Bastions

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These Bastion kits are so modular they almost make it too easy...

Incoming Mail - Drop Pod Marines

E-Mail in :

Hello, I'm from your local games-workshop and follow your website. I was looking for advice on this list i am writing, I was hoping you would be able to help me.

1750- Drop Pod

Captain @ 170pts

Relic blade, Artificer armour, Digi weapons, storm shield.

Master Of The Forge @ 100

Tactical squad @ 225

Melta, Rocket, Power weapon, Drop pod

Tactical squad @ 225

Melta, Rocket, Power weapon, Drop pod

Tactical squad @ 230

flamer, Rocket, Power Fist, Drop pod

Dreadnought @165

Heavy flamer, Extra armour, Drop pod

Dreadnought @165

Heavy flamer, Extra armour, Drop pod

Ironclad Dreadnought @ 180

Heavy flamer, Drop pod

Ironclad Dreadnought @ 180 Heavy flamer, Drop pod

Landspeeder @ 70

Multi-melta, Heavy flamer

Landspeeder @

70 Multi-melta, Heavy flamer

Landspeeder @ 70

Multi-melta, Heavy flamer

Thanks,

Louis Snazle

Reply :

Happy to help.

I'm presuming your intention is to drop 4 Dreadnoughts in your opponents face on turn 1 and then have the Tactical Squads come in later and 'mop-up'.

This is a perfectly viable way of doing such a list but there are a few things we can do to optimise things a bit more.

A few points.

1) If you'd really like a Captain geared up for assault then you can get Vulkan for only 20 points more and he will have the added benefit of making your Flamer and Melta weapons twin-linked.

2) If your landing a Dreadnought in somebodies face then 9 times out of 10 it'll be in short range for your opponents Melta weapons and an average roll will kill an Ironclad just as dead as it will a normal Armour 12 Dreadnought. Also, It's entirely possible for your Drop Pod to scatter far enough away from a vehicle target that you'll be outside of short range with an Ironclad's Meltagun but that is much less likely with a Multi-Melta armed standard Dread.

3) Dreadnoughts don't really need Extra Armour unless they're designed for running into Assault and need to avoid being 'stunned'.

4) Your Tactical Squads are equipped with an odd mix of weaponry (though I can see what you were thinking with the Missile Launchers). I'd stick with Flamer + Multi-Melta and not bother with the Power Weapons and Power Fists. Marines aren't that good in a fight against anything that is designed for assault and anything that isn't they can tie up just fine on their own.

5) The Landspeeders will probably work best if you Deep Strike them in later and it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about them scattering so Locator Beacons on the 'first wave' of Drop Pods may be a good idea.

So we can either have a Vulkan list that has very reliable weaponry or a non-Vulkan list that has more stuff in it.

Personally I'd use Vulkan as he'll make your first strike more reliable due to the fact that your Multi-Meltas will be rerolling to hit and your Flamers will be rerolling to wound ;-)

1750 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Vulkan Drop Pod List

HQ: Forgefather Vulkan He'stan (1#, 190 pts)

1 Forgefather Vulkan He'stan @ 190 pts

1 Kesare's Mantle

HQ: Master of the Forge (1#, 100 pts)

1 Master of the Forge @ 100 pts

1 Servo Harness

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Heavy Support: Dreadnought (2#, 150 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 150 pts (Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 70 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 70 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 70 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)

Total Roster Cost: 1745

One Dreadnought has had to go without a Heavy Flamer but just don't send that one after infantry and you'll be fine. If you want Ironclads then you'll have to sacrifice a Landspeeder but I wouldn't bother for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Of course that isn't the only way of doing it.

If you ditch the Landspeeders altogether it's entirely possible to have a 5 Dreadnought Drop Pod Assault with 4 Tactical Squads in support.

1750 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Vulkan Drop Pod List - 5 Dreads

HQ: Master of the Forge (1#, 100 pts)

1 Master of the Forge @ 100 pts

1 Servo Harness

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Heavy Support: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Heavy Support: Dreadnought (2#, 160 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 160 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)

1 Drop Pod (Locator Beacon; Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Drop Pod)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Total Roster Cost: 1720

That leaves you 30 points to use for upgrades on the Sergeants or some gear for the Master of the Forge or whatever else you fancy. It lacks the Vulkan 'safety net' but other Marines seem to do fine without him, lol.

Hope that's given you some ideas, If you want any more info either leave a comment or send me another E-Mail.

Thoughts, Comments and offers of money are (as usual) most welcome.

UKGT - January

I've bought my ticket now and am therefore somewhat committed to going to the UKGT 'Throne of Skulls' in January.

