Given that I plan to flesh out my
battle force with detail and description, I've figured that one of my
first tasks must be to come up with a standard battle list – an
'all comers' force that I can use for a variety of purposes. (There
is another reason for this; another of my New Year's Resolutions is
to 'go on the road' more for battles, and if I have a standardized
force then I can have it ready to transport without any messing
around...) One of the great challenges of 40k is to come up with a
force that is competitive against any army, but my primary concern
was an army that was fun, and followed the background properly.
Given that my background details came
from Space Crusade, I took a look at the components. It boiled down
to three Tactical Squads, three Scouts Squads, and three Tarantulas.
Immediately I resolved that my usual force would have to include
these elements; that's a pretty good basis for a battle force in any
case. I decided to optimize my force at 1,500 points, my local meta
usually fights at this size, and going for this points level seemed
logical. So – I had my troops, essentially.
At this point I then looked at my list
to see what I wanted to take; this boiled down to getting out my
favourite models, and looking over my favourite parts of the army
list. I never think that a list is truly complete without a Captain;
regardless of the 'fluff', a Space Marine force needs a leader, so
that was my primary HQ, and a Librarian is always fun. I've been a
sucker for psychic powers since Dark Millenium. There had to be an
Inquisitor, also...and if he wasn't also a psyker, well, I was
missing a trick. At this stage I really
wanted a Techmarine...so he
went onto the table as well. This is a bit of a controversial choice,
I know, but damn it, I love the model!
I
wanted some elements of heavy support, of course. Now, I've been a
fan of Devastator Squads even when they were far too expensive in 5th
Edition; today I consider them a must-buy. I went with a load-out of
three missile launchers and a plasma cannon. The Sergeant will give
the Plasma Cannon a ballistic skill of five with his auspex, and the
Inquisitor will usually be providing the Devastators with a
Divination-based re-roll, which seemed to nicely mitigate the
disaster of 'Gets Hot'. For extra boom, I took a Whirlwind – and
added a Storm Bolter to it for safety. I've used this figure a lot,
and it's been attacked at close range often enough that a Storm
Bolter would have been handy, not to mention the disaster that
'weapon destroyed' otherwise represents.
Back
to the troops, which needed transport. Rhinos are of course the usual
stand-by here, but having used them an awful lot, I wasn't convinced.
I didn't want to transport everything into battle in any case; I
wanted to split into combat squads, and an idea was evolving. Four
Power Armour squads – four characters. Each squad could be led by a
character to serve as bodyguard, and to give each one extra muscle.
Heavy Weapons teams at the rear to provide fire support and hold
objectives, Attack teams at the forefront to secure objectives in the
mid- to late-game. The Tarantulas gave me the idea – Razorbacks. I
rationalized that my Techmarine had probably attached the Tarantulas
to Rhinos for extra mobility at some point! I wanted one Veteran
Sergeant, and gave him a Power Axe; the others I left as they were,
though one of them got a Plasma Pistol for extra punch. For heavy
weapons, I went with two Missile Launchers and a Heavy Bolter, and
for special I took a Plasma Gun, a Meltagun and a Flamer, considering
that a reasonable mix.
Scouts
came next. I'm a traditionalist with Scouts; I don't like the
'Sniper' variant, probably because I've never had any luck with them!
Land Speeder Storms can be good, but used singly have a tendency to
die gloriously. Looking at the old loadouts, it seemed to be Combat
Knifes, Bolt Pistols, Bolters, and Heavy Bolters. Perfect; I had to
pick up a couple more squads, but it was worth it. I ended up with
two 'Assault' Scout Squads with Combat Knives and Bolt Pistols, and
one 'Tactical' Scout Squad with Bolters and a Heavy Bolter. I can
infiltrate those ahead of my battle force to cause nice surprises to
my enemies...
That
was pretty much it! No tanks, not really, just APCs, but a
character-heavy force was exactly what I was looking for. I can make
a lot of detail out of these – there are five characters I can go
to town on, counting the Veteran Sergeant, and seven squads to
detail. In addition – I think this is a pretty decent, balanced
force, with a good amount of anti-armour and anti-squad heavy
weapons, decent mobility, and potentially nine
scoring units. That's going to be a handful to take down in a
battle...I just hope it is enough to do the job! Naturally, this
could well be subject to tweaks and alterations...but here is my
fifteen-hundred point battleforce.
Headquarters
Captain (Power
Sword, Artificer Armour)
Librarian (Force
Sword, Psychic Hood)
Inquisitor (Psyker,
Power Armour, Force Sword)
Techmarine
(Servo-Arm)
Troops
Tactical Squad
(Veteran Sergeant, Power Axe, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun, Razorback
)
Tactical Squad
(Flamer, Missile Launcher, Razorback)
Tactical Squad
(Plasma Pistol, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter, Razorback)
Scout Squad (Combat
Knife, Bolt Pistol)
Scout Squad (Combat
Knife, Bolt Pistol)
Scout Squad
(Bolter, Heavy Bolter)
Heavy
Support
Devastator Squad
(Missile Launcher x3, Plasma Cannon)
Whirlwind
(Whirlwind Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter)
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