Stronghold V tournament- Initial List Thoughts

I have signed up for another tournament at the end of the month- Stronghold V, taking place on 30th April in Glasgow.

 

The tournament has some interesting restrictions that I think will lead to some very fun games. Some of the restrictions are:

• Armies are 1250 points.
• Armies must be must up of a Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) and may take an allied detachment.
• No more than 325 points may be spent on the allied detachment.
• Come the Apocalypse allies are prohibited.
• No ForgeWorld.
• Selected fortifications are allowed.
• No named Special Characters.
• No Gargantuan creatures or Super Heavy Vehicles.
• No more than 2 of the same unit are allowed in an army.
• No duplicate HQ characters are allowed.
• There are also several comp'ed rules for Invisibility, flickerjump, D weapons and warp charge dice. Unpainted models are allowed, but all units get preferred enemy (unpainted) for the tournament.

As you can see, there are a lot of limits on army selection. I like the restrictions put in place, it means you won't be facing many nasty tricks from formations such as a Decurion, Eldar formations or a battle demi company. As someone who regularly runs a CAD anyway, this won't be too much of a change for me.

The restrictions also mean that I won't be facing any Wraithknights or Imperial Knights (though I believe Riptides are still allowed).

 

The lower points limit of 1250 pts is also interesting. Most tournaments are 1500 pts or, more commonly, 1850 pts. This lower limit means that many choices will be important, as you cannot afford to splash out on all the biggest toys.

 

Based on these restrictions, I decided to take my White Scars. I would have like to take my Ravenwing, but the lack of formations limits that. I also think I would have struggled to build an army with my Orks or Astra Militarum. The limit on a maximum of two units the same per army I think will penalise armies such as Orks, Guard and Nids, so we may not see too many of them at the tournament. The only downside to my Scars is that I won't be able to take Khan.

 

Before I started picking my army, I took a look at my tournament army reviews for Blog Wars 9, Rapid Fire 2015 and the 6s to Hit Doubles Tournament to remind myself of the lessons there.

With these thoughts in mind, my proposed first list is:

 

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and meltabombs

 

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power lance and meltabombs

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher

 

Drop Pod- storm bolter

Attack Bike- Multimelta

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher

 

Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps

Librarian

With only 1250 pts in total and my inability to take Khan, I wanted to go for a cheaper HQ unit to lead the army. With that in mind, I chose to take a Librarian.

 

Mounting the Librarian on a bike was a big success from the recent doubles tournament. It made him much more mobile and a bigger threat. Giving him the Hunter's Eye was a no-brainer. As one of the best White Scars relics (if not one of the best space marine relics in general), this will be very powerful when paired with the command squad. This relic is also useful at giving my Librarian +1BS, improving his chances to hit with psychic shriek (if I take it).

 

I also decided to give the Mantle of the Stormseer a go. The big bonus for this relic is giving my Librarian Adamantium will. This means that any psychic powers targeting my Librarain (and Command Squad) will be denied on a 4+ (or 3+ if I am higher mastery level) and keep them safe. Very useful for blocking psychic shriek or other such attacks. The addition of the Psychic Maelstrom power might prove useful in the game, though at warp charge 3, the chances of the Librarian killing himself with it are a bit higher. It may be that I never use the Mantle if I don't come up against any psykers, but at only 20 pts, I think it is worth the risk.

 

I will probably roll on Telepathy. Even with toned down Invisibility (fired at or attacked on BS1 and WS1), it will still be useful to get. If I don't get it, I will probably go for Psychic Shriek and Prescience.

 

The only issue with the Librarian might be survivability. The lack of an Invulnerable save and only 2 wounds, he may die quite quickly (especially if I get unlucky on the Perils rolls).

 

Command Squad

I've also taken my bike mounted command squad. This unit features an Apothecary and 4 veterans, all armed with Grav guns, storm shields and meltabombs.
Combined with the Hunter's eye, this unit puts out a lot of firepower that can take out just about any threat on the table. The Storm shields give them a 3+ invulnerable without the need for Jinking so as not to diminish their firepower.

I have given the squad meltabombs to deal with any vehicle threats the army may face. Given that there will be no Imperial Knights at the tournament, this may be overkill, so I may drop the meltabombs in favour of a power axe for one of my sergeants.

The squad is quite expensive, but should be durable enough to weather a lot of firepower and give a lot of firepower in return.

Bike Squads
These are my go-to units in my White Scars army. They provide good mobility, durability and firepower in the army and are always included.

The missions will be a mixture of objective-based and maelstrom missions, with one mission based on kill points. These units should give me some good utility in all the missions.

With the points left over, I gave one sergeant a power lance. This is a nice thematic addition for White Scars and should give me S5 AP3 attacks on the charge- useful for dealing with tougher bikers. It does go down to AP4 on the second turn of combat though, so I'm wondering if a normal power weapon would be better.

Scouts and Landspeeder Storm
One of my favourite units in my army, the Scouts and Landspeeder storm will probably make an appearance. The unit gives me some close combat potential, as well as the meltabombs on the sergeant for taking on vehicles.

The Landspeeder storm is a great unit for grabbing objectives practically anywhere on the board and the Blind from the Cerberus launcher can come in handy against many armies.

At only 100 points for the unit and transport, they are a great inclusion in a small army.

Attack Bike
A tank-hunting attack bike with multimelta was included as I had the points to spare. Again, with only one shot, the performance of this can be a bit variable depending on whether it hits or not. I assume the attack bike will be a low priority target in the army, so it may even get to do some objective grabbing towards the end of the game.

Stormtalon
Another favourite in the army, this gives me a lot of firepower, which can also be used to target other flyers.

Centurion Devastators
I took three Centurions with grav cannons and grav amps, with a drop pod for transport. This unit are hard hitters and a prime target for your opponent's force simply due to the amount of firepower they can put out.
The drop pod should allow them to get where they need to go to cause the most damage and stop them from being wiped out before they get a chance to fire.

For my list I just need to paint up a bike-mounted Librarian. I have ordered the parts for this and should be able to get it completed before the end of the month. If not, my Dark Angels Librarian could sub in for his White Scars colleague.

So that is the proposed army. A lot of firepower and mobility should have me in good stead for most of the missions. The force is small, but with the restrictions of the tournament, I should hopefully not face too many horde armies. What do you think of the army? Any suggestions on changes or tips?