Hey, Kirby and everyone!
I really, really love IA9, and especially love the Tyrant's Legion list. So much so, that when a player asked me if it was any good, I instantly had to stop and think- well, is it? I love the feel, I love the fluff, I've won games, I've lost games, but...
I'm really biased. My problem is I'm simply too biased in my liking of the Tyrant's Legion; I just can't think objectively when my mind fantasizes about Retributors with their cheap meltabombs, 40-man squads with four flamers at 150 points that grant 3+ saves, access to the vanilla marines Heavy Support, autocannons on chimeras, the potential for dev squads in chimeras, Arvus lighters with guns strapped to them, and even the Sergeant-with-an-extra-wound ultra-cheap HQ choice.
Is the army any good, would you say? Am I just too enthused by all my cannon fodder? What are the best units in the book?
Sorry if this is a lot to ask, especially about a Forge World army and one for whom you may not even have read the rules... but I'm really curious: am I blinded by beauty, or is there substance within all that style?
- sofacoin
First off, sofa, I would suggest taking a look here, which has my review of the Tyrant's Legion list in the general sense. And, sad to say, the list is horrible- it MAY be able to trump Necrons and pure DH, but that's about it in terms of overall quality. It lacks all of the support elements that make its parent armies (IG, SM) useful while getting pared-down versions of their basic units that are just worse in every way. I would say that if you were considering lists to build you should look elsewhere.
However, sofacoin seems to be extremely in love with the list, and far be it for me to deny a man his romances; thus, we'll see what we can salvage out of things. So for one you are right- 50pt HQs and plentiful bubblewrap units are very nice things. Chimera Autocannons are amazing, but if your friends let you use Forge World, you're better off just slotting them into a normal IG army. (Well, you may not have many friends left after you do this, but it's incredibly effective.) Some of the other choices give us some very cheap delivery units that may be able to do some real damage to things, but many of the others are unbelievably trashy. Let's see what we can do to take advantage of things with a couple army lists...
1750 Tyrant's Guard list
1 Legion Centurion (50)
5 Legion Auxilia Command Detachment (2 Meltagun, Autocannon team, Chimera w/Stubber) (155)
5 Legion Retaliators (Meltagun, Razorback w/LasPlas) (185)
5 Legion Retaliators (Meltagun, Razorback w/LasPlas) (185)
30 Legion Auxilia (3 Grenade Launcher) (115)
10 Auxilia Armsmen Cadre (Heavy Stubber, Autocannon, Chimera) (130)
10 Auxilia Armsmen Cadre (Heavy Stubber, Autocannon, Chimera) (130)
10 Auxilia Armsmen Cadre (Heavy Stubber, Autocannon, Chimera) (130)
10 Auxilia Armsmen Cadre (Heavy Stubber, Autocannon, Chimera) (130)
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy Bolter, HB Sponsons, Heavy Stubber) (180)
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy Bolter, HB Sponsons, Heavy Stubber) (180)
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy Bolter, HB Sponsons, Heavy Stubber) (180)
(
All Chimeras in this army are Autocannon/Heavy Bolter setup. Basically, you lay down a wall of vehicles (Russes in front, transports just behind them) on the back line of your deployment zone and wrap them with Auxilia so that people can't get in melta/assault range; the Centurion goes with the Auxilia to help hold them in place. You aren't actually all that great at shooting- ten Autocannons, two BS4 Lascannons, three Battle Cannons and nine Heavy Bolters, and miscellaneous other stuff. With only BS3, that's not all that impressive, and you only have a small number of Meltaguns to ward off bigger stuff. (Don't be afraid to sacrifice them to kill something important, incidentally.) Against slow armies and especially anything on foot... you will probably gut them by simple weight of fire. But against real armies, you are going to get torn to pieces.
1740 Tyrant's Guard list
1 Legion Centurion (50)
1 Legion Auxilia Command Detachment (2 Meltagun, Autocannon team, Chimera) (145)
5 Legion Retaliators (Meltagun, Razorback w/LasPlas) (185)
5 Legion Retaliators (Meltagun, Razorback w/LasPlas) (185)
20 Legion Auxilia (2 Grenade Launchers) (80)
20 Legion Auxilia (2 Grenade Launchers) (80)
20 Legion Auxilia (2 Grenade Launchers) (80)
10 Auxilia Armsmen Cadre (Heavy Stubber, Autocannon, Chimera) (130)
10 Auxilia Armsmen Cadre (Heavy Stubber, Autocannon, Chimera) (130)
3 Earthshaker battery (225)
3 Earthshaker battery (225)
3 Earthshaker battery (225)
Welp. You drop a crapton of artillery in the back of your deployment zone, lay some vehicles in front of them for cover, and then take all the infantry on earth in hopes of holding the enemy back long enough to batter him down with big guns. It's a really, really dumb strategy that won't work against anyone who is even the list bit tricky (outflanking, deep strike, etc, etc) but it can sometimes do its thing. Incidentally, artillery batteries are really dumb in Dawn of War because they have to deep strike onto the battlefield. Yeah, for some reason your army thinks that it's a good idea to airdrop long-range guns into the middle of a fight, I dunno.
1750 Tyrant's Guard list
1 Legion Centurion (50)
5 Legion Auxilia Command Detachment (2 Grenade Launcher, Autocannon)
5 Renegade Marauders (2 Meltagun, Demo Charge, Chimera) (160)
5 Renegade Marauders (2 Meltagun, Demo Charge, Chimera) (160)
5 Renegade Marauders (2 Meltagun, Demo Charge, Chimera) (160)
20 Legion Auxilia (70)
20 Legion Auxilia (70)
1 Hellhound (Multimelta) (145)
1 Hellhound (Multimelta) (145)
1 Hellhound (Multimelta) (145)
1 Thunderbolt (Distinctive Paint) (190)
1 Thunderbolt (Distinctive Paint) (190)
1 Thunderbolt (Distinctive Paint) (190)
Derp. This one plays like most folks imagine that IG does- your Marauders pick Scout/Furious Charge and zoom forward, trying to drop tanks. The Command group does its shooty thing poorly. The Thunderbolts try and wreck enemy tanks while remaining largely invulnerable thanks to be fliers. Hellhounds roast anything that falls out of a tank; the Auxilia scramble for an objective and pray. Again, nothing smart or classy, but... I'm sorry, I can't really think of a redeeming feature of this list. It has tanks and shooting? I guess we'll go with that.
