1500 point Airborne List

[jeebus20]

Hey everyone, first post here. I've played a few games and want to try a list centered on the Valkyrie and Vendetta. I play almost exclusively against space marines, so I want to gear everything toward killing MEQ. Here's what I've got.

HQ:
CCS
Melta Guns x4
Chimera


The goal for these guys is to drive around blowing away rhinos and dreadnaughts. After a few run ins with my CCS with meltas, the Landraiders stopped coming out to play.

Troops:

Veteran Squad
Plasma Pistol
Plasma Guns x3


Veteran Squad
Plasma Pistol
Plasma Guns x3


Veteran Squad
Plasma Pistol
Plasma Guns x3



Fast Attack:

Valkyrie
Rocket Pods
Heavy Bolters


Valkyrie
Rocket Pods
Heavy Bolters


Vendetta

Heavy Support:

Leman Russ battle tank
Plasma Sponsons
Lascannon


Leman Russ battle tank
Plasma Sponsons
Lascannon


Manticore



The vets will all be riding in the valks/vens and the idea is to drop them within 12in of a marine squad and fry it with plasma after the Valkyrie softens it up.

I loves me some tanks, so I decided to bring a few Russ's with plasma sponsons and lascannons to max their chances of killing MEQ and maybe a transport if needed.

I've used my Manticore in every game I've played and love raining down three strength 10 large templates for four turns (assuming the dice gods smile upon me). Haven't been disappointed with it so far. Although I am considering dropping it to pick Carapace armor for all my poor squishy humans.


Any ideas on how to employ or restructure all this would be great.

[Empirespy]

noooo! don't break down points quick change before anyone sees!

[jeebus20]

Good call

[Empirespy]

Sorry I know this is your first post but we have to be careful about using GW IP, you should check out the forum rules ASAP.
anyway about your list, solid. Yes plasma is a must when fighting MEQs you must be careful though you only have 30 men albeit vets, if they play mech heavy it's Ok but if they use a infantry heavy list they could outnumber you and marines outnumbering you is a bad thing especially with guard.
And if I were you I'd lose the manticore, and take and infantry platoon but thats just my opinion.

[Julian Sharps]

Actually, I advise the opposite. Keep the Manticore; you'll need it for the insane number of pie plates that thing can drop.

Drop the heavy bolters on the Valks, they'll only slow them down, and that's the last thing you want with Valkyries. You might also want to consider putting in a few more Vendettas and an Astropath.

Not quite sure about the Russes, though. They're simply too slow to keep up with your airborne troops, and they're too expensive to leave babysitting your Manticore. You might also want to consider running a few extra vet squads.

At the same time, though, it would be interesting to see how well a hybrid mech/airborne list would do...

[hasdrubal]

I'm not convinced by the mass plasma, how about swapping another squad to melta weaponry and get them the demolitions doctrine for a large AP2 pie plate 1/game? That's be a wash if you get rid of the Heavy Bolter sponsons on their Valk.

Do you have a plan to protect your parking lot (Russes + Manticore) from deepstrikers and fast-moving AT (think Assault squads, podded dreadnaughts, land speeders)?

You may want to swap a Russ for an platoon to protect the 2 remaining tanks, especially the Manticore.

[Shostak(AWOL)]

Your Russes will kill lots of marines as they are, which is good; but they are also rather espensive; which is bad. I might run them bare bones just with a battle cannon and an HF, and then use the points you save from dropping the heavy bolters to get a cheap vet squad to sit on your home objective.

That's my 2 cents but I'm not an aircav player, I don't know if you've seen it but there's a very good aircav tactica written by one of our resident aircav experts in the tactics section. (I think).

[LemonKing]

good to see that you have the LRMBT, as you may have guessed it was designed to make marine players cry

what the other guys have said is pretty relevant, ideally you would have and infantry platoon, or 2 vet squads to protect you tanks and manticore, maybe a hybrid melta/plasma vet squad/s could do the trick (2 meltas to turn drop-pod dreads into slag, and 1 plasma gun and plasma pistol to give you slightly longer range Meq killing potential (the plasma+lasgun takes care of things like assault marines ( and i do realise that plasma pistol has 12" range ))) however it can be a bit of an investment, also, beware of deep striking terminators (4 powerfists min can bust tanks with ease!!)

just me rambling, and you probably shouldnt take this as serious game-winning advice, just my thoughts

also, always make sure to think carefully about your units strengths and weaknesses'. if you were trying to destroy your list, what would you target first? is it an easy decision? (if so you need to refine your list)

LemonKing