New Day rising

With the impending New IG codex around the corner, I got to thinking about what was going to happen to one of my favorite lists under the old codex combination...

WitchHunters with Inducted Imperial Guard.

I posted the old list here:
WH Armored Company w/inducted IG

And I talked theory about light Armor here:
So many targets, so few guns

so with the new codex, I know I can't really do what I used to do.

So what will an inducted list look like now?
Not AS many light vehicles. Since the Armored Fist squad went away, I can't use them anymore. HOWEVER... Platoons are CHEAP now. For about what I was spending on my Armored fist squad (166pts)
I can now get 2 squads, with 2 Missile Launchers, and a command squad with a mortar or Heavy Bolter for the same price I used to get the Armored fist for.

not a bad trade, I think.

then I can still pick up a Leman Russ Battle Tank with Hbolter Sponsons for 170Pts

that's not a bad expendature for 500pts, I think. If I was feeling a bit chipper, I could even drop the sponsons, and get Lascannons, or Grenade Launchers.

Actually, now That I look at it, I will probably use the extra points from dropping sponsons to get smokes for the rhinos, and extra armor for the Russ. Then Maybe a Lascannon or two.



I will definately be sitting down with the new, shiny codex when it's official, and drawing up variations on lists. I'm eager to try out Induction, actually. Then as I look at the codex longer, I'll work up all Infantry variations of the IG lists.

Mmm... Repentia or Arco-flagellants outflanking....

1500pt WH

This is the list I'm going to use at the tourney at our FLGS on June 13th. right at 1500pts. Wish me luck!

HQ:
Canoness (Jump Pack, Cloak of St. Aspria, Mantle of Ophelia, Book of St. Lucius, Frag Grenades, Bolt Pistol, Blessed Weapon) (137pts)

Ordo Malleus Inq. Lord (psycannon, psychic hood) (222pts)
2 Mystics
2 Sages
2 Hbolter Servitors
1 Plasma Cannon servitor

Elites:
Callidus Asassin (Shelia) (120pts)

Troops:
Battle Sister Squad (7Bolters, Hflamer, Flamer, 1Vet. Sister Superior w/Bolter, Book of St. Lucius) (206pts)
Rhino Transport (extra armor, smoke, spotlight)

Battle Sister Squad (7Bolters, Hflamer, Flamer, 1Vet. Sister Superior w/Bolter, Book of St. Lucius) (205pts)
Rhino Transport (extra armor, smoke)

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers (3Hellguns, 2Meltaguns) (128pts)
Rhino Transport (extra armor, smoke)

Fast Attack:
Seraphim Squad (Frag grenades, Krak Grenades, 3twin Bolt Pistol, 2twin Inferno pistol, 1Vet Sister Superior w/Eviscerator, Book of St. Lucius, Bolt Pistol) (202 pts)

Heavy Support:
Exorcist (Extra Armor) (140pts)

Exorcist (Extra Armor) (140pts)

Never Get Out of the Tank!

Ahhhhhhhhhh! It was a much better game tonight vs. Farmpunk's Witch Hunter List. Farmpunk won it, 7 KP to my 6, but it was a very near thing. A couple of different die rolls could have easily sent it the other way. I took much satisfaction in having sent lone Sisters screaming into windowless corners of buildings just to deny me kill points. Particularly since he used this same list to wipe the floor with me back in August when I was just returning to the game. We've only played twice since then (including tonight), largely because of the inferiority complex that first game with him gave me. Now I'm really eager for a rematch. It was the kind of game that had us both wishing we'd brought a camera along.

My New List

After last week's complete and utter thrashing of my converted-to-5th list by Protem, I decided that it would be better to design a new force around the strengths of the new codex rather than try and convert my old army over to the new book. Since the Chimera and LRBT have been nicely boosted in the new codex, I decided to dust off some old models (old pic, top) that have been sitting the shelf for most of 5th and try a force with more armor in it.

1500 Pt. Guard Army (13 KP)

HQ
Company Command Squad w/Regimental Standard, 3 x Melta

Elites
Sly Marbo (I used the crazy looking Amero-Indian dude from the Last Chancer set.)

