Feast of Blades

So, I went to one of the local stores (next town over) and one of the people there was talking about how he was the Arizona Feast of Blades representative, and a friend of that store owner, and they said they were going to have a qualifier soon.  I have always wanted to do a big event against people from outside my meta (even though I haven't been playing a lot lately), so I looked into it.

40k Qualifier 2014 7th edition format:

• 1500 points
• Battleforged Rules:
  - One "Combined arms detachment," and
  - Up to one of the Following: a) Another combined arms detachment b) An allied detachment c) A single formation
• Stronghold assault not allowed
• The following list of Fortifications are allowed: Aegis line, Bastion, Skyshield, Fortress of Redemption. 
• Forgeworld is not allowed.
• Lords of War are not allowed.

According to the FAQ, imperial knights will be allowed (presumably as the allied detachment).  Given my recent experience with Imperial Knights, I think that a lot of people are going to take them, and that one of the only ways to counter an Imperial Knight, especially at 1500 points, is another Imperial Knight; I managed to kill one at 2000 points, but it cost me 2 land raiders to do it, so I bought an Imperial Knight.

Given the inclusion of a super heavy, I expect to see a few armies - one is the Imperial Knights (got that covered).  I also expect to see Necrons, probably with a lot of flyers (so I need a way to neutralize that).  I also expect that there will be some Eldar or Dark Eldar with lances and haywire grenades.  (This store is out of town, so I don't really know  the meta, although I know at least one plays Dark Eldar).  An IG tank line could also be a problem, although I calculate that, from the shield side (and most tank / gun lines are not very mobile), it would take 36 LasCannon shots do kill an Imperial Knight (part of the calculation that led me to get one for this tournament).

I have enough IG and Space Marines that I can field either to support the Imperial Knight.   The Imperial Knight worlds have "met-at-arms" which are compared to IG planetary defense forces, and they also mention mounted troops (several groups of bikers with power lances and "knight" heads would look pretty cool too (assuming I convert and paint them all - which I am tempted to do, except that the actual FoB Tournament will allow Stronghold Assault and Lords of War, so I am not sure that I will use the same army, assuming I win the qualifiers).

For the points, I am leaning toward IG, only because I can take 2 flyers, and still have lots of units (but they are IG - I like IG stories and background, but I am more used to player mech and / or power armor... Decisions....

Tuning my GK all shunt list part 4 - Wrapping it up

So, I think I have reached the point where I can no longer be productive in thinking about or talking about my shunt list.  Only by playing it will I be able to add anything new to the discussion.  I have decided on one of the two following lists:

The first one is:
GKGM with psyotroke grenades and incinerator
2x 10 GKSS with 2 Psycannons, 2 hammers, and justifier with halberd
2x 10 GKIS with 2 Psycannons, 2 hammers, and justifier with halberd
3x Dread Knights with heavy incinerator and teleporter

I realize that this list is weak against air, and against 3 dragons I will be forced to throw myself into melee.  What I like about this list is that most of my stuff is fast.  It can either jump, DS, or teleport - so I can be where I need to be.  There is a bonus with the GKIS and the local tournament, because all of the games in the tournament have troops as additional kill points - so normally combat squading to take more objectives means making more potential points for my opponent.  With GKIS, I can combat squad both of them (assuming an average grand strategy roll), and have 6 scoring units, while only presenting my enemy with 2 potential bonus points (like I said, still not sure GKIS worth it normally, but with grand strategy, they might be).



The second list has
GKGM with psycotroke grenades and master crafted psycannon
3x 10 GKSS with 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, and justifier with halberd
1 Stromraven with hurricane bolters, psybolt ammo, Assault cannons and MM
3x Dread Knights with heavy incinerator and teleporter

This list takes a flier against air.  It also have 3 GKSS and no GKIS.  Like I mentioned in an earlier post, GKSS can get where they need with deep strike, and I don't need to be much closer than 24" most of the time, so GKIS, while nice, probably aren't critical - Obviously I'll make the NDK scoring if need be.

I think both of these lists are pretty solid.  My favor is leaning toward the top list, hitting hard and dominating the manuever phase, but I think the second one might be a little better against all-comers, because the flyer helps mitigate what might be a hard-counter to the first list.

Grey Knight Interceptor Squad - Tuning my GK all Shunt list part 2

So, based on my previous posts, my shunt list is looking something like:

GK Grand Master - Sword, Incinerator, Psychotroke Grenades
3x10 GKSS with Psybolt, 2 psycannons, 1 hammer, and Knight with Halberd
1x10 GKIS with Psybolt, 2 psycannons, 1 hammer, and knight with halberd
3x Dreadknights with 2 Power fists, heavy incinerator, personal teleporter

Hmm, GKIS.... Why am I paying so many points for these?  Because they can teleport with the Dread Knights, and get right in the enemy's face.  The thing is, they have a range of 24",  they are not awesome at assault, so they really don't gain very much by being closer than 24", and most times they can make their normal 6" and be within 24" - and anytime I wouldn't be (because the enemy is playing the range game, I can accomplish the same thing by deep striking the GKSS.

If I used Grand Strategy to make them scoring, I could jump them for last turn objective grabbing or I could use them for last turn objective contesting, which gives them some flexibility, and the difference between the GKSS and an identically outfitted GKIS is 60 points, so with Grand Strategy, it might be worth it, otherwise probably not.

Tuning my GK all Shunt List, Part 1

So, I took my Shunt List to the tournament, and did pretty well with it, but there were some things that could be better.  This is what I had.

ADL with Icaras Las Cannon
2x 1 Inquisitor with Prescience
3x 10 Strike Squads, 1 hammer, 2 psycannons, SGT with Halberd, Psybolt ammo
1x 10 GK Intercept Squad
3x NDK with teleporters and Heavy Incinerators

While the alpha strike worked pretty well, and in several of the games, most of the action took place in my enemy's deployment zone.  While this was intentional, it meant that basically almost half of my army was fighting almost all of the enemy's army.

To get more out of my army, I need to either increase the range of the backfield, or I need to not have a backfield.  

Moving Everything Up

The 2 GKSS I typically leave behind is are an easy fix - hold them in reserve and deep-strike.  This leaves about 195 points (2 inquisitors and an ADL with Icarus Las Cannon) to move up.

195 Points is not enough to add allies, especially since I am going to need a HQ.  Since I need mobility to keep up with the rest of my army, I am going to need Terminator armor (for deep-strike), since none of our HQ can take   personal teleporters (hey GW, each unit type is supposed to be led by a brotherhood champion, what about GKIS....)

Mordrak - almost enough points for him, and he is an interesting choice because he would give me:
+  Grand Strategy, 
+  Another unit of turn 1 punch, along with NDK and GKIS.  
+  Psychic communion to help bring all my deep-strike units 
-   I would have to make big changes to include is retinue though, and without any special weapons, I'm not sure  
       they are worth it anyway (6 more storm bolters and charge threat are good, but I don't think they represent 
       400 points of good, and Mordrak without Ghost knights is practically giving away "Slay the Warlord", and 
       maybe "First Blood" as well.

Brother Captain-Stern is interesting but maybe TOO well-balanced.
+/- Re-roll is nice, giving it enemy is not
+/- Zone of Banishment could be a game changer, or not, but using it is almost certainly a suicide mission
+/- Psychic Communion is still good, won't be able to use it until turn 2, when, hopefully, most things are already 
        coming 

Grey-Knight Grandmaster is probably better then Stern.  No gimmicks, but solid performance, with enough points left over to include some war gear.
+ Grand Strategy - same as Mordak - make my NDK(s) scoring...
+/- Psychic Communion - Again, good, but turn 2 is a little late.
+ Cheap enough to add war gear (since there is only 20 points left after buying him, and there is very little I can 
        add to this list worthwhile for 20 points, may as well spend it on him)

With the sword already giving a 3+ invulnerable save in combat, there is no point upgrading the weapons, so maybe something like:

Grey Knight Grand Master with Psycotroke grenades and Incinerator - 195 Points.

