Power Armoured Paint: In Solitary Contemplation

Hail and welcome my fellow Frater; it's time to enter the Vault once again.  This week I've played a doubles 40K game as the Space Sharks partnered with James's Deathwatch in a training exercise against Dave's Emperor's Spears and Duncan's Space Wolves.

I played a variation on my Carcharodons list and thought it would be useful to capture some notes on the good, and the not so good for future games (my memory is fairly flaky if I'm honest).

James has a Battalion chock full of Veterans and Primaris Marines wielding fearsome anti infantry weaponry, and so I decided to complement his list with a bit more longer range shooting power and dedicated Anti Tank.  This meant leaving the Hellblasters at home and bringing the Lascannon Devestators out to play.

I'd also built some other changes into the list, notably around Warlord traits, reliable multi damage weaponry and indirect fire.

My 1000 point Battalion:

• Primaris Captain with Master Craft Auto Bolt Rifle and Power Sword (Warlord with Master of Ambush and Shadowmaster)
• Primaris Lieutenant with Ex Tenebris Relic
• 2 units of 5 Intercessors with Bolt Rifles, Power Sword and Grenade Launcher
• 5 Intercessors with Stalker Bolt Rifles
• 4 Bolter Aggressors
• 3 Suppressors
• 3 Eliminators
• 5 Devestators with Lascannons
• Thunderfire Cannon

We also play tested a variation on the Doubles Combat Doctrines rules which allow Marines to use their Doctrine powers but each team can only have one Doctrine active.  This let me play around with the Raven Guard power which grants +1 to hit and +1 to wound characters.

So some thoughts working through the list:

Primaris Captain

• I really like Master of Ambush; the ability to move redeploy the Warlord and another unit just before the first turn is very strong, and can be used offensively or defensively.
• A simple Power Sword is quite lack lustre (D1); I'd like to find a CP to upgrade the Captain to The Burning Blade which will make him quite killy, particularly against Characters.  

Primaris Lieutenant

• Ex Tenebris is excellent, and the Lieutenant combos very well with the Eliminators when given the opportunity to shoot at enemy Characters.  When Surgical Strikes is active the Lt. will injure T4 characters on 3s with plenty of opportunities for re-rolls via his own ability and Master Artisans.
• 3 shots with AP -2 and D2 makes Ex Tenebris reliable against Primaris as well (another bonus!)

Intercessors

• The Bolt Rifle/Power Sword Squads are the work horses units, great at grabbing objectives and shooting/punching stuff. I like having Command Points to play with so these guys work well as my compulsory troop choices.
• I was pretty happy with the Stalker Bolter armed unit; each successful shot (i.e. hit and wound) should be a dead Primaris marine, especially early on when Devestator Doctrine is active

 Aggressors

• I used this unit more defensively, as a counter unit.  They sit high in my list of favourite units, and I think will combo even better with the Captain once he gets his Burning Blade

Suppressors

• This unit adds long range shooting which the previous iteration of the list was lacking. I like the Inceptors which I was using previously but the Suppressor Autocannons give more depth of shooting options than "more bolters"

Eliminators

• These guys are so much fun! Especially when you get to turn two and Surgical Strikes activates.  If the Sarge spots for the rest of the unit then you can fish for Mortal Wounds on a 4+

Thunderfire Cannon

• Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you'll be aware that Thunderfire Cannons are well regarded and with good reason.  Indirect fire allows you to attack hidden units, and the two associated Stratagems (shoot twice  and halve movement) are excellent.  
• I like the ability to sit on a hidden back field objective and still reach out and hurt bad guys!

Devestators 

• I'll need to try this unit again as they died before they fired!  The army needs some anti tank fire, and this is my go to choice.
• I have options to deploy this unit defensively and then redeploy if necessary via Master of Ambush or various stratagems (like Infiltrators)

This list feels like an improvement on the previous version; the next change to try out is to upgrade the Captain with The Burning Blade.  This means a 3 CP expenditure prior to the game begins: 

• Master of the Trifold Path (to give the Captain 2 Warlord Traits)
• Relics of the Chapter (to give the Captain The Burning Blade)
• Favour of the Ravenspire (to give the Lieutenant Ex Tenebris)

This leaves 5 CP for some pre-game deployment tricks and double tapping the the Thunderfire Cannon! 

I'd like to try out a Librarian/Phobos based list as well; there are so many options and so little hobby time! As always thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings, I'll share more as the journey to the Doubles tournament continues.