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Wanted to try out the dropship, this is probably the nastiest way I could think of to use it.


Super heavy aux:

Orion Assault Dropship

Battalion:

Trajann Valoris/warlord

Shield Captain/castellan axe, misericordia, eagles eye

3x3 custodian guard

Wardens x5

Vexilla Magnifica/w axe
Vexilla Imperialis/w axe


Battalion:

company commander x2/w boltgun

Infantry squad x2/w mortar
Infantry squad





13 command points, backfield and midfield bodies, and a dropship full of nasty nasty beatdown attacks.



Turn one your orion will have -2 to hit it. It shouldnt go down. -2 to hit, T8, 22 wounds, 3+/5++ is a tough nut ot crack. Full double shot lootastar only does 10/12 wounds to it (and thats ignoring the -2 to hit).

5 wardens + vexilla imperialis + trajann is a pretty nasty beatdown waiting to happen. 25 str8 -2 d3 damage attacks + 5 str5 -1 attacks + trajann himself all hitting on 2+ rerolling 1's and rerolling 1's to wound.


The orion itself isnt a slouch either.



If your deathstar somehow doesnt kill everything nasty in your opponent army and trajann bites it, you just pass warlord to your other shield captain who's with the guards and other vexilla in the middle of the table.

Why do you have 2 Vexillas? How are you getting -2 on the Orion?

One vexilla (the imperialis) is inside the Orion with the wardens and trajann.

The other vexilla (the magnifica) is standing on the ground with the custodian guard giving everything -1 to hit.


The orion is a flyer with Hard to hit rule so as long as he's not in hover mode and within 6" of the magnifica he is at -2 to hit.

I love the idea, but I do feel like it is too many eggs in one basket.

I’ve tried out the Orion twice this week, and I had only a squad of Birdmen in it so it wasn’t as hot a target as yours would be. This is all true:

First game was against Orks. Took a lot of shooting, but the lootas you mentioned did bring it down. The -2 doesn’t mean anything to them, they auto-hit on 5s with 6s proccing extra shots. Took 25 lootas but he brought it down. And tbh, I can imagine people running more lootas than this guy was, if you’re talking about tournament play.

Second game I versed a guard player rocking two shadowswords, Guilliman, Pask and a Baneblade. Granted it absorbed 3/4 of his shooting, but he brought it down turn one again. Even with -2, it can still be totalled. And i was just lucky I didn’t have much inside, though funnily enough 4 of the 6 birdmen died in the crash...

Sounds made up but all true. I went in thinking it was invincible. Sadly, it’s not. Still a decent unit (though its firepower isn’t that great) but I definitely wouldn’t be putting 600ish points inside it. Probably still a beast that was just tested in unfair conditions, but so far it has died turn one in both games I’ve taken it haha.

Let us know how you go with it if you do try it!

On average the lootas wont kill it though, I did the math. You just got unlucky. Bad luck with the shadowswords too, but how often do you play people with 2 of those?

Unfortunately, multiple shadowswords are quite common in my local area and at local tournaments. Probably 3-4 lists in a group of 50, and often up towards the top tables.

I think your maths might be slightly off on the lootas?

100 attacks
39 hits
39 bonus attacks
14 bonus hits
53 total hits
18 wounds
9 unsaved
18 damage

So yeah, would need to roll above average to take it down, but it’s only two dice going the wrong way required. And if the ork player rolls a 3 on number of shots (or CPs that roll like my opponent did, funnily enough rolling a 1 both times but still taking it down) then you’re almost certainly toast.

Add to that that even if it does survive with 4 wounds on average shooting, that’s 450ish points of lootas. Most will have a third squad sitting nearby for the next turn, or even more. So putting the final four wounds shouldn’t be hard.

I love the Orion and am planning to take one to an upcoming tourney. But I just think that risking 600+ points in a 440 point plane means that there’s a lot of potential to lose half your army (or have them stranded) before the game’s even started.

 superwill wrote:
Unfortunately, multiple shadowswords are quite common in my local area and at local tournaments. Probably 3-4 lists in a group of 50, and often up towards the top tables.

I think your maths might be slightly off on the lootas?

Spoiler:

100 attacks
39 hits
39 bonus attacks
14 bonus hits
53 total hits
18 wounds
9 unsaved
18 damage

So yeah, would need to roll above average to take it down, but it’s only two dice going the wrong way required. And if the ork player rolls a 3 on number of shots (or CPs that roll like my opponent did, funnily enough rolling a 1 both times but still taking it down) then you’re almost certainly toast.

Add to that that even if it does survive with 4 wounds on average shooting, that’s 450ish points of lootas. Most will have a third squad sitting nearby for the next turn, or even more. So putting the final four wounds shouldn’t be hard.

I love the Orion and am planning to take one to an upcoming tourney. But I just think that risking 600+ points in a 440 point plane means that there’s a lot of potential to lose half your army (or have them stranded) before the game’s even started.

Unfortunately I think that the lootas problem is real. The guys I’m playing most often pull this trick as well. As my Custodes are currently sitting on my painting desk I’m playing guard. But the lootas wreck every key unit they like. Especially with the shot a second time stratagem it is brutal.

So for my Custodes I’m planing to go for deepstriking my attacking units. The Transports are both beautiful models but the lack of firepower and the lootas took them out of consideration for me and the meta I’m playing. Another thing is, that with infantry you can use cover and terrain much more than with the big bricks.

 superwill wrote:
Unfortunately, multiple shadowswords are quite common in my local area and at local tournaments. Probably 3-4 lists in a group of 50, and often up towards the top tables.

I think your maths might be slightly off on the lootas?

100 attacks
39 hits
39 bonus attacks
14 bonus hits
53 total hits
18 wounds
9 unsaved
18 damage

So yeah, would need to roll above average to take it down, but it’s only two dice going the wrong way required. And if the ork player rolls a 3 on number of shots (or CPs that roll like my opponent did, funnily enough rolling a 1 both times but still taking it down) then you’re almost certainly toast.

Add to that that even if it does survive with 4 wounds on average shooting, that’s 450ish points of lootas. Most will have a third squad sitting nearby for the next turn, or even more. So putting the final four wounds shouldn’t be hard.

I love the Orion and am planning to take one to an upcoming tourney. But I just think that risking 600+ points in a 440 point plane means that there’s a lot of potential to lose half your army (or have them stranded) before the game’s even started.

The Orion’s not TITANIC so make sure you’re using the cover stratagem if going second. Helps a lot against shooting from things like Lootas.