I had a test game with the list against James's Imperial Guard semi-mech list and managed to beat it even taking into account the fact that I forgot to deploy my Landspeeders and then forgot to roll for them all game, Doh. So I effectively won with a 1290 point list, lol.

We then used a fair bit of proxying to make James's list more effective and had a game at 1750 which ended in a draw. I have official permission from James to blame the dice for the fact that I didn't win but it was a fun game non the less :-)

Anyway, back to the army...

The 'Basic' colour scheme is done and I've used a Chaos Teminator Sorcerer to keep in theme with my Terminators. There's still a hell of a lot of painting to do to make it look presentable as several of the models I'm using were either painted in a rush or done a looooooonnnnnggggg time ago...

The 'Night Reapers' 1500 point Assault Force.

The Terminators and 'Sorceror' (Counts-As Librarian).

I plan on building an impressive base for the Librarian but for now he's 'White-Tacked' to a base.

Combat Squad 1.

These guys get no upgrades at all at 1500 points and to be honest probably won't get any at higher points values either. The 'Sergeant' needs squad markings and some highlighting. The squad needs tidying up a little, maybe a wash and the Bolter barrels drilling out.

The 'Riflemen'.

These Dreadnoughts get drafted in when I play at 1750 and don't really need any work on them other than perhaps a bit of highlighting and a wash or 2.

A week or so of painting should be all they need to get the army Tournament ready which will give me shit-loads of time for playtesting.

Comments, Advice, Insults about my painting are (As Usual) most welcome.*

* Except for comments about my painting which I'm the first to admit is basic but at least I don't go over the lines ;-)

Skaven Project - Even more progress

Movement trays based* and the Stormvermin's mould lines (for the most part) removed.

* Or should that be rimmed as I haven't put sand on the base as such? Actually I'm sure rimmed means something else completely...I'll stick with 'based' I think...

Tomorrow I start basing this lot.

4 lots of 'Island of Blood' and a Skaven battalion give you a shitload of Clanrats to mess around with. Of course due to the way the Island of Blood Skaven are moulded there isn't a lot you can do with them other than assemble them as GW intended, which means I have more spare musicians and Standard Bearers than I'm ever likely to need.

Also, the observant among you may have noticed that my Clanrat movement trays are built one row longer than I actually need.

There are 2 reasons for this,

1) I don't like having 1 guy plonked on the outer edge of the tray when a Hero or Lord displaces someone from the unit.

2) I may use them as 50's occasionally and I don't want to build another 5 movement trays.

They'll all be magnetised eventually so there shouldn't be an issue with them sliding about.

Editors Note : I'll probably revert to '40K' mode tomorrow with the promised 'Foot' Guard Battle Report.

Stormvermin progressing nicely...

5 hours of assembly and basing equals...

I'd probably have got more done but I got distracted by an episode of House and a couple of episodes of Criminal Intent...

After carefully weighing up the amount of extra work it'll involve I've decided to turn my half-arsed attempt at Fantasy into a set of 'Project' posts along the same lines as the Tyranid Project I posted (and will be returning to sometime in the future). With any luck it will have the same amusing mixture of tactical brilliance and total incompetence that characterized my other 'I'll make the mistakes so you don't have to' posts.

Skaven Progress.

So I've been using a list based around some suggestions of Steleks on YTTH for using the Skaven from the Island of Blood box.

The suggestion was to use the 'Spearmen' from that box as minimum sized Stormvermin units in order to utilise as many Weapon Teams from that box as possible. Trading the High Elf 'half' of 2 boxes for the Skaven 'half' of 2 boxes has got me 4 'Island of Blood's' worth of Skaven which in turn has meant I now have 8 weapon teams.

Of course I then made the mistake of looking at somebodies Stormvermin and instantly deciding that I wanted to use the proper models.

I'm now £120 worse off but am infinitely more happy regardless ;-)

This also means I now have 2 units of 40 Clanrats armed with Spears and Shields to utilise as they're no longer needed to pretend they're Stormvermin and I also have the option of fielding 2 units of 40 Stormvermin should the desire ever occur.

Which leads me neatly to a picture of the 'progress' I mentioned...

Once every-things assembled I'll take some pictures of the whole army in all it's unbased non under-coated glory, lol.

Much to do!!!

No, I haven't disappeared, been abducted by Dark Eldar or been replaced by a less evil duplicate.

Unfortunately doing hobby occasionally uses up the same time I'd normally spend talking about the hobby, lol.

Apparently my brilliant plan to avoid 'Hobby Apathy' of doing about 10 projects at once had a rather major drawback...Which obviously was that I'm not actually bloody finishing anything.

