Final playtesting session this weekend!

The tournament has been moved so I can play! Huzzah! As a result I have scheduled an entire Saturday of gaming with a mate so we can practice a few different lists and decide on one for further playtesting, mad painting and display boarding. This is what I'm going to try out over the weekend in descending order of power:

List 1: White Scars and Imperial Fists

CAD - White Scars
Khan on Moondrakan
Tactical Squad (10) with Rhino, flamer, combi-flamer
Tactical Squad (10) with Rhino, flamer, combi-flamer
Bikes (4) with meltagun x2, combi-melta, attack bike with multi-melta
Command Squad on bikes with 4 grav guns and apothecary

ALLY - Imperial Fists
Chapter Master on bike with power fist, artificer armour, storm shield and auspex
Scouts (5) with boltguns
Sternguard (5) in drop pod with 5 combi-meltas
Devastator Squad (5) with 4 rocket launchers

This is a pretty tough list (stealth competitive) that combines my two favourite things from recent playtesting - scouting/outflanking tactical squads and Imperial fists devastators. I moved away from the Scars Demi-Company because it just didn't have enough bodies. It also has my all-time favourite unit - the Sternguard. Them being in a pod with combi-meltas is superb for first blood and linebreaker. If I want to use them a bit more conservatively I can also drop them out of the way and just take pot-shots with my special ammo from a distance (re-roll 1s because of fists!). The white scars chapter tactics grant nice buffs to the bikes and the fists tactics grant nice buffs to the scouts, sternguard and devastator squad. This is a very maelstrom optimised package, with the tools to grab first blood and linebreaker, a tough warlord that owns challenges, several solid melee units (mostly krak grenades into tanks), lots of mobile ob-sec, no flyers and a variety of tools and shenanigans. I had a very enjoyable game with it against a similarly tough daemon list over the weekend. My only concerns with this list are that 1) it doesn't have a librarian so no harness the warp (but also no purge the witch) 2) I can't think of a display board that would work for it 3) it's a bit too strong for the club tournament


List 2: Imperial Fists to the fluff

CAD - Imperial fists
Lysander
Tactical Squad (10) in Rhino with grav-cannon and grav-gun
Tactical Squad (10) in Rhino with multi-melta, meltagun and melta-bombs
Terminators (5)
Sternguard (10) in Pod
Devastator Squad (5) with 4 lascannons
Devastator Squad (5) with 4 rocket launchers
Thunderfire Cannon

This is the list I am leaning towards at the moment. Not a lot of ob-sec but fun, friendly and very fluffy and I have a nice display board conceived for it with the fists laying siege to a fort. It is actually pretty strong provided your opponent isn't bringing the cheese. It maximises the Imperial Fists tactics by bringing two devastator squads (that is 2 dead tanks or a dead monstrous creature every turn) and lots of boltguns, including 10 sternguard to maximise the re-roll 1s madness. I have found Lysander to be a treat and him arriving with the terminators by deep strike will make people reluctant to go after my Sternguard least they eat power-fist. Also, yay terminators! With the grav, lascannons, rockets and fists I feel pretty confident against space marines and tyranids. I am a bit weak vs. hordes but all the re-roll bolt shots and the cannon should help there. Plus I can always swap to frag missiles. I can set up a pretty good gun line against gaunts and green tide; bigger issue would be ig blobs that can play range games against me while hurting me with wyverns and Pask-punishers.

List 3: Blood Angels to the fluff

Blood Angels strike force
Dante
Librarian with angel's wing, force sword, combi-melta and ML2
Tactical Squad (10) in Rhino with flamer, combi-flamer
Scouts (5) with close combat weapons and flamer
Command Squad (5) with jump packs, apothecary, champion and 3 meltaguns
Death Company (10) with 2 power fists
Land Speeder with 2 multi-meltas
Land Speeder with 2 multi-meltas
Storm Raven with twin linked multi-melta, twin linked lascannons
Predator with autocannon and twin linked heavy bolters*

* I would have liked to take a Baal Predator but I don't have the model. It serves a backfield role in Maelstrom.

This is a very fluffy list but quite mediocre (hard to do much better with blood angels). Dante is one of the game's best HQ units and I really just want to maximise him (on the charge he is WS6, 6 attacks at STR7 I7 AP2 and he causes fear...ouch...he also has 2+/4++/5+FNP, 4 wounds and eternal warrior...challenge me mofo!).

Typically I will deploy only the Rhino and Predator and maybe the death company. The scouts will ride in the Raven and everything will deep strike. Thanks to Dante I re-roll reserves and only scatter D6 on the deep strike, which means that the speeders, command squad and Raven should be reliable and deadly. The command squad brings 5 melta weapons on the drop and then charges around the backfield - no escape! I don't know whether the Angel's wing is necessary. I imagine Tau can just smoke you in their next shooting face; they don't really fear 5 melta guns.

The main weakness of this list is not having objective secured. I'm hoping the Rhino, predator and speeders can do some objective collecting work mid game while the Company and Command Squad crush units, but I think I'm going to struggle against something (like List 1) that brings a lot of objective secured that is hard to move off objectives. One thing I will have to exploit a lot is assaulting units that are holding objectives and wiping them out in one turn, then consolidating onto the cleared objective. Neither assault unit should have trouble achieving that. The command squad fires 4 or 5 meltagun shots and then charges with 9 AP- STR5 I5 attacks, 8 AP3 STR5 I5 attacks and 6 AP2 STR7 I7 attacks. The death company fires 10 bolt pistols and then has 40 STR5 I5 AP5 attacks and 8 STR9 AP2 I1 attacks. I can't think of much that would survive that - Abaddon and a full suite of terminators died to it recently and I have felled Wraithknights and Riptides without even needing the fists in the past. I don't know if I'm really going to be mobile enough to rely on it for objective capture though.

On the plus side, this list is perfect for the club tournament style. It has a flyer, a librarian, vehicles, a variety of weapons, units that are fluffy, strategies that are fluffy and some good units while not being particularly 'ard. I haven't though of a good display board yet but I don't imagine it would be too hard - maybe just some Blood Angels descending from the sky to slay orks.

Anyway, after the games on Saturday I will decide on which one to go with and then I will playtest that particular list more over the next few weeks until the tourney. And build a display board of course!