Game Castle Summer League '10

After a couple of test games with my version 1 army, I came to some conclusions:

-The basilisk, which was originally a filler unit, is really good and I'm keeping it. Dropping cover-ignoring AP3 shots on top of guys anywhere on the board, whether you can see them or not, is really tactically invaluable.

I had to make some modifications to my old basilisk model. The paint job is from my Iron Warriors army of 2001 (back when Iron Warriors could take a basilisk in 3rd edition). So I pulled off the chaos trophy racks and the servitor crewman and am in the process of sticking on imperial gubbins before the new paint job.

-The 30-man blob plus everybody else is a vehicle works really well. Hybrid mech. The blob protects the vehicles from things they're vulnerable to, and the vehicles do the killing that the blob can't.

-Although I was originally against heavy weapons in the blob--because I figured they'd be moving a lot--if you crunch the numbers you find that putting 3 heavy weapons in 3 infantry squads is cheaper than an additional heavy weapon squad for the same number of guns. Because you don't have to make the outlay for the HWS, you can pack more heavy guns into the army by filling up your infantry squads first, then buying more weapons for heavy weapon squads with additional points. Also, if the 3 infantry squads are blobbed and have heavy weapons, you can give them "bring it down" and "fire on my target" orders on the commissar's leadership of 9.

So with these insights in mind, here's the list I plan to play in the Game Castle Summer league starting tonight:

• CCS, 3 meltaguns, in a chimera with hull heavy flamer
  
• Infantry Platoon
  -PCS, 3 flamers in a chimera, hull heavy flamer
  -3 infantry squads with autocannons, one with a commissar, sergeants with power weapons and meltabombs
  -Autocannon heavy weapon squad
  -Missile launcher heavy weapon squad
  
• Vet squad, 3 meltas, in a chimera
  (not happy with this choice, but I need a second troop)
  
• Devil Dog, dozer blade, hull heavy flamer
• Devil Dog, hull heavy flamer
  
• 2 Hydras, hull HF
• Basilisk, hull HF
• Leman Russ BT, hull HF

The points are very tight on this list--not even enough slack to get a dozer blade for the second devil dog. But I think that's the most heavy guns (and AP3 templates) I can manage to pack into 1500 points without breaking something.
6 infantry autocannons
4 hydra autocannons
3 missile launchers
6 infantry meltas
2 melta cannons
3 infantry flamers
3 multilasers
Battle Cannon
Earthshaker Cannon
9 hull-mounted heavy flamers

Give Em a Hand!

After many months of working on learning to resin-cast very small parts, I was finally able to make a hand with an autogun (counts as lasgun) for each and every handless Dust Devil in my first 1500 point list.

Image above shows three sample DDs, each holding a lasgun/autogun in one hand and a knife in the other. With some variation, this is the pattern for the whole army:

All the infantry for the 1500 point version, including Necro heavies with meltas and flamers. Still working on the gun crews, and I eventually want unique sergeant and officer conversions. But this is good enough to get playing.

Reboot

So after taking a couple years out to play a mech marine army, and now that the current IG codex is actually competitive and fun, I have the summer to work on getting the Dust Devils together again.

Phase 1 is making a viable 1500 point army for the Game Castle summer league. I know I want devil dogs, and I know I want to use existing models that I have (a manticore, a couple of hydras, only 3 chimeras available), and I know I don't want to buy any valks. Using Stelek's principles of army building (and one of his lists as a basic template) here's version 1:

• CCS, 3 meltaguns, in a chimera with hull heavy flamer
  (CCS gets meltaguns because of the BS4. Only three instead of four because of points--in the 1750+ version this is easily boosted to four.)
• Infantry Platoon
  -PCS, 3 flamers in a chimera, hull heavy flamer
  -3 infantry squads, one with a commissar, sergeants with power weapons
  (The blob, or in non-KP missions they can grab/hold objectives, bubble-wrap, or die gloriously for the clan and to save the emperor's tanks)
  -2 Autocannon heavy weapon squads
  
• Vet squad, 3 meltas, in a chimera
  (not happy with this choice, but I need a second troop)
  
• Marbo
• 5 stormtroopers w/ 2 plasma
  (I'd prefer melta, but plasma is the models I have. These guys will be swapped out most likely in later weeks for the second devil dog, once I get the model. But I will still feel the need for some infiltrators.)
• Devil Dog, dozer blade, hull heavy flamer
• Manticore, hull HF
  
• 2 Hydras, hull HF
• Basilisk, hull HF

1500 on the nose. So that's 6 regular autocannons, 4 hydra autocannons, 6 meltaguns and a melta-cannon, 3 flamers, a bunch of hull heavy flamers, earthshaker, stormeagle, and a couple of meltaguns. It seems like it should play as a phased army--shooting a lot in the early game, then maneuvering in the mid game, and holding or mopping up in the endgame. Should be fun.

Pictures coming soon.