I did fit in a game of 40K with my 1500 point Imperial Guard List during which I made mistakes of such magnitude that it made my first game with my Tyranids seem almost professional...I will of course be doing a Battle Report of that game sometime in the next few days so you can all laugh at my deployment and then despair at my poor target priority.

I've also played a 2000 point game of Fantasy with (Some of) my Skaven vs. Ogres which I only remembered to take 1 picture of and therefore will not be doing a battle report of. It however can be summarised like this...Skaven Weapon Teams are awesome till they explode killing everything around them ;-)

Also, I've been thinking about 'Mathshammer' and some of the problems that come from trying to apply it to 'Playhammer'. The main issue being that dice only roll whole numbers which screws with some of the probabilities that I've been taking for granted up to now...A blog post will be forthcoming on that subject towards the end of the week.

Back to Plan A.

One job at a Fucking time.

Job 1

Finish assembling Skaven - I have to build another 60 Stormvermin, which I'll be starting as soon as I've finished this post ;-)

Basing Skaven - Tomorrow should see that job done. Hopefully I'll have time to undercoat them as well.

The Skaven will then have to wait till I've done some 40K projects before they'll get to see a paintbrush.

Job 2

I have an Apocalypse game to finish organising for early next month. Part of that organisation is going to involve painting some models that I'm lending to people and building 'Objective 7'...

Job 3

Tournament preparation - I'm definitely going to the 'Throne of Skulls' tournament in January so I'll need to get some practice in with my 1500 point Marine army. There's a 1750 tournament a few months later that I fancy going to but I'll probably take my Tyranids to that as it will at least motivate me to actually paint them.

That should keep me out of trouble for a bit with the added benefit of providing me some stuff to blog about.

Of course there's also the added distraction of Dark Eldar models being fucking gorgeous and trying to work out ways of crowbarring them into my other armies as I can't afford to do a new army from scratch :-(

Oh, and as a reward for hanging around checking my blog here's a picture of some oriental girl who apparently thinks your awesome...

UKGT - 1500 point IG

My friend James is planning on going to a GT early next year along with a few others (me included).

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) with so many choices in the Imperial Guard it's difficult to narrow down exactly what he wants and/or needs.

First lets see what he has available,

3 Chimeras,

2 Vendettas,

3 Leman Russ,

60 Guardsmen,

3 Commissars,

5 Ratlings.

Also he'd (obviously) like to keep any additional purchases to a minimum.

Lets have a look at a variation I'd personally like to use and see if we can do it within James's parameters...

1500 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - IG - 1500 - UKGT

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 125 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 125 pts (Meltagun x2)

1 Company Commander

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Vendetta

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Vendetta

Heavy Support: Ordnance Battery (1#, 135 pts)

1 Ordnance Battery @ 135 pts

1 Medusa (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Ordnance Battery (1#, 135 pts)

1 Ordnance Battery @ 135 pts

1 Medusa (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (3#, 225 pts)

1 Hydra Flak Tank Battery @ 225 pts

1 Hydra Flak Tank

1 Hydra Flak Tank

1 Hydra Flak Tank

Total Roster Cost: 1500

So to do this he'd need to buy,

5 Chimeras - that's 2 more as transports and 3 to use as the basis for Hydra's - £100

2 Basilisks - To use as Medusa's - £60

Meltaguns - the Metal Space Marine ones can be made to fit Guardsmen relatively easily as I've done so myself several times. - 2 packs (10 Meltaguns) - £13

Hydra Guns - The cheapest way of doing this is to buy 'Aegis Defence Lines' and use the Quad guns which would be £15 x3 so £45

Unfortunately that comes to £218 at Games Workshop prices which may be more than he wants to spend.

Cost Reduction Options.

1) Dont buy from GW - I apologise to my friends who work for GW with this one, but you can get stuff at up to 15% cheaper (maybe more) from other stockists. Even taking P+P into account this could save you a good £20+

2) Drop one of the Hydra's - Therefore saving yourself a Chimera and an Aegis Defence line (£35 total) and spend the points on your Ratling unit and a few extra upgrades for the Command Squad.

3) Scrounging - See if you can find people who already have Hydras but haven't glued the turrets on and borrow theirs. The colours probably won't match but at least the Chimera chassis will match the rest of your army.

The other option is to keep a 'core' of armour and use Guardsmen as an Infantry Platoon as 'Bubblewrap'. I'll have a think about it and see if I can come up with something...

Thoughts, Comments and additional input are (as usual) most welcome.

UKGT - Decision Time.