Troops
Veteran Squad w/Lascannon, 3 x Plasma
Veteran Squad w/Lascannon, 3 x Plasma
Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera
Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera

Fast Attack
7 Rough Riders w/Melta Bombs for Sgt., Flamer
3 x Scout Sentinels w/Autocannons

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Demolisher w/Plasma Cannon Sponsons, Lascannon
Leman Russ Exterminator w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/Lascannon

The Game

Like I said, we forgot to take pictures, so the map and everything else is from memory. I'm also not intimately familiar with the Witch Hunters codex, so I'm not exactly sure who was who on his side.

Deployment

Farmpunk won the deployment and (wisely) chose to go first. He set up his Exorcists in his right rear, with 1 Rhino with Hflamer/flamer and Seraphim as far up as they could go, The Inquisitor Lord Squad (psycannon, Plasma cannon, 2Heavy Bolters) in the Center in some rubble. A rhino with Hflamer/flamer and a rhino with SoB's with dual melta behind it on the left flank as far up as they could go, with the jumpy cannoness nestled between them. Shelia the Callidus was in reserve. (farmpunk found later he shouldn't have had the 2 Heavy bolters, and should read his list more carefully.)
I set up my Demolisher and Exterminator back a bit so that they could hit anything coming around the corner of the building to my right without exposing themselves too much. I put one unit of Lascannon/Plasma vets on my right flank behind the tanks in a position to fire out between the building and the Exterminator at the Exorcist I could see there (That or any Rhinos that might pop around the corner.). The other Las/Plas squad was put into cover on a bit of ruin to the left of my Demolisher where it could get some good shots at his Rhinos.

Up behind the fuel tank on my left flank I put the sponsonless Russ on far flank with the 2 Chimeras beside it. My plan was to hold the bottom of the board with the Demolisher and Exterminator, while running the Russ and the 2 Chimeras on my left up to the top of the table to threaten his right flank.

Turn 1

Farmpunk was VERY happy when I didn't seize the intiative. I don't blame him with all the gun barrels he was running into. He ran one Exorcist behind the building at the top of the table so it could shoot through some windows (ineffectively) at my Russ. The other pretty much stayed still and failed to do anything while he ran his Rhinos 12" forward. The Seraphim squad jumped into the wreckage in the middle of the table, daring me to shoot at them. While the 2 Rhinos to my right moved up as well. The 2 Hflamer/flamer SoB Rhinos popped smoke.

It was during his shooting phase that Farmpunk got some luck amongst his spate of bad die rolls (Not as bad as mine last game, but bad.). He managed to immobilize the Chimera I had in cover behind the Fuel tank with a lucky hit from his =I= Lord. This meant that the second Chimera was blocked from moving up the table to his right flank, leaving the Russ to attack on it's own. So instead I moved the bottom Chimera forward to support the line.

On my turn I moved the Russ up 6" and took aim at the topmost Rhino, stunning it, while my line opened up on the HQ that was taunting it by moving out from behind the wreckage in the middle of the table. Bad move! They may have had a nice 3+ invulnerable save, but no amount of faith can save you from the autocannon and bolter dakka of a Leman Russ Exterminator in full bloom. The amount of fire coming from the Exterminator and the Vet squads was just withering. An Inferno Pistol was the last to fall, to a humble multilaser salvo from the trapped Chimera.

While all this goodness was going on, I made my first big mistake. The topmost flamer Rhino had moved up next to the wreckage pile, and I wanted to nail it with some melta love. So I disembarked the Vets I had in the immobilized Chimera and moved them forward. I managed to immobilize it, but they were now wide open to flamer template counter fire from the squad inside it. Doh!

On the right, I managed to stun and knock the storm bolter off one of the 2 approaching Rhinos with the Demolisher.

Turn 2

No Sheila.

The flamer girls get out of the immobilized Rhino and promptly fried every one of my Vets in front of the immobilized Chimera. We figured the Chimera driver probably took pity on them and finished off a few of his friends with his pistol as an act of mercy as they lay writhing in agony. Of course we also imagined that he was a Commissar in training who was executing them for stop, drop, and rolling AWAY from the enemy. Cowards!

NEVER GET OUT OF THE TANK!!!

