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Hi, first post here!
In a week we are starting a scalation league with some co-workers, starting a 500 and up to 2000, adding 250 points each week.
I played 40k only twice years ago, but I have been following the hobbie both on the modeling and painting as well as watching matches on youtube.

I made a 500 point list for the firsts rounds and I would like to shared and get feedback on any flaws or mistakes, both on rules and how competitive viable it is.
The competition is friendly and with a lot of beginers, my main focus is to have fund and have motivation to paint my minis, but I do enjoy the seek of the victory as well.

Full army painted photos here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/784655.page#10693876

HQ
Captain on Bike, Combi-melta, Master crafted (relic) power fist, "The Imperium's Sword" (Trait)

TROOPS
Intercessors x5, Granade launcher
Scouts x5, Heavy bolter, sargent storm bolter
Scouts x5, Heavy bolter, sargent storm bolter

ELITE
Dreadnought, Heavy plasma cannon and Missile launcher

FAST ATTACK
Bike squad x3, chainswords x3, Sargent storm bolter

The strategy is to deploy the scouts in cover in the middle of the batteflied creating a line, dreadnough and intercessors next to the captain, Bikes hidden from any strong firepower.
First turn move captain forward to give hit rerolls both dreadnought for supercharger plasma, scouts and intercessors. Bikes remain hidden, flanking seeking a melta shot in turn 2 in a tank.
Turn 2 bikes and captain kick in to hurt the tank, both with melta and power fist. The dreadnough should help with heavy units as well.
With a bit of luck, the deployement of scouts could be the game changer. My idea with them is to have flexibily to capture objectives, prevent any hard charges and take the firepower due to their potential to disrup enemy lines with their own charges. They also prevent any normals shots to go to my captain, who can go in a straight line through the middle of the battlefield to punch his prey.
Ultramarine tactical doctrine in turn 2 should help boosting the bikes and intercessors.Scouts are probably going to be gone or really hurt by turn 2, which is alright if they already did their job. Dreadhnougt plasma supercharges will depend on how well I avoid damage from the anti tank units of the oponent, or the captain rerolls to hit.
I believe I got enought table control, anti- tank and anti-infantry to make a good job and be creative with how I apply the strategy.

My ideas for the 750 list in 2 weeks time is to boost the dreadnought to venerable and change the plasma for laser cannons. Depending of how well the bikes do, add a second identical unit, and look what are the main weakness of how I did on the matches to add something to cover that.

Please give me any feedback on the list and strategy behind it.
750 point list here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/784313.page

Take all of this with a grain of salt and remember that you're doing a slow-grow league with coworkers who may be new to table-top gaming, so you don't want to crush your enemies, drive them before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. These are things to think about, not hard suggestions:

From a purely mechanical perspective you're better off putting the Meltagun on your Captain as a Combi-melta, he can't be shot at by anything but snipers.

Also, if you're using the Master Crafted upgrade relic on a Power Fist you might want to consider the Teeth of Terra instead. It's pretty darn good and frees up nine points that could add a Stormbolter or better melee weapon to your Biker Sergeant with points left over. (Also also, that frees up the Master Crafted weapon upgrade for use on an Honored Sergeant. Putting +1D on a Centurion's Hurricane Bolter or the shooting profile of an Aggressor's Boltstorm Gauntlets is obnoxious.)

...speaking of which, if your goal for the Bike squad is tank hunting an Honored Sergeant with a Master Crafted Thunder Hammer is only one point more than the Meltagun and can do significantly more damage.

As much as I use Dreadnaughts a lot, I'm not sure I'd take one at 500 points. It's the only armor you have so it's going to attract all of your opponent's AA fire, and they're not as tough as they look. If I were going to suggest alternatives Eliminators with Lasfusiles, Stalkers, and Whirlwinds are worth considering.

First test match and the strategy worked like a charm.
Played against Astra militarum with , 3 HQ, 3 infantry units(mortar, lass cannon and missile launcher) and 2 tanks (flamer and basilisc). Looked a bit intimidating since I did not know how strong where his units, and the basilic was quite imposing on his corner of the map. End up that the infantry was so easy to tear down with normal bolters, and most of the damage of the power of the basilics could not do anything agains so many small units.
I got lucky with some of the dices, particularly being able to go first and with the many misses, my opponent had with the few units that could shot back.

