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SCENARIO:

You have started the core of a BA Army, what you currently have consists of;

Librarian, with JP
[2] Sanguinary Priets, with JP and PW

[2] 10 Man Assault Squads, with 2 Melta guns, Searg. with PW

This rounds out at 750 points.

RULES:

You can not change this core force, you can swap the melta guns for other special weapons (e.g plasma) because you magnetized, but that is all you can do.

You have to fill out the army to 1000 points without adding any more troop choices.

OPTIONS:

You can remove one Sanguinary Priest for an additional 90 points to spend.

YOUR TURN:

I am not interested in what is the cheesiest, most competitive thing you can shove into the list. I am interested to find out what YOU, if this was your army, would buy with your own money to make this into a 1000 point army. Post your replies with What you would purchase to fill out the points, and a small explanation as to why you chose it! - Interested in everyone's opinions not just BA players.

First question, why no more troops?

Add either a Predator tank (TLLC Hvy bolter sides) and support dread (missle launcher and a cheap ranged wep) or a Landraider. Vehicles tend to draw enemy fire, protecting your troops who can claim objectives if needed, they also add extra firepower to your small force.

Eldercaveman wrote:
First question, why no more troops?

I feel like the nearly 500 points already invested in troops is a fairly good core, and from my perspective if you took anymore troop choices in the final 300 points it would severely limit anything else you could take.

 mondo80 wrote:
Add either a Predator tank (TLLC Hvy bolter sides) and support dread (missle launcher and a cheap ranged wep) or a Landraider. Vehicles tend to draw enemy fire, protecting your troops who can claim objectives if needed, they also add extra firepower to your small force.

Never, ever take a Predator in that configuration. You want at least the chance that you can fire all the weapons usefully at once and that will never happen with that mix.

Use auto/las preds. Don't be a jello head. We don't get the cheap trilas preds, so that's out. For dakka, use dakka Baals.

Stormraven and 2 rhinos fo those troops. Do the troops have jp's? If not they get the rhinos for free.

If they have got jp's, drop a sang and get a dakka pred and raven.

Devastators with missile launchers. People don't expect a BA codex to bring a load of krak missiles to the party.

Stormraven with Hurricane Bolters. Flyers are in and an AV12 gunship is going to ruin most 1000pt list builds.

Lots of love for the Raven! I suppose for how much the model costs financially it is a great investment and is a good way to fill out some points in smaller games if you are short on cash

Stormraven gunship w/ MM + LC + Hurricane bolters and keep everything else the same

With the restriction on troops, Stormraven for sure.

I'll throw in another idea: Mephiston.

 mixer86 wrote:
Stormraven and 2 rhinos fo those troops. Do the troops have jp's? If not they get the rhinos for free.

If they have got jp's, drop a sang and get a dakka pred and raven.

Well for 15 points. Drop pods are free....darn fast vehicles

 mixer86 wrote:
Do the troops have jp's?

They do have the Jump packs, but as you and most others suggested it is probably best to drop one of the Priests for smaller games

 dario wrote:
Devastators with missile launchers. People don't expect a BA codex to bring a load of krak missiles to the party.

I second this motion. I run a similar config with ML Devs and they usually perform well. A couple of attack bikes with HB work for me too.

Stormravens are great but unless you know your opponent is going to bring fliers at 1000 points it's a bit of a d**kmove imho. Save the fliers for 1500+ pts.

D

 evildrcheese wrote:

 dario wrote:
Devastators with missile launchers. People don't expect a BA codex to bring a load of krak missiles to the party.

I second this motion. I run a similar config with ML Devs and they usually perform well. A couple of attack bikes with HB work for me too.

Stormravens are great but unless you know your opponent is going to bring fliers at 1000 points it's a bit of a d**kmove imho. Save the fliers for 1500+ pts.

D

Do you think a Baal could also fill the role of the bikers you take? So running Devs with ML and a Baal in the final 300 points?

Yeah Stormraven would be great needs multimelta and assault cannon always. Hurricanes are worth it at this point level particularly with a Solo raven.

Id upgrade a power weapon to a fist in each unit otherwise a walker gets into combat with your unit and you're all dead.

Given you've ruled out the 3rd assault squad option a Raven is by far the best choice.

Also I'd keep the 2nd priest otherwise your entire army is forced to bunch up and those 90 points don't really get you anything.

 FlingitNow wrote:

Given you've ruled out the 3rd assault squad option a Raven is by far the best choice.

Also I'd keep the 2nd priest otherwise your entire army is forced to bunch up and those 90 points don't really get you anything.

Would a 3rd assault squad be viable? I ruled it out because I thought If I took 30 Assault Marines I'd have 0 heavy weapons and although I'd have a few melta's i'd really be lacking in anti-armour or anything to fire into MCs, how would a 3rd Assault squad be kitted out? Exactly the same with a PF instead of PW or something new?

30 FnP assault marines are tough at 1k. You could take plasma guns but Id stick with melta. Take divination on the Libby and perhaps an infernus pistol on through squad the Libby joins for twinlinked melta death. 2 priests should be enough to cover all 3 squads.

CSM are your worst match ups with mace Princes and Helldrakes causing you real problems. Most other MCs go down to weight of attacks. A good trick can be take a fist on sergeant and Priest that way you can refuse challenges and still punch with a fist.