The Exorcists fired again and failed to do much of anything. Which is pretty much what they did for the rest of the game. My Sentinels outflanked onto the top left of the board and took some ineffective shots at the nearest Exorcist with their autocannons. In hindsight, I should have charged the Inquisitor's squad instead. I was careful to bring them in behind the ruins in the top-right to give them cover from it. But I underestimated just how much Dakka that Inquisitor and his lousy henchmen could put out. Plus, I know from my first game with Farmpunk that even a single sentinel can tie them up in close combat pretty easily. But no, my walkers would spend the next 3 turns getting whittled down while being unable to shoot back due to stunned and/or shaken results. I did manage to kill the sisters who flamed my vets with a nicely aimed battlecannon round from the Russ, which I backed up with some multilaser salvos and a few melta shots.

On the bottom line Farmpunk managed to get another sister squad out of it's Rhino and flame my Vets that were sitting on the corner ruin. They were finished off by the Inquisitor squad. His melta sisters shot the Demolisher but failed to glance or penetrate. The Rough Riders charged in and killed 3 sisters with their flamer before killing 4 more with lances. We managed a draw for combat. That flamer was a last minute addition just because I had 5 points left and I could do it with a conversion I already had. But it did actually do some damage.

Turn 3

Sheila the assassin finally (and predicatably) appeared next to my Company Command and prompty hit them with her template-o-death. Something must have been off with her though. Because she only killed 2 of my guys with it. Although she did manage to stun the Demolisher, allowing the melta squad to finally finish it off during HTH. And then she managed to MISS WITH ALL FIVE of her attacks in HTH!!! HAHAHAHA!!! And then she missed with her poisoned attack. Wow! Not that I did anything at all to her in return, but Wow! Farmpunk started asking if they made a cure for dice herpes. Time to throw those dice away and get new ones. I still maintain that dice have an expiration date. :)

Marbo showed up and I placed him up between the Excorcists. He managed to shake the Exorcist on the right with his demo charge, but he couldn't finish it off with his meltabombs during HTH. And here, I made ANOTHER big mistake. I forgot that he can disengage from HTH at the end of the assault phase and immediately move 3D6 inches in any direction. That could have easily put him into the building ruin where he could have continued to threaten the Exorcists or maybe slit the throat of the sole surviving flamer sister who took cover in a windowless corner of that building on turn 5. Instead, he just sat in the open as the Exorcists moved away, exposing him to fire from the aforementioned fleeing flamer sisters. Who BBQed him with a side of bolter.

Gar!

By the end of my shooting, those 3 flamer sisters running for their table edge were reduced to just one by the Russ, who failed to wound the last girl with it's battlecannon (Gar!). The sole survivor screamed like a heretic and jumped through a window in the upper building so that she could hide in the windowless corner. Where's a Commissar when you need one?

The Exterminator chewed up the melta sisters in front of it, but still left 3 melta girls intact. Sheila finally managed to kill off my command squad during my turn's HTH, but only consolidated one inch, which left her dangerously out in the open.

The Rest Gets a Bit Hazy

Farmpunk managed to jump-assault the Cannoness from her hiding place in the windowless corner of the lower building over to the still-mobile Chimera, blowing it up and losing a wound in the process. She would lose the other wound to melta fire from that squad during my shooting phase.

Sheila took a face full of Heavy Bolter fire from the Exterminator during my shooting as it tried to back away from the surviving melta sisters. Easy kill point. It's at times like those that I imagine that guy in the Akira anime getting shredded by the massed small arms of some soldiers. Somewhere in there I backed the Exterminator up 11" to try and get away from the melta girls, but forgot to pop smoke. Which allowed them to take out my autocannons with melta fire. Later, they would run up to the Exterminator's side and take out the heavy bolter sponson on that side in addition to immobilizing it, which meant that the Exterminator had to just sit there helpless on my last turn while they just smiled coyly at the driver. With smoke, I might have had my turret weapon or the bolter left to shoot them with.