Grey Knight Brother Captain is the same as Grey Knight Grandmaster, but cheaper, and without Grand Strategy.  Since there is really no units for 50 points either, it comes down to is - is 25 more points of war gear worth losing the ability to make NDK scoring?

KG Brother Captain with Psycotroke Grenades, Incinerator, Rad Grenades - with digital weapons and master-crafted sword - 195 points, also not bad.

Librarian
+ Psychic Hood to extra protection
+ Mastery Level 2
+/- Can take a teleport beacon, but if he deep-strikes, it won't do much good.
+ By taking Grey Knight powers, which mimic blessings, but are cast during different phases of the turn, so there 
          is no penalty for deep-striking.

Librarian with Sword, with Might of Titan, Sanctuary, The Shrouding, Vortex of Doom, Warp-Rift. Still 20 points left, lets say master craft the sword, add digital weapons, and 2 Servo Skulls.

Ordo Malleus Inquisitors make the list because they can also wear terminator armor, and can, therefore, deep-
         strike with the GKSS.
+ Cheap enough that I can have 2, with Psycannons.
-  Weak enough that putting them in forward moving units increases chance of giving enemy "slay the warlord"

2x Inquisitor with Terminator armor, Nemesis Force Hammer, Psycannon, Servo Skulls (3 and 2) = 175 Points.  With last 20 points, give all of the Sergeants master crafting on their Halberds.

Of these, I like the Grand-Master, who is a killer, and can make NDK scoring (cool, but I am not sure it is needed, since they can already contest pretty well, but every tool creates options....); the Librarian who kills almost just as well as the Brother-Captain, but adds a different type of utility, and the Inquisitors, who are a little weak, but add 2 psycannons, and 5 servo skulls (since there will be at least 3 deep-striking units) - probably in that order.

This is going to wrap up part 1, which is basically trading in an ADL and slow HQ for a HQ that can keep up with shunting and deep-striking army.  Eventually I am also going to think about buffing the list with allies and/or extending the range of the defense line, but both of these ideas will involve a lot more juggling of points (and extending the range of rear support still divides my army into two smaller chunks, so I will probably be looking at allies who can join the GK in the front for this particular army).

Chaos...

I know there is a good list or 2 in chaos, there are so many options, but I am starting to think that they just might not fit my play-style.

Heldrakes are awesome, but can't carry an army by themselves.

It looks like, to really be effective, armies need allies, and there aren't any I really like for Chaos (it looks like the ally well with necron air, which is the only army I have none of at all - I had a 3rd edition ground army, but traded it for credit to buy Chaos)

I like armies with maneuverability and firepower, and my chaos list, with the zombies, don't really have either.  This doesn't mean that I can't make a maneuverable or firepower heavy list, and I will try to do it, but I am thinking about going back to blood angels for a while, and then rolling into the new space marines.

Thoughts on list building

   I have been having a really hard time coming up with a Chaos list.  I don't think that it is because they are a bad army, and they have some awesome units.  They also have a few USRs that you can build a list around - preferred enemy and infiltration for example. 

  Why then, has it been so hard for me to make a list?  I think I have the answer.  I was cruising some forums and blogs, and someone, in the comments (and I would credit the person if I remembered who, or which blog), said something like, "The problem is that so many people are trying to win the game in the list building phase, rather than playing the game."

  I think that this is probably why I am having so much trouble.  I think that, instead of playing some things that are cool, and giving myself the tools to face different enemies, I was trying to make an all-comers list  that won the game before even playing - I don't know how I got to there, probably because I used to play games like Magic the Gathering - although even in 40K there have been games where I had lost before even starting the game. 

   I am not saying that this made the game not fun for me, or that I am so competitive that I am a jerk to play against (these are the first two questions I asked myself after realizing what I was doing), but it has created a lot of stress when trying to come with lists.  From now on (or at least for a little while), I am going to try to focus less on the perfect list, and instead just make sure that my list is not auto-lose against certain armies. 

 The criteria I am using, which is from a blog that I will cite if  I can find it again,is that my army must have a plan for:

AV 12 flyers
50 Man blob (with ATSKNF)
40 MeQ
3-5 Rhino / Chimera rush
Deep Striking (DA and Daemons)
Invulnerable save
Aegis Defense line
4 Durable Scoring Units
monsters / large group pf multi-wounds.

  Like I said, this is not my list, and there are some things that I don't know if they need their own sections, for example Invuln save (Stormshields) and ADL would probably both be delt with by volume of fire, and I don't know if I'll always need 4 scoring units - but this is a good place to start.  I will be able to test this (if my army comes in from ebay), because there is a tournament Saturday at the Local Gaming Store.

Second game with Chaos

This was played the same day as the first post (and the same player).  I used the same army as the first game with chaos.  I was playing purge the alien against orks.  My opponent had Gaz'gul and a mob of shoota' boys (I think 30), 3 units of 14 lootas, a unit of nob bikers with a warboss, and 3 ork fighter planes.

Again, I was using proxies, but this game was pretty straight forward, so I'll do it more in a turn by turn analysis.

 Turn 1 - he went first, it was night fighting - it was dawn of war an we deployed in opposite corners, so nothing was in range.  I moved my demon prince into cover, close enough that I could probably assault his bikers next turn, but where I had a 2+ cover save (because of mark of nurgle) from his lootas.

Opponent Turn 2 - His flyers came in, and all though it took all 3 of them, they did manage to kill my demon prince, meaning I was down 3 points right away (1 for unit, 1 for first blood, and 1 for slay the warlord).  His bikers pulled back, so I was going to have to go after him.

Chaos Turn 2 - My flyers came on.  He had positioned his orks so that I could not vector strike them (because there was no where to land).   I couldn't vector strike the ork flyers, because they were on the other side of the board, and striking them meant that I would lose at least two turns of flaming (plus I think they were also too far back).  I flamed his bikers with all three heldrakes, and killed 1 or 2.  I deep striked my Oblits, 1 unit scattered off the table, and went back into reserve, but the other 2 landed behind his lines.  The unit of 3 oblits assault cannoned the closest lootas and broke them.  The other unit killed some of the mob of boyz.  I started moving my rhinos to get my troops into range to help, but it would have taken them until turn 7 to get into melee with the orks (we didn't get a 7th turn), and it would have taken until turn 9 for my 2 units of marines to be killed by what was left of his ork mob, gaz'gul, and nob with powerfist)

Turn 3 - I think he forgets to roll for his lootas, so see if they stay or if they run off the board, but it's ok, because he didn't shoot them either.  His bikes charge both units of my oblits (I use the heavy flamers, and kill 1-2 - I got 11 hits with wall of flame).  We tie in combat, doing 3 wounds each, but I lost 2 guys, and he only lost 1).  He shot at my flyers, but I made a lot of saves, took some hits, but only 1 of them went down - it took hits from 2 flyers and 2 units of lootas).

Chaos turn 3 - I vector strike some boys with my last 2 dragons, and then flame them.  We're not sure how vector strike works, as far was where are the casualties assigned, so I let him pick, and he put them all on gaz' gul, who absorbed all but one of them on his 2+ save.  My oblits fail their reserve roll, and my other 2 units of oblits get wiped out, killing another bike or two (leaving him with a war boss and a nob biker, each with one wound).  One of my heldrakes flame a unit of lootas, breaking them and causing them to run off the board, and the other kills 3 more lootas from the group already falling back, so they can' rally without double 1's.

Enemy turn 4 - He declares Waaah!, letting his flyers to fire twice each.  Between that and the lootas, he finishes off both of my remaining heldrakes.  His bikers pop one of the Rhinos in melee.  His lootas run off the board, leaving him with one unit at full strength.

Chaos turn 4.  I deepstrike my oblits near his lootas, and assault cannon them, killing 7 of them, but they pass their leadership.  I unload all of the marines from their rhinos, and finish off the bikers with rapid fire.

