Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Unholy Union

Team Jacward.

Alright guys, I think I got something going here with 2 of my marine armies.  So as you guys know, I have Space Wolves and Blood Angels.  I took a look at the Allies chart today and noticed both to be Blood Brothers.  Why?  I have no fucking clue.  I guess the whole thing about Werewolves and Vampires hating on eachother isn't true in the 40K universe.  They are, after all, Battle Brothers until death!

Anyways, here's the list I'm thinking about trying for 1750:

1749
14 VP

HQ:
Rune Priest (RA, WTT) = 125
Librarian* (JP) = 125

TROOP:
9x Grey Hunters (Rhino, WG/PF/CbM, Plasma Gun, MotW, WS) = 243
9x Grey Hunters (Rhino, WG/PF/CbM, Plasma Gun, MotW, WS) = 243
8x Grey Hunters (Rhino, WG/PF/CbM, Plasma Gun, MotW, WS) = 228
10x ASM* (PF/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns) = 250

ELITE:
Wolf Guard
Sanguinary Priest* (JP, MB) = 80

HEAVY:
Vindicator (DB) = 120
Vindicator (DB) = 120
Stormraven* (EA, TLLC, TLMM) = 215

The idea behind this list is pretty simple.  You take your generic 3x Grey Hunter squads and you put them in the list along side your Rune Priest who always takes Divination.  The great thing about the Rune Priest is that his Runic Weapon remains unchanged in the new edition.  If a psychic power succeeds anywhere within 24" of you, you have the ability to nullify it on a 4+.  This gives you an insane amount of psychic protection in an addition where everyone and their mother loves psychic abilities.  On top of this, I'm giving my Rune Priest Runic Armor now every chance I get.  The 2+ armor save and the innate psychic defenses that it sports is just too good not to take for the points.

Let's go over some psychic powers really quick.  Divination, is in my opinion, the best psychic lore in 40K.  If you have armies that can take this lore, you pretty much want to take this lore.  The free spell that they have, Prescience, is basically a pumped-up version of Guide that extends out to 12", and lasts until your next phase.  I don't know what to say except for that's amazing.  Next, you have Misfortune and Forewarning, both extremely strong spells that can be used against the enemy.  Ideally, if you have two psykers who have Divination (which SW and BA can), you can cast Prescience on your unit and Misfortune on the target unit and basically ram it into the ground.  Re-rolling ALL saves is no joke, it's basically a better version of Doom due to the number of raw causalities you can inflict on the enemy.  The best part about this is that it lasts until your next turn as well, so stacking these two abilities is batshit crazy.

This brings up something really clever:  Since BA and SW can both take Divination, why not take both right?  While powerful, we shouldn't discount some of the other psychic powers that the two armies can mix up.  BA have access to Telepathy, something that SW does not.. so with that, you gain Psychic Shriek, Puppet Master, Invisibility and Hallulncination.  The unfortunate thing about Telepathy is that its most powerful powers require you to be a ML2 Psyker.  That's 50 extra points for Epistolary that I simply do not have.  That means you have to look at the cheaper lores; Divination already being a fantastic buy, Biomancy for the chance to get Enfeeble, but most importantly, the BA book lore.  The main things that stand out here is Unleash Rage for the squad the Libby is in, Sanguine Sword to make you S10, Blood Lance so you can throw it at fliers (yes, it auto-hits), and Shield of Sanguinius that gives your Libby and "any unit" within 6" a 5+ cover save.  With a good amount of vehicles in my list, and a Flyer, I can cast Shield to give the Sons of Russ and the Stormraven a happy go lucky 5+ cover.

Now let's think about something really quick.  We all know Divination is good, but I think a mix between Divination and Blood (just calling it this from now on) is the sweet spot.  I can only take 2 skills though, so I think for my first trial, it'll be Sanguine Sword and Blood Lance.  Unleash Rage is not needed with the Rune Priest to cast Prescience, but the S10 and auto-hitting S8 AP1 Lance is always good.  Shield of Sanguinius is incredibly strong if you're running your dudes behind or near the Grey Hunter wall, but I think I'll be placing my Libby, SP and 10x ASM squad in reserve along side the Stormraven.  I want my forces to hit the enemy lines around the same time and with the fury of an angry god.  This first list you see here, will be all about offense (the way I like to play).

Well, I don't think I have anything else here to cover.  The Vindicators are there because I like them, the Grey Hunters are the staple, and the Libby + ASM provides a nice little wild card.  The inclusion of the Stormraven gives me a solid AA platform, and if worst comes to worst, I can throw a Blood Lance at enemy fliers and skewer them out of the sky.

10 comments:

taipan567 said...

It's not a bad little army. The biggest issue is you lack range; nothing in your army can shoot further than 24" except the Raven. I'd also prefer to have a close-combat hard-counter, as Vindicators can still be stunned/glanced to death prior to a combat rock moving in. PsyDreads with Paladins spring to mind.


That said, you have a solid Marine core, and some great psychic support/defense, so it should do well.

Big_Black_Fiend said...

I like the list and think it has a lot of synergy.

KevonTheBeardless said...

You can't hit fliers with Blance. You can only snap fire at fliers if you don't have skyfire and you can't snap fire weapons that don't roll to hit. So that doesn't quite work (unless I'm missing something).
Otherwise I really like the list, a guy at my shop has been running something similar just with a reclusiarch and DC instead of Libby and assault squad (sacrificing some melta/psychic, but saving on the priest and getting a much harder hitting CC unit)

Spifferson said...

I dread the coming fields of grey plastic marines or homebrewed-[insert color]-marines where "These 3 choices are from marine codex X, while these similar looking choices are from marine codex Y"

Pascalnz said...

it looks like fun, one little quibble though. I have a feeling blood lance wont hit flyers, to shoot at a flyer you have to snap shot and you can only snap shot with a weapon that needs bs to hit[not templates etc] I'm a BA player and it makes me a little sad

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HERO said...

Via the BA FAQ:
Q: As Blood Lance is a psychic shooting attack, does it need to roll To Hit? (p63)
A: No.

KevonTheBeardless said...

Yes, that's true.
Now consult the core book and you'll see that you can only snap fire at flyers, and you cannot snap fire stuff that doesn't need to roll to hit.
Thus you can't hit a flyer with a blood lance.

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