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I've been jumping around armies and trying to figure out which I want to really get. All the others I've been interested in fail to impress, but are Elysians good? All the fliers and deep striking guardsmen seems pretty sweet. And although they lack armour, their little buggies seem like they'd be fun.

Anyone ever played or played against them/ know if they're actually a little competitive or even just fun?

Cheers

Lots of fun. I run normal guard (veterans) in valkyries and it's 2 tons of fun. Super competitive? Probably more so than other guard builds but they're nothing special compared to invisible bike blobs. Elysians proper are nastier as they have 130 point 10 man vendettas still and can drop in turn 1.

Hmm, that does sound great, and their figures are boss too

Valkyries aren't really worth their point cost as their armament isn't that effective unless you buy multi-rocket pods (which is only useful against horde armies, and wyverns do the job much better for less cost) There is no reason to deep strike from a Valkyrie if you have the deep strike special rule because if the unit mishaps it is automatically wiped out.
No one is going to be happy playing against a lot of fliers and will call you "that guy". They are expensive if you buy the forge-world models. The Taros (just by looking at its rules) isn't really effective at anything as it has very little armor, hp, and can only take a very limited amount of weapons. It will be destroyed before it can actually do anything. Heavy sentinels are much better than these guys.

The elysians are a cool army, but there are just so many problems with their price points, and overall rules within the current decurion meta. I run a pretty similar army and i have trouble not getting tabled before the end of the game. They need either more durability (lol no) or more firepower. They look like a very fun thematic army with the potential for a lot of personalization. If you like how the army plays and its aesthetic there isn't a problem here, but if you want it to be effective then you might have a problem. That being said I don't actually play with the Elysian codex so the crux of my experience, and arguments are probably invalid.

I am a very disgruntled guard player, so take what I say with a grain of salt and don't let it affect your judgement too much.

I'm also pretty sick of how guard play on the field. I played a game with my bro just today as Death Korps. He used a Demi-company list, all in drop pods.... Needless to say I got smashed pretty hard, very quickly. Even our tanks aren't the boggy men they used to be with all the toys all the other armies get now.

I've been looking around for an army that plays similarly but does it better. I thought tau, but tau are only good if you go Crisis teams, rather than having lots of infantry.

 Sledgehammer wrote:
Valkyries aren't really worth their point cost as their armament isn't that effective unless you buy multi-rocket pods (which is only useful against horde armies, and wyverns do the job much better for less cost) There is no reason to deep strike from a Valkyrie if you have the deep strike special rule because if the unit mishaps it is automatically wiped out.

What? Since when?

Since always?

I had tons (ish) of fun dropping out a 250pts squad of 10 Dkok Grenadiers (local club, people didn't mind that I added my Valkyrie to a Krieg list) to their mishaped death every other game.

You don't have to put your Elysians in the valks, just start most of em on the board and hold out for until the air support comes in and kills

If you are going to do it (and i say do it because they are an incredibly unique and fun list) grab at a Vulture with TL punisher as well, it's one of the best fliers out there and you will need firepower

Honestly the buggies aren't so bad, they die fast but hvy flamer ones are speedy and cheap and TL lascannon ones will kill tanks nicely and if they die you wont be to sad

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Sledgehammer wrote:
Valkyries aren't really worth their point cost as their armament isn't that effective unless you buy multi-rocket pods (which is only useful against horde armies, and wyverns do the job much better for less cost) There is no reason to deep strike from a Valkyrie if you have the deep strike special rule because if the unit mishaps it is automatically wiped out.

What? Since when?

I play with a guy that runs 4 valks and I can honeslty say they don't scare me at all. Granted, I play SM and GK so YMMV.

Tons of fun.

Few things.

Taking an Inquisitorial detachment with servo-skulls is something that helps immensely, as is an aegis with a comms array.

Valks are probably best off adding MRP's to, and nothing else. Keeping them cheap lets you get more, and that's kind of their optimised load out. Messes hordes, and can put enough wounds down to hurt 3+, if not immensely.

Tackling armour will be a problem, as all we have is lascannons. Vendettas are still good in the Elysian list.

Probably won't be using a lot of orders. Because we lack good heavy weapons, vets get a lot of use, and mobility means that orders (I find, my experience) don't really come up.

Using drop sentinels to up your combat drop is pretty good (we don't get much out of the Elites). But keep them stock, cheap.

Anyway, my experience, take with salt, just what I've found.

However, they're hugely fun.

Have played Elysian Drop Troops for several years and have found the following to be successful:

-Valkyries so not super effective against a wide range of targets they are pretty amazing in their own right when it comes to infantry. Equip them all with Rocket Pods and watch your opponent's face is you drop 6 - 10 pie plates on him a turn, accuracy by volume works pretty well sometimes.

-Veterans are the way to go with this army, give them 3 special weapons and have them ride in on some Valkyries. Allows you to be extremely mobile and deliver some meltagun or plasma payload where you need it.

-Fast Attack I always ran with 2 vendetta gunships and a vulture gunship with twin linked Punisher cannons. Vendettas limited capacity make great transports for command squads ( who will either have an officer of the fleet or long range ground scanner) and give you that anti-tank punch that you need. The vulture gunship, no need to explain its just unbelievably awesome and amazing!

-Tauros buggies though not very good are super awesome models and I love playing with them! Always equip the smaller ones with grenade launchers and the Venators with twin linked lascannons and Hunter Killer missiles.

-Drop Sentinels no very expensive pointwise are also a fun fluffy choice and thanks to their deep strike ability and access to multi meltas they make a pretty decent anti tank killer. Also they help towards your "Drop Pod Assault" rule that Elysians get with Valkyries, drop sentinels, sky talons and sentry guns.

I used to run a very nasty list at around 2000 points that consisted of 8 flyers total and several veteran squads, vendettas and the vulture gunship. All the infantry were mounted and this army was able to take on the most competitive builds in the game and come out on top. Also the models are beautiful, they are fun unique way to play Imperial Guard and if you wanted to play fluffy, you can easily decide to run them as an airborne army with lots of deep striking infantry and vehicles. If you have anymore questions just let me know!

Thanks Farseer Anath'lan and Gmaleron for the amazing advice. They do sound like bundles of fun and seem like a very fast passed army.

I like the idea of dropping in the Tauroses and Sentinels to take out vehicles while the troops deep strike onto objectives and harass everything else with flyers.

Just so you know the buggies do not deep strike only the Sentinels do. In order for the buggies to come in turn 1 they would have to be transported in by Sky Talon which unless you have a lot of money is really not worth taking, its cool looking but just not practical in the long scheme of things. Get some baggies and start them on the table, they dropped in earlier and are providing recon for the rest of your army where to drop