Enemy turn 5.  He fires his whole army at the oblits, and kills one of them.  He tries to assault the other, but it is through cover, and I wall of flame the closest guy, so he doesn't make it.

Chaos Turn 5.  I put everything back in the rhinos and move toward his boyz, although even if they get there, I have already lost, because I had several more kill points to give up than he did, and I lost the first two optional points.  My oblit moves towards the lootas, kills 2, and then charges...but fails because I only got 3" charge, and I had killed the closest 2.

Turn 6.  Between his boyz and his lootas, he killed my last oblit.  His fighers didn't do anything, because they had to turn to stay on the board, and didn't have any targets.

Chaos turn 6.  I moved up the rhinos, and unloaded everything, and was able to shoot some of the boyz, but was too far out of range to charge.  There was no turn 7.

Thoughts / lessons learned:
1. The demon prince needs more fast stuff to work well. In my first game, I held him back until my dragons came out, so that when my enemy's fliers came on, there was a saturation of targets.  This game, my opponent went first, and when his fliers came on, my prince was easily their best target, and they killed him, which put me way behind from the start.  While he did awesome the first game, I am thinking that his place is in a fast army, where there are a lot of turn 2 threats right away (maybe 2 princes and bike unit).

2. Again, the dragons, while doing great for their points (I really don't see a more efficient way to spend 170 points), they cannot carry the army alone, and they need anti-air support, because in the enemy has more than 1 flyer, the dragons are going to start dropping, and since 3 of them, point-wise, uses up most of your allotted anti-troop allowance, you need them to survive.

3. While there might be a time to drop oblits behind to wipe out a key target, they have pretty good range, and probably should kill stuff from a distance (I know the internet says they are at their best withing 24", which is true, they are also much easier to kill with volume of fire inside 24" (of course, this would also be different if one was playing a faster, turn 2 army - which I am having trouble making for chaos)

Power of Chaos

I just played a 2000 game with DK against Chaos.  Although I was winning, I ended up being tables on turn 6.  We both thought that the Demon Prince of Nurgle had FNP and +1 Toughness, so He would have died the first time my DK punched him (so I might not have been tabled), but this isn't about that, because it doesn't change the fact that one demon prince and one heldrake destroyed 5-6 units of marines by themselves.  This is about building lists that can deal with that kind of power.

Since this isn't a battle report, I'm not going to go turn by turn, but just the general themes.  By the end turn 2 (I went first), we both thought the game was over - I had 2 optional KP in relic, and I had decimated most of his units, but my opponent wanted to keep playing, to test out the other units (the lord on the bike rolled horribly, and died to DK, which probably shouldn't have happened.)

When his demon came in on turn 2 and flew to my backfield, I thought, no problem.  I shot it, and did a wound, and made it crash, then I charged it with a terminator inquisitor and a 5 man strike squad - not the killiest thing in the game, but lots of demonbane weapons... that never got to go.  He had the black mace and, being a monstrous creature, had slam (ap 2).  This means that at initiative 8, he did 11 AP 2 wounds, wiping out the squad.  On his turn, the demon wiped out another squad, and then got tied up with both my dreadknights for the rest of the game (which would have killed him the first turn had we realized he was T 5).

So - what to do about Demon Princes, who can kill whole squads of power armor (and maybe even terminator armor) in one turn?  We only have 1 model with a Storm Shield, although even he is probably not making 11 saves.  They don't have grenades, so the best thing to do is going to be make them charge you through cover, then your demon bane weapons have a chance of doing their job.  Maybe psycotroke grenades need to make a come back.  Dread Knights are skill good against them - if they survive long enough to attack, but if they fly, they can make can make it difficult for the Dread Knight to catch them in melee.  Full size units (no combat squads) might also make sure I get a chance to take a swing at the demon.

The Heldrake - I knew when I first read the codex that these were going to be game changers, I see no reason not to take 3 of these, but at least 2, in any competitive army.  Granted, I was combat squaded, in order to have more units able to go for the objective, and most combat squads had been whittled down to 2 or 3 guys, but the heldrake killed 3 combat squads in 4 turns.  Until there is a faq, apparently torrent flamer doesn't have an arc of fire although this made absolutely no difference in our game - with only 3 guys, its hard to spread them out so that all 3 won't fit under a template, and then it's wound on 2, no armor or cover save.  Other than having more anti air - keeping units of 10 will help against the flamer - but that is still only 1 heldrake, and I'm going to take at least 2 in any Chaos list I make, so I am almost going to HAVE to take something other than psycannons and a prayer to shoot down enemy aircraft.

We are more than a match for cultist marines, and cultists - so just need to think of a way to keep air defense alive - thinking a bastion and crusaders....

Dreadknight

So, I've gotten some games in with the Dreadknight.  Prior to 6th edition, no one would take these, because they felt that the Psyrifle Dread was a better use of the slot.  While the Psyrifle Dread is still good, and one of best air defense Grey Knights have, the Dreadknight has been a game changer for me in every game I've taken them.

Bell of Lost Souls made a list of things your Army needs to be able to deal with in 6th, it has to be able to score, deal with light mech spam, deal with hordes, deal with heavy infantry, counter flyers, counter death starts, and counter heavy vehicles.  These are the roles I am assessing the Dreadknight for.

Scoring - Only with the help of a Grand Master.  As a scoring unit, they are hard to get cover for, and only have 4 wounds.  While they might be durable at end game (where a lot of big weapons have been destroyed), most of the time I would rather have 5-10 models that can go to ground if need be.

Light Mech Spam - Good.  Str 10, with smash, makes them reliable anti-mech (should be able to kill 1 a turn fairly reliably.  If given the Heavy Psycannon or the Heavy Incinerator, can also pop light mech at range.

Hordes - Decent, better with incinerator upgrade.  The incinerator can take out a lot of hordes, and ignores cover.  The Dread Knights toughness is high enough that most hordes are going to need 6's to wound (unless poison).  Additionally, as a character, the DK can issue a challenge and likely take out the leader of the horde (the one most likely to have a weapon that can hurt it).  Still only 4 attacks, so while it can hold up a horde, it will take the DK a long time to smash through a horde in melee - but with a personal teleporter and a Heavy Incinerator...

Heavy Inf - Good.  AP 2, str 10, will crush most heavy infantry, except terminators with storm shields and hammers, and special melee characters.

Counter flyer - Weak.  If the DK takes a gatling psilencer, and manages to get behind a flyer (with rear armor 10) the DK can provide some AA threat (with 12 S 4 shots), but not a good plan

Counter Deathstar - Decent.  It really depends on the death star, lots of low AP, High strength hits, especially coupled with decent invuln saves, are going to give the DK problems.  Chaos lords, who go before init 4 with AP 2 weapons, characters with eternal warrior, etc will give DK problems.  But if the DK goes faster, and the character does not have eternal warrior, the DK has a decent chance.

Heavy Vehicles - Good - Taking a personal teleporter makes sure you get there, but once you are there, you should no problem using smash (which is only costing you 1 attack because according to the faq, you halve your attacks before applying modifiers - so you start with 3, go to 2 for smash (round up), +1 for charge, + 1 for 2 power fist or powerfist and sword) to put 2-3 glances / penetrating on armor 13-14.

While you can take a Dk without teleporter, especially since they can deep strike, I use them as my main anti-tank.  Their mission is to put pressure, on turn 1, on anything that is threat to my marines (AP 3 templates, massed fire from lootas, etc).  Then I go for anything that my Psycannons are going to have trouble with (land raiders, monoliths, etc), then I go for whatever else.

Equipping the Dread Knight:
Personal Teleporter:  As I have said, to put hard pressure on tanks and artillery early, you need a personal teleporter - but by the time you take 2 of them, you could have almost bought a 3rd Dread.  While you could use them as counter charge unit, and run them alongside you infantry, maybe with a heavy psycannon, I think there are cheaper ways to get psycannons.  The ability to teleport next to your  enemy on turn 1, especially with 2 of these, pretty much destroys the enemy's plan, and forces him to fight on your terms.  The Dread Knight can teleport, so you can put turn 2 pressure on his stuff (and maybe knowing that you could deep strike into his deployment zone will mess him up just as much).

