Email in: E-mail list advice - 2000 pt "Blood Corsairs"

Dakka

"Warning, here be Counts-As plans.

I'm a pretty new player, only been playing since around March, but I quickly got together a Dark Angels army I love and love to play. But I've been bitten by a bug to get something new, something that plays differently. Was wanting to pick an army first for the backgrounds that I enjoy, and I've taken a liking to the Red Corsairs, whose lightning-strike ambush attacks I feel would be best represented by playing out of the Blood Angels codex. Namely, an army at 2000 points that centers around Dante (or Mephiston), bunches of jump infantry, and 2-3 Stormravens as fire-support gunships. I've got this list so far:


Commander Dante

Librarian
--Jump Pack
--Infernus Pistol
--Unleash Rage
--Blood Lance

2 Sanguinary Priests with Jump Packs

10-man Assault Squad
--2 Meltaguns
--Powerfist

10-man Assault Squad
--2 Meltaguns
--Powerfist

10-man Assault Squad
--2 Meltaguns
--Powerfist

Stormraven Gunship
--Twin-linked Multi-Melta
--Twin-linked Plasma Cannon
--Extra Armor
--Hurricane Bolters
--Searchlight

Stormraven Gunship
--Twin-linked Multi-Melta
--Twin-linked Plasma Cannon
--Extra Armor
--Hurricane Bolters
--Searchlight

Stormraven Gunship
--Twin-linked Multi-Melta
--Twin-linked Plasma Cannon
--Extra Armor
--Searchlight

I was debating between three Stormravens or more infantry, but I was worried that two Stormravens wouldn't survive very long at 2000 points. I chose Stormravens because aerial fast assault craft fit the theme of the Red Corsairs very well, but Predators were also an idea that entered my head. Basically I'd like the army to be thematic while not getting its face kicked in too badly. The default strategy would be reserving everything for deep striking and flat-out flying up from the edge of the board. Extra armor on the SRs is to make sure they always stay on the move, protecting them from assaults. My concerns are that that a) 3 AV12 vehicles seems light at 2000 points, especially for something that it's hard to give cover to without sacrificing a weapon firing and b) 3 troop squads also seems light at 2000 points, and I'm hesitant to combat-squad them, but I don't know what I should do. If the inherent idea is just flawed, I'd be okay with dropping the SRs for something more practical. Thanks in advance, and sorry if I tend to ramble!"

The list is alright overall but with a couple changes I'd recommend. To answer your concerns.

a) very true and the easy solution, Land Speeders. Cheap and bring saturation. Also remember that S8+ firepower is good against your ASM so denying that is helpful.
b) 30 MEQ with FNP is generally okay for scoring with combat squads. It's a bit light but works fine.

With this in mind I'd be looking to drop Dante and a Stormraven, grab a bunch of Land Speeders and potentially some Furioso Dreads. Dante isn't really adding anything to the list but you could run Mephistion in his place (and no Dreads) whilst the Speeders give you more unit options and more armor saturation. This concept is called Blood Skies and it's important to remember you don't HAVE to reserve/deep-strike everything. You then have a good core of ASM who are pretty durable and decent in combat, some beater units (meph or dreads) to back them up and lots of fast zippy armor to deal with infantry or tanks at a greater threat range than the ASM.