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Hey all

As I already have a Leman Russ and Commissar Yarrick (the old 1992 model) I'm kind of toying with the idea of buying a Steel Legion army, to the value of 1000 pts for 9th edition.


This is what I've come up with so far -

HQ - Yarrick

Troops - 2x Steel Legion Infantry Squad - 10 men in each squad, 2 as a heavy weapons team (undecided on the actual weapon, lets say Lascannon to start with), and 1 with a plasma gun.

Dedicated Transport - 2x Chimera. Heavy bolter replacing Multilaser.

Fast Attack - 3x Armoured Sentinel - plasma cannon on each.

Heavy Support - Leman Russ Battle Tank - Lasconnon in hull, Heavy Bolters on sponsons.


This would fit into a Patrol detachment.


Would appreciate thoughts on how "competitive" or "useful" that would be?

Thanks in advance.

Seems pretty good. The only objection I have is the Lascannons in the Infantry Squads. Because you'll be moving around with the infantry, those Lascannons will be hitting on 5+, which is a lot of points to spend on a very unreliable weapon.

In general, and especially with Steel legion, you want to run heavy weapons in static units.

Stop and consider how much you need a commander (company I suggest, or platoon if you want to cheap out) to give orders to your troops. At 18 inch range a single 10 man squad puts out 18 shots without an order, but 36 with it. You don't even need to put plasma in the troops -- just make sure they are always firing like mad, and have an astropath aroudn to strip cover for them.

So like
yarrik
company commander
tank commander leman russ
10 gaurd
astropath
10 gaurd
platoon commander
10 gaurd
chimera
chimera
chimera
squad of 3 armored sentinals with plasma cannon.
Point is, your troops won't be stuck without orders, and you can maximize that range 18 duoblefire twice as good.
I think the points work out with 20 leftover for a few bits of added wargear.

You'd be better off bringing a melee squad with Yarrick.
A whole gamut of things run well with him. Bullgryns, Crusaders etc.

Though current melee meta with Yarrick is running him with a Ministorum Priest and Bullgryns.

counterwavecounter wrote:Seems pretty good. The only objection I have is the Lascannons in the Infantry Squads. Because you'll be moving around with the infantry, those Lascannons will be hitting on 5+, which is a lot of points to spend on a very unreliable weapon.

In general, and especially with Steel legion, you want to run heavy weapons in static units.

At the most basic the plan would be to stick the infantry squad in their Chimera during deployment, then move them forward to an objective and disembark them.

So that wouldn't matter what heavy weapon they have?

I've also read that having Heavy Weapon Squads is a bad idea as they're easily picked off. So wasn't really sure what to do, should I just ditch the heavy weapon team altogether?

Dukeofstuff wrote:Stop and consider how much you need a commander (company I suggest, or platoon if you want to cheap out) to give orders to your troops. At 18 inch range a single 10 man squad puts out 18 shots without an order, but 36 with it. You don't even need to put plasma in the troops -- just make sure they are always firing like mad, and have an astropath aroudn to strip cover for them.

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that, hadn't properly read the AM codex. Just quickly made up the list in Battlescribe.

Oborosen wrote:You'd be better off bringing a melee squad with Yarrick.
A whole gamut of things run well with him. Bullgryns, Crusaders etc.

Though current melee meta with Yarrick is running him with a Ministorum Priest and Bullgryns.

Yeah, I was a bit lost as to what to do with Yarrick. To be honest I don't get what to do with single character foot troop models on their own anyway - always seems better to have them go with a squad of some sort.


Thanks guys, I'll have a bit of a rethink.

Yarrik is one of the more expensive character, easily outstripping other Commissars variants in points. Though he's also very much worth it, despite the fact that you'll be using only 1 or 2 of his weapons.

His main job is as a force multiplier and he does that job exceedingly well.

Duke's advice is solid, but I'll throw in my own thoughts as well.

So I wasn't bringing Yarrick in my early Armageddon lists because he was very expensive. Mind you if you take plasma sentinels I'd keep him because they are going to need the re-roll 1s.

When I was running steel legion at 1000, I was running it more like:
Company Commander
Tank Commander with Punisher turret, hull flamer, plasma sponsons, heavy stubber, Tank Ace: Steel Commander (gives 2 orders so you can give re-roll ones to self and plasma tank)
4 10man squads with plasma
Astropath
Platoon commander
I didn't run a sentinel but you could fit it in
Leman Russ Executioner, Plasma sponsons
Two Chimeras with hull flamers

I think that would get you around 995 these days. I would often throw heavy stubbers on chimeras for just a little extra dakka.
As an alternate to the sentinel I tended to bring a tech priest to keep the tanks up. If you swap him for the sentinel, these day's id take the left over points and put vox casters on the squads so I can keep the officers out of the line of fire and try to deny assasinate. This would let you screen tanks with two squads, and still give orders at range reasonably well with the officers. I put the flamers on the chimeras because I tended to run them up into people's faces. These days having the flamer on the tank also helps when you have to spend a strategem on overwatch, and gives them a little something else to do in melee if they get into it.

I really miss our infantry being cheaper... I'd feel much better taking 6 squads, but it is what it is these days.

Rob Lee wrote:
At the most basic the plan would be to stick the infantry squad in their Chimera during deployment, then move them forward to an objective and disembark them.

So that wouldn't matter what heavy weapon they have?

I've also read that having Heavy Weapon Squads is a bad idea as they're easily picked off. So wasn't really sure what to do, should I just ditch the heavy weapon team altogether?

All heavy weapons are -1 to hit when you move or disembark the Infantry Squad, so none of them are great for a mounted unit. From a game play perspective, you shouldn't bank on your infantry being able to stand still after they disembark. You may need to move based on the ebb and flow of the game. It's also likely that once you disembark, say turn two or three, you're mid-table, which means you're chances of getting charged are pretty high. If your infantry squad gets charged, it shuts down all of the shooting from the unit making the heavy weapon a bit of a points sink. In general, it's good practice to avoid putting heavy weapons in mounted units. There are better ways to spend the points.

Regarding Heavy Weapon teams, true, they can be targeted, but if you deploy them in a good position that benefits from cover, they can contribute some decent firepower and be a real nuisance for your opponent to get rid of. A popular Heavy Weapon team load-out is 3x Mortars because they can park out of line of sight and fire away all game while being un-targetable by your opponent.

Rob Lee wrote:
Yeah, I was a bit lost as to what to do with Yarrick. To be honest I don't get what to do with single character foot troop models on their own anyway - always seems better to have them go with a squad of some sort.

In your list, I would probably keep Yarrick close to the Sentinels and/or the Leman Russ to give reroll 1s to hit. However, the advice of other posters is strong and Yarrick is very expensive for a 1,000 point game. You would be better off with a Company Commander. If you want to run Yarrick though, then run him.