The Russ by now had utter contempt for the Exorcist in the upper-left corner and gave it his backside in order to kill the immobilized Rhino with a lascannon and battlecannon combo to the rear. The Exorcist saw this and confirmed the Russ's low opinion of them by rolling a single missile attack that missed the Russ entirely. My dismounted melta vets ran up and melted the storm bolter off one of the two surviving Rhinos in a last ditch effort for another KP. We called the game at the end of turn 5 as it was 10pm and my wife was waiting for me out in the parking lot.

In the end, I still had the immobilized Chimera, the Russ, the Exterminator, and the dismounted melta vets. Giving him 7 KPs to my 6.

Conclusion

Vets are a wonderful thing! I could really get used to hitting on 3's. I've mentioned my big mistakes already. I also have to remember in the future that my officers come with refractor fields (5+ Inv) as standard. Which might have helped a bit against Sheila. One thing that did stand out was the nastiness of the sponson-less Russ with it's hull lascannon and battlecannon. The new rules allow you to fire both while moving up to 6". Which proved to be a surprisingly effective combo for tank hunting. I had intended to replace that Russ with a Hellhound once I model one up. But I'm tempted now to replace the Exterminator instead.

Once again, the effect of orders was marginal. I got a round of "Bring it Down!" on both vet squads before they were engaged and destroyed. Of much more value was the abilty to shoot 5 models out of a Chimera without becoming open-topped. Or the ability to fire all of a Leman Russ's sponsons along with the battlecannon when standing still. Or Marbo's ability to put a large blast template wherever you need one with an average scatter of only 3".

Anyways, it was a very good game. And hey! I actually had fun with an Annihilation mission!

FOR THE EMPEROR!!!... and good night!

DA at 1850

This week I played a game of 1850 against an all Khorne all the time army that featured zero 'zerkers. Everything that could was sporting the icon of Khorne, even the havocks.

His list focused almost exclusively on close combat as one might imagine. While I didn't get a copy of his list it featured a winged daemon price, and a winged lord w/ twin lighting claws in the hq slot. For troops he ran 3 10 man csm squads with matched special weapons(two w/ melta and one with plasma) and power fists. One squad had a rhino, one ran in a supped up landraider, and the last one hoofed it across the board. He also had eight bloodletters standing in as summoned demons. The remainder of his list was the demoniacally possessed landraider mentioned above and two havock squads, one 10 strong with four flamers and the other only 5 strong with 4 hvy bolters.

The mission was Annihilation, with table corners for deployment. I won first player and deployed my gun line spread out to take advantage of the cover and LOS terrain on the board. He then deployed everything on his lines to rush forward at the first opportunity. There was no initiative to be seized this day.

I had an amazing first round of shooting where I immobilize both transports and took wounds of f of the Daemon Prince while killing a few of the heavy bolters. His turn was spent moving forward and getting some back with the land raider taking out a terminator.

Turn two and three both saw me shooting and him running towards my lines. Both of the HQ were isolated and gunned down in turn. Turn three also saw the first bit of close combat when the unwounded Terminator squad charged in against the flamer havock squad with captain Belial in tow. I made short work of the havocks but then get tied up and worn down over the course of the next four player turns. The SB and sword combo isn't doing much for me yet again. However to their credit it would take ~16marines w/ two fist and the Daemons to take out the squad of terminators. In the end only four troops would walk away from the fight.

Turn four saw the last unit of CSM reach my flank and lay into the devastators. One of the las/melta squads would run off the board due to falling back after loosing three guys to the land raider. Eh, I guess that is the price for playing too close to the table edge.

Turn five through seven, not much happened, all the squads that were in combat stayed there with no one being able to get a decided advantage over the other. He had the better troops but by this time I had him out numbered three to one. I managed to clean up 3csm that were headed for the board edge but the remaining two squads and the land raider would not die for me. All the while his army was slowly wearing away the forces I had left. However in the end there just wasn't enough time to do the job, I ended up winning by 2kp.


Lessons Learned:
1.While the dreadnoughts were added on to bring my army up to point, the steady and reliable fire power they put out probably made the difference for me.
2.Terminators can take a ridiculous amount of punishment and still be effective in a fight.
3.Kill points are good for Marines, gotta love the combat squads I would have lost hands down with out them.
4.A marine gun line is not a push over once the OP4 reaches your lines, unlike Eldar and Guard.

