Army type - a possible change in direction
I should probably start this post by explaining some things about how I select what army and what style within that army that I want to play . So about me:
When I came back from my break, I decided to start a new Space Marine army. Like every army i start, this was going to be "the one." Like that ever lasts. Anyway, I did not want to go back to my Salamanders because they differ in significant ways from the way GW paints them. (My Sallies have black thighs and face masks and look sort of like White Panthers or Mortifcators in green instead of white.) So I looked hard at all the chapters in the How to Paint Space Marines book and finally decided to do White Templars. Partly this is because I thought white would look good on the predominately green tables and partly because I thought I could handle free-handing the emblem. I also knew I wanted no half or quartered designs - I'd had enough with that from my brief stint with my Storm Lords. Wanting to be different from my old Salamanders, I decided to go with drop pods (no tanks) and shooting (as opposed to assault). The core of a Space Marine force should be tactical squads and bolters after all. I also wanted to use the Sternguard and Thunderfire units because I liked the models and both drop podded.
So here is what I wanted to build - A drop pod force based on infantry squads. The idea was to use the pods to essentially pick deployment positions that mutually supported each other and which allowed me to use cover (including the pods) to shield me from one part of the opposing force while I concentrated on the other part of the opposing force. Further, I wanted to use the Thunderfire(s) to try to limit the mobility of the other side. I also wanted to try to keep my units as general and multi-purpose as possible. Previously, I was very good at killing MEQs and armor - I had a lot of plasma cannons, multi-meltas, and lascannons. I wanted to try to be better prepared for horde armies, so I wanted more missile launchers, assault cannons (love the look), etc. For this reason (and also because of what comes in the Assault on Black Reach box, I opted for normal, not assault terminators. I thought I'd back it up with a squadron of multi-melta land speeders for serious anti-tank work. Maybe put a unit of scouts in so I can have a teleport homer.
After studying other drop pod lists on various web forums and talking to a few people, I have become quite doubtful that the idea would work. Apparently in the switch to 5th Ed. all the 4th Ed stuff that worked well (transports, assault terminators, dreadnoughts, etc). all got better while the rest of the army got suckier. further, you take tactical squads not because they are good, but because you have to and then you try to figure out how to get by with as few as possible. At least that's the only conclusion I can come to when I see what is being played. "First tier" (I hate that kind of thinking) Space Marine armies are not gunline and not drop pod. I may still try this list, but it does not seem to be the future. I was also told flat out that the Librarian is the only and obvious choice for a HQ. I should scrap any idea I had of fielding a Captain unless I wanted to go bike.
So I first tried to find ways to improve the drop pod gunline list and one of the appealing ideas was to try to incorporate scout bikes to carry locater beacons. This led me to work around to taking my Captain and mounting him on a bike. A few evolutions later and I realize I am now contemplating a bike army complimented by a few drop pods to do things like get my dread and Sternguard into the backfield. I have some bikes from when I was contemplating Storm Lords and I haven't ever done an army based around the fast attack units.. This is probably where this army is now headed.
I have to admit, I like the idea of these guys, whom I have always thought of as being "knightly" mounting up on bikes, drawing swords, and racing off with their emblems blazoned on their shining storm shields. It just seems to fit. It also means I may try to find a way to make the tacticals a bit more man-at-arms-ish - not sure how though.
I also should mention that I am toying with using a Master of the Forge. On a bike. with a servo-harness. I know a lot of people want to mount him on a bike to get a relentless conversion beamer, and maybe that's a good idea. I want him on a bike because I'm a bike army and because I think a bike with all the servo arms would look awesome. I also like the idea of combining the Master's ability to count dreadnoughts as heavy choices with the Captain's ability to make bike squads troop choices. This is not so much because I want to field nine bike squads and six dreadnoughts, but rather because it allows me more flexibility in my selections. I could, for example, field the Sternguard, a tactical terminator unit, and two dreadnoughts. I could also, by way of another example, field two bike squads and still have room for an attack bike squad and two squadrons of land speeders. However, I'm not sure if this is feasible at 1850 points or less.
Still, if it isn't, the Master may come in handy in drop pod lists too because it lets you use dreads as tanks. I'm not thinking here of dropping in extra dreads as close attack. I'm thinking of equipping some as "rifleman" or other long range support and putting them in my backfield while other "close support" dreads drop in on top of the baddies. And the Master is not so bad himself having like 2 attacks and 3 power claw attacks and an armor save of 2+. Put him in a pod and let him lend his help to a tactical squad. Or I could put him on a bike and let him relentlessly beam around the board.
