Some "themed" army lists

I was listening to a podcast the other day, and they started talking about the advantages of land speeders. That got me thinking lists again, and I came up with a few silly ones:

RAIN OF MISSILES:
HQ
Librarian: 100
ELITES
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
TROOPS:
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
FAST ATTACK:
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
HEAVY SUPPORT:
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
TOTAL:
1960 points.

The point of this list was to squeeze in as many missile launchers as possible (perhaps vehicles with HKs could add a few more missiles, but I've decided not to go there). That's a total of 36 missiles per turn. There's a few points left for upgrades, eg: the Librarian can be upgraded to a Master of the Forge with conversion beamer for more long range power to go with the theme. The dreads can be swapped for cheaper scout squads for the same number of missiles, but the higherBS and overall toughness of the unit (plus the multimelta) justifies the cost in my mind.

But Blood Angels devastators get missiles for cheaper, a blood angel version of the list could have one dread and six scout squads for a total of 37 missiles. However, Space Wolves get cheaper Marine models and can have 5 missiles per squad, which gives us a more powerful list:

CHEESY WOLF-RAIN OF FANG-CLAW MISSILES
HQ
Wolf Guard Battle Leader: 70
ELITES
10 Wolf Guard, 2 Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher: 270
10 Wolf Guard, 2 Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher: 270
TROOPS
5 Grey Hunters: 75
5 Grey Hunters: 75
FAST ATTACK
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
TOTAL:
1990 points.

The total is 41 missiles. Wolf Guard with cyclone missile launchers are cheaper per missile than scouts (plus they are relentless). I don't think there's any troops choice that gets long-range firepower so we just take the mandatory two units. I'm not actually sure this army is legal, there might be some wargear special rules or something, but there you have it.


A second idea I had was for an Adeptus Mechanicus list. I haven't really decided on an exact list, but the basic idea is 2 Masters of the Forge, 3 Thunderfire Cannons, and 3 Techmarines, for a total of 8 Techmarine models. That's probably going to be less than 800 points, so you can afford some Tactical or Assault squads with Rhinos to attach the tekkies to (or even Vaguard Veterans in a rhino, for the extra attacks). You could instead take some scouts with shotguns as Arbites or Storm Troopers or something, truth is I'm not sure what's thematically appropriate for the Adeptus Mechanicus other than servitors, but they are so aweful in this codex that I just can't see taking them.

The techmarines can be given servo-harnesses for some shooty power (flamer and a plasma pistol that can both be fired, a nice opening to an assault), and in assault the enemy either focusses their power-weapon attacks on them (2+ armour), thus sparing the rest of the unit, or suffers a couple of power-first attacks from the servo arms. A techmarine can also have a bolt pistol and power weapon, so they'll do some damage at I4 too.

Look to the Fast Attack slot for some anti-vehicle firepower - I'm partial to squads of 3 multimelta attack bikes as tough, mobile anti-vehicle firepower (they cost about the same as a squad of devastators with 4 multimeltas but can move 12" and fire, have more wounds overall, and are T5), and of course the aforementioned Typhoons for mobile missile power.


I like the Space Marine codex because it has so much variety, and there are so many little tricks (like Masters of the Forge making dreads heavy choices), that you can build some interesting armies. Having said that, there's a few units that I would like to see done a little differently (usually to better match the fluff), I might talk about some of these later.