HQ: Belial, Master of the Deathwing and the Obvious (1#, 130 Pts)
Storm Bolter; Sword of Silence

Elite: Venerable Dreadnought (1#, 175 Pts)
Upgrade to Venerable; Twin Linked Lascannon; Missile Launcher
Elite: Venerable Dreadnought (1#, 175 Pts)
Upgrade to Venerable; Twin Linked Lascannon; Missile Launcher

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 250 Pts)
Power Fist (x3); Storm Bolter (x4); Chain Fist (x1); Power Sword (x1);Assault Cannon
Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 245 Pts)
Power Fist (x4); Storm Bolter (x4); Power Sword (x1);Assault Cannon
Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 210 Pts)
Meltagun; Lascannon; Power Weapon
Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 210 Pts)
Meltagun; Lascannon; Power Weapon
Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 210 Pts)
Plasmagun; Plasma Cannon; Plasma Pistol/ Bolter

Heavy Support: Devastator Squad (10#, 245 Pts)
Missile Launcher (x4); Chainsword

Total Roster Cost: 1850

Going the Way of the Dodo

As the new IG codex draws closer and closer, and as the rumors of how it will be unfold, I am coming to realize what I had suspected back 8months ago when I first devised my IG Light Infantry list....

it's not going to be available any more.

gone are the days of getting to go first, and still set up second. When I was feeling particularly devious, I could drop some of the Vet Sarges down to just Sargents, and drop a squad to pick up an Inquisitor with an Emperor's Tarot, for the +1 to the who goes first roll.

With a new codex comes new ways of using the same old army you've had for a while. I'm sure I will be able to come up with a viable all-infantry force, as I buy more and more tanks, to fulfill my treadhead dreams...

I have actually put my old crazy, infiltrating, Deep Striking Light Infantry Inquisitorial Irregulars to bed.

so for one last hurrah, I thought I'd put up the list, and talk a bit about how I used to use them.


Light Infantry IG
Doctrines: Light Infantry, Drop Troops, Veterans, Iron Discipline, Special Weapon Squads

Command Platoon:
Command Squad-2lasguns, mortar, Drop troops, Iron Discipline, Light Infantry
Heroic Sr. Officer-Laspistol, Power Weapon
Veteran-Lasgun, Standard
Anti-tank Squad-3Lascannons 3lasguns Drop troops, Light Infantry
Fire Support Squad- 3Autocannons 3lasguns Drop troops, Light Infantry
Special weapon squad-flamer, Demolition Charge, 5lasguns Drop Troops
Special weapon squad-flamer, Demolition Charge, 5lasguns Drop Troops

Infantry Platoon:
Command Squad-Mortar, 3lasguns, Drop troops, Iron Discipline, Light Infantry
Junior Officer-Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Honorifica Imperialis
Infantry Squad 1-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 7lasguns, Drop Troops, Light Infantry.
Veteran Sargeant-Lasgun
Infantry Squad 2-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 7lasguns, Drop Troops, Light Infantry.
Veteran Sargeant-Lasgun
Infantry Squad 3-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 7lasguns, Drop Troops, Light Infantry.
Veteran Sargeant-Lasgun

Infantry Platoon:
Command Squad-3meltaguns, 1lasgun, Drop Troops, Iron Discipline, Light Infantry.
Junior Officer-CCW, Laspistol
Infantry Squad 1-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 7lasguns, Drop Troops, Light Infantry.
Veteran Sargeant-Lasgun
Infantry Squad 2-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 7lasguns, Drop Troops, Light Infantry.
Veteran Sargeant-Lasgun
Infantry Squad 3-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher, 7lasguns, Drop Troops, Light Infantry.
Veteran Sargeant-Lasgun

Veterans:
Hardened Veterans-Lascannon, 2Plasmaguns, 2lasguns, Drop Troops
Hardened Veteran Sargeant-Bolt Pistol, CCW
Hardened Veterans-Lascannon, 2Plasmaguns, 2lasguns, Drop Troops
Hardened Veteran Sargeant-Bolt Pistol, CCW
Hardened Veterans-Lascannon, 2Plasmaguns, 2lasguns, Drop Troops
Hardened Veteran Sargeant-Bolt Pistol, CCW



