Thursday, December 29, 2011

1250pts

so I'm gearing up for a 1250pt tourney in January and this is what I've come up with.
literally just two troops and an HQ, this army is entirely on foot.

I'm hoping to use the special weapons team and the Colonels squad to counter attack anything that approaches, while the platoon blobs on a home objective and uses the autocannons to thin the enemies ranks. the melta-guns provide an incentive for the enemy to stay away with their transports and finally the penal squad will hopefully sneak in on a board edge and cause trouble or contest/capture objectives.

not the strongest build by any measure but with 70+ bodies 13 las-cannons 4 autocannons 5 meltas and 12 power weapon attacks from the blob it should prove a headache for any list.



1250pts
HQ:
Company Command Squad
Col.Soulban (counts as straken)
Regimental banner
Vox caster
Medic
Melta-gun

Troops:
Fen-Guard scouts(penal legion squad)

Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad
Platoon standard
Vox caster
Las-Cannon team

Infantry Squad
Vox
Commissar with power weapon
melta-gun
auto-cannon

3x infantry Squad
Melta-gun
auto-cannon
Seargeant with power weapon

4x heavy weapons squad
3x Las-cannon

Special weapons Squad
Demolition Charge
2x Flamer
1250pts

8 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Just started collecting a Praetorian army as well. Been doing a lot of reading and putting together a very similar 1250 point army.

    A few questions for some healthy debate on the merits of stuff in your list would be helpful to me in putting together mine, if you don't mind?

    1) Do you not think Straken is a bit of a luxury for such a small army? and the points could be better spent on bumping numbers elsewhere? maybe a chimera for the command?

    2) If you want a unit to cause some mayhem like your penal legionaries, Marbo might be a better and actually cheaper option?

    3) With that many las-cannon, meltas in the squads seems an expensive and fairly redundant option, grenade launchers maybe as they will generally only be firing at troops? I fully intend do the same and have 41 man squad with 12 power attacks for screwing with people who assault me as well though!

    4) I'd probably drop the las-cannon from the platoon command, give them the specials flamers to react to an offensive, give the command squad plasmas instead of 1 melta, and upgrade the specials to 10 veterans and give them 3 meltas to deal with any armour getting close the las-cannons don't get. If you could work the points so you could afford a vendetta for those veterans even better, but try to squeeze the points back elsewhere to get them at least a chimera for some protection.

    Thats just some quick thoughts though, and I would have to sit and do the actual maths. I'm not trying to say your wrong or your list is rubbish or anything, just genuinely would like your thoughts on the changes I have suggested as that will pretty much be my army.

    Happy New Year!

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  2. Hi,
    Thanks for checking out my blog and may I say Welcome to the Praetorian Guard!

    here are my thoughts on your changes.

    1) Straken is a luxury without a doubt. However without the models to run another penal legion squad I thought he might be a nice option for counter attack in my lines.
    When building this list I did so with the plan to not take any vehicles at all. Going against the grain and making my opponents anti-tank weapons nearly useless, so the Chimera is right out.

    Now under normal circumstance I would run 3 plasma gunners a medic and a plasma pistol on the commander in a chimera for some tasty drive-by plasma goodness!


    2) Marbo is a fantastic idea for this list and I might add very affordable for his abilities. The penal legion however fills my second required troop choice.
    If I end up dropping Straken from the list Marbo is a likely addition.
    At the same time don’t discount the lowly penal troopers. For the points they can be very effective as either a distraction or as an objective stealer.
    Most players don’t like the idea of 10 (potentially) rending maniacs running on their flank. I always include at least one squad and would like to start running 2.

    3) I love redundancy. I like the meltas for the ability to dissuade opponents from drop-podding into my back field and as a weapon of last resort. Running grenades and autocannons together however has been a staple of many of my previous lists. I may consider dropping the melta in favor of the grenades again but I’d like a few more practice games before I change it up.

    4) The main problem with the flamer command that I find is the need for a transport. In a list sans vehicles their usefulness is somewhat diminished. The las-cannon allows them to add to the fire base while sitting back and giving orders. As for the special weapons team I think I may drop them before tournament. For much the same reason that I’m not taking the flamer command I think the special weapons team needs a ride to be effective.

    Melta-Vets in vendettas is nothing new to the current edition and with good reason. However I find that the lowly SWS can do a great deal of damage and being generally cheaper in points, are much more disposable if their bird gets shot down. The demo charge is a fantastic and under appreciated weapon. Mix that with either a pair of grenades or flamers in a bird and you can effectively take out a devastator squad.

