Theme army advice, please!

[deadbeatbert]

Hi all,

I have been lurking for a bit and finally made an account today. Before I pose my question I'll say I've been playing since '88 and mostly know my stuff and fluff.

I haven't played IG for a few years and as my friends are starting a new ongoing campaign with 4+ players I thought I would go for a themed army just to see how it goes.

So... Mortar battery.

The 1500 point list I have come up with has 5 mortar squads, 2 basilisks for pie plate heaven and 2 Hydra Flak Tanks and a Leman Russ Punisher for dealing with Eldar skimmers and anything that gets into assault range of my troops.

I know this is probably a terrible idea but if anyone can give me some advice on how to flesh things out to keep all 5 mortar squads and both Basilisks and be able to stand up to a MEQ force I'd be most appreciative.

Left the list at home, so I'll post it in full when I get back from work.

Thanks in advance,

dbb

[The Hawk!]

Welcome to the ranks DBB Its good to have you here. I am Dave, the friendly neighbourhood Heretic. Paradill is the one to keep an eye on... He is a Khorne sort of fella

I'm not realy that much help here mate :/ But I'd like to take the oppertunity to welcome you here none the less I hope you enjoy your stay

Dave

[deadbeatbert]

Thanks, Dave. Seems like a cool place full of naughty, cheeky, heretics, so I should fit in just fine!

[Soap]

Welcome to the board!

Trooper, we need to review your performance here on gene sampling. Your outing your Xmas bonus at risk!

Anyway, welcome deadbeatbert. Love the idea of a mortar battery guard army. I expect most people would say use a standard leman Russ rather than the punisher, as its more use.

Have you thought about this sexy piece of mortar fun?
www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Imperial_Guard_Tanks/VANAHEIM-PATTERN-GRIFFON.html

I take it your using a full platoon (or two platoons with 3 and 2 squads?) look at making your troops more of a blob of las guns, and have a heavy weapons team with mortars separate. So now your blobs are free to take objectives, and your heavy weapons squads just sit there blowing the enemy up.

[deadbeatbert]

Hey Soap! Thanks for the input, it's greatly appreciated.

The plan is to take a Platoon Command Sqd, 2 blobs with Autocannons and vox casters for FRFSFR and then 5 Heavy Weapons Squads to give me 15 templates to play with in barrage template form. I'll then take a vet squad for the second troop choice and give them GL or Meltas

The Punisher (w/ HB sponsons) is there to act as an ordnance draw and assault deterrent more than anything else, but as a cheaper alternative I certainly give the standard LR a go.

Also, is the Master of Ordnance worth the 30 points? I think so for the pie plate, though the extra scatter worries me a little, especially if the enemy closes in quickly.

EDIT:

Griffons... me like! My love for the Basilisk outweighed the idea of Griffons so I had some more range to deal with anything shooty sitting back in the distance.

[zeke]

The only problem I have with the Basilisk is the minimum range.

What exactly is your full army list?

[Soap]

Mar 7, 2013 16:27:44 GMT -5 deadbeatbert said:

5 Heavy Weapons Squads to give me 15 templates to play with in barrage template form.

That would be better than sex if I wasn't so damn good!

Vets you could stick in a chimera with meta spam. That's quite a common tactic.

What about one basilisk and one griffon? Best of both worlds.

[deadbeatbert]

Zeke -

I'll post a comprehensive list in about 3 hours when I get home, but I have a good handle on what I have... so, off the top of my head:

HQ -

CCS w/ Master of Ordnance, Medic, Vox, GL

Lord Commissar

Troop choice 1 -

Platoon Command w/ Commissar vox and Mortar or GLs

Troop A w/ vox and Autocannon

Troop B w/ vox and Autocannon

Hvy Sqd C

3x Mortar

Hvy Sqd D

3x Mortar

Hvy Sqd E

3x Mortar

Hvy Sqd F

3x Mortar

Hvy Sqd G

3x Mortar

Troop Choice 2 -

Vet Squad with vox and meltas or GL (undecided)


Heavy 1

2x Basilisk w/ cammo netting

Heavy 2

2x Hydra Flak Tanks w/ cammo netting

Heavy 3

Leman Russ Punisher w/ HB sponsons



Tactics -

This is a kill zone army, so I have to draw the enemy into my field of fire for it to be effective. The Punisher and squishy troops are the main lure.

Basilisks set as far back as possible with minimum range to be 12 inches ahead of front line.

One Hydra on each flank to counter skimmers and hoardes

Punisher dead center to deter assault

Front line - vets and troops w/ PCS and CCS just behind for order range.

Back line - All mortars spread out to create kill zone arc in front of main line.

Line up:

--------------Troop 1 Vets Troop 2 Punisher

Hydra-------------CCS -------PCS ---------------Hydra

------------------Mortars one through five

----------------------------Basilisks

(I can't remember if I have to have unit cohesion for the Hydras, if so they will take one flank and I'll move the Punisher over to the other, but close enough to move up and cover the far edge of the furthest front line troop unit.)