A 3rd assault squad would be the best idea. You can take your Melta Sgt's with Power Axes (or any PW) plus meltabombs to help with the tougher stuff...cheaper than a PF.

I like to kit up a squad with flamers and a Lightning Claw to gear it more to handling swarms of stuff.

I have been toying around with making plasma guns work on Assault Squads. Just combat squad with all the plasma in one unit. Option to deepstrike for rapid fire.

xspire wrote:

 evildrcheese wrote:

 dario wrote:
Devastators with missile launchers. People don't expect a BA codex to bring a load of krak missiles to the party.

I second this motion. I run a similar config with ML Devs and they usually perform well. A couple of attack bikes with HB work for me too.

Stormravens are great but unless you know your opponent is going to bring fliers at 1000 points it's a bit of a d**kmove imho. Save the fliers for 1500+ pts.

D

Do you think a Baal could also fill the role of the bikers you take? So running Devs with ML and a Baal in the final 300 points?

I'd say 2 attack bikes would be a better investment than a Baal. Tanks are a bit more fragile in 6th and the bikes get +1t and 2 wounds. They're also fast and can pump out a fair bit of dakka (2 hb and 2 tl bolters) . Also if you go with the devs and bikes you should have enough points left over for pw on the priests (maybe the sgts too) if you go flamer/melta on both squads. That gives them some real punch.

If you're gonna go down the route of getting another troop choice, Id either go cheap andd weak with a Scout squad with sniper rifles or spend some points and get a 10 man tac squad (as crap as the BA tac squads are)) as a static troop choice to hold your home objective. I don't know why but i find Assault marines very poor for holding objectives and there's no point going for a highly munouverable unit if it's just going to sit on the home objective.

I'd go Devs and bikes as they offer a bit of variety, can perform most of the time and filling a fast and heavvy slot means you might get extra troops in some missions.

D

Ditch a Sang Priest, add 2x5 Devastators with 4 missile launchers. 5 Scouts would be a great addition for backfield scoring, but if they're off the table then a pair of Heavy Bolter Attack Bikes would be nice.

8 missiles is a good chunk of firepower for a nice cost, letting you crack armor or thin hordes as needed. Attack Bikes are cheap, mobile and durable. They can help thin numbers or plink at light armor.

A summary of the options people would take so far;

Stormraven: 6 people
Devastators: 4 people
Extra Assault Squad: 2 people
Attack Bikes: 2 people
Baal Pred/s: 1 person

If i could find a way to fit both Devs and a Raven into the list it would be a great little force but it would mean cutting out more than 1 Priest, probably some Assault marines too. Not sure if it would be worth it in the long run.

Very interesting to see nobody has suggested a dreadnaught at all, from my experience it is mostly younger players who purchase dreadnoughts (for any army not just BA) because the concept is awesome, are they a possibilty in small lists? OR - relating back to my first post, if you had to buy yourself a dreadnought, are they not worth the money anymore? £28 Is quite a lot, I remember when they were £18.

One reason I am not interested in small troops to sit on my own objective is because, although they can camp the objective all game no problem, if it comes down to a situation where they need to protect it rather than just sit on it, they are basically free KP to the enemy.

The attack bikes with biker priest are best for this list I think. The MM punch will open up transports and heavy tanks alike and let the ASM do their thing. The biker priest can be upgraded from the one of the priests you already have. This will leave a few points left over. Consider an epistolary upgrade and some extra gear.

Frankly, I find FNP attack bikes a must take in every BA now. They instagib T4 and crack annoying AV values. You can even cast divination powers on them and shoot them at flyers! T5, jink, FNP is annoying for nearly every list as well.

In regard to Dreads I do still run them. Many people are raving about the 'Fragnought' in a droppod. I usually use my dread in games of 1500+ points, which is why I personally didn't suggest it, as there' more usual things you need at 1000 pts.

At 1500 points I usually include a Stormraven and a Dread, with the dred in the Stormraven, sure there's a 1 in 6 chance you'll immobilise yourself when you drop it, but the other 5 times out of six it'll either kick-ass or become a bullet magent (which means people aren't shooting your troops). They're still viable but they're more difficult to get the most out of in 6th...

D

Fragnoughts are the best dreads in the BA codex. Only because our riflemen are in the HEAVY slot.

Drop a priest, and the pw on the other priest

Add: Stormraven and a Baal pred with HB

Use the extra 10 points to bump on of the Sgts. up to a powerfist.

With 2 squads, 1 priest is enough. Run the priest, and the libby in the squad with the PW sgt. Use the Sgt to accept challenges you can't win so the libby and priest don't get smoked

[1]Librarian, with JP

[1] Sanguinary Priet, with JP and PW
[1] Sanguinary Priest (Chills with Devs)

[2] 10 Man Assault Squads, with 2 Melta guns, 1 searg. with PF, the other with PW and melta bombs.

[2] 5 man Dev. squads, with 4 ML

This would leave 10 points going spare. What type of army set up's would this list have trouble against? I know at 1000 points its tough to make an all comers list but I don't want to get pissed on by a particular army. Any thoughts on removing the 2nd SP and upgrading the Librarian instead?