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Looking at this thread --> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/616952.page
got me thinking. Can you actually buy a decent army without resorting to direct only these days?

My local meta seems to be about 1500pts, so what can you come up with as part of a Take All Comers list that you can walk into a GW/FLGS and carry home the same day (assuming they are suitably stocked) - no direct only, 3rd part, FW etc. List must be legal from a non-direct only book (so most of the expansions are out too).

Most armies are going to struggle, since their HQ characters are direct only...

Are conversions allowed? If so, Eldar are probably a good bet (DA, Wave Serpents, Warp Spiders (carried in my local GW, not sure about any FLGS having them) and a Farseer on Jetbike - boring but competitive).

Daemons can do this no problem

Heralds, any troop, screamers, soul grinders. Amazing list

 CrownAxe wrote:
Daemons can do this no problem

Heralds, any troop, screamers, soul grinders. Amazing list

Any troop, including bloodletters?

 Ashiraya wrote:

 CrownAxe wrote:
Daemons can do this no problem

Heralds, any troop, screamers, soul grinders. Amazing list

Any troop, including bloodletters?

Never bloodletters, they are garbage

But none of the daemon troops are Direct Only so any of them can be taken

As a former SW player and now a NEcron player.... I dont use character models any more.

#1 the pricing is insane.
#2 look at your basic necron lord.... now look at any other necron..... can you really tell any difference lmao...
#3 conversions are easy + if you paint them a little "special" there is no mistaking them.
#4 to Hell with finecast!

I'm pretty sure you can buy Leman Russes, Wyverns and Vendettas, so IG should be doable.

Tank Commander
Tanks
Wyverns
Mech Vets in Vendettas

CSM can do this OK - lots of Spawn, Maulerfiends, then convert some lords from a Biker box and GS.

I'm not entirely certain that there are Chaos Lords or Sorcerers on bikes anyway so conversion would be required with direct only anyway.

Space Marines are easy. The lack of full HQs and the TFC is mildly limiting, but not even close to restrictive. If someone wanted to walk out of the store with a 1,500 point TAC army I’d probably hand them a strikeforce, devestator box, and a stormtalon. But there are a lot of different ways to go.

You could probably make a decent Eldar ghost warrior army out of normal off the shelf kits. They do have a large chunk of stuff that’s direct though.

 insaniak wrote:
Most armies are going to struggle, since their HQ characters are direct only...

Not Logan Grimnar! Pretty sure Bjorn is also an HQ choice?

Really though, if you're okaying conversions Space Wolves are super easy. Wolf Lord / WGBL on a Thunder wolf. Grey Hunters w/ Drop Pods. Blood Claws in a Stormwolf. Thunderwolf Cavalry. Solid list shouldn't be hard to make from those options.

Yeah, this isn't hard. Eldar, Space Marines and Tyranids, especially Tyranids, can easily play without named characters or anything uncommon in them. I guess I never was a fan of unique characters but the only one I actually use is Illic Nightspear to make a sniper Eldar list, and I just converted an appropriate Ranger model because it looked right and I had the spare.

Armored Battlegroup:
Detachment 1:
Leman Russ Vanquisher Command Tank with hull lascannon, and beast hunter shells, 195
Leman Russ Command Tank with Infernus Shells, 170

Leman Russ Tank 150
Leman Russ Tank 150

Detachment 2:
Leman Russ Vanquisher Command Tank with hull lascannon, and beast hunter shells, 195
Leman Russ Command Tank with Infernus Shells, 170

Leman Russ Tank 150
Leman Russ Tank 150
Leman Russ Demolisher 165

1495

 insaniak wrote:
Most armies are going to struggle, since their HQ characters are direct only...

the plastic HQ's are not direct only...
it seems like the idea is to have almost all plastics available in stores, and Finecast direct only, which is a good idea...
if one sees a Finecast clampack, with all of it's flash and broken bits, versus a very clean looking plastic HQ sprue, they are going to be a lot less likely to buy the Finecast mini...
seeing it only as a finished product on the website makes the mini look much more attractive to buy...

i don't have a problem with them slowly phasing Finecast out of the stores...
i refuse to buy the stuff, and i know a lot of other people feel the same...
it is not only a waste of space and resources to ship it to the stores, but it is also bad for advertising GW's quality of product compared to plastics...

since metals are being phased out, i look forward to the day when everything is plastic...
as soon as they make a plastic Thunderfire Cannon kit, an entire Marine army bought in store will be sweet...

cheers
jah

Librarian lvl 2 x 2 250

Saguinary Guard w/ PF x 2 420

Razorback x 3 twin linked lascannons
5 man assault squad x 1 w/ melta bomb, melta gun
5 man assault squad x 2 w/ melta bomb, melta gun & combat shield 520

Baal Predator w/ HB sponsons and Stormbolter x 2 310

1500 dead on

Easy

I play Sisters.

Sooooooooo yeah.

Quanar wrote:Are conversions allowed?

Yeah, if we can use greenstuff or even just kitbashing, then the answer is easily "any of them". The ork battleforce is great, for example, and it's rather trivial to make a warboss out of one of the boyz, or get a boz of nobs and make a warboss that way.

If no creativity or player input is allowed whatsoever, then I'd agree that guard would probably be the easiest thanks to tank commanders, and russes have all the options for stuff. It would be pretty hard to get enough lascannons/meltaguns or their equivalents in most armies straight out of the box.

Unit1126PLL wrote:Armored Battlegroup:

1495

Book's Forge World, so it fails at the gate.

Necrons can do it easily enough. CCB isn't direct only.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

Unit1126PLL wrote:Armored Battlegroup:

1495

Book's Forge World, so it fails at the gate.

Necrons can do it easily enough. CCB isn't direct only.

My store sells the FW books.

You can buy a Tyranid Swarm Box and two Flyrants. That should be a good TAC 1500 pt list with some upgrades and some units not being used. Would be better with Venomthropes and/or Zoanthropes but Idk if those are direct buy or not.

sm, I have a list which I haven't ordered anything for at my lgs. at most a little kitbashing.

Codex: Space Marines and Space Wolves are child's play at this. C:SM has plastic Captains/Chapter Masters and plastic Librarians. Logan and Bjorn are both plastic and generally available. A C:SM Captain model can be used for a Wolf Lord with zero modification too, and can become even wolfier using stock bits from the WG/GH/BF box. Dark Angels are pretty much a go as well. Heck, you can build a ...viable... DA force straight out of Dark Vengence. The fact that most of the Deathwing and Ravenwing stuff is plastic as well (save Belial and Sammael), no problems there other than some FOC issues. Blood Angels are easy as heck too. Easier than SW and DA by a long shot.

In short, yes, basically all of the loyalist Space Marines can be done very easily with general release stuff without any modification whatsoever. In fact, going off of most of the threads in Army Lists, for the most part, C:SM armies don't use a whole lot of special order stuff at all.