So a while ago I did a post looking at Crowe and Purifiers and what units we can add around them to make a good list. There a lot obviously (good codex design!) so no single list is going to include everything and there will be multiple good armies. Sounds good to me!
Now Purifiers are more expensive than our usual Troops but as Dan pointed out in his guest post, we aren't really losing points if we were taking a similar number of GKSS squads + HQ. However, most lists shouldn't really be taking four full squads of GKSS and we aren't getting much out of our HQ compared to other options so in the end we are paying more than usual for the core of our list. Regardless, the Purifiers as our Troops are quite expensive (easily taking up over 1000 points for four squads) and whilst they give us an effective fighting force, are more than we would usually spend on Troops and since they are good units which double as scoring units, are quite high target priority for your opponent. These understandings must be kept in mind whilst we are building lists and these lists aren't really going to scale down well. 1750 is probably the bare minimum where you'll get positive returns from Crowe but 2000 is a much better points value to make maximum usage of his benefits.
So let's get our first list over and done with. A pure Crowe list. It's the most basic and least diverse of the potential lists and whilst it only uses a couple base units in the army, these units are exceptionally good, fill very important roles in the army and compliment each other well. These units are of course Purifiers (no way) and Dreadnoughts (including the Venerable types). What the Dreadnoughts do is give us some extra combat ability (between Dreads and Purifiers the list should be quite capable of handlying most things in combat) with the added ability of a mobile MM or psycannon (assault cannon + psybolts) or long-ranged punch with autocannons and psybolt ammo (psyflemen!). The Venerable Dreadnoughts are quite expensive but the combination of fortitude ('free' extra armor) and Venerable status makes them very survivable in both up close and ranged situations. However, the BS/WS of 5 is more beneficial to the MM Dread due to the single shot (and no twin-linking) and increased likelihood of engaging in combat so we might use them as our MM Dreads and the Heavy Support Dreads as our Psyflemen (though VenPsyflemen are pretty awesome, too).
So with that in mind we need to setup how we are going to run this list. We obviously are using 150 points for Crowe and we need to make sure we have enough Dreads and Rhinos for armor saturation (looking at 8+) from the rest of our 1850 points. Let's see our maximum ceiling if we go full out MSU Purifiers + 6 Dreads.
We'll keep the basic Venerables with MM/DCCW for 175 a piece and use the Dreads as our Psyflemen for 135 a pop. Combined with Crowe maxing the Dreads takes us to 1080 points and if we go full MSU Purifiers with double Psycannon + Psyback (190 points) we soar to 2220 points; well over the limit so we are obviously going to need to change some things around and we have to consider that we aren't taking full use of the Purifier advantages over normal GKSS squads (we could do this same style of list with GKSS for 1890 points with no HQ for six less psycannons).
So let's look at a more balanced Purifier force rather than trying to shoe-horn an MSU style list. The smaller squads provide quite a bit of firepower for 190 points (2x psycannons, 3x storm bolters, 3x TL-S6 shots) but aren't the super generalists larger squads can be. I've been using this as a base squad lately:
8x Purifiers w/2x psycannons, 5x Halberds, hammer, Rhino = 267 points
Four of these squads gives us a great midfield and all-round presence but is 1068 points so drags us to 2148 points; going to have to lose something. The easiest answer here is a Venerable Dreadnought which takes us to 1973 points. Let's see what this gives us:
Crowe
Venerable Dreadnought w/MM, DCCW
Venerable Dreadnought w/MM, DCCW
8x Purifiers w/2x psycannons, 5x Halberds, hammer, Rhino
8x Purifiers w/2x psycannons, 5x Halberds, hammer, Rhino
8x Purifiers w/2x psycannons, 5x Halberds, hammer, Rhino
8x Purifiers w/2x psycannons, 5x Halberds, hammer, Rhino
Dreadnought w/2x twin-linked autocannon, psybolt ammunition
Dreadnought w/2x twin-linked autocannon, psybolt ammunition
Dreadnought w/2x twin-linked autocannon, psybolt ammunition
Not bad with 33 infantry and 9 tanks and although there isn't a lot of unit diversity, the flexibility of our core unit (Purifiers) with the support of the Dread does lend itself to a balanced list. Only eight psycannons + 2 MMs to cover heavy armor like Land Raiders but quite a good combat presence for a midfield based army. You've got a few extra points you can play around with (add another Purifier to a squad or go for five smaller squads). You could potentially upgrade the Vendreads to Psyfles as well but you've only got two unit types then which could prove problematic though you could of course get rid of the VenDreads completely and go for more Purifiers. You could also do the opposite and get another VenDread and cut down on your scoring Purifiers.
The question we do have to ask is what are we gaining over this same style of list but with GKSS. Would we perhaps be better off with two full Purifier squads and then multiple smaller GKSS? It's a plausible list but probably more suited for either full GKSS or GKSS + Purifiers as Elites. We'll cover them later but for now, one Crowe list down.