It ended up being a lot of guys who didn't set up until last, and gave me a lot of flexibility on how to deploy depending on what my opponent was fielding. I used split infiltrating deployments with this, baited flanks, line the borders, and standarddeployment (for when my opponent figured out my clever tricks of infiltration, and outflank)

One game involved Chaos Marines on foot, where I deployed one platoon mortar HQ in a corner behind cover, and he then placed the majority of his forces on the left side of the table, assuming I would infiltrate most of my army on that side, near my HQ's leadership bubbles. He was right, sort of. I did deploy my infantry platoons in my left hand corner, all of them. I left ML's and GL's poking out for good shots. He chuckled in a satisfied manner, until I started deploying the Veterans in the OPPOSITE corner... 20" away from him. Ahh. what a shooting gallery that one was. The rhinos went down 1st turn, and the CSM's had to march through a hail of fire to get to me. The Chosen Squad that ran into the lascannon and plasma fire went down fast. Special weapon squads falling from the skies with Demo Charges added insult to injury. I had to use a few line squads as speed bumps for the rest of the force... run them forward to recieve a charge on the CSM's turn.. then have them fail Ld, and get swept. Leaving the CSM's in front of a LOT of Lasguns.
Vs. Ork hordes the many small blasts were good to have. as were the Demo Charges again.

I found it very easy to win with this force if I got 1st turn. Going Second made it a little harder, since my opponent would get a turn to 'react' to my deployment. I found that more experienced opponents would spread out their forces more, to prevent infiltration, or at least deny good infiltrating positions in cover.


I'll put something more up about transitioning to 'new' IG as I take the time to read about thier options... mostly about how I will combine IG and =I=. I think the combinations from allies and induction will get me fairly excited. From what I've seen, using them together will produce a more potent hybrid force than either can do as pure forces.

Old vs. New

I'm back!

My single-minded obsession with preparing for the (ultimately disappointing) tourney up in Lafayette last month had riled up Mrs. Wyrm something awful. So to keep the peace I decided to show her I still loved her by giving up 40K for Lent. Yeah, I hear you all laughing. At least I painted my new general (above).

Anyhow, Easter has now come and gone. And I can happily report that Mrs. Wrym is feeling very loved again. So I'm off to the FLGS tonight to get back in the fight! To that end I've made TWO lists for tonight. One which uses the old codex, and one which uses a um... preview copy of the new codex. I tried to make them as similar as possible for the sake of comparisons. And to preserve my current play style as much as possible. There's been lots of talk on the forums about the flashy new units in the codex, but I thought I'd show what an existing army might gain/lose from the update.

3rd Edition Codex List (Standard Tallarn Doctrines)

HQ Platoon (506 pts.)
116 - Command Squad (Colonel Lawrence) HSO w/Medic, Meltagun, Plasma Gun
120 - Anti-Tank Squad w/3 Lascannons, Sharpshooters
130 - Anti-Tank Squad w/3 Lascannons, Sharpshooters, Light Infantry
90 - Fire Support Squad w/ 3 Heavy Bolters, Sharpshooters
50 - Sentinel w/Heavy Flamer, Hardened Fighters

Line Platoon (326 pts.)
71 - Command Squad (Lt. Ned) w/Bolter, Squad Meltagun, 2 x Squad Plasma Guns
255 - 3 x Infantry Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun

Ghost Platoon (300 pts.)
110 - Command Squad (Captain Feisel) w/Refractor Field, Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Squad Meltagun, 2 x Squad Plasma Guns
190 - 2 x Infantry Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun, Light Infantry

Fast Attack
72 - 6 Rough Riders w/Vet. Sgt., Lances

Heavy Support
168 - Leman Russ Demolisher w/Smoke Launchers, Hull Heavy Bolter, Sponson Heavy Bolters
128 - Basilisk w/Indirect Fire

Total: 1500 pts.
KPs: 18

And now for the new codex...

