Officially starting guard finally.

[micahwc]

In light of the chapter approved leaks and the experience of a few games I will be making some changes.

Good experiences:
Tank Commanders, they have generally made their points back as long as I have brought the right weapons on them. I will continue bringing these.
Scions, have generally been one of the MVPs, able to deep strike onto objectives or assassinate targets with plasma.
Shadowsword, only brought it once but it was a lot of fun and insanely powerful with it's volcano cannon.
Earthshaker batteries, have been really effective but with the points change coming these will be replaced eventually with Basilisks. Still, indirect fire has worked well so far.

Adequate experiences:
Infantry squads, haven't been awesome or sucky yet, just kind of in the middle. I don't think heavy weapons are worth taking which is a shame as I have a bunch of missile teams. Plasma I am on the fence about.
Platoon Commanders, I've mostly just brought these to ensure order coverage and to fill required elite slots. I need to experiment with some of the other elite choices.
Company Commanders, they are not objectively bad, but unless you pay the points for equipment they don't do much other than orders. That said, orders are great.
Hellhounds/Bane Wolf, they haven't really done a lot for me in terms of damage, but they have been great psychological weapons. They are great for protecting flanks from assaults, as no one wants to charge into them. My experience has been that their psychological performance has been better than their physical performance.

Poor experiences:
Valkyries, it's a shame because I love the models, but they are not that great. Grav chute insertion could be useful in some situations, but other than those I wont bring these anymore.
Sentinels (armored and scout), I really don't think these are worth bringing anymore
Heavy Weapon Teams, they die to easily to focused fire, and missile teams lose you 78 points every 6 wounds against a T3 5+ save. Putting the heavy weapons in the infantry squads makes them a lot more survivable, but also limits your mobility on your infantry. 78 points for a missile team is almost the points for a hellhound or basilisk, and a good percentage of a Russ.


Indifferent experiences:
Yarrick, I could see how he would be useful for the re-roll of 1s in a gunline, but he hasn't done much for me so far. I may have fun using him to babysit the shadowsword for the re-rolls.
Tempestor primes, orders are nice, but they don't contribute much other than that.


I'm leaning towards a brigade lead by 2 company commanders and a primaris psyker. 6 bare infantry squads, 3 hellhounds/bane wolves, 4 russes, 3 astropaths, and the shadowsword.

Edited November 27, 2017 by duz_
Multiple posts merged

[duz_]

You weren't impressed with your Valk's? 
Interesting, why is that? I've always been happy with the performance of my Valks.

Their primary purpose being delivering Bullgryns where I want them and they just being an annoyance and surprising distraction afterwards :) 

 

The the +1 to BS whilst hovering is great too, I can usually squeeze out a turn or two of BS3+ :)

[micahwc]

I've managed to have one blown out of the sky first turn every game i've brought them

[micahwc]

I haven't gotten anything done lately as I've kind of lost motivation. The Chapter Approved leaks have kind of demoralized me and I've been playing a game called Avorion in all my free time lately. It's really addictive.

 

I think the lack of newer models doesn't really help my enthusiasm. I have always liked the idea of the guard. I think part of my problem is that there isn't really any cool model left that I absolutely want to build and paint, especially when you compare the aged sculpts of the Cadians to some of the newer sculpts GW has released. I've kind of got everything I thought was cool (Valkyries, Russ tanks, the Shadowsword), the only thing really left that I am interested in is an Artillery battery since I used to shoot artillery and I think it would be cool. So I really need 4 Basilisks next.

 

I don't know where I want to expand my forces. Scions have worked really well for me and they are certainly a possibility, but with their points increases I don't know if I really need anymore than the 15 or so I have. I have enough infantry to make 6 or 7 squads depending on weapons load out, which seems like enough for now unless I run them as conscripts. Another Russ or 6 would be good, but I have two already and they seem to be working quite well so far. I don't have any Ogryns, but I really don't like the sculpts for them. I don't have any psykers yet and I know I should pick some up.

 

I guess I'm just trying to decide where to expand my force at this point, and I'm open to ideas.

[duz_]

Expanding large forces can always be a tricky one, especially if nothing jumps out

Thats part of the reason I grabbed a few Victoria Miniature models, there's also the Anvil Industry models that look great!

 

Alternatively you could just keep gaming with them and see how it goes
I have a tendency of continually going back and repainting my army even though I never get to a point where I consider it all finished

[WarriorFish]

If you've lost a bit of motivation a pause can be good. You can always picks a model/unit you've always wanted to do and paint that up as a break and motivator :tu:

[micahwc]

After looking at some chapter approved changes, I think I will just run a gunline brigade for now with only some minor changes.