Heavy Psycannon: Not bad in that it gives you a str 7 rending large template.  While this could be devastating, it could scatter, and against small units / single vehicles, it is less effective than a normal psycannon.  Not a bad choice, but I don't think the best.

Heavy Incinerator - This is the best.  Not only is this the cheapest ranged weapons, but it never misses, it ignores cover, and is almost as powerful as the Psycannon (except for the occasional rend).

Gatling Psilencer - Mostly No.  12 Str 4 shots that always wound deamons on a 4.  Str 6 and 7 also generally wounds demons on 4.  It can be effective as a second gun, against hordes, but it is AP -, so you figure, on average, after misses and saves (5+ armor or cover), you are looking at killing 1-2 xenos a turn).  This is the only weapon DK can use to hit enemy aircraft, if it has rear armor 10, and if the DK can get behind it.

2 Power fists - Extra attack, S 10, free.  This is how I do it.

Power fist + Sword - Still get an extra attack, and Str 10, and get to re-roll to hit, to wound and armor penetrate - for 25 points.  This is a pretty good deal, and the sword looks cool, but usually if I have 25 points, I'll give a unit Psybolt ammo instead.

Power fist + hammer - NO.  You are still S 10, but you lose an attack for concussive, which doesn't do anything against vehicles anymore, and anything that is going to survive a S 10 hit is probably already going at initiative 1.

I like running 2 of these, with incinerators and teleporters.   On turn 1, they can clear a battlement, clear an aegis defense line, position themselves to take out artillery, flame lootas.  Be careful not to teleport right next to his counter charge unit, or his plasma spam unit (unless you think you can flamer them down in 1 attack), but the enemy will almost have to reverse some of his aggressive units, to deal with these.

Paladin Configuration

I am pretty happy with my list, but I am thinking that I can tweak my Paladin squad a little bit. I was looking for some feedback on a couple of ideas (all of the paladin configurations fill the same roll, but for reference, my base army is Draigo + Paladins (10 Paladins, 4 master crafted psycannons, apothecary), 2 GKSS (SGT with Halberd, 2 hammers, 2 psycannons, psybolt), and 2 Dread Knights (teleporters and Heavy incinerators).

I am thinking that 10 Paladins have been effective as they are but, since they are 1000 of my 2000 points, I want to give them a little more versatility.

I have come up with 4 ideas that will make them better, and maybe more versatile.

1. Drop a Paladin and master craft on psycannons. Use those points to buy a Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in terminator armor, with a psycannon, and psyker 1 (to give myself the reroll to hit power).
Gain - Same number of bodies, twin linked shooting, can still deep strike squad if I need to
Loss- 1 less psycannon, can't combat squad (not that I plan on it)

2. Drop Paladin and Master Craft on Psycannons, get coteaz
Gain: Get 2 psyker powers (1 will be re-roll to hit), ability to re-roll steal initiative, and "I've been
expecting you."
Loss: 2 Psycannons, can't combat squad, can't deep-strike

3. Drop Apothecary, master crafting on psycannons, and a hammer (from a GKSS), and get the same Ordo Mallues Inquisitor
Gain: 5 Psycannons (twin-linked), deep strike, combat squad
Loss: Feel no Pain

4. Drop Apothecary, master crafting on psycannons, and a hammer (from a GKSS), and get Coteaz
Gain:still have 4 Psycannons (Twin linked), can still combat squad, steal initiative, and "I've been expecting you."
Loss: No deep strike, no feel no pain.

I am thinking number 3 might be over-kill (I honestly haven't had a problem shooting things to death as is, but I am thinking that a psyker with divination will give me an anti-air boost).

I think all 5 of these configurations are pretty solid, and am looking for input from other people.

I guess, a 6th option, of I am considering Coteaz, is to take a normal inquisitor, without terminator armor.  A Ordo Inquisitor psyker (with 1 power) is 55 points.  If I don't buy terminator armor, I could buy psycotroke grenades and the plasma syphon, and still some points to upgrade weapons - although cool, not sure the grenades are worth it, since my Paladins haven't seen melee yet, although I haven't really played a melee centric army yet either.

After the Tournament

Well, I took the Army from the last post to the local 2000+ Purge the Alien tournament.  I got 4th (out of 9) place.  I didn't take pictures, and I'm not going to do any battle reports, but I wanted to post some thoughts and lessons learned.

The list rocked against slow armies.  All foot armies (which is what I expected to face) got torn apart.  Against fast armies, there were 2 major weaknesses:

1. Lack of counter charge - in several games, I didn't lose any vehicles to shooting, but they (everything except the land raiders) got torn apart in hand to hand, and even using blocking, and channeling terrain very proficiently, I couldn't stop some armies from getting to me on turn 2.

2. Range - Knowing I was going to be weak against melee, I was happy to see 2 of the missions with long table edges.  The problem was that I didn't have the range to take advantage of the extra distance - I still had to line up right on the edge of deployment zone to be able to shoot (the one time I didn't, I lost a land raider to a lucky las cannon shot that I was playing catch up the whole game - I didn't).  Granted, my opponent rolled more than his share of 6s, but the effectiveness of his cyclone missile launchers is making me eye my tactical marines again (they did as much damage to my land raider as my las cannons did to his land raider).

So, the Leman Russes did very well, but not well enough to stop hard, fast units from getting to me.  The executioner was an all-star however, in every game.  I don't know if I am going to keep them, because I feel I need more range, but the battle cannons are only AP 3 (which defeats the reason I took them LR in the first place).  Also, they NEED some strong melee unit nearby, although even then, there are so many ways to get melta and and power fists really close, really fast (Drop Pods, demolition packs dropping out of vendettas, bikes, etc).

NEW FAQ

The new FAQ is out for 6th edition - one of which effects my list for the better.

Q: Do units that are transported in a vehicle that MUST start in
reserve count towards the number of units that can be placed in
Reserves? For example, must I count the units in a Drop Pod or
Valkyrie towards the 50% of units I can place in Reserves? (p124)
A: No.

Valkyries are the same as Storm Ravens, in terms of not being dedicated transports.  This means that anything in the Storm Raven does not have to "balanced" by something on the board, which means I do not have to combat squad my ASM in Purge the Alien Games (but I still can for scoring games).

It also looks like the removed the "character" rule from Paladins and Nobs, unless they are the leader of a unit (so no more crazy wound allocation)

The also further clarified the rule for multi-saves, making it more clear that the wounds have to allocated when assigned, which is after the save in same save units, and before the save in different save units (pretty much how everyone was playing it anyway).

Brother Corbulo

So, I have use Brother Corbulo for a few games, and  I have a few thoughts.  Brother Corbulo is worth the points, as long as you use him correctly.  Although he is a decent character for challenges, as long as he is not against a PF type weapon, he main strength is keeping other units alive.  In a recent tournament,  Corbulo absorbed 12 plasma wounds that would have otherwise went into a terminator squad (so 5 termies died, instead of all 10).

Cost -
     While he is worth the points, especially when keeping strong units alive, remember that he is adding 105 points, and a kill point to that unit, so if you are not careful you will be putting more eggs into the same basket.

Mobility -
     He has no inherent mobility, so you are going to either want to put him in a vehicle, or put him with a unit strong enough to survive on foot (like terminators).  If he is going to spend more than 2 turns in a vehicle, you are probably better off with a cheaper Sanguinary Priest - if you are not using his 2+ FNP, you are wasting 55 points.  While I have used him successfully with terminators, another good use for him would probably be with a group of Sterngaurd, in a turn 1 Drop Pod assault.  He will significantly prolong the life of the Sterngard unit, as long as you can position him right.