Quick resume of the match
I deployed exacly as planned, with the scouts on a tall center tower that gave them view to everything. Bikes in cover at range to another cover, captain ready to go full straight, using the aura to rerolls.
First turn I wiped the lasscanon unit, almost willed the missile launcher unit, and left the mortar one really low The ability of a HQ saved him from moral.
Turn 2 I destroyed all the remaining infantry, destroyed the flamer tank with tried to cut the advance with dreadnought + captain (15 wounds). I used the same tower the scouts were standing to do a charge without overwatch, although I thought exactly the same for the melta biker... and forgot that I could not shoot with it XD. I absolutely destroyed the tank, and blowed up on the face of all my units, dealing more damage than the entire first turn of my opponent.
Turn 3 was a cleaning up, having the hilarious overwatch of a basilic at 2 inches of my captain. 6 shoots, all misses.

Conclusions
First impressions are really good. The strategy worked as I tested playing against myself, and even with starting second and some less luck on the dices, the opponent was never even close to doing anything. He managed to kill my bikers, 4 scouts (3 and 1), deal 2 wounds to the captain and 4 to the dreadnought. Meanwhile, he was absolutely destroyed. I would have preferred a more balanced match, we already talked through how it went and next week we will be playing another quick match for a rematch, with a change on his list. For an introduction match we played to kill the oponent, and I would like to play objectives to add an extra layer of randomness and challenge to the table.
Best?
Scouts where amazing, dealing way more damage than I expected, and their positioning on the table was key for my flexibility with finishing off targets and shooting exactly the units I needed, especially to remove the heavy weapons of the opponent. Captain, both on re-rolls and punching tanks was a blast as well.
Worst?
Dreadnought. The plasma barely does anything to vehicles, getting 3 ones on supercharge, although captain prevented damage with rerolls, but the flexibility with the missiles is alright. I expected much more from it. I might ditch him and look for another option to have more firepower at long range. I did like the fact that I could move around to get the shots I needed ,and the fact that looks intimidating and makes the oponent care too much about it when the real damage comes from the other units that become free to do their job.

I've done a small change, Captain has a combi melta instead of master crafter bolter, and bikers have all chainswords, sargent storm bolter.
Thanks for the feedback, little optimization and now list is lock for the play,

[tips hat]

Hey man, quick note... Did you mention the captain's overwatch misses? cause it sounded like you were using his 2+ ballistic skill the way you wrote it... overwatch only ever hits on 6's unless you have a rule that specifically says otherwise...


Good Luck!

Kinda curious how the actual league games went, it will be easier to offer advice on how to expand to 750 with the results.

The Newman wrote:
Kinda curious how the actual league games went, it will be easier to offer advice on how to expand to 750 with the results.

So far I played 2 friendlies against astra militarum, and a optional game, 2v2, alied with space wolves going against tiranids and 1000 sons. The "official" match is happening on friday, against blood angels.

Againts astra militarum it was a complete whipe. By turn 2 my oponen barely had anything on the board, when I had lost the bikes and only a couple of wounds on my entire army.
The 2 vs 2 was really rough. It was a narrative ambush where we where the ones ambushed. We started 2nd, no cover on deployement, 3 CP vs 13. We focused all our attaks on the 1000 sons, and by turn 2 they where gone, but we still had the entirely Tyranid army and we only had about 5 models each on the table. We got shot and smited and before the fight phase of turn 3 we seemed doomed from the very start. But a double charge with our smash captains literrally destroyed all the army of the tyranids with 2 punches. 9 warriors, 2 HQ and half a unit of termagaunts went down in a single charge. My captain having the record of the league with 19 wounds inflicted in that single charge.

I find this 500 point army to work really well. Dreadnought underperforms on firepower but attracs a lot of attention. Is an alright Anti-tank to take some wounds of heavy units until my captain gets in, posibly destroying a tank with the melta and charging and destroying another by turn 2. Bikes seem to scare my oponents and sponge a lot of the fire, while my captain gets the actual close combat done, destroying every unit it touches with a single punch.
Scouts are flexible and I can get creative on how to use them. Intersessors can take quite a lot of fire, although their firepower is not the best.

My plan against blood angels (the guy has a death company on jump packs and a predator baal with twin assault and 2 heavy bolters), is hide until turn 2 to boost my bolter fire, and try to get a charge on the tank with my captain to destroy it with a good punch. He will have a terminator captain probably boosting his firepower with the rerolls of 1, so I will see how I go about it.

I have two 750 point ideas here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/784313.page


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Full army painted photos here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/784655.page#10693876