So, when "working" a codex, I often go through a process where I will build army lists from scratch, over and over again, pretty much as my whims take me. Writing an army list is to me what completing a Sudoko puzzle is for others. It's a relaxing and fun exercise in and of itself.
Seeing all the different ways that you can make a codex "flex" is really quite fun. Yes, I am a nerd among nerds. Mock away.
Anyways, while I am doing this, I can pretty quickly toss out lists which are just clearly unworkable. You get to the final product and you can see it's missing tools, or has glaring vulnerabilities. It was a fun process, but the final product is garbage. That's ok, it's all about learning.
But over time I find myself re-creating the same lists from scratch over and over again. I start to identify these lists as the "core" offerings of this codex, as defined by me. Ultimately I may select one of these lists to build in real life and it might even hit the table, although that's a long and slow process for me both due to money and time constraints. Sometimes I am inspired by a list that another blogger writes, and then I take his core components and adapt them to my own purposes.
Anyways, I have been enamored of Assault Cannons for quite some time. I was really excited about Black Templars for quite a while because they had the only Assault Cannons which were actually useful.
And then Grey Knights came.
So I got to work putting together Assault Cannon toting Power Armored dudes and even some Terminators. At that point I just wanted to get a casual playable force on the table. It had a few Rhinos, a Land Raider, some Psyfledreads. Nothing too focused, but able to hold its own in a casual game.
To take that army to the next level would require a significant investment in additional Rhino hulls. I wasn't sure exactly how I would do it, but then I was very inspired by a list Stelek posted up. I liked the basic concept, which was that if you put enough Strength 7 rending shooting units into midfield, you reach a saturation point that your opponent will have a hard time stopping. Stelek took the thing that I like the most about the Grey Knight book (Strength 7 Assault Cannons/Psycannons) and just repeated that thing throughout the army. This kind of supported what I had said right when Grey Knights came out - if you have enough Psycannons, you don't really NEED melta (or anything else, really).
So, I like this concept. A lot. But man is it bleh. It's much too "blob-like" for my taste. I'm not saying it's bad, dirty, rotten evil spam or anything like that. I'm just saying that even for me it's a bit much to put down ten identical infantry + transport units and call that my entire army.
Plus, I'm not entirely convinced that the army doesn't benefit from a bit of ranged firepower, so long as you retain enough saturation to make the massed Strength 7 rending guns concept work.
So my thoughts are as follows:
Keep the Inquisitors, the Henchmen, and their rides.
Keep the six Strike Squads and their rides.
Ditch the Purgation squads and their rides, replace with three Psyflemen.
You still have 8 midfield Razorbacks and 8 midfield infantry units. You gain 3 AV 12 vehicles which should be able to maintain cover behind Razorbacks pretty easily. You lose some of the target saturation/target prioritization problems you had previously provided your opponent, but not so much that it's "easy" for them.
And just for a bit of flavor (and because I think it would actually be useful in some cases) I opted to replace the Stormbolter Henchmen with some Strength 6, AP 3 Large Blast tossing henchmen. You know, on the "off-chance" I'm playing Marines in vehicles and want to make them roll some cover saves ;D. Plus I think the idea of modeling Psyker henchmen squads with a regular henchman "minder" is more appealing than 7 dudes with Stormbolters. Call me crazy. Servoskulls go in, and I have one point left for a "Dawn of War sacrificial pawn" aka one Razorback with a Searchlight.
Fear me Necrons! Fuck your Solar Pulse!
Going back to my initial ramblings at the top of this post, this is a list that I have written, and re-written. And re-written again. I keep starting from scratch and ending up here. There's just something very solid about this list. I don't feel like it's weakened by the inclusion of the Dreadnoughts, myself.
Here's the actual list. Comments/mockery welcome.
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Terminator Armor, Psycannon, Servoskull
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Terminator Armor, Psycannon, Servoskull
Henchmen unit, 4 Psykers, 1 Warrior Acolyte w/Laspistol and CCW, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Henchmen unit, 4 Psykers, 1 Warrior Acolyte w/Laspistol and CCW, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo, Searchlight
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with TL Assault Cannons and Psybolt Ammo
Dreadnought, TL Autocannons x 2, Psybolt Ammo
Dreadnought, TL Autocannons x 2, Psybolt Ammo
Dreadnought, TL Autocannons x 2, Psybolt Ammo
2000 Points exactly.
11 Vehicles, 42 infantry. 52 - 64 "move and shoot" Strength 7 shots, 12 twin linked Strength 8 shots, and two Strength 6, AP 3 Large Blasts. And a partridge in a pear tree.
And contrary to what some people have been vomiting on their keyboards, Necrons do not spell the end of either Psyfledreads nor Missile Longfangs. If you are taking lascannons to crack Quantum shielding... you're doing it wrong. You crack Quantum shielding by throwing a crap-ton of Strength 8 shots (or Strength 7 rending shots) until you roll that hard six. Then you blow that vehicle away. Or else you toss melta-guns at it and blow that vehicle away. Quantum shielding is a great ability, I don't mean to make light of it. But suggesting that everyone should now start bringing lascannons to beat Necrons is silly. If you had good reasons and ways to bring Lascannons before (Razorbacks, Lascannon/Autocannon Blood Angel Preds or Loganwing tank-hunting Lascannon Longfangs, etc.) you still want them. If you didn't before, you shouldn't now. YOUR codex, by and large, dictates your builds. Not the other codexes. You should have the general tools to deal with pretty much anything that comes along if you build properly. This whole "metagame" thing is silly, imo.
Ok, that was long. But I'm kind of wired after getting out of class, and blathering on about random 40k shit helps relax me. I look forward to reading your feedback.
