to choose from in fast attack slot, so being able to fill up the brigade with something that 'got better' in 9th is nice).

Indirect fire is going to be nice with the new terrain rules. Got plenty of that. and the agressive infantry play up front will relieve a bit of pressure from these 'fragile' heavies, for a while.

wondering how you see a 'counter-punch' playing out? what happens when they deep strike / fly / outflank to your rear where your arty battery is? Ogryns? commanders? just curious how you prefer to deal with opponents that get into your backfield, in general.

An inquisitor that can bothsmite and castigate plus malstrom and astropath and smite from primaris... Plus the close dropof the scions from the valky which adds i alltheirplasma at plus oneto hitand shortrange is my initial counter... The valky fkues off from the drop topick up meleeunits for more serious incursions the next round .. Probably a herobammer group of ogryn gaurds and similar.

It aint perfect but its what i got.

Ahhh yes, the Inquisitor. makes sense.

I like scions for offense like you said originally, tho. Of all the various characters you have (commanders, commissar, priest, named heroes) seems like most of them should join your advancing infantry to buff them, but maybe a couple would be good candidates for rear-guard. I think the Ogryns, Inquisitor, and platoon commanders are best suited to stay behind, or even in the case of the Ogryns start in reserve. everything else should go forward and support the infantry. imho

either way, the chimera chasis artillery youre bringing gives you some big gun firepower, that cant be hidden from, so early turns you get to use them a few times before they blow up, and they werent that expensive since they arent the most durable. so they will probably pay back their points cost in destroyed enemy models, and it isnt necessarily the end of the world if you lose them, which is huuuge in my book. being able to play iGuard requires not feeling bad about losing units (for me anyway) and the basilisk and manticore fit that perfectly.

Yeah. I have run into a problem here, while I usually run an army with 2 or 3 valkyries (and a lot more psykers) here I have only 1, so necessarily not every psyker can ride the valkyrie at once. But this has taught me to use the offense / defense flexibility of the psykers as countercharge AND offense, with a tweak of tailwind, a hovering valkyrie can move 20 inches forward .. or back .. and drop them out to smite another 18 inches in range. In other words, it covers the board in potential, and also forces my opponent to screen against smites from unexpected directions lest his command units suddenly perish. At least, in eighth it did!

So the problem, the fix (thank you for the question or I might not have thougth about it that hard) ... to get 12 bodies in the valkyrie and be able to drop them on my foe.
I may need to trim the 5 man scions squad and one astropath from the big list, giving me 95 points.
Then add back 50 (a second psyker primaris) and 3 wyrdvanes (24) and a single ordinary commisar with a bolt pistol (cause, why not, I got 20 points to blow.)

I note that he could be issued the relic of the emporores benediction to pair with the short ranged snipery psychic pursuit melta, or to run along with the combat blob firing from character cover (and protected by ogryn). At 20 points, he owuld make his points back with 1 solid shot on a primaris.

Anyway.

it leaves the valk with
inquisitor, psy prime 1, psy prime 2, wyrdvanes 1,2,3, 4 scions with 4 plasma (up to 11) and the low commisar with the relic boltpistol. The warlord trait on the drop commander field tempestus can work even when he deepstrikes in, so he can deepstrike in behind the troops a bit and still grant them a +1 to shooty (thus, avoiding potential fire by anti-deepstrikers like auspex scan).

Viola! That should cause a potential enemy to suck up 11 actual plasma hits, 12 if the tempest shoots as well and htis, on offense, but on countecharge, even into melee, the blob of psykers can deal
smite (3+ on d6), smite (6) smite (7) smite (6) malstrom (5) psychic pursuit or castigate (probably castigate).
with warp charges that low, its likely at least 3 smites land, meaning our putative hard charging teleport enabled blood orange captain just sucked 3 to 9 mortal wounds in the face in exchange for killing an innocent basilisk, even before malstrom and castigate pop that up to 5 to 15 mortal wounds.

Now my countercharge has become the stuff of dead custodes bikes, demon princes, and marine officers, even if they managed to somehow bracket a tank in melee eighth edition style so that they can't be shot in the face by the plasma.

Much improved, I think! And I gave up 5 plasma shots for it, but lordy be, mortal wounds!

It means I spend a lot of pregame cp, of course, but then I have units that are basically all game long buffed. After the first drop, its axiomatic the wyrdvanes and those hot plasma 4 scions get shot, so there is enough room in the valkyrie to load everyone up next turn, thus enabling extraction of the occasional survivor psyker or officer.