Army of the Month : March

I've had this army lined up ever since the Space Marine book hit the shelves, and was waiting for the right time. Well, here it is.

The Battle Company

I was actually waiting for a way to get most of the tanks and drop pods for dirt cheap, as it's the way I built this rest of the army - picking up scraps and units left and right through various trades. Because I recently got my hands on 6 drop pods, the time has come to spend some actual dollars and complete the thing with a few rhinos and razorbacks.

Here's how the army curently stand :

Infantry has some basecoats laid out. These will be painted pretty much in the same fashion as last month's army – the overnight method. With a few more attention to details, notable Blood Ravens transfers and squad markings.

I played a few games with the Battle Company, and I strongly believe that squad markings are a must if you plan on finishing your games in time and avoid confusing both your opponent and yourself.

Transports :

I am missing 3 razorbacks, which I'll probably have to buy new, and the 8 pods I have to repaint. My auxiliary force is the Whirlwind one, and both the tanks and speeder are assembled but not started. I have also built ( well, bought in this state is more accurate ) the 2 dreadnoughts.

Painting

My plan regarding painting is actually quite simple. I intend to make all the infantry pretty basic and focus my attention on the tanks, which form the mainstray of the army anyway.

I will probably do all the bases in my classic brown scheme with Jungle tufts so I can mix and match these models with my librarians, grey knights and my assassin and Inquisitor, which are all included depending on the format being played.

I am not sure it will be this month because of time constraints with this being a large army and the projects I need to finish for Adepticon, but I will probably do a display board for this army, as I plan to play it as my main army after Adepticon, notably for the ND Open in May. So, whatever, I'll think of something.

And here's the actual army list I'm currently testing with, if you have suggestions and/or are looking for inspiration :

Gladius Strikeforce :

Battle Company 1 :

Korsaro Khan on foot,

Ironclad Dreadnought, Chainfist, meltagun and heavy flamer. Drop Pod.

Command Squad : 4x Meltaguns. Drop Pod

2x Tactical Squad (5), Razorback with Heavy Bolters

1x Tactical Squad (5), Razorback with Twin Lascanon

Assault Squad (5) with 1 flamer, Razorback with Twin Heavy Flamer

Devastator Squad (5) 2 Gravcanons, Rhino

Battle Company 2 :

Chaplain, Hunter's Eye

Dreadnought, heavy flamer, multi melta. Drop Pod

2x Tactical Squad(5) Melta, combi-melta. Drop pod

1x Tactical Sqaud (5) Plasma combi-plasma, Drop Pod

Assault Squad(5), 1 flamer. Razorback, Twin Heavy Flamer

Devastators (5) 2 Gravcanons, Rhino.

Auxiliary Detachement

Supression Force

2 Whirlwind

1 Land Speeder, Heavy Bolter

Officio Assinarium's Whatever detachement

1x Culexus Assassin

The dreadnoughts are a presonnal favorite of mine. I drop them in the second batch of pods most of the time, when the ennemy might lack the weapons to tackle them, or to provide threat saturation when I go all in ( should I go all in ).

The suppression force is another fringe pick. Most people go for either the scout formation, which I find completely useless despit being cheaper, or the stalker/hunter formation, which has it's pros, but costs a lot because you really want to buy the 3 stalkers for the ignore cover bonus. In ETC/ATC like scenarios, cutting the assassin ( which can be in another list ) and possibly a dread for the stalker formation is something I would do.

The other formation I would consider is the Flyer's one, with 2 talons and a stormraven, but I find the stormraven is too big of a tax as you really only want the stormtalons for firepower. The transport option is ok with the assassin to get you a big anti-psy bubble, but it's really the only use, making your assassin effectively costing you 300+ points.

The worst matchup, as with most pod armies is a Tau gunline, and one of the reason I cut 2 pods from assault squads in favor of razorbacks. The Voidshield Generator can also be problematic as you need to sacrifice the meltagun totting command squad usually to blow it up or play either super cagey and not do much or go balls to the wall, manmode and assault everything and hit and run everywhere.

I'll cover tactics at the end of the month ( which should be actually in the 1^st week of april because adepticon is on the last weekend of march and I will be busy being drunk.