Positioning -
     The hardest part about getting you point's worth from Corbulo is positioning.  Up close, it is easy to make sure he is the closest model to the enemy, but from across the board, it is very difficult, especially if your unit is trying to get cover from a wall (while not giving the enemy a cover save from the same wall).  If he is the closest to the enemy's middle, he probably won't be the closest to shots coming from the table edges.  One way to deal with this is to put the unit close to a table edge, to limit which directions shots can come from (so it is easier to block those directions, although this also limits your unit's threat radius). 
     With terminators, you have another option, which I discovered accidentally.  A unit with 10 terminators and Corbulo is probably a safe place to put your warlord.  This unit would have 3 characters (counting the SGT), so the idea is to position Corbulo where the firepower is most likely to come from, and place your warlord and SGT so that they would be the closest target from other directions - this will allow them to bounce wounds to Corbulo from 2 additional directions (as long as they stay withing 6").

Sanguinary Guard as troops

The last of the potential BA scoring units (barring special scenario rules) is the Sanguinary Guard.  I have never actually played with them, but I still go over how I would use them, and how I would equip them.

First, we have to define the roles that they fit into.  Before I started this article, I thought I would not take them as troops because they were too expensive.  Then I realized that 5 of them is 200 points, plus the cost on Dante.  I figure if you didn't take Dante, you would take a librarian with a jump pack (about same capability - Captain is probably a little closer, but you are probably not taking him).  Dante costs about 100 points more than the librarian, so if you took Dante to make the Guard scoring, you would have to divide those 100 points by the number of SG squads that you took (making the total cost of 5 more like 220-225 points).  So 5 Sanguinary Guard costs the same as 10 assault marines, with 2 flamers, led my a sgt with a power sword and combat shield.  Both of these shots can absorb 90 non-plasma, non-ap 2 or 3 shots.

This makes them actually very comparable to Assault marines.  In shooting, 1 SG = 2 marines, so the 5 marines vs 10 doesn't matter too much.  In assault, the SG all have power weapons, and are immune to most power weapons, so they are more combat-y there.  In fact, they only place SG really hurts is against AP 2 and 1 weapons (plasma guns, vindicators, etc).  5 plasma wounds will hurt an assault squad, they will push the SG of the table.

On the other hand, the SG is another unit (like DC) where non-sergeants can take power fists (which means they cannot be blocked in challenges), and they don't lose any attacks by doing it, which could make them decent terminator hunters (maybe something like 3 with swords and 2 with Fists)?

Their roles are very similar to the Assault Marines roles (at least the ones that matter).

1.  They can't take a rhino or razorback, and their weapons are still only range 12, so they are completely unsuitable for any back-field objective holding.

2. Running across the board.  They are the same as Assault marines here, just as durable, and just as vulnerable to massed fire.

3. Jump in / Disruption.  They are even more expensive than jump troops, so I would not be taking any chances trying to get into infernus pistol range (unless the unit was going to drop in with Dante).  They don't have real flamers, and I probably wouldn't get hand flamers because they are pretty weak).  Overall, they don't rock in this role, because the ranged weapons available to them aren't disruptful enough (unless you took 5 plasma pistols)

4. In an Assault Vehicle.  Same as assault marines.  Honestly, I like this better for SG than for Assault marines, because SG are SO MUCH better at hand to hand than shooting, that they really cannot fulfill their potential without getting into hand to hand (unless they are equipped as with plasma pistols or infernous pistols.  They would have to take the stormraven, since land raiders can't carry jump troops, which is still putting a lot of expensive eggs in 1 basket.

Honestly, I still don't think I like SG in the role of scorer, unless it is to grab an objective in the last turn.  There aren't enough of them - 5 SG might be equal to 10 Assault Marines in their ability to survive and kill, but 10 marines can combat squad and hit two targets, or split so that 1 unit covers the other (who has a relic), etc, at least I don't think I would make an army where they were my only scorers; more like fast terminators who happen to have the ability to score.

As for gear options - I think I have already covered it - Infernous pistol for "walkers" and plasma pistols for droppers, if I upgrade the weapons at all - if I am dropping a unit with Dante, I'd give them a few more infernous pistols, otherwise I would probably skip it (unless I was going for the plasma drop squad)

Masks - OK.  They are like pinning, nice if it happened, but unless you have a way to lower leadership, this isn't likely to happen enough to pay for itself.

Getting tired, but banner - don't like it.  We're already fearless, and the stuff that isn't has ATSKNF.  Occasionally it could come in handy, but the points are better spend elsewhere

Assault Marines

So to continue with my review of BA scoring units, I will be discussing the Assault Marines.  In 5th, these, in a free rhino or cheap razorback, were our go to scoring units.  With 6th edition, everyone has abandoned the vehicles, based on perception that vehicles are no longer safe, and that you have to get out to score anyway.  I haven't done math-hammer, or test games, although I might by the end of this article, so I don't know if this is a knee-jerk reaction, or if this is how the game will be for the rest of 6th.

As to the Marines themselves.  They have the base marine stat-line, with lots of options, although some of them are moderately expensive for what they do.  As always, how they are equipped, and how we use them, depends on what role we assign them.  I know a lot of this is pretty basic to a marine player, but I wanted to be as complete as possible, partially to benefit new players (my brother wants to start playing as soon as he can afford an army), and partially to clarify things I already knew:

1. Cheap scoring:  For 100 points, you can put 5 of them in a rhino.  This unit can sit on or near the objective until turn 5, and then act a screen (maybe even line of sight blocker).  With new line of sight rules, you should be able to hide at least 2-3 marines from all angles, so that the enemy will be forced to explode your rhino in order to get a shot.  This unit should be able to survive 1 round of shooting, especially if your other units have been taking the enemy shooters apart for 5 turns.

2. Less Cheap, more useful scoring : For 150 points, you can put 5 marines in a razorback with a las cannon.  This might make the marines more of a target, but will let them contribute to the fight.  It is true that concentrated fire can easily kill a razorback in a turn, so take a couple, and stay way back.  By turn 2, he should have enough other things to worry about (although you may have to deal with flyers way back there, as well as outflanking attacks).  You could of course keep the heavy bolter for cheaper, but there are a lot more things that can kill razorbacks inside of 36" (like heavy bolters).  On turn 5, jump out and use razor to screen, as above.

3. Back field objective holders, no vehicle: Don't do this.  These guys contribute nothing to the war at all.  Their pistols won't reach mid-field (or barely will), and all of the their special weapons are equally limited in terms of range.  You would be better off taking 5 scouts with cloaks and sniper rifles, and then automatically go to ground whenever someone shoots at them.

4. Assault Marines: This is the standard, jump across the board and assault targets as appropriate.  You will usually get the charge, and your high level of mobility will let you pick targets at will (so that you might actually get to use your infernus pistol at 3")  Equip for melee, or anti-vehicle, or both.  The advantage is you will usually get the charge.  The disadvantage is that if the enemy is trying to avoid melee (by lining up more than 24" away) you could get shot for at least 2 rounds before you get to combat.  Depending on what is shooting you, this could severely limit you viability as a melee threat.

5. Harassment Unit:  This is my favorite way to use Assault marines.  Give them jump packs, and use Descent of Angels to drop them into enemy lines on turn 2.  With 2 squads of these, combat squaded into 4 5-man squads, you can cause a lot of trouble for you opponent.  5 Marines will not smash very many units in hand to hand, but they will generally survive a few turns (obviously not against terminators, but against "normal" stuff.  In groups of 5, with DoA, you only need to drop about 7 inches away (8 if you want to be 100% save).  The reason you want to get so close is because you want to use melta guns and flamers, to maximize the amount of damage you do the turn you come in.
The advantage to the harassment style, is that you get to do damage that the enemy cannot stop.  He can't shoot you until you come on the board, so you can deliver that 1 critical attack where ever it needs to be.  If you have reserve vehicles, this unit is great for clearing the way.  Drop down behind an Agis defense line and flamer it clear, drop next to some hydro cannons, and take them out.  Once you have completed the mission, if you are pretty shot up, use your mobility to escape the death star that may come after you, and position yourself to claim an objective.  If you survive enemy shooting mostly intact (and if you have 4 combat squad, some of them should), assault something.  You might not be able to kill that Dev squad or those 14 lootas in 1 turn, but you should survive long enough to keep them from shooting for at least 1 turn, and forcing enemy units into roles they weren't chosen for is huge hindrance for you opponent.

