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| The Sabre and Dice |
The
next HQ I’ll briefly look at (For good reason IMO) is the Primaris Psyker... so
what does he bring to the army? Very little...While his lightning arc could be
useful for thinning down tougher targets or hitting light vehicles, this means
he has to be forward leaving him open to being removed form play via Jaws /
Mind war or just outright killed in assault by something which likes squishy
punchbag targets.
Nightshroud
as his other power is again not that viable as the majority of units are at
least Ld8+ so while it might stop a unit here and there shooting, you it will be
far too situational to be of benefit unless you pair him with a lord commissar
and put a mass of heavy weapons in terrain. Between the making them roll
leadership to be able to shoot you, and the Lord’s camo cloak you can hopefully
survive better.
He
does have a force weapon though which could be a surprise if he lives in combat and strikes something down, but it’s a long shot as he only a WS4, T3,
S3, 2W, 5+ 5++ character... And adding him to the blob could prove dangerous if
he fails a Psyker test and suffers from Commissartotheheaditis.
Moving
on since I’ve mentioned him, I’ll discuss the Lord Commissar, who could find a
good place in blobs. Add in a camo cloak to give the entire blob stealth, a
power fist (Yeah you’ll probably be going last anyway) or power weapon, and if you even feel like it melta bombs, and you’ve a HQ ready to support and
fight if the need arises. One of his best benefits is his leadership bubble making orders more likely to work and he can be placed where you want him. Stick him in the
back of a big blob to avoid him being assaulted until you get him into the
fight or attached to PCS (Don’t attach him to a CCS or he might
shoot your multi wound commander with gear! He can either follow behind the
blobs or sit behind cover with heavy weapon teams around to improve their odds on receiving orders using his leadership.
Add in
that he can buy a Chimera for himself and you open even more options if you’re
not just playing a Blob foot list.
Next
is the reliable and well loved Company Command Squad (CCS from now on). I’m a big fan of this as my HQ choices with
mech guard and this was the same with the blob guard. One of the main reasons
being the upgrade characters like Straken (Already Discussed) and Creed who can
totally alter the unit’s role and abilities. Add to that the guys in the squad
are BS 4 and you are really able to add in reliable shooting for the army.
In my
case I had to lessen the points spent on them due to costs elsewhere, but still
managed to get the regimental standard (A real bonus I’m finding to have close
to the blobs to use it over commissars) which I’d recommend along with some
meltas for anti tank and anti terminator. Although the choice of plasmas and
the likes make them very versatile, I’d leave the flamers out of the
options due to the higher BS. Sure if you want flamers, you can take them on the
PCS’s but in a blob army with about 100+ guys you won’t find much lack in anti
infantry fire power when you order a few of the blobs to FRFSRF, so I like to
cater the squads to anti tank and support.
As
mentioned already in Straken’s entry, the medic could find a place if you wanted
to take plasma or make a HTH command squad, but without upgrading to straken I
found this a little lacklustre. Instead
I saw the squad as more of a sit back with camo cloaks and support with orders
unit adding some anti tank in case needed.
Most
of the other non weapon upgrades aren’t point viable IMO, but that doesn’t mean
they won’t have their uses to fit play styles. Carapace armour is expensive for
what it offers, krak nades are pretty but not often needed (if you're in combat with tanks, something bad happened or is about to happen), and vox casters
aren’t as needed if you have commissars leading the unit.
As for
taking heavy weapons, I’d suggest maybe including one if you wanted the squad
to sit back and fight or cast orders, and of course after my heavy weapons article I’d be
suggesting the Lascannon as with BS4 you could get a good shot which ruins
something big in the enemy’s lines as well as giving you another separate
shooting heavy weapon for picking targets.
Regarding
the advisors... I’m taking the Astropath purely because of the outflanking
blob, as I need the extra security that they will come on earlier and also for
getting me the correct flank for arrival.
The
master of the fleet isn’t going to be needed as much as enemies will most
likely not reserve against you and the limited targets you can shoot your anti
tank at, so can be left at home.
Master
of ordinance I’ve never been fond of, but he may work in the sit back and shoot
CCS, but the points could be spent better elsewhere I think particularly due to his inaccuracy.
Bodyguards may be included, purely to give the squad
some extra wounds and to keep the Company Commander alive to keep issuing
orders which is his main role in the army. Especially since the Blob armies
benefit much more than mech guard armies in regards to orders.
This
nicely brings me on to Creed, who makes the CCS even better for sit back and
support purposes... with his increased order range and 4 orders per turn you
can really put out some hurt with BID (Bring it Down) and other orders while keeping him safely tucked away.
I feel
he would use the same sort of load out on the CC as mentioned above, but he
himself is more of a if you have the points passive efficiency buff. The
problem is the points, and while he is slightly cheaper than Straken you are
still adding points to a squad who are primarily a hide and support squad, so
you really have to decide if the extra points invested are worth it for his
order range and 4 orders per turn. Personally in a shooty gun line guard blob
army I think they are and he could be paired nicely with a Lord Commissar in
one of the blobs giving them stealth and giving 1-2 of the squads his
leadership allowing Creed’s orders a better chance to work, or Kell for his
extra PF attacks in a blob and the ability to use Creed’s leadership for tests.
His
other special rule, the out flank a unit one is very handy to have if you want
a second outflanking blob! Imagine not one but 2 blobs arriving on the flank
you want (Using Astropath). Sadly
though his order is a bit of a liability in making the squads fearless which
while the furious charge aspect is handy, the fearless may end up killing them
too quickly over turns.
The
final HQ choice is Yarrick who is similar to the Lord Commissar with his
leadership aura, but also adds a 12 inch stubborn aura! This could be very handy
if you intend to keep the blobs close to each other and wanted to save points
on not buying commissars, a risk yes but also an option to save points.
His
ability to come back helps slightly but should not be relied upon, and while his
PF will help in combat it may not get to swing if he gets focused on, but at
least with eternal warrior you can soak some instant death wounds on him instead
of other models if you really need, or have him charged in base to base by a
model who has a power fist or the likes. So it is some security but again only
to a certain level.
The
points for him though leave something to be desired especially when compared to
CCS and other HQ choices which benefit the army a lot more, but if added to a
blob for more CC ability he could find a place in lists alongside a cheap CCS
or straken command squad.
To
conclude the on HQ’s, I’ve personally found Straken or Creed the best of the
buys depending if you want a better close combat efficient army, or a much more
reliable long range shooty army, and if points are tight go for a CCS or lord
commissar. The load outs of the squads are built to suit the role intended, but
kept lean and not too costly. Those points are needed for extra bodies.
I hope
this series of posts helps some people who have been thinking about doing Blob guard, but
its only the bare basics honestly so for more / continuing information please
visit my own blog: http://blobguard.blogspot.com/ to continue learning and sharing
any useful information you might have.
James
