List Review Friday! #2

Been busy with work and getting my papers signed for my teaching contract this week, so it has been hectic.  Even now,  I sit at work typing this blog.  I was going to post about the new "All Tournament FAQ" that Frontline Gaming has posted on their website, but I will hold off on that until they try and justify some of the things they are doing to 40k.

Onto the lists.  I figure I would spoil everyone again and post two lists up and will probably make this a regular thing by reviewing two lists instead of one every week.

The first list is my brothers Space Marine list he is bringing to the Bay Area Open.  He has playtested it with around a dozen games and may do some final tweaks, but other than that, it is pretty much finalized.  So here it is:

HQ
Sevrin Loth- 205
(Forgeworld character, can take 6... yes 6 powers from Biomancy, Telepathy, or Fire.  he knows all of the Codex:Space Marine powers.  he has many other cool rules as well.  He is a BEAST.)

EL
Siege Dread, Heavy Flamer, an AP3 Flmaer (forget the name right now!) Drop Pod- 150

TR
x5 Scouts, Cloaks- 90
x10 Tactical Marines, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Power Weapon- 185
x10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Power Weapon, Rhino- 225
x10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Power Weapon, Rhino- 225

FST
Storm Talon, Cyclones- 155
Storm Talon, Cyclones- 155

HVY
Thunderfire Cannon- 100
Land Raider Crusader, Multi-Melta- 260

Basic plan is to have Loth join the Tac Squad without the Rhino in the Crusader.  He drives around enfeebling people and casting Endurance on his own squad.  Loth is Beast and be a bitch to take down.  He has his own personal Psychic power that make his save (2+) Invulnerable.  Pretty damn good.  Combine that with Iron Arm and Endurance, and he is near indestructible. 

All of the bases are mroe or less covered.  Some Anti-Flier with the Storm Talons, but they are not resilient at all.  Some pretty good AI firepower with the TFC, Siege Dread, and Crusader.  AT isn't all that present and relies on the Storm Talons if heavy lifting is envolved.  4 troops is decent but should be at 5 or at least 40 MEQ bodies.  Loth is a catchall and can pretty much do anythign that he would need.

I dont like the lack of troops.  I wish there was more MEQ bodies.  i also dont like the one Crusader.  It is begging to be one shot melta gunned.  if there was two, it'd be much much better as the melta would have to be split instead of all centered on the Crusader.  The army seems small and elitish without having an elite unit.  Its a decent list and my brother is comfortable with all of the units. 

I give this list a 7.5/10

The second list is the list that I will be bringing to the Bay Area Open.  It is finalized, it has ran through literally all of the competition it has come across.  It has not lost a game yet when playing in the BAO format.  I have played 20+ games with the list and very comfortable with it and its ability to take anything on.

HQ
The Baron

TR
x5 Wyches, Haywires, Venom- 125
x5 Warriors, Shredder, Venom- 115
x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom- 125
x10 Warriors, Cannon, Raider w/ Racks- 170

FST
x5 Beast Masters, x1 Clawed Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Razorwing Flock- 250

HVY
Ravager, Nightshields- 115
Voidraven Bomber, Flickerfield, x3 Shatterfield Missiles- 185
Voidraven Bomber, Flickerfield, x3 Shatterfield Missiles- 185

Allies
Farseer, Bikes, Runes, Stones, Eldritch Storm, Doom- 165
x10 Guardians, Scatter Laser- 95
Night Spinner- 115

The Baron and the Farseer go with the Beasts.  This gives them LD10, 4+ or 5+ Deny the Witch, Grenades, Hit and Run, and Stealth.  It also gives me a mobile Doom so I can move up the field and have a greater chance to hit targets with Doom.  The Beasts make a very nice Rock for the list and benefit nicely from Doom with the Flocks having an increased chance to Rend.  This unit has only been completely destroyed a handful of times and a couple were due to horrendous rolling hwile others were due to my lack of knowledge of certain units (Pathfinders and Markerlights).

I have 5 troops, 4 of which are highly mobile and each plays a certain role.  Wyches are there for any DSing Dreads or hard to kill backfield tanks or big uglies like Landraiders.  The Shredder is there because of Daemons and they will be bunched up nicely for the Str. 6 blast and has an average multiuse ability.  They usually sit back and claim an objective closer to my deployment.  The Blaster Squad does what it does.  The Gunboat escorts my Beasts up and unleashes it fury on people.  With the rerolls from the Rack and then the rerolls from Doom make this unit devastating.  The Guardians sit on an objective and shoot at things with the Laser.  Its even better when the objective has Skyfire or reroll 1s when shooting.  They put out a pretty nice amount dakka for DSing units liek Daemons or Podders.

The Ravager and Voidravens are my primary AT and damage dealers.  Voidravens are very very mutlipurpose.  AT, AI, and Anti-Flier can easily be achieved by these planes. 

The Night Spinner is my ace in the whole.  It does so much and more.  parking lots?  Cool, eat my Spinner.  Hordes?  Cool, eat my Spinner.  The thing is awesome and I cannot stress this enough.  Combine it with Doom and drop this on any Infantry unit.  Reroll all non-6s so you can maximise the number of Rends and just kill an entire unit.  The bonus benefit of moving through Difficult and Dangerous Terrain and this tank can do something with actually doing any damage.

Overall my list is weird on its face,  Lookign at it, it doesn't appear to be anything special.  I am counting on that, that way it can catch people off guard.  I dont know lots of people who run Beasts so that could be a shock and awe for some people in the early rounds.  Not so much in the later rounds and more experienced people. 

Dark Eldar aren't an army that is seen alot in tournaments and can play spoiler for many people.  Usually people have the notion of "DE sucks and Eldar are even worse.  I'm not worried about it."  Or people say, "No one plays DE so I am not worried about pulling the 3 people at BAO that will play them."  So when people do play me they will get a rude awakening.

The strengths of the list are that is a Take All Comers.  I have something for everything but nothing is over the top.  I dont have a lot of Anti-Flier, or AI, or AT.  I have Average to above average on all of it I believe.  There are certain builds and armies that I fear with the list.  Tau is one.  They can outshoot me, outgun me, and take away all of my Cover Saves.  Tetras are beautiful and are great for their price.  Necron fliers can be very annoying but I have practiced against them a bunch but they can definately cause problems if they take out my Bombers quickly as I will have nothign to combat them directly with.

Overall if I saw my list I would give it a 6/10.  But, with me at the helm and knowing how it plays it is definately a 10/10!  Ha... Confidence there a little bit.  In all seriousness though, I like my list, I believe it is solid and I think combined with my Generalship will cause some havoc.

I will be mad if I go any worse than 5-2 at the BAO.  I will predict that 5-2 will be my record.  Hopefully giving me Best Dark Eldar Player.  Doug, Rob Pace, and any other DE Player...  Come get some!!!!

This coming weekend I will review the BAO and Tournament FAQ they posted. 

-YEE! YEE!