    All things said I think your changes will still allow for a very functional list but I personally have played that style and am looking to play something a little different. I will defiantly take your suggestions in mind as I play my practice games this week and I see how this list works on the table.

    Cheers, Thanks for your thoughts and Happy New Year

    -J

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for thoughts, I can really see how the no vehicle policy totally changes everything and that's made me think hard.

    I hadn't really thought much about penal squads but now I'm thinking I have to squeeze in at least 1 possibly 2 for outflanking mayhem. Add Marbo to the mix and possibly Paratroopers (see below) and there's some real potential to cause a lot of scratching of heads for not that much. 2 x penal squads and marbo for only 225pts and all that mayhem especially if they all arrived at once!

    By the way if your looking at a new penal squad Victoria Lamb does some cool penal legion conversions and I think her stuff is ace and compared to GW really affordable.

    I'll post a scratch list of the 1500pts I have in mind on my blog soon and would really welcome some advice.

    I also posted this in to response to your comment on my blog, thoughts??:
    Storm Troopers are actually a good point. The general consensus seems to be to take veterans in a vendetta, but that vendetta is not cheap and almost certainly becomes prime target for the opponents first turn unless there is another massive armour threat. Ok the vets have the same BS, can take 3 meltas and 10 models for the same price, but they need transport. So now i'm thinking I have 3 elite slots why not take 2 squads of five storm troopers? They then have 4 meltas, can deep strike without transport, the odds say one should turn up turn 2 and its not a big deal but they are better armoured. The meltavets with vendetta would be 230 points, the two storm troopers 210. So I can very much see the argument that you are getting a vendetta for 20 points, but in an infantry only/infantry heavy build, where that vendetta is almost certainly toast turn 1, maybe the Storm Troopers make more sense as their shots are more likely to count??

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  4. Looking at the points of it and I really like the idea of a large outflanking option via a pair of penal squads and possibly Al-Rahem’s platoon to put a 30 man blob downrange.

    This combined with the blob/s in my deployment and the threat of deep-striking storm troopers and Marbo showing up should do wonders to force opponents to react more and thus have less control of the game.

    Of course, this style of play makes an astropath a must have for those reserve rolls

    As far as the Victoria Lamb models, I use her highland guard conversion kits to make my penal squads, leftovers from the regimental merging of the 23rd Praetorian Guard and the 301st Drookian Fen Guard.

    http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Drookian_Fen_Guard


    looking forward to see what you come up with for your lists.

    cheers
    -J

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  5. Ah I also had come to the Astropath must have conclusion! Yea the more I think about it imperial guard lists that I remember have always been very predictable. The maths geeks have crunched the numbers and come up with the best list to try and win games and everybody kind of flutters around it without changing from that too much. It will be more fun to play in the way you have in mind as it has the one ingredient that in warfare destroys the best laid plans...unpredictability. Mix that with large troop, casualty soaking numbers and you can really cause some headaches.

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  6. I must say I'm rather enjoying the discussion here! I like the list, infantry heavy is good fun though a pain for painting!
    I like the use of straken, I think all the special characters are pretty good for guard and add some entertainment. Al Rahem could be very good especially his instant death sword, might make enemy commanders think twice! Also with this many squads and heavy weapons surely Creed is the man for you with 4 orders and 24" range!

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  7. Thanks for stopping by Colonel W. I have plans to add Al Rahem when I make the jump to either 1500pts or 1750pts as the idea of a 30 man blob jumping out of a bush down field from me seems like it will be good for a laugh or two. I have had a hard time trying to decide between Creed and Straken as they both offer significant advantage.

    I think Think Straken just offers me more for my play style. I rarely remember to use orders (I'm getting better I swear) and I just don't feel like Creed can pack a punch for his points.

    taking Creed Would be better in a list that involved a few vehicles since the idea of outflanking a Medusa squadron just sounds mean to me.

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  8. Yeah I would agree about Straken over Creed. I have only ever used him for very big games where he can be a real multiplier.

    Staken is a luxury but he is a solid dude that can really make a difference.

    I love non vehicle guard lists. Especially against SM players. They end up using expensive models with expensive upgrades to kill a single guardsmen. Lol. The thing is though, since the last codex rewrite tanks are new solid core. So I don't run as many infantry list as I use to.

    With Al Rahem, it's not just blobs of men that are cool but having heavy weapons and special weapons Squads rock up in the wrong place for the enemy can turn everything on its head.

    ReplyDelete