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Hi guys,
I am currently assembling a 1000pts force of Elysia.
I am in no way a good player, and as such I looked for some advices on the internet and I found some stuff (https://scattereddice.wordpress.com/category/elysian-droptroops/).
Nevertheless, most of it is old. So I am asking the Elysian DakkaDakka community to the rescue ! I think there must be some players here, so let's assemble and discusse about this underrated regiment !



Quick presentation of the Elysian Drop Troops

First thing first, the regimental orders and special rules.
The Elysian have the Elysian drop troops regimental keyword.
Elysian drop troops have the aerial drop special rule: they can deepstrike, as usual.

The orders:
Hold the line ! The unit ignores models killed when taking moral test unitil next movement phase
FRFSRF
Bring it down
Move and fire! any infantry model count their weapons as assault until the end of the turn
Get back in the fight
Move ! Move ! Move !
Take aim !

Now, let's take a look into their wargear and units:

Units selection:
officer of the fleet
Valkyries
Tauros Assault Vehicle
Tauros Venator
Vulture Gunship
Vendetta Gunship
Tarantula Battery
Cyclops Demolition Vehicle
Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter
Lightning Stike Fighter
Avenger strike Fighter

And of course the Elysian ones:
Company Commander
Lord Commissar
Drop Trooper Squad
SWS (may take three breacher charges 25pts each, replacing the demo charge in this army: Melee,on 4+ inflicts 1d3 MW, 1D6 if monster or building, one use only)
Veteran Squad
Command Squad
Drop Sentinels
Platoon Commander
Sniper Squad
HWS
Valkyrie Sky Talon

Wargear:

Ranged:
Bolt pistol
Plasma pistol
Boltgun
Shotgun
Lasgun and auxiliary grenade launcher (A model with an
auxiliary grenade launcher increases the range of any
frag grenades and krak grenades they use to 24".’)

Special Weapons
Flamer
Grenade launcher
Meltagun
Plasmagun
Lascutter ( 10pts melee S9 AP-3 D1d3, may only make a single attack)

Heavvy Weapons
Heavy bolter
Missile launcher
Mortar

Melee Weapons
Power sword
Power fist


The Faq (V1.4) states:
Q: Can Death Korps of Krieg, Elysian Drop Troops or
Renegades and Heretics Detachments use any of the Regiment-
specific rules (Doctrines, Orders, Stratagems, Warlord Traits,
etc.) in
Codex: Astra Militarum
?
A: No. Instead these units use the bespoke abilities and
Orders that are described in
Imperial Armour – Index:
Forces of the Astra Militarum
So, if I read it properly, means that we Elysian troopers can't use specific orders / stratagems etc like the Tallarn ambush, but we still get to use the generic ones.


So, what do we have ? A fairly limited range of models, special rules and wargears in fact.
The main force of Eylsia is the ability to deep strike several MSU team armed with special weapons into the battlefield (sws, command squad, veteran squad with 4 flamers...), but this has been nerfed by the faq. Otherwise the two orders aren't bad any way but the "move and fire" one is a really good one.
The ability to deep strike tarantula, cylcops and flyers (usually, not very resistant models) is pretty good. It was better when you could just drop in at your first turn, but...
Drop troopers have +1LD compared to the units in the codex, and combined to the Iron Discipline special rule the officers have and the MSU playstyle of Elysia, it means they will rarely flee (but as T3 5s+ save, they will just be destroyed anyways)
Almost every model can take krak grenades
They are a fairly mobile army, even without considering the aerial drop ability thanks to access to some high mobility vehicles (tauros, flyers...) and the order.

However, they are not an army design to endure, and some of their choices are lacking in firepower (the Drop Trooper Squad can't have heavy weapon).

Officers of Elysia, to your keyboards !

The Faq (V1.4) states:
Q: Can Death Korps of Krieg, Elysian Drop Troops or
Renegades and Heretics Detachments use any of the Regiment-
specific rules (Doctrines, Orders, Stratagems, Warlord Traits,
etc.) in
Codex: Astra Militarum
?
A: No. Instead these units use the bespoke abilities and
Orders that are described in
Imperial Armour – Index:
Forces of the Astra Militarum
So, if I read it properly, means that we Elysian troopers can't use specific orders / stratagems etc like the Tallarn ambush, but we still get to use the generic ones.

I am of the opinion that, because of the wording we do get acess to generic stratagems. (I say that as a mainly R&H player) the problem of course beeing that some of them require specific keywords Elysians, DkoK not have/get. (Especially obvious are the ones that demand an Astra-militarum infantry unit which R&H don't get.)

I am however surprised that people still try to run their Elysians even after the DS nerf.

I run a supporting Elysian detachment as a supplement to my core of Deathwatch Fortis teams supported by Cadian light infantry and artillery. They do amazing work for their point value.

Generally speaking the overarching strategy would conceivably work for a pure Elysian team though: use weight of numbers and artillery to force the enemy to come to you, then hit the most opportune flank with the drop team hammer. FRFSRF on the drop turn, then MaF to get the grenade rush off the second turn. It's an existential threat very few armies can ignore appearing right on their sides.

Sterling191 wrote:
I run a supporting Elysian detachment as a supplement to my core of Deathwatch Fortis teams supported by Cadian light infantry and artillery. They do amazing work for their point value.

