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Trying to think up the best way to do this. If you use Belisarius in combo with Imperial Agents and Iron Hands, there's a pretty nifty set of combos you can use:
First, take an Iron Hands gunline. It can either be from a CAD, a Castellans detachment, or the Iron Hands detachment whose name eludes me at the moment. I personally prefer the CAD, because I like using Sicarans and Command Tanks and maybe a Contemptor-Mortis, but any option works. Make sure you take an HQ with the Ironstone.
Some Devestators are good here, or Centurion Devs, or just regular Tactical Marines - Basically, you want a lot of bodies. (Scouts also work, or you could throw in something else - Guardsmen blobs, Inquisitorial Henchmen, Sisters of Battle - Anything that can sit and deflect assaults, or take a bullet for your characters.)
Bring Belisarius as well, of course.
Finally, bring a bunch of Tech Priest Enginseers. Possibly take small units of Servitors as well, just to pad out how many Canticle units you have.


Aaand, boom! Lots of great things here.
First turn, you can pop a 4+ Invuln or +3 BS on all your artillery, and give all the units with an attached Enginseer Shrouded. (Yes, only the Enginseer actually gets the rule, but Shrouded applies to the whole unit.)
If you take damage, you have several units sitting around with repair abilities. Plus, when you pop Harmony of Metalurgy on turn 2, all Iron Hands vehicles will be getting three IWND rolls on a 4+, and regaining weapons on a 6. (That's what the Ironstone is for.)

There are details to be sorted out of course, but that's the general idea. Tank like a bawss on turn 1, heal any damage they managed to inflict on turn 2, you're only really *vulnerable* on turn 3 and later.


Obviously, there are a couple weaknesses. Your bodyguard squads will mitigate early-game assaults, but not make you entirely immune. And while your artillery will be decent, it's not going to be overwhelming - You're Space Marines, not Tau. +3 BS on a trio of Vindicators is pretty damn strong, of course, but even with all your durability bonuses you can have one of them knocked out, and then you're in a bad spot.

You're going to have to stay pretty tightly bubbled, which may be an issue. And, lastly, someone with lots of cover-granting abilities might be hard to take down.


All in all, though, I think this could be a fairly nasty way of using a tank gunline, which is an idea I really like despite how rarely I see it executed. Thoughts?

Yes! This is exactly what I was thinking when I originally bought Belsarius. Although I'm not sure how you would get multiple enginseers without building multiple CADS/allies. I have no mechanicum currently.

 digital-animal wrote:
Yes! This is exactly what I was thinking when I originally bought Belsarius. Although I'm not sure how you would get multiple enginseers without building multiple CADS/allies. I have no mechanicum currently.

Imperial Agents. It can't be ITC, because of their idiotic detachment limitations, but you can take detachments of one Enginseer with an optional squad of Servitors.