The interest in the Master of the Forge led me to the solution to another, minor problem I had been having. If you read my fluff piece about who the White Templars are, you will note that among its many problems I had decided to be a Dark Angels successor. Except that GW has apparently now said that ALL DA successors are after Cipher, not just the DA and their First Founding crowd. Since the White Templars are a Codex Chapter and I don't want to play Dark Angels, this gave me a problem. However, with my interest peeked in the Adeptus Mechanicus in the form of the Master and given that I have Techmarines and Thunderfires, it makes sense to consider being the child of the Praetors of Orpheus and thus Ultramarine successors. As you know, I always rejected the idea that because Templar is in the name, they must be Dorn's get. Being Ultra isn't ideal (no particularly "knightly" trappings, not like the Dark Angels or the Black Templars anyway), it works and it give them a reason to 1) have a lot of techmarinish stuff and 2) have white armor. It also lends some personality, especially since the Praetors were a chapter I considered hard when I was re-entering 40K. (They lost because I deemed GW more likely to monkey with them.)
So aside form that I still have my Steampunk Chaos Space Marines to work up and I'd love to do some Emperor's Spears or Blood Angels or maybe some Emperor's Spears that play as Blood Angels though that would seem to stretch things a bit since the former are supposed to be codex adherent. And then there are my Sallies, my Tau, my Dark Eldar, etc...... *sigh*
- I am affected by the aesthetics of the models. If it looks cool, I will want to fit it in, and if it looks dreadful then no matter how good the mechanics are, I won't want to include it. Examples of this are Obliterators (which I hate) and Thunderfire Cannons (which I think look neat if somewhat like Johnny-5).
- I am contrarian which means if everyone is playing Army A, I will look to play anything other than Army A. The best example of this is probably my Sisters of Battle Army. Likewise, within any army, if there is a style that is currently out of fashion, that's what I will want to play.
- I am affected by the genre, fluff, or whatever else you want to call it. If an army is supposed to be and act largely like X, then I will want to include that.
- I am inclined to variety; I don't like homogenic lists. An example of such a list would be three identical ironclad dreadnoughts with pods, 4 identical landspeeders, 4 identical tactical squads with pods, and a librarian. Effective, yes. Monotonous, yes. Beardy, often. I prefer to have two or three different types of units from each category, for variety sake if nothing else. So for the elites, by way of example, I'd rather field 1 Sternguard, 1 Terminators, and 1 Dreadnought then 3 of any of these units.
- I'd prefer to have my various armies feel different. If I did X, Y, & Z with my last army, I'll try to do A, B, & C with the next. The idea is to use things I previously avoided be it units, tactics, or whatnot.
- If there is an official paint scheme, livery, etc. then i will want to follow it as exactly as I can and I get frustrated when not all variations are explained. For example, on a Novamarine, what denotes the company? How are sergeants marked? Etc. I get very frustrated when GW comes up with elaborate marking rules and then does not explain how their pre-created chapters conform. But I digress.
When I came back from my break, I decided to start a new Space Marine army. Like every army i start, this was going to be "the one." Like that ever lasts. Anyway, I did not want to go back to my Salamanders because they differ in significant ways from the way GW paints them. (My Sallies have black thighs and face masks and look sort of like White Panthers or Mortifcators in green instead of white.) So I looked hard at all the chapters in the How to Paint Space Marines book and finally decided to do White Templars. Partly this is because I thought white would look good on the predominately green tables and partly because I thought I could handle free-handing the emblem. I also knew I wanted no half or quartered designs - I'd had enough with that from my brief stint with my Storm Lords. Wanting to be different from my old Salamanders, I decided to go with drop pods (no tanks) and shooting (as opposed to assault). The core of a Space Marine force should be tactical squads and bolters after all. I also wanted to use the Sternguard and Thunderfire units because I liked the models and both drop podded.
So here is what I wanted to build - A drop pod force based on infantry squads. The idea was to use the pods to essentially pick deployment positions that mutually supported each other and which allowed me to use cover (including the pods) to shield me from one part of the opposing force while I concentrated on the other part of the opposing force. Further, I wanted to use the Thunderfire(s) to try to limit the mobility of the other side. I also wanted to try to keep my units as general and multi-purpose as possible. Previously, I was very good at killing MEQs and armor - I had a lot of plasma cannons, multi-meltas, and lascannons. I wanted to try to be better prepared for horde armies, so I wanted more missile launchers, assault cannons (love the look), etc. For this reason (and also because of what comes in the Assault on Black Reach box, I opted for normal, not assault terminators. I thought I'd back it up with a squadron of multi-melta land speeders for serious anti-tank work. Maybe put a unit of scouts in so I can have a teleport homer.