Generally speaking the overarching strategy would conceivably work for a pure Elysian team though: use weight of numbers and artillery to force the enemy to come to you, then hit the most opportune flank with the drop team hammer. FRFSRF on the drop turn, then MaF to get the grenade rush off the second turn. It's an existential threat very few armies can ignore appearing right on their sides.

Hum, not bad, I may end up playing my first 800ish points of Elysian as a detachments for my armored group indeed. What units do you use ?

Not Online!!! wrote:

The Faq (V1.4) states:
Q: Can Death Korps of Krieg, Elysian Drop Troops or
Renegades and Heretics Detachments use any of the Regiment-
specific rules (Doctrines, Orders, Stratagems, Warlord Traits,
etc.) in
Codex: Astra Militarum
?
A: No. Instead these units use the bespoke abilities and
Orders that are described in
Imperial Armour – Index:
Forces of the Astra Militarum
So, if I read it properly, means that we Elysian troopers can't use specific orders / stratagems etc like the Tallarn ambush, but we still get to use the generic ones.

I am of the opinion that, because of the wording we do get acess to generic stratagems. (I say that as a mainly R&H player) the problem of course beeing that some of them require specific keywords Elysians, DkoK not have/get. (Especially obvious are the ones that demand an Astra-militarum infantry unit which R&H don't get.)

I am however surprised that people still try to run their Elysians even after the DS nerf.

I don't know if people still play them, I guess we will soon see, if people post or not
I will begin to try them soon, so maybe I will just stop after a few tests, who knows ^^

There are a few Elysian players around. I have an Elysian army and am planning to take it to a tournament next month

There are some useful Elysian resources out there, but as I don't ofetn post here I am not allowed to post links.

But there is an active FAcebook group, an active discord server, and a semi-active reddit group.

Also my blog, the 422nd Elysian Drop Troopers

 godardc wrote:

Hum, not bad, I may end up playing my first 800ish points of Elysian as a detachments for my armored group indeed. What units do you use ?

Quite literally just infantry squads. If I've got points left over, extra heavy weapon teams (because they're separate data sheets they're not technically Ro3 conflicting with standard IG HWTs) and snipers. They're exquisitely points efficient harassing units.

With 800 points though you can conceivably invest in some heavier toys with similar tactics. I believe E-Vets can take quite a few special weapons. Plasma/Melta drops anyone?

I have looked into you blog (thanks !), and this is your list:
https://422ndelysians.blogspot.com/2018/11/elysian-2000pt-tournament-list.html
I am curious about the sws with meltas: I used 4 men command squads with melta in my tallarn army, using the advance without penalty thing to get into a better range if necessary, and I have always been more or less sucessful / happy with them.
But only 3 melta does seem a bit lacking, even if I understant that by dropping out of a Valk' you are immediately into short range.
Overall I am quite happy as your list looks like what I intend to do, eventually.

Special weapon squads can only take 3 special weapons. Melta guns are quite a bit cheaper on BS4+ models than they are for BS3+ models. And I can deepstrike a commander near them to give them orders to aid their hit rolls.

I see special weapon squads as a cheaper version of command squads, and if I had a few more points I would upgrade one of the 2 melta squads to a melta command squad. Originally I was planning to have a veteran squad with 3 meltas in each valk, but that is a lot of points, and cutting back to 2 SWSs got me a 2nd Vulture.

I'm not certain I will keep them in my list, and plan to see how they perform. In my practise game so far they didn't do much, although due to cutting my list down I only had 1 squad instead of 2, but also my opponent didn't have any targets that the melta was needed for.

But that is why I am planning some practice games, and they may or may not make the final list.

millamber wrote:
There are a few Elysian players around. I have an Elysian army and am planning to take it to a tournament next month

There are some useful Elysian resources out there, but as I don't ofetn post here I am not allowed to post links.

But there is an active FAcebook group, an active discord server, and a semi-active reddit group.

Also my blog, the 422nd Elysian Drop Troopers

Have you been to the tournament with your Elysian forces ?
I have unfortunately been away of 40k for the last 6 months so nothing from my side ...
Do you have the name of the FB group, btw .

The problem with Elysians is they have one, maybe two units at most. Deep striking plasma command squads are extremely efficient, and you could probably make an argument for deep striking plasma SWS once you've taken all three command squads. But other than that nothing else wants to deep strike, especially if you're using the standard matched play rules, and 8th makes it easy to put the rest of your units in a different detachment with a more useful doctrine. And all of the other minor benefits are done better by other regiments. DKoK/commissars/the Valhallan relic are better LD buffs, the special order is just a worse version of the Tallarn doctrine, the unique gear options are all trash, and the unique units are mediocre at best.

If I run an Elysian Detachment over a scion battalion then typically I run 3 company commanders, 3 command squads with plasma and maybe 2 vet squads with melta. Not stupidly expensive, its self supporting and can get pretty much anywhere. Even though I have large amounts of elysians I rarely run them as such aside from units like the above. I have a support force in my Inquistional strike force, knights(3), storm trooper battalion, and a battalion of elysians but mostly lighter stuff to support the heavy units, 3 troops, 2 CCs, 2 Venators and some mortars. They go take objectives while the rest kill things. So in that respect they make a fairly effective supporting force for a larger army.