Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi,

I'm entering a tournament the weekend after next. It's my first tournament and, while I'm not expecting to sweep all before me, I'd rather not embarrass myself.

Rules are pretty standard - 1750 points battle forged, 1 fortification, no FW/IA. I've come up with the following list as a take-all-comers type of army.

Lions Blade Strike Force
Command
1 interrogator chaplain with plasma pistol

Core: Battle Demi Company
Company Master with jump pack and relic blade
10-man tactical squad with heavy bolter, plasma gun, sergeant with plasma pistol, Rhino
10-man tactical squad with missile launcher & flakk grenades, flamer, veteran sergeant with power fist, razorback with twin-linked Lascannon
5-man tactical squad with heavy bolter
10 man devastator squad with 2 lascannons, 2 plasma cannons
10-man assault squad with jump packs, 2 * plasma pistols, veteran sergeant with power fist
Dreadnought with multi-melta, drop pod with locator beacon

Auxiliary: Ravenwing Attack Squadron
5-man Ravenwing bike squadron with two meltaguns
Ravenwing attack bike with multi-melta
Ravenwing land speeder with heavy flamer, multi-melta

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line; Gun Emplacement with Icarus Lascannon


Plan
The overall plan is pretty simple: the heavy bolter tactical squad hangs back, along with the (combat squadded) devs. The tactical squad with missile launcher splits (missile launcher goes one way with 4 regular marines), and the chaplain goes in the razorback. Depending on the level of air threat, and the terrain, I'd either have the missile launcher combat squad manning the icarus lascannon or (if necessary) let the other five man tactical squad man it and cover another angle to ensure there are no safe routes for flyers to breeze through.
The marines in the razorback and rhino go forward to claim 'midfield' in the board, providing mid-range fire support. The dreadnought deep strikes as deep onto the board as possible and goes full kamikaze, while the drop pod's locator beacon allows the assault squad and company master to come in safely. If I judge the opponent to have relatively weak levels of anti-MEQ fire or there's a really unguarded space to land, I'd combat squad them up for maximum objective-grabbing potential.
The Ravenwing are pure anti-tank. Come on, unleash hell. The heavy flamer on the land speeder seems random but it's deliberate. Getting the automatic hit means that the rest of the attack squad with meltas hit on 2s.


Options
I've just done the maths again and I have 10 points to play around with. I worry that this lacks MEQ-killing potential. The two obvious options I see are to (a) upgrade the flamer to a plasma gun or (b) upgrade one or both other heavy weapons into a greater MEQ threat.

For something more radical, I have a Typhoon pattern land speeder, deathwing termys, deathwing knights, a librarian and Azrael himself painted. I also have a stormtalon, scouts and a librarian painted in vanilla marine colours, but would rather not use them as I don't have the codex. A large range of other DAs are also available (most of the range aside from latest edition Ravenwing) but I'd need to paint them up.

Any comments or suggested changes to the plan or army composition very welcome.

u cant take an aegis defense line in the ravenwing strikeforce, or for that matter any dark angels army that doesnt contain a CAD. if your running a lions blade you either ally in a force or you run sky silencers, in fact you dont even get a fortifications slot in the ravenwing strikeforce or the deathwing strikeforce so thats not even an out.

in this army i move you ditch the lions blade altogether and run a CAD. and then we can come back to the table and discuss what to do with the army.

A few questions first, about your local meta. What sort of armies will you be up against? Will you be up against knights, WK, etc? Will you be up against anything spammy like scatbikes, grav spam, psyker heavy armies? Fliers, many vehicles?

I'm far from being an expert, but there are a few things I'd suggest. First off, I'd recommend a CAD over the demi-company as suggested above.

Plasma pistols. I hate them. They're lucky if they fire once a game, will maybe get one kill a game. Rarely worth the points. Throw melta bombs on some models instead.

Consider moving flakk missiles to a dev squad. Free +1 on the BS. Possibly add a second ML or add some more bullet sponges.

Int-chaplain. Might not be worth the points. In a squad of 5 models, you have 2 that don't want to get shot (him and serg). They're in a las RB, which will get chewed up if it moves upfield (consider a rhino to save points, or a DP). So it rolls forward, gets wrecked by turn 2, they can't charge for a whole turn after they get out. Six models with 3+ saves isn't too durable. If you're going to make a suicide melee squad like this, consider running 10 guys, possibly making them a vet squad, and using a DP to get where you want to be faster.

