Drop-Dreds; 1500 to 1750 points
Hello Guys, girls and other more fell creatures of the tactics forum (we all know this is one of the darker corners of the Lounge :p)
So, I gots me a tournament coming up. I have a 1500 point SM Dreadnought Drop Pod list that seems to be doing reaonably well, but I need to expand it to 1750 points and am a little at a loss as to where to spend my last 100 points. Here's the original list, then I'll go into my plans to expand and a little info about the tournament and what I'll be facing (slightly different from the regular tournament scene!)
HQ
Master of the Forge; 120 Points
- Artificer Armour
- Conversion Beamer
- Frag and Krak Grenades
Troops
Tactical Squad; 205 Points
- Space Marine Sergeant, Bolt Pistol and either a Boltgun or CCW
- 7 Space Marines, Boltguns
- Space Marine, Flamer
- Space Marine, Missile Launcher
- Rhino
Tactical Squad; 125 Points
- Space Marine Sergeant, Bolt Pistol and either a Boltgun or CCW
- 4 Space Marines, Boltguns
- Rhino
Elites
Chaplain Dreadnought; 230 Points
- Flamestorm Cannon
- DCCW with in-built Storm Bolter
- Drop Pod with Storm Bolter
Venerable Dreadnought; 205 points
- Twin-linked Lascannon
- DCCW with in-built Heavy Flamer
Venerable Dreadnought; 175 Points
- Assault Cannon
- DCCW with in-built Storm Bolter
Heavy Support
Venerable Dreadnought; 210 points
- Multimelta
- DCCW with in-built Heavy Flamer
- Drop Pod with Storm Bolter
Dreadnought; 105 points
- Multimelta
- DCCW with in-built Storm Bolter
Dreadnought; 125 points
Right, so on with the post. Let's face it, this isn't the most subtle of lists. Drop pods come down and bring either tank hunting or infantry killing Dreds on turn one (depending on the opposing army/deployment) with the rest marching inexorably across the field while the Rifleman stands at the back shooting anything resembling a transport or light armour. The other elements manouvre to take objectives toward the end of the game, hopefully with the Master of the Forge and half of the big tactical squad sitting in a ruin with a 3+ cover save while taking potshots with the conversion beamer and missile and (hopefully) holding my home objective. If all else fails I can use the empty rhinos and (if I decide to deploy all my dreds at the start) the drop pods for objective denial.
Now the tricksy part: Expanding to 1750 points. My general idea is to add in 3 Lucius Pattern Drop pods (also known as Forge World Drop pods). These big beasites are great because you can assault on the turn they land. So Chaplain Dreadnought, Venerable Dreadnought with a multimelta and quite probably the Venerable Dreadnought with the Assault Cannon get those, whilst the Lascannon Ven. Dred and the remaining Multimelta Dred get the original Drop pods. The Plan, again being devious in it's simplicity, is to drop the three lucius pods on turn one, getting the chaplain to take on/out any unfortunate troops not expecting a dreadnought up their rear end on turn one. Hopefully melta-vets and the like, or anyone in a weak armoured transport I can toast open before assaulting in. The Venerable Dred with the Multimelta also comes down, determined to pop any heavier vehicles and/or anything in a squadron. Finally the Assault Cannon Dred mops up whatever else isn't expecting them quite so soon. Hopefully this will be quite the alpha strike, giving my opponant 3 immediate threats to deal with with whatever they don't splatter straight away while my other dread's do their thing.
The rest of the Dreds will usually deploy on the table, shooting from the start; the empty pods being used for objective/movement denail later in the game. The troops and Master of the Forge get used in pretty much the same manor as before.
Now, at 50 points each, taking three Lucius Pods leaves me with 100 points spare to bring me to 1750. What do I do with these? Taking an extra pod for the Rifleman Dred sounds like pure waste. I could top up the second Tactical squad to a full 10 men, leaving me with 20 points spare to add special/heavy weapons to the squads/Sergeants, or possibly up-arm the rhinos and/or give them Dozer blades.
Alternatively;- A bare bones Captain to lead one of the combat squads
- A bare bones Librarian for Psychic defence (and attack!)
- A bare bones Chaplain to help add some punch in objective clearing
- A bare bones Master of the Forge (no idea why, but it is a possibility)
- Another combat Squad. Can't think of how this would be an advantage over increasing the other small squad, as would only leave me with 10 points that could only be spent on the sergeants, rather than 20 and I wouldn't be able to keep them as 2 squads to deny my opponant kill points.
- Rhino/s could be upgraded to Razorbacks, given a few weapons and some other upgrades around the squads.
- A Scout squad. Camo cloaks, sniper rifles and a 2+ cover thanks to the Bolstered Ruin sounds pretty fun to me.
- Extra Armour on all Dreadnoughts. Getting to move is always fun, especially when the Venerables can force the re-roll on the damage chart, all but ignoring half of the shots that penetrate, and 8/9ths of glances!
- A bare bones Assault squad of 5 men
- 2 bare bones Land Speeders, either in a squadron or running around free. Or just one and a few upgrades to it and/or the big tactical squad
- A bare bones Bike squadron, plus 10 points to upgrade them/one of the tactical squads
- A couple of attack bikes. Again, I'd have 20 points spare for upgrades.
Wow, didn't realise there were quite so many options until I started going through the Codex entry by entry. Of course, there is always the option of dropping something else from the list and getting a few more points to spend, but people seem to struggle with facing down 6 dreadnoughts, 4 of which make you re-roll the damage dice.
A little about the Tournament
As I'm sure you can tell from my list, FW models and lists are allowed. Anything. So long as it doesn't have structure points or is a gargantuan creature. That does mean yes to flyers (although if it is a fast skimmer in the codex, it will still be a fast skimmer), yes to more unusual tank types, yes to strange characters and unusual army builds (I'm looking at you, my beloved Armoured Company!) The guys who usually attend fair fairly well at local tournaments, and have even been known to take home prizes at the UK Throne of Skulls tournaments... That said there will always be the fluff bunnies (myself often included) who won't have a clue who to play against this.
There will probably be something resembling a Leaf Blower. I'm fully expecting to see a table bristling with Hydra barrels like some steel forest. I know Mephiston will be in at least 3 of the 50+ armies that will be there on the day. Oh, and I believe a certain Doctor who frequents this hallowed space may take a list with multiple Eldar flyers that I possibly won't be able to do much about.
Right, I appear to have prattled on for much longer than I meant to. Have at my plans with an eviscerator if you want, but I'd appreciate constructive criticism more than anything else. Ideas on what to do with those spare 100 points especially!
Shades