5th Edition Codex List

HQ
185 - Company Command Squad (Colonel Lawrence as Creed) w/Medic, Meltagun, Plasma Gun, Creed Upgrade

Line Platoon (597 pts.)
72 - Platoon Command (Lt. Ned) w/Bolter, Squad Meltagun, 2 x Squad Plasma Guns
240 - 3 x Infantry Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
210 - 2 x Heavy Weapons Squad w/3 Lascannons
75 - Heavy Weapons Squad w/ 3 Heavy Bolters

Ghost Platoon (300 pts.)
140 - Platoon Command (Captain Al Raheim) w/Capt Al Upgrade, Meltagun, 2 x Plasma Guns
160 - 2 x Infantry Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun

Fast Attack
65 - 6 Rough Riders
40 - Scout Sentinel w/Heavy Flamer

Heavy Support
185 - Leman Russ Demolisher w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons
125 - Basilisk

Total: 1497 pts.
KPs: Max 15, Min12

I'll leave it to my opponent to choose which army he gets to play tonight. But here's a rundown of the major differences as I see them.

1) Heavy weapons squads are now troops!

They're not going to be as invincible as they used to be due to the new lack of leadership bubbles and the single model rule. But they are scoring now, which lets them sit on/protect the objective and free up the line squads to maneuver more. And the new orders system should make them even more effective against tanks and vehicles.

2) Troops are both cheaper and better equipped.

All infantry squads now come with Veteran Sgts and Frag Grenades. The only gripe I have is that Sgts can't take lasguns anymore. They HAVE to take a pistol. Which means I've had to pull my old Tallarn Sgt models back off the shelf. I had been using one of the more heroic looking Tallarn trooper models as my Sgts. But not anymore. That also means, since these models have plasma pistols, and plasma pistols are a waste of points, that I'll be converting them all to laspistols before the next tourney.

3) Orders should rock!

At least I hope they do. I'll have 7 orders per turn between Creed, Al, and the other platoon leader. Which is probably overkill, but I didn't have another infantry squad ready to go. So I'll give Creed a try.

4) Kill Points are still an issue.

It's better now that my command squads are only 1 KP each. But the "Mob Up" solution for further reductions is a mixed blessing. As forming larger squads means that not only do you really need 2+ Commissars to keep those huge units from being swept (Point Sink!), but you also have to change play styles. I mean, do you really WANT your close-combat enemies being mired in a 30+ man squad for several turns while your heavy weapons just sit there waiting to shoot? I don't. I'd rather keep the smaller speed bumps so I can shoot up the enemy as he advances.

5) Tactical flexibility is an issue.

Captain Al's platoon HAS TO outflank. It's not a simple infiltration upgrade like Light Infantry that would allow me to place heavy weapons in advantagious positions like I used to. Creed is a partial solution to this, as he can enable one unit to Scout every game. But it's still not quite the same. At least I'm not in the same postion FarmPunk is in. He's going to have to re-think his entire drop force. At least I can approximate my old army pretty well.

Those are my initial thoughts, I'll probably have more after I get a chance to play a game with the new list.

UPDATE: Game Results

So I ended up playing the 5th edition list against Protem and his Plague Marine Rush List. Which consisted of 3 squads of Plague marines in Rhinos supported by a Demolisher and 3 Obliteraters. With a Chaos Sorcerer as leader. He won in an absolute slaughter. He rolled first turn on an Annihilation mission with a standard deployment on a 4' x 4' table. On his first shot he scored a lucky hit with the Oblits against the Demolisher, stunning it, and the game just went downhill from there. My Demolisher never got to fire once. My lascannon teams, even with the "Bring it down" order couldn't pop a single Rhino. In fact I was only able to kill a single vehicle - the demolisher - on the bottom of turn five right before the game ended. After firing my third plasma gun at it's rear, killing the plasma gunner in the process. In fact, EVERY plasma gunner that fired at that tank killed himself!

I really wasn't surprised that I lost given that Protem is one of the store's best players and I had never played Nurgle Marines before. But I really do feel let down by my dice. There were only 2 times that they worked for me. The first was a very nice direct hit with the Basilisk on one of the Plague Marine squads. The second was the single 6 to wound that I needed to allow Captain Al to auto-kill a T5 Chaos commander. Other than that I was rolling ones left and right. My plasma gunners were dropping like flies, while failing to wound anyone for the trouble.

