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Here is a three detachment Space Marine army that I am working on for tournaments:

Space Marine CAD

Ultramarines Chapter Tactics

Librarian, mastery level 2, force axe - 90

Tactical Squad, meltagun, combi-melta, drop pod - 125

Tactical Squad, meltagun, combi-melta, drop pod - 125

Tactical Squad, meltagun, combi-melta, drop pod - 125

Tactical Squad, meltagun, combi-melta, drop pod - 125

Drop Pod - 35

Drop Pod - 35

Centurion Devastator Squad, 3x grav-cannon and grav-amp - 240

Skyhammer Annihilation Force

Ultramarines Chapter Tactics

Assault Squad, melta bombs - 90

Assault Squad, melta bombs - 90

10 man Devastator Squad, 4x grav-cannon and grav-amp, drop pod - 315

10 man Devastator Squad, 4x grav-cannon and grav-amp, drop pod - 315

Officio Assassinorum

Culexus Assassin - 140


The librarian rides with the centurions in a drop pod, and the culexus also gets a drop pod.The army has a strong alpha strike potential, and the culexus is there to shutdown psychic powers. He also provides a -3 Leadership bubble within 12" so when people have to test for the skyhammer devs they are doing it on at best Ld7 on three dice. This army could easily destroy 2-3 units a turn and pin 2 more. I feel that it could be a really strong list, but I would like to know if there are any weak points. If you guys have any suggestions please let me know them. Thanks!

List looks really good.

If you've got the ability to, an omniscope on the Grav Cents to enable ignoring turn 1 night fight and split fire could really help increase the damage out put of the squad.

Also, saw this on a frontline gaming twitch game... Adding a long range weapon such as a lascannon or rocket to one of your skyhammer dev squads greatly increases your range of the pinning test.

Otherwise strong list.

I could drop the melta bombs on the two assault squads to find those points. Do you think that is worth it? They still have krak grenades so they can throw them at vehicles the turn they charge.

Also, I feel that although the lascannon has long range, and can reach out to put a pin check on them, that the grav-cannon and amp is the stronger choice. I like having the flexibility to either put all of the gravs in one combat squad, or to split them up two and two. Let me know what your thoughts are.

As I mentioned I think your list is very strong to begin with.

The two minor things that I was able to suggest were small and personal preference. I know that I've run into many situations where my gut says a 3 man prescience squad of dev cents is overkill for my target. The split fire allows me to take those extra overkill shots and direct them towards my next target.

At a second glance, did you intend on having an even number of pods?

Also you mentioned the -3 leadership. Remember that's just against pyskers.

If you're looking for a good combo to help reduce leadership and utilize pods. The new Sternguard formation could benefit you.

Yeah, I looked it up and saw that it was only for psykers. It would be much more gross if it worked on everything. So, no real changes to the list that you would suggest?

Really like the lascannon suggestion since it's still a powerful weapon but can reach and pin like discussed

Meltabombs on assault seem wasteful similar to the librarian since there's not much he can count on getting unless prescience is the goal I guess

Not exactly sure about replacements but something to ponder

I would drop 1 grav cannon from the skyhammer devs for the points to get another FA pod. This gives you 7 apart from the skyhammer meaning 4 units plus the skyhammer come in rather than 3 on turn 1.

It needs something besides Grav-gun devs to deal with WraithKnights or Daemon Princes or tough bugs. It'd be a lot of points out for a TH/SS termie crew, but still. I wrecked pretty much your exact list, SkyH, and loads of Tacitcal Droppers, with a WK. I did so for reasons below. Without the tau element, really.


To watch out for:
A.
Crisis Suits and Riptides with Interceptor, and Tau being sneaky little xenos, have special interceptor which allows all the model's guns to be shot, called Early Warning Override. So that's generating the S8 pie-plate (regular Gets Hot!) that more than one-third the time (scatter dice mechanics) will put AP2 wounds on the whole crew. Either jumpers, or more likley, the Grav-devs. And the Riptide (either) dual TW-Plasma Rifle or TL-Fusion (melta) to finish of the one model that escaped the Ion Canon shot.

I did just that to Astorath the Grim, and all ten buddies ... poof. Yeah, I know, Astorath and Death CO. are *not* Skyhammer, but they're Deep Striking Jumpers and the mechanic was the same. Another game had 10 full jumpers, and the pie-plate scattered slightly, leaving two alive. My Crisis Team pounded the other jumper crew, leaving few enough of them to do well. ... They failed morale and did come back to kill the Crisis Team, but I digress.

Helpful:
B.
Be sure to get Perfect Timing on the libby for the Grav-boyz. WraithKnight, Riptides and other high A models now know to deploy in ruins, and push for NightFight and possibly the Warlord Trait that grants Stealth in Ruins. This can yield a 2+ Cover Save. For a WraithKnight.

