Hello all! I am back from my local tournament this past weekend. It ended up being 28 players in ITC format, so we just barely pulled off GT qualifications. 5 games over the course of 2 days. Here is the list that I ended up bringing:
~ Sword Brethren Battalion Detachment (Black Templars) ~
HQ:
* Marshal (Captain) w/ Teeth of Terra, Bolt Pistol, and Jump Pack. [93] *Field Commander -- Master Swordsman*
* High Marshal Helbrecht. [150]
ELITES:
* Sword Brethren (1x Veteran Sergeant and 4x Veterans) w/ 5x Power Swords and 5x Storm Shields. [100]
* Terminator Assault Squad (1x Sergeant and 7x Terminators) w/ 8x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields. [328]
* Vanguard Veteran Squad (1x Sergeant and 9x Veterans) w/ 4x Thunder Hammers, 7x Storm Shields, 3x Chainswords, and 3x Dual Chainswords. [248]
TROOPS:
* Neophyte Squad (1x Sergeant and 4x Scouts) w/ 5x Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons. [55]
* Neophyte Squad (1x Sergeant and 4x Scouts) w/ 5x Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons. [55]
* Neophyte Squad (1x Sergeant and 4x Scouts) w/ 5x Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons. [55]
HEAVY SUPPORT:
* Eliminator Squad (1x Sergeant and 2x Eliminators) w/ 3x Bolt Sniper Rifles and 3x Camo Cloaks. [72]
* Relic Leviathan Dreadnought w/ 2x Storm Cannon Array, 3x Hunter-killer Missiles, and 2x Heavy Flamer. [321]
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS:
* Drop Pod w/ Storm Bolter. [65]
~ Spearhead Detachment (Black Templars) ~
HQ:
* Marshal (Captain) on Bike w/ Storm Bolter, Storm Shield, and The Crusader's Helm. *Warlord -- Storm of Fire* [102]
ELITES:
* Sword Brethren on Bikes (1x Veteran Sergeant and 2x Veterans) w/ 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Storm Shields. [118]
* Sword Brethren on Bikes (1x Veteran Sergeant and 2x Veterans) w/ 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Storm Shields. [118]
* Sword Brethren on Bikes (1x Veteran Sergeant and 2x Veterans) w/ 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Storm Shields. [118]
TOTAL POINTS/CP: [1998]/[6 CP]
As you can see, I have a healthy mix of both shooting and close combat units. My game plan going into the weekend was to use the Sword Brethren on Bikes to do the heavy lifting for the list, eliminating squads wholesale and then rush off to the next squad. I would use the terminators for any enemy beatstick that came along, as 8 TEQ models with TH/SS are not easy to displace and pack a huge punch. The Helbrecht-led Sword Brethren would drop down and tackle specific targets and wipe them off the board. The same with the Vanguard-Vets; albeit they would have more mobility after their initial assault or failed charges. Packing a bunch of TH/SS, these guys are nothing to sniff at either, but lack the durability of the terminators. I had enough kill power to manage killing an unit a turn, as well as holding objectives. I also was well placed for many secondary mission objectives, such as "Behind Enemy Lines".