But, it was interesting to see how certain things worked out in the list I took. I can't really say that anything worked well for me tonight, but I can mention a few things that DIDN'T work very well.

1) Creed isn't worth it in 1500 pt. games.

It was nice having all those orders on the first turn of shooting, but after the first turn I could never make use of more than 2 or 3 orders anyway. I think he's better suited to a larger game on a bigger table with more units than I had on my line tonight.

2) Heavy Weapon Squads will take it on the chin.

I knew this would happen, but it still sucks. The single model rule meant that I was getting insta-killed by plasma cannon fire from his Oblits. I was then failing my leadership checks by rolling 8's because the squads are only leadership 7. And there's no way to use a nearby officer's leadership anymore. In addition, they ran off the table before the "Get back in the fight!" order could be used to rally them. I'm going to have to think long and hard about how to deal with this issue. Since I just can't imagine that tanks are going to be any better at anti-armor than a lascannon squad with the "Bring it down!" order.

3) Orders really aren't that powerful.

I'll go through the list:

"Front Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire!" - Works ok, but it isn't that much of a boost versus Plague Marines. Of which only two died of lasgun fire tonight. And in the last few turns of the game you're using it on command squads just to get 1-2 extra lasgun shots off.

"Get Back in the Fight!" - Very disappointing. What I hadn't considered was that you can only issue this order during the shooting phase. Which means that if your unit ran from being fired at in your opponent's shooting phase, you will have to run them AGAIN at the start of your own turn before you can issue this order. This effectively means that you can forget about rallying any unit that started the game in your own deployment zone and didn't advance out of it. They'll run off the board before your commander ever gets to yell at them.

"Bring it down!" - Worked well. I hit more often than I would have otherwise. But my dice kept rolling ones and twos for penetration. Gar!

"Fire on my target!" - Just about useless versus Marines of any kind.

"Incoming!" - Never had a reason to use it. More useful when sitting on an objective I imagine.

"Move! Move! Move!" - Again, no reason to use it this game. Probably more useful in an objective mission.

"For the Honor of Ca... um... TALLARN!" - Gave my Rough Riders a nice little boost. Making their attacks Initiative 6, Strength 6. Almost made up for my disappointment in not getting my extra charge attacks vs. Plague Marines. Gar!

"Like the Wind!" - Captain Al outflanked onto a different table edge from the rest of his platoon. So I didn't get to use this at all.

First Game Conclusion

I miss the leadership bubbles a LOT. Orders are interesting, and they may prove their worth as I play more games, but they're not as big a boost as I was hoping for. My immediate plans are to scrap Creed and dust off an old Empire wizard to stand in as an Astropath until the new models are released. That will help me with my reserve and table edge rolls. And I can finish the Company Standard Bearer conversion I've been working on to at least allow leadership re-rolls for my Heavy Weapons. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

DA at 1250

Here is the newest army that I am running. I am attempting to run an all footslogging DA list to see if I can't compete with out my typical speed crutch.

Bellial (PW/SB)

Terminator squad (5 man, AC & 4 SB/ 1pw & 4PF)
Tac 1 (10 man, lascannon, melta gun, PW)
Tac 2 (10 man, lascannon, melta gun, PW)
Tac 3 (10 man, plasma cannon, plasma gun, plasma pistol)

Dev (10 man, 4 ML)

-1250points on the nose
At 1500 I have been adding a second Terminator squad identical to the one above except that I throw on a chain fist for on other reason than it takes me to 1500 exactly.

Lessons learned so far:
1. Your army is much more susceptible to bad die rolls when they can't redeploy and try again.
2. I need to start moving towards the further objectives earlier than turn four, two turns of hoofing it, even with run, is just not enough ground covered.
3. Combat squads are awesome.
4. The amount of accurate fire power that marines can put out is sick.
5. ML are an amazing weapons that seemed to be over looked and undervalued, not sure why.

Whats next:
nothing, I am going to try to keep this list as is for at least a couple of more games. I would like to get a firm grasp on the army before trying new units.
Having said that I am already sorely tempted to trade out the second terminator squad for a second unit of devastators.