First stab at 1500 point Air Cav

[lunchmoney]

HQ:
Lord Commissar
power weapon, carapace armor, melta bombs

Troops:
Vet Squad
3x melta, demolition doctrine
Vet Squad
3x melta, demolition doctrine
vet squad
3x plasma gun, sent doctrine
vet squad
3x plasma gun, sent doctrine

Elites:
Storm Trooper (10man)
Power weap, plasma pistol, 2x plasma guns

Fast Attack:
Vendetta Squadron (2)
heavy bolters
Vendetta Squadron (2)
heavy bolters

Rough Riders (7man)
melta bomb

Any suggestions would be helpful. I rather like the storm troopers, but wouldn't be adverse to switching the weapons around a bit. I also don't know that sent doctrine is worth it, or the bolters on the vendettas. The rough riders were kind of an afterthought because I had a few points left after the rest of the list was made.

[Shostak(AWOL)]

A pretty sound list really. I would advise that you make the stormies 2 sqauds of 5 with 2x meltas, for suicide tank hunting. I'd also suggest getting rid of the door guns on the vens, and swapping 2 of them out valks with MRPs, these are far better at hunting infantry. Put the melta vets in the valks and the plasma ones in the vens.

I can see why you took an LC, but he's not necessarily your best option. His aura of LD buff doesn't really do much, and that's one of his great strengths. I might take a CCS with 4x meltas, or 4x plasmas with a plasma pistol if you can find the points.

Also, I might give the plasma vets grenadiers rather than forward sentries, as it'll help with overheats and protect them from bolter fire.

Kudos to you for taking rough riders, but their not the most tactical option. If you like them I'd say stick with them, but maybe cut the number down to five.

Finally, consider how you might control your home objectives. I might replace one vet squad with a 3x GL, ML and forward sentries squad, and fill the other valk/ven with a CCS. This wilkl give you, a nice home objective holding squad, that can spend the game hunkered down in cover.

If you're into air cav, check out the tactics forum, and a thread by one of our resident experts (RT), called operation Rolling thunder. It's stickied, so you shouldn't have to go far.

EDIT. A sample list I knocked up.

CCS: 'pace 4x PG 1x PP 140
(goes in a ven and shoots stuff).

Vets: forward sentries 3x GL, 1xML 130
(Hides in a bush on the home objective, firepower lets it worry the enemy at range).

Vets: Grenadiers, 3x PG 1x PP 155

Vets: Grenadiers, 3x PG 1x PP 155

Vets: Demos, 3x melta 130

Stormies: 2x melta 105

Stormies: 2x melta 105
(Angry deep striking suicide squads).

Valk squadron: 2x valks, MRPs 260

Ven squadron: 2x vens 260

5 Rough Riders: melta bombs 60
(Chaaaarge)!!!

1500

Or, if you're not bothered about the riders, get rid of them, make the valks seperate units, get rid of all the plasma pistols, give the CCS 2x GLs and and AC, swapping the 'pace for camo, and buy another demo melta squad. Use the CCS to camp alongside the defensive vet squad, and put the demo vets in their valk.

Hope this helps.

Note. I'm not the best list writer, or the most experienced player. I would defer to most other gamers on this forums advice, but have tried to suggest a list to the best of my ability that works with your ideas and what you want to use. This is not an ultra optimised list that I have suggested.

[Julian Sharps]

lunchmoney: The only problem I have with your list is that it'll probably struggle against hordes. Shostak's modified list looks more promising, though.

However, I would honestly suggest dropping the Rough Riders and one squad of Stormies and replacing them with a Manticore. Fantastic against hordes, decent enough against armor and it'll support your stealth vets nicely.

[krasimirova]

Listen to shostaks advice.. It is sound and keeps the theme..

It is a very all or nothing kinda army, so either you win by turn 1 or 2.. Or you get kicked in the teeth by the dice gods..

Sure the Manticore is a nice tank, but on its own it will quickly be brought down by the enemy dedicated ranged anti tank fire.. So unless your gaming group has a good amount of buildings that can cover the Manticore 100% then I'd leave it at home..

The Rough riders suck.. They are only I5, so most dangerous assault things will strike before the RR's.. They where bad before DE, GK and FAQ updates.. Now they arn't bad anymore.. They are useless and they suck.. Sorry..:/

[Julian Sharps]

Sept 6, 2011 9:46:06 GMT -5 krasimirova said:

Sure the Manticore is a nice tank, but on its own it will quickly be brought down by the enemy dedicated ranged anti tank fire.. So unless your gaming group has a good amount of buildings that can cover the Manticore 100% then I'd leave it at home..

Which is why it's supported by his stealther vets. With the rest of his force going for the jugular, it should force his opponent to make difficult target priority decisions.

[krasimirova]

Supporting a single tank with infantry isn't gonna do alot of good in a 1500 point game.. It is still gonna get targeted by all the anti armor fire he has, and in a world where Mech is king it will die, even with that 4+ cover save..

*And i am pretty sure the Plasma vets will go into a Valk/Detta, properbly he isn't aware of how useless Sentries is in a mounted veteran squad.. And since there is room in his transports for all his units (Save RR and ST's) I am quite sure that is what he wants with them.. Sorry to Lunchmoney if this isn't correctly obsereved.

What you can do with the Manticore is reserve it along with your Valk/Dettas then move it onto the board and fire directly, giving you a stronger beta strike than if you only hade the valks/Detta's outflank.. Now it is better to hide it 100% from view, that gives you 1 more turn of shooting

So yes if you know you'll have turn 1, or you know the board has large LOS blocking buildings, bring the Manticore, otherwise you'll have to beta strike it.. (If you use the current force of the topic holder or the much better force of Shostak)

Kras..

[lunchmoney]

Wow guys, thanks for all the input. That about covers everything pretty good. I'll put it all together and let you guys know how it works out.

[lunchmoney]

Okay, so my finalized list ended up looking identical to that proposed by Mr. Shostak, with the exception that I dumped the riders and plasma pistols and took a lord commissar w/melta bombs. (Mostly because I lurve commissars and my heart felt empty without one, but also because it spared me from buying the roughriders and let me use the commissar I already had...also, someone has to keep those unruly flyboys in line... )

I'm pleased to report that the list was a rousing success, force-feeding the Emperor's justice to a highly mobile tau cadre, damn their so-called "Greater Good" to the Warp, in their debut. I will try to write up a more detailed battle report later, but suffice it to say they felt the Thunder.

Thanks again for everyone's input.