Soap - All of those templates is so saucy, right?! I'll make a new list up with an Griffon and Basilisk, and another with two Griffons. The good thing is with this campaign we are using maptools so I can switch out whatever I like as I won't have to buy the actual models.

[deadbeatbert]

Here's the link to my theme army list: commissar.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=armylist&thread=17128

It's a Praetorian force for that Victorian/Welsh Expeditionary Force feel. Being the fluff monster I am I have named every soldier and am working on the look of the Regiment and history, as well. (I'm an ex-artilleryman and have been wanting to do this for a long time.)

[WestRider]

Oh, gods. Please don't, your Opponents will hate you.

Not because it's overpowered or anything (tho it's far from weak), but because working out Multiple Barrages in 6th is a major pain in the tuckus, and each of your Shooting Phases is going to take like an hour.

[deadbeatbert]

We're going to use 5th ed with a few of the 6th ed rules, keeping 5th ed rules for barrages. We also have macros in place to automatically resolve dice rolls. All I have to do is place templates and macro roll scatter.

There is no way I would even think of giving this a go otherwise!

[WestRider]

If you're using 5th for that part, it's fine, then. Even with help on the Scatter, the Wound Allocation coming off the center of each Blast in a Multiple Barrage makes them a nightmare.

[egon]

First of all, drop the Punisher, it sucks donkey-ass (see what I did there?) and get a standard Russ or if you can afford it, a Plasmacutioner (which will scare TEQ/MEQ armies).

Also, drop the vox casters, they aren't worth the points.

And yes, the Hydras have to be in cohesion.

[deadbeatbert]

Excellent, thanks for the advice, egon. Is it worth keeping the Lord Commissar on a static force or should I add another Griffon / Russ?

I'll rework the list tonight.

[deadbeatbert]

Had my first battle and curse my luck I drew Necrons!

No lascannons and nothing powerful enough to do anything but glance the Monolith (I hit it 12 times - couldn't buy a 6!) But my word that was so much fun! I did some reading and changed things around with the list, dropping the lord commissar and Plasma cannon sponsons on one tank to get me a regimental banner , 2 tactical squads and a few ratling snipers to target independent characters.

5 Mortar squads, 3 Griffons, Master of Ordnance and 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks. blast template heaven! The macros determined scatter / hit in proper barrage form and the time saved was incredible. 20 templates a turn no less.

It would have been over by turn 4 if those pesky Necrons didn't get back up and I ended up winning by one VP on turn 7 by wiping out the last two Necron Warriors of my mate's troop choice in close assault with a standard blob.

Would have taken all day to play on a table, but in maptools with decent macros we played 7 turns in a little under 3 hours.

[treadiculous]

Your theme army is very close to what I frequently use,

Starting with 5 mortars I add a platoon of 5 squads each with missile launcher and grenade launcher.. and the platoon command squad has 4 grenade launchers...this means that this platoon puts out 19 templates.

I like to field 2 company command squads and sometimes 2 master of ordnance.

Add a few basalisk and a meatshield platoon to provide a cover screen / counter assault unit for the indirect elements and hte army is complete.

The plasmacutioner is probably good advice as it'll cream MEQ's, though the basalisk is also AP3 but suffers from low 12AV, while the 'cutioner carries a full AV14.

One day I'd love to make a trench system display for this army...

[deadbeatbert]

Hi guys so I have a couple of games and here is what I have seen:

Blast template heaven is HEAVEN. The mortar squads perfom very well for their cost, dropping the basilisks for three Griffons was the best change I could have made. They are my all round star performers, especially if I get units pinned in my kill zone.

I wanted to try the Punisher for myself. I have heard massive complaints about points cost versus what it does. But I like to make my own mind up about these things. I took it against a Tyranid force I knew would be fielding deep strike spores and Monstrous Creatures. It took out a spore, the Zoanthropes it dropped and his 310 point HQ. I'd say he made a bit of an impact. Caveat - I did use Pask in there, w/ heavy bolter sponsons and a stubber. It's a situational weapon that was useless against the Necrons I faced as well.

I think it would be good to front down a Edlar War Walker squadron that outflanks, using Pask's crack shot, and then sit back and rain down on incoming Eldar troops and elites. it is very expensive, but the shock aspect made up for it in my book.

[WestRider]

The best way I've found to illustrate the problems with the Punisher is to run one of them and an Exterminator in the same list, for a few Games against a variety of Armies. The Exterminator comes in 30 Points cheaper, and ends up being much more useable in a lot of situations.

Girffons are f***ing awesome, tho. I've only got two, want to get around to getting a third.

[Soap]

Think I need some griffons. GW make them plastic!

[vegna]

Soap the rummors thread is saying the imperial guard will get an update late i nthe year/ early next year and expect guns. BIG guns...

As above the punisher isn't a bad tank, it's just over priced for what other tanks can do better.

[Paradill]

What Vegna said (in regard to the multi par plastic kits that allow you to build a variety of tanks big guns)

Imagine making any chimera chassis vehicle from just two kits. That would be cool.

[Soap]

That would not be cool. It would be very sexy!