6. Vehicle assault: I won't address Rhino or Razor back assault, because that is just not good for them. It is just like dropping in (in terms of getting shot up after getting out of the vehicle), without the flexibility of  being able to strike weak spots across the board.
Without going into strengths and weaknesses of the vehicles themselves, I will only discuss them here in their ability to fill this role.
Stormraven - earliest you will be able to charge in turn 3.  Resistant to shooting, but a lucky hit will ruin your unit.  If I was going to use one, I would think about coming in hover mode and moving flat out.  This reduces you chance of removing big threats with your flyer, but it means that you can still move about 40" without losing everything to 1 lucky shot.  Even then, I would probably not use a stormraven to deliver a unit of assault marines unless I was also delivering a dread to support them, otherwise I would use a landraider.
Landraider - Armor 14 is hard to kill at a range, and once you are in melta range, you have already delivered your cargo.  Also, as a dedicated transport to Assault Marines, it is not many more points than a stormraven.  With a flat out move on turn 1, then moving 6" and unloading 6" on turn 2, you can give your marines a very real chance of charging into enemy deployment zone on turn 2.

I was considering the TL las cannon razorback idea, but seeing it is only 20 points cheaper than 10 tactical marines (with a missile launcher), makes me think I would probably not use it.

I would probably only use tactical marines as role 4 and 5, maybe 6 (although I'd probably rather use elite units) and maybe 2 (although with allies, I could get scoring units with the same, or more, fire power for cheaper).

Equipment options:

Flamer and Meltagun - both Great choices, depending on what you expect to face.  In an all comers list, take 1 of each per unit (or 1 unit with 2 flamers, and 1 unit with 2 meltaguns) that can be combat squaded as needed.  You will lose an attack, but I think it's worth it.

Hand Flamer - OK.  I think the +1 strength is worth the attack.  Since your flamers have to be in the front to shoot (since your template can't hit anything else), they are usually the first shooting casualty anyway, so make their shooting count, and don't worry about how many melee attacks they will have (because the answer is probably 0).

Plasma gun, plasma pistol - Good.  On the Sgt, I would say the plasma pistol is good choice, as he can use it to snipe targets on the charge (and you want the sgt to have as many attacks as possible - not that he can take plasmagun anyway).  For Rank and File, I think the plasmagun is better.  Yes you lose an attack, but if you are going to buy the most expensive upgrade available, get as much use from it as you can.  As Teq becomes more "it", I have thought about adding a plasma squad (2 plasma guns and gunslinging sgt with plasma pistols.  Dropping 6-8" away and shooting 6 plasma shots into MeQ or TeQ could be game changing.

Infernus Pistol - Good, only if you are not dropping in.  With a 6" range (3" melta), it would require you to take a major risk to ensure the use of your pistol the turn you drop in, and since you will probably be assaulted the next turn, those points will be wasted if you don't.

For the SGT, I've already discussed the ranged weapons - IF I upgraded the ranged weapon, I would take a plasma pistol in dropping in, or Infernus pistol if moving across the board.

Naked - Good - For melee, it is perfectly viable to leave him with no upgrades, and use him to absorb power weapon hits in challenges (18 points for a meatshield that will protect the rest of the squad from enemy super killer)

 Power sword - Good.  Still extra attack - may not win challenge, but at least has a chance.  If he does win, that power sword will help too.

Claws - OK - I don't think they offer enough to a SGT to be worth losing an attack.  (Against a character with lots of base attacks and high WS, the re-roll to wounds might be worth it, but the Assault Sgt is neither of those things).

Power fist and Thunder - Bad-Good hammer will never get a chance to swing.  However, if you were going to move across the board, and have control over what combats you are in (a choice you don't really get when you DOA in), the hammer and fist could serve a purpose (tank hunting).

 Stormshield -OK- With 1 wound and average stats, I don't think I would spend 20 points for a SGT to get a stormshield.  There could be times when the stormshield saves the day, but 20 points will make the SGT lose an attack, and will not make him anymore likely to survive a round with a real combat character. (and I think paying more for an upgrade that the cost of the model itself is counter-intuitive. - In fact, maybe there is a rule-of-thumb in there somewhere, like a character should not be upgraded more than 10% of his base cost, or something like that)

Combat shield. Good - for 5 points, it won't save the day as often as a stromshield, but when it does save they day, you won't yourself asking if it was worth the points. Equally,

Melta Bombs - Great.  Take out buildings, monsters, dreads, and vehicles for 5 points.  I always take these for all of my SGTs.  If I need the points, I may drop them from time to time (they aren't THAT much better than krak grenades in most of these cases), but they offer so much flexibility, for so cheap, that they are my first upgrade every time.

Efficiency of Tactical Marines

Last month I reviewed Scouts, so to continue the troop series, I will now talk about tactical marines.  Before 6th edition, I never took tactical marines.  5 Assault marines in a cheap razorback (or free rhino) gave me more points for other things.  Now that you have to get out the vehicle, I have started taking tactical marines again.  I actually haven't done any math-hammer yet (but I will), it is entirely possible that 5 assault marines hiding in razorback for 4 turns and then getting out is better, and more efficient after all (yes they will get shot, but how much enemy firepower will the absorb, and the vehicles are practically free), but for now....

The Blood Angel Tactical marines are the same as pretty much every other tactical marine squad, except there is a 1 in 6 chance that they are fearless.  While fearless rocks this edition, it doesn't matter a lot for objective camping tactical marines; as long as you make sure they are 12.1" from the edge of the board, they will rally and be able to resume their task.

This brings me to tactics of tactical marines.  A unit cannot really be evaluated without considering what you are going to ask of it.

1. Camping Back Objectives - The traditional use of tactical marines.  Drop them in the backfield, and shoot anything that comes close.  This is a job that over-laps with one of the uses of Scouts.  A lot of people use scouts in this role, because they are cheaper, and people are trying to save points - but lets look at the costs: A scout with a cammo cloak costs the same as a tactical marine.  While the first 5 scouts are 15 points cheaper than the first 5 tacticals, by the time you add a missle launcher for 10 points, you are saving 5 points by taking scouts.
So for 5 points more, you get a unit with BS 4, with an AS 3 most of the time, instead a unit with BS 3, with a save of 4+ (armor and cover), but keep in mind that the tacticals are still going to have cover save of 5+.  The Scouts have longer range (with sniper rifles), but the tacticals are more deadly at close range and melee, and if you have troops sitting on an objective, they are eventually going to be at close range to the enemy.

2. Mid-Field Control - Tactical Marines are good for mid-field control for the same reason that the same reason they are good at camping back field objectives - they are durable, and get more dangerous the closer the enemy gets, and can hold their own in melee.  From the middle of the board, their 24" range will offer them a lot of targets, and the enemy generally will not be able to ignore them to go for your back-field.

3. Enemy deployment zone invasion - This is a new use for BA tactical marines.  Generally, if you want marines in the enemy deployment zone, you take jump troops.  This unit is there to support those troops.  They load 10 marines into a transport, and rush the enemy.  On turn 1, our rhino's can move 24" (although I would probably only go 12", depending on how far back the enemy deploys).  So turn 1, move to middle of the board (11-12" from enemy deployment).  Turn 2, move 6", then unload troops 6" closer.  By now you should be in rapid fire range on enemy.  By itself, 1 unit is not a huge threat, but imagine 3 units of tactical marines rapid-firing into the enemy's deployment zone, while your assault marines are landing nearby to flame things and set up charges.  Since combat squads can ride in the same vehicle, you can even have 1 CS with MM going after vehicles, while the flamer or plasma gun goes after the troops.
The only "set back" to this plan, is that you need to take multiple units of tactical squads, each with a rhino, and rhinos for our tactical squads are more expensive than anyone else's (because they are fast, even though fast doesn't help us here, because we don't want the enemy to be able to charge our rhinos).  You are almost losing a whole tactical squad for 3 transports.

