Tuesday 8 May 2012

Raptors - a new army?

Well after a few months away from the hobby I'm back! I have a great new job that I have settled into, a steady income, and my health has improved so much that I no longer sleep 11 hours a day and spend the rest in a mindless fug!

 Ok everyone so I was looking for something different/unusual/cool to field at my local club for mini tournaments and such. Now these are always 1500 points or smaller and normally most armies are played with no strong bias towards super-powered-cheese-doom lists.

Anyway here is something I have been working on for a couple of days after reading about the Raptors chapter of marines.

 All shall be explained below the list -

 HQ
 1 Sicarius.

 ELITES
 7 Sternguard, 3 combi plasma, drop pod.

 TROOPS
 10 Tactical marines, meltagun, missile launcher, powerfist.

 5 Scouts, bp/ccw, combi melta and melta bombs.

 5 Scouts, bp/ccw, combi melta and melta bombs.

 10 Scouts, sniper rifles, camo cloaks, missile launcher.

 10 Scouts, bolters, heavy bolter.

 FAST ATTACK
 1 Land speeder storm, multi melta.

 1 Land speeder storm, multi melta.

 8 Scout bikes, powerfist, 3 grenade launchers, cluster mines.

Total = 1500 points.

Tactics -
1) Sicarius will travel in the pod with the sternguard.
2) Tactical squad will infiltrate thanks to Sicarius special rules.

Basically this list is all about creating multiple angles of attack and using the alpha strike to my advantage. By plonking the tactical squad and the scouts with heavy bolter in the midfield I can completely change where my main attack is coming from. The bikes and storms are great for killing scary stuff right away and the drop podding sternguard can make a mess of most elite infantry/monstrous creatures when they come in.

Thanks to the re-roll for seizing the initiative I have a much better chance of getting it and with all the infiltrating and scouting going on I can really start to apply the pressure from turn 1. Admitedly there is very little combat capability, but then reading the fluff for the Raptors this is completely normal as they prefer to use stealth, assassination and shooting to do most damage.

At 1750 points I would add the following -

5 Assault terminators, th/ss.
1 Sternguard marine.
Locator beacon on scout bike sergeant.

Does this seem fun to you or am I chasing rainbows?