Major Bluff's Outflanking, Palm Reading Circus

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, step right up!

SEE the amazing Major Grace Bluff and her outflanking minions!

SWOON at Sergeant Harker's stealthy, silenced heavy bolter!

STARE at the amazing predictive and destructive psychic potential of the PRIMARIS and his BATTLE SQUAD

SCREAM as you lie dying on the ground!


So, I decided to throw a list together that showcases the two most highly sought after units on my poll: Capt. Al'Rahem (in my army: Major Grace Bluff) and the psykers. First off, these two don't work especially well together. The psykers have a hard time outflanking outside of a valkyrie (which I think would not be sporting of me to proxy, seeing how freaking large they are and their weird base), but at least they have the range to get the job done.

Here's the list as it stands right now:
HQ (285)
Company Command Squad
Chimera with multilaser, hvy bolter
Astropath
4 plasma guns
Carapace armor
Psyker Primaris (with squad B)

Elites (180)
Psyker Battle Squad with 5 additional psykers
Chimera with multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor

Troops (730)

Platoon Command
Mjr. Grace Bluff (counts as Cpt. Al’Rahem)
3 Melta
1 Hvy Flamer
Chimera with multilaser turret, hull hvy flamer

Squads A-C
Flamer
Mortar
Commissar (attached to squad A)
Ministorum Priest w/ shotgun (attached to squad C)
Power weapons for the sergeants and commissar
Melta bombs for the sergeants

Vet Squad
Gunnery Sergeant Harker
3 melta guns
Chimera with turret multilaser, hull heavy flamer

Fast Attack (300)
Scout Sentinel with lascannon x2
Scout Sentinel with lascannon x2
Scout Sentinel with lascannon x2


So, my general strategy (if fighting alone) will be to start with everything in reserve. Then, using the astropath's awesome reserve rolling, try to bring my army in as quickly as possible. Mjr. Bluff will lead the charge into the enemy's flank, using BID on her own squad as well as Harker's and Like the Wind/FRFSRF on the melee infantry blob. The blob will try to take an objective and hold it while the rest of the army plays melty defense. The sentinels will start taking down tanks/MCs ASAP and serve as general distractions to my other troops. Meanwhile the command squad and psyker battle squad will come on down from my lines, plasma gunning and psykering anything in their path. The extra armor on the psyker chimera should come in handy, helping them to constantly move even if shot at. Since both of their powers have 36" range I should be able to get off either large blasts or leadership reduction in the first round they come in.

The infantry squad should be either completely amazing or a complete dud. 30 guardsmen charging with commissar and priest back up should do quite a bit of damage, especially when we factor in the attached Primaris (2d6 str 6 assault shots and 4 force weapon attacks), the four power weapons and the three flamers. The mortars are included in these squads so that a) I can get tons of people within 2" of their 30 mm base on the charge and b) give me some long range fire support for low cost. I may upgrade these to autocannons/heavy bolters before the battle is met instead of the melta bombs, but I like having some tank deterrence in my back lines. Alternatively I could use the points to give the priest an eviscerator, but I think that would make him too high of a priority target. Still, would be nice to have more carnifex protection...

The Primaris is going to be an interesting figure in the blob. His bolts will help on the offense and his force weapon will help bring down ICs and MCs. His other ability, nightshroud, should help protect the blob from return fire once it's on the objective, especially if I am facing low leadership units like Tau fire warriors.

The chimeras for the outflanking team members have heavy flamers to help roast infantry out of cover and pave the way for my close combat mob. The one on the vet chimera is especially useful as Harker has his relentless heavy bolter to add to the long range shoot 'em up.

One of the major things that I'm worried about with this list is resilience. I no longer have the AV14 monstrosities, and a lot of my guardsmen will die on the assault. Hopefully I have enough bodies to make it through the fight and more than enough anti-tank/MC to kill the more problematic units. Another problem is if the game is annihilation. Currently I have 14 KP at 1500 pts, and while none of it is supremely squishy from the outset it could be a problem. I might switch around the sentinel squads into two squads of 3 to help alleviate this problem a bit, as I don't want to take out either the priest or the primaris.

Well, the only way to see if this works is to try it out. At the very least it will be a very different army from the one that I've been fielding lately. Battle report and musings will be up some time tomorrow. Wish me luck!