Grey's 2000 Point Air Cav

[grey]

Okay, so I introduced myself in the Beginner's Board. There I explained I will be forming an Air Cav army combining Elysian and Storm Trooper models. I have examined the models side-by-side and they appear to be fairly close in size, with the Stormies a little bigger due to the carapace armor. With a good color scheme it should be a good fit. Here's my list so far....

Strike Team 1
CCS with Astropath and OOF (Elysian Models) - 110 Points
Vet Squad with 3xPlas, Sgt w/ PlasP, Grenadiers (Storm Troopers) - 155 Points
Vet Squad with 3xMelta, Demo (Elysians), - 130 Points
Valk Squadron (3 Valks), ML and MRP - 390 Points

Strike Team 2
CCS (Elysians) - 50 Points
Vet Squad with 3xPlas, Sgt w/ PlasP, Grenadiers (Storm Troopers) - 155 Points
Vet Squad with 3xMelta, Demo (Elysians), - 130 Points
Valk Squadron (3 Valks), ML and MRP - 390 Points

Recon Unit
Infantry Platoon (All Elysian)
CCS w/ Al Rahem - 100 points
Infantry Squad - 50 Points
Infantry Squad - 50 Points

3x Scout Sents w/ AC - 120 Points

That according to AB, Totals 1830 points, so I have 170 to add war gear to the CCS's and the Infantry Platoon. The overall idea is that the Infantry Platoon, and their Sentinel support, is the "Pathfinder/Recon" unit, that has already gone in and fixed the enemy, and is calling in the strike section. Each strike team should be capable of going after and holding an objective each (at least that is the hope). The Pathfinder team will come in from a flank to provide support to the Strike teams. The Astropath increases my chances of bringing in the teams where I want them and more quickly, and the OOF is there to hopefully hold off the enemy reserves until I have dealt with the enemy at hand and have prepared for the reserves. The question is, of course, how best to equip the Infantry Platoon and the CCS's? I don't really want to do plasma, as the elysians in their flak will fail more overheats, but meltas may be too short ranged in the CCS's and Infantry platoons as they will generally be a bit back of the enemy lines. Ideas much welcomed.

[Julian Sharps]

Nice to see another airborne commander. With a little trimming you could make your entire list airborne (yes, the platoon too), and that's not really a bad thing. That said, here are a few changes I would make to your list if I were running it:

Firstly, the Officer of the Fleet has to go. I'm sorry, but in an airborne list where your guys will rarely come in all at once the last thing you want is to pick away at what your opponent has on the table and then suddenly get hit by all his reserves at once on turn 5 because you've been delaying them. -30 points from your total.

Secondly, I'm not exactly sure why you upgraded your carapace vet sergeants' pistols, but sergeant weapon upgrades are generally a waste of points (except for power fists, but I would really only give those to melta squads), and plasma pistols are expensive. -20 points.

Thirdly, while Al'Rahem happens to be my favorite platoon command section SC, he doesn't exactly strike me as being all that useful in an otherwise minimal platoon in a list where just about everything outflanks anyway. -70 points.

Fourthly, why do you have a squadron of Sentinels in an airborne list? It's taking up valuable Fast Attack slots for Valkyries! -120 points.

So, in total we're looking at 240 points in cuts, added to the 170 points you were under to begin with and you are now 410 points in the hole. Time for upgrades! I'd say go with a full squadron of Vendettas, but honestly I'm running out of ideas about what to do with the 20 points to spare, so instead of blabbering on about how I would change your list to meet my arcane requirements, I'll answer your question and make only a few minor alterations while leaving the core of your list unmolested.

I stand by what I said above about cutting the plasma pistols and the OoF, so that gives you an extra 50 points to chew on. If you made one of your CCSs with Storm Troopers, you could feasibly run a full plasma CCS in carapace for 130 points (or 160, if it happens to be the one with the Astropath) and make your other CCS (the Elysian one) your melta squad for 90 points base (although I would advise buying them krak grenades and a power fist for the commander, so you can kill tanks in an assault if you have to). See, range here isn't really an issue as you have such excellent mobility with your Valkyries that you can easily catch up to or corner whatever you're trying to kill (unless you're playing against Dark Eldar, but you have enough multilasers to deal with just about any vehicle they throw at you anyway).

So, that's an extra 120 points out of your 220 left over. Now, we want to make sure that your infantry platoon can kill things. It wouldn't hurt to give the command section a bunch of meltaguns, but if you're trying to save on points grenade launchers will do fine.

With your squads, on the other hand, you're going to want to be able to set up a firebase that makes your opponent think twice about attacking it. I've found that putting a grenade launcher and an autocannon in each infantry squad does nicely. If you gave Al'Rahem's squad four meltas, that leaves you with 30 points left over, which I would invest in Ratlings (very useful little guys, especially against MCs), but if you gave them grenade launchers, you have enough points to take a special weapons squad with grenade launchers as well.

Hope this helps.

[grey]

Thanks for all the input Julian! Before I even registered I was looking at all the tactical advice on the use of the valks that you and Rolling Thunder have put up. Nice to have one of the Guru's help me out on this.

I certainly see your point about the OOF, I had not considered that aspect of him at all. As far as giving one of the command squads carapace goes however, sadly, I only have six of the stormtrooper plasma models. I would need to have four more to give the ccs plasma and carapace. I may end up doing that later, as it is a great idea, but I'm still looking at having to buy the six valks, or nine if i can sneak it past the wife (not flipping likely). Krak grenades and powerfist for the commanders, Check! The Sents I will probably keep for now, as I already have the models, but hopefully I'll be able to expand the air component eventually to nine. The Sents, incidentally I plan on pairing with al'rahem's platoon (hopefully they'll come in together) and will be his heavy weapon support. The grenade launcher spam idea is probably my best option for now, when it comes his platoon. The ratlings are also a great idea, I hadn't even considered them! As they infiltrate they will fit right in with the theme of the army.

Thank you very much for responding, you've given me alot to chew on.

[Julian Sharps]

Not a problem. It's what I do.

[Rolling Thunder]

I always give my sergeant's plasma pistol's. 1 extra plasma round at close range is damn well worth it in my books. You're going in close and taking a hell of a risk with you're army. Skimping on a couple of plasma pistols is, in my opinion, more likely to lose you a good squad because you didn't kill enough enemy infantry in that initial volley than whatever the extra 20-50 points you save on it will buy you.

[genilyenovick]

Thunders got a good point, I buy power weapons for a similar reason, if they assault or god forbid I do. I like to have that maybe 1 or 2 no saves at my disposal. But it comes down to sixes, the extra points could squeeze in an extra bit of poky that could do the same job. At least Vet srg's are all BS4 so having the pistol means that you'll get the hit more often then not. I would almost keep the sentinels having a ground force at your disposal in small numbers can take off the pressure from the Valkyries, as well as maybe tie up a squad in close combat for a while, I love sentinels just for that reason.