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Hello, all! After many years building up my Black Templar crusade, I've decided to bring them some help from humanity's finest: The Tempestus Scions! Let me know your thoughts on my list.

++ Militarum Tempestus: Combined Arms Detachment (1848pts)

HQ (120pts)

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (120pts)
[Tempestus Scion, 2x Tempestus Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun, Tempestus Scion w/ Platoon Standard]
····Tempestor Prime [Close Combat Weapon, Hot-shot Laspistol]

Troops (658pts)

Militarum Tempestus Scions (221pts)
[6x Tempestus Scion, Tempestus Scion w/ Plasma Gun]
····Taurox Prime [Taurox Missile Launcher, Twin-linked Autocannon]
····Tempestor [Close Combat Weapon, Hot-shot Laspistol]

Militarum Tempestus Scions (221pts)
[6x Tempestus Scion, Tempestus Scion w/ Plasma Gun]
····Taurox Prime [Taurox Missile Launcher, Twin-linked Autocannon]
····Tempestor [Close Combat Weapon, Hot-shot Laspistol]

Militarum Tempestus Scions (126pts)
[5x Tempestus Scion, 2x Tempestus Scion w/ Meltagun]
····Tempestor [Close Combat Weapon, Hot-shot Laspistol]

Militarum Tempestus Formation (Start Collecting Box)

Commissar (25pts)

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (250pts)
[Tempestus Scion w/ Flamer, 3x Tempestus Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun]
····Tempestor Prime [Close Combat Weapon, Hot-shot Laspistol]
····Taurox Prime [Taurox Missile Launcher, Twin-linked Autocannon]

Militarum Tempestus Scions (90pts)
[2x Tempestus Scion, 2x Tempestus Scion w/ Meltagun]
····Tempestor [Close Combat Weapon, Hot-shot Laspistol]

Astra Militarum: Codex (Formation Detachment) (405pts)

Emperor's Spear Aerial Company (405pts)
····Valkyrie Squadron
········Valkyrie [2x Multiple Rocket Pods, Multi-laser]
····Valkyrie Squadron
········Valkyrie [2x Multiple Rocket Pods, Multi-laser]
····Valkyrie Squadron
········Valkyrie [2x Hellstrike Missiles, Lascannon]

Lord of War (425pts)

Knight Crusader (425pts) [Heavy Stubber, Thermal Cannon]

Based on my Tempestus research, these guys are glass cannons. With that in mind, I felt a knight would be a natural ally, as he'll pull a lot of early fire turn one. While the crusader does what they do best, my tauroxes will chase objectives, blow up infantry, and try to survive.

Turn two is where things get interesting. With the new Death from the Skies rule, I'm most likely looking at a 2+ for my reserves to come on, and with the formation special rules, the rest of my flyers come in once I have passed my first reserve roll. Meanwhile, the Scions that weren't in the Tauroxes will deep strike in and either grab objectives or vehicle/MC hunt. I thought it'd be interesting to try out the "Start Collecting" formation, as I can now spawn my melta suicide squad ad nauseum as long as my Commissar is alive.

TL;DR = Reliable obsec swarm deepstriking with flyers harassing and a knight supporting.

Beware using Death From The Skies. A lot of people just plain don't.

My poll says, out of 13 people, only 1 uses it.

alright advice time, Tempestus are best used as a beta strike force following an alpha strike. Meaning that the best way to use them is to have them come in hot on the heels of a skyhammer, skyhammer comes down turn 1 dishes out hurt, they come in turn two for mop up operations
so I would drop all transports for them
drop the valks
take marine allies (skyhammer)
run 6 squads of 5
and a command squad should work out decently

wpago wrote:
Meaning that the best way to use them is to have them come in hot on the heels of a skyhammer

Let me guess, you saw this done once at some tournament and it worked, so you jumped to the conclusion that it is the only way to use Scions.

You have an awful lot of Hot Shot Volley Guns and from how you described it, your Scions are on the move, so you'll rarely get to use the Salvo 4. Plasma Guns would be a better pairing I think. As for your Emperor's Spear Aerial Company, why all in on the Valkyries. Valks are decent anti-infantry, but not amazing. I would keep 1 or 2 and add some Vendettas to this.

I like your inclusion of a Knight with this style of army. It does match the glasscannon type style of the tempestus because it'll draw a ton of fire.
While you'll have no problem grabbing the mid-field early on, I do wonder if you'll be able to keep it in the long run.
Interesting list ^^

wpago wrote:
Meaning that the best way to use them is to have them come in hot on the heels of a skyhammer

counterwavecounter wrote:
Let me guess, you saw this done once at some tournament and it worked, so you jumped to the conclusion that it is the only way to use Scions.

Also this.

This is tough. I've not played a a Scion list but from a guard perspective you are paying a premium on points for infantry to have an ap 3 Las gun then you go and replace half of those guns in the units for other weapons.

The unit with a flamer specifically, then that one tiny 5 man squad with 2x meltas.

Not sure how best to deal with those points but I simply don't like the look of them.

Also going to second the comment about the volley guns. You have a highly mobile list that isn't going to be making the most use of those guns

Personally I would not mix and match weapons (especially with the smaller squads of MT). I get the idea of bringing a Flamer, but that one model will be doing nothing for most of the game... and you'd still probably be dropped in one round of CC against a decent assault force. It will require a bit of luck/coordination to get off the full salvo on Volley Guns anyway, and you will want every shot you can get in the first turn or two. Plus the MT lack long range shooting outside of the Taurox, and who knows how long those will last in a game.

I'm in the process of establishing my MT Army now and I am building my core towards:

1x CS with 4 Volley Guns - Will contain Warlord and camp the backfield.

1x CS with 3 Plasma and a Medi-Pack - To drop in on stronger units. Being a CS I do not have to worry about receiving orders from another squad, and the orders/Medi-Pack should limit the amount of self inflicted deaths... Should. Plus las shots would probably be wasted on something I am spraying with Plasma if I used two with Scion Squads, so running four of them only means I waste the Prime's pistol (or not if I grab a pricey Plasma Pistol).

2x Scion Squads with 2 Melta Guns - To drop in on armored vehicles. Keeping these guys small as I'm basically paying a three model tax.

All of my purchases will be SC boxes until I get a good feel for the army. I may add a few fliers for the formation bonus, but I feel like points are wasted on DS a bit too much to not even use it. Sure Split Fire would allow the non Melta Gunners to do something, but the odds of having two good targets to fire on seems pretty low unless they are all bunched up. That leads me more towards the Ground Assault Formation, since I feel Twin Linked is a better bonus due to the limited amount of orders that can be given.

I'm also building towards a pure MT Army with a Knight ally in larger games. Good luck with your army, I know that I face an uphill battle too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

aleis wrote:
This is tough. I've not played a a Scion list but from a guard perspective you are paying a premium on points for infantry to have an ap 3 Las gun then you go and replace half of those guns in the units for other weapons.

The unit with a flamer specifically, then that one tiny 5 man squad with 2x meltas.

Not sure how best to deal with those points but I simply don't like the look of them.

Also going to second the comment about the volley guns. You have a highly mobile list that isn't going to be making the most use of those guns

And for this, the MT already have limited options in terms of fielding an army. Going Melta on a squad or two that can Deep Strike avoids the rounds of fire they will face getting to the target (need 12in to use them). Meltas are all there is for reliable anti-tank troop choices, especially with their basic weapons only having S3.