~ Sword Brethren Battalion Detachment (Black Templars) ~
HQ:
* Marshal (Captain) w/ Teeth of Terra, Bolt Pistol, and Jump Pack. [93] *Field Commander -- Master Swordsman*
* High Marshal Helbrecht. [150]
ELITES:
* Sword Brethren (1x Veteran Sergeant and 4x Veterans) w/ 5x Power Swords and 5x Storm Shields. [100]
* Terminator Assault Squad (1x Sergeant and 7x Terminators) w/ 8x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields. [328]
* Vanguard Veteran Squad (1x Sergeant and 9x Veterans) w/ 4x Thunder Hammers, 7x Storm Shields, 3x Chainswords, and 3x Dual Chainswords. [248]
TROOPS:
* Neophyte Squad (1x Sergeant and 4x Scouts) w/ 5x Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons. [55]
* Neophyte Squad (1x Sergeant and 4x Scouts) w/ 5x Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons. [55]
* Neophyte Squad (1x Sergeant and 4x Scouts) w/ 5x Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons. [55]
HEAVY SUPPORT:
* Eliminator Squad (1x Sergeant and 2x Eliminators) w/ 3x Bolt Sniper Rifles and 3x Camo Cloaks. [72]
* Relic Leviathan Dreadnought w/ 2x Storm Cannon Array, 3x Hunter-killer Missiles, and 2x Heavy Flamer. [321]
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS:
* Drop Pod w/ Storm Bolter. [65]
~ Spearhead Detachment (Black Templars) ~
HQ:
* Marshal (Captain) on Bike w/ Storm Bolter, Storm Shield, and The Crusader's Helm. *Warlord -- Storm of Fire* [102]
ELITES:
* Sword Brethren on Bikes (1x Veteran Sergeant and 2x Veterans) w/ 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Storm Shields. [118]
* Sword Brethren on Bikes (1x Veteran Sergeant and 2x Veterans) w/ 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Storm Shields. [118]
* Sword Brethren on Bikes (1x Veteran Sergeant and 2x Veterans) w/ 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Storm Shields. [118]
TOTAL POINTS/CP: [1998]/[6 CP]
As you can see, I have a healthy mix of both shooting and close combat units. My game plan going into the weekend was to use the Sword Brethren on Bikes to do the heavy lifting for the list, eliminating squads wholesale and then rush off to the next squad. I would use the terminators for any enemy beatstick that came along, as 8 TEQ models with TH/SS are not easy to displace and pack a huge punch. The Helbrecht-led Sword Brethren would drop down and tackle specific targets and wipe them off the board. The same with the Vanguard-Vets; albeit they would have more mobility after their initial assault or failed charges. Packing a bunch of TH/SS, these guys are nothing to sniff at either, but lack the durability of the terminators. I had enough kill power to manage killing an unit a turn, as well as holding objectives. I also was well placed for many secondary mission objectives, such as "Behind Enemy Lines".
So what happened? I ended up getting 2-3 and placing 19th with 89 battle points. Not horrible, but disappointing nonetheless, as my day one saw me lose two extremely close games and getting slaughtered once by my hard-counter. It was not the way that I wanted to go after spending all that hard work building/painting my army. But those hard losses taught me a couple of valuable lessons going into day two that resulted in my wins: don't be so aggressive and remember the missions.
First game, I was paired up against mechanized Eldar. This was an interesting match up to be sure. They were able to outmaneuver me, but I felt I had the upper hand in shooting/close combat power. I deployed aggressively, with my intentions clear to blow straight at him. Everything that was capable to deep striking was held back. My opponent deployed back, but still in my threat range because he did not want to lose a turn moving. I rolled first turn and I was sitting pretty to have a huge round of shooting. Then he seized and it took a turn for the worst. In that first turn, he was able to destroy 2 of 3 scout squads, my Leviathan dreadnought, the eliminators, and 1 of 3 bike squads (insanely resistant). The next few turns saw me deep strike in and skirt around attempting to kill a squad a turn, while claiming secondaries. He was able to move around the board in such a way that minimized my deep strike assaults and did not get as good a charge as I would have liked due to his flying transports. In the end, I had played far to aggressively with my deployment and left my units mostly in LOS which cost me dearly. I lost this by 7 battle points, but the game was FAR closer than that result reflects, with the last turn being the deciding turn in his favor. A 16% chance seize swung the game in his direction, but such is the life of the dice!
Second game was a simple thrashing. I got paired with a 4 Imperial Knight list that ultimately crushed me. He deployed very aggressive, with me being much more defensive in my deployment this time around. He had first turn, shot some stuff. Even though I deployed defensively, he was able to reap a tally on my forces. Units evaporated. There isn't much to stay about this game other than I killed 2 of the 4 IKs, which is more than I could have hoped for considering the state of the board...but it was too little, too late.