Mixing my points A and B, as the SkyHammer player, try to prevent Night Fight and use Perfect Timing to eliminate Ruins Cover Saves.

Remember to put your Grav-Devs behind the drop pod if facing an Intercepting Riptide or plasma Crisis Team. It is something worth considering half the Tau intercepting toys will be AP2 (the other half Broadside Missiles, AP4).

If your meta has a lot of tanks, then you know the melta bombs are good. I'd be tempted to have a power toy in the 5 jumper crews, but as the eldar/tau player, I'm recommending to you, no. They're a beauty of a tar-pitting unit, and SkyHammer does a better job (that is, more cost effective, IMHO) in tying up nasty, back-field guns, Dark Reapers, Artilery, enemy Devastators, etc. , than simply wiping them out.

And in the short time S.H. has been out, the 10 man squad has been a big gamble for my few opponents.

Only because I brought these:

Does grav not totally own WKs? I do agree that interceptor is a huge issue for you though. However the sheer amount of units you have mean that you'll still have a chance it'll just be a tough game.

Yeah, each dev sqd is going to wreck a WK no problem at all. In fact it would be overkill.

As far as the scenario Zavvy mentioned against Tau, it sounds like he may have been up against someone who hasn't really been on the receiving end of Tau Interceptor before.

The Wraithknights kryptonite is Grav, but as Zavvy mentioned a skilled player will utilize cover saves to help negate the Grav.

I really appreciate all of the discussion! As fort the WK in cover. He needs to have some solid cover in order to stay alive. One squad of devs put out enough grav to kill him through a 5+ then his feel no pain.

I am worried that taking the lascannon on the devs will lower there threat potential. I like the ability to combat squad them and still have two grav-cannons in each half. That being said I may test it out. Also, I did not intend on taking an even number of pods. Is there anything relevant that I can do to fix that? I dont care for the idea of taking a random pod. I want the extra one to do something.

I wouldn't say an extra empty pod is a waste.

Remember it's a scoring unit and for its point cost it's very hard to find a better alternative.

If your opponent is concerned with your skyhammer and you're going first and you've declared that your skyhammer is going turn 1. You may find a very empty battlefield.

Dropping the empty pod on turn 1 allows you to hold off on your firepower.

It could also be used to to block lanes, provide a tiny bubble of protection, etc.

Those are good points. I would need to find the points for the empty pod though. I could drop the librarian to level one and drop a combi-melta to take the extra pod. Or drop the librarian all together and take Telion. That would leave me with five extra points leftover.

You could downgrade the librarian to level 1 and remove the jump packs from an assault squad. That's 35 points.

Or get Telion like you say and pick up a flames for an assault squad with the extra 5 points

 kaiservonhugal wrote:
You could downgrade the librarian to level 1 and remove the jump packs from an assault squad. That's 35 points.

Or get Telion like you say and pick up a flames for an assault squad with the extra 5 points

You can't take the Jump Packs off Skyhammer Assault Squads.

As for the list, I'd suggest trying to find five points for an Auspex on the Librarian. Reducing a 4+ cover to a 5+ can mean the difference between a dead Wraithknight and one that is about to step on your Gravistators.

Space Marine CAD

Ultramarines Chapter Tactics

Librarian, force axe, auspex, melta bombs - 75

Tactical Squad, meltagun, combi-melta, drop pod - 125

Tactical Squad, meltagun, combi-melta, drop pod - 125

Tactical Squad, meltagun, drop pod - 115

Tactical Squad, meltagun, drop pod - 115

Drop Pod - 35

Drop Pod - 35

Drop Pod - 35

Centurion Devastator Squad, 3x grav-cannon and grav-amp, omniscope - 250

Skyhammer Annihilation Force

Ultramarines Chapter Tactics

Assault Squad - 85

Assault Squad - 85

10 man Devastator Squad, 4x grav-cannon and grav-amp, drop pod - 315

10 man Devastator Squad, 4x grav-cannon and grav-amp, drop pod - 315

Officio Assassinorum

Culexus Assassin - 140

What do you guys think? Its 1850 on the dot. I think that it incorporates most of the things that we discussed. Let me know your thoughts.

That's solid advice crazy terran. I'd didn't knownthat about the sky hammer.

For versatilty's sake, dropping another combo-melta allows for two melta bombs or two framers in the assault squads.

Why not drop one of the meltagun only tactical with pod, drop the measly lvl 1 Libby and get tiggy to go with the grav cents and really buff them and with the extra 20 points you can get the meltabombs and / or flamers for the assault squads?
Tiggy can roll for invis and gate if youre lucky and now you have a deathstar on top of skyhammer

So is Tiggi worth losing an objective secured unit?

If you drop the unit, the empty pod, and the Libby you have 50 points after Tiggi. What do you think that I should do with that?