Lysander Drops In

(Not my model - but I have the model undercoated - will be lots of fun to paint too!)

I want to share an army list idea that I have been thinking about recently. It started with the following idea for what I believe is an absolutely sick list at the humble 750 point mark. I was thinking of taking this to Judgement Day, which is a 750 point tournament I have enjoyed immensely for the last 3 years. Then I remembered it is comped (panel comp), and taking Tau last year got me the second highest comp score... so maybe not.

Lysander Drops In (750)
Lysander 200
9 Sternguard - 4 combi-melta in drop pod 285
1 Land Speeder Storm - multi-melta 65
5 Scouts - combat blades, power fist 100
5 Scouts - 4 sniper rifle, 1 missile launcher, camo cloaks 100

Lysander works so well with Sternguard, letting them re-roll to hit with their killer bolters, absorbing a wound each turn, and able to take on single handedly any threats to the squad, especially walkers. He also adds +1 to the cover save of a ruin, hopefully providing a safe haven for that sniper squad so they don't have to go to ground for a 2+ save.

The remained of the army is there to score and support. The combat scouts can hitch a ride in the Storm to deal with a backfield unit that is causing trouble - or support the Sternguard and Ly.

Now I wanted to expand this up to 1500 points. I'm going to need to bump the drop pod count up to three so that it will play similarly. One very competitive option is to fill the second pod with another Sternguard squad, plus Pedro Kantor. Drop the two close by and all those Sternguard have three attacks base when assaulted! But I want to try a Venerable Dreadnought - it's so dangerous dropping into melta range, and I suspect that a re-roll on the damage chart is more valuable than the AV13 of the Ironclad for example.

Dammit but when I add this list up now it comes out at 1605 points, not the 1500 that was the game I played with it last night. Sorry Matt! Apart from the atrocious addition, can you spot the other list building error? I'll point it out at the end ofthis post.


Lysander Drops In (1605!)
Lysander 200
10 Sternguard - 4 combi-melta 270
Drop Pod 40
Venerable Dreadnought - multi-melta, heavy flamer 170
Drop Pod 40
5 Tactical Marines - combi-flamer, power fist 125
Drop Pod 40
2 x 5 Scouts - sniper rifles, cloaks, missile 200
2 x Land Speeder - multi-melta, heavy flamer 150
2 x 5 Devastators - 3 missiles 270
Thunderfire Cannon 100

So I played a game with the above against Eldar. The game was a lot of fun - though I stupidly threw the Venerable Dread away by dropping him too close to a squad of Fire Dragons. The Sternguard didn't do much but tied up a lot of my opponents army long enough for my heavy support to take out the rest. I had incredible good luck with the newly built and painted Thundefire Cannon though, listen to this...

I had shot 4 combi-meltas, 2 squads of missile launchers and a multi-melta withot any effect at all. Then my sole scout missile launcher immobilised a wave serpent that had moved flat out, spilling out 7 warlocks and Yriel. The Thunderfire opened up at S6 and got 8 hits, one for each squad member. Yriel failed his invulnerable save and was instant killed, along with 4 warlocks! Go Techmarine!

The small squad of tacticals were great, coming in turn 4 to steal a backfield objective from a small squad of Dire Avengers.

Now it's back to the drawing board for me, as I make my list legal and figure out whether I can squeeze everything I need into 1500. By the way the second mistake in my list was the tactical squad - you can only take the drop pod dedicated transport if the squad numbers 10 models. Aargh what a rubbish rule - that squad was perfect the way it was!