"Hey Will,
Recently I have been feeling like starting another army that is different than SM's. I have the BT's and the BA's which are both a very assaulty armies, I was thinking of something that kind of sits back and shoots a bit, not to mention those valks are some of the coolest looking models around. So I set out to look at building an aircav @ 1500, and honestly it really wasnt looking good, being able to only shoot at three targets per round really hurts, unless guys are started on the board and in the birds, a aircav/footsloggin hybrid if you will. So between finals I have been trying to come up with a decent aircav type list @1500pts, and this is what I have, it's not really air cav, more of a mixed basket really, but it seems to cover the basics, while providing the elements I like, would you mind taking a look at it and see what can be improved?
HQ
Company Com. Squad
Astropath
Flamers x 4
100
Elite
Gurdsman Marbo
65
Troops 1-3
Vet Squad x 3
Demo's
Melta x 3
Shotguns
390
Troop 4
Platoon Com Squad
Vox-Comm
Heavy weapon team, auto cannon
110
Squad 1
Vox-Comm
Heavy Weapon team, auto cannon
65
Squad 2
Vox-comm
Heavy weapon Team, Lascannon
75
Fast Attack
Vendetta Gunship
HB's
140
Valkyrie x 2
LC's/Rp's
290
Heavy
Manticore x 2
So that gives me 4 scoring units, plenty of melta, and lots of firepower, I think the foot slogging squad might be a light overkill w/ all of the heavy weapons, but having never played guard I am not sure how well this all works together. Ii have included Marbo for the accurate demo charge placement that he can provide, and for 65 points it seems like a good deal. So what are your thoughts, suggestions?
Ashton"
Well I think the biggest thing your list is more vehicles; having only Vendettas and Manticores doesn't really provide a lot of saturation so your opponent can target those two units early. It'll basically be like the so-so Leafblower in "hope I get first turn!" So let's see what we can add to change that. The most obvious option is Chimeras. This effect is two-fold. It increases your saturation of vehicles and at the same time providing more firepower with MLs/HBs/HFs and allows your Veterans to either play around in Chimeras or as Air-Cav. Air-cav is great but isn't always useful so having the option to run the Vets either way is important.
First change we're going to do then is change your Fast Attack to 3x Vendettas w/HBs. Valks are nice but anti-infantry is quite often built into IG lists, especially if we add Chimeras and since you have Manticores. The HBs are also options on the Vendettas and if we need to they can be dropped. So we save some points here compared to having the Valks with upgrades but not enough for 5 Chimeras (3x Vets, PCS, CCS). We aren't really taking maximum advantage of the PCS and platoons though and we don't have the points to really access HWTs so we have to consider if we really want them. Instead let's add some Hydras. We lose the bubble-wrap but we've now got a lot of vehicles in the table and a lot of firepower. Putting it all together let's see what we have.
CCS w/2x meltagun, autocannon
3x10x Vets w/3x meltaguns, autocannon, Chimera
3x Vendetta w/HB sponsons
2x Manticores
2x Hydras
Totals: 1495 points
35 infantry
10 tanks
The CCS is a bit vulnerable in relation to being the only foot squad so let's drop the AC, add in a meltagun and always put them in a Vendetta. That's a lot of firepower at 1500 points with some solid scoring options as long as they aren't used too aggressively.
