Email in: 40k Doubles Tournament - 1750pts Mech-Guard & White Scars

"Hi Kirby,

Love the blog, its been a real help getting up to speed with 5th edition as a long absent player. I was hoping for some feedback for an upcoming 40k Doubles I am attending with a friend in few months - he's taking Guard, I'm taking White Scars. We're pretty happy with the lists but it never hurts to get more feedback while there is still time to assemble and paint.

This is the Warhammer World doubles tournie and as 'Battle Brothers' we each get to add a USR to one of our squads in each Force - the options are skilled rider, move through cover, acute senses, counter-attack, furious charge, stubborn and stealth. We share a force organisation chart but both players have to have a minimum of 1 HQ and 1 Troops, 875 points each.


It'd be great to see if you think we've missed any obvious tricks.

Cheers!

Ross

Imperial Guard, Force 1 - 875

HQ

Techpriest - 45

TROOP

Veteran Squad, 3 Plasma Guns, Chimera - 170
Veteran Squad, 3 Plasma Guns, Mortar, Chimera - 175
Veteran Squad, 3 Flamers, Demolitions, Chimera - 170 [*Move Through Cover*]

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ Demolisher - 165
Hydra Flak Tank - 75
Hydra Flak Tank - 75

Space Marine, Force 2 - 875 points

HQ

Space Marine Captain, Bike, Lightning Claw, Combi-Flamer - 160

TROOPS

Bike Squad, 4 Bikers, 2 Meltas, Attack Bike, Multi-Melta - 185
Bike Squad, 4 Bikers, 2 Meltas, Attack Bike, Multi-Melta - 185
Bike Squad, 4 Bikers, 2 Flamers, Attack Bike, Heavy Bolter - 165 [*Stealth*]

FAST ATTACK

Landspeeder Typhoon - 90
Landspeeder Typhoon - 90

===

Guard Notes: The techpriest is a slightly odd addition with the Guard but we're going to put him with the flamer veterans (dubbed the 'war crimes squad' by some Ork playing friends) and use them for light counter-attack duties. We got some funny looks for running plasma vets last time, but the FNP Blood Angels and Grey Knight Terminators thought 6 Bs4 plasma guns looked less funny at 12". The Demolisher was a reliable area denial rock and we found a lot of players spending time and effort trying to kill it (rarely with success) allowing our chimeras more freedom. The Hydras are new, replacing a psy-rifle dred from my GK force last time in terms of long range anti-armour.

Marine Notes: Kept it cheap and cheerful despite the potential hilarity of having a bike command squad with stealth or furious charge. The captain rolls with the flamer unit as a dedicated anti-horde unit. Because the flamers are liable to be slightly more aggressive, stealth gives them the 2+ cover save with turbo-boosting and then can provide a screen for the other units. Meltas are, well, meltas. Typhoons add in some Str 8 and additional anti-infantry if we need it. Plan is to hold with the bikes until we're in position to make a push for objectives/table quarters. "

I think you're better off going one route with each army rather than going for balanced & balanced. For example, run ALL bikes with the White Scars and ALL fire support for the Imperial Guard. One of Guard's biggest issues when going mass infantry is lack of mobility but they have awesome firepower - you solve this with fast moving melta teams and support them with ranged dakka.

If you want to keep with your general premise though, get rid of the Demolisher - it's too risky with in your face Bike squads. One bad scatter and you're killing your own stuff. I'd slip those points elsewhere such as Hellhound/Devildogs or more Hydras for increased fire support. I'd also be making sure your Stealth Bike unit is a full squad so you can combat squad for maximum stealthiness ^^.