 

2 bare tank commander executioner/heavy bolters. 2 Primaris Psykers, 1 Company Commander

 

6 Infantry squads, 5 with plasma

 

3 scout sentinels with lascannons (to push out deep strike from the main group, if they survive maybe they can grab objectives)

 

3 astropaths, 2 platoon commanders

 

3 earthshaker batteries (until I get some basilisks)

 

A shadowsword

Edited December 1, 2017 by micahwc

[Halfpint100]

I would drop an astropath and 4 points elsewhere to give heavy bolter sponsons on your tank commanders

[micahwc]

Good idea

[micahwc]

I'm getting a land speeder storm for Christmas, I don't know who ordered it for me but I don't have any loyalist marines at the moment. My wife suggested I sell it, where as my thought was to start another army.

[Tallarn Commander]

Alternately, you could covert your speeder into an IG "dune buggy."

 

I've seen some nice conversions of that online. You could use it as a counts-as scout sentinel.

[walter h]

Tallarn commander has a point

sorry the photos are blurry

Edited December 4, 2017 by walter h

[micahwc]

I don't think I'm sold on the dune buggy conversion. Not sure what I'll do next. I think maybe just finish painting what I have and get some games in. See what works and what doesn't.

 

I have a campaign I'm wanting to enter in for January, it's $10 to enter but there are prizes. Format is 2 games per week, and try to gain territory through game wins.

[micahwc]

I'm looking to add some inexpensive heavy support. I'm thinking a searchlight sabre for 20 points and 2 heavy bolter tarantulas to fill out the Heavy Support requirements for a Brigade. It's less than 100 points and helps my Volcano Cannon hit more often. Thoughts?

[Halfpint100]

Sabres have been FAQed to only affect infantry and are now 40 points for the light. The tarantulas are decent though

[micahwc]

So just three tarantulas with heavy bolters. Cheap and efficient.

[micahwc]

My WIP take on a Primaris Psyker. Kitbashed from scions and cadian command and storm trooper sprues.

 

[WarriorFish]

That's a great use of the Tempestor's coat, nice work - now get him finished and painted ;)

[Withershadow]

So just three tarantulas with heavy bolters. Cheap and efficient.

You mean the opposite of cheap and efficient?

[micahwc]

I put a few more guys together using left over parts. I got an officer of the fleet using Valkyrie crew and helmet, another psyker, and an idea for a priest.

 

Currently printing two vulture engines to convert my valkyries. I will be running them with two rocket pods and six hunter killer missiles each to start.

[micahwc]

I'm not quite ready to post pics yet, but I have a Vulture gunship coming along nicely. I used the cockpit, wings, and tail of a Valkyrie combined with a Vulture engine I 3d printed. I had to cut up the rear stabalizers a bit and reshape some of them to get them to look like a Vulture. Also, I think the engine is a bit thinner than a real Vulture engine, so if I do another I will scale it up a little. The tail pieces are a little too close together because they mount to the engine and I don't think the engine was quite wide enough.

 

Currently I have twin rocket pods mounted and two of the missile pods from sentinels to represent the 6 Hunter Killer missiles. I have extra weapons from sentinel kits so I can make some of the other load outs and I have files to print punisher cannons if I want to go that route. I'm kind of conflicted on what load out I want, the punishers seem like a good choice, but the low strength and hitting on 4s instead of 3s seems like a draw back. The multiple rocket pods are assault weapons, so they will hit on 3s on the move, and are basically a 1D6 heavy bolter. It's a lot of points for the six hunter killer missiles, and once they are gone you basically are left with three heavy bolters on an expensive aircraft, but on the other hand you can shoot all six hunter killer missiles at one time, which could be really nice.

[Withershadow]

You can add a spacer at the joint between engine and tail booms.

[micahwc]

I thought about doing that, and I may end up doing it.

[micahwc]

I decided I want a supreme command detachment of inquisitors for morale and psychic shenanigans.

 

I modded some of my kit bashed Sisters of Battle and made a Coven of inquisitors.

 

They are primed black so I messed with the color/light in the pics to show detail better.

 

http://i.imgur.com/WDz3qMP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/N4GrWtE.jpg

 

 

I kind of want to give them thunder hammers for the straight three damage. I don't have any so they got power/force swords for now.

 

They are a combination of Eldar, dark Eldar, sisters of silence, and blood angel bits with green stuff cloth and Victoria miniatures heads.

[micahwc]

I had an idea for the land speeder storm that I thought was kind of stupid funny. Fill it with inquisitors. I don't have the rules in front of me but I've read that the land speeder storm can move like 18" a turn, and inquisitors can use any imperium transport.

 

I want to fill one with 5 inquisitors