I mentioned equipping the tacticals.  I personally prefer MM and Flamer, as both choices are free.  If our missile launchers get flakk missiles, then I will probably swap out the MM for a ML.  A lot of people like plasma guns, and if you are going to leave the marines in the back or middle field, I can see where it would be useful, especially if everyone starts foot-slogging terminators across the board.  That being said, I like the free versatility provided by the flamer.  Too often, the enemy gets troops to my objectives, so having the ability to flame them before charging, or getting the free hits when they do charge is good for me (additionally, I have never taken a plasma weapon that did not kill its user by the end of a game).  So my preferences aside, I will talk about each weapon option.

Flamer - Great.  Its Free.  Free hits against chargers.  Ignores cover (if you are defending or attacking an objective, you are probably doing it through cover).  Less useful for back field defenders, as it won't get used.

Meltagun - Good.  It is a decent weapon no matter where you put it.  Up front, good for killing Meqs, parked vehicles, characters.  In the middle, it makes it even more difficult for you opponent to just go around you.  In the back it is the least useful, but you will still occasionally get something in the backfield that you will want melta for.  Downside - although cheap, it is not free.  The melta guy is often the first to die, because making sure he is close enough to get the 12" shot often makes him the first casualty to enemy shooting (although this is more likely user error).  The biggest reason I don't take the melta gun on tacticals is because by the time tactical marines are withing 12", they can charge with melta and krak grenades and usually get the job done.

Plasmagun - Good.  Everyone is making a big deal out of plasma, because of how dangerous 2+ saves are because of the change to power weapons, but I don't see how that effects shooting.  Very few ranged infantry weapons had AP2, and that hasn't changed.  If you weren't using plasma before, there is not really a reason to use it now - weight of fire still kills 2+ at a range, just like always.  Again, I am not a big fan of plasma because for me it always explodes, and I always fail my same.  But, as more people make MEQ and TEQ foot-lists, plasma might start being worth the points / risk.

Heavy Bolter - OK.  I consider the heavy bolter as a vehicle mounted weapon.  It is not much better than a boltgun, especially inside 12".  Str 5 can glance a lot of vehicles of flyers, but just barely, and it won't happen enough to be worth it (especially now that 1 glance won't neutralize a vehicle like it did before).  There is nothing wrong with the heavy bolter, it just isn't as good as the other free options available to tactical squads.

MM - Great.  Its Free, it has the same range as a bolt gun, and is as good or better at popping MEQs and TEQs on foot.  It is also good for popping vehicles (of course) at a range, and has the best chance of a snapshot taking down a flyer in 1 hit..

Missile Launcher - Great.  It's Free.  It has a long range, so you have some threat over a large area.  It is decent for anti-horde and anti-MEQ, as well as popping most vehicle.  It may eventually get anti-aircraft capability.

Plasma Cannon - OK.  Great against MEQs and TEQs, especially of they are Deep Striking nearby.  however, it is a small template, so if they spread out it has limited effectiveness.  The scatter could also threaten your own nearby support units.  You risk "gets hot!", and it is the only weapon tactical marines can take that DOES NOT get to snapshot on the move.

Las Cannon - Good.  It is not free, but it has the longest range, and the highest strength.  If you were going to camp an objective in the backfield, this would be a fine choice.  The only reason it's not Great, is because it is only slightly better than the missile launcher, which is free, but if you know that you are going to need that extra punch - because you are like to face TEQ, Landraiders, etc, then there is nothing wrong with taking a Las Cannon.

Upgrades for the SGT - These are a lot more situational, and preference based, but I will still offer thoughts on each of them:

Chain Sword - Eh.  A long range support unit would be better off with a boltgun than a pistol and sword, as it will hurt the unit's primary mission of providing fire-support (I know you could keep the boltgun and the sword - but what's the point?)  If you were going to be close up to enemy, and worried about your melee performance, then it would be ok, but again, just ok.

Stormbolter - Good.  If you have 3 extra points, and don't plan on being in melee, there is no reason not to take this - although I would take it on other characters first.

Combi-Weapons - Situational, I never take them.  To me, they are like taking missile on rhinos;  occasionally, 1 special weapon shot will come in handy, but I would rather spend the points on something that contributed more consistently.

Plasma Pistol - Ok.  With the character ability to choose their target on a 6, it could come in handy, but if you are that close, you are about to be in melee (probably in a challenge), and anything that makes a SGT more expensive, and doesn't help him win the challenge (thereby protecting those extra points), is Meh in my book.

Power Weapon - Ok-Good.  If you plan on being in the backfield, then you are better off with a boltgun.  Although the power weapon could take the place of a pistol, and be more useful than a chainsword in that situation, its a decent chuck of "upgrade" points that you hope don't make their points back (because if the sword turns out to be worth it, it means a unit you didn't want in combat was in combat).  In a unit that is going to be mid-field forward, the power weapon and a pistol is a strong choice.  You have a decent chance of winning challenges against other SGTS and non-melee oriented characters.  Since the SGT can be singled out in combat, I suggest the power sword over the other options.  Anything worth fighting in a challenge is at least armour 3, but with 1 wound and no invuln save, if you are going last in the challenge, you are probably not going at all (so no axe)

Power fist - Ok.  Besides being more expensive then the power axe, it suffers the same problem - you are probably never going to get to use it.  For those rare times when you "need" the extra strength, against vehicles, dread, monsters, etc, you can probably use a grenade, at initiative, instead.

Melta Bomb - Great.  In most cases it can do what you'd want a power fist to do, for a lot less points, and it won't take away attacks when you don't need it.

Teleport Homer - Situational (does it work in a vehicle?) If you were pushing forward, into enemy deployment zone, and wanted to drop terminators instead of assault marines, I would take this (as the bigger risk of scatter, combined with density of units in area make deep striking there much more risky).  If it does not work in a vehicle, I guess on turn 1 I would drive 6", then unload 6".  I guess you could then run another (average) 3".  Then, on turn 2, the terminators could land 6" away without scatter - basically giving you a 21" scatter free zone - unless your enemy realizes what you are doing, and you don't have enough other things on the board to draw his fire.  Actually I think this might be a pretty strong tactic for some other armies, but to make it worthwhile you would probably need multiple units of terminators, and I would rather take assault marines, since they are scoring for us.
(although I might math-hammer it to see if maybe adding 1 squad of assault terminators to support my assault marines might not be worth it).

Review of Scouts and efficiency

So, I was reading somewhere (probably one of the blogs linked on my page) about how making a list should consider point efficiency.  There are several roles you need to fill in an army, scoring, anti-vehicle, etc, and the idea is to study your codex and fill each role as efficiently as possible.  The author of the blog said you only compare your units to your own codex (because even if the land speeders are cheaper in another army, you can only work with what you have), however with allies this may not be true.  Once you determine who your ally is going to be, you need to see if you can fill some roles more efficiently from that codex.  However, for now I am sticking with C:BA, and starting with scoring units.  First up is the scout.

Scoring
  The first group I am going to look at from C:BA is the scoring units.  My rough draft of this post had a lot of spreadsheet math, broken down into lots of details, and points per kill, and stuff like that.  Instead of posting all of that, I am going to basically sum up.  If I am taking scouts to score, the most important thing for me is that they can stay on the objective, so I am taking 10 scouts, and giving them camo cloaks.  This means that the scouts will have 4+ armor save and 4+ cover save.  So it would take about 60 boltgun shots fired from MEQs to remove this unit.  If a unit had all plasma, there would still be a 4+ save (area terrain + cloak), so it would take 36 plasma shots to wipe them out, or they can go to ground and get a 2+ save by going to ground, which would enable them to be able to absorb 180 boltgun shots or 110 plasma shots.  While I wasn't going to do a bunch of match, I think talking about how many points you are paying per absorbed shot is relevant when talking about a scoring unit, so taking the median of 36 and 180, you can absorb about 108 shots for 170 points (my unit has all sniper rifles).  This comes out to 170/108, or about 1.57 points per shot absorbed.

Shooting
  You want your scoring unit to contribute, so an average unit of 10 scouts with sniper rifles will inflict about 9 unsaved wounds against MEQ in the open over a 5 turn game.  This comes out to paying about 18.5 points per wound this unit inflicts.

Melee
  If this unit gets charged, it can withstand about 40 melee attacks, or about 4.5 points per wound, which makes it the least efficient scoring unit when it comes to getting charged.  What is interesting though, is that this unit is equal to a tactical unit in terms of wounds inflicted on the charge (since the WS 3 will translate to generally hitting on a 4, just like the tac squad), and a scout squad armed with melee weapon is more point efficient on the charge than a squad of assault marines (same number of attacks, still needing 4s to hit and wound, and cheaper).

Disruption
  Scouts have outflank, infiltrate, and scout.  This gives them a lot of disruption capabilities.  Personally, I used to like outflank, but now that you can't attack the turn you come in, I am kind of meh about it, since it isn't really better than DoA; the assault marines have better armor to absorb that round of shooting, and aren't susceptible to being blocked off the board.
  Looking at infiltrate and scout, I noticed that you can infiltrate 18" away in the open, then scout move 6", to start the game withing 12" of the enemy, even in line of sight.  Since you can not assault first turn if you use either of these abilities, I am not sure what you gain, since scouts aren't great for standing up to charge.  I guess if you can get into cover within 12", with shotguns, combi-flamers (or maybe even boltguns), along with a melta bomb for the sgt, you can create enough of a threat that the enemy will have to take a turn to deal with that unit (if you go to ground they probably will have to use a unit to assault you too).  If I was going to do this though, I would probably pass on the camo cloaks, and I would probably combat squad the unit into 2 units, on opposite sides of the board from each other, creating 3 fronts for the enemy to deal with. I realize 2 of these fronts are not very dangerous, but the more choices your opponent has to make, the more chances he has to make a mistake (and if he completely ignores them, krak grenades in his backfield will hurt soft targets, and if the scouts are still alive one turn 3, you can throw them at whatever your assault marines are about to charge to suck up the over watch.

Conclusions:  I was trying to talk myself out of scouts, as they don't shoot as well as tacticals, outflank is inferior to DoA, and they aren't so much cheaper that tacticals anyway.  However, after the disruption paragraph, I may have talked myself into 1 squad (which I would have to buy, since my 10,000
points worth of Marines do not include a single scout.)

Sanguinary Priests - Are they worth the points?

Just some math-hammer on Sanguinary Priest, to decide if I want to put them in my army.  First, since they are only range 6", I probably want to have one per unit, as I am probably not marching down the middle of the field (we are not orks after-all).

First, I am going to calculate them with jump packs.  A priest with JP cost 75 points, about 4 ASM.  Assume that 1 in 3 in going to make the save.  This means that my unit can basically take 2 extra wounds. (I take 3 wounds, save 1, which leaves me with 3 marines, take 3 more wounds, save 1 again).  Add in the Sanguinary Priest himself, and I am basically getting 3 marines for the price of 4. 

So let's looks at 10 marines.  10 marines take 3 wounds, save 1 to FNP, leaving 8.  3 more wounds, 1 more save leaves 6.  3 more wounds, 1 more save leaves 4, 3 more wounds leaves 1. So it takes about 13 wounds to kill them all, instead of 10.  Add in the Priest himself, and I am getting 14 wounds for the price of 14 marines.  So it's a wash (except for the slightly improved stats in had to hand).

All of this is assuming again that the Priest is the last one killed, and that the enemy is not using Instant Death weapons.  If the enemy is using a lot of plasma, it will take less hits to inflict this number of wounds, but the number of wounds in the unit doesn't actually change.

Edit: While trying to calculate the most efficient scoring choice, I thought of another metric to measure this by.  A tactical squad costs 170 points, and it takes, on average, 90 bolter shots to kill all 10 of them.  This comes out to about 1.89 points per shot the unit can soak.  Adding a priest bumps the unit up to 220 points, but the unit can take 140 shots before being destroyed.  This comes out to about 1.57 points per hitpoint.  So it is slightly more efficient to take a priest in a tactical squad.  I don't think this invalidates my previous, empirically based deductions, since we cannot spend fractions of points, but it does show that a priest could be work it (these wounds do not the count the priest itself, who would still be alive at the end of these 140 shots).  

Making sure flyers deliver their payload

So, I was building a 2000 point list and, since I have 2 of them, I was looking for ways to incorporate at least 1 stormraven into it.  The stormraven does not have enough firepower to justify its cost as a gunship, so it needs to transport something.  So I add a furioso dread and some termies.  Now if the vehicle is destroyed, I will probably lose over 600 points.  My question is, how do I make sure that doesn't happen?

That is the point of the article.  As BA, we can significantly improve our flyer's chances of survival with the humble assault troop with jump pack.  I created 2 units, one with 2 flamers, and one with 2 meltaguns (I suppose if you were crunched for points you could take one unit, and give it 1 flamer and 1 meltagun).  I am not giving it any other upgrades (except maybe a melta bomb for the sergeant).

The goal of these 2 units is asset protection.  Before the game starts, I will look at my enemy's army and determine the biggest threats to my flyers.  Then I will combat squad my asset protectors accordingly.  If the enemy has units of lootas, or Tellion behind an AA turrent, I combat squad the flamer jumpers and drop them in a position to burn those guys out.  If the enemy has Hydoflaks, then I split the melta squad and drop them behind enemy lines.

Because of DoA, this works pretty well with Assault troops, as you can drop at just under 6" and be reasonable safe.  These are very likely to come in on turn 2, and can clear the way for your flyers.  Additionally you have a scoring unit behind enemy lines, that contributes to the line-breaker secondary mission.  That means that he is probably going to have to use at least 2 units to shoot at 5 men (unless he has uber plasma), because if even 1 man is alive, he will rally and give you the secondary mission point.  If you drop 2 squads, or even all 4 (throw the other one in for good measure), you can cause significant disruption that he has to deal with (otherwise keep flaming, grenading, and melta-ing stuff), and every vehicle, or loota, or dev that you kill is 1 less shot aimed at your stormraven.

I liked this idea so much that I decided to keep these disruption units even after I decided to put the stormraven points somewhere else (It will be very rare that you can't find SOMETHING to destroy that will make your army safer).

Who says vehicles are dead?

First, this is not based on actual game experience, as I have not run many vehicles since 6th edition, because, like everyone else, I read the glancing rules and thought, screw that.  Then you read the forums about how vehicles are getting glanced to death, so you think, "good thing I don't have any vehicles..."

I was thinking about this today, and I was wondering, who is glancing all of these vehicles to death?  Rhinos are 11 armor on front and sides - bolters can't touch that, lasguns can't touch that, and even though I don't have the book handy, I am pretty sure that tau guns can't touch that.  I know Eldar have alot of Str 6, necrons can glance anything, and grey knights with psybolt ammo can glance that.  Sure there are missile launchers and lascannons and all that things there have always been, and it is a little easier for them, but str 6 weapons are not so prolific that parking lots are getting glanced down in a turn or 2 by foot troops - and that's just armor 11, what about 12, 13, and 14.  Sure lascannons can glance them down, all 2 of them in your army (if you're lucky).  Sure melta can glance vehicles down, but melta kills stuff anyway.

I am not going to be able to play for a couple of weeks, but I am going to make a vehicle army (marines, since I don't really have IG), and see for myself.