A few things at once

[phoenix0879]

First things first, hi guys and gals of the Guard, I'm brand new here and my name is Carl. A little history: I am an old hand at 40k, having played since 2nd edition. However, due to a variety of circumstances (my local gaming club closing, the nearest GW being 20 miles away by public transport and its games night being on a work night for me *and* the friend I played with at his place regularly up and moving across the country to Wales) I stopped playing just as 5th edition launched. Having recently moved and coming face to face with just how MUCH 40k (I have a substantial Guard army, Space Marines, Tau, Tyranids, Necrons, bits of Eldar and a Lizardmen force for Fantasy) stuff I have I decided to get back into the hobby.

I've found a club in a nearby town that suits me well and I've got a couple of games in, but this is my first big one coming up. 2000 points of my IG versus Dark Angels. My last game at 1500 was just before the new codex launched and though it went well, I'd like some input on my 2000 point list, I have three possible variations (I've included the total points for each list at the end, but nothing else). I'm trying to build a reasonably balanced list that can tackle most opponents with very little modification. There is a little bit of wargear (mostly whatever is on the models), but not a great deal - I invariably forget about whatever I've put on a character so I don't use it, preferring to use the points to put more men on the table rather than a fancy piece of kit that I'll forget to use lol

1:

Company Cmd Sqd, meltagun


Tank Cmdr, Vanquisher w. Lascannon & HB sponsons. 2 x Russ w. L.cannon & HB sponsons.


Plt Cmd Sqd, plasma gun. Commissar. 3 x Infantry Sqd w. P. gun, M. launcher: P. gun, M. launcher: G. launcher, H. Bolter. Heavy Weapon sqd, 3 x lascannon.


Plt Cmd Sqd, G. launcher. 3 x Inf Sqd w. G. launcher, H. bolter: G. launcher, M. launcher: G. launcher, lascannon. Hvy Wep sqd, 3 x autocannon. Spec wep sqd, 3 x sniper rifle.


3 Armoured Sentinels w. Lascannons (individual units, not a squadron).


LR exterminator w. HB sponsons.


Basilisk.


Lightning Strike fighter.

(2001 pts)



2:

As above, with the following changes:


Comp cmd sqd NO meltagun.


Tank cmd vanquisher & ONE Russ.


Vet Sqd, 2 G launcher and Chimera.


Basilisk OUT and the Russ that was in cmd sqd in 1 now a HS choice, to allow more target choice.

(2006 pts, a slight overrun)



3:

As 1, with the following changes:


Cmd sqd, no meltagun.


1 cmd sqd Russ moved to HS.


Enginseer.


Vet sqd, 2 G launcher, Chimera.


Lightning OUT.

(1986 pts)



Any input or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Julian Sharps]

If possible, I would advise dropping the sponsons and lascannon upgrades to the Russes. While the lascannon can be helpful if you have a Techpriest running around (since he can give a vehicle Power of the Machine Spirit for a turn), the sponsons are mostly going to be a waste of points as even Heavy vehicles can only fire snap shots with their other weapons if they fire an Ordnance weapon that turn, and you'll want to keep firing that battle cannon. If you do this, you'll be able to upgrade your Tank Commander to Pask, which is well worth the points.

I'm not sure how much the Lightning costs, but I personally would take that over a Basilisk since against Dark Angels, you'll most likely need the air support more than the artillery since you're already bringing a pair of vanilla Russes to the table. If possible, I also advise finding the points for an Aegis Defense Line; for the price of a bare-bones infantry squad, you get a line of cover that you can place (mostly) however you want.

Hope that helps!

[phoenix0879]

Thanks for the feedback, I got bloodied and lost, but it was not bad considering the new DA character (Baliel? Something like that) he included let him dump a lot of deepstriking Termies in the back of my lines without scattering, negating many of my tanks in the first turn through shooting them in the rear! We ended up with Purge the Alien, which meant he actually got most of his VP's from things like linebreaker, taking out my tanks and so on, as he didn't eliminate a single complete infantry choice. I took out his warlord and a few other bits. Had I got first turn things might have been very different with pie plates flying freely. But that's the fickle nature of the dice gods - the last time we played, I practically wiped him out thanks to first turn and an unlucky deepstrike mishap that let me put a Termie squad in the far corner of the table lol

As for the sponsons, that's dictated purely by the models, most of which were built back in third and fourth edition days when even a glancing hit could take out a weapon and leave you with an expensive rolling piece of terrain so the more weapons the better lol I have exactly one LR hull with no sponsons. I also don't have any aegis models. The next time I'll just layer my set up so that there is no way he can dump stuff in my lines.