After studying other drop pod lists on various web forums and talking to a few people, I have become quite doubtful that the idea would work. Apparently in the switch to 5th Ed. all the 4th Ed stuff that worked well (transports, assault terminators, dreadnoughts, etc). all got better while the rest of the army got suckier. further, you take tactical squads not because they are good, but because you have to and then you try to figure out how to get by with as few as possible. At least that's the only conclusion I can come to when I see what is being played. "First tier" (I hate that kind of thinking) Space Marine armies are not gunline and not drop pod. I may still try this list, but it does not seem to be the future. I was also told flat out that the Librarian is the only and obvious choice for a HQ. I should scrap any idea I had of fielding a Captain unless I wanted to go bike.
So I first tried to find ways to improve the drop pod gunline list and one of the appealing ideas was to try to incorporate scout bikes to carry locater beacons. This led me to work around to taking my Captain and mounting him on a bike. A few evolutions later and I realize I am now contemplating a bike army complimented by a few drop pods to do things like get my dread and Sternguard into the backfield. I have some bikes from when I was contemplating Storm Lords and I haven't ever done an army based around the fast attack units.. This is probably where this army is now headed.
I have to admit, I like the idea of these guys, whom I have always thought of as being "knightly" mounting up on bikes, drawing swords, and racing off with their emblems blazoned on their shining storm shields. It just seems to fit. It also means I may try to find a way to make the tacticals a bit more man-at-arms-ish - not sure how though.
I also should mention that I am toying with using a Master of the Forge. On a bike. with a servo-harness. I know a lot of people want to mount him on a bike to get a relentless conversion beamer, and maybe that's a good idea. I want him on a bike because I'm a bike army and because I think a bike with all the servo arms would look awesome. I also like the idea of combining the Master's ability to count dreadnoughts as heavy choices with the Captain's ability to make bike squads troop choices. This is not so much because I want to field nine bike squads and six dreadnoughts, but rather because it allows me more flexibility in my selections. I could, for example, field the Sternguard, a tactical terminator unit, and two dreadnoughts. I could also, by way of another example, field two bike squads and still have room for an attack bike squad and two squadrons of land speeders. However, I'm not sure if this is feasible at 1850 points or less.
Still, if it isn't, the Master may come in handy in drop pod lists too because it lets you use dreads as tanks. I'm not thinking here of dropping in extra dreads as close attack. I'm thinking of equipping some as "rifleman" or other long range support and putting them in my backfield while other "close support" dreads drop in on top of the baddies. And the Master is not so bad himself having like 2 attacks and 3 power claw attacks and an armor save of 2+. Put him in a pod and let him lend his help to a tactical squad. Or I could put him on a bike and let him relentlessly beam around the board.
The interest in the Master of the Forge led me to the solution to another, minor problem I had been having. If you read my fluff piece about who the White Templars are, you will note that among its many problems I had decided to be a Dark Angels successor. Except that GW has apparently now said that ALL DA successors are after Cipher, not just the DA and their First Founding crowd. Since the White Templars are a Codex Chapter and I don't want to play Dark Angels, this gave me a problem. However, with my interest peeked in the Adeptus Mechanicus in the form of the Master and given that I have Techmarines and Thunderfires, it makes sense to consider being the child of the Praetors of Orpheus and thus Ultramarine successors. As you know, I always rejected the idea that because Templar is in the name, they must be Dorn's get. Being Ultra isn't ideal (no particularly "knightly" trappings, not like the Dark Angels or the Black Templars anyway), it works and it give them a reason to 1) have a lot of techmarinish stuff and 2) have white armor. It also lends some personality, especially since the Praetors were a chapter I considered hard when I was re-entering 40K. (They lost because I deemed GW more likely to monkey with them.)
So aside form that I still have my Steampunk Chaos Space Marines to work up and I'd love to do some Emperor's Spears or Blood Angels or maybe some Emperor's Spears that play as Blood Angels though that would seem to stretch things a bit since the former are supposed to be codex adherent. And then there are my Sallies, my Tau, my Dark Eldar, etc...... *sigh*
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