So I've decided to go with this,

1500 Pts - Space Marines Roster - UKGT List

HQ: Space Marine Librarian (1#, 140 pts)

1 Space Marine Librarian @ 140 pts (...in Terminator Armour; Null Zone; The Gate of Infinity)

1 ...in Terminator Armour (Storm Shield)

This guy gives me the ability to move my squad around via 'Gate' and Null Zone is a no-brainer choice for the 2nd power. The Terminator Armour and Storm Shield should give him a bit more survivability and he'll obviously be hanging out with the Assault Terminators.

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (10#, 400 pts)

9 Terminator Assault Squad @ 400 pts (Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield x9)

1 Sergeant (Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield x1)

10 2+/3+ Save guys with a weapon that wounds virtually everything I'm likely to face (including Tyranid MC's) on 2's. Slow if 'Gate' is nullified but they'll get there eventually regardless.

Troops: Tactical Squad (6#, 165 pts)

4 Tactical Squad @ 165 pts (Razorback)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Razorback (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Tactical Squad (6#, 165 pts)

4 Tactical Squad @ 165 pts (Razorback)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Razorback (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Tactical Squad (6#, 165 pts)

4 Tactical Squad @ 165 pts (Razorback)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Razorback (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

So 3 scoring units and a fair bit of fire-power. These will be hiding behind the Predators for the most part but fortunately their turrets can see over the body of the Predators fairly easily.

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 70 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 70 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 70 pts (Multi-Melta x1; Heavy Flamer x1)

I've tried lists with minimal or no Melta in them and inevitably end up playing against a tri-Land Raider list the very next game. Landspeeders equipped this way can threaten most things and double as 'distraction' units or last minute objective contesters.

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)

1 Predator @ 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)

1 Predator @ 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)

1 Predator @ 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))

85 points for 2 S7 + 6 S5 shots on a front armour 13 platform is a bargain by anybodies standards....Best take 3 then.

Total Roster Cost: 1500

3 Scoring Units, 14 Kill Points.

Thoughts, Comments and ideas for last minute 'tweaks' are (as usual) most welcome.

UKGT - List Option 5 - Ironclads

A while ago I put forward an 1850 point list that basically revolved around Spamming Ironclads by virtue of a Master of the Forge with back up from Typhoons and Las/Plas Razorbacks.

It's here for reference purposes.

My problem was that I was unconvinced of it's viability at 1500 points as I was sure it needed the support units to make it work.

However with a bit of tweaking and the resurrection of the 'MotF c/w Conversion Beamer with Camo Cloak Scouts' from the original 'Best-Of' Marine list I think it might just work.

1500 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Ironclads

HQ: Master of the Forge (1#, 120 pts)

1 Master of the Forge @ 120 pts (Conversion Beamer)

Troops: Scout Squad (5#, 100 pts)

4 Scout Squad @ 100 pts (Camo Cloaks; Sniper Rifle x3; Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant (Camo Cloaks; Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

Troops: Tactical Squad (6#, 175 pts)

4 Tactical Squad @ 175 pts (Razorback)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Razorback (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Hunter Killer Missile; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Tactical Squad (6#, 175 pts)

4 Tactical Squad @ 175 pts (Razorback)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Razorback (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Hunter Killer Missile; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Elite: Ironclad Dreadnought (1#, 155 pts)

1 Ironclad Dreadnought @ 155 pts (Hunter-Killer Missile(s) x2)

Elite: Ironclad Dreadnought (1#, 155 pts)

1 Ironclad Dreadnought @ 155 pts (Hunter-Killer Missile(s) x2)

Elite: Ironclad Dreadnought (1#, 155 pts)

1 Ironclad Dreadnought @ 155 pts (Hunter-Killer Missile(s) x2)

Heavy Support: Ironclad Dreadnought (1#, 155 pts)

1 Ironclad Dreadnought @ 155 pts (Hunter-Killer Missile(s) x2)

Heavy Support: Ironclad Dreadnought (1#, 155 pts)

1 Ironclad Dreadnought @ 155 pts (Hunter-Killer Missile(s) x2)

Heavy Support: Ironclad Dreadnought (1#, 155 pts)

1 Ironclad Dreadnought @ 155 pts (Hunter-Killer Missile(s) x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1500

It has pretty good 'Alpha-Strike' potential with the 14 Hunterkillers though it is a bit low on Troops (which is why the Scout Squad has made a comeback).

Of all the potential GT lists I've posted this is the one I'm least sure of as it has the inevitable weaknesses that all 'themed' lists are usually cursed with.

It is what it is, I suppose....

Constructive comments are (as usual) most welcome.