Escalation League, Round 3: The List

Round 3 of the Escalation League is upon me, so I've worked up what I think is my final list. As I mentioned, the 3 Valkyries was a little back breaking so, despite my having gotten re-addicted to fast durable transports I have stripped out the Valkyrie and added some other stars to my list.

Instead of merely listing my... well, list, I'll go over my choices for each part. My goal for this list in comparison with my 750 was to increase overall durability. The Air Cav, while fast and very killy, required lucky rolls to pull off a victory and could easily be taken out of commission in one turn of good anti-tank shooting.

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Company Command Squad, 3 meltaguns, carapace armor, power fist, meltabombs

This squad is designed to take out heavy armor or monstrous creatures. They'll be riding in a Vendetta and, if I get first turn, will try to alpha strike to eliminate a deadly target right off the bat. They will try for targets that they can at least try to best in CC or ones that will go up like tinder in front of the meltaguns. A particular one that I want to pit them against are Long Fangs, as a combination of Fire On My Target! and the powerfist should cream those Missile Launcher toting jerks.

A question I was wrestling with was whether or not to include an Astropath. In the end I decided that I would not be using reserves as much with this list, so the extra 30 pts went into beefing up the kill potential of the squad and the list.

Psyker Primaris, Vet Squad with Grenade Launchers, Autocannon, Chimera with HB/ML

I just love the Psyker too much to take him out right now. This unit will be light anti-tank and anti-infantry by pouring out a good number of shots at range and a truly punishing amount of fire at close quarters, all from the safety of front armor 12. I debated upgrading the Autocannon to a Missile Launcher, but decided that two shots would be better than the one better shot over all.

2 Vendettas with standard armament

I decided to take out the Valkyrie as the Vendettas are just too good to remove. A vet squad with flamers will hide out in one to perform counter charge while the command squad will be in the other, hopefully to use it as a 1st turn strike platform or as another anti-tank option when it gets shaken.

Taking out the Heavy Bolter sponsons was a measure I took to ensure that the list didn't completely collapse when I lost a Vendetta. It's still a serious setback, but not nearly as back breaking as it was with my 750 list.

Leman Russ Eradicator, Heavy Bolter

This is the decision that I have been struggling on all week, and one that I am still not sure on. It was either this or the standard Battle Tank with a Lascannon. The Eradicator has a Str 6 AP 4 cover ignoring large blast, great for taking out horde armies, while the Battle Tank has a Str 8 AP 3 large blast, great for taking out Marines and ID-ing Tyranid Warriors. In the end I decided that the Eradicator was the better of my choices as it grants dramatically increased effectiveness against the majority of my opponents. While it is not nearly as good vs Marines it will still wound them on 2s, so hopefully that will be good enough. We'll see if my choice proves fruitful.

The Heavy Bolter was chosen to go along with the range of the Eradicator Nova Cannon, and the fact that I don't want this thing anywhere NEAR close combat.

Veteran Squad with meltaguns, Chimera with ML and HF

To round out the list, some heavy anti-tank and a nice metal box to get them there. I voted these boys in the Chimera instead of the Command Squad because they can shoot at (relatively) maximum effectiveness from inside the Box while the CCS needs to get out to use orders on itself.

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So, that's the list. Battles will begin happening on Saturday, but I may try to do some testing of the list tonight.