Or, if you do use them as "mid-range fire support" as you mention, there's no point having a chaplain or a power fist serg.

Having a lone suicide dreadnought, with 0 supporting it first turn, is often a waste of points. They pop extremely easily, and firing a single melta shot before going boom isn't worth the points. Go with a suicide vet squad full of melta if your goal is anti-tank, or give your dreadnought some backup to draw away fire when it comes in.

Dev squad. Just make it 2 squads. You'll get 2 auspexes or whatever it is that ups BS, as well as the option to add more weapons and padding.

The bikes I like. BK are an alternative if you have any, but are high points that you might lose early if you're unlucky.

Consider swapping out the chaplain for a librarian, as it never hurts to get someone with telepathy or divination as some additional support. The chaplain will only be good if you give him a more durable squad to join that will be aiming at getting in melee.

Just my 2 cents. None of these suggestions are guaranteed to be effective and are just what I've picked up from others over time, but are probably a good starting point.

If you have the models, Ravenwing are brutally effective as an army (2+ re-rollable jink, twin-linked plasma guns, awesome in cc, very mobile).

Take land speeders and dark shrouds, the fire support rule is just plain bonkers.

Otherwise I wouldn't bother. Unfortunately DA are a one-trick pony - you don't have access to all the toys regular SM get, and Deathwing just suck, really, really badly.

edit: black knights all the way.

edit 2: More general pointers I'd suggest, some of which have been listed by other posters:

1) Tac squads. Heavy weapons are rarely worth it (you need to stand still, different range and role to the other squad members, etc). Tac marines are best suited for grabbing objectives, and need mobility (DT's) to be effective. Your firepower from the other 4 boltgun marines ends up wasted. Dedicated anti-tank/MC units are better (melta sternguard in a pod, lascannon devs).
2) Dev squads. Don't mix weapons. Plasma cannons are garbage (can't snapshoot, risk killing yourself, small blasts suck).
3) Vet sergeants aren't worth the points, plasma pistols are terribad, I'm not even sure the power fist is worth it. Too expensive for wargear you'll probably never use.
4) Aegis DL is pointless (and requires a CAD). You've got 3+ armour. Mobility is important. It's just not worth the points.
5) Assault marines suck.

Thanks for the feedback everyone - you've spared me the blushes of taking an illegal army!

I've changed the army quite a bit based on the advice, while retaining the lions blade strike force and the much-hated plasma pistols. Partly it's down to limitation on painted models, but partly it's because I have really found the supreme fire discipline and objective secured across the demi company very, very handy.

I'm not too sure about the local meta - as it's primarily a college event, I suspect that affordable armies (space marines) will feature heavily, but that really is conjecture.

Here it is now:
inner circle
Interrogator chaplain with plasma pistol

Battle demi-company
Company master with jump pack, relic blade
10 man dev squad with 2 lascannons, 2 plasma cannons (these are combat squadded. At a pinch I could slot in two heavy bolters in case of either the las or plasma)
10-man assault squad with veteran sergeant, power fist, 2 plasma pistols
9-man tactical squad with veteran serg, power first, plasma gun, drop pod and locator beacon
5-man tactical squad with plasma pistol for the sergeant, razorback with twin-linked lascannon
5-man tactical squad with missile launcher, flakk missiles

Ravenwing attack squad
5-man bike squad with two meltaguns
attack bike with multi-melta
land speeder with multi-melta, heavy flamer

Allies: Space marines (Iron hands doctrine)
Level 2 librarian
Scout squad with missile launcher, flakk missiles
Stormtalon gunship with twin-linked Lascannon

Pretty simple tactics. Interrogator chaplain goes in the drop pod for an objective-grabbing unit that can actually absorb an assault. Assault squad also has an objective-grabby role. Razorback tacticals move around to where they're needed. Missile launchers are positioned to ensure there's no space to completely hide a flyer. Dev combat squads sit in the backfield, Ravenwing are there to melt the living daylights out of tanks sitting in the back, stormtalon (hopefully) finishes off enemy flyers and then does what anti-tank damage it can.

Any suggested tweaks welcome. I've got the deathwing squads mentioned above painted, if required I could do one or two of a rhino, dreadnought, land raider/land raider crusader, another ravenwing squad. But frankly I'd rather improve the character paintjobs and squad markings with my remaining time!