Round three was against Tyranids and I lost this by 10 BP. Again, the game was much closer than the score suggests, as I almost tabled my opponent. Unfortunately, he had compiled a couple of great turns (3-4) to pull ahead. What really kind of stalled me, was the miraculous saves that he was making on his 2nd 20-man Genestealer squad (I wiped out his first one with my bikers turn one). Between his 5+ saves and the FNP granted by Onslaught, he kept that squad alive through 3 turns of almost my entire force shooting at it. In a fit of hilarity, my Vanguard Veteran squad crashed into this damaged squad at full strength and ended up getting wiped off the board due to ridiculously poor rolling on my part and awesome rolls on his. That was a crucial turning point in his favor. Nevertheless, I reaped fearsome tallies against his forces but the extra shots I put into those genestealers kept me from tabling my opponent. Oh well, it was a great game against a classy opponent.
Day two went much better for me, as I mentioned, because I took the lessons I learned from day one and applied them to the last two games. In game four, I went up against an Imperial Soup list consisting primarily of Sisters, with some Space Wolves and an Imperial Knight. She won deployment and chose to deploy first. I used a heavy refuse flank against her toughest stuff, but ultimately, she spread her deployment across the entirety of her zone, with her IK right in the middle. This allowed me to pick and choose how to weight my army's deployment. In addition, I noted that she left spaces for me to deep strike. So I held back all of my deep striking units to take advantage of this. She ended up getting first turn, but did not do much against my forces due to my canny deployment. My first turn consisted of moving my bikers into range of her forces on one side of the board and unleashing storm bolter hell. Let me tell you, being on the other end of 80 storm bolter shots is not fun. She had a higher concentration of forces on this side of the board, but the dangerous stuff was on the opposite side, so it ended up being an exercise of picking up models. However, Saint Celestine was on this side of the board so I had to be careful. Her turn two resulted in some deaths on my side of the board, as well as her tying up one of my biker units with Celestine. Nothing horrible, but she did drop some units onto the board which threatened my backfield scouts holding objectives (who ended up getting fried). My second turn, I consolidated my forces in the deployment zone in a defensive manner that had good fire-lanes. All of my DS units came down, with my terminators dropping right in front of the IK and the others dropping in their pre-determined spots around the board. The Captain-led Vanguard dropped behind my opponent's IK in her deployment zone. Helbrecht and his Sword Brethren dropped in her deployment zone in the opposite corner of my bikers. After my terminators failed their charge to the IK hard, the others made their charges and things died. At this point, once that happened, it was game over as I crashed her battle forces with mobile forces and she could not defend against the elite close combat forces rampaging in her lines. It was a low scoring affair, due to some poor secondary mission choices on my part, but I pulled out the win.
Last game was my most fun game, mostly because it was a close game and both of us killed a lot of stuff. I played Skitarii and it was a fearsome gunline list. We had to alternate deployment on this one and he wisely spread his stuff out in his deployment zone to help prevent deep strike shenanigans. But...he did leave a little hole for me on his weaker flank. I deployed extremely conservatively in this game, knowing that he would kill anything he had in LOS. My bikers were opposite of the nastiest squad, but due to how is army was set up, I needed to get them into open fire lanes. Let me tell you, Veteran squad bikers are just plain ridiculous. They are stupid good. The long and short of the game came down to us exchanging units taken off the board. I DS my terminators in front of his chicken walkers and killed stuff. My Vanguard dropped in that little hole and started killing all his squishy stuff. My Eliminators picked off characters, giving me the only real game where they made a big difference. His plasma wiped stuff off the board, but those bikers. Dang. They can tank some shots. Ultimately, my opponent made a mistake in reminding me to hide my already mostly hidden/out of range biker Captain even more so he could not finish his secondaries. I was already retreating him, but when he noted that he still had 3 secondary points to get on him, I promptly put him behind LOS blocking terrain where he could not get or see. This mattered, as I pulled out a victory 30 BP vs 28 BP. Was a great game against a very fun and cheeky opponent.
So my second day, I had broken through on the victories. Finally. I did not have the practice that I would normally get before a tournament because I was painting these guys until the very last moment. This was very evident during day one, with my inexperience with the list being quite obvious. This was something that was rectified day two, but it was a little bit too little, too late. Next time, I will have my painting done a lot sooner and I will actually get time to practice. Nevertheless, I did make some keen observations about the list itself and how the units interact in a competitive environment. So my lists are going to change somewhat going forward.
First of all, Veteran bikers continue to prove their worth over and over. These guys put out insane damage against anything MEQ or GEQ, especially when you factor in Storm of Fire. Units evaporate against their shooting. While one could argue that the unit isn't especially Black Templar-esque and don't really gain anything with our Chapter Tactics, I love the theme of biker units. Plus, they decently hard in close combat since they are veterans and you're wielding a bunch of them (i.e. cleanup units that didn't get finished off). I would just avoid that if possible, because then you can't shoot. I tend to keep the three units in very close proximity of my biker captain so that they can get the benefit of Storm of Fire, but the key is to NOT forget about it during the game. Which I did probably a good 1/3 of the tournament. Those Vets are also stupidly durable against most weapons. Toughness 5 and 2 wounds is nothing to scoff at. Obviously, they do fold to Damage 2+ weapons, but that is only after they get through your storm shields. And let me tell you, that is harder than it seems. Multiple times during the tournament I heard grumbles about how many storm shields my army had. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. They keep your bikers alive; which is of particular importance since they will be the biggest threat to your opponent and will soak tons of fire. I also liked them being MSU, as many times my opponent had to force shoot at one unit to kill it off, leaving my other squads fine. Or having them charge the one squad, leaving my other two free to shoot the next turn. While nice, I only had to use the "Look Out Sir!" rule once during the tournament. Overall, definitely my MVP units for the tournament.
Second, the Assault Terminators did not perform as admirably as I would have hoped. They had a couple of all-star moments (game 2 against IK and game 5 against chicken walkers), but they mostly failed charges and walked for the rest of the game while soaking up firepower. Not exactly as I intended for my premiere close combat unit. Even with the points reductions from CA 2018, I've determined that these guys are just too expensive to DS in. The terminators were meant primarily as a way to effectively deal with IK's, but the two games I played against them, their presence didn't even matter. I can use my mobility to try to pull out a win against them, since full IK lists are a hard counter to the style of lists I run. And I don't particularly want to run pure gunline.
Next up, the Sword Brothers squad. These guys killed more stuff than the terminators did, but they typically did not continue being a threatening factor after the initial drop. Plus, the drop pod took up a ton of space in areas where I had very little space to squeeze into. This limited my DS shenanigans greatly. I love the squad, as they always surprised my opponents with their ultra-efficient close combat prowess...but I need a different delivery method and possibly a new armament for them. Having no ranged weapons after that first charge is brutal and not as points efficient as I would like. Some clarity, however: they certainly killed more points than they cost each game. I just think there is even more potential out there. Maybe switching to Storm Bolters/CCW and giving them a ride? That would give them a little bit more definition and allow them to be effective in both shooting/close combat phases.
The Scouts I would have ideally given bolters, but due to time, I was unable to assemble and paint 15 scouts in time. Due to this, they were essentially only useful in claiming objectives for me. They did not make an impact on my games and I found myself wishing I had some crusaders or Intercessors. Unfortunately, I think those would be too steep a cost for me to squeeze into a list, but we'll see how it shakes out. Definitely a sub-optimal choice without bolters.
My Vanguard Veteran squad was kind of a catch-all unit for me. They did not have the durability of the terminators, lacking that 2+ save and a second wound, however, they were much more mobile and had different weapons to deal with different opponents. They also had a smaller base footprint, which allowed me to get them into smaller holes in my opponent's battle-line. I did find that my opponents were afraid of these guys almost as much as the Veteran bikers, but their storm shields held up pretty good overall (with the exception of game three). On day one, I did not team them up with the "Marshal Law" captain and I regret that decision. They performed much better with him around. I am pretty happy with how this unit performed, even with no ranged weapon, as their mobility allowed them to stay in the thick of things.
Finally, the Eliminators. I really am undecided about these guys. They are super durable with their camo cloaks, which usually resulted in 2+ saves. But their damage output was a little "meh". They did kill some HQs that I would not normally have been able to due to bubble-wrapping, but their 36" range meant I had to get them closer to my opponent than I would prefer. With that being said, they didn't really see a lot of attention by my opponents, probably because they didn't really do much damage. I mean, they are dirtball cheap and allow me to get my Relic Leviathan Dreadnought (which performed admirably)...so maybe they will stay.
With all that being said, terminators need to go. Drop Pod needs to be replaced with something else. Sword Brethren need to be revisited. I need bolters on my scouts if they stay. Other than that, the list worked pretty well. I did not experience too many times where I regretted having only 6 CP, but that is something that could potential come back to bite me. Anyway, it was a fun time and I am looking forward to making some tweaks, getting more practice in before Renegade GT hits in November!
First game, I was paired up against mechanized Eldar. This was an interesting match up to be sure. They were able to outmaneuver me, but I felt I had the upper hand in shooting/close combat power. I deployed aggressively, with my intentions clear to blow straight at him. Everything that was capable to deep striking was held back. My opponent deployed back, but still in my threat range because he did not want to lose a turn moving. I rolled first turn and I was sitting pretty to have a huge round of shooting. Then he seized and it took a turn for the worst. In that first turn, he was able to destroy 2 of 3 scout squads, my Leviathan dreadnought, the eliminators, and 1 of 3 bike squads (insanely resistant). The next few turns saw me deep strike in and skirt around attempting to kill a squad a turn, while claiming secondaries. He was able to move around the board in such a way that minimized my deep strike assaults and did not get as good a charge as I would have liked due to his flying transports. In the end, I had played far to aggressively with my deployment and left my units mostly in LOS which cost me dearly. I lost this by 7 battle points, but the game was FAR closer than that result reflects, with the last turn being the deciding turn in his favor. A 16% chance seize swung the game in his direction, but such is the life of the dice!
Second game was a simple thrashing. I got paired with a 4 Imperial Knight list that ultimately crushed me. He deployed very aggressive, with me being much more defensive in my deployment this time around. He had first turn, shot some stuff. Even though I deployed defensively, he was able to reap a tally on my forces. Units evaporated. There isn't much to stay about this game other than I killed 2 of the 4 IKs, which is more than I could have hoped for considering the state of the board...but it was too little, too late.
Round three was against Tyranids and I lost this by 10 BP. Again, the game was much closer than the score suggests, as I almost tabled my opponent. Unfortunately, he had compiled a couple of great turns (3-4) to pull ahead. What really kind of stalled me, was the miraculous saves that he was making on his 2nd 20-man Genestealer squad (I wiped out his first one with my bikers turn one). Between his 5+ saves and the FNP granted by Onslaught, he kept that squad alive through 3 turns of almost my entire force shooting at it. In a fit of hilarity, my Vanguard Veteran squad crashed into this damaged squad at full strength and ended up getting wiped off the board due to ridiculously poor rolling on my part and awesome rolls on his. That was a crucial turning point in his favor. Nevertheless, I reaped fearsome tallies against his forces but the extra shots I put into those genestealers kept me from tabling my opponent. Oh well, it was a great game against a classy opponent.
Day two went much better for me, as I mentioned, because I took the lessons I learned from day one and applied them to the last two games. In game four, I went up against an Imperial Soup list consisting primarily of Sisters, with some Space Wolves and an Imperial Knight. She won deployment and chose to deploy first. I used a heavy refuse flank against her toughest stuff, but ultimately, she spread her deployment across the entirety of her zone, with her IK right in the middle. This allowed me to pick and choose how to weight my army's deployment. In addition, I noted that she left spaces for me to deep strike. So I held back all of my deep striking units to take advantage of this. She ended up getting first turn, but did not do much against my forces due to my canny deployment. My first turn consisted of moving my bikers into range of her forces on one side of the board and unleashing storm bolter hell. Let me tell you, being on the other end of 80 storm bolter shots is not fun. She had a higher concentration of forces on this side of the board, but the dangerous stuff was on the opposite side, so it ended up being an exercise of picking up models. However, Saint Celestine was on this side of the board so I had to be careful. Her turn two resulted in some deaths on my side of the board, as well as her tying up one of my biker units with Celestine. Nothing horrible, but she did drop some units onto the board which threatened my backfield scouts holding objectives (who ended up getting fried). My second turn, I consolidated my forces in the deployment zone in a defensive manner that had good fire-lanes. All of my DS units came down, with my terminators dropping right in front of the IK and the others dropping in their pre-determined spots around the board. The Captain-led Vanguard dropped behind my opponent's IK in her deployment zone. Helbrecht and his Sword Brethren dropped in her deployment zone in the opposite corner of my bikers. After my terminators failed their charge to the IK hard, the others made their charges and things died. At this point, once that happened, it was game over as I crashed her battle forces with mobile forces and she could not defend against the elite close combat forces rampaging in her lines. It was a low scoring affair, due to some poor secondary mission choices on my part, but I pulled out the win.
Last game was my most fun game, mostly because it was a close game and both of us killed a lot of stuff. I played Skitarii and it was a fearsome gunline list. We had to alternate deployment on this one and he wisely spread his stuff out in his deployment zone to help prevent deep strike shenanigans. But...he did leave a little hole for me on his weaker flank. I deployed extremely conservatively in this game, knowing that he would kill anything he had in LOS. My bikers were opposite of the nastiest squad, but due to how is army was set up, I needed to get them into open fire lanes. Let me tell you, Veteran squad bikers are just plain ridiculous. They are stupid good. The long and short of the game came down to us exchanging units taken off the board. I DS my terminators in front of his chicken walkers and killed stuff. My Vanguard dropped in that little hole and started killing all his squishy stuff. My Eliminators picked off characters, giving me the only real game where they made a big difference. His plasma wiped stuff off the board, but those bikers. Dang. They can tank some shots. Ultimately, my opponent made a mistake in reminding me to hide my already mostly hidden/out of range biker Captain even more so he could not finish his secondaries. I was already retreating him, but when he noted that he still had 3 secondary points to get on him, I promptly put him behind LOS blocking terrain where he could not get or see. This mattered, as I pulled out a victory 30 BP vs 28 BP. Was a great game against a very fun and cheeky opponent.
So my second day, I had broken through on the victories. Finally. I did not have the practice that I would normally get before a tournament because I was painting these guys until the very last moment. This was very evident during day one, with my inexperience with the list being quite obvious. This was something that was rectified day two, but it was a little bit too little, too late. Next time, I will have my painting done a lot sooner and I will actually get time to practice. Nevertheless, I did make some keen observations about the list itself and how the units interact in a competitive environment. So my lists are going to change somewhat going forward.
First of all, Veteran bikers continue to prove their worth over and over. These guys put out insane damage against anything MEQ or GEQ, especially when you factor in Storm of Fire. Units evaporate against their shooting. While one could argue that the unit isn't especially Black Templar-esque and don't really gain anything with our Chapter Tactics, I love the theme of biker units. Plus, they decently hard in close combat since they are veterans and you're wielding a bunch of them (i.e. cleanup units that didn't get finished off). I would just avoid that if possible, because then you can't shoot. I tend to keep the three units in very close proximity of my biker captain so that they can get the benefit of Storm of Fire, but the key is to NOT forget about it during the game. Which I did probably a good 1/3 of the tournament. Those Vets are also stupidly durable against most weapons. Toughness 5 and 2 wounds is nothing to scoff at. Obviously, they do fold to Damage 2+ weapons, but that is only after they get through your storm shields. And let me tell you, that is harder than it seems. Multiple times during the tournament I heard grumbles about how many storm shields my army had. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. They keep your bikers alive; which is of particular importance since they will be the biggest threat to your opponent and will soak tons of fire. I also liked them being MSU, as many times my opponent had to force shoot at one unit to kill it off, leaving my other squads fine. Or having them charge the one squad, leaving my other two free to shoot the next turn. While nice, I only had to use the "Look Out Sir!" rule once during the tournament. Overall, definitely my MVP units for the tournament.
Second, the Assault Terminators did not perform as admirably as I would have hoped. They had a couple of all-star moments (game 2 against IK and game 5 against chicken walkers), but they mostly failed charges and walked for the rest of the game while soaking up firepower. Not exactly as I intended for my premiere close combat unit. Even with the points reductions from CA 2018, I've determined that these guys are just too expensive to DS in. The terminators were meant primarily as a way to effectively deal with IK's, but the two games I played against them, their presence didn't even matter. I can use my mobility to try to pull out a win against them, since full IK lists are a hard counter to the style of lists I run. And I don't particularly want to run pure gunline.
Next up, the Sword Brothers squad. These guys killed more stuff than the terminators did, but they typically did not continue being a threatening factor after the initial drop. Plus, the drop pod took up a ton of space in areas where I had very little space to squeeze into. This limited my DS shenanigans greatly. I love the squad, as they always surprised my opponents with their ultra-efficient close combat prowess...but I need a different delivery method and possibly a new armament for them. Having no ranged weapons after that first charge is brutal and not as points efficient as I would like. Some clarity, however: they certainly killed more points than they cost each game. I just think there is even more potential out there. Maybe switching to Storm Bolters/CCW and giving them a ride? That would give them a little bit more definition and allow them to be effective in both shooting/close combat phases.
The Scouts I would have ideally given bolters, but due to time, I was unable to assemble and paint 15 scouts in time. Due to this, they were essentially only useful in claiming objectives for me. They did not make an impact on my games and I found myself wishing I had some crusaders or Intercessors. Unfortunately, I think those would be too steep a cost for me to squeeze into a list, but we'll see how it shakes out. Definitely a sub-optimal choice without bolters.
My Vanguard Veteran squad was kind of a catch-all unit for me. They did not have the durability of the terminators, lacking that 2+ save and a second wound, however, they were much more mobile and had different weapons to deal with different opponents. They also had a smaller base footprint, which allowed me to get them into smaller holes in my opponent's battle-line. I did find that my opponents were afraid of these guys almost as much as the Veteran bikers, but their storm shields held up pretty good overall (with the exception of game three). On day one, I did not team them up with the "Marshal Law" captain and I regret that decision. They performed much better with him around. I am pretty happy with how this unit performed, even with no ranged weapon, as their mobility allowed them to stay in the thick of things.
Finally, the Eliminators. I really am undecided about these guys. They are super durable with their camo cloaks, which usually resulted in 2+ saves. But their damage output was a little "meh". They did kill some HQs that I would not normally have been able to due to bubble-wrapping, but their 36" range meant I had to get them closer to my opponent than I would prefer. With that being said, they didn't really see a lot of attention by my opponents, probably because they didn't really do much damage. I mean, they are dirtball cheap and allow me to get my Relic Leviathan Dreadnought (which performed admirably)...so maybe they will stay.
With all that being said, terminators need to go. Drop Pod needs to be replaced with something else. Sword Brethren need to be revisited. I need bolters on my scouts if they stay. Other than that, the list worked pretty well. I did not experience too many times where I regretted having only 6 CP, but that is something that could potential come back to bite me. Anyway, it was a fun time and I am looking forward to making some tweaks, getting more